Shadows of Dust

[Zrinfael]

The lot of you have been summoned at this ungodly hour (approx. 6 am, 15-30 minutes before sunrise) to the work chambers of Inquisitor DuBaeli. Plain wooden doors guarded by the arching white marble pillars mark the entrance to his overly plain and sparsely furnished office. The room is dominated by a huge wooden desk of stained cherry. Behind the desk sits an old bald man, leathery skin hanging from high cheekbones. Bright brown eyes sweep you all in at a glance, then return to a half-rolled scroll of paper. After the last of you have entered in the office he waves his hand sharply.
"Shut the door."
The heavy wooden door groans under its own weight as it slides closed. The only furniture on your side of the desk is two small uncomfortable looking wooden chairs meant for young scribes and errand boys. Both are currently empty. DuBaeli continues to read for a few moments, letting the silence stretch. He then sets the scroll down and taps the paper with the back of his hand.
"Do you know what is written on this scroll? Of course you do not, allow me to enlighten you. A young man, a trainee in the knighthood of the Silver Flame has chosen to take his leave of the church abruptly." He stands smoothly, his agility belying his age. "Not unusual in any regard, we have quite a few who are not able to stomach the training given them, no spine at all." DuBaeli begins to pace, glancing from one of you to the next. "No, that is not a problem, however, in taking his leave, this young man overpowered one of the scholar's guild carrying a minor item that holds particular value to the church. This item is held in a small box of iron and gilded silver guarded with holy seals and wards. The ward of the knighthood has placed a small reward for the return of the boy and a smaller reward for the return of the item." DuBaeli's brows knit together in a clear expression of contempt. "He has failed most miserably to understand the weight of this situation." DuBaeli stops suddenly and fixes you with an iron gaze. "The boy's name is Harold Makrenii, and you will find the item he took and you shall do so before some footpad turns it in for a paltry reward. I do not care particularly one way or the other what happens to Makrenii." DuBaeli snaps up the scroll, winds it, ties it, and offers it to Alistair. "If you are, for any reason, unable to return with the item, find as much information as is possible regarding where the item has gone." He fixes Alistair with a glare. "This is an embarrassment to the church, and thus an embarrassment to me, and to you. If you can not find this box, it had better be a very good reason." He breaks the glare, sweeps you all once more with a glance and seems to be content with whatever it is he sees. "If you do not have any questions, you are dismissed."


Glancing over the scroll you have a description of Harold Makrenii as well as his lodgings, friends in the church, supervisors, and previous notes about his performance (most note a poor performance). The scholar's account of the incident where Makrenii stole the box, as well as a detailed description of the outside of the box. The box itself is sealed shut and can not easily be opened. Makrenii left the church the night before today, and has no family nearby. Wrapped in the scroll is a small sprig of oak wrapped in wrinkled paper, with the words 'Use at your discretion' penned in a practiced hand. The sprig is easily identifiable by any of you scholarly types as one of the church's wands of cure light wounds.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Alistair reads over the scroll before carefully rolling it up and placing it in his pocket, or handing it to any other members of the group who want it. He will hold onto the wand unless Paine or Tieran asks for it.

Turning his attention back to the Inquisitor, Alistair stands at attention. "Sir. We will have Makrenii back to you within the day. Is there any record of his family outside of Flamekeep? Might he try to leave the city?"

[GimliFett]

Regy d'Velderan

The young artificer barely manages to conceal his shock at Alistair's assertion of near-immediate success. Within th' day? Wow! He's sure sure of himself!

Regy looks at Crystal and arches an eyebrow before flicking his eyes to the commanding paladin and back to the warforged, leaving the question unasked until they departed DuBaeli's office.

He does take the paper and look it over for whatever details might be included.

[Zrinfael]

"To the best of my knowledge, the closest relative is over a week by lightning coach. His full dossier is in the scroll."

The scroll supports DuBaeli's memory, and indicates no visits ever from family members, very few friends, and no significant other.

[GimliFett]

Regy d'Velderan

Regy gently clears his throat. "Beg pardon, Inquisitor. Is it possible d'is was his purpose all along? He doesn't seem ta have made much've an impression on anyone 'roun' here. Nothin' positive, anyway. From what I've heard an' read of Makrenii so far, he sounds like a plant as my more investigative family members might say."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"A spy?" Alistair asks. "That's not impossible, but it's very unlikely. There are easier ways to gain access to objects like these than imitating a Paladin candidate."

