The blood of a king PF IC

[Thattaman]

YOu start in a small bacxk alley outside the less than cheerful king's place where the new king is in a state of both shock pleasure and grief. SOme one has sent you a letter to meet here and now to discuss the murder of the king. Although all of you are suspicious and not sure if your going to be muderedm you are ready and willing to help solve the murder mystery!

[ChrisClark13]

A half-elf walks into alley, his clothes are those suiting a noble, he wears the latest fashion, a suit with lots of brass knobs and what not.
A 3 tailed fox walks by his side, her purple eye-shadow and necklace suggest she is female and she pads with a grace in her step suiting a noblewoman.
The half-elf looks around for other people, keeping a hand on his pistol as he does so.

[Strainseir]

An unusually tall human heads into the alley with his head down. a Wide hat keeps his dark hair up and out of his eyes, a red scarf covers his neck with the ends stuffed into the thick leather duster he wears. He loves slowly and quietly his eyes scanning about before they meet the elf. Val stop a few feet away from the half elf leaning against a wall to wait for others to show up.

[hydroplatypus]

Alaric Owens leans against the wall of a tavern across the street from the alleyway, waiting to see who is there. Most would peg him as just another lower-class worker on break from his job. None would suspect either his success or the weaponry he carries with him. Shortly he hears a quiet voice that seems to be coming from nowhere is particular. He smiles to himself, and looks up to find a pseudodragon perched on top of the tavern sign.

In Draconic he says{Always playing Games aren't you Nirn? You know that you can simply talk to me instead of using telepathy. More polite when around other people}

Nirn replies in Draconic Yes I suppose I could just do that, but it's so much more fun to confuse people as they try to figure out where the voice is coming from. Nirn then laughs and continues You seem to be used to it though. Mabye I can use it to confuse whoever you meet today. With this she smirks. Being a pseudodragon most wouldn't pick up on this, but Alaric has known her long enough to learn her facial expressions.

Alaric laughs a little, but then his face gets a more serious look. He says {Draconic: Although amusing we don't want to spook whoever we are meeting with. Speaking of which when you checked the alleyway did you see anyone?}

{Draconic: Yes, there was a half elf, and a weird creature there. He has a pistol drawn, and looks quite nervous.

{Draconic: So, not an assassin then. Well, I'll not keep him waiting then. I'll go to the meeting along, in order that I don't scare him too much. You should probably watch the site from the roof of one of the buildings. Tell me telepathically if someone else comes. Also if thngs go south use your telepathy to scare everyone for a while, so we can hopefully escape.}

{Draconic: We went over this before. No need to tell me again.} With This Nirn flies off, to watch over the alley.

Similarly Alaric moves into the back alleys behind the buildings and starts moving towards the meeting place.

[shugyosha]

Eddie walks into the alley absent-mindedly. He is reading the note over and over as he makes his way and almost bumps into Val. "Are we all here for the same thing?" he asks.

[HearTheRequiem]

A tall, regal-looking blonde woman seems to just melt out of a crowd, walking with practiced grace down the back alley. She wears an opulent red velvet dress, with a black leather bustier as part of the top. She seems every inch the elegant courtier, except for one thing - her right arm is a hulking mass of cogs, whirring noises and metal plates bolted together.

Seeing the half-elf, she casts a discerning, if disaffected, glance over his attire.

"...Your cuff's undone, you know."

[Strainseir]

When Val is nearly bumped into his right hand flies inside his armored coat grasping for the hilt of his ornate pistol,"I would recommend you watch your step around strangers..."

[ChrisClark13]

The half-elf looks at the people gathered as he fixes his cuff. "I'm here because I got a letter about the king's murder."
The fox creature nods in agreement.

[HearTheRequiem]

"I would not be here for anything of less importance than the King's murder. Do I seem like the kind of lady who spends her time in back alleys with a multitude of men?"

[hydroplatypus]

Alaric moves towards the alleyway, but before he makes it there heh hears the telepathic voice of Nirn

{Telepathy: Several more people have arrived, since I last checked. They all seem nervous. They all seem to be here for the same reason as you. Be careful though, they seem to be on a hair trigger.

Not having a way to respond Alaric merely signs, and steps into the alley. noticing the group, he says Well, since none of you seem to be getting anything done, I assume we were all called to meet here by some third party who hasn't arrived yet. He tries to look inconspicuous, and appears unarmed, so he feels that it is unlikely that his presence will cause the group to start shooting.

I recently got a letter telling me to meet here to discuss the kings murder. Given that I am officially supposed to investigate it, it seemed to be a good idea to show up. So why are the rest of you here?


Open if you have perception roll greater than 37

Spoiler

Show

Nirn's stealth roll
(1d20+19)[37]

Looking up you chance to see a purple pseudodragon land on a roof overlooking the alleyway. It seems to be watching the group, while remaining unnoticed by the people who are meeting.

[shugyosha]

When Val is nearly bumped into his right hand flies inside his armored coat grasping for the hilt of his ornate pistol,"I would recommend you watch your step around strangers..."

"Uh sorry," the tall man said as he put the note in his long coat pocket.

The half-elf looks at the people gathered as he fixes his cuff. "I'm here because I got a letter about the king's murder."
The fox creature nods in agreement.

"Yeah, so did I," he answers, his words clumsy as he looks.

"Hi, I'm Thom, but you can call me Crazy Eddie," Thom says. He is wearing a long grey coat. Slung on his should is an ornate rifle, while exquisite, it has a home made feel to it. Above his brow are a set of weirdly shaped goggles.

[ChrisClark13]

"Hi Eddie, my name's Kai, Kai Stardragon," he points to the fox creature. "and that's Fidalia Stardragon." The fox creature opens her mouth and speaks in a satin-smooth, female voice. "How do you do?

