The Broken Road: Session Two
Oct. 3rd, 2011 12:04 amDramatis Personae
Previously, on The Broken Road...
Session Two
In the morning, Eustacious and his manservant are gone. Eustacious has left behind a rambling letter stating that he was unavoidably detained, but sharing some pompous, biased, but surprisingly shrewd deductions about the murder investigation Ensign Richgrave sends Vitenthia to find, assist, and retrieve him before they move on to the next Barony, and sets Anthia, Justika, and Adrastus to focus on the investigation of horsetheft and murder.
Because Andrastus' triaged shortlist gives two suspects, but both are elsewhere (location unknown) and cannot be questioned, they try a different tactic. Both their own reasoning and Eustacious' suggest that the horsetheft and murder may have different perpetrators. Investigating the people whose horses were stolen, they find one – Taskent Drakesbury – whose elder brother Taspiron is on their suspect list for a suspicious social absence the night of the murder. Interrogating Taskent, they find his brother was allegedly wyvern-hunting with friends – a pastime explicitly forbidden by their father the Baron – and so Taspiron discovered his horse missing, borrowed his brother's, and sent his brother to report the teft. Furthermore, one of the brother's close friends has been previously acquitted of blood magic – four times.
Investigating this friend, Lord Darivell Stargaze, on suspicion of having murdered the groom to punish a theft, they receive massive support from the municipal guards, frustrated with prior failures to convict. They discover hidden areas in his laboratory, suspicious materials, exsanguinated animals, illegal texts in trapped safes – ample proof of blood magic, but no connection to their murder. Stargaze comes peacefully for arrest, but asks the names of his arresting officers – among his legal rights, but also something which makes it easier to target a curse. Anthia lies about her name. The Brigadier of the Guard congratulates them, and, no closer to a solution, they ride to the next barony, constrained by schedule.
Character highlights: Adrastus repeatedly found excuses to search alone, as he was using transformative magic to heighten his senses. Justike discovered this at least once, but pointedly ignored it. Anthia lying about her name while Justika told the truth was also a nice touch.