[CLOSED] HARE COURSING

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa, Byerly, Edgard, Erik, Mado, Noon, Sawbones, Sidony, Vanadi
WHAT: The Gang Solves A Murder
WHEN: Early Drakonis
WHERE: The Gallows, Kirkwall
NOTES: Content warnings will be employed in subject lines, blanket warning for violence/murder, mention of sexual assault, corruption in the City Guard, etc.

I. A COMMOTION IN LOWTOWN

Erik, Noon, and Vanadi hear a struggle near the Alienage and when they go to investigate, they happen upon a shadowy cloaked figure trying to make off with Saoirse, a fifteen year old elf girl from the Alienage. The cloaked figure flees. Erik decides to stay with the girl while Noon and Vanadi take off after the cloaked figure. The perpetrator takes a dagger to the shoulder and Vanadi gets a signet ring off him in the ensuing chase, but ultimately the villain gets away. Erik finds out from the residents of the Alienage that there's another girl missing, and that the City Guard have done nothing to help find her.

II. A GRIM DISCOVERY

Elsewhere in Kirkwall, Edgard and Mado find a dead body buried in the snow. The cold has preserved the body in such a state that they are able to determine the most likely cause of death to be strangulation, judging by the bruising on the young woman's neck. It looks like whoever did the strangling was wearing a ring. There will also be a copper button, presumably from some article of clothing, clasped in the dead girl's hand. She clearly put up a fight against her attacker. Mado is able to smell faint whiffs of expensive laundry soap, cologne, pipe tobacco, and whatever other normal not-clue things on the button. Seems the owner of the vest this button came from is rather well-off.

III. WHILE THE CAT'S AWAY

Sidony and Sawbones will be tasked with acting as Byerly's attachés while following up on a number of petty grievances cited by the citizens of Kirkwall, during which they will overhear gossip (unrelated to the grievances):

• Talk of disappearances from the Alienage that the City Guards are doing nothing about
  
• Two City Guards talking to each other about the body that was found, and how strange it is that not even the Guard on duty saw anything
  
• Mention of a cloaked figure seen outside The Crimson Cat at night
  
• Rumors that Madame Lette, the bawd from The Crimson Cat, has found a new financier
  
• A general consensus that something isn't right about The Crimson Cat; it used to be more like the other brothels in the city, but after Devigny was killed in a robbery gone wrong, things have been different.

IV. AMBROSE WARRICK

After some sleuthing it's found that the ring that Erik, Noon, and Vanadi got from the would-be kidnapper most likely belongs to a man named Ambrose Warrick, a nobleman with a modest estate in Hightown. He confirms that the ring was his, but that he gifted it to Giordano Allard, a friend of his. The servants at the Warrick estate will be reticent to speak to anyone, but some light eavesdropping will reveal that some weeks ago, Ambrose returned home late, disheveled, in one of his moods, and demanded that the buttons on his vest be replaced with gold instead of copper. He also sent the signet ring to the jeweler's to be polished the next day.

Comments

iii. while the cat's away / sawbones.

[indissection]

Sidony is well versed in acting as a great deal of things for Byerly these days - loving wife being the most paramount, but that is as far as her falsehoods with him goes. The rest is all to real and, at times, she wonders about her reliance on him, the concerns she has and the uncertainty. She ought to branch out more, find more, but her discomfort with the unfamiliar is still hanging on her skirts like a real weight.

She gathers information and brings it together as much as she can, ending up sitting outside the Alienage with her notebooks, leaning back and pretending for all intents and purposes that nothing is bothering her whatsoever. She would go inside and speak to some of them, but she recognises how little that might help. Elves are unlikely to trust a human outsider, certainly one that speaks with the high born accent she can't - and doesn't want to - get rid of.

Turning a page, she scowls.

"I suppose we ought to visit the Cat." The horror. Her, stepping inside a place like that.

[okayimin]

On the other end of the spectrum is Sawbones, who has only recently emerged from the Alienage gates. Likewise scowling, though for different reasons. The Alienage has its midwives and attended by the sort of grimly dogged Sisters who believe in the mission of the Chantry to provide aid, even as it fails them entierly, but still Sawbones touches base with them. Particularly now.

"Seems we should," she says, "I don't know who's attending the workers there these days, anyhow. We can make sure they're stocked on all the necessaries while we're there." There was no particular reason for a brothel to run out of witherstalk, but that never stopped Sawbones from worrying.

[indissection]

Sidony hums, thoughtful for a moment. She might be able to make a few other things for the ladies there, the kind of things she's never personally needed herself. Her marriage is not one that has want of an heir and she's more than happy with that arrangement.

All the same, she purses her lips and looks down at her skirts, lips twisting a little. She is not looking forward to this particular venture.

"We can make some things together," she nods. "They should have a good supply, even if they're left alone for the most part."

[okayimin]

"Excellent." Sawbones Greatly Approves.

"Reckon we can at least get a few things done if we're on a wild goose chase for some cloaked Duster." She's significantly more amenable to the task, though she still frowns a little, "Don't know how useful looking for a cloaked figure around a brothel will be though."

[indissection]

"Perhaps some of the women there will notice someone irregular," Sidony shakes her head, brushing off her skirts for a little distraction. It's not the same as what she's used to wearing, but at least she is doing her best to blend in.

As much as a clearly noble Nevarran might be able to manage.

"Have you heard any word from the others?"