After thinking for a second, he reconsiders. "However, it would make sense if Makrenii felt himself unworthy of knighthood and, in his weakness, was tempted to defection by one of the Church's enemies. The end result is the same."

[kpenguin]

Alarich

Alarich strokes his goatee thoughtfully.

"If Makrelli is working for an organization that opposes the church, or, worse, if he is possessed by a wretched fiend, then we shall certainly face an enemy far greater than a knight school drop-out"

He turns to the rather arrogant paladin.

"Certainly one that might delay our efforts for more than a day"

Alarich pauses for a moment to think.

"...if this is true, the box may already be out of his hands."

[Charm Caster]

Paine:

“Sir. We will have Makrenii back to you within the day. Is there any record of his family outside of Flamekeep? Might he try to leave the city?”

Paine narrowed her eyes, but kept her head unmoving, as though the empty spot on the wall she stared at opposite to her had just said that. Her mind stretched for distracting details to keep her from opening her mouth. Giving voice to her words had only ever resulted in arguments in Flamekeep. The most eager distraction she could find was how bountifully devoid the walls were. They lacked in the way of varied or variegating paintings. A fine showing of the lack of imagination the old inquisitor probably had.

This scarcely held her mind for long. Paine listened quietly to everything said, but came back to the question of how such a compassionate, selfless man could unwittingly become a cruel, stupid leader.

It had often occurred to her that Silver Flame holy knights had a lit stick up their less sunny side; the regular divining rods clearly not being uncomfortable enough. They took their edict to bring light to all benighted areas that much more seriously than others. As a paladin of their same deity, the venerated Silver Flame, Paine had even wondered if she were becoming the same. Had become the same. Especially today.

Today, which bequeathed itself the day that she was not a squalid squire in the eyes of the Church, but instead became one of the representatives they were themselves resentful of. Even then, when realizing her training had been gone through as thoroughly as a knife through a back, she was unsure if she had become any different. But now she knew she hadn't.

Paine barely managed to remain deadpan when she heard Alistair proclaim they would have their varlet within the day. She knew she hadn't become like the many paladin's of Flamekeep in that second. After all, even for every horrid action she had ever wittingly done in her life, Paine had never acted in such an insensitively idiotic fashion. She had never been so unaware of her words that she would unwittingly damn others around her. Alistair was different.

Alistair, in the brief time she had first met him, appeared to be surprisingly goodhearted. He was awkwardly wonderful for his inability to treat her with undue hostility. In a way, she had hated it, because it meant he had probably received worst treatment from superiors and peers alike. When he was transferred out of her training group, she had wanted the best for him.

But not now. Now, by being given the scroll, he was designated as the leader of this operation. He must have known that. He was likely also aware that, when they failed to catch the stranger in the large city within the time limit, the one Alistair had set for them all, that the blame would never so much as dawdle on his broad, beautiful shoulders. It certainly wouldn't trouble the bald bookworm to Paine's right. Or the half-elf girl to her left. Instead, trouble would always track and trample down on the demon-tainted one first. She shifted uneasily. If Paine's superiors felt generous, then the warforged called Crystal might be the next lucky victim.

The tiefling's eyebrows furrowed, but she remained silent and straight-backed. Her opinions often meant little to others. Unless she felt they were especially useful, Paine tried not to waste her breath on them. The people, that is. She was sure some of her opinions were worthwhile. Thankfully, the colossal Church and its small-minded individuals meant little to her.

“If Makrelli is working for an organization that opposes the church, or, worse, if he is possessed by a wretched fiend, then we shall certainly face an enemy far greater than a knight school drop-out. Certainly one that might delay our efforts for more than a day.”

Paine smirked slightly. The words were the kind of candy counterpoint that would be the most easily eaten up excuse by a dour superior like DuBaeli.

