Exit Wounds

Log Info

• Title: Exit Wounds
• Emitter: Delilah
• Characters: Ashes, Elyanna
• Place: A16: Nobility District, An Alleyway
• Time: Thursday, October 22, 2020, 11:25 PM
• Summary: Ashes and Elyanna return to the scene of the murder. They examine where Bethany was found from a variety of positions. A nearby balcony is a possible, but difficult shot. Elyanna uses some magic to mark the exit woundson Ash, they will only align if she's lying on the ground. Ash uses dowels and some ray cantrips to path the bullets. They could only have come from directly above Bethany. There are sufficient hiding spots in the alley someone could have been waiting. Questioning both the nightclub owner and the Iron Kitchen's staff determines the timeline was tight, and no one was lingering overly long. No poison is found, but the pair still suspect it or a hold person as a good way to render Bethany unconscious. Dinner is had and some signs are put up. The rooftops were investigated also, there were no leads there.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--<* A16: Nobility District *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The Noble District contains the vast majority of the government offices, guild headquarters, noble headquarters and political functions of the city. All the splendor of technology, eclectic energy and bustling of the city-state of Alexandria flow outwards from the towering structures of this district. The very air here thrums with importance. The architecture is pompous and enourmous, consisting of mutli-leveled edifices and great justting towers. Buildings seem to grow out of the very mountains, and hanging gardens and mana lamps are strewn about. Everything is insular, self-contained and aiming upwards, reaching for the freedom of the sky but grasping only the hubris of the self-important. The grand towers stretch heavenwards, compensating for the lack of leadership. High in the skies above, activity of all sorts is a constant, with ships small and large moving towards Skygates, and Griffon Riders flitting from perch to perch.

The fortress-castle, Castellum Alexandrae, is here. Ever eastward and the focus of much of the foot and flying traffic. The nobility is concerned over their lost leader and focus their efforts on restoring him to his throne. The rest of the city is left in the hands of the idealistic and corrupt guards and the mercenary adventurers they hire when things get too tough.

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The alleyway between the Iron Kitchen and the Gilded Seahorse; an alleyway, much like any other in town, aside from the fact that a noblewoman's life recently ended here. Not that you'd really know it, unless you were looking. There's a few discolored cobblestones, a couple of which has holes in them; but other than that, any sign of there having been an act of supreme and malign violence taking place here is gone, and only thw two buildings stand silent witness.

Of course, if you want to get a different vantage point, there are options. Conveniently, there's a wooden ladder that runs all the way up the side of the Iron Chef, with access to a balcony partway up (thought it looks like the balcony is really only used for storage, with a couple of locked crates sitting on it).

An ashen Arvec stands in the alleyway, checking the holes in the flagstones again, just to reassure herself of her memory of them. Next, she focuses on the ladder, tilting her head to examine the balcony, "Let's check the roof, and that. Do you want to climb up and I'll stand where her body is. Do you have an eye for attack angles?"

Elyanna, her eyes sweeping about on the way, and further still as they stand over the murder spot, nods to Ashe's question, "To a degree... it wasn't a focus of my old duties." she notes in more comfortable Goblin-talk. That said, the halfbreed starts to make her way up the ladder to try and help her comrade with her angle of this investigation.

Ash moves over to where Bethany was shot. She stares at the ground, then lies down so she's covering the holes. She stares up at the sky. This was likely the woman's last view, before a bullet went through her brain. The ground is cool against her back, a death here makes it even more like a grave. "I'm sorry I can't help you much. Feiu of the Tears, keep her safe."

She might have been a right noble, but she didn't deserve to die in an alleyway. The mourner stares, seeing what is visible from her prone position.

"You helped with Donna." the red woman replies, still in Goblin, "Thank you." As she finally crests the roof, she gives it a quick lookover for signs of anything that shouldn't be there. unlikely given the tineframe between then and now, but, worth a try. She takes the black whip from her belt and coils it around her forearm a number of times, holding the handle out from her thumb and crooked index finger, in her closest approximation of a Dragonspitter and starts to try and line it up on Ashes.

