OOC: I am waiting for the other two to chime in... I don't want to monopolise everything here.

Logan was surprised by the appearance of the Lidu family guard summoning him - at first, his old instincts almost kicked in, and the rogue was prepared to fight.  But his rapid change in circumstances gave the rogue pause enough for the guards to explain themselves, and Logan found himself - with a look of wry amusement of his face - led to the scene of a crime he didn't commit.

Logan suppressed the urge to whistle at the stately manor.  Although he the Vanderboren Estate might have been larger, Angati's family still had impressive access to wealth.  Logan once again pushed down the fleeting impulse to grab what he could and flee into the night.  Even if this has killed me TWICE, mother and I are still better off.

Listening to Worrin give his recap, Logan's eyes scanned the room, and searched the entryway, looking for clues.

"You know, I have to say, this is an interesting experience for me.  I've been called on more than a few times because the authorities in Shadowshore (such as they are) were convinced that I'd done something, and tried to sweat it out of...  The rogue trails off, shaking his head.  "Anyway, that's not important.  What's important here is finding her sister.  And I guess the Falcon-statue thing.  Is it valuable?  Or just embarrassing to have missing?  If it's merely the latter, it certainly points to a personal motive in this crime.  It can't be just coincidence that Victor has a disagreement with you right before all those hooligans he rounded up escape from Teraknian Castle.  Maybe he wants to hurt your family the same way he feels you wronged him."

"But first things first, let's see what I can find that might tell us about the perpetrators..."

16:46, Today: Logan rolled 22 using 1d20+12.  Perception.

sorry, I posted yesterday, but the internet swallowed my post apparently!

Kassius arrives at a jog in the middle of the investigation, Kibeti as always by his side. He quickly takes in the disarray and damage.

"What happened? How can we help?" He asks with characteristic bluntness.

OOC: No roll needed. Free form...

Logan conducts an examination of the crime scene, using his experience of committing crimes to great effect. He immediately finds a note left on the pedestal where the silver falcon had stood.


Logan also finds some unusual white stone splinters around the area where the falcon was and in Zelina's office. They are strange, not like pieces of chipped stone but more like bits of stone bark.

Angati's face went pale as she read the note, she passed it on to his father, asking him to read it for himself, but the note went flying before his father could take it... Anansi had never learned to read and if she read this now, she would go into fits, but that did not mean that she didn't want to look at the note, and while she could not hold it, she pulled it off Angati's fingers just as she was going to give it to her father.

"Anansi... please... dear... we need to help our sister fast... please" the note stayed on the floor for a while, which gave Angati the time to give it her father...  As his father's face changed she said "We need to act quick... I will need all the resources you can provide. Communications, carts, horses, contacts with the guards... only those you can trust... I will let you know. For now, send someone see if he can find Victor at his home, not to interact with him... just to see. Also...  do you have contacts in the Thiefs ? If you don't maybe with a little money Logan here can move a search... we want to know if anyone has seen Victor, or if there is anything going on in the city that anyone has heard of".

"Hey Kassius, take a look at these fragments that Logan has found... I know nothing of these things... maybe you can tell us where they are from ?".

Kassius ignores Angati's comment at first, because he had been sniffing around the crime scene. Literally sniffing around, as his nose had become magically elongated and wolfine at some point. Cast Bloodhound, gain scent for 5 hours. Trying to find a trail, or at least identifying hints

"Huh, fragments. Maybe from some stone creature? Wasn't there something about a gargoyle?" Kassius asks, as he walks over to take a closer look.

The house becomes the centre of a maelstrom of activity as Angati's orders are followed... or at least attempted to be followed. The sun is dropping below the horizon and tonight is 'wildnight', the last night of carnevalé when masters serve the servants, gondoliers recline while customers punt, everyone gets massively drunk and crazy revellers roam the streets unchecked.

Still, her father's resources are considerable and a squad of armed men are sent to spy out Victor's home. Two more squads stand ready in the house.