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Summary: Paine became a paladin today. Thinks most paladins are stuck up. Finds what Alistair says troubling, but doesn't say anything because it's been made clear her opinion means little to any normal Church-go-er. She thinks that the time limit of one day to find this person is only going to have her see trouble if/when they all fall short. She assumes that it failing won't have any real problems for anyone else except maybe Crystal.

If you're wondering why I put your dialogue into my post, it's so you have a rough idea of where the my intro is in terms of time. And it makes chunks of prose less boring when you have some sort of dialogue. Why I didn't put my own is because I just doubted I could speak freely in the circumstances. Or, I just don't trust anyone right off the start to speak freely. :O

Anyway, Paine currently doesn't know the name of anyone that isn't Crystal or Alistair.

[Mantid]

Crystal

The large construct remains quiet through the speculation and brief questions. It wasn't her place to guess at why the trainee had run away, or rather, there was no need for her to know. The order was to find the boy and bring him back. Although his reasons may be interesting, his motivation didn't change those simple orders.

She noticed Regy make some kind of gesture at her earlier. She wasn't sure what he meant, something about Alistair, it seemed. He was an interesting one, if only because he was one of the few she had met in Thane that showed an overt interest in her beyond a tool. He reminder her of a friend back in her assemblage, curious and handy.

"Inquisitor DuBaeli," Crystal says at last with a slight, apologetic bow. "Can we assume that Mr. Makrenii's quarters and property has already been searched for clues to where he may be headed? Are we granted access and permission to search what he has left behind for ourselves?"

[Zrinfael]

DuBaeli arches an old withered eyebrow. "The possibility of the boy's working for an outside agency has not been unconsidered by we who understand the situation more fully. The knighthood does not comprehend the value of the item taken, nor can they be allowed to, though perhaps they would have taken more extreme measures if they did. The boy's room has not been searched, nor his closest friends questioned. As a functioning arm of the inquisition of the Silver Flame, you do have the authority to do both those things."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"In that case, we should start with them," Alistair says. "We need more information before we begin looking for Makrenii himself. Where might we find an associate of his to get started?"

He turns to the group to give his thoughts. "To start our investigation, I believe Lady Paine and I should start interviewing Makrenii's acquaintances while Mr. d'Velderan, Mr. Dian, and Ms. Teishi ((whose player is apparently joining us soon)) should begin a search of his room. I'm not as familiar with Ms. Crystal's or Mr. Schein's abilities, so you can go with whichever group you think you're suited to. Any objections? Did I mistake anyone's specialty?"

[Qualia]

Tieran

The bald Archivist stared up at Inquisitor DuBaeli, his mind attempting to figure what the inquisitor meant by what he had said, and what he hadn't said. He hadn't mentioned what the box did, and what was in it, and he seemed to have chosen his words carefully. Clearly he didn't want to tell us, but perhaps it was a test. Did he want the box, or the contents of the box? Why was it of interest to the inquisition, but not the knighthood? He decided he needed to engage with BuBaeli, but what phrasing to use?

"Am I to believe you want the box back, or are there any contents? Does it have any properties that could help us to identify it, or who may be interested in it?"

[kpenguin]

Alarich

The wizard rolls his eyes at Tieran's questioning. It was obvious that the inquisitor intended to keep the information to himself.

He turns to his paladin leader.

"I shall go with you, Sir... Alastair, for surely looking into the minds of the interrogated would be a greaaat boon!"

OOC: I have one scroll of detect thoughts and a wand of charm person (10 charges)

[Mantid]

Crystal

"I will accompany the search party," Crystal responds with a nod.

[Zrinfael]

"The contents of the box are not really any of your concern. You would be unable to open the box to verify the contents anyways. The scroll contains a detailed description of the box, and it radiates a strong aura of good."

OOC: I'll give you guys a little more time to finish up any banter then we'll move on to the let's split up gang plan unless something changes in the meantime.

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Can Alistair get directions on who to talk to? I don't think the Scroll of Mission Data mentioned any friends or contacts.))

[Qualia]

Tieran

Tieran strokes his chin whilst mulling over the inquisitors reply, wondering what was in the box. Was he trying to perk my interest? Whilst considering the implications he turns to Alistair.

"May I peruse the contents of the scroll before we begin our investigations?"

[Zrinfael]

You can go bang on the door of the Sergent of the knight training ward and get any or all of the trainees listed on the scroll brought to you. You'll be able to get shown to his rooms the same way.