There isn't really much of a view for Ashes; it's just buildings on either side, that are three stories each, and a thing sliver of sky that's currently dark and cloudy. The alleyway isn't really well lit, either; there's a bit of light from the small windows to the Iron Chef's Kitchen (the type that are designed to make you feel like you can see outside without actually letting you see) but not a great deal.

From her vantage point above, Elyanna can definitely see Ashes, even in the dark; but lining up a shot with a dragonspitter would be hard. A longbow or a rifle might be more possible, properly sighted, but the range would make a shot like this... rather more difficult.

Ash does her best body impersonation, which is exceptional. She lies still, collapsed like a corpse. Her familiar, a centipede, crawls out of her collar then through her hair. If he does it just right, Chippen can make it look like he's coming out of her ear. Such is how this arvek nar amuses herself while waiting.

Still, her attention is on what she can see. Which isn't much. "Any signs of disturbance up there? How does the angle relate to the holes in the ground. Should I set some sticks?"

Elyanna purses her lips with a low growl, "I don't think this was done up here. Not with a shortarm, anyway." She scans the alley a little more, perhaps for another clue that might have been missed from the ground, then, with a shake of her head, starts to descend, still holding her placebo pistol.

She considers the prone Arvek a moment or two, then, "Roll to your left side a second."

Ash does as requested.

Elyanna hmm's, "I'm gonna use magic, it will mark you and your clothing for a little while." as a courtesy, and holds up her empty hand, begining to whistle a little diddy as her fingers go to work, the magic should put bright red spots the diameter of the holes in the cobblestones roughly where they correspond to Ashes's body as 'exit wounds.'

"Okay." Ashlee says, watching the procedure and magic, "I have an idea, when you're done. What do I do?" She waits for further instructions.

Elyanna offers her hand, "I've put spots on your back, where it would line up with the divots in the ground. As well a size match as I can manage." She braces her weight to assist her comrade to her feet, "Tell me, what you remeber of the exit wounds, where were they? how large?" Ash holds out a hand, her bone tattoos showing, and is pulled to her feet. She touches her shoulder first, "One here," then the back of her head, "The other here. Entrances wounds, eye and stomach." She turns around to make it easier for Elyanna to examine her evidence.

Once that is done, she demonstrates hers idea. She places two thin dowels into the holes, so that they are aligned with the direction the bullets penetrated. Next, she casts a quick cantrip and aligns her hand so she fires a Ray along the dowel. Ray of Frost, Ray of Enfeeblement, it's irrelevant. She's doing it to extend the trajectory. If there is something to be found, it will be somewhere along or at the end of the ray. She fires the rays a few times, to get a consistent result. "Bullets move in straight lines. In a body, they could deflect off bones. The exit wounds seemed right."

One ray goes straight up, it corresponds to the shot through Bethany's eye. The other goes straight up into the wall of the Iron Chef. Nowhere near the balcony or ladder. This was the bullet that deflected off her spine, so it wouldn't have gone into the ground straight down.

"I misremembered, one was angled." Ash says.

The spots on the arvek nar's back line up with the spots on the ground where she was laying. This is conclusive. Bethany was prone, lying down for both shots. There was no way they could have been done while she was standing or collapsing.

Elyanna hrm's softly, "Alright. The placement makes sense if she was prone when she was shot." she says quietly, looking up to the path of the Ashen one's bolts before waving her hand to dismiss the magic's effect on Ashlee, "What do you make of this?"

"Hold Person, perhaps. Something in her drink to make her faint." Ashlee speculates, "That way she would be unconscious. Wouldn't see her murderer, even if her eyes were open. There's nothing above. We're only going to find something on the rooftops if someone feather-falled down. That seems excessive. This alley has plenty of hiding places."

To demonstrate, the ashen Arvec takes up one near the Gilded Seahorse's alley exit. "Here." She looks around, moves to another location, "Here is a good spot too. She might have been out for the Magic Missile's too. This was staged. There aren't a lot of options, this must be the crime scene. Unless there is a gap, from when she stepped out for air, and the shots."

GAME: Ashes rolls stealth+3: (16)+11+3: 30

Ashes demonstrates how to hide effectively.

Elyanna spends a few moments unwinding her arm to recoil the whip at her belt. THere's a soft 'hmmmm', and, "How does a Hold Person spell work? Would it prevent her seeing anything, or simply keep her from moving?"