OOC: You say that they should check if they can find Victor in his home but they should not interact with him. How can they do both of those? Do you want them to knock on the door, or just spy from a distance?

Carts and horses are readied at the front door, ready to be put to use at a moments notice.

The district watch is contacted and a squad of men are sent over to help secure the house.

Contacting the underworld of the thieves is a little more difficult. Since the party destroyed the Lotus Dragons about a month ago, a dozen small thieves' guilds have sprung up and begun fighting for power. Still, the word is put out on the street that the whereabouts of Victor Saint-Demain are wanted and that a sizeable reward is being offered.



Kassius, having learnt that it was hopeless to expect Kibeti to do any tracking, has instead concentrated on building the skill in himself. He picks up the scent, or rather scents, easily enough. The odours of cigar smoke, wet fur, expensive musk, skin rash and dandruff all reach his enhanced nostrils. He guesses that at least five people were involved in this heist.

As for the white stone fragments? Yes, they definitely look like stone skin as evidenced by the finger prints on some of them. Looks like that 'Srimshaw the Ivory Gargoyle' was one of the culprits.

Kassius passes on the information bought with his enhanced senses. "At least five people, one of whom is a gargoyle. Sounds like it was those scum that broke out. But why here, and most important, where'd they go? The gargoyle can fly, but I'd think the others would need to have walked out."
Kassius says, muttering to himself. He continues sniffing around, looking for a trail.

"You might want to have some of those guards ask around on the streets. Those fellows would be pretty recognizable, even during the carnevale. Actually, now that I think of it, I wonder if those fellows are trying to use the carnevale as cover, pretend they're just circus freaks or something." Kassius ponders, on a roll now. "And that note mentioned the last chimes at midnight. That means they're holding her somewhere near a clock. Maybe a church bell tower? Any place that meets that description, near here or the festivities?"

OOC: If someone knocks he has to be passing as someone just partying or something... just to see if there is someone, but not tied to the Lidu house.

"Ok, other than this, I think it is worth it to ask around... have people move around asking if they have seen a Gargoyle or something flying...  surely that is the kind of thing that people notice and talk about, and now even more so as there is plenty of people in the streets... of course half of them drunk... but I think we should try to have some people try to track the way they parted just by asking around if they have seen any such thing".

A couple of men are sent to Victor's house in the Cudgel District, dressed in civilian clothes and with strict instructions to act like drunken fools if the super sleuth does actually answer his door.

Worrin Lidu screws his face up in anger at Kassius' line of thought [1].  "Blazes man! My daughter is taken and you are rabbiting on about bell-towers! There are hundreds of them in Sassarine. And thousands of revellers dressed up in all manner of costumes. We need to find her, not waste time wondering around talking to the riff-raff."

[1] Just because he is an asshole, not because Kassius doesn't have some good ideas.

Kassius works hard to tracks the scents from the scene of the crime. Good news: these are distinctive and pungent scents. Bad news: as Kassius knows from experience, tracking by scent across a bustling city is difficult.

He hones in on the musk scent in particular and manages to follow it out of the house, down the street, across the High Market and... to the gondola docks at the end of the Noble District. Then it just disappears. The docks are a chaotic riot of revellers and punters - in seems like it is already mostly the customers pushing the gondolas around. They ask around but no-one seems to have seen anything. The sun has now gone down...

...five hours until midnight.

Meanwhile, Angati notices that the men she sent to visit Victor's house have not returned nor sent a message. There's been more than enough time for them to complete their mission and then get back.

Kassius ignores the obviously distraught Worrin, focusing on the task ahead.

The trail ends at the docks, which most likely means the foes escaped by boat. Fortunately, Kassius has an in with the new dock-keeper, and heads straight there. Perhaps someone saw something; the foes he is tracking are certainly distinctive looking. If nothing else, there should be a list of which gondolas are usually kept here. Kassius is particular interested to see if Victor owns a gondola, and if so, if it is still docked.

