[quote="Alexios ex Miscellanea"]
Well, Sodales, if we split up in order to investigate, I'd like to have you with us,Riccardo. Our two sodales are pretty good and impressive with their swords, but I have never really been trained in the arts of combat, and If I am not much mistaken, Mariella would also be forced to use the mystical arts if pressed.
Looking faintly puzzled
Of course If I am attacked I will use magic , I am a mage not some peasent with a pointy stick
The magi split up and walk in different directions, each group guided by a guide that the magistrate provided. The streets of Koberg are becoming les crowded as the evening comes; the smell however is the same as always.
Tatiana and Ardath stands before a two storey house. The first floor has besides the door narrow windows and on the second there are wider windows. The door is boarded up and a very bored guard stands next to the door. On both sides of the house there are other building that are connected to the house. The guide inform the magi that this where the first murder site.
Mariella, Petrulus and Ricardo are guided towards the other house. The house is in the corner of two streets. It seems like the house has two storeys and that there is a yard behind the house. To enter the yard one must pass through a gate that is next to the house. The front door of the house is boarded up and a guard stands next to it. On the first floor there are narrow windows and wider on the second floor. The guide informs that this where the second murder site.
I assume that each party has taken one grog of their own with them.
"I think the first thing to do is check all the ways in and out including hidden ones to see if there is way for somoene to exit leaving main doors locked." Tatiana says softly and starts with a careful examination of the front door for anything that looks unusual. She remembers a prank once pulled on her by her mater that closed and locked a door from the outside and she could not get back into the room to sleep comfortably until she mastered the spell to get in looking through the keyhole or guessed how it was done.
While waiting for someone else to speak with the guard and secure entrance to the building Mariella examines the outside of the building , looking for anything unnusual and potential means on entry for someone using magic. She also considers that it would have been useful if she had studied intellego more deeply as it seems unlikely that her meagre spells will be able to manage much
Tatiana’s examination of the building reveals no clue. The front door has been broken by the guard when they entered the building. Every window on the first floor is to small to allow enter for any human those on the second floor are large but everyone is undamaged. There is also a chimney but no-one could enter there. Magic must have been used to enter the building unless anyone has tamped with the front door but the guards report claimed that the door where barred from the inside.
Mariella reach similar conclusion. Someone who could transform into mist or walk through walls could enter the house. Teleportation could also be an option.
What about underneeth? Is there a basement or foundation floor? A cellar?
Perhaps... You have not seen any such yet as you are standing outside the house. Make a rather detailed description on what you do to the house, both inside and outside as you may secure vital evidence.
Once the guard has been convinved to allow the magi to enter the house Mariella begins her investigation. First she examines the area the bodies where found in looking for she uses a simple (base 3 +1 concentration +1 touch )InCo Spell (Lvl5) to determine who the bloodstains or other bits of body belong to she hopes to find something from someone other than one of the victims she also looks for any particular patterns to the magic which may indicate the sigil of the attacker (she will also take samples of each person to use as an arcane connection).
Also worth looking for are any indications that the attacks took place at different times , or if all people in the house where killed at the same time.
Next she investiages the entrances (doors and shutterred windows) looking for any marks on them which may indicate magic was used to bypass them or to open them from the other side although she does not expect to succeed. She will also check any attic or cellars at the same time to see if there is any signs of entry there
She will also use InVi to see if she can sense any sort of active magics within the house , however given that she will only have a low level effect is is unlikely that she will be able to find any such active magics.
She is aware that if at all possble the killer would have done their work via an arcane connection and never entered the house, th e possibility of spirits she leaves to the others as she has no means of detecting them, she also regrets that the covenant does not have a competent necromancer available although as the bodies have probably had a christian burial the point is probably rendered irrelevant. Then again any mage skilled at intellego would be useful but she is aware of no one with a full set of investigative spells .
Mariella’s investigation reveals not very much. The amounts of blood that can be found are very small and it is only blood from the victims. The blood from the victim seems to be from accidents, someone tripping over a table or trying to claw their way out of the front door.
The house in demolished on the inside. Furniture’s are broken and scorch marks are present in every room. Some on broken furniture and other on the wall, they are about the size of a large apple in diameter. The disorder of things give the impression that a storm went through the home as nothing except the heaviest of furniture is where it should be. An investigation of a fire place give the impression that something entered the chimney as soot and burnt wood are blown out of the fireplace. There are no visible points of entry anywhere in the house. There are a few rooms in the house, a cellar, a common room, a study, a few bedrooms and servants quarters next to the cooking area. There is a faint smell in the house that is hard to place but it is strange.
This teaches us little that we didn't knew before. I don't know what we can do here that wasn't already done.
Just to be sure, I cast my Eyes for Vis spell (InVi 15, casting total 13+aura+die).
I then wander through the house, trying to find if there's anything specific of value. Maybe the merchand was killed for something specific?
Once this is done, Ardath gets before the chimney, draw up a circle, inscribing arcane symbols with soot taken from the chimney.
Then, breathing in the odor of the burnt wood, going into a trance, trying to reach and summon up whatever spirit these (soot and burnt wood) may be an arcane connection to.
