The Shattered City: Chapter Two

[DocBeard]

"...poopie." Tomas says, realizing, a second too late, just how horribly guilty this looks without a spray of invisible monster blood to show people. And it wasn't an invisible monster. Eisenwald looks down to the ground, calculates his chances of tripping over himself, and changes his mind. "Kerrian, grab the sword!" Tomas bellows, turning to try and charge towards the door, breaking it open if necessary.

[Cronax]

It was all Mr. Agale could do to suppress a retch at the quantity of blood streaming down the side of his usually immaculate suit. His thin and unathletic frame wobbled and careened under his half of Latour's bulk before settling into a steady lurch towards the door.

"Not that the gendarme wouldn't assist us in this situation, but I'd rather avoid a premature sentencing by the mob before they show up, so we had best make a hasty departure" he said, barely audible at all over the tavern's current din.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Well," Lia sighs. "It seems that our timing is more than a little off for this investigation."

[Kaitou Kage]

"Or is it?" Cyrus's serpent smile returned. He began looking around the curator's office. "We have been presented with a useful break in our investigation. Perhaps now we can find something useful."

The dommer was no slouch at investigations. As an agent of the Lawgiver, he'd been responsible for several inquisitions back in Hazlan. Thus, he knew an opportunity when he found one.

Perhaps the previous curator had left something the new one missed. Perhaps somewhere in this chaos and incompetence was a valuable jewel.

Perception 25

[lostboy]

"...poopie." Tomas says......

The veritable wave of anarchy brings Nicholas' brains back form wheerver they were hiding, and his outburst is a lot less restrained than Tomas'. In fact his colourful curse probabley shocked a few of the fleeing sailors out of their demented flight.

Looking less than pleased he nods to Agale, "Out now! Fast as we can, then down the nearest dark alley we can find, I dont want to be caught carrying a corpse by Dementlieus finest." The looking around at the others his newly found sense of the situation starts asserting its authority. "Eisenwald, hold the door! Kerrian at least set that damn spectral hound to good use and clear us a path!" Then pausing by Nerit and Alice he adds, "ladies, I feel our welcome has been outstayed, probabley a good time to sample the night air, shall we?"

Having told everyone else what to do he summons up the strength to lift the literal dead weight and hobble as fast as he can towards the door and into the night.

OOC: Athletics:25 Streetwise: 21 as per OOC thread

[Nerit]

((Double post, so sorry!))

[Nerit]

Nerit kept her grip on Alice's arm. It was desperate, but not unkind. In other words, the nun was aware how self-reliant Alice was, but cared too much to let go.

She followed after the men, a frazzled, haggard look about her.

"We must tell Devereux to cover the mirrors. And the windows!" she raved through the din of the proto-mob.

[NeoTiamat]

Rue des Ferrats, Quartier Marchand, Port-a-Lucine; Evening of March 24th, 770
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It's getting late in the day IC, so once you guys are finished here, mind if I herd you back to the Chateau to regroup and compare notes?

Fear, or at least the desire not to spend the next several months in Montmort Prison, lent wings to your feet. Still carrying the corpse of the late Etienne Latour with you like a particularly drunken friend, you made for the alleyways and back roads of the dock district, through the more wretched parts of the Quartier Marchand.

And not a moment too soon. A few minutes after you left, the shouting of gendarme could be heard, along with the clattering bell of the watch. But they were back at the Mutinied Sailor, no doubt examining the grisly scene in search of the main actor, the corpse. Meanwhile, Nicolas led you through the side paths and shortcuts as only a native could, and in not too long, the sound of the gendarme faded.

They weren't gone, not by a long shot, but for the time being you were safe.

"Dementlieu is proving more exciting with every passing day." Alice said, trying to force some semblance of calmness into her voice. The tremor was still there, though, and she made no move to shake off Nerit, not yet. Catching her breath, the Mordentishwoman continued. "Now what do we do with it?"

There was no need to ask who 'it' referred to.

Museum, University of Dementlieu, Port-a-Lucine; Evening of March 24th, 770
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It's getting late in the day IC, so once you guys are finished here, mind if I herd you back to the Chateau to regroup and compare notes?

The dommer was no slouch at investigations. As an agent of the Lawgiver, he'd been responsible for several inquisitions back in Hazlan. Thus, he knew an opportunity when he found one.

Perhaps the previous curator had left something the new one missed. Perhaps somewhere in this chaos and incompetence was a valuable jewel.

It took a few minutes of rooting around the late Marie Chastel's room, but Cyrus did indeed find a valuable jewel. Or a peculiar one, at any rate. Since Chastel's death someone had done at the very least a rudimentary examination of the room, but there were still books to be found and various porcelain trinkets left behind. But it was a slim, black volume that attracted Cyrus's eye, largely because the little book had been hidden, wedged behind the rest of the books.