Kassius quickly runs down to the Azure district where the new harbormaster (his maternal grandfather) lives and uses his connections to find out if Victor owns a gondola... he does, and quite a large distinctive one. He also owns a mooring in the Cudgel district where he lives.

The next question is of course 'has anyone seen it'.

Okay, I'm going to have to cheat a bit here and roll a dice...

08:18, Today: Dungeon Master rolled 4 using 1d6.  Has anyone seen Victor's gondola? (1-3 = yes).

The gondola is not moored anywhere in the Noble district or Azure district. Also, no-one in those two places has seen it today, although with thousands of gondola's moving around that is not so surprising.

OOC: Are you guys not fans of police procedurals/detective as D&D modules? I don't blame you. They don’t work very well in fantasy games, primarily because it is difficult for you as players to understand what the constraints are and what is possible. You are dropped in the middle of an alien world and then expected to come up with ideas to solve the case, but innovation is only possible when you have knowledge of what is around you. Could you search every bell-tower in the city, focusing on abandoned ones? Perfectly reasonable idea but he DM says ‘no’… there are too many. But how are you meant to know that? It’s not written in the description of the city, the DM just decided that because it didn’t jive with his perception of the city.

So what I am saying is that if you want a selection of multiple choice answers that the module gives for possible actions then just let me know. I think that is fair enough.

"Damn... those men have not come back...  does Victor's house have a tower or is there any tower nearby ? I think it may be worth going there to investigate ourselves... someone should get Celene and Alohan too, I think we are going to need all the help we can get".

OOC: In the direction we know they took, what would be the nearest towers ? is Victor's house in the direction we know they took ?.

quote:

OOC: Are you guys not fans of police procedurals/detective as D&D modules? I don't blame you. They don’t work very well in fantasy games, primarily because it is difficult for you as players to understand what the constraints are and what is possible. You are dropped in the middle of an alien world and then expected to come up with ideas to solve the case, but innovation is only possible when you have knowledge of what is around you. Could you search every bell-tower in the city, focusing on abandoned ones? Perfectly reasonable idea but he DM says ‘no’… there are too many. But how are you meant to know that? It’s not written in the description of the city, the DM just decided that because it didn’t jive with his perception of the city.

I wholeheartedly agree with this... SO MANY DMs do not grasp this simple fact. Ideas come from correlations, and you cannot correlate to anything when there is nothing in your head, and what was in the head of the guy writing the story is different from whats in the DMs and from the way each player pictures the setting.

Anyway, I'd say, if you see we stray too much just gently guide us, or if you see that may not work, just go ahead and we go with the multiple choice test, it's ages since I did my last one.

OOC: Celene and Alohan are still un-contactable - looks like you'll have to do the first part of this adventure yourself.

All you know is that the scent trail lead down to the docks / gondola station of the Noble district. That means they didn't simply walk to the Azure district, but it doesn't give you all a direction as such.


Okay, multiple choice time:

A) Go investigate Victor's house which the squad never reported back from.
B) Start investigating silversmiths in the city since the perpetrator said that they were going to use one to melt down the silver falcon.
C) I did drop a hint about Victor having interests elsewhere in the city other than his house - but the hint was dropped 1½ years ago so I can understand if you may have forgotten it :D You could read back through hundreds of posts and try and find it of course :D

Better yet. Control F for the win. He has his own table at the Mermaid's Secret. Sorry to intrude.

In reply to Celene (msg # 28):

:D :D

Isn't ctrl F cheating?

Not when you have hundreds of posts to go through.

That was from before I even took over Kassius!
I would never have remembered it, so I decided to roll a wisdom check for Kassius to. Figured 10 or above remembers something about an inn, but not which one, and 15 remembers the full quote.
18:46, Today: Kassius rolled 10 using 1d20+3.  wisdom check/memory.
Ok then.


