Demonstrating Investigatory Prowess

It was prime breakfast-time in the Freelancers back tavern, and a group of 4 had just returned from a courier run on Pembroke.  Carmen and Dominic bolted their food and headed back to the stables, and Minji ate very little, then retired upstairs for a catnap.  Ricardo Monroe, Adventurer Extraordinaire, sat at a small table, writing in his journal with a giant quill.

Arnari, having perused the messages in the courier pack, had come to the back tavern and was conversing quietly with Valan, glancing around at various Freelancers.  As they chatted she bobbed her head as if weighing options.  Then, she moved and started tapping people's shoulders, asking them to come to her office:  Lorcan, a willowy Pastoral gnome rogue; Maghris, a long-haired Maneki nekomata alchemist; Ricardo, the golden-haired human writing with the giant quill; and Tui, a short, curly-haired human who had only joined Freelancers a few days' prior.

As Arnari tapped them, they nodded and headed up the stairs.  When she saw Ricardo heading up, Tui's eyebrows shot up, and she tried, unsubtly, to wiggle them at the bard suggestively.  It appeared Ricardo was going to ignore her, but then he winked back at her.  She grabbed her tea and saucer and followed them up, wondering how she'd lucked into being chosen.

As they got to Arnari's office, Lorcan sat front & center in the guest chairs, giving Arnari his undivided attention.  Maghris rushed to the one chair he'd found that accommodated his fluffy tails (to be sure, he hadn't actually tried all the chairs or even most of them).  Ricardo, tired, got distracted by some baubles on one of Arnari's shelves and examined them, until Arnari seated herself.  With a start he moved to grab a chair, spin it around, and sit down.

Tui entered the office and only then realized a mission was in the offing instead of more intimate relations.  Disappointed, she walked up to Ricardo and motioned for him to stand up.  Puzzled, he did.  Then Tui spun the chair to a normal position and motioned for him to sit.  Shrugging, he spun it his preferred way, and sat back down.  Tui made a face, then seated herself on his shoulder, without even spilling her tea.  Her purple dress was bunched behind his shoulders.

By this time everyone was looking at them.  Tui appeared to have acquired artificery items and hung them on her belt.  Ricardo appeared to be handling this gracefully, so Arnari began.

"There were 'illegal shenanigans' at our last Battle Royale," she explained.  "Someone–hopefully not at the Academy of Magic–messed with the enclosing field.  The integrity of the Battle Royale was breached.  They gave Peb … rabies, or something.  It's worn off now, but someone messed with it, and I'm pissed.

"I don't know who or what their goals are.  Find out; if they are too powerful, let me know.  Do not endanger yourselves, but if you can crush their faces, do it,"  Arnari concluded, and by this time even Lorcan had a look of surprise on his face.

Ricardo:  do we have any leads?
Arnari:  Academy of Magic made the enclosure; they should still have the materials.  Dean Garth Nimblefingers is your best bet.  But just be respectful to his admin, Sidama.
Maghris:  I was there at the very beginning, when they were setting up.
Arnari:  what do you remember?  <Narrator voice:  Arnari was too busy talking to dignitaries to have watched the setup.>
Maghris:  the Dean is a Djogeon, right?  I remember seeing a Djogeon on charge, assisted by a Rain sagani.  A Mikumwes was setting the stuff up.  <closed his eyes as if to replay the scene>  It seemed like detailed magic, but I didn't see that they were out of harmony; they were working together.
<Maghris opened his eyes again, and Arnari nodded.>
Tui <impressed>:  nice memory!
Maghris:  surprise even myself.
Ricardo <to Arnari>:  does the Djogeon match Dean Nimblefingers?
Arnari:  yes
Tui:  do we need to interview Freelancers?
Arnari:  no
Maghris:  let's talk to the dean!
Ricardo:  yes.  <pressed his lips together, as Tui was still on his shoulder>  Tui, have you been kicked out of the school?
Tui <with something resembling dignity>:  I have not, actually.

Lorcan gave the short human a side-eye at that remark, as Tui gracefully extracted herself from Ricardo's shoulders as if such behaviour–and getting kicked out of magical schools–was completely normal for her.  The others rose to leave, and then Maghris asked if they should also check the arena area in Pegasus Square.  Arnari shook her head, and Tui noted the arena itself had been already pulled down.

The Cliffshadow Academy of Magic was 4 blocks east of Freelancers Tavern, at the corner of Bellini Avenue and Sparrowhawk Street, so the Freelancers had a short walk to begin their investigation.

Lorcan:  we should talk to Sidama first, in order to ascertain the identity of the three persons Maghris remembers.
Maghris <held up a clawed finger>:  we are to be polite!  we were explicitly told!