Total... Where is it? It uses rego, realm lore, presence... Ah. Rego 9 + Presence 2 + Realm Lore (1 for faerie, 3 for magic creatures, 0 for divine/infernal) + Penetration 2*Penetration multiplier + die roll.
Once inside the house, Tatiana carefully examines the bar on the door. She remembers the trick with a rope over a door and under a door to bar a door from the outside. She is looking for scraps or holes made from a hook used to hold the bar up while the door was closed.
Only after that does she start looking over the house with her second sight hoping to spot ghosts, spirits or anything that might be lurking invisible. She does know that if she killed, she could go invisible, wait until door was knocked down and walk out the open door invisibliy to escape.
ooc Second sight roll: PEr+second sight = 3 + 9 (roll) = 12
OOC: Sorry for my unannounced absence - our internet connection at home had broken down unexpectedly, and at work I was too busy. So, I will try to catch up:
Standing in front of the house and waiting for Riccardo or the guardsman to talk to the guard in front of the house, I send a prayer to the forces of heaven and try to use my Second Sight in order to see whether there are any hidden entities around the house. [Max, here I assume it is better if you do the rolls.] If this doesn't result in anything and nobody moves yet, I nudge Riccardo forward. Only if he doesn't react, I will speak with the guard myself. Before entering I cast my 'Luck of the Gambler' combo [Entreating the Divine Powers+Luck of the Gambler+Entreating the Divine Powers+Magician's Second Wind; the totals are 7, 17, 10 & 23 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2236146/, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2236148/), so this should work.] With a bit of luck I might accidently stumble over something relevant inside.
Before we enter the house I also want to go around the building, search for marks in the wall - and for places where somebody might have buried a curse charm (usually close to the door). Inside the building I plan to use Second Sight in every room, starting with those where they found the corpses. Riccardo's question for alternative ways to enter is interesting: Could anybody have come through the chimney? Is there a cellar? I assume that we stay some hours. If our supernatural investigation doesn't bring any results, I'd also like to have a look into any written material we find. I am not much interested in the accounts, but letters full of threats, satanistic texts etc. are of interest. I doubt that any such stuff will be lying around openly, so I am willing to search for secret boxes, hollow chair legs...
Ardath: What rules are you referring to? Get back on that subject so I can make a ruling.
Tatiana: Nothing of interest is found. The door has not been tampered with. There are no invisible creatures in the house. You also notice without any difficulties that the house interior is demolished as if someone sent a storm through the house.
Petrulus: The second sight revels nothing. The only creature that could enter from the chimney must have been very small or non corporeal like a ghost. There is a cellar but as far as you could notice there is no entrance there. No strange markings except for the scorch marks that cover the walls and splinters of furniture. In the office there are a lot less document then you could have expected. Perhaps the guards have taken them to investigate or perhaps they are missing from some other reason.
To the man who accompanied us and the one who stood outside :Guardsmen, do you happen to know whether anything besides the corpses of the victims has been taken from the house. It seems that various papers are missing. Has perhaps the watch master secured them at the townhall?
The watch master gathered the documents and examined the site. We just took care of the bodies and secured the house. The guard replies. No one has passed in or out of here since then.
[color=red]Ad where is the watch master currently?
hmmmm....
It looks to me that the attack was delivered via the chimney and probably consisted of some type of spirit which attacked everything in the house, it could have been a spell but if it was it was a very crudely targeted spell. The spirit or whatever clearly created an Ignem style effect and also seems to have moved inamiate objects implying it either had physical substance or created an auram effect at the same time, I think there is a smell which is a trace of the attacker which leads me to believe it was some sort of spirit of Air and Fire, unfortunatly I cannot think of any such creature.
Mariella will cast a MuCo concentration spell to enhance her scent of smell similar to eyes of the cat but should only be level 3 (MuCo +stamina of 8 so even with a divine aura I should be able to cast it unless I botch)
Arts Goetia, specifically Summoning: Rop: tI p 114, save that I can use my Rego score instead of my Summoning score.
I also forgot the Aura. Divine 3, is it? That gives -9 to my efforts. With any luck, I should be able to summon a might 10 spirit, but nothing more, and I'll need to concentrate.
Almost forgot we were in 2 different houses, I was gonna answer to mariella 
Hm, through the chimney. Yes, it looks like this. Probably we should have someone climb the roof and see, wheteher there is any evidence up there. Or - this came not through but directly out of the chimney. If they burned wood from the wrong place within the woods, this might have set some dangerous spirit free. It's highly unlikely, but, Mariella, could you check whether the remaining wood besides the fireplace has any magical properties. Ah, and one should ask the local old people, whether there is any creature or spirit known to the regional folklore that fits.
The watch master in is his home if the magistrate where correctly informed. The magi have a meeting with him in the morning if they wished. The magistrate have ensured that the watch master will speak to the magi.
Ardath will not be able to summon anything.
Mariella enhances her smell and feel besides the usual smells of a city that seeps through the door that special scent… You are unable to remember what it is but it is familiar. At first you think of something that has been burnt but then you remember. It is the same smell as after a lightning discharge or a really angry flambeau magus with an auram knack.