The footprints were headed toward the stairs.
It has by now been half an hour since you arrived at the building, and at least half an hour beyond that since the murder was discovered by the waitress (whose footprints apparently track through those of the departing boots, picking up whatever it is that you are seeing on the floor).
The redshirts certainly are willing to scout ahead; they want to know where to look and what they seek.
--M. J. Young
"There was someone else here," I'll explain, "A man in boots. He came and left before our witness found the crime scene. Heavier step, feet... a bit bigger than mine. We need to figure out who that man was."
My redshirts need names. I like named NPCs more than MJ does, so I'll call them Matt and Tarah. Because I know a Matt (who is 6' 5") and a Tarah (who is about 4' 10") and it will make them easy to picture.
To Matt, I'll ask, "See if you can drum up three more men for a couple of hours. Take one with you, send the other two as a team."
To Tarah, I'll ask, "Come with me."
To both of them, I'll explain, "We need to ask questions around this neighborhood. See if anybody saw anyone entering the building after-hours, or especially if they saw anyone leaving before our witness did. Within an hour before, doubly so."
Okay so I'm effectively turning this into "Law & Order: Durnmist's Finest," but I don't know how to be an actual cop, even though I watch rather a lot of "Law & Order." On the other hand, if I do anything too ridiculous I trust my redshirts will tell me so.
You came on around midnight, and the waitress reached you around one, if memory serves, so things are pretty quiet at two-thirty in the morning. A canvas of the block finds no one who admits having been awake since midnight, and businesses all shuttered.
You review what you know. Two strangers and two local men are dead, apparently connected with some kind of business meeting. Someone left the scene, tracking blood out, before the waitress discovered it. The doors were locked until she opened the back door to go to the latrine, and on her way in she walked through the bloody tracks. This suggests that the missing man was in the room when she went outside, and took advantage of her departure to slip out the unlocked back door.
This in turn suggests that he was either at the meeting or hiding in the building; but since it is fairly evident that the two strangers attacked the owner, it seems more likely that he was one of their confederates.
Also, the other local was not close enough to the three bodies to have been engaged, and he was unarmed. Either one of the attackers struck him first, or our missing man killed him, before, during, or after the fight, but probably very much in the midst of it.
You've recognized that these men have the look of pirates; probably their confederate would also be a pirate. The question is, what sort of business might pirates have with a respectable aging taverner and his "silent" business partner that might cause them to invite them to talk after hours in a private room?
--M. J. Young
Probably nothing legal. Smuggling comes to mind foremost. Slaving, likewise.
An innkeeper would be in a position to deal with plenty of both travelers and locals.
But he is considered respectable, which means it's probably either something he wasn't actually engaged in himself (extortion with him as the victim, illicit gambling) or something subtle (smuggling, money laundering), so that rules out the unsubtle things like, for instance, slave trafficking. (Do they even have slavery in this world?)
It seems my next stop - am I due to refresh my Remove Fatigue spell? I wouldn't have come on duty without it, but I'll think that over for a moment and make sure - assuming I don't need to stop home to refresh that, my next stop needs to be the docks. If I can keep my current redshirts (all five of them now), I'll do so. If that's impossible or improper, I'll request new redshirts from a supervisor local to that area, and if I can get my hands on one, a local area junior investigator, because it seems only polite while I'm snooping in their jurisdiction.
I need to know if there are any ships of ill reputation currently in port. Anyone the local inspectors or dockmasters have been keeping a certain eye on. In short, anyone known or suspected to be a pirate.
And one last thing: am I still seeing sound all Daredevil style?
You're due to up the remove fatigue around sundown today; it's not yet daybreak.
You have never seen any hint of slaving in any of the ports you've visited. It there is such, it must be happening outside the areas you've traveled.
You've got these redshirts until morning, when they go off duty, unless you can see a way to say that it's an emergency of a hot pursuit sort. At that point there will be a couple more investigators coming on, and you can brief them and decide whether you're going home and leaving it in their hands or continuing to work with them.
The harbor master says of course that there are no known pirate ships. There is a trading ship, the Apple Blossom, New Haven registry, that's never been here before. Their captain, a Captain Harold, looks young but much traveled. He says that his company has him looking for business opportunities for a new route.
Yes, your vision is still seeing sound waves.
--M. J. Young
I'll have to be very careful, then, down on the docks. At least water has unique sound-bending properties that should make it fairly easy not to fall in, and docks are rarely quiet, especially in the predawn hours when ships will be making ready, so I should probably be okay - nearly as good as being sighted, at least while I'm here.
