As Bristle continued to make her way the rest of the way to the stage, she debated whether or not she should interject herself into the situation further. Perhaps it would be smarter to stay out of it in case her party needed someone to break them out of jail.

She quickly dismissed that thought though. It was clearly better not to have anyone get thrown in jail at all. As Hester pointed out the error of the banker's words, Bristle huffed over closer to the guards. Her armor making her movements labored, as was usual. "Look at the neck wound," she insisted to the guards, breathing heavily from her hasty walk. "You ever see an arrow do that? The elect was clearly cut by a blade. Deep. And the only one close enough to use a blade was the banker!" Perhaps the difference in wounds was not so easily distinguishable to a layman (especially if they were avoiding looking closely at such a grizzly scene), but to Bristle it was as clear as night and day. The fact that the guards meant to arrest his companions for shooting the elect when none of those on stage were even the ones who shot a bow made Bristle want to pull her hair out in frustration.

But, to be fair, the guards were likely not thinking completely logically at the moment. Bristle doubted they had expected to be dealing with a sudden murder today. Especially by one of their authority figures. With that in mind, she added. "Let's all take a few deep breaths before anyone does something rash. I think we all have the same goal here. I, for one, fully plan to cooperate as long as this situation remains civil."

Bristle may or may not have been drawing on her past experiences dealing with angry mobs...

The banker's accusation causes an explosion of white and red behind his eyes. Typical. So very typical. And no way to confirm his suspicions about what was clearly afoot here. No matter the guards' regret, he had no doubt that they would NOT be able to sort this out. It was that frustration, that feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that set his blood afire. However, the Half-Orc swallows back the indignant rage of being falsely accused. It was something he had far more experience with than phantasmal witches with incomprehensible minds. As he stood there silently, his face scrunched up like one being forced to eat the bitterest of meals.

He is about to speak when Bristle appears. Instead, he lets the cleric speak. While she does, he slowly puts his quarterstaff away.

"Agreed," he adds when she mentions cooperating, unable to completely mask the hint of a growl in his voice.

"The banker is also lying. He is merely feigning frightened confusion, nearly perfectly mind you, but a lie nonetheless." The Fox said as she began to circle the banker, sniffing around him.

[OOC: Does she smell any of the spell components on him? As if, the spell had been used on or near him.]

"Good," Caleb said as the crowd fell back, "Now just stay out of the way and let us work." As he spoke, he advanced slowly towards the stage, crossbow still readied to fire.

As he drew nearer, he called out to the guards on stage, "We are mercenaries under the direct employ of the People's Council, you're not taking any of us away. Anybody with a drop of sense and a working pair of eyes in the crowd could tell you they saw the "Banker" stab Raskovel. If anyone should be locked in irons it's the man who was just holding the murder weapon."

The guards glance at each other. One of them looks at the Elect's wound, and nods slowly. "Don't look like an arrow wound, sir," she says.

The captain grimaces, then nods as well. "Asmodeus's balls, this is a mess. Look, I don't rightly know what's going on, but I do know that the incoming Elect is dead and someone's head is gonna roll for it. So for now, you're all coming in - you included, Banker, sir. Even if the wound wasn't an arrow, can't say for certain that the archers weren't accomplices, you ken? So I'd 'precciate it, friends, if we could all go to the guardhouse peacefully, and wait a spell for the investigation to run its course, and talk like civilized people. You ken?"

His voice is calm, and surprisingly calming, soothing almost - not supernatural, more just a rock of stability in the increasingly agitated crowd. His hand, though, is on the hilt of his longsword. And his eyes dart to the Banker as much as to the party.

Bristle had no weapon in her hand to put away (her clawed hand was her weapon), but she lowered her shield even further than it had been as a sign of cooperation. She nodded to the captain of the guards. "That sounds like a reasonable request to me. Perhaps we can even help further each other's goals."

Bristle would like to eventually explain to the guard captain how their group was actually here to try and stop anything resembling an assassination from happening. Of course, she would want to be out of earshot of a known Whisper agent when she did so. And in turn, maybe the captain could help them figure out why Whisper might want to assassinate the elect in the first place. What ramifications would the assassination have that would benefit Whisper?

Firea pads next to Bristle, staying in her fox form for the moment but not doing anything hostile. For the moment she was content to stay like she was.

Hester too has no visible weapons out.  She too walks amiably beside Bristle.  She watches and listens for clues or opportunities as one does.

Voh'ren nods and follows, keeping an eye out for suspicious activity and any changes in the banker's demeanor. His general agitation keeps him more focused on the latter.

OOC:

08:01, Today: Voh'ren Wildheart rolled 12 using 1d20+11.  Perception.
08:02, Today: Voh'ren Wildheart rolled 21 using 1d20+11.  Sense Motive.

Caleb took a few moments to turn the captain's words over in his head before nodding and pulling himself onto the stage with everyone else. Once there, he slung his crossbow back over his shoulder and followed along to the Guardhouse, though he refused to allow any of the guards to take his weapons. On the way he scrutinized the banker's every little move, just waiting for any clue he was going to make a break for it, pull another knife, or anything else.

23:54, Today: Caleb Miller rolled 22 using 1d20+11.  Sense Motive.

23:54, Today: Caleb Miller rolled 23 using 1d20+11.  Perception.

Looking around, Sebastian has vanished into the crowd - intentionally, it must be, there's no way he could have faded away that thoroughly that quickly without trying.

The guard doesn't seem to notice, and marches all of you to the guard office. The Banker is led off, held by a guard on either side, and closed into a cell, while the guard captain leads the group of investigators to an interrogation room.

