D&D is For Nerds - Fall from Grace: The City #1 A Mysterious Murder

Episode Date: September 5, 2020

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Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. Enjoy the episode, cowboy. Cowboy. Pow. Enjoy the episode, cowboy. Cowboy. Once, many years ago, when the sun still shone brightly, there lived a brave and cunning adventurer named Sir Jordan Grace. Having just saved the town of Ampwick from the great and terrible Necro Wizard, he decided to celebrate with his good friends and companions.

But, unbeknownst to him, something terrible was awakening deep beneath the earth, and his time in Ampwick was far from over. Welcome to Episode 1 of Fall From Grace, part two, The City. Previously. You do a pretty good job of keeping ahead of it. You actually maybe even need to slow yourself down so that it can keep up and it won't lose you. Come back, food! It collapses backwards into the pit.

Oh, thank God. Due to the fire damage, the fall damage, and the spike damage, the ogre is immediately and outright killed. I stand up or, you know, get back into a normal position. Well done. Well done, everyone. In the middle of a copse of trees,

a copse of dead gnarled trees, you can see a thatched building. It looks like a hovel more than anything else. Her mouth is open in silent scream, but she has no air to make any sound. Mally's tongue explodes. Oh no. Mally's eyes pop, pop,

pop out of her head. Oh my god. Mally's chest is crushed completely. Then I would like to like leap off the anise hag, back up, load it into my bow, and fire it at her. I'll allow it.

Cool. Everyone kind of in town knew this was do or die. So when you return, there's actually quite a lot of people out of their houses and waiting for you. There's a tremendous cheering. It's awful what happened in Maui. Yeah. Terrible, terrible.

But I'm not going to pretend like... I'm not... I would never have considered myself someone who would lie toi. Yeah. Terrible, terrible. But I'm not going to pretend like... I'm not... I would never have considered myself someone who would lie to themselves. No. And I would be lying if I said that it wasn't exhilarating. You would have to be...

Yeah, the world's greatest liar to say that in a way it doesn't feel good. So, Grace? Yes? You find yourself sitting at a table laughing and drinking with your three companions. You're in the Axe of Lightning, a fanciful commoner's inn built within what was once an aristocrat's manor. It's a fancy looking place. That's great.

It's been converted, though, quite handily. Oh, that's so good. So, sitting around you are... Sorry, let me start with you. Please. You are Sir Grace the Chivalrous, veteran of the Mondale Madhouse and saviour of Sheabrook. Oh, Adam.

Sitting to your side, immediately to your left, is Thudu the Bold, also veteran of the Mondale Madhouse and friend to the poor. Across the table from you is Zinwilin, a powerful arcane wizard, honoured among elves, slayer of orcs, and the only and last known seeker of Orm. Then, to your right, is a giant Then, to your right, is a giant mountain of a man. Sir Richard the Owl Bear Armed Ware. Hell yes. Knight of the Realm in Great Esteem, he who slew the vile dragon Torkelson.

Well. You are collectively known by many different names. Some know you as the Mage Bane. some know you as the mage bane some know you as grace's companions and some know you as the light of the king you are here in ampwick after a few days ago you as a group slew the vile necro wizard, Waiter Norton. You fought alongside the defenders of Green Iron, an order dedicated to protecting the Ironwood Forest. You are in what was once known as the Realm of Blue Beach, a semi-autonomous state underneath Kandor.

Although recently it is celebrating its proper union with the nation of candle. Oh, great. Wonderful. You are, for the first time ever, or you are among the first ever knights here in Blue Beach. And people are treating you like royalty. I was going to say, I assume all of the alcohol and food has been complimentary. Oh, yes. And we have partaken greatly.

You are drinking heavily. Specifically within Blue Beach, like I said, you are in the city of Ampwick, which is maybe Blue Beach's second largest city. Cool. It's home to about just shy of 10,000 people. So it's quite large. Cool. It's bustling.

Bit of a metropolis. There's different sections and quarters to the city the city is divided into three major sections the first section is the surrounding woodlands and farms around there then there's the first inner ring of the city which is where most of the markets and the majority of the people live and then finally there's kind of the markets and the majority of the people live. And then finally, there's kind of the city center where the nicest of people get to stay. Yeah, great, great. Is that where we are? No, you would be in an area called the Armorer's Village.

Okay, yeah, yeah. Which is kind of in the southeast-ish of the city. Cool. You're enjoying, like I said, drink and food, compliments of the house. Yeah. You are heroes, celebrated heroes right now. The necro wizard Norton was threatening this town and many other smaller settlements in the area with his army of the dead.

Hell yeah. Thanks to you, he has been slain. And the people here are justifiably grateful. Are there any, like, kids around? Like, is it the kind of, I would like to bend down he has been slain. And the people here are justifiably grateful. Are there any like kids around? Like, is it the kind of, I would like to bend down and offer my spear for some kids to play with and say,

you think the acts of lightning has never been busier. It is packed shoulder to shoulder and everyone wants to meet you. Right. You can absolutely offer your spear. Yeah. I'd like to just like get down on one knee in front of some kids and be like, see this spear? This spear has a name.

Can you guess its name? They, maybe one of the children, a young dwarf, traces his finger along an elaborate curling script saying the word cinder and he mouths the word out, cinder. Do you know why it's named cinder? The dwarf child shakes his head. Well, I am Jordan Grace, Sir Jordan Grace of House Grace. And my ancestor also went by the name of Cinder, Cinder Grace. I would like to be telling the story in a way where I'm hoping people will surround me to listen in.