[Strainseir]

"Val..." he says as he raises a finger up to push the brim of his hat up as he looks to the gun,"Not to bad of a shooter there."

[Thattaman]

A strange hooded man appears almost immedaitley without anyone seeing him arrive.

Hello, fellow detectives I'm here to discuss a certain dilema that's happed to the royal family. A you probably all no the king is dead and no one know how and he can't be ressurected. So I thought maybe we could set up a little agency thet tries to discover whay killed him and why. I have one small lead on these matters. But to know that I can trust you I need you to prove yourselves both trustworthy and able. As you can probably tell, this isn't the officail search for clues, so if I find any of you snitching on us, your fate will be less than pleasent.

To empahasize this he magically summons a seemingly innocent man from the crowd. He grabs him and twists his neck until it snaps and the man falls dead.

Now, if any on you cross me you'll consider him lucky for his quick death

The man then dissapears whilst all members of the party are still in shock.

[hydroplatypus]

As the Hooded man snaps the innocent man's neck Alaric reconsiders his attendance at this meeting. He realizes that backing out now is likely to result in his death however, so stays put for now. He tries to attract as little of the man's attention as possible.

He then receives a telepathic message {Telepathy: I've got absolutely no idea how that man got here. He obviously has powerful magic of some kind, so try not to piss him off.}

[ChrisClark13]

The half-elf breaks the silence, "...He didn't even tell us what we had to do to prove ourselves 'trustworthy and able' did he?"

[shugyosha]

Thom gave a perplexed look.

Spoiler

Show

Which man disappeared? The dead one, the hooded one, or both?

[Thattaman]

Spoiler

Show

The hooded man dissapeared. This is amystery campaign, so watch the mystery unfold!

[shugyosha]

"Uh... what are we going to do with a dead body now?"

[HearTheRequiem]

Lady Caroline wrinkles her nose, clearly affronted by the events that have unfolded.

"...I suppose it would be prudent to hide it, would it not?"

[hydroplatypus]

I recommend just leaving the body here. Take its stuff, put a blanket over it, and everyone will assume it is one of the homeless, at least for a few days. By then no one will remember that we were here, if anyone noticed at all.

All in all, this meeting has gone rather badly. We have no idea what this man actually wants us to do, or who he is. The only thing we know is that he can and likely will kill us if we cross him, so backing out is obviously out of the question. Perhaps we should start by identifying the dead man, and any of his belongings. Seems as good a place as any to start. Alaric then bends down and starts going through the dead man's belongings, to see if anything would give a clue as to who he was.

Spoiler

Show

Checks to find stuff out.

Perception
(1d20+6)[21]

Knowledge(local)
to see if Alaric knows who he is
(1d20+9)[29]

Appraise
If belongings are valuable then he was likely not lower class
(1d20+5)[8]

[Strainseir]

Val moves over to the dead man and says a silent prayer over the man keeping a holy symbol in his hand that he keeps hidden not wanting to expose his own beliefs fully to these others.

[rb780nm]

As the sound of breaking bone fills the alley, Iosef's hands go to his pistols. But the man is gone before he can react. Pushing his hat back, he scowls at the empty space for a moment and then turns to the others. "I do not like this," he growls.

[ChrisClark13]

"Me neither, we just found him like this."

[ChrisClark13]

(Can't edit in rolls, Bluff check: (1d20+5)[15])

[shugyosha]

Nervously Thom (aka Crazy Eddie) says, "Maybe we should go someplace else to talk? My workshop isn't too far from here."

[Thattaman]

As, Alaric is rummaging through the dead body, the chief of police walks down the back alley.

"What's going on down here then? I heard bones snap and he has his uns out." As he says this he looks at the corpse. "So what's this then? Aha! Crooks, muderers by the looks of it! And you Alaric, I thought you were going to put all this petty theiving behind you and become and investigator. Seems like you can't be trusted. Are you one team? Who's the ring-leader?"

[hydroplatypus]

A little annoyed that Nirn didn't see the cop coming Alaric stops looking through the body, sighs and turns to face the officer. With a look fo annoyance on his face he says

This is going to be a long day. OK officer, this will take a while,however I will attempt to explain what is going on. We were all called here, and came to see what was going on. When we came we saw this dead man on the ground, and then you come around a second later. This was clearly a set up. I mean think about it officer, what could I possibly have gained by killing this man? I usually robbed nobles for thousands of gold pieces, why would I commit murder for the petty few silver that this man presumably carries? If I were to return to crime I would surely have done something more profitable than this. He then gestures towards the body with a look of annoyance on his face.

We were going through the body to see if there was a reason that we were called here. Of course if I had been given 5 minutes I would have gone to an officer in order to report this apparent crime. Furthermore why would I kill a common man? Don't you listen to the rumors at all? I defend the common people at least nominally, wouldn't it go against my entire operating procedure to kill this man?

Spoiler

Show

Bluff (take better of 2 rolls)
(1d20+14)[22]
(1d20+14)[19]

[HearTheRequiem]

The tall, automailed noblewoman smirks to herself as Alaric speaks.

So he is a robber of noble houses...I would guess I have found the reason for the disappearance of the Longstaves' jewellery, the Walthams' vault key, and that statue I heard Mother talking about. Perhaps I ought to ask him later...

[Thattaman]

A smirk apears on the policemans face.

"OK, let's see if this man is a poor man really." He goes into the mans pockets and brings out huge sacks of coins, and an enchanted adamantine dagger. "So, a poor man you say?" He then looks around at the noblewoman. "I can't beleive that someone of noble blood would allow such an evil man to kill and take the goods of of this helpless richman.All of you are obviously accomplices and should find a home in jail!"