Shadows Across Etouli [Group 1]

[dabone]

"I think the first questions here are : Who had acces to the room? Who visited the king, and when is the last time someone visited him before his unfortunate death?"

Cumanus was silent for some time before asking this questions, thinking about possible causes and what to do next.

"Oh, and I could look at the dagger for you, my knowledge of poison isn't that big, but I have encountered some in my work as a healer."

Spoiler

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I think identify a poison is a heal check? if not then I don't know what it should be. since Alchemy isn't a skill anymore.
Heal check - (d20+8)[13]

[stimpius]

DM

The Prince on the floor looks at each of you and says a few words before slumping back

"The last in where the kings footman, who reported the king as he was and came to find my mother. Previous to that i have no idea, and uhm unfortunatley maybe as an oversight with hindsight there was no guard."

Ian remembers from somewhere that he once heard a white powder that dissolved in wine would act very effectivley and gave three chances to kill an enemy, he can't find its name in his memory but remembers it is called inheritence powder.

The kings physician is in the palace and is currently with his brother one Lord Dresmun, the second most powerful noble on Etouli.

The poison on the dagger looks to be an extremley toxic contact poison.

[XiaoTie]

Ian Dasmith

“My liege”, Ian clears his throat in order to make his low voice audible enough, “This scene brought back a name to my mind; Inheritance Powder. If memory serves me well it is a white powder that is capable of killing quickly once it is mixed with wine”, he looks around to the others, “Does any of you recollect anything about this Inheritance Powder?”.

[kamikasei]

Maredan

Maredan studies the dagger intently while the others talk. "Poison in the wine, and poison on the blade," he says when they are done. "Why both? If you can poison the wine, the king will drink it and die, it will be thought the natural course of his illness, and no suspicion will befall you. If you can employ an assassin, why waste time with the wine? Why bother with either, when the king is already close to death?"

He turns to Saech. "We might learn something when your lady mother revives if she can tell us why she immediately thought of poison. Given the presence of the knife it would seem more natural to assume simple violence. Perhaps she saw or suspected something.

"Until then we must ask ourselves why two parties would both want the king dead so urgently. Do you know if he planned some action that might harm the interests of any noble house or faction?"

[Zimmia]

((My questions to the servants?))

[XiaoTie]

Ian Dasmith

He turns to Maredan, “Well, he could have used the wine only to, say, activate the powder, making it turn into the actual poison, and only then use the poison on the blade. It is possible that he had the poison with him and just wanted to make sure he would be…successful”, his last words came out with an even lower tone of voice.

“Maybe there were two assassins unknown to each other. While one of them poisoned the wine, the other used the blade. That is, however, just a guess”.

[kamikasei]

Maredan

"Two assassins is what I suspect. That wine seemed like it would kill very quickly, though it sounds like you are more familiar with it than I. Either two different people or one very desperate person wanted the king dead immediately, and didn't care that it would be clear he was murdered."

He looks to the couch and frowns. "Was someone resting here?"

((Zimmia: I don't think there are any servants in the room. Your questions have been answered, haven't they?))

[Zimmia]

((I find it interesting that there is a room with a dead king, a fainted queen and a distraught crown prince and there are no attendants. But, okay ))

Katryn

Amazed to find no attendant of any type in the kings room, Katryn moves to the doorway to speak to the sentry. "Was the king completely alone? How long have you been on watch here at the door? Who were the last people in here before Her Majesty?"

[dabone]

"As the prince allready told, the last ones to came here were the footman and they noticed nothing strange. Owh mentioning that : Karsa would you be so kind to bring one of those footman here, I want to know precisly what happened when they were here."

2 assasins? and they didnt knew of eachother..whats the chances on that?

"What about there was only 1 assasin, who killed the king with the poison, but put the knive here to frame someone else? what do we know about the dagger at all? is it from someone we know, or is there anything on it? If there is something to find there we would be a step further in the right direction"

[Grishnakh]

Karsa Orlong

At Cumanus's request Karsa nods and sets out to find the footman. He is glad to be out of the room and to be able to do something usefull. In the hallway Karsa will ask some servants to bring him to the footman, or at least point him in the right direction.

[stimpius]

DM

A royal attendant returns to the chamber,

"Uhm, I do believe you will all need to see this. There were three men caught trying to escape the castle grounds, and there are also 5 more bodies. The kings guard as well as his footmen have all ben found dead."

With this he turns and leads you downstairs to a cellar, and when he opens the door a stench meets your nose.

Walking in you find three people, well bodies technically now all with blood and ichor running from their mouth, and a dead guard against the wall all purple and bruised.

Saeach follows you into the room and merely intones

"Well it would appear that our killers have now killed themselves. If there is any theories you have please share them, if not i do believe we will have to postpone our meeting till tomorrow now, i must meet the council again later today yet."