Oh, people absolutely are. You can hear, though, Thudu the Bold set her tankard down in front of her and you can almost hear her rolling her eyes she's heard this tale a great many times now she wasn't nobility when it all began she was just a simple peasant woman in a in a town besieged by a foreign enemy but she knew something had to be done she like everybody from Grace, we just don't take it lying down. So she did what she had to do. And she called upon a fairy, a very wise and powerful fairy. And the fairy, because Cinder Grace at the time, she was just a simple peasant woman.

There was no way she could get into the castle without looking like nobility. just a simple peasant woman. There was no way she could get into the castle without looking like nobility. So the fairy granted her her wish and gave her a beautiful gown, a beautiful dress, and beautiful glass slippers. All right.

Have I inspired the people enough that there is silence in the tavern? You tell the story. The story itself is maybe like very, it's very elaborate. So the people here are struggling to kind of follow the links. But you are a powerful enough figure. Actually, you know what?

I'm going to give you advantage on this check. The people here love you. The story itself, sorry, the person telling the story is so engaging to these people that they are enthralled. A hush falls over the tavern. Once she made her way into the castle, her glass slippers on her feet, her beautiful gown and her dress, she entered the ball that was being held.

She walked her way right up to the leader of this foreign army, and she introduced herself. My name is Cinder Grace, she said. Oh, what a beautiful woman, said the leader of this foreign army. And so the two danced and they danced and they danced and they danced until midnight fell upon them and they had been dancing the whole night through it was at that moment and nothing makes me prouder that cinder grace brought her glass slipper off her foot smashed it into the floor and used the glass of it to slit the throat

of the foreign general at that moment well without the general the rest of it to slit the throat of the foreign general. At that moment, well, without the general, the rest of the army fled. The people issued hushed gasps. And slowly but surely, Grace and people like her and her eventual family came to take over the town. And that is why, and I would like to reach into my coat and pull out my, at this point, well-worn journal of adventures with a glass slipper on the front. That is why the slipper is the sigil for House Grace. Thank you.

Thank you. There's cries for another story. People are hollering out for it. And maybe you're like, the tale took a bit out. Yeah. So as you sit back down, you see, or you don't see, you feel Sir Richard Ware push past you and say, I've got a tale to tell. Everybody, where's got a tale to tell?

He'll entertain you for a moment. People laugh and cry and cheer as he tells the tale of how he tore Torkelson's head to clean off the black dragon's neck. Get a good boy, Kyle. I'm assuming I've heard this story from where before. This is his equivalent of your story. Yeah, sure. He's told this story literally to anyone who will listen. Yeah.

While you're sitting there, you can tell that Zinwilin is engrossed in her book. This is very typical of her. She's a sage through and through. She is very, very studious and is pretty much always reading something new. Whenever someone approaches her, though, she will always politely engage them in conversation. Although a lot of people feel as if she is almost unapproachable. So very few people do talk to her. Thudu is also being loud and rowdy, but is not.

Her loud and rowdiness is more drunken than boastful. Zin, if you, you know, you don't have to be here. If you want to go upstairs somewhere out of the noise, that'd totally be understandable. Zinwilin peers at you over her spectacles and says, no, I prefer the noise. Well, all right then. I'd like to cheers if she's got a glass. Even anywhere.

A fine tapered glass of elven wine. Which you demolish. Zin, I'm sorry. I've had a bit to drink. The elven wine spills over her book And now she does look a little Oh I'm so sorry Zyn I'm sorry I was just getting caught up in the revelry Perhaps I shall go to the

To retire to bed She closes the book, gets up and leaves I'd like to nudge Thuddu Do you see what I just accidentally did? Thuddu is trying not to laugh but nods The second she's out of earshot Or the second Sir Richard Ware thinks She's out of earshot or the second Sir Richard Ware thinks she's out of earshot he loudly

boasts she's like that. I don't even know what that. Alright. Alright Ware. Sure. For sure. Alright. So you have a night of drunken revelry with these people. They listen to maybe a great deal, many stories of your exploits about.

And eventually you notice that the night gets very late and people begin to taper off and taper off and taper off until it's maybe just like the really dedicated and the regulars. Is there like a roaring fireplace? Yeah, absolutely. I'd like to retire to that with a cigars a thing uh you could have a pipe oh yes i'll retire to the fireplace with a pipe and puff on it and maybe like a small glass of brandy or something i would say so richard is probably still chatting and speaking loudly he literally will not if you let him talk he will tell the story of killing that dragon again and again and again he has other stories but that's definitely his favorite i imagine that both the dragon story the founding of house grace and the story about

killing the necro wizard have happened like five times throughout the night so richard where seems to be trying out that story of killing the necro wizard, seeing as if he- He's feeling it out. Does he have a new favorite story? Thudu is sitting with you. The fireplace has like a big metal flue over it because it's an open, it's not up against the wall.

It's kind of in the middle of things. So it's got a big open flue to catch all of the smoke she's leaning up against that and has like a one of her gauntleted hands on it she doesn't seem too troubled by the heat but the fire seems to be it's kind of like mostly coal and embers at this point how long do you reckon we'll be staying here i say to her doodoo turns around and she says i'm not sure. I would say at least a couple days. Yeah. We're not needed anywhere specifically anytime soon. Might be nice to explore the place without, you know,

the necro wizard breathing down our necks. Of course, of course. Get to properly have a look around, yeah. Yes, it'd be nice to enjoy a city without having to worry about a vampire. That would be something else. I don't think we'll ever be that lucky, Thudo. Oh, man.

