Remove ads

The Great Modron March

"Alright then, certainly beats going back empty-handed." Tirnel says as she follows the tottering figure, humming cheerily.
 
The barmy turns a corner before the party can reach him, disappearing into a dark alley. They can still hear him, of course, chanting his odd list of names at the top of his lungs-

-he suddenly shrieks, "No! Get away from me! The flies-" And then he grunts, and the street is silent.
 
Choo Choo said:
The barmy turns a corner before the party can reach him, disappearing into a dark alley. They can still hear him, of course, chanting his odd list of names at the top of his lungs-

-he suddenly shrieks, "No! Get away from me! The flies-" And then he grunts, and the street is silent.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Oh- hells!" Lelista sprints after the noise, trying to catch the killer in the act as she draws her rapier. You know, a body with a mind to not end up getting boxed probably shouldn't be running right towards that sort of noise. Must be boring.
 
Haul, excited to be doing as he is told, rushes into the alley after the hopefully-not-but-probably-dead barmy.
 
Tirnel takes off after her companions into the alley. It's probably already too late for the poor man, but there's always a chance...
 
The dancing man lies facedown in the gutter, still and pale. A quick check reveals him to be dead, as expected. The party can't find any mark on him, however.

A group of six ragged men approaching from the other end of the alley, dressed in the discarded and worn clothes of wealthier folk. Their tattered clothes are somber black, and they carry themselves with a strange charade of dignity. Kurmyt and Lelista recognize them as Collectors, that sad group of bodies that make their meager living collecting bodies from the streets of the Hive and delivering them to the Dustmen for a pittance.

"Hey, cutters," one of them calls as he notices the party, suddenly wary as he eyes their many weapons. They are standing around a recently dead person. "We... we don't want any trouble, aight? We just heard the barkle and figured, hey, lots of dead barmies recently, good business-" He laughs nervously and stops well away from them. "We uh, we didn't see you. Right, lads?" An anxious chorus echoes him.
 
Choo Choo said:
"Hey, cutters," one of them calls as he notices the party, suddenly wary as he eyes their many weapons. They are standing around a recently dead person. "We... we don't want any trouble, aight? We just heard the barkle and figured, hey, lots of dead barmies recently, good business-" He laughs nervously and stops well away from them. "We uh, we didn't see you. Right, lads?" An anxious chorus echoes him.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lelista narrows her eyes at the approaching collectors. "...You're right. You didn't. Come back in five, and the deader's all yours."

Not paying them mind (they're obviously too scared to mess with them- and she has an inkling that the biter's got an eye on them anyway) she goes about searching the poor barmy sod for clues. Naught but some mice and rotten cheese. The... list might have value, you never know. The rock is probably just a rock, but clues are clues. Just as well for their scarcity- not a single trace of the attacker, or their exit. A door? Her tail switches from side to side behind her as she thinks. How would they know when to use it? They got around that corner fast. Magic, then? But who would use magic from so far away to kill random barmies? Are they random? It's not like they could be-

She pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "...Sod it, nothing more than rotten cheese, a couple mice, and a list of names. It's probably nonsense, but you never know."
 
"I am sorry I was not fast enough to save this squishy," Haul's shoulders start to slump, but he catches himself before he might inadvertently dump Kurmyt on the ground, "or to see what happened to him."

Not that he particularly cares about the dead barmy, but being fast is one of maybe three or four things Haul knows he is good at.
 
Gadjo said:
She pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration. "...Sod it, nothing more than rotten cheese, a couple mice, and a list of names. It's probably nonsense, but you never know."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"A list?" Tirnel rushes to Lelista's side, looking determined, and snatches the paper from the tiefling's hands. "Now what could you possibly be..." She peers at the paper intently. "Perhaps members of a faction he was in, or prior victims... could be a code message? He didn't look like he was involved in something serious, but looks can be deceiving... and it's always possible, even likely, that our assassin isn't picking out targets as randomly as it appears." She frowns. "Or it could've been planted on him, to throw us off? No, too complicated. Whatever it is, it's the best lead we have right now." She turns to the others with a flourish, holding the paper in the air. "What do you think?"
 
Placing a consoling hand on Haul's head, Kurmyt snaps to attention as soon as he sees the slip of paper. He pushes off the metal man's dome and vaults over his shoulder, slithering to Lelista and Tirnel.

"Let me see that," he snaps, before yanking on Tirnel's sleeve to get himself a better look.

"Baphomet, Pazrael, Fraz Urblu, Juiblex, Laogzed, Zuggtmoy...these are all Demon Lords! The lunatic was spouting these names just before he died, so it obviously wasn't a plant."

Letting go of his associate, Kurmyt squints at the corpse. "If his last words were merely the ravings of a madman, why was he carrying a script?" He scowls. "Of course, assuming this has anything to do with his death is purely wishful thinking. And he didn't bother to give us any damned context beyond having 'seen' something. And flies..."

Struck by a thought, Kurmyt eyes Lelista and Tirnel.
@Gadjo @aeqnai
"The Collectors are aware of the upsurge in corpses, as well as the fact that all the deceased were insane. One of you sociable types should go and ask them just how much more they know about these killings. They may even be able to tell us if these demonic names mean anything."
 