Lorcan, having met Sidama previously, was amused by this admonishment from Maghris.  But by then they had arrived and quickly found their way to the Dean's office, to encounter Sidama Gerbicho herself.  She was a non-nonsense human woman, with her grey hair pulled back into a bun with a lot of things stuck in it.  She looked at the four Freelancers, shuffled the papers in front of her, then leaned back and put her hands in her sleeves.  Her look became more severe.

Sidama:  how can I help you?
Maghris:
Ricardo <smiled>:  Sidama dear, I think that we will be able to help each other.  We are Freelancers, as I am sure you noticed, and there's been some concern directed at the Academy regarding the way the barrier held up.
<Sidama's expression softened, as she clearly found Ricardo charming.>
Sidama:  yes, Dean Nimblefingers and the rest of us who helped are quite upset about the Battle Royale, and would like some help getting to the bottom of it.

Sidama held her hand in front of her mouth, and whispered, then listened, then whispered again.  The Freelancers all gave each other side-eyes.  A couple minutes passed, then a Mikumwes halfling entered, none other than the halfling Maghris had seen setting up "stuff".  He was wearing traveler's clothes, with a wizard's robe over it all, as if it were a lab coat.

Sidama:  this is Jeddry, one of our senior students; he helped set up the arena.  Dean Nimblefingers is busy, and he can guide you to the lab and answer questions.
Lorcan <politely>:  thank you, Sidama.  Nice to meet you, Jeddry.
<Jeddry led the Freelancers out of the office and down stairs.>
Tui:  I am totally fascinated by this barrier, how did you get abjuration + conjuration to work together?

The rest of the walk down to the basements and wending through basement hallways was spent with Jeddry happily explaining the technical aspects of the barrier in terms nobody but Tui understood, but really amounted to they had a couple magical items they put to good use.

Jeddry:  here's the lab, where Nimblefingers and Darag did the work, but I helped.
Tui:  what I head is you did a lot of the leg work, and those legs really work.
<Jeddry blushed, and Maghris rolled his eyes.>
Maghris:  did you notice anything amiss with any of the iterms?
Jeddry:  I helped before, and no, did not notice anything amiss.
<Jeddry gestured at round obelisk statues on the left side of the lab.  Maghris recognized them.>
Jeddry:  these, when set up correctly, provide protection inwards and outwards; also terrain and hazards can be preset.
Maghris:  nothing different this time?
Jeddry:  not that I could tell
Lorcan:  can I look at these?

There were 5 obelisks; they were 18" tall, with rounded edges, and covered in arcane runes.  Tui and Lorcan both examined these statues.  Perhaps becuase he was closer in height to them, Lorcan noticed the runes on the 5th one didn't quite match the others.  He showed Tui, who raised her eyebrows and told him, "That changes the meaning."

They showed the others, and Jeddry examined it.  "It is only a slight change, in the abjuration," he told them, "You'd have to know about this to take advantage of it."

Maghris was looking at the workbenches.  He started on descriptions, and ordering, and found the models, where they'd planned out the terrain.  As he poked around, he found tucked behind some stuff pushed aside, a dragonchess pawn.  Frowning, he picked it up, and got zapped so hard he almost dropped it.

Everyone looked up at his yowl of surprise.  "I found a thing," Maghris said, and held up the pawn, "yeowp, there's a rune here."  Tui was immediately next to Maghris to examine this rune, and Jeddry demanded, "Where did that come from?"

Lorcan frowned, then explained haltingly, "There was… non-consensual necromancy, in the Parkside cemetery.  There was also, people getting their memory altered.  Roberto… was trying to get undead.  Freelancers tried to question those around him, and we learned, the piece [Maghris was holding] will summon an undead to attack us.  Don't drop it!"  Everyone looked at the Pastoral gnome as he dredged up his memory of events.  "We ended up raiding Roberto's lair… actually, Darag!  We talked to him about it."

Maghris looked at the pawn, then started to put it in his pouch, but Tui exclaimed, "Let me look at this!" and Ricardo also walked over to have a look.  "It's clear this is an abjuration glyph, with these effects!" he exclaimed.  <Narrator voice:  that's literally what's in the notes.>  Tui took the pawn from Maghris and started inspecting it closely.

Ricardo, Maghris, and Lorcan all kind of looked at Jeddry to see if his "where did that come from?" was dissembling, or what.  But he seemed genuine.

Lorcan <to Jeddry>:  have you seen Darag since this event?
Jeddry:  he was here this morning, teaching a class.
Lorcan:  was he messing with this part of the table?
Jeddry:  his table is over there <pointed>, but we all putter around as needed.

Jeddry was trying to be helpful, but he was not really following the Freelancers' train of thought.  As they were talking, Tui had started using some of the tools on her belt to poke at the dragonchess piece.  She looked up abruptly.

"This will not produce a skeleton," she announced, "but is like half a sending stone, but… gimped?  it can be triggered from the other end."  She put the tools away and got out some alchemy supplies.  Maghris raised an eyebrow.  "I'm trying to point it at the other half," she explained, and [poured some liquid on it].