Do I continue to puff my pipe? Eventually, the night becomes too late even for you, and everyone begins to retire, even Ware at this point has reached the end of his table. He gets up, you bid goodnight to everyone, and then you each retire to your individual rooms. Fantastic. No matter where you go, all four of you must have individual rooms.

That's the rule. It just greases the wheels. Yeah, look, absolutely. Like any adventuring party we've learned to know each other and know each other's boundaries and i also imagine that no matter how individual the room really no matter where we're sleeping we can hear the what i have to assume a horrendous snores of sir richard where so richard where snores like a like the snores of sir richard where echo like a stuck pig throughout any building he is in.

It's, yeah, it's incredible. He snores so loudly that you feel like it would, like, lift the doona cover off the bed and back onto him. Okay. In the night, you, actually, no, not in the night. It would be just before dawn. You hear, you are awoken by screaming. I'd like to roll out of bed and grab my spear in my hand, grab cinder and ready myself.

Your room is empty. You can hear the screaming somewhere. You notice it's coming from out your open window. I, like, open the window and in one fluid motion, I'd like to get, like, a leg up. Like, if I got to leap out of this window, I will. When you duck out, you see through like almost like a cartoon. All four of you duck your heads out of your respective windows at the same time.

You see a woman, a scullery maid maybe, has dropped her in the alleyway below, has dropped her bucket and is screaming, looking at a corpse right in front of her. She turns around and sprints out of the alleyway give everybody a look don't say anything but i assume we all head down there to the corpse who looks at you sir uh sir grace and mouths empire i like people laugh all right so all of you head downstairs the bartender is comforting the scullery maid. She seems very distraught. All right.

Zin? Zin, that's her name? Zin Dwellin. Zin Dwellin, you go have a look at the corpse. Zin Dwellin nods and exits out the front door. Richard, if you want to chat to the scullery maid. No. He winks.

He winks at you. Okay. I rubbed my brow whatever that's fine um me and food will search the surrounding areas okay so you and thudu search uh sir grace what is your investigation. Plus three? That's alright. So, searching around, you and Thuddu can work out together that they're... So the alleyway first off, the alleyway that the corpse is in, and you see Zinwilin kneeling over the corpse, inspecting it. You can see that the alleyway is obviously

leads to a storage shed, which is not really attached, but is part of the tavern yeah sure and you can see that the corpse was going in between the storage shed and the tavern the corpse has a sack which maybe you open and inside the sack you find loaves of bread fish basically food yeah okay you keep looking around you see footprints on the ground in the mud. In the mud you see two sets of footprints. One of the victim. One of a mystery person who approaches

from behind and then turns around and walks away. You can try to follow those if you want. You also spot a lot of small tracks oh a lot of really small tracks which you do identify as rat prints huh there's lots lots more than would be really appropriate there's a lot of rat prints here and other than that you don't find any other leads specifically. I'll flip my journal open to what I assume are the few remaining pages, and I will start to draw a little map of the area, and then I'll try to put the footprints in,

and I'll just jot down all of the information that I have here, and then I'll go to Zin. Do we know a cause of death? Zin looks up at you. We're talking magic, just a regular dagger, blade. I'll go to Zin. Do we know a cause of death? Zin looks up at you. We're talking magic, just a regular dagger, blade. She shakes her head and gestures at the corpse. There isn't much corpse left to tell what happened.

And you see, sure enough, there is not a lot of corpse left to tell what happened. It looks like a beast fell upon this person their neck is torn asunder on two sides as if gills were grabbed and opened gosh there's massive gashes on both sides the person's head has been completely crumpled inwards so that their features are basically indistinguishable you can also see that there are some claw marks about the body, two on either side where the hips are, and you can see some particles of frost there. I'd like to look to Thuddu and be like, not vampires then.

Thuddu shakes her head. Not any that I've seen. Zinwilin shakes her head slowly. Not necessarily. Yeah? It is possible that a lesser type of vampire could have attacked. Other, less coherent, more monstrous types of vampires do exist, such as vampire spawn.

Vampires that are created by a powerful one to serve it and for no other purpose. When they attack, it is more vicious. Okay. I'd like to flip over my journal, write vampire spawn, give it a circle. Do you think that's what did this? I couldn't say. I couldn't even tell you what killed the poor man.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll go inside and see what old Dickie's got to say, see if he's... As you're walking away, Thudu, maybe Thudu and Zinwilin are standing there near the corpse. As you're walking away, you hear Thudu say to Zinwilin, well, we can make a pretty educated guess

as to what killed him. Thudu rolls. I'd like to go in and kind of like regretting my distribution of people. Just check to see what old Dickie Ware, how he's dealing with this.

Oh, God. All right. As you walk in, the scullery maid pushes past you, her head in her hands, sobbing heavily. And you hear Richard Ware. Richard Ware's looking at the bartender. And with a shrug, he says, I don't really understand. Why? bartender and he said with a shrug he says i don't really understand i'd like to why was why and i'd like to shake my head and like try to put my arm around the scullery maid and take

her somewhere privately ma'am i'm so sorry richard he's uh she's she's absolutely she's just sobbing heavily she doesn't really if you try to touch her she she coils back. Oh, all right, I'll take my hands off. Ma'am, look. I just would like you home. I can walk you home if you'd like. She looks at the bartender. The bartender nods, of course. Please take her home.

Yeah. I'm going to walk, what was your name, ma'am? My name? My name is Helga. I'm going to walk Helga home. You all, I don't know, clean up here. See if you can find anything we've missed. Oh, I'm sorry. There is an extra set of footprints that you found at the scene. There's a third set of footprints that

are heading to the storeroom and then back. Actually, you detect them as, sorry, you would immediately know them as the scullery maids. Okay. They go past the corpse to the storeroom and then come back. Okay, so she encountered the corpse on the way back. Because the corpse was coming basically in that direction as well, yeah? Yeah. Are they walking together at any point? It doesn't look like it, no.

