"A thanks, Madam Kostel, for your diligent service in the cause of justice," Shade says, giving her a smile to cover up her recognition of Klud Radniche's shop.  "Sleep well."

Once Madam Kostel has departed company with them, Shade turns to Sir Constantine and Vadim.  "We've got about half t' thread here.  I want to see where it's tied.  Klud Radniche's shop has done some good things; made me some tinctures a while back for... a project I was working on, but we don't know what else he or his employees are up to on their own time.  We've got enough time to find it, but we'd have to hope Radniche hasn't gone to sleep early."

“Lead on then this sounds like the final merchant the wares passed through.”

SCG wondered if this final merchant would be as cooperative as the first were.

Shade led the way to Radniche's shop, a small and cluttered storefront in the mercantile district. Not far from the Anatomist's Alley, as luck would have it. How odd the circuitous routes that goods take on the way to market.

This late at night the storefront was darkened, as well as the windows in the upper floors of the building. Unfortunately no amount of knocking, pounding, or calling raised any sort of response from the interior.

Like most shops in the district Radniche's was two stories, with the storefront on the ground floor and living quarters on the top. A large window showed the deserted interior of the shop, it was mortared in place and didn't have a mechanism to open. The front door was secured with sturdy lock and key. The rear door had a pull handle rather than a knob, it was likely secured with a bar lock on the interior as well.

Shade purses her lips at the darkened shop and home.  "Probably would look bad to break into the shop to get Radniche's testimony," she says, her tone casual, as if mentioning that apples probably don't go well with steak.  "But maybe a little look uptop wouldn't hurt.  Nook?  You're up."

The orange-eyed cat oozed off of Shade's shoulders, and considered the building and looked for a route an agile feline could climb.  Shade rubbed her hands together, invoking the magic of the thin gloves to help Nook over the rough spots.

OOC: I'd like to have Nook climb up to see if he can see anything on the second story through the windows (or perhaps find an open window for some stealthy snooping).  Nook has a +6 to Climb, but Shade would like to use her apprentice's cheating gloves, which have mage hand at will, to assist Nook up any difficult spots in the climb, if that's possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

“Will your cat be singing the song of his err her people outside of the upper window?”

SCG knows that a cat caterwauling outside a window is nearly enough to wake anyone...

"Not if I don't have to.  Batting open a book or drawer and reading my moonlight, Nook can do that though.  Catterwalling will be for a back-up," she says, giving him a cheeky grin.

Nook leapt nimbly over the shop's eaves and padded carefully over the tile roof, alternately hopping and scrambling up the building's facade. Bright cat's eyes peered in the upper windows, and Shade tuned into her empathic link to receive a host of information.

As always Nook's feline mind was running over an undercurrent of caution, curiosity, and a sort of off-handed, near arrogant assurance. At the moment curiosity was at the forefront, and excitement. Shade felt a spike of anticipation as Nook drew up to the upper floor windows that quickly faded back to boredom. There didn't appear to be anything there to arouse the rangy cat's interest.

Shade knew at the least that indicated there wasn't anybody there, and likely nothing that would be of interest to a cat either.

Shade shakes her head, and braces herself as Nook climbs back down, in case he wants to leap dramatically onto her shoulder.  "No one in residence.  Either he lives elsewhere or he's out for the night.  We could check more thoroughly, if the records are there, though that might take a mort 'o doing.  Merchant records aren't my best..."  She pauses, thinking.  "All right, I'm gonna ask the city what it knows about Radniche and where he might be.  Don't say anything for a minute."

Shades takes out a tiny piece of crumbling brick from a belt pouch, whispers a few words, one of which Sir Constantine recognizes as Lepidstadt, and touches her ears.  Her eyes grow wide and unseeing, and she seems to be seeing and hearing things that he cannot.

OOC: Casting ears of the city - https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic.../e/ears-of-the-city/ What it knows about Radniche and where he lives/might be tonight.
21:11, Today: Shade of Lonwood rolled 18 using 1d20+10.  Perception.
21:11, Today: Shade of Lonwood rolled 30 using 1d20+10.  Perception.
21:11, Today: Shade of Lonwood rolled 14 using 1d20+10.  Perception.
21:11, Today: Shade of Lonwood rolled 16 using 1d20+10.  Perception.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:24, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

SCG nods his head silently and wonders about this magic, is it then a spell called ears of the city or something else...

If nothing else he can send the others to bed and himself keep watch here up until the start of the trial.
Though someone will have to get the gator head and hide to the courts as evidence....

A whirring cacophony of noise filled Shade's head, whispered voices and snatches of conversation from all over the city distilled into a roar of information pumped magically into her brain. The trick of the spell was not seeking relevant information, but focusing to cut out the nearly overwhelming tide of irrelevant information.