A wisp of smoke rose up from it, drifting in a direction, and Tui's eyes widened.

Tui:  we gotta go!  this is a spying stone, this [the wisp] will expire…
Ricardo <to Jeddry>:  explain later, we should go now
Jeddry:  I don't wanna leave the lab…
<Tui ran out.>
Ricardo:  we'll come back if we have more questions.
Jeddry:  I'll be here to answer!

The other Freelancers ran out after Tui.  Of course they quickly left Lorcan behind.  By the time they were out in the street, Tui realized it was pointing far to the west of the Trade District, and the wisp would only last about an hour.  So they slowed down, and decided to go to Freelancers to get their mounts.  Lorcan caught up with them halfway there.

The Freelancers got their mounts, and Tui was to ride with Ricardo on Legend, Ricardo's white pegasus.  Lorcan found Arnari to give her a status, however.

Lorcan:  we found a chess piece.
<Arnari scowled.>
Lorcan:  Tui found a way to track it
Arnari:  I will come find you, if you are not back by evening.  I'm sure the Mayor will be most interested in what you end up finding.

Lorcan ran back to the stables and got Bandit, then took off after the others.

As a search, even with the guidance of this wisp, it wasn't the best experience.  Lorcan was trying to figure out how Tui planned to triangulate her information; Maghris was trying to figure out how she'd come up with this wisp; and Ricardo was just trying to keep Tui from falling off Legend.  That left just Tui paying attention to where to go, and she was the least familiar with Cliffshadow, and almost entirely unfamiliar with the western part of the Trade District.

Tui finally narrowed it down to a block, and just as the Freelancers landed to take a closer look, the last of the magic faded out and the wisp disappeared.  Fabulous.  They looked around, and saw shops on the street level:  a bodega, a shop selling saddles, a bakery, a butcher.  The corners had taverns.  The buildings were 2-3 stories, with people living on the upper floors.  Before it had faded out, the wisp pointed to one of these.

Lorcan took off again on Bandit, and started circling.  He watched the 2nd floor windows to see what he could see.  Many of them had the curtains pulled, including those over the butcher shop; but what he could see in appeared to be typical living spaces.

Tui decided she would ritual cast detect magic, using some ritual that involved a pair of dirty purple gloves.  The pawn was lit up with evocation magic, so she started walking around looking for a similar signature.

Of course Tui found a game store, but nothing lit up there.  A lot of people on the street had magic items, mostly simple.  She saw the bakery had some abjuration magic, as did one of the taverns.  But after doing a circuit of the block, Tui didn't see anything light up like this "spystone".

When Tui and Lorcan told the others of their findings, Ricardo strolled into the game store to enquire about chess.  Once he entered he realized it was less of a game store and more of a gambling den.  A clerk pointed out to Ricardo their leaderboards and who was winning.  As they chatted Ricardo saw gaming sets for sale, including dragonchess, but no pieces matched the style of the pawn the Freelancers had.

While Ricardo was doing that, the others discussed the closed curtains above the butchershop.  After all, being above a butcher's could help disguise any of the more obvious signs of necromancy, such as bones or the smell of death.  Magris wanted to send Mr Zircon to take a look, so Lorcan used his mage hand legerdemain to twitch the curtains aside so both he and Mr Zircon could take a look.

There was no person within, but they immediately twigged the bedroom items were less in place for the Trade District and more appropriate for the Academy of Magic.  Mr Zircon got a glimpse of runes inscribed on the table, even.  Maghris told the others.

Tui burned a spell slot to cast detect magic then, but still did not pick up any sign of the other end of the "spystone".  She had Ricardo fly her around the block, but still nothing.

Lorcan:  I suggest we return the chess piece to where it was, and inform the Dean.
Ricardo:  if they are even mildly competent, they have a lookout.
<The Freelancers looked around, and Lorcan & Ricardo spotted 2 or 3 lookouts, very likely unrelated to each other.>
Lorcan:  let's get out of here.
Ricardo:  yeah.  …No!  you go, I'll stay.

A mild argument ensued, which was basically how is Ricardo all on his lonesome going to do anything about a wizard strong enough to screw with the Academy of Magic?  But the point was taken, that this place should be watched; so the plan became, Ricardo would stay, and Tui would take Legend back to Freelancers.  Maghris, Lorcan, and Tui would provide Arnari with the information, and she'd send others to relieve Ricardo and keep a constant watch.

And that's what they did; Arnari sent Moulari and TObiah to relieve Ricardo, while the other three brought the chess piece to Garth Nimblefingers, and Tui explained what they'd found and what she'd done to it.  Later, when the four of them were back at the Freelancers Tavern, Arnari paid them 100 eagles each out of Freelancer coffers.