Let's see if I can guess what you're looking for in the scroll. It does indeed have an extremely detailed description of the box. It's made of smooth dark iron, with delicate silver lattice work, much of that forming symbols of magic, though some decorative. There is no keyhole, nor any obvious ways of opening the box, beyond that, the box is protected by extremely powerful sealing and fortification spells. The box radiates strong abjuration as well as good. There's nothing in the scroll about the inside of the box itself, nor the contents of the box.

For reference, the Sergent of the knight training ward is Sergent Venner. The trainees listed on the scroll that Makrenii associates with are Arthur Nasmile, Friedrich Havera, and Edward Acrennich.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Alistair salutes, and turns to leave. "By your leave then, sir, we'll go speak to Sergeant Venner, if no one else has business here."

On his way out, he does make a comment to the Inquisitor, still in the same matter-of-fact fashion. "I may have been overenthusiastic in my predicted results. It hadn't occurred to me that Makrenii might be working with somebody outside the Church. I promise to be more cautious with my words in the future, sir."

[kpenguin]

Alarich

Alarich gives a little smirk at Alastair's take-back as he follows him out the door.

[Wynterborne]

Teishi rises gracefuly from her lotus position and in a quiet voice says "Please, mi'lord paladin, may I see the list of people we seek? I may be able to help find them.
Paitient eyes of one used to being obeyed belie her manner, as she holds out her hand.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Oh, Miss Teishi," Alistair says, caught by surprise by the quiet half-elf speaking up. "I was thinking you'd want to go with the search group, but if you think you'll be more help with the interviews..." he hands her the list of names. "Though we should probably speak to the sergeant first regardless."

[Wynterborne]

Teishi gives a half-bow. "One hopes that I may be of some help in this search, mi'lord."

Scanning the list quickly she gives a sharp nod. "Indeed the sergeant is a wise choice for a starting point." Turning towards the door, she follows the group out.

[Zrinfael]

The lot of you make your way to Sergeant Venner's quarters, and run into him just as he's leaving to make the morning rounds. He gives Paine a bit of the ol' drill sergeant's evil eye, but seems entirely too delighted to have an excuse to roll several of his trainees out of bed this early.

He directs one of them to show those of you who are inspecting Makrenii's old quarters to them, and takes the rest of you to get the three personally. Barking at them as he pulls them out of bed. "Up you miserable son of a goat! Even yer grandmomma has more spring to her step! There's a lady in the room! Get dressed and fall in! Double time! You call those boots clean?!?" Chasing them from one end of their rooms to the other.

You can choose to speak with the three en masse, one of them at a time and all of you, or split them amongst yourselves and do several 1 on 1 type sessions at the same time. They all agree that Makrenii wasn't long for the knighthood and aren't terribly surprised that he bolted. If you reveal that he stole something from the scholars, they appear quite shocked and tell you they'd never guess he had the stones to do something like that. They aren't sure where he'd go, or who might know. If you want to try to get more information out of them, toss out your pitch and roll your intimidate/bluff/diplomacy (whichever suits what you're trying to do). If more than one of you are in the room with them and you choose to both try the same/similar method, please pick one of you to roll and the other(s) may roll to assist.

Those who are searching the room, the young knight in training opens the door and turns ghostly white, his hands shaking horribly. "Oh no, oh no!" Pushing past him, you see the room has been completely turned upside down and torn apart. There is mattress linings strewn around the room, the small desk has been broken and bits of wood lie everywhere. "The Sergeant is gunna cook someone's hide when he sees this!" The young man stutters out. He steps back into the hallway, swallows hard and takes a few deep breaths. "L-let me know when you're done here, I've do a damage inventory after and then..." He turns a shade further white and barely whispers: "I gotta let the Sergeant know."
The room is destroyed, everything that wasn't bolted down appears to be smashed or gone, even the bed frame appears to have suffered some abuse. It doesn't look much like a struggle, there's no sign of blood and the walls are clean. A cursory investigation reveals nothing else of interest. Please pick one person to roll a search check and the rest of you roll to assist.

[Mantid]

Crystal

Crystal surveys the damaged room. "Such a waste," she mumbles before she awaits orders on how she should help the search.

