Mystery and Blue Fever

Week 1 (08/03/16): Mystery and Blue Fever
GM: Ciaran

Players:
 * Spudacus / Liam Anderson
 * Igardl /
 * Freya /
 * Hudu /

Report from Spudacus (Liam)
It was a warm summer's morning, Sentinel Nat had received word of the murder of an elven ambassador who was attending talks in Carabalis, she promptly summoned a crew of fresh faced recruits to assign to the investigation.

I, Spudacus, swift warrior and charming speaker rightly took lead. The people I had sworn to lead were an interesting bunch, a wild, halfling spellcaster by the name of Hudu, Freya, a dwarven cleric of Riss, and Igardl, the squat, blood-thirsty warrior-priest of Strom were to be my cohort of investigators.

After being briefed on our mission I led the party to the library of The Keepers in search of more information on the uneasy and often violent relationship between the Elves and the Orcs. A possible motive? When we arrived at the library we were met by Chinni, a Keeper, and associate of Hudu. He showed me very little respect and our search was fruitless.

We left The Granite Citadel with the aid of a portal mage, who teleported us straight to Carabalis. Once there we requisitioned a guard to take us to the scene of the crime. What we witnessed was a horrific scene, Erlanna, the beautiful elven woman, was pinned to a wall, at least a foot above the ground. A huge broken boom from a ship was impaled through her chest, and into the wall behind. Searching the body we found the valuables still on her person, and it appears the boom was indeed thrust straight through her ribs, smashing them to pieces. No ordinary man could achieve this. She also had other small wounds, scrapes and bruises, she was in a scuffle before this became of her. The state of her body implied to me this was a statement, some form of message. Some feet away we discovered a vial, inside the vial was the residue of some blue liquid. Hudu determined that the liquid was somehow magical, and had originally been very thick and red, like blood. A potion perhaps? Remnants of the fight, or something more sinister? A short distance away, atop a boat-shack Igardl noticed half of a broken boom, likely where our assumed murder weapon came from. it was close enough for a man to carry to the scene, but something more than a man had struck the ambassador with it.

Hudu and Freya and I wandered to investigate, while Igardl continued scanning the scene. The sources of the weapon was in a dangerous part of town, so inverted my jacket so as to avert some attention. We got close to the boom when a group of thugs stopped us, Hudu started to give them lip. Thanks to my leadership skills we avoided a conflict, and for some gods-forsaken reason Hudu’s stupid bravery must have impressed one of the ruffians because he later got a meeting with him. When we returned to the scene our guide was gone, so I scaled the city rigging to the sails, where the city guards were stationed. Up there I met Thea, a beautiful dwarven warrior, my charm impressed her. Thea said she was the one who found the body in the early hours of that morning, she gave me little new information, but informed me the city is a place of extreme noise, and that any sounds of battle would be difficult to notice, no night in Carabalis is quiet.

Later that evening Hudu met with the thug, apparently the thug was drugged up and agitated so Hudu decided to investigate. They went to a private, and very dodgy bar, the ship with the broken boom, and found a line of people. He said there was a large, fat man shrouded in dark robes at the front of the line, selling bottles of thick, glowing, blue liquid, the same liquid we found in a vial at the scene of the crime. Hudu managed to convince the man to let him taste the liquid, it was a powerful magical drug which imbued him with immense strength and made it difficult for him to control his anger. Meanwhile I was at the Sailrunner’s bar trying to get anymore information out of Thea, I met a few other guards. Freya, being from the city, took Igardl to her parents place for a meal, that was probably incredibly awkward for all.

We met back up in the morning at the spot of the crime, it had been cleaned up. Luckily we got all the physical evidence needed the previous day. We compared information, and genius struck me. The murder, it was not a statement killing, but a robbery gone wrong. A group of thugs, like the ruffians we came across had been taking this drug, and attempted to mug the fair elf. Lady Erlanna, a skilled swordswoman, fought back, the drug fueled thugs, with their inhuman strength then horrifically killed the woman with the improvised boom weapon. It is also possible she had discovered the shady dealings and was hunted down, but I found that unlikely. All that was left was to uncover the murderers and bring them to justice. I led the group to The Dreadnaut, the residence, and throne room of sorts, of Admiral Ricardo, leader of the city. The Admiral was and a powerful man, with a very fancy hat. Many a man would have been intimidated, but not I, I addressed him in court and we discussed the lady’s death, I questioned whether he knew anything about this drug of magical origin, but we learned nothing. I think he liked me though. Somebody suggested we find an potion maker to find out what the compound is made of, so we inquired with the local alchemist.

The alchemist was an overweight man of average height. He claimed to know nothing about the elixir, but I know when people are lying to me. I continued to press him for answers and he turned violent. Before we could react he had swallowed three potions of magical qualities, and swung at us with a large club. His muscles were bulging so large they split his skin, he had an insane fury in his eyes. An epic battle commenced, I kept his attention and avoided all of his mighty strikes, the large man fell with deceptive ease and very little injury to the party. Freya alerted the guards and we proceeded to search his shop and store room. I believe it was Igardl who found a trap door under a barrel in his store room. The upstairs was clean, so we proceeded down the ladder. The under area of his storeroom was a place of darkness and secrecy. It was moderately lit, but there was junk and shelving everywhere. There was a channel through the room, a channel with logs. Also in the room was a barrel, a barrel full of glowing, blue liquid, all the evidence we need. Also located downstairs was a mysterious coded letter, signed “Ivan”. A future lead perhaps.

Lurking behind a barrel was one of the thugs. One of the gang members from our previous encounter, he ran at Igardl. A truly messy and desperate brawl ensued, we were victorious, but only barely. Amidst the violence the barrel of elixir was knocked over, and spilled into the channel, a section of the wall also caught fire. We were able to recover the barrel before further damage was dealt, but only the gods know how much damage the spill had already caused. We were able to take two of the brigands captive and handed them over to local authorities. Unfortunately in the chaos we lost another valuable lead. Ivan’s letter. The letter was lost in the fire. My conclusion on the presence of the log filled water channel is that it was used either to smuggle ingredients into the city from the logging town up river, or was merely used as a secret entrance, either way it deserves further investigation.

Having completed our mission we returned to The Citadel, Hudu, too curious for his own good, managed to damage the teleportation circle. Not significantly, but the mages were infuriated. I reported our findings to Sentinel Nat, (I think I’m starting to grow on her). When I asked who this Ivan person may be she knew exactly who we were referring to. Her only words on the subject were; “Ask Meira.”


 * The journal of Spudacus the Clever.