Okay. Well, yeah, search, see if there's anything we missed. Maybe I'll ask the bartender. Maybe I'll say this to Thudu and Zin as we walk past them. Maybe ask the bartender if, I don't know, have you seen anything similar recently? Something like that. Could be something, I don't know.

Could be something we missed. I'm going to walk this lady home. Yeah, I'll start walking to her, and I'll just, like, when I feel like she's calmed down and feeling safer, I'll start talking to her. So did you, and I'm so sorry to her and I'll just like, when I feel like she's calmed down and feeling safer, I'll start talking to her. So did you, um, and I'm so sorry to bring this up,

but did you see what happened or did you just come across the body? She shakes her head, but doesn't say anything. Okay. So you just came across the body. Did you hear anything? She shakes her head. Okay.

Um, do you know the person? Um, I mean, I, it's a big city. I know, but I just think I'll,

I thought I'd ask. She seems hesitant hesitant she doesn't say yes or no you can just see that she's like kind of staring forwards but down yeah and then she like kind of in between sobs again she's not crying she's not like really loud yeah she's just sobbing quietly sure she she says i't know. You don't know if you knew him? No. Okay. Well, as in, and look, I'm sorry to press, but as in maybe you've met him before or you're just, you're, you know, maybe not feeling up to answering the question. I couldn't tell.

Okay. Well, hey, that's fair. He was in pretty bad shape. What a great thing to say. Yeah. Look, well, all right then. Just know if I don't ask the right questions, I get roasted when I get back to the tavern.

Do you live around here? It's pretty late for you to be out and about, isn't it? I work the night shift at the tavern. Oh, okay, for sure. I live just a block away. Sure enough, she gestures and she's nearly home. Okay. Well, thanks for your help, Helga.

If we have any more questions, I will definitely come back and ask if that'll be okay. Yes. Yeah, maybe, you know, get a good night's sleep and, yeah, see if you can, I don't know. If you remember anything else, please let me know. Okay. Good night. anything else, please let me know. Okay. Good night.

Good night, she says. And then she closes the door. You walk back. By the time that you get back to the tavern, the sun has properly risen, and it's very early morning. You feel hungover and in a sorry state. I'm going to say you have a level of exhaustion.

Yeah, that's fair. Disadvantage on ability checks. You find anything else out? I say when I get there, rubbing my forehead. When you get back, you see that Thudu and Xinwulin are standing kind of like at the entrance to the side alley and are having kind of a hushed conversation. When you walk past them, Xinwulin looks at you and says,

unless I am reading the tracks wrong, Q2 interjects, she very well could be. Yeah, okay, all right. Zinvillain says, looks like she walked around the corpse. That is strange. She said she might know him, but she wasn't sure. That's very strange. I asked her, yeah, well, when I was speaking to her, actually, I said, you know, did you see it happen?

She said, no, she just saw the body. The sack full of food. Was that dropped by him? Yeah, it was presumably he was carrying it. Okay. Is the bartender still with us? Yep. You walk back in and Ware is chatting with the bartender.

Do you know the fella outside? Have you got a person delivering food or anything the bartender nods yeah i have another bar hand erp erp e-r-e-a-r-p okay erp who's not around so i did send him out for food a little while ago looks like it's erp does erp have any family yes yes he does he has a a sister, I think, somewhere. I'm not exactly sure where. That's okay. Somewhere in the... Somewhere in the Tome District.

Somewhere in the Tome District. Tome District is just kind of directly north. Okay. I guess a better question, actually. I probably should have asked this first. Does he have any enemies? Earp is a... Well, he's a bit of a simpleton, to be honest.

No enemies. Simpletons can have enemies. Simpletons are annoying, I say. That's very true. Although I've not known him really to talk much to anyone. And the scullery maid, you would vouch for a character? She's never done anything untoward to you.

She seems nice sort. She's young, very young. Okay. What happened to him? I've not been out. Well, it's kind of hard to say. It seems like he was attacked by something. I looked down at my notebook that just has rats written in it.

Although at this stage, we're not sure what. Is it connected to the wizard? He gestures to his neck. Wait, what? Well, this isn't the first early morning murder. Well, I'd like to pull up a stool. You're going to have to tell me what that's about. Well, most of this is a lot of hearsay.

Sure. You'd want to talk to Lady Enel. Yeah, sure. You know Lady Enel. So this town is ruled by two factions, which is kind of like, it's like the two worlds, Blue Beach and Kandor, coming together. Okay.

It's ruled by a noble aristocrat, Lady Enel, who was appointed by the king. But it still has a council of elders from when it was part of Blue Beach. And they form kind of like a... Lady Annelle basically will enact laws and acts as like a president sort of of the town. And then the town council act as like a check. Okay, sure, sure, sure. So technically there are two votes on any

issue yeah it's that one is lady and l's and one is the council yeah cool cool sort of like the queen a little bit yeah a little bit but more like i'm assuming that the council can stop her whereas i feel like that's just not gonna happen yeah yeah oh yeah anyway cool all right um what do you speak with lady and l i think she'll, she should know more about it. You might want to speak to, I don't know, I guess some member of the guard or something like that. But this is, there have been a few murders. I think strangulations. Strangulations?