Once inside, he relaxes considerably, and sits across the table from you, without bothering to have you restrained or even keep any other guards in the room with you. "So tell me your version of what happened." His voice is tired.

Bristle had been on edge as they were led to and through the guard office. She did not particularly like being put into an interrogation room, but it was a lot better than being in a cell. When the guard captain visibly relaxed, however, Bristle also relaxed. She guessed by his body language that he knew their group was innocent, but wanted to keep up appearances outside of their current room. That was her initial hunch anyway.

Looking from one party member to another, Bristle decided to speak up first. "We were trying to track down a certain... entity. We've been on her trail for the last few weeks. Our clue trail led us to believe she might try something at the ceremony today, but we weren't sure what. We were keeping a close eye on our surroundings though, and one of our group saw the banker going in for an assassination attempt and tried shooting an arrow to stop it. They missed with their arrow, the elect died to a dagger, and we rushed toward the stage to try and apprehend the assailant. Both because of the obvious crime, and because the banker might still point us closer to our target."

She looked to her companions again to see if they had more to add, or to see if any thought she had already said too much. Regardless, she asked the guard captain a question of her own. "Do you happen to know who might have benefited from the elect's demise? Or who may have suffered most if she came to power? I'm not too familiar with the local politics."

Bristle took a small consolation knowing that if their entire group somehow ended up taking the fall for the assassination, that at least Sebastian would still be out there tracking down Whisper.

---

Trying to make sure they aren't talking to a Whisper agent.
21:50, Today: Bristle Chonk rolled 15 using 1d20+10.  Sense Motive: Guard Captain - is he Whisper?

Firea would sniff around the guard office as they are led through it, trying to see if she could smell any of the spell components in it as well. She would even take a few sniffs towards the guard captain once they were in the room to see if he smell of them.

Once they were in the room she would jump on the table, and sit down, letting Bristle do the talking.

Hester keeps her mouth shut and lets Bristle do the talking.  That was probably the best thing she could do since she was still half convinced that the Whisperer was an ancestor of hers.

"I have little else to add," Voh'ren says to the guard captain after Bristle finishes. "I recently joined this investigation, but I can vouch that the entity exists and is frustratingly elusive. She also holds a grudge against the people here. Perhaps the Elect had long ties to the region?"

Caleb sat back and allowed the captain to take in what the others had just said, pulling the ledger they'd recovered from Falcon's Hollow from his pack and pushing it towards the man. "I know it sounds insane, but before you have us thrown away, read this. We got this book from Falcon's Hollow, the thing that was or still is in the Banker is responsible for it going dark. We stopped it then and tried to stop it again today, but obviously it beat us. It'll keep doing things like this unless it's stopped."

The guard captain listens, then flips through the logbook, his expression carefully closed. Then he looks back to Bristle and nods slowly.

"I can't think of anyone, and that's the part that bothers me. Raskovel was...a very safe candidate for the position, if you follow. Not likely to really bother anyone. Not a radical on any topic I can think of. She was a compromise between various factions in the government, everyone knew as much. I can't see how her death is good for anyone."

He sighs. "So you think that...what, someone bribed the banker? Blackmailed him?"

"Enspelled him." The multi-tailed fox stated matter of factly.

"Given the entity's grudge," Voh'ren says, "plunging the government into chaos would be motive enough. This creature---this 'Whisper'---has the power to possess people, much like a marionette. She can also leave them in a catatonic state once she discards them. The one victim I saw in person was a librarian---Roselyn Pilov. She is now being cared for at the Temple of Sarenrae."

"Others were left dead when she finished with them. Simply worn out." said Hester.

Bristle nodded in agreement as they others gave the captain the details. "Yes. Whisper is an entity with an incomprehensibly vast mind, and a knack for possession and invading dreams. We actually thought she might try putting the crowds to sleep for some reason, since the last clue we found about her involved one of her puppets buying copious amounts of spell components related to sleep spells." Bristle pondered for a moment, then added, "Raskovel wasn't exceptionally knowledgeable in sleep magic or ancient entities, was she?" The cleric figured it was a long-shot, but still worth asking.

"Make note, I did smell remnants of the spell components in the area of the stage, but they were long gone. My guess, they were used in the area recently, possibly of those that worked on the stage." The Fox said, as she curled up on the table, laying down.

"Not unless there was a good deal more to her than I knew. She was a legal scholar, before she became a politician." The guard captain shrugs. "Seems more likely that it's what you said earlier - your 'Whisper' just wanted to sow some chaos. This will do that, you'd best believe it. There's a riot starting outside."

"It's a good tactic when you think about it. If you want to stop people from digging into things you don't want them to, start a massive fire so they'll be kept busy putting it out instead. We just happened to be looking into Whisper's origins and the next day, the Elect gets murdered by the High Banker." Caleb said thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair. "Speaking of the Banker, something will need to be done about him. Think we could get a couple priests or mages or something in to check and see if Whisper's in him? It'd be a shame to lose him too."

"That... is a great point Caleb." Bristle hadn't considered that Whisper's motive might have been so simple in nature. "So to thwart Whisper's plans, our best move may be to ignore her actions and continue with what we had been investigating?" Bristle was halfway just think aloud as she contemplated the details.

Something still wasn't adding up though. Bristle had been setting her plan into motion long before their group had gotten to town. So maybe Whisper was just being extra cautious after Falcon's Hollow, or maybe there was another reason for the chaos too. After all, if Whisper could set up assassinations, why would she assassinate the elect instead of one from their own group?

It wasn't exactly anything to go on, but it could still be another clue to keep in mind. Bristle let her fellow adventurers ask more questions while she mulled things over in her mind a bit more.