I don't have enough to go on to keep these redshirts past their shift. If the time comes up, I'll dismiss them.
I think I'll have a word with this Captain Harold, and try to get a psionic Detect Lies going on him as well. This is another one of those nerve-reading psi powers, sensing which parts of his brain light up when he's speaking.
As an out-of-character note, if there is a particular event unconnected with the current plot that I would very much like to see happen in-game, what is the appropriate way to ask for it to happen?
On the out-of-character note, I would say that the answer to your question is to mention it behind the screens. I would also say first that it is sometimes possible to "signal" such ideas through character thought and dialog, and that although I like having some idea of what kinds of things interest my players I also am easily annoyed by too many suggestions of what should or might happen to their characters.
Between the lapping of the water, the creaking of the ships, the echoing of feet and hooves and carriage wheels on the deck, you have an eerie image of the dock, but you can easily see where the edges are.
The man at the gangplank of The Apple Blossom gives you a cold reception. He says customs has already been over the ship and found nothing that should interest law enforcement. The captain was out late, and it's not his business to know where the captain was or what he was doing, or to let anyone awaken the captain before he wishes.
--M. J. Young
I'll thank the guard for the insight, and withdraw.
Once I'm a diplomatic distance away, I'll assign one of my five redshirts (this is probably the last I'll see of him, so he doesn't need a name) to watch that ship and raise an alert if anything suspicious goes on around it.
Then I'm going to talk to the customs inspector. What might not have interested him then might interest me rather a bit now.
The redshirt wants to know what you suspect and why he should be watching this ship, so that he knows what might be suspicious.
The customs inspector who examined that ship three days back when it came into harbor is off today. The man manning the office tonight does not know where he lives, but says you might be able to get that information from today's day man, but he won't be in until after breakfast, around nine. He offers to answer any questions he can based on the report, but there's not much in the report. The ship was carrying provisions and standard weapons such as one would expect of any ship traveling the trade routes.
--M. J. Young
Out of character I have no idea how to proceed in this circumstance, so I ask that something happen in game to push things along. My "I watch a lot of Law & Order" has hit its limit. It seems I've followed every lead I've had, and the trail has simply gone cold, so now I retrace my steps and wait for something new to turn up.
You return to the office shortly before shift change. The chief has already arrived and been told of the event; he wants to sit in as you brief Chief Investigator Lewis, due to arrive in a few minutes. He offers you coffee while you wait.
When Lewis arrives, he is told simply that the owner of the tavern was killed, along with three other men in what appears to be a fight but has some odd aspects. For that, you are asked to recount everything you observed or discovered, everything you suspect, and everything you have done to this point.
When you are finished, the Chief and the Chief Inspector will discuss with you what steps ought to be taken next, and give you the option to stay through at least part of the day to help pursue it or go get some rest and come back for your shift tonight.
While it may seem redundant, I think it would help both of us for you to give your report here. It will help you because you will be able to see where your conclusions are solid and what you might be able still to pursue; it will help me, because I will be able to determine what you've overlooked and how to bring some of that into focus for you.
I would, after all, like you to succeed in solving this case.
--M. J. Young
I describe what I've done so far. I took two redshirts, I mean, watchmen, and went to investigate the crime scene.
The bar itself was in order. Chairs up, floors clean. Our witness and her crew ran a pretty tight ship.
The door was open when we found it, but the blood on the floor seemed like the door was closed when the killing went on.
The pattern of the footprints on the ground indicates that the killing happened while our witness was out visiting the outhouse.
I describe the table, the pitcher, the cups. The weapons the men had.
It occurs to me that there are at least six keys to the place, of which at least four are unaccounted for. That should be something we investigate...
I describe the knife wounds, especially the one guy whose wounds were inconsistent with the knives in the room.
I'll describe the earrings and jewelry, appropriate to pirates.
Then there's the footprints that lead to the stairs.
This is when I drew in the other three patrolmen. No other witnesses, though.
Nothing down by the docks, either. One new ship in port, but nothing out of the ordinary with the ship, at least according to the customs office.
They tell you you've done well. They'll pick up the other workers; someone will watch the bar and take names of anyone who arrives, explaining only that there was a bit of a problem last night and the facility is closed for today. Also, you're probably right to want to talk to that captain. After all, he is a stranger in town. They'll also canvas the other ships, to see whether anyone is missing a couple crewmen, although you're probably right that they're pirates.