[kamikasei]

Maredan

Maredan frowns at the sight of the room. "This is not all the result of a combat. Let me see if I can determine what killed these assassins."

While he examines the bodies he speaks to the others. "This is troubling indeed. Three assassins to kill one man? Poisons that will kill instantly, when there are many as sure, but slower, that would allow an assassin to escape and leave no trail? All of them so ready to die, when having killed their guard they could well have escaped? I do not understand this at all. I cannot see how it serves the interests of anyone with the means to arrange it."

Though he does not say anything, he is concerned for the new King as well. He is in shock, I think. Too much has happened too quickly. But I cannot be seen to be supporting him, or it may make him look weak.

He speaks to the attendant. "Was this how you left this room, or were these men captive and alive then?"

Spoiler

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Checks galore. A heal check for each of the bodies, paying particular attention to the source of the "ichor", whether the assassins were killed in a fight or poisoned themselves or otherwise committed suicide, and whether anything is unusual about the manner of the guard's death. If poisons were involved, do they match either the wine or the dagger?
(1d20+5)[23]
(1d20+5)[14]
(1d20+5)[11]
(1d20+5)[25]
A spot check for the room generally.
(1d20+5)[25]
A sanity check for me, because I have no idea what's going on!
(1d100)[97]

[Tacitus]

Norian

When the smell in the room hits his nose the warrior reels back so fast that it seems an after-image trails behind him but it most certainly had to be a trick of the light, right? Once he moved inside he shuffled off to one side and simply stared at the dead with a sick look on his face. He'd lead a relatively sheltered life and hadn't seen much more than animals killed for food. Seeing so many dead in one day was rather unsettling but he tried his best to not throw up in front of the new King. Finding what few words he had amidst the discomfort he looked to Saech, "Take whatever time you need to sort things out. We will be waiting for you, for as long as it takes."

[headwarpage]

Barlak

Barlak wrinkles his nose at the scene. "Maybe they killed themselves, or maybe there are still more killers here, who did it for them." Barlak first examines the area for any bloody footprints or other signs that somebody might have walked away from the slaughter, then looks closely at the bodies, trying to decide first, if any of them bear wounds that couldn't have been self-inflicted, and second, if the dead guard shows any injuries that the dead men present couldn't have accounted for. "You said five more deaths. Where's the fifth body?"

Spoiler

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Taking 20 on all those, if I can, but if I can't:
Heal checks: (1d20+5)[24](1d20+5)[23](1d20+5)[17](1d20+5)[20]
Survival check on the tracks: (1d20+5)[20]

[Zimmia]

Katryn

"So many of them, so willing to die. Sounds a little fanatical to me," Katryn muttered mostly to herself. "With this many bodies, there is bound to be a trail of some sort." She concentrates and mutters some words in draconic before looking carefully around the room.

Spoiler

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Cast Detect Secret doors and scan the room carefully. I'm almost certain there's another way out of here.

After that, I want to see if I know of a group fanatical enough to do this, who may be unhappy with the crown or with Cheddal in general:
Knowledge Local (1d20+4)[14]
Knowledge Nobility: (1d20+8)[15]
Profession (princess): (1d20+3)[14]

SSL checks in general, but if I detect a door of any sort, specifically there and looking for traps or other signs as well:
Search: (1d20+6)[20]
Spot: (1d20+6)[9]
Listen: (1d20+2)[7]

[stimpius]

DM

An examination of the three assasins shows cuffs and bruises on their knuckles where they obviously just beat the guard to death, and a careful examination of the mouth area reveals that they all had an extremley potent contact poison in a fake tooth which they all have bitten although two of their faces have an expression of disgust as they do it, whilst the third appears to have died extremley happily.

"Ah yes, well the fifth body you see, it appears to uhm no longer be here. It was a second guard, we didn't leave these three with just one you understand. There were two guards but no the men were not tied up because they had no weapons we assumed they would be no threat."

Thinking about who could be pissed off at the new king in theory for Katryn now brings only one thought to mind and one instantly; Lord Von Clancey, the second most powerful man in Etouli after Seach now.

Katryn cast's her spell and bingo, a secretly recessed trapdoor now shows itself, and after finding it a careful search reveals a ring pull mechanism, pulling this back results in a trail of blood, as if someone had carried a body to here, dumped it and dragged it down.

[Zimmia]

Katryn

"Well well well, what have we here?" Katryn says in a curious voice as she peers into the passageway behind the door. She mutters a few more words and several lightly glowing orbs appear in front of her and move down the passageway. She notes the trail of blood and crings a little as she whispers something under her breath that sounds like it has to do with washing her hair later. Stepping carefully she disappears into the passageway.

