[RP] Play-By-Post Pathfinder

[Arete]

Well, you don’t remember all that much about what there is in Hazel Ford, but you’ve got a few ideas. Besides the bookstore, you can also think of:

• There are various temples around town; the temples of Abadar, Gorum, and Pharasma are the most prominent, but not the only ones that exist. None of those gods are incredibly oriented around magic, but you’d expect most empowered priests to know some things about their own magic.
  • If you don’t want to deal with the idiosyncratic demands of Gorumites or Pharasmins, Abadarans are frequently also willing to let you just pay money in exchange for them answering questions. This is mostly used by people who want financial advice, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use it for this.
• The lord-mayor is a sorcerer! You don’t know how you’d get an audience with him, but he might know some things about sorcery, particularly his own bloodline. (…you don’t know what his own bloodline is)
  • He probably knows more about his own magic than anyone else, but other people might still know more than zero things about it. That does seem like a weaker lead, though.
• You’re pretty sure you’ve heard there’s some kind of magic item crafter around town who works on commission? Probably they know some things about magic? You’re not sure who it is, though, and they might or might not know anything about any particular kind of magic, but… it’s worth checking.

[Atlas]

@Arete

Next, someone requests a comedic song about someone trying to find a cleric to cast a healing spell on him. He goes around to a cleric of Pharasma, a cleric of Erastil, and a cleric of Gorum, each of whom has their own elaborate demands related to their god’s area of concern that the man is not interested in fulfilling. In the “punchline” of the song, the man goes to a cleric of Abadar, who tells him that he’ll do it if the man just pays him regular money, which he immediately does.

@Arete

If you don’t want to deal with the idiosyncratic demands of Gorumites or Pharasmins, Abadarans are frequently also willing to let you just pay money in exchange for them answering questions

(it’s just like the song…)

[Geyde]

@Arete

“…Man, I’ll never understand that fucking elf. Doesn’t he want to be involved with his kids’ lives?”

“Well, they’ll be dead years before he is, right? You know, I heard he teaches the most promising ones wizardry, and throws the rest on the scrap heap—”

“—uh, that’s a metaphor, right—”

“—yes, the metaphorical scrap heap. Happened to that Eryk kid, the one who was always going on about natural philosophy. Hope he’s doing alright…”

…(rest of post)…

Wanderer will share this information with the group and mention what the topic of divination was.

[Geyde]

“I feel as though cooperation with the watch is doable but perhaps strained.”

He pauses.

“Though let’s be honest with ourselves everyone is probably thinking about the cult leader being mentioned.”

[Geyde]

(@Arete may I ask for all the names on the list? I don’t think it’s been spelled out somewhere.)

[Arete]

Sure. Rika previously identified:

• Bogdan Skliar
• Dosia Reba
• Tiberi of Southwind

and the other names remaining are:

• Eryk son of Zuzya
• Raisa Gabras
• Zasha Gabras
• Petro Bondar
• Meren of Whistle Creek
• Tymur Pelle

(It would’ve been pretty tight fitting all those people in the room at once; it’s unclear if all of them were part of the cult simultaneously.)

[Geyde]

(Petro and Meren aren’t directly mentioned / implied but Petro is likely the timber hauler I just feel it)
(Meren could be the Blessed One which could be huge)

[Zone_Q11]

Arius struggles to find the words to explain his thoughts, as they keep changing inside his head.

After a moment of taking his time, he says: “Given [the fact that there are (at least) six people to apprehend], and [my presumption being that we need at least three people to secure one cultist], even if we are to split our group into two -which, given Rika’s agenda of contacting Amelie, seems unlikely- we should probably head over to the Watch to coordinate with them.”

“They don’t like us, but they don’t have to either. We just need to catch the cultists as soon as possible, and preferably that means that we try to catch as many cultists today.”

[Leafia]

@Zone_Q11

((How much would this be…? Is it straight-up 5 crowns?))

(Yup. Zelsh handed them 5 crownd each.)

[Zone_Q11]

“I don’t know what you mean about the mention of the cult leader.” ((Zone does; Arius doesn’t.)) “We can probably talk about the details with the Watch.”

He looks at the group, when he notices one person missing. “By the way, has anyone seen Canary?”

[Leafia]

@Atlas

CST (Canary Standard Time) and PST (Party Standard Time) are two hours apart ja

(This made me giggle irl. Giggles)

[Leafia]

“Zelsh agrees with Arius on this one.” Zelsh commented.

[Squirrel2412]

Drakor shrugged. “We told the Watch, they have their list, and as incompetent as Rafau was I don’t think the others would have much difficulty rounding up people once they have their names.”

He looked around. “This is starting to feel like a dead end to me. Notably, the Baron was not one of the people Rafau mentioned.”

[Zone_Q11]

@Squirrel2412

Drakor shrugged. “We told the Watch, they have their list, and as incompetent as Rafau was I don’t think the others would have much difficulty rounding up people once they have their names.”