The chief investigator is going to have a look at the crime scene, to see whether he agrees in all particulars or catches anything you missed.
The question is raised as to what evidence you have that the crime occurred while the girl was out of the building. From your description, it is possible that she slept through whatever commotion occurred--or perhaps that the commotion is what woke her, but she did not realize it. It would be remarkably coincidental if a friendly meeting happened to devolve into a fight in the very few minutes that the woman was not in the building, but considerably less so if the fight is what woke her. The alternative would seem to be that the killers were waiting for the waitress to use the latrine in the middle of the night, and they could not possibly have known she would do so at all.
A team will also check the bodies more thoroughly and have them removed.
Do you have anything to add?
--M. J. Young
It might be a good idea to watch the inn for a few days hereafter. Particularly, keep an eye on that waitress. The more I think about it, the more I wouldn't mark it as impossible that she was somehow involved. Perhaps she let someone in, or something like that. And if she was not involved, someone might yet be after her to shut her up as a witness, and so it would still be a good idea to watch out for her.
"Good thinking. We'll assign a watch to her for the present. There doesn't seem to be any reason to keep her here. She's sleeping in lockup at the moment, because it was the only place we had a cot for her, but if no one has any more questions for her, we'll release her and keep a man with her at least for today and tonight."
The question on the boards, really, is whether you are going to pursue any of these leads yourself, or whether you are going to leave work and return later to be updated on what was discovered.
--M. J. Young
I have until sunset before I have to go home to refresh, right?
Also, am I still seeing in sound? If I am, then I am going home - there's not much more I can do until that wears off. If not, I'll go with the Chief Inspector to reexamine the crime scene in daylight.
Right on both counts.
Before I roll for whether you can find your way home with this current visual impairment, are you going to attempt anything else, and/or mention anything I should take into account in this?
--M. J. Young
Why not? I'll try my Bloodhound Olfaction (maybe I can sniff my way home), and my Night Vision powers (maybe-just-maybe that will reboot my eyes).
And... nope I think I've covered everything, investigatively speaking.
You attempt to bring your olfaction to intense levels, but at the moment it is not working.
You close your eyes and focus for a minute to bring your enhanced night vision on--and then when you open them, the morning world is a brilliant glare on your photosensitive eyes. You squint involuntarily against the brightness--but you can see light again, just much more of it than you would have wanted.
--M. J. Young
Yipe! I'm a bit photosensitive to begin with, so that really bites. I'll shield my eyes and stick to the more well-shaded streets till I can get home and hide behind thick curtains (because any house of mine WILL have thick daylight-blocking curtains) until this passes.
But at least I rebooted my eyes out of freaky Daredevil vision. That was cool while it lasted, though. Going to have to remember that and figure out how to do it on purpose...
One I can see straight again, I'll make a note of that in my journal, along with a reminder to try Microscopic VIsion again one of these days.
Lunchtime comes and goes, I'll re-up my Remove Fatigue and head back to work when the time comes.
Has any news broken?
Does anything interesting happen during the day?
Do I make it home safely?
You get home safely, if slowly.
Returning to work, you are briefed on the case to this point.
Two of the employees repeated the information that the manager was looking to retire and so looking for a buyer for the business; one said that his partner had agreed to this, and so they were both hoping to sell the place.
There was general agreement that the owners would not knowingly become involved in any illegal activity, nor allow their bar to be so used even after they were no longer involved, as far as they could help. They also and promised the employees who were aware of this that they would do what they could to keep their jobs for them.
The partner's wound was almost certainly not made by one of the weapons at the scene, but more likely from a longer blade such as a cutlass. There is blood on the man's clothes consistent in pattern with the wiping of such a blade.
The captain of the ship was interviewed. He claims no knowledge and offers no alibi but that he was wandering the streets much of the night looking over the city mostly for ideas of what sort of merchandise would be worth bringing in and taking out. He says he prefers to get a look at shops at night, because he does not wish to become involved in discussions that might lead to negotiations or inappropriate expectations until he has some idea of the overall picture. He does wear a sword. It was clean, but one would hardly expect otherwise, and he made no objection to having it examined.