Pretty brutal stuff I've heard. Okay. A lot of my patrons like to get drunk in here and. Talk about it. Yeah, talk shit. Yeah. Talk shit. Yeah, of course. But yeah, mostly the murders, though, have been around the Fey Castle Farthing and the Tome District, which you know is two parts in the northeast of this town.

You said that Earp had family in the Tome District, yeah? Yeah, yeah. He does. That's interesting. Okay, well well thanks so much um just give me a sec to confer with the rest of the team yeah i'd like to go maybe collect the three of them together be like well i don't know about you guys but i don't really think we're done here you know i don't think we're going home anytime soon. Thudu nods. Thudu gives like a resonated nod.

And Sir Ware says, well, of course not. We've got to do this, don't we? There is adventure to be had, Dickie. Tell you what, anything that keeps me away from the home castle. He thuds you in the shoulder. You know he's a newlywed. I give an awkward laugh. Yeah.

And now, a quick word from our sponsors. Also, D&D is for Nerds is good, but did you know that we produce at least eight other podcasts? Perhaps you like Jackson and Zamet, but wish that instead of playing D&D, they were yelling at each other about pop culture and just generally being rude to each other in a public setting. Well, if this sounds like you,

then why not head to sanspantsradio.com and search for Plumbing the Death Star, our pop culture comedy podcast that's far better than it has any right to be. Okay, well, the bartender said that it might be worthwhile... Like, I relay everything. Yeah, well, he said that Earp... That's the name of the deceased.

Earp's got a sister in the Tome District. We got a couple of leads, but I'd like to, like, rub my forehead. Who else is terribly hungover? Everyone, like, looks around and nods. I think we can afford ourselves, like, another six hours sleep. Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds good. We'll all head back in and have a nap.

All right. That's's an awkward thing to walk past the bartender sorry we're very tired we woke up in the middle of the night to look at a murder sorry dude all right at the end of your little kiff yeah i'm gonna say that you no longer have your level of exhaustion cool nursed off your hangovers so what's what's your next port of call right well do you reckon i say to the to the party so the bartender was talking about strangulations strangulations excuse me he was saying that the there'd been rumors of that happening in some of the other districts in town do you reckon that's related i't know. It doesn't feel related to me. I've got to be honest with you. Doodoo nods slowly.

Doesn't feel related at all, no. I would say I agree with you. Yeah. Zinwilin? Zinwilin shakes her head slowly. I don't know if I'd be so easy to dismiss this. Well, maybe it's worthwhile chatting to the guard then. We're in pretty good relations with them,

you know? You know that probably when the... You've not met Lady Anel, but you probably have met and know a Ned, a male halfling. He's kind of in

charge of the town guard. Well, we could go chat to him. I don't know, just get a feel for the strangulations. I guess you're right, Zim, we shouldn't discount anything. Is there like a guardhouse or like a main sort of guard's headquarters we could go to? Yes, you do know, you've probably been actually to the guardhouse here. You know, it's a grand half-timbered building decorated

with stained glass windows it contains like a large hole that has many cells within it cool it's kind of like a big uh a big i don't know how to describe it without talking about red dead redemption but it's like a big building where it's imagine like an open plan jail yeah i kind of know what you mean yeah i sort of like yeah where there are a bunch of yeah freestanding jail cells yeah people are hooked into you know you can find him there all right well we'll make our way toward that then that would be kind of in the city center You'd be going through the interior set of walls. Cool. As you do so, you, walking about, you get a lot of people who were like, Hail, the Mage Bane!

Hail, Grace's Companions! Look, look, it's the Light of the King! I give them a good wave every time we pass them. You know, if people stop to talk to us, I'll talk back, you know, but always heading sort of onward a 20 minute walk takes you 40 minutes but eventually you do get there it's the building is just as beautiful as the day that you came here while you were facing the necro wizard yeah cool inside well you're just allowed inside past several sets of armed gates just by people who already knew you until you get to kind of in the center of the the building's kind of like a mad

house with people raving and yelling and a cacophonous like ringing of metal on metal of different well metal hitting metal cool cool and all the different people either protesting their innocence or hurling awful insults at the guards you do however even through the criminals here you do however cut a swaith as no one wants to interrupt you as you approach

kind of in the center the desk where you see an anded he looks up at you sorry you seem pretty busy and dead it's always busy around here all right all right and yeah um how can i help you sir grace ah of course grace's companions yeah yeah that's us um you can see as he tilts up you can see that his throat has been like not not recently slit but in the past slit was once slit ear to ear gosh i'm sure this is something i recognized the first time oh yeah yeah yeah well uh is there like a place for all four of us

to sit down yeah you you he he gets people to draw some seats for you i don't know if it's much um and uh but we were gonna leave but we sort of found ourselves in i don't know maybe the middle of something maybe it's nothing maybe it's just part of the everyday life in the city but um we were spending the night in the axe of lightning and we woke up to a scream a woman had encountered a well a body i guess it seemed like they'd been torn apart by some kind of creature. Now, we spoke to the tavern keeper, and he said that there'd been some strangulations in the city, but that it might have been rumor.

And we just thought, I don't know, look, we might be staying here a little bit longer now to investigate. I thought, well, you know, we might as well ask you if you've ever encountered anything like this. There's been a few strangulations, sure what what exactly happened to the body well it seems like the body was leaving uh like leaving a sort of storage shed and as they came back they encountered somebody else a third party you know the the dead body the scullery made yeah yeah yeah counted a third party and looked back down at my notebook

with rats written in it. Lots of small animals. Do you mention the small animals? Yeah, probably lots of small animals, possibly rats of some kind, maybe enchanted, I don't know. And they tore to shreds this person. I don't know if you know him. No, I don't know him.