It took her a few moments to find her bearing in the compressed landscape of the city, the stones and bricks speaking to her. At last she picked up the thread. Someone had spotted Radniche leaving his shop at closing time. Another overheard a conversation with a news boy as he paid a copper for a Lepidstadt cut sheet. A bartender passed him a drink. A doorman knuckled his forehead as he swept past.

All in a rush Shade was able to track his movements through the city. He closed his shop at the normal time, took his customary stroll around the city, and as evening fell went to call at the estates of Sir Edouard Bresnik, a retired knight once in the employ of the crown prince. The near overwhelming rush of the spell lost his trail after that, he must still be at the Bresnik estate. Shade's keen focus had followed Radniche's every step through the city, and she knew just where the large manor house could be found. It was near the center of the city, conveniently close to the courthouse in fact.

Shade blinks her eyes, seeing around her once more, and looks at Sir Constantine with a fierce smile.  "He's at the Bresnik estate, right next to the courthouse.  Guest of the knight, as you will.  Let's go!" she says, Nook purring loudly.

“Well come on kit cat we have an estate to tour.”

SCG thinks he knows the way to the courthouse so he turns in that direction

“That’s quit a spell i never saw it before, you must have been a better pupil than I.”

Shade walks in silence for a few minutes, taking in the late-night sounds of the city, before answering.  "I once spent a few moons in the sewers below the Halls of Justice, hiding from people who wanted to kill me.  Nook found me there, and all the echoes from the pipes... I started to be able to see and hear the city in ways others couldn't."  She laughs a little, a bitter, small thing.  "I was still a self-serving wench with barely a charitable bone in my body though. Wasn't until I damn near dropped into the abyss that the Judge's clear sight let me see the city as something more than just something to use."

“I see, so Nook the kit cat wast your first true friend. Apparently you learned more than you even realized.”

The image of a rag tag tiny girl living under the city was a sad image...
“Thanks for sharing it I felt saddened.”

They chatted as they walked through Lepidstadt's nighttime streets. It was as safe a city as any in Ustalav, but even in these urbane surroundings doors were shut and locked after dark, windows shuttered against the mist and the black.

They made their way to the Bresnik estate where a rap on the large, ornate knocker brought a disgruntled looking butler in a gown and night cap, holding aloft a guttering candle. He looked down a long, spindly nose at the adventurers and harrumphed loudly.

"The estate is closed to visitors while Sir Bresnik is away. Return when you have business with the household." He said with an air of pompous finality, and began to shut the door.

---

Shade, with a 30 on your knowledge check you know a great deal, even things that are hidden or only rumored. You know that the butler is correct, Sir Bresnik is currently out of the city on a hunting trip and is not expected to return for several days. His household staff and his wife are the only ones home.

Radniche doesn't have a sinister or criminal reputation, and while he is in the medical supply industry he's a salesman and not a practitioner. There isn't a readily available reason that he would be calling on the Bresnik estate this late at night, at least not an innocent one. You have heard it whispered that he is much in the favor of the Lady Bresnik, who is significantly younger than her husband-of-convenience Sir Bresnik.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:46, Fri 24 Jan 2020.

“Apologies we were here to call upon another guest who we hoped might be here;  Klud Radniche .”

Sometimes it’s good not to know !!!
This message was last edited by the player at 00:01, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

"Of course, sir, it is quite true that the estate would be closed to visitors.  But what about close associates come to tend to the affairs of the mistress of the house?" Shade's eyes are wide with innocence as she speaks to the door dragon, but she puts subtle emphasis on the words close, affair, and mistress.  "Please, convey a word to Guildman Radniche that we just need a few moments of his time and expertise."

OOC: 22:32, Today: Shade of Lonwood rolled 13 using 1d20+11.  Bluff check.  Hopefully I'll get a little bonus from dropping the right rumors...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

“Ms. Lonwood, your company is greatly appreciated on this long night.  Once we get set for the night i will include you in my keeping of the watch spell, it should allow you to be refreshed in the morning without sleeping.”

SCG pauses
“Also should I succumb to a magical sleep do not hesitate to injure me awake or have nook bite my nose.”

The butler's eyes narrowed instantly and his posture assumed an unfriendly air. In any other man it would be a curling, turning, inward gesture. In this well-to-do servant the exact same effect could be seen in a prim stiffening of the spine, a raised chin, and the withering glance that he shot down his nose at the urchin and the knight.

"IF there were such a person in the estate, his presence here would be the business of the lord and lady of the house. Not yours. Good evening." He said with finality, and slammed the door in their faces.