At present the working theory is that the owners had a meeting with probably three persons who had expressed some interest probably in purchasing the bar, but that something went awry at the meeting. One of those individuals left the room alive. The altercation probably occurred while the waitress was asleep, but woke her, as the remaining individual took time to wipe his blade but did little more. He may have heard the waitress in the hall or on the stairs, and realized that if she were leaving the building the door would be unlocked and he could escape without breaking anything or stealing the key. The footprints you saw were very faint, but careful examination showed that the missing man tracked a bit of blood into the hall, and the waitress walked through it on her return from the outhouse.
The identities of the three strangers are still undetermined.
--M. J. Young
Do we have the equivalent of a police sketch artist? Someone who could draw up and have printed 'Do You Know These Men?' sort of posters for the strangers?
I would love to do some fun Psionic thing like touching the Captain's sword and reading its history, but that has to be curved out and I'm not that good a psionic.
Are there still redshirts staking out the ship? If so, I will join them. I'll use my Telescopic Vision to get a good close look at the deck, and my Read Surface Thoughts (I do have a Read Surface Thoughts, don't I? or is it Read Emotion?) on the random people I see, to see if anyone is keeping secrets.
They set to work getting an artist to draw the faces of the men when they were alive.
The telescopic vision does not work at present, and the only man you can see is watching the gangplank. You feel like you are flirting with the edge of his mind but cannot quite connect, and then he turns away and heads inside.
You'll get another chance later, if you wish to try it.
--M. J. Young
Yes, I'll wait and keep at it, until something interesting happens.
Later you manage to get the telescopic vision running.
It occurs to you that you have been to New Haven, and neither the sailors nor the dock workers you met there were dressed or appointed as the few men you see here--they definitely have the look of pirates, with the single earrings and other jewelry. One has an eye patch he plays with but never wears. Cutlass sharpening seems to occupy their attention.
It is also interesting that crewmen do not come and go while the ship is in harbor. Rules are fairly lax in Durnmist, as you well know, and since the main currents suggest that a ship coming from New Haven has been at sea for months, the fact that the sailors are not taking shore leave is suspicious, at least.
The canons are not surprising, but there seem to be more grapples and grappling hooks aboard than you remember from your days on the Piper. Whoever armed this ship did so from the perspective of aggressor, not defender.
The question is, what are pirates doing in a civilized port such as this, and does that connect them to the tavern somehow?
--M. J. Young
At the very least, it's interesting.
If I have redshirts on hand, I'll send one to the harbor master to inform him of what I saw, with explicit instructions not to act on it unless he thinks that ship is about to leave. I'll send another, also with the message of what I saw, to my Senior Inspector, with a polite request that he liaise with the harbor master with an eye toward a more thorough searching of that ship. For reference I will cite my own experiences at sea, particularly my experience with pirates.
As for whether or not that connects them with the ship, well, that's why I'm trying to read their surface thoughts.
Your shift is ending. The harbormaster agrees to inform you if the ship requests clearance to leave. He agrees that your findings are suspicious, but that it's not really enough to hold a ship barring something more.
The senior inspector suggests that at this point the best hope would be to connect the dead men to the ship's crew somehow, such as finding someone who saw them together with someone known to be part of the crew. If indeed the crew or captain is involved, they'll probably deny that the dead men are from their crew and claim that they met them here in port; but it would be enough to justify a more thorough search of the ship and interrogation of the crew. If you've any ideas in that direction, they will be pursued.
--M. J. Young
I'll ask our waitress if she has seen anyone matching the description of the men from that ship in or around her pub recently. She's our only real witness, so she's a good place to start.
The next place to go would be around the docks. Cargo loaders get their hands in everything, and a ship that doesn't use Union labor is in for a hell of a time, as I learned trying to get out of Sardic, so I'll slum it for a few hours and see if any of the laborers down there have seen or heard anything worth passing along.
That ship isn't really suspicious enough to justify starting to have members of the crew followed - not yet - but I will ask any of my redshirts still around the dock area to keep an eye on who comes and goes and when. If nobody leaves the ship... that is bloody weird.
Any luck on that Detect Surface Thoughts thing this time around?
Sorry about the mind reading thing--they just don't seem to stay where you can focus on them long enough to connect.
And indeed, at least since the incident no one has left the ship at all.
The waitress does not remember having seen the two dead men in the bar at any time, nor have the others on the restaurant/bar staff. As to crewmen alive on the ship, how did you plan to get her or her fellow employees to identify these?
--M. J. Young
I figured if any of them ever left the ship, they might see them. Also, I can give a pretty accurate description, and see if she's seen any of the shabbily dressed, seedy-look, earring-wearing, "stick a parrot on my shoulder and call me Jack" pirate-looking mooks I now see infesting that ship.