"Oh, it's paralytic. She would still be able to see. She wouldn't be able to move her eyes." Ashlee explains. "Just as she blinked, they would stay closed. Hard timing. Could flash a light, she'd likely blink, then hope."

"They didn't want an autopsy. That suggests something that an autopsy would turn up, was used. Or, we'd find evidence she was dead before she was shot. Or something. There are ways to make a fake corpse, but Merek's spell rules those out. It was her."

"That's why I think there was some poison involved." Ash adds.

"I agree." Elyanna replies thoughtfully, "The mess was contained, but perhaps too much so. The magic I just used, perhaps was used to alter the blood spray." There is a shake to her head and, "I have a thought. Perhaps one better suited to the more personable among our number. Verify from the family ourselves that they wish no autopsy."

The ashen arvec nods, "I think they don't, but it is worth checking. I have no doubt the guards suggested it."

She looks over at the ladder, then upwards, "We should still check the rooftops, in case there is a signed confession and a signet ring up there. The Silverguard would never forgive us if there was. Do you want to climb up, or should I?"

Elyanna nods, "Perhaps you're right." she replies distantly, then refocuses on the now with the rest of the Mourner's question, "Let's both see, so we're certain we didn't miss anything."

"Ok." Ash heads over to the ladder and climbs. She's careful, climbing and acrobatics are not amongst her skills. Three stories is a bit high. Odd, to have some vertigo without a fear of death. Falling wouldn't be that much fun. She makes her way up, and looks around to see what she can see.

There is in fact, no signed confession with a signet ring up on the roof. There's nothing on the roof that wouldn't be expected to be foundd there."

Elyanna climbs up after, looking about to see if anyone's looking around to make sure and double down on their investigative efforts. She utters another growl after a time, then, "I don't see anything, here, either."

Ashlee nods, exhaling, pulling her jacket a little tighter. The residents are getting squirmy from the chill. "Let's go back down, get some of the Iron Chef's rice pilaf, maybe a strudel, see if Zoey is still avoiding me."

One last look around, in case there's a guard watching, some standout thing that might be a clue. "I'm not sure we've learned anything new, and the nightclub owner isn't likely to be that talkative, not as much as to the others."

She climbs down.

Elyanna gives a final scan and nods in concession to the point, "You're probably right." With that, she too descends the ladder, "But we'd better be certain, either way."

Still determined, the pair of investigators go into the Gilded Seahorse and seek out the owner. He's busy but spares a few moments to give them a rough time when Bethany stepped out. They get a quick look around, but don't find any poisoned glasses, none of the girls got unexpectedly sick. None of the bottles appear to have had their contents adulterated.

Discouraged, they head over to the Iron Chef. Chef confirms the timeline, Bethany's exit and the shots line up fairly well. They order some Rice Pilaf. While they eat, further questions are asked. Did anyone hang around for hours earlier in the evening, why were they open so late, do they run all night? Did anyone order take-out, were any guards hanging around.

Both the Iron Kitchen and the Club stay open quite late. Usually the Iron Kitchen cuts off the bar at 3am, they serve booze there afterall and the club pretty much goes until the nobles call it a night. So, sometimes they just don't close. Neither Zoey nor the Chef is able to identify anyone notable as having been there. Desciptions of Greaves, Norrington and Godswin out of their uniforms are pretty generic. Human male, human female, half-elf male, hair and faces forgettable, average when they're out of their guard armour. Nothing the pair describes jogs any memory, though Chef and Zoey recall all three of them were there the day after and weren't the night before.

Ashlee takes out some parchment, and makes a few signs. They are straightforward. 'If you saw the murder in the alleyway five nights ago, contact Silverguard Seldan at the Temple of Eluna. Huge reward, discretion guaranteed. Offer good for only 14 hours'

Elyanna continues questioning. She quizzes Chef about the gunshots, how far apart they were. The Golem definitely remembers the gunshots, and although he'd rather talk about the merits of pork loin. They didn't really time it, but they both say a few seconds. He is also willing to show up as a witness. He's surprised she asks, since the guards already have. He and Zoey have been updated on the change of date for the Trial. The guards themselves aren't known to frequent the Iron Chef.

Ash gets a strudel and goes outside to put up signs.