AvB - Marqhu

[Rizban]

The butler answering the door points to a house down the street which has several City Guard members standing around outside.

[planswalker]

Marqhu walks over to them and says, "I am seeking to hire myself out as a mercenary to Viscount Meister. Is he home?"

[Rizban]

The guard looks at him. "He's dead. He was killed just this afternoon. You can talk to his widow later though, as she's offering a bounty on the head of the man who did this. We have a surviving witness in questioning right now. If the widow hires you, then you can talk to him when we're through."

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Mwahaha! I know just how much you love murder mysteries.

[planswalker]

in a sudden frenzy, marqhu murders the widow and the whole murder mystery plot is derailed

"Very well. I shall talk to her."

He goes inside and finds the widow. When he finds her, he tells her, "I am Marqhu. I have heard that your husband has just been murdered. I offer my services to avenge him and ask for the chance to try to claim the bounty on the murderer's head."

[Rizban]

She looks him over once through tear filled eyes which seem also to be brimming with barely restrained fury.

"I'm offering a general reward of 2,000 gold to the person who can bring me the murderer's head... preferably on a spike!"

Her voice spews venom with every word.

[planswalker]

"That i can do. Anything you know about the one who did this? Is there a special little bit of extra vengeance i can inflict on him for you, such as mutilated hands or disfigured facial features? If it has a spouse, would you like vengeance to be inflicted upon that as well? I am very sorry for your loss and will try to ease your pain in any way i can."

[Rizban]

"No, no, just the murderer's head is enough for me. Feel free to do whatever else you want, but I don't want to know about it.

A silver platter would be an acceptable alternative to a spike."

[planswalker]

"I will probably go for a spike if that is your preference. May i speak to the witness now?"

[Rizban]

"He's down at the district guard garrison. You'll have to talk with the guards."

She dismisses you, and you are shown out by the house staff.

[planswalker]

He heads over there and tells them that the victim has assigned him to help her on this and has asked that he be allowed to question the witness.

[Rizban]

You arrive at the station. When you ask after the witness, the guard captain on duty says, "Why, yes, we just finished interviewing him but have not yet dismissed him. He's still in the office there if you would like to talk with him. I'll come back and listen in too, in case you uncover anything new that he forgot to mention to us."

The captain escorts you into his office where another officer is finishing up paperwork and the bodyguard in service to Meister is waiting to be dismissed. The bodyguard looks up at you with a look of slight confusion.

[planswalker]

I tell him, "I'm here to seek revenge for the widow of the person you failed to protect."

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is he the witness?

[Rizban]

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Yes.

"Yeah, what do you want to know?"

[planswalker]

"well, first of all, did you happen to see the person who killed your lord? or were you not even able to do that much of your job?"

[Rizban]

"Yeah, I saw him. Fought him too. He knocked me around until I was nearly dead, but I managed to crawl away and survive the encounter."

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He was knocked down to exactly 0hp, and the assassin forgot to finish him off before fleeing.

[planswalker]

"Would you mind describing him to me? How did he fight you?"

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a pc assassin then, i take it,

[Rizban]

"Well, he come in looking like this big, blond warrior type. But, then we get called into the room, and he ain't so big anymore. His hair turned near black and his eyes a sickly gray. Then he whips out this here wand, which blinds me. Next thing I know, he has out his sword and is attacking me. I go down but manage to stay conscious. He goes after Meister and Josef follows. I try to drag myself to follow too, but I hear Meister cry out as he's cut down and decide to flee. I hear the assassin tell Josef that he's going to hire him, Josef refuses, but then the assassin says he ain't been a 'model employee' and needs to be punished then cuts him down. I figure I'm next, but the assassin gets too busy looting the place to come looking for me."

The guard captain chimes in. "We believe he may be one of those dopplegangers or have some other form of shapechanging magic. We also believe he was not actually hired to kill Meister. We got an anonymous tip from an informant that a man was trying to find a fence for items matching descriptions given for some of the missing goods."

[planswalker]

"he sounds rather clumsy and brutish for a thief. Maybe he is simply depending on his shape-changing to protect him."

"Any leads on where the items might be fenced?"

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please don't drag out the supersleuth part of this too long. I appreciate an rp challenge, but i have no clue what to do from here. If this doesn't give me some sort of lead quickly, them my half-mad illithid-loving psycho will simply look for someone who wants to hire a bodyguard. Ideally, one who gets attacked. he'll have a +20 grapple mod once he gets his mojo on.

[Rizban]

The guard answers you, "Our informant says he set a meeting with a fence he knows out in the Docks for Meeting O'Clock this evening, which is in about an hour. Perhaps if you headed over there. He says they are to meet at Pier 7, but if he knows this fence, he'll insist on going to a secured location rather than meeting out in the open. He wouldn't tell us the address, so we locked him up in Cell 13 right down the hall. Feel free to see if you can beat it out of him. Just don't leave too many marks, or we'll have to lock you up too."

He points down the hall towards the cells and waves to the guard there so he knows you have permission to pass.

[planswalker]

"Very good. May i interrogate him alone? I will be sure to pass every word on to you. Some of my techniques are most effective when there isn't a guardsman looking over my shoulder to reassure the target that he won't let me get away with what I threaten. I won't actually harm him of course. The threat of a blow is often more effective than the blow itself."

assuming the guard says yes, He heads into the cell.

[Rizban]

"Well, yeah, I kind of expected you to question him alone. Just don't leave any scars or other permanent harm, because he's still useful to us."

[planswalker]

Marqhu enters the cell and inspects the detainee without saying a word.

[Rizban]

He sits there and pretends to ignore you.

[planswalker]

"Listen up, human. I need your help to track down a murderer. will you cooperate or do i need to extract it from you head?"

[Rizban]

"I've said all I'm going to say. I'm still useful, so they aren't going to leave me locked up too long."

[planswalker]

"It won't take me too long. They need this info, even if i have to eat your brain to do it." He removes the half-mask from his face to reveal four long tentacles. they writhe out towards him. "Tell me what i want or i will eat it out of your brain. If you will not tell me what i need to know, you aren't useful right now, are you?"

[Rizban]

The man wets himself.

"Corm.. Corm... Cormor... Cormorant Street! Yellow building, two stories, the only one." He seems much too terrified to speak anything more and will likely pass out if pushed.

[planswalker]

"Thank you. You have been most kind and helpful in me easing the aching heart of a grieving widow."

he places the mask back on his face. and departs.

Outside the cell, he tells the guard in charge what the man said, " 'Cormorant Street. Yellow building, two stories, the only one.' He told me that when i pressed him for where this fence would take place. He was under the impression that he had the guardss special protection and that he was above the law because of it. I am not sure that you meant to give him that impression. Either way, I am off to help the widow."

[Rizban]

The captain nods.

"Well, seeing as you'd be getting paid for this and we're not... good luck."

He watches you leave.

[planswalker]

I head over to cormorant street. I seek out the yellow building and walk over to the building just across the street.