Mae gets a note on her desk from Mr. Lost and Mr. Found
Lazam gets a note to his office, and also a cookie!
We've been assigned to a new case! An independent inquisitive (Steel-Eye Dixon) has reached out to us for help, and it'd be useful if we established a tie, he's got good connections everywhere. There's been a MURDER. We're meeting him at the crime scene in Broken Arch in Middle Dura, ASAP
We head out--Lazam takes a bit (perhaps longer than strictly necessary) to clear up his desk, put on his spirit mask, etc., but we make it out.
On the way, we see some graffiti that says The Crown Dies With Boranel and the Watch talking to some people about it
At the crime scene, we find the body of a blonde, half-elven woman. Steel-Eye Dixon is a warforged in a fedora and a trenchcoat, chewing a cigar as he examines a red symbol on the wall. The symbol is in the shape of a red teardrop, smeared on the wall with blood. We make Religion checks, and remember stuff about the Blood of Vol! The elf was named Kystine Sinndel, who was working as a bartender. Earlier, she came to Dixon's office claiming her sister had gotten involved with a bad guy, the wrong crowd, and she wanted out. When he came to meet her here, she was dead.
Dixon wants our help and is willing to pay ~600 galifars for it. Investigating with Mae's magic dust, we find a water jug that we think is the murder weapon. Lazam drops it on his toe. Dixon tells us there have been 3 more murders with this symbol! One in Upper Central, one in Middle Northedge, and one in Middle Menthis.
We start at Middle Menthis, in the Ivory Tower district. On the way, we pass an elegant woman in a flowy dress offering the answers to every question that ever existed for 42 golden galifars.
We arrive at what looks like an upper middle class house with a body in the study! Middle-aged longclaw shifter in an armchair, holding a feather duster. As per Dixon, named Cobalt and inherited wealth from Xen'drik stuff his parents did. While looking for more water jugs, Mae finds a silver amulet with a red jewel in the shape of a blood drop. Lazam ascertains he is probably dead. Dixon talks to the Watch and finds out Cobalt was burgled about a week ago, and that the Watch considers a missing janitor named Stovar Austrin a suspect.
We figure out that Cobalt was stabbed in the shoulder with a curved blade and died of blood loss. Lazam says it's probably not a ritual thing because Kystine was bludgeoned which doesn't give much blood. He then explains how there's a lot of blood in people's body, so you could hypothetically stab someone, collect blood, and then have as much blood as is around Cobalt still come out. He knows this because he killed some dinosaurs on the Plains.
We talk to an eyewitness named Risa who saw figures in red and black hooded robes running away from the house from the front door. Then she says she has to feed her tressym. Lazam ascertains that Risa was not coming from the library, but somewhere else she's embarrassed to talk about. He gives her a lil spiel and we discuss putting her in Dreadhold for obstructing justice, and she admits she was in Dragoneyes with a friend. Lazam checks the door and finds no damage or anything.
We head to Upper Central! On the way, we spot an out of breath gnome who needs to find Cabarra Concert Hall. Lazam suggests he try Middle Tavick somewhere, and Mae suggests he check Menthis if that doesn't work.
In Aurora Gallery, we find the body of a dark-haired elven woman slumped over her desk, her clothes soaked with blood and a puddle of it around her. Mae lights a stick on fire and uses the shadows to find out the victim was stabbed in the chest with a short, curved blade and died of blood loss. Lazam finds another red teardrop symbol in blood on the door! Dixon informs us Aleris Ravari is the victim, and the Watch has a suspect! A currently-unreachable colleague named Penti Jonnz. And another witness saw a red and black robed person with a silver amulet like the one we found, leaving the office.
We head to Middle Northedge. On the way, Mae gets hit by some yucky liquid. She yells "rude" and the thrower yells "sorry". She decides to call it perfume.