---

The Bresnik estate is a three story townhouse near the center of Lepidstadt. The upper floors are all shuttered so simply peeping in the windows will likely reward no results. You know based on the designs of similar houses that there is likely a back porch area enclosed by a wall at the rear of the houserow, with a back door leading to the interior of the house.

“Correct and IF the man is here have him leave immediately and meet us at his shop, as that is our business!  Good night sir!”

Looks to the witch
“Should we leave and meet the man at his proper place of business?”

Shade winks at Sir Constantine and walks down the stairs with him, and starts to walk around the back of the house.  "Conny, now don't be so easily discouraged!  Every rich man's house has more servants than a dog has fleas, and they won't be so backwards about coming forwards."

She heads around the back and tries to find a servants' entrance, and possibly some servants too.

For the most part Vadim had kept his own counsel since encountering Vadka in her home;  he had kept a weather-eye on the mist-shrouded doorways and alleys that they passed, and an ear out for any sounds of anyone who might have taken an interest in their small group moving about well after dark.  In the main his thoughts tended toward a yearning for his pipe and an appreciation for the sombre quietude of the city's streets at this hour;  he felt more at home when the streets were lined with darkened mausoleums of the living than in the bright bustle of day.

When the others approached the manor entrance Vadim had held back, near enough to hear but far enough not to be immediately obvious, loitering hands-in-pockets on the street and looking for all the world himself like some ne'er-do-well tailing a mark.  After the exchange he strode up to the estate, seal of Lepidstadt in hand.  With a nod he motioned to Sir Constantine, inviting him to join while Shade went around back.

"We try again," he pounded a gnarled fist against the reinforced wood.  "Open up in the name of the City!  We have reason to question the Master, Mistress and any guests present regarding murders committed and the desecration of corpses!  Open up!"  Vadim hammered until the door boomed resoundingly into the hallway beyond, prepared to continue bellowing until the door opened once more.  In the past he had found himself unwelcome in enough well-to-do neighbourhoods when under the Court's business;  as often as not the upper crust were more interested in maintaining a sense of propriety and preventing scandal than they were in justice being done, so he expected that the door would open given time.  That, and if he wasn't sleeping this night then others might as well share the same inconvenience.

And with such a disturbance at the front of the house, Shade might well catch someone making a hasty exit through the stables or servants' quarters.

"We will also be questioning the neighbours!"

@Shade
“Conny? Conny?”

Just as suddenly Vadim strolls up..


@Vadim
“I say old man, I thought you had turned in for the evening.”

SCG looks aghast as Shade heads around back and the large man starts pounding on the door.
is the badge power going to the man’s head???

Vadim's pounding yielded no results, and even his bellowed protestations on behalf of the law of Lepdistadt brought no response from the interior of the house. The flickering light of a candle could still be seen through the transom. Clearly the supercilious butler was standing just behind the door, listening to Vadim knock and refusing to respond.

Shade herself padded through the night to the end of the houserow and down the alleyway that ran behind the row of town houses. The Bresnik home was the sixth from the end and so it took her a minute or two to circumnavigate the block, Vadim's hammering growing fainter and then louder as she re-approached the rear of the house.

Just in time.

Moving through the dark alleyway, she could see the rear windows of the houses in the row and the high garden walls that separated the alleyway from the smallish yards. A sudden jolt of awareness and amusement spiked through her empathic link with Nook, which cued her to to focus through the darkness at the rear of the Bresnik house.

A dark figure was struggling over the garden wall. Obscured by darkness, she could tell little more about him than that it was a man in his shirtsleeves and trousers, with a small bundle hitched under one arm. As he dropped to the paving stones he spotted Shade, cursed, dropped his bundle, and began sprinting the opposite way down the alleyway.

---

Shade, you're about 20ft from the rear of the house when you spot someone sneaking out over the garden wall. You have a round to disable him before he's lost in the slightly twisting alley.

If it's relevant I'll sketch out a map of the street and alley, but more likely you'll either catch him, or if he passes his save we'll move into a skill check based chase sequence.

Constantine and Vadim, you're at the front of the house about 120ft from the end of the street. To get to where Shade is via the street you'd need to run 120ft to the end of the street, then around the end of the houses and 120ft down the alley. As the crow flies you're about 50ft from her, through the row of houses.

Shade takes a scrap of sticky silk from her beltpouch, says a few words of binding, and flings her hand towards him. A huge web grows across the alley and partially over the runner, Shade hoping to mire her target. She then walks forward and picks up the bundle so she can get within conversational distance.

"Stay still, I don't mean any harm to your person or reputation. I want information utterly unrelated to the reason you're in smallclothes.

OOC: Casting web across alley, catching the runner in the first five feet of it. DC 15 Reflex save.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:51, Tue 28 Jan 2020.