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Crystal will assist... I'm sure there's some else with better searching skills!

Not sure if you wanted a roll or just an assist bonus, but here's one just in case:
Search - (1d20+3)[5]

Edit: Heh. I think Crystal just added to the destruction!

[Nerd-o-rama]

Basic training. Separate the witnesses/suspects.

After thanking the sergeant for his help, Alistair suggests that Paine, Alerich, and himself interview the trainees one at a time in a separate room. While the first one waits, he takes the others aside for a moment. "Alright. Mr. Schein, you use your mind-reading spell and tell us if the questioning makes him think of anything interesting. Lady Paine, if it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could try throw the witness off-balance? It's not a technique I've put much of my own time into learning, but I understand it's considered a proper technique in this sort of investigation. I'll ask him questions, you encourage him to answer them truthfully, that sort of thing."

With the witness...

"I'll get straight to the point," he says to whichever interviewee is first. "In his haste to leave, Makrenii has stolen something from the Church, an object of great value. This recovery of this relic has been given the highest priority by our superiors, and any aid in its recovery will be extremely well-regarded. It could make a substantial difference in the Church's evaluation of your own training, I imagine. Can you recall anything that might help us? Anything strange happening to him in the last few days or weeks? Any mention of plans once he left training?"

Diplomacy - (1d20+8)[15] (InvisibleCastle is still dead...sadface)

((Sorry to skip around like that, but I wanted to get the actual dice-rolling out of the way while I had time. Modifiers using The Giant's Diplomacy are probably Acquaintance (Positive) -2 and Favorable -5, or at least that's what I'm going for.))

[Qualia]

Tieran

Tieran stops to take stock as he enters the room. Does it look like someone was searching for something, or were they covering up any evidence?

"This much damage would have to make some noise. Young man, when would someone have an opportunity to do this without anyone hearing? When was the room last inspected?"

Tieran then stooped to examine the debris. Was a weapon used to do this? Probably some kind of bludgeoning weapon.

"What is the standard weaponry carried here? Can you bring it to me."

He continued to make his way slowly and carefully around the room, trying to recreate the destruction so as to discover its purpose. Imaginary swings were experimented with to try to determine the damage caused.

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Search (1d20+7)[27]

[kpenguin]

Alarich

Alarich nods, and pulls out his scroll of Detect Thoughts.

"I only have one, so be sure to ask the right questions, Sir Alastair"

The mage opens the scroll and reads off it. The arcane writing on the piece of parchment begin to glow. His chant starts as a whisper, gradually becoming louder.

"Reveal to me your mind!
Your thoughts shall flow to me!
No longer shall your thoughts be secrets!
AN OPEN BOOK YOUR MIND SHALL BE!"

OOC: Detect thoughts, DC 15

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Could you specify you cast that in the other room or not in Common? Otherwise it would sort of defeat the purpose.))

[Zrinfael]

Eh, he'll still be able to read their minds they'd just know he was doing it . I'm going to hold on the questioning bits 'till Paine's had a chance to throw in her two cents.

The from where the pieces are lying and the impact marks, you'd guess that the desk was smashed into the bed frame, same with the chair. The mattress was slashed with something that has an edge but is easily maneuverable; think knife or dagger, nothing much heavier or larger.
The trainee answers you from the hall, "We spend most of every day out in the practice fields, so the bunks are empty during sun-up. They're inspected every morning just as we're starting our drills. We aren't really supposed to have any weaponry at all in our rooms. We're allowed to keep a knife for defense as well as hobbies or general use. All the weapons we train with are checked out from the training field's armory then checked back in every evening. As far as I'm aware there are no weapons missing, there's usually a lot of shouting and making us all stand in lines for hours when that happens."
Under shreds of wood and bits of cloth you find several bits of torn parchment. It looks like two sheets, one is the dull off-white of official church paper, with some of the pieces having bits of an embossed seal or stamp on it. The other paper seems to be standard parchment. The official looking stuff has neatly penned writing on it while the normal stuff has words written sloppily in shorthand. You seem to have all the pieces, torn and crumpled as they are. You'll be able to piece both together though it will take some time (or a well placed spell ).