NormalSightMan said:
Placing a consoling hand on Haul's head, Kurmyt snaps to attention as soon as he sees the slip of paper. He pushes off the metal man's dome and vaults over his shoulder, slithering to Lelista and Tirnel.

"Let me see that," he snaps, before yanking on Tirnel's sleeve to get himself a better look.

"Baphomet, Pazrael, Fraz Urblu, Juiblex, Laogzed, Zuggtmoy...these are all Demon Lords! The lunatic was spouting these names just before he died, so it obviously wasn't a plant."

Letting go of his associate, Kurmyt squints at the corpse. "If his last words were merely the ravings of a madman, why was he carrying a script?" He scowls. "Of course, assuming this has anything to do with his death is purely wishful thinking. And he didn't bother to give us any damned context beyond having 'seen' something. And flies..."

Struck by a thought, Kurmyt eyes Lelista and Tirnel.
@Gadjo @aeqnai
"The Collectors are aware of the upsurge in corpses, as well as the fact that all the deceased were insane. One of you sociable types should go and ask them just how much more they know about these killings. They may even be able to tell us if these demonic names mean anything."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Lelista shrugs. "Not much to go on, but nothing else to try at this point." She stands up, dusting off her cloak, and moves back towards the collectors. "Oi! You lot- you're collectors, you'd know- you've noticed all the extra corpses around, the barmy ones, no wounds? You seen anything suspicious tied into all that? This one was listing off the names of tanar'ri lords, for some reason- did the others do anything like that?"
 
"Uh..." The Collectors shy away from Lelista. "Can't tell ye much, cutter. All the barmies look- well, real peaceful, actually. No wounds or nothing, not on any of 'em. Almost like they're sleeping." The lead Collector looks at the corpse. "Dunno anything about demon lords. They're all different flavors of nuts, you know?"
 
Lelista's shoulders slump at that, her tail hanging somewhat limply out of the bottom of her cloak- this was kind of their last lead after all. "...Alright. We're done here, you lot can take 'im." Lelista walks back to her compatriots, defeated. "I think we're beat, yeah? Let's go back and deliver the bad news."
 
When the party returns to Gedramak, they find the dwarf pacing, muttering up a storm to himself. He stops when he sees them, words tumbling out over themselves. He's clearly agitated. "The Doomguard got to Elijah," he says. "One of our cutters saw Elijah in the Black Sail, a tavern down in the Lower Ward. He was in their colors. Guess he wasn't so barmy after all."
 
Last edited:
"I am sorry to report that Elijah is dead." Haul's rumbling basso voice contains an undercurrent of nervousness. "The Dust-squishies say that he died last week." Which means they could not have found Elijah at all, but the young Warforged isn't sure if that exempts them from the consequences of a failed mission or not. "Someone has been killing barmy squishies." Which Elijah apparently was not one of? How strange. Why was he killed then? Was he not like that before? "We think they killed Elijah, but we do not know why or who they are. The Bleak Cabal wants the killer found, but I do not want to go back there to talk to them again."

His after-action report given, Haul stands at attention and awaits further orders.
 
"The golem-kin speaks the truth," Kurmyt says, "which makes your report all the more puzzling, Mr. Stonefist. When did your agent see Elijah in the Black Sail? If the sighting was this week, why does Death-of-Names seem to think the man is dead? And if your agent saw Elijah last week, how the blazes did it take them this long to report?"

Kurmyt blinks as if struck by something, then his face twists into a scowl.

"And what did you even hire us for, if you already had other agents on Elijah's trail? They seem to have things well in hand on their end!"
 
Lelista follows the conversation from speaker to speaker, similarly confused. "Yeah... Yeah, what did you expect us to find, anyway? Your friend was dead before you even hired us. I don't even see what you get out of it." She scowls a little. What was all that investigating for, even? Obviously they got peeled, but why?
 
Gedramak blinks, taken aback. "What? Elijah is dead?! But if he was just seen-"

He blinks again. "Now wait a minute here and settle down. First of all, I did not send any other agents out after Elijah, you berks, other than giving his description to all my eyes and ears. Someone on a completely different assignment just happened to see him." He frowns at Kurmyt. "I got the report about Elijah being seen in the Black Sail not even an hour ago, so if you've found that he's dead, that's something real dark going on."
 
"Dark, you say?" Kurmyt raises a scaly eyebrow. "It's certainly either a conspiracy or a series of extremely irritating coincidences; I'll give you that much."

Scrabbling up a bar stool, Kurmyt lays his invoice on the table face-down, produces a pen and ink, and scribbles "CASE FILE" at the header.

"Elijah is dead, that much is certain. Ish. Your contact seeing him at the Black Sail means he is either alive and the Dustmen made a grave clerical error, or someone has stolen his identity. While the latter is more likely, I cannot rule out the former. That serial killer Haul mentioned—we witnessed their handiwork. No wounds, no trauma; just a corpse that looked as though asleep.

"Now, while it is irresponsible to say that this serial killer is the one who murdered Elijah, I think it is worth investigating whether these murders have anything to do with the Doomguard. More pertinent, however, is why someone in the Doomguard would want to impersonate Elijah—or conversely, why someone impersonating Elijah would want to associate with the Doomguard. Chicken and the egg and all that."
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top