In Holdfast, we find an ocean of dwarves around our crime scene. We push our way through, and find a dwarf with a black beard and mustache lying on his back on the floor with a pool of water around him. With her trusty stick, Mae determines that the victim was also stabbed in the chest with a curved blade--we have a serial killer, ladies and gentlemen. Also he has a rash. Lazam finds the same teardrop symbol in blood on the back of the bookshelf. Dixon discovers the man is named Overlun Berylsmith, and he worked at the Kundarak Bank in Upper Central. He was quite popular among his neighbors, but one neighbor gossiped that Overlun was gonna move because he got rich! That neighbor is now a suspect.
So: Excepting Kystine, all the victims were rich, all had a connection to the Upper City, and they were all probably killed deliberately in some way regarding the BoV stuff. Kystine may have been a kill of need to keep her from talking, not an original target.
While we're discussing the situation, a gargoyle gets our attention, and throws a letter at Dixon's head. The letter reads: “Blood of Vol in Fallen, Lower Dura. Shrine of Onatar. Please help.” So off we go to Lower Dura! On the way, we get cinnamon rolls from a mysterious friendly granny. On the house! Mae gets turned into a frog when she eats the cinnamon roll. She starts saying "Whee!" in Frog and jumping around. She jumps on Lazam's head.
As we walk, we spot a strange elf watching us, so obviously Lazam starts playing music on his violin. Also, Mae turns back into a tiefling. We're at a temple of Onatar! There's a weird bloody symbol here. When we go to find Kystine's sister, the torches turn blood-red. Mae, being contrary, turns a torch blue.
We talk to the dragonborn at the door! We tell him we're new recruits for the not-cult and he lets us in, after some first-rate lying from Lazam.
Inside, we (well, Lazam) listen at a door, where we hear people talking about a vampire slumbering in the inner sanctum. We also find some sleeping quarters, where we find Delthana Sinnel, manacled to the wall! We tell her Kystine is dead, with really good timing. She does not know if the cultists are killing people or not. But she does know that this cult (which is not really a cult?) has an inner circle of con artists! They've been buying stuff on auction, then "stolen" them and cashed in the insurance. This inner circle was the three people we found dead, plus a guy named Zeke McKerrig who is the boss. We tell Delthana to hide somewhere, and go to find Zeke. We pass some worshippers who are incorrectly worshipping the Blood of Vol. We go into the next room, which looks like a forge! Inside, we find three people who look like our murder victims! Plus a fourth guy who is a stranger but probably Zeke. He tries to use holy talk. We are unimpressed.
Mae and Zeke have a philosophical discussion about what really counts as a crime and suspects and such. Mae finally says she knows it's a con and one of them tries to shoot her with some fire. Mae announces she is now totally cool with using force and casts bless while she asks if the suspects will come quietly, throwing glittery dust at her friends. Zeke teleports away in a blast of fire. His subordinates look nervous. Mae politely suggests the subordinates surrender, and somehow...they do?!
Dixon cuffs the subordinates and we go to chase Zeke. To the left we find the coffin and some arcane symbols. Mae is totally unable to open the coffin. She also hears a hiss from inside. She grabs a crowbar and tries again. She hears more hissing but does not get a response whether this is a vampire or not. She gets missed by a dart in the coffin.
We find out the runes are teleportation! We also determine the sound effect is an illusion. We open the coffin working together! It's empty except for a bunch of stolen art. Oh, and Zeke and the murder weapon. We threaten him, Lazam says either he comes quietly or we beat him up or Lazam gets some friends to beat him up. Zeke decides to come quietly.
We grab the knife, and Mae ascertains it's cursed! We also grab the envelope and his spare darts. Dixon is telling the cultists it was a con. It's going super well. Dixon identifies the knife while we escort our suspects to the station. It makes the victims' body look like whoever killed them. Good for faking one's death! We compliment the suspects on how many religions they were able to blaspheme against simultaneously, and also the creativity of their crimes.
At the station, we discover the envelope is empty and also Delthana is missing. Oops. Probably should have Insighted her. Welp, mystery for another day! Mae does the paperwork.