“It is not that I doubt the Watch’s competency -though Rafau’s existence has made me start to say otherwise-, but this is rather a matter of credit. We should strive to improve our image to the Lord-Mayor even further–”

@Arete

I might or might not have said this yet but the Lord-Mayor’s name is ~public info, he’s Kirill Tagaris Kazien, cousin to the man who rules these lands (i.e., the lands south of Baron Dalin)

“–far enough to gain more information on Baron Dalin, who is his uh… What was it. His nephew? Cousin? –whatever; family member.”

@Squirrel2412

He looked around. “This is starting to feel like a dead end to me. Notably, the Baron was not one of the people Rafau mentioned.”

“The fact that the baron was not mentioned by the guard does not exclude the possibility that they are in cahoots with each other. A cult of some mighty demon surely has more than a dozen followers?”

“Perhaps Rafau was not told of cult members from other regions. Why would the cultists tell him that, after all? The cultists only need to tell him the bare minimum; the people in the vicinity whom he shouldn’t touch. He doesn’t need to be told anything beyond that.”

[May]

“This isn’t useful. The only reason get involved with the arrest of the cultists is to gain the favor of the Lord-Mayor. If we don’t speak to him first, we are just vigilantes.”

Paprika makes an irritated noise and walks off in a random direction to get away from Arius.

[Zone_Q11]

Arius looks in the direction Rika is walking, not actually aiming his gaze towards her, but rather the general vicinity around her.

(I still see no reason why we can’t have you inform the Lord-Mayor whilst we act as vigilantes, but you do you.)

Giving up on levelling with her arguments, he redirects his focus to the other party members to see how they react.

(Rather, if the goal was to not be classified as vigilantes, wouldn’t it suffice to visit the Watch guards and inform them that we wish to aid them in the capture of the cultists? They may not like it, or perhaps even outright refuse our help, but at least it would be worth trying?)

[Zone_Q11]

@Zone_Q11

He looks at the group, when he notices one person missing. “By the way, has anyone seen Canary?”

((R.I.P. Canary. You will be remembered… though by not more than half of us at most, it seems.))

[Leafia]

“Zelsh thinks we dhould go to the Watch and offer our services in rounding up those cultists.” Zelsh commented.

[May]

As she walks off, Paprika opens her satchel and allows her cat to walk beside her.

She mutters under her breath: “Carrying out an investigation is fine, but arresting random citizens is just violent kidnapping. We already have sufficient information to locate and apprehend all of them, we just need permission. Do none of them understand that what they want to do will make them look like lunatics?”

And it’s completely boring. They can deal with the Watch if they want. What happens after I expose the truth is not my business. I’ve done my part.

Paprika’s eye catches on a stone wall that rises slightly above her head: by stepping on some nearby boxes, she makes it up to the top of the wall and sits, hanging her legs over the ledge. Then, she takes out her notebook and begins to write.

PREMISES
a. A symbol of the cult of Flauros was discovered in a disused cellar last Starday.
b. The cellar was then locked up by members of the Watch.
c. After the locking of the cellar, the evidence of the symbol was washed away with water.
d. Rafau of the Watch looked unsurprised at this disappearance and tried to dismiss the method of breaking and entering as trivial.
e. Rafau had an unusual amount of knowledge about the worship of Flauros and its history in the town.
f. When confronted about his involvement, Rafau repeatedly denied that he was not a demon cultist, even under the threat of truthspell.
g. There were no signs the lock on the cellar had been picked.
h. According to Valtyr of the Watch, the tip regarding the cult was made anonymously by tying a note to a fencepost.
i. When my companions Drakor and Zelsh followed footsteps leading out of the cellar, Rafau attempted to attack them.
j. After being accused of drawing the symbol, Rafau offered 10 gold crowns per member of the party as a bribe, a sum of 50 gold crowns, unusually high for a Watchman.

At this stage, the detective confronted the culprit with the correct deduction.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Rafau of the Watch washed away the symbol, per Premises (b), (c), (d), (g).
2. Rafau was not a genuine demon cultist himself, per Premises (c), (f).
3. Rafau was nonetheless also involved in the drawing of the symbol, per Premises (e), (h), (j) and Conclusion (1).
4. Rafau was drawing money from his involvement with the cult, per Premises (h), (i), (j).

After the culprit and motive were established, the detective’s intuitions were confirmed by truthspell and the culprit arrested.

Paprika scrunches up her face and frowns. We still lack evidence on exactly who reported the cult activity. It was certainly a member of the cult, as they knew to fear the Watch. Would it be appropriate to add this, or would it be a loose end I need to tie up first?

Plenty of mystery novels have anonymous tips like this. So long as the tipper’s motive is established, it’s fine.

With slightly cramped handwriting, Paprika inserts a line under Conclusion 4:

5. The anonymous tipper was involved in the cult and aware of Rafau’s involvement, per Premises (a), (h).

She flips through her notebook idly, looking through dozens of pages of deduction: her handwriting really was worse when she was eleven.

It’s definitely not enough yet.

[Squirrel2412]

Drakor shrugged. “Some of us go talk with the Watch and help them take down the rest of thr cultists, some of us go talk with the Lord-Mayor, and some of us go do whatever. We don’t all need to be in agreement here.”

He began to walk back towards Amelie’s, presumably to “go do whatever.” Which was atypically inarticulate of him.