Hmm...
Well, I guess I'm a bit stuck, then. Unless they do something to give me legal reason to send redshirts onto their ship...
When you arrive at work the next night, Sherlock says, "Well, we have what might be a development. About an hour ago, three men disembarked from The Apple Blossom, one of them thought to be the captain. One of the men followed them, the other doubling back here to report, asking the harbormaster to keep a watch on the ship briefly in case someone else left it. I'm assuming no one did because I sent Rob back to the dock and have not received another report. Thing is, we have no idea where Michael went, so we don't know what's happening."
--M. J. Young
"With your permission, I'll head down to the dock, and see if I can get anywhere. If anyone has news, I'll be back as quickly as possible and find out here."
If he agrees, I'll head down to the docks and try to get my Bloodhound Olfaction going again. This time I'd like to try an overdriven mode like I do with my night vision: focus for a full minute on getting it going. I don't much care about increasing the duration, I just want to take my time shifting my perception in order to make the shift itself more reliable, even if it doesn't last much longer. An hour is enough time for a scent trail to get a bit weaker, but I might be able to pick out Michael's scent if he's someone I've worked with before.
If he does not agree, I'll sit tight here at the station and wait for anything more to blow in.
"Hey, I'm going home; you're in charge of the investigation now."
For your one minute of concentration, are you closing your eyes or holding your breath?
You pick up Michael's scent, and begin to follow it.
In about fifteen minutes you spot him, just as your nose is returning to normal (along with your other senses, which had been reduced). He is watching a dark saloon. He sees you approach.
"Blimey, you're good. How did you find me?"
--M. J. Young
Closing my eyes and breathing deep and rhythmic.
I follow.
When he asks, I tap the side of my nose and give him a grin, as though teasing him about sniffing him out.
"What did you find?"
"They went into that pub, sir. The place is closed, and I did not think it wise to follow, particularly as I didn't know what it was about and couldn't get backup without alerting them to my presence. Unless they slipped out the back, they're still in there.
"It was three of them, one was the captain.
"So, any idea what this is about?"
--M. J. Young
"None, but it's the first move we've seen them make since the murder. If they were involved, it could be important.
We need to drum up some backup, and you were right not to use your whistle to do it. Stay here and watch for any sign of them. I'm going to see if I can find anyone else. I'll meet you back here as quickly as I'm able."
If I can see any of them through the tavern windows without being obvious about it, I'll attempt a Read Surface Thoughts on them.
If not, I will slip off to try to find more redshirts, starting with this corner and walking in a widening circle until I spot someone, then flag them down. By hand. No whistles.
The tavern windows are all shuttered and the downstairs appears dark. There is some light from a second floor window.
It takes you more than half an hour to track down a redshirt, and he's not from your office but of course he recognizes your braid. He asks how he can help. He also offers to head back to the local office to get more help there.
--M. J. Young
I'll ask him to do that - go to my office and summon help. Again, no whistles until he's far enough away not to disturb the tavern.
Once that's done, I'll go back to Michael at the tavern and see if he has seen anything new.
Actually, he was going to go to the local office for help. It makes more sense for the local branch to give you support than for you to move your people from across town.
In half an hour, you've got five more redshirts (in addition to your own two) and another junior investigator from the local office. He's hoping you'll brief him on this, and he has heard something of the murders in the inn across town (and does not envy you having caught that case), but he's following your lead on this.
--M. J. Young
Help from the local office is fine. I forgot the docks are halfway across town from my office.
I will brief my fellow junior investigator, including what I got from Michael, giving him credit, as we head back to staking out the tavern.
I will send one redshirt around back. If they try to sneak out, and it is obvious they are sneaking, he is to follow them.
I will send one redshirt around the side. If the first one sees anything, this one is his relay to me at Michael's stakeout spot across the street.
I will send two redshirts down to the docks, one to watch the ship itself (do I still have a redshirt doing that? If so, then this one I will keep), and one to alert the customs master that that ship crew we were suspicious about is up to something.
If I have one redshirt left, I will keep her with me.
If I have two redshirts left, I will keep one and have the other relay word to my office about all of this and then join the very first redshirt in minding the back of the tavern.
Are any of these guys not in uniform? If we caught an off-duty redshirt out of colors, I wouldn't mind sending him into the tavern in order to get the feel of the place in a nonchalant, undercover sort of way.