It's a big town. Oh, yeah, that's fair. Yeah, i don't know if you know him no i don't know him it's a big town oh yeah that's fair um yeah i'm i don't know if there's been a lot of murders in the city they could be related so we thought we'd come and ask yeah yeah i'm glad you brought this to me of course yeah so they've been you're right there have been a string of straggulation we don't know if they're connected or not the mo changes a couple times. What's it at the moment? Well, right now, we've had a couple where the person's been strangulated,

and we find redness. Redness around their orifices, around their nose, ears, mouth. Redness? Yes. Right now, we're operating on the idea that maybe they were poisoned. There doesn't appear to be much evidence of a struggle in the strangulation. So we think that maybe whoever's doing this is poisoning them first. But we don't get it every time.

Sometimes there's redness, sometimes there's not. So we think, oh, and sometimes there's more or less of a struggle. Yeah, okay. So we're thinking, maybe it's a couple different killers. Copycats, if you will. I coined the term. Why do cats copy each other all the time? So I named it after...

All right. time to write and out-coined copycats. Mercy me. Fuck. That's interesting, but it doesn't really sound like what we're investigating. But you did say you saw small animal tracks. Yeah, possibly rats.

Yeah. We have found that at some of the scenes of the crime. At some of the strangulations, not all of them. Some of them we found little rodent tracks. And at a couple, my officers have been attacked by rats. Right. You got a city rat? I don't know if this is something every city has. You got a rat catcher? We have a couple. My officers have been attacked by rats. Right. You got a city rat? I don't know if this is something every city has.

You got a rat catcher? We have a couple. Okay. Could you give me their addresses? Sure. He gives you the addresses of two people. One lives in North Market, which is northwestern part of the town. And he gives you Southgate Market,

which is basically southwest. They're kind of mirrored, hence how the names are kind of mirrored. In fact, the two rat catchers, the names of their businesses are North and South Rat Catchers. This might seem like a stupid question, but did they get a lot of work?

It seems stupid to ask if this is a particularly rat-infested city because I've never been in a city that's not. But is this abnormal? The aggression in the rats is abnormal, certainly. Yeah, okay. I've never seen, you know, they're just rats. Yeah, yeah. If it were dire rats, I could almost understand.

Absolutely, rats are just rats. No, you're right, you're right. Yeah, yeah. If it were dire rats, I could almost understand. Absolutely, rats are just rats. No, you're right, you're right. Okay, um, thanks. Let me see if there's anything else I wanted to ask about. Um, yeah. I'm not sure. Um, that'll do us for now. Thanks, Andad. No, thank you. And

do I assume then you're opening an investigation into this? I suppose so, yeah. Good. Glad someone useful's on the case. I give him a little salute. But, you know, an impartial salute. Like there's not heaps of, it's not like a respectful one.

Yeah, like a single. Yeah, like a single finger. He's not nobility. Yeah, well. All right. Well, yeah. You head on? Yeah, we'll head on.

Well, when we're outside the guardhouse, I'll be like, so what do you reckon? What do we know that could do something like this? I mean, awakened rats? That seems ridiculous, doesn't it? Somebody awakens some rats. Somebody makes those rats attack people could be a druid you know of druids so grace they're kind of a rarity yeah and you've never well actually you might need to roll you've never met a druid yourself yeah and yeah you don't know

anything further you've just never met a druid so so you don't really know. But you are aware of the concept of druids. Okay. Druid mad at the city for some reason? Potentially. Yeah. It's not outside the realm of reason. Richard Ware turns around and says, I fought a druid once.

Yeah? Do I believe him? No. As he begins to describe the druid, you think he means a goblin. Oh, okay. Whatever. You think he thinks druids are goblins?

Dick. Dicky. Are you thinking of a goblin? Maybe. I think you're thinking of a goblin. Thudu nods and says, I think you're thinking of a goblin thudoo nods and says i think you're thinking of a goblin i get it i mean i don't but i can't it's the way you described the goblin there was some natural magic okay yeah no that's fair it was probably like a goblin shaman yeah maybe maybe uncle dick was like oh you know maybe dickie was like it's related to animals and that is druid yeah could be a druid but yeah we don't we're not gonna know a lot says actually yeah

might not be too far off it could be a goblin shaman as well goblins tend to work with well dire rats obviously not rat rats but it's related it doesn't fit perfectly though this might seem like a stupid question because we're very thorough and i don't think this is the case this could be the necro wizard coming back in some capacity could it who do you ask this is the party yeah i mean like we took care of that pretty thoroughly you look at zinvalin zinvalin looks at thudu all of you look at richard where and you all in unison say nah nah nah yeah that's we took care of that silly that's silly well for some reason the bartender said it'd be worthwhile chatting to and and anel

the um you know in l sorry lady anel so maybe that. I mean, it's interesting for the nobility to have any kind of idea on the, I don't know, like on strangulations or murders in the town. It seems like something that they would be kind of either above or just not privy to. Maybe I'll go chat to them. And you guys maybe go speak to Earp's sister. Yes. Yeah.

See if she's got any more information. See if Earp had any enemies. I can't imagine he would have, but maybe that's worthwhile. And I'll go chat to Lady Enel. You head to, she has a large, basically, manor in the town. It's in the noble's village, which is where the rich people live. There's a beautiful lake with trees scattered all around it. It's like a park basically within the city.

