Thank you for receiving us on such short notice.
We have some questions, and hope you'll have the answers. Were these men connected in any way? Family? Common friends or ennemies? Were they competitors or allies? Had they the same clients or business partners? Did you find anything special on the bodies or the houses?
Also, it would be precious if there were witnesses. Did you know if someone saw or heard something, however strange it may seem at first?
And while I'm at it, who discovered the bodies? Could we see them or were they buried already? We don't want to do anything sacrilegeous, but would like to ascertain how these men were killed, and this could help.
I realise I'm asking much of you and that you won't have all the answers, but anything may help.
The magistrate asks you to take a seat the he ponders for a moment. A lot of questions but I will answer as well as I can. The merchants where competitors as are the all the large merchant houses. If you wish I could tell you who the major powers amongst the merchants of the city. My brother in law is one of the major merchants in the city so if you wish I can arrange that you could speak with him.
The details of the murders you will need to speak to the watch master. I have heard a few things as these murders are very special. One occurred when there where a really strange thunderstorm these bodies where found with scorch marks but most of them had been suffocated or poisoned. They had blue faces. That was the second murder. The first one looks like the second but there where no strange weather or scorch marks. I am not sure who reported the crime but the guards broke into the house and found the corpses. The bodies are buried.
Is there anything else that I can help you with? The magistrate lean back in his chair.
OOC: Actually, this was (at least for me) the main reason, why I wanted to go to the magistrate, being under the impression that there was a meeting scheduled with this man. Unless this impression was true in game - in which case the magistrate's surprise at our arrival would be strange and a reason for further examinations - I'd say we cut this short, so:
IC:Well, Sir, unless my sodales think of another question we will be off then. Basically we were just here to give you a short briefing about our ongoing investigations, find out whether anything else has happened during the night and clear those open questions by the way. So we won't take more of your time than needed and will go on. Have a good day.
The magi can find the watch master if they wish so go on posting and describe what you will ask him. His office is in central Kolberg but not at the square. The watch masters office is next to the city guard barracks.
"We must start somewhere and we don't have a mentem expert, we don't have an intelligo vim expert, and we don't know the the people in town so let's start by seeing everything we can find out about the various merchant rivalies and who was most in competition with those two hit houses and any papers. I don't know these people in general. I am used to those that live at covenant, not townfolk and I find the people here confusing." Tatiana says. She is magical defense against the mundanes as well as perhaps making scouts unseen.
I now assume that the magi meet with the watch master and ask to see the documents he a recovered during the investigation of the crime scenes. The watch master is a man with a powerful lean body and a striking similarity to the magistrate. They could be brothers perhaps. The watch master show the magi a clerk that has been asked to go over the documents. The clerk is a fragile young man whose hands are clearly stained from ink. When the magi are presented to him and the watch master tell them what they need to know. The clerk speak to the magi directly in a Latin that is probably shaped by a cathedral school. I have not yet read much but so far I have discovered this. These two piles are bookkeeping from the merchants home, each pile is from a different home. I have discovered something interesting amongst the books. Both merchants where in a significant debt to Abraham the Jewish moneylender and it seems like the debt should have been paid a while ago.
I thank you for your efforts. Please go on, and tell us of anything interesting you may find. It would also be wise to keep this to yourself, at least for the moment.
"Yes, we should. It would be interesting to see if anyone else is in bad debt to this moneylender. He can't get paid if he kills those that owe him money but someone else in debt can get out of debt if he kills his rivals and then blames moneylender for it that moneylender is killed." It could be a lot more complex but this is about the most complexity that she can envision at this time. Perhaps she can be of use.
Finding the moneylender is not difficult, but the lives in the Jewish quarters. There are guards that has sealed of the Jewish quarter. Are you going straight to the moneylender? You will have to ask about before you can find him. So please post a few things on who you talk to and where you go and perhaps a few questions to ask or other investigation that you conduct. Give something to work on.
"Asking of the guards that have sealed the quarter might be easiest way to get directions to this money lender. Someone that isn't likely to unnerve them as much as I should do the asking." The golden skin, the summer sidhe eyes, and a gift not so gentle definately makes Tatiana not the best person to be dealing with mundanes visibly.
OOC What is the general dominion aura of the town, I am thinking 2 for most (3 near church and 4 in church and graveyard but I figured I would ask
Mariella having retired to the abbey to await news from her sodales and avoid prejudicing all the locals who they deal with by her gift , has an idea to investigate. She will speak with her brother and ask if he can find out how all the victims of the first attack died by speaking to the priest who administered to them .(I Don't think we have those details yet)
Also, It may not be wise to talk to the guards, as people talk. With all the anti-jew feeling around here, the last thing we want are rumors that magi are searching for a jew, given that people believe a jew to be the killer.
Make a decision on if you will walk into the Jewish quarter. The Mercere could easily get answers from guards or anyone else but you have difficulties walking around the city unnoticed. Mariella’s brother will investigate but will not have any answers until the morning, he can’t just rush of from the Abbey. The divine aura is 2 in the major parts of the city as stated in the rulebook.
"Mariella, can you spontaneously cast or have known a spell that will dispel a 4th magnitude spell. If so, I can probably make three of us invisible that we can hold hands to get into the Jewish quarter but spell lasts until sunset so will need to be dispelled in an alley once we are in the jewish quarter. Get three us into quarter. You, me and the our Mercere friend and then you dispel invisibility on him so he can go talk to the Jewish moneylender and then I can make him invisible for the three of us to leave." Tatiana proposes. Cooperative spell casting each in their specialties to get past this threat. "We will of course have to take care to use stealth keep our shadows from being seen. Perhaps the entire group can walk past guards to jewish quarter to hide our shadows with shadows of the group and distract the guards a moment while we slip inside."
After Mariella has been tracked down
"Provided the range is short I should be able to spontaneously end spells of up to 5th Magnitude, formulaicly the Winds of Mundane silence can only handle spells of the 2nd magnitude
OOC Sorry for the delayin replying, I lost track of which threads I was up to date with