Kassius returns to the manor, and confers with Angati and Logan. "The trail ended at the water, and nobody remembered seeing Victor's gondola. Any luck here? Shouldn't those men you sent to check that he's at home have returned by now?"

Kassius finishes worriedly. "And say, wasn't there something about Victor having a private table reserved at some inn. I have this vague memory, but don't remember the details. Either of you remember more?"

Logan thinks about the situation before responding.  "Well, we have a number of leads and possible avenues, but we know the men disappeared while investing Victor's place tonight.  We might be able to find Victor somewhere else, and we might be able to track down a silversmith, but we know something strange is going on there.  I say let's make that our first focus."

OOC: So... we can't send someone to investigate the silver foundries while we go check the other clues ?.

Angati asked her father "How many places are there in the city where they might have the work done with the falcon, do you know ?"

Anyway guys, what do you think ? The most direct route to confrontation is probably Victor's house. I doubt he is there, but we might get some information there. Problem is, it might take some fighting, and we probably want to keep maxed before the rescue.

As for the other two, the silver foundry, I think its worth touching.. but I don't know how many there may be, and in reality it might be a too feeble link. As for the information we have about his other hideout... I think it's the one we should try to tackle as a group.. it may have more information... although there is also risk of combat.

OOC: FYI, Kassius used an hour to get to the harbourmaster's office, find out the boat info and get back, so there are now 4 hours to go until midnight.

Worrin doesn't know any specific silversmith who would be crazy enough to meltdown 'The Silver Falcon', as it is so clearly the Lidu family crest and famous all over the city. But he says that 'Silver Street' in the merchant district is the place to look. If it is going to be melted down and then made into something 'nice' then it needs to be done by a craftmans with some skill so that means it will have to be one of the proper silversmiths in that area.

Yes, you can send a squad to Silver Street to look around rather than going yourselves if you want. You can also send a second squad to Victor's if you think that would help.

@Kassius, okay, fair enough with rolling to see if you remember - but you can also just accept Celene's (the player's) help, I don't mind that it's player knowledge. But the real question is, is he right? Victor has mentioned more than one location... :D

Anyway, come on guys, just tell me if it is: A) Victor's house B) Silver Street C) The Mermaid's Secret

I'm going to A, Victor's house first. If that proves unsuccesful, I'll have Kassius "remember" more details and check the Mermaid's secret.

OOC: Okay, that is good enough for me.

The party make their way from the Noble district docks over to the Cudgel district where Victor Saint-Demain's lodgings are. They dock at the wharf where Victor owns a berth. They see that the inquisitor's garish gondola is in fact in the docks - a positive sign indeed.



Cudgel District is even crazier than the noble district with crowds thronging in every street and the four of them, Angati, Logan, Kassius & Kibeti, often being forced to push their way through drunken groups. The presence of the great cat helps prevent this shoving from becoming a proper combat.

Victor's house on Hill Street is a strange affair. It is in one of the old water towers that the city discarded once the mage's guild got the water elemental system working. These towers were sold of to private owners who have set about using them in a variety of different ways. Victor has added a modest house to the bottom of his 30' water tower, and then hollowed out directly UNDER the bottom of the tower to allow entry to his front door. A sign on the oak door says 'VICTOR SAINT-DEMAIN - MASTER SLEUTH'.

Logan reckons that the tower might be climbable (DC20), although he is obviously going to attract some attention if he does that.

OOC: Another hour has been used. Three hours until midnight.

"Ahhh so there is a tower here too..." she paused as a twisted grin appeared in her mouth "Ok, let us break the law !". She was not going to think even twice about doing anything illegal if that gave her more chances of finding her sister. She very much doubted that they would find Victor or her sister there... but probably a clue... hopefully a clue.

"Ok, let us try the nice way first... I cannot possibly climb that... and I am not sure it would be a good idea to split so that you guys go up... but if you want to try that, I'll go the main route trying to convince them to let me through".

She waited for their reply and if positive she would put the perfume of Ylaruam and the pin of Sasserin on herself and knock on the door.