The book was fairly small, and bound in black leather. There was no title on it, nor any title page or author. Rather, opening it revealed a table of contents linked to a year-by-year chronology of Port-a-Lucine, back to the settlement. Opening the booklet to a random page, Cyrus was greeted with a list.

• 
  Gustave Girard........................ b. 692 -- d. 3:13 PM, June 19th, 693
  Hugo-Joseph Astier.................. b. 672 -- d. 4:29 PM, June 19th, 693
  Violette Blandin....................... b. 674 -- d. 4:29 PM, June 19th, 693
  Bruce Blanchard...................... b. 692 -- d. 7:18 PM, June 19th, 693
  Jebediah Grange...................... b. 625 -- d. 10:46 PM, June 19th, 693
  Aurelien Carré........................ b. 683 -- d. 1:57 AM, June 20th, 693
  Thérèse David........................ b. 645 -- d. 2:42 AM, June 20th, 693
  Isidore Bonhomme.................. b. 690 -- d. 3:23 AM, June 20th, 693
  Léon-Marie-Jean Lemaitre........ b. 663 -- d. 3:40 AM, June 20th, 693
  Laurent Bailleul....................... b. 691 -- d. 4:59 AM, June 20th, 693

Thus it continued, for page after page after page. Very rapidly, it emerged that the book was significantly larger in terms of page count than its slender size suggested, though such enchantments were hardly unheard of. After a moment, Cyrus flipped to the very last page.

• 
  Elisabeth Bouchard.................. b. 735 -- d. 6:34 PM, March 11th, 770
  Marie-Joséphine Josse.............. b. 759 -- d. 6:47 PM, March 11th, 770
  Benjamin-Joseph Fortin............ b. 743 -- d. 7:23 PM, March 11th, 770
  Άτροπος................................. b. 1 -- d. 7:45 PM, March 11th, 770

That was the final entry.

[DocBeard]

"I'm...sorry..." Tomas breathes, taking a moment to pant. YOU run in a heavy plate breastplate. "...thought it was...invisible killer..."

Wiping his brow, Eisenwald looks down at the ex-sailor. "He deserves some kind of burial."

[lostboy]

"Now what do we do with it?"

Nicholas takes a shuddering breath, his body not used to quite so much exertion all in one go, and brushes futilely at the mess on his coat. "We have rather unfortunatley to undertake the ghoulish task of quickly rifling our friends pockets. Distasteful as it may seem, someone didnt want this man talking and although he gave us two names as clues, we need all the help we can get at this point. Besides I'm already covered in just about everything the drunken sot could leak anyway."

"Afterwards, Im not bothered" he says with a shrug, "however the less time we can spend with a corpse that is currently being hunted for by the gendarmes, is probabley to our advantage."

Piece said he takes a quick look around to ensure they arent being observed then if no-one stops him, he begins swiftly searching Latour.

OOC: Arcana 24 to look for any signs of other nasty magic type stuff on the body, and Perception 20 to check for stuff he might have concelaed on his person.

[Kaitou Kage]

"Well now," the dommer said, "Look what we have here."

He flipped slowly through the pages of the dossier and then handed it to Lia, still wearing his serpentine smile.

"You know this city better than I, Professor," he said, suddenly omitting the ironic emphasis he usually placed when he addressed Lia. "Do you recognize these names? Also note the final entry. It is not a language I have seen. Very curious, isn't it?"

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Look at the birthdate, brother," Darius says quietly. "And that name..."

[The Whistler]

“Such a uniquely macabre compendium! Whatever can it mean—and, one must wonder, how could a humble Curatoress lay claim to such a detailed array of information?”

Upon Darius pointing out the last name in the list, Mlle. Viardot gave a small jump of surprise. “Ah! One of our Elven fellow-creatures! If my many fond hours of calligraphy lessons with the Lady Alustriel serve me true, the name may only be of an old Sithican dialect—which provides a ready explanation for the mysterious ‘Άτροπος’s’ venerable lifespan! How uplifting to discover a Clue so refreshingly inclusive of our more gracious fellow-creatures!”

You weren’t exactly sure how Celeste pronounced the name ‘Άτροπος’, but you were somehow certain that she had pronounced it wrong.

15 on a History check. Feh.

[NeoTiamat]

Museum, University of Dementlieu, Port-a-Lucine; Evening of March 24th, 770
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You weren’t exactly sure how Celeste pronounced the name ‘Άτροπος’, but you were somehow certain that she had pronounced it wrong.

"Atropos," Professor Petrik snapped, correcting Celeste's atrocious pronunciation. She settled down a bit, frowning at the book. "It means death."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die," Darius quotes.

After a longish pause, he says, "This happened....thirteen days ago? Presumably people have been dying in the last two weeks, and not all the laws of Nature have been set aside for our confusion?"