Spoiler

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Detect secret doors is still active (just in case)
Cast dancing lights (the orb version) and send them into the passage ahead of me.
SSL checks again (for good measure), watching out for traps.
Search: (1d20+6)[10]
spot: (1d20+6)[7]
Listen: (1d20+2)[11]

[dabone]

"You really shouldn't go in there alone. You never know whats in there, also something had to leave this trail of blood. Well I mean someone had to drag the body through here to get that blood-trail."

Cumanus really looks worried, but will not stand in her way, if she decides to go in by herself.

[Tacitus]

Norian

Norian sighs to himself and shakes his head and grumbles something in Sylvan< "<Oh yes, going into the bloodstained secret passage alone is a great idea. Lets go where we know there has to be something dead and hope theres no one waiting to make more dead things. Great idea.>" He removes his giant blade from his back but instead of holding it at the ready in hopes of stabbing something he lays it over his right shoulder and follows after Katryn. As he goes there seems to be an odd presence about him, almost as though a second skin were laid over his own with mucn more definition than his own.

[kamikasei]

Maredan

Maredan follows after Norian, in silence, Katryn having gone on before he could intervene.

Spoiler

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Search - (1d20+2)[5]
Spot - (1d20+5)[17]
Listen - (1d20+5)[9]

[Grishnakh]

Karsa Orlong

Karsa takes his axe of his back and looks at his friend. Obviously he would like to go in as well, but he will wait to follow Cumanus's lead, guarding the back if so desired.

[dabone]

"Karsa, make sure nothing happens to our new friends, I will help the attendant move the bodies and make sure they get further examined before we burry them."

[headwarpage]

Barlak

Barlak reaches up to put a hand on Katryn's shoulder. "Hang on, miss. You don't know what's in there. I'll go first, unless any of you can see in the dark. Follow at a safe distance. Unless you hear me scream - then you come running."

Spoiler

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I am the only one with darkvision, right? Regardless,
Spot: (1d20+5)[17]
Listen: (1d20+5)[9]
Hide: (1d20+4)[23]
Move Silently: (1d20+4)[15]

[Zimmia]

Katryn

"That's what the lights are for good sir, but if you insist be my guest. Good luck." Shaking her head slightly Katryn backs out of the passage and stands near the door. 'Hope for his sake it's not trapped,' she thought.

Spoiler

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back out of the passage and pull my lights back into the room as well.

[headwarpage]

Barlak

"Thing about lights is, anybody in there will see the lights before you get close enough to see them." That said, Barlak draws his axe and enters the passageway.

[stimpius]

DM

With all the scuffling and hustling around the trapdoor, it sounds like a herd of rampaging hippos are about to descend till people decide what order they are.

Moving down the tunnel with his axe held in both hands Barlak slips into the shadows to try and hide. The tunnels musty air now comes full force back into the room and descending down there is evidence of moss and lichen on the walls as well as water and slime dropping from the roof.

A small congealed puddle of green goo on the floor seems to be in its own right and have nothing dropping near it and Barlak spots it as he puts his foot straight down into it and a tripwire flies taught across the line.

To Barlak;

Spoiler

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Fort Save and Reflex save please, will list DC's here so if you succeed you can incorporate into your next post.
Fort is a DC12, as a spike penentrates your boot with this slime on. If you fail - loose 2 points of con and 2 HP.
Reflex is a DC16 as the tripwire flies taught across where you step, if you fail; 3 damage from slamming into the walls and hitting the floor.

[headwarpage]

Spoiler

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Fort save, Reflex save (1d20+5=13, 1d20+5=23) Rolled on Invisible castle so I could post reactions without double posting.

Barlak

Barlak jumps as he feels something prick his foot, then nearly falls as he dances past the tripwire, catching himself against the wall. His heart pounding in his chest, he examines the tripwire to determine what caused it to shoot across the passageway, then cuts the line so that none of the others will trip over it. If the spike is not attached to anything, he will also move that aside with the toe of his boot, being careful not to touch the green goo.

Spoiler

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Just in case I need it...
Spot (1d20+5)[18]
Search (1d20+2)[18]

[stimpius]

DM

The tripwire was already set up across the path as if whoever set it expected someone to set it off. Now that you check the goo you can see it seems to be on some form of pressure pad and that as soon as you changed the pressure the needle shot up, its the only needle. That you can see.

Tripwire cut, the passageway snakes off into the distance turning around 40 foot ahead to the left.

[Zimmia]

Katryn

Hearing the tell-tale sound of a trap, Katryn peers into the passage to see if he got hurt. "Might have been able to clear that for you, had I been in front," Katryn says quietly. "At least you weren't injured by it."

[headwarpage]

Barlak

Barlak returns to the entry. "If it'll keep you happy, go ahead. I'm not sneaking up on anybody if I trip every ten feet anyway."