As you approach, you see that there is an obelisk, a rune carved obelisk sitting kind of in the middle of the park. It glows with a faint magical light. I'd like to like stop and give it an inspect. It doesn't have any, the magical runes relate to the light that it's giving off, but they don't seem to be like actual speech. It's just kind of a spell carved upon it. Does it seem like maybe this is just like a spell cast on this obelisk to just cast light?

Yeah, it just seems like a pretty feature. Cool. I like run my finger along it. Behind you, you hear a pretty pretty you would describe this voice as a pretty tinkle like glass clattering together gently

so Grace Lady Anel she approaches you she is gorgeous she's like the figure of nobility you know that she is a distant relative of the king like a second or third cousin basically but nonetheless royalty she moves with an easy calm demeanor that kind of indicates that you can tell that she probably is very graceful yeah sure

she if she wanted to be she if she wanted to, she could perform backflips and frontflips and whatnot. I immediately feel like a big ham in armor. She has deep red hair and amber eyes. You can tell that beneath the really well-ostentatious

clothing, she's wearing armors, which is unusual. As she approaches you she slows down she was moving almost gliding towards you with speed but when she gets closer she slows down uh so grace yes um don't worry it's it's not the wizard's not back there's nothing too bad. Sorry, where was I? Hi. We are investigating, me and my party who aren't here right now, we're investigating a murder. We thought we'd stay a little bit longer and maybe jump on the case.

You know, it's an adventure to be found everywhere. I describe the sort of body we found and then I say, well, and the barkeep was saying that there had been strangulations in the city, and maybe you'd know something about it. And I just thought, well, maybe I'd come this way, but perhaps I'm intruding. No, I'm glad you came, actually. Okay. I wanted to talk to you about this specifically.

It is both ill but good omen that this has happened this morning i i feared to bring this up because it's a personal matter and i wanted to put the good of the town ahead of the good of my own personal family okay but i i want you to know that i wanted to tell you this from the moment that you set foot in this village, but obviously you had bigger concerns. There was an acro wizard, sure. Yes. My half-brother, Gary, Gary the Lame,

as he is referred to, or was referred to, is one of the victims of this murderer. Yeah, of course. He was killed right here in the nobles village i assume you've got pretty good security here as well so that's sort of a shock yeah apparently no one saw anything he was as we as i understand it he was thieving from another house when it happened your brother

was or he had just come out of another house when it happened your brother was or he had just come out of another house when it happened forgive me for asking but why would he need to he's do you just love to i would suppose the black sheep of my family okay for sure um my father when before he died he wrote my he wrote my half brother out of his, considering him a bastard, and gave him no lands, nor titles, nor money to his name. I love my half-brother. We grew up together, and he was as important to me as my own heart is. And when he was found, it was like a very dagger upon my heart of course i'd like to take her hands in mine nothing is more important than family i understand so

how long ago did this happen she moves into your like embrace very familiarly. Oh boy. And she says, it was about a month ago. Okay. There was a spate of them around then. A large spate. Here, in the noble's village

and around Castle Pier. Castle Pier is, there are three sets of docks. Yep. So the first set of docks up in the north is called Kelsey Dock. Then it gets split by, you know how the city is in two layers? Yeah. So those two layers kind of extend out into the water. Well, I see.

Yeah, okay. And so there's Castle Pier, which is the piers that are serviced, basically, the nobles' village, and the Grand Market, the three places that are in the center of the city and then the southern one is called dry rust docks so yeah castle pier is basically the docks nearest here there was

a spate around here and castle pier of murders about a month ago maybe three in total then they started radiating out into the around the city if unfortunately the guard captain does not believe they are all related they believe they are what did he call them copy yeah he said when a cat copies another cat which is a phenomenon i don't know if i've ever seen but that's fine yes um so you're saying that the first one the first strangulation the first three were

here we're here okay i believe though that they are related because and this is something that not many people know because i hid my brother's body as soon as it was found as soon as i could your secret is safe with me but my brother he i've i heard what happened i've been keeping a close a close eye on murders that have happened sure yeah around the city since since my brother and from what i understand your murder and my brother's one were very similar his head well he was unrecognizable but there were definite strangulation marks around his neck. Yeah, I make a note to check our body for strangulation marks. Hey, I understand.

Look, knowing what happened to the body we found, I can't imagine what it was like to find your brother in that state. I'm so sorry. If it would help as well, you and only you, I would permit no one else may inspect my brother's corpse. I appreciate that. I have had a cleric cast preserve body upon it, and it is as it was when it was found. Lady Enel, I promise you, a lot of people will look at me and my companions and see us as the sort that will only slay the big dragon or fight the giants. But

something like this, something other parties might consider, you know, sort of a sidestep on another adventure has just the same amount of importance to me. I will stop at nothing until we find who is to blame. Thank you. I beseech you, please, brave knight, help me. You have my word. Let's go check out that corpse. Right. I don't say that. Lead the way to your brother.

Yeah. Let me peep that body. Let's have a looky-look. Can I have a little, ooh, a little squizz-a-roller? She leads you into her manor, her estate, and below it there are catacombs, and you can see that there are a great many... Oh, no, actually, there'd be very few.

Very few bodies are buried here. Maybe her mother and father, a few very young siblings who probably died in childbirth or something like that, and then laid out on a slab is her brother's body. You can see that there's a white light about it, which is the preserve corpse

spell. Still in effect. I'd like to turn to Lady and Elle. You don't have to be here for this. I would like to be in the room, but I will not watch. That's totally fine. She turns around, but remains in the crypts with you. We'll split the body into, quotation marks, head,

neck, arms, torso, legs. And he is wearing clothes so if you want to check pockets as well. Clothes will add as another thing. Basically, I know. No worries. Alright, let me just get this down in my journal for when need be.

Okay. Let's begin with the remains of the head. All right. Ooh, I get a bad boy card. Oh, that's a shame. It's a soup. There's not a lot here. Okay. Well, I'll, like, make the requisite,

even though the moment I look at it, I'm like, I'm getting nothing from this. I will still take the time to at least pretend like I'm inspecting it. You know what I mean? So that it looks like I'm not just skipping it. Then after that, I guess I'll move on to the arms. Oh, get a good boy, Kosh. Oh!

I like sort of gently and respectfully lift them up, inspect every kind of part of them that I can. You find that beneath his fingers there are no his beneath his fingernails yeah fingernails beneath his fingernails are flesh it looks like he struggled with his attacker okay he definitely got a bit of the attacker's flesh you can also when you peel the flesh out you can smells awful. It smells like death itself. You can tell that this flesh is the flesh of a long, rotting corpse. But it should have also been under the effects of the preserve body spell.

So this was corpse flesh when the attacker struck. Okay. Hmm. Huh. Okay. Hmm. Huh. Okay. Cool. I, like, kind of swallow, you know, because it's massively unpleasant,

but try not to show it, and I'll move on to the torso. The torso shows no real signs of damage, except for one claw mark upon the chest. Whatever made it was not human not in any way and you you can't detect if it was a spell but whatever hit him was either magical or bestial in nature is there the same sort of ice like you said there was yes there's icing on this claw mark icing like on a cake? Yeah. Cool. Cool.

Now, like, run my finger again kind of respectfully on it. Is it still cold? Is the preserve life spell kept back? It would keep it cold, yeah. Oh, okay. I guess let's move down to the legs. His boots are very clean, but you would probably expect that from him. Sure.

And they might have cleaned his boots in the interim. Potentially, yeah. Other than that, nothing interesting. Okay. And then let's finally check his clothes. Oh, I got another bad boy card. Oh, that sucks. In his clothes, you turn out a silver

disc. It's like a coin, but much bigger. On it, it's got like a rearing dragon facade on it has a it's got like a dra a rearing dragon facade on it but you don't recognize it i'll put it back in that's fine um well i stand up and move a little lady and now maybe i put my hand gently on her back the damage done to this body is very similar to the damage done to ours immensely similar. Thank you so much for permitting me to have a look at this body. Would it be alright I know you said that you would only want me to, but I have

companions that have skills that surprisingly I don't. A wizard by the name of Zin she is incredibly skilled and she might be able to pick up things I didn't. She looks at you, and she says, do you trust them completely? Yes. Yes, I do. We've been through many battles together. Very well, then.

Thank you. But only this person. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I think then my next port of call might be the docks all right castle pier yeah i'd like to bid farewell to the fine lady maybe i get down on one knee and kiss her hand she blushes when you do that so we meet again lady and now i'll be counting the moments oh oh my gosh so much romance all right you head down to castle pier on your way there

when you get to there's like a crossroads at castle pier yeah at the crossroads you can see a giant stone and brick and wooden building you can tell as well that it's under constru or it's like finishing construction yeah you can see the part of the wall is still incomplete and the building inside is incomplete. On a big sign out the front of this building says the Gnomish Merchant Trading Company. Is this something I've never really seen before or heard of before? No, you're aware of the Gnomish Merchant. It's the state-run merchant trading company.

Kandor and the gnomes have a pretty friendly relationship. Sure. So maybe you enjoy a healthy, every now and then, gnomeberry spirit of some sort. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. You've definitely enjoyed products either made by or traded from the Gnomish Merchant Trading Company. Maybe I see other people still working on it. Yeah, there are workmen all about.

None of them are gnomes, though. They all look like locals. Is there anybody taking a break that I think I wouldn't annoy if I asked them some questions? As you approach, it looks like all of them are about to take a break. Ah, fantastic. They want to come talk to you. I like rest against a post out the front and be like, GTC's made it all the way out here, has it?

One of them, a, no, there wouldn't be any orcs. One of them. Or wowsers. We'll say a dwarf nods and says, aye, they have contracted us to help them build their new headquarters out here. Headquarters West, they call it. Headquarters West. Headquarters West. How quick, you seem like you're basically done. Headquarters West, they call it. Headquarters West. How quick?

You seem like you're basically done. Yeah, nearly done. It's been a long haul, but we're nearly finished on this one. Fantastic. Last brick will go up next week. Oh, that's so exciting. When do the...

Maybe this is a dumb question. When do the gnomes come in? Oh, the gnomes are inside. It's just like a skeleton proof for now. Of course. Yeah, totally. Totally. Well, good luck to you.

Good luck to you. Am I like on the docks? Sorry? Am I on the docks or am I like on the way to the docks? You're very near to the docks. Well, maybe I'll ask them then. You guys don't mind me stopping you working, do you? Maybe you'll enjoy it.

Well, the dwarf looks around at all of the workmen and they all look like a little sheepish and the dwarf looks back and says we would like to hear a story okay that's not what i was offering but a story um i once again tell them the cinder story because it's an easy one for me to do. They are enraptured. Unlike the crowd back at the tavern where maybe you were also yelling a bit to make yourself heard. This group, it's quiet enough here that they can hear you a lot better. And you're not incredibly intoxicated.

Yeah, yeah. So you can tell the story more clearly. Fellas, now that I've told your story, could you do something for me? Of course, anything. What favour will Grace ask for, and will it be granted? Find out next time on Fall From Grace Part 2, The City. Thanks for listening. If you want to help support this show and all the other shows on the Sandspans Radio Network,

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