The young woman is dressed like a traveller, but she has no look of wear and tear on any of her clothing. Her brown boots are perfectly clean. Her undyed wool skirt, notably easy to get dirty, has not a speck of grime.
She’s wearing a belt that’s a bit too large for her. Her shirt is notably a bit fancier than you would see from a traveller, with frills at the neck and her cuffs. She, similar to someone else, also has a cloak with a hood, but her hood is down.
She doesn’t seem to have particularly descriptive facial features, but it’s quite clear she’s a human. She has blonde hair with bangs in the front, but the hair itself otherwise not of any particular specialty, like someone else decided on this exact look for it. Her eyes are a shade of dark green.
She looks nervous.
Without any response, Arius slowly steps away from the stranger.
(No hostile intent… I don’t know who this person is, but she doesn’t appear to be initiating combat. Her sudden presence is alarming, but other than that there is nothing amiss. If anything, she claims to be a witness …which has absolutely nothing to do with me anyway.)
Once enough distance is covered (ca. 15 ft), the man in scale mail carefully releases his tensions, turning off his battle stance.
Drakor focused on the young woman, golden eyes gleaming in the sunlight.
(activating Studied Target on Atlas’ character)
((I’m not gonna actually fight but he would definitely do this in anticipation of a fight))
Drakor matched the stranger’s silence, hand still frozen halfway to his belt. Apart from the slow blinking of his eyes and the faint, almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest, he remained perfectly still.
((…ah, heck. Why not? I got infinite uses out of cantrips anyway, and it doesn’t seem like this stare-match will get us anywhere.))
Arius casts Detect Magic on the female traveller, on the corpse of the former magistrate, and on the general vicinity.
((The casting time is one standard action, which is like… 6 secs? But like: No-one is doing anything else anyway.))
[You can’t detect any magic on the corpse, nor (as far as I know, Atlas correct me if I’m wrong) on the new arrival. Apart from that, there are the expected auras you already noticed (such as the auras radiating from Amelia’s character’s extracts), as well as a faint magical aura coming from within Leta Flintbeard’s pack.]
The person who’s been accusing Wanderer looks flustered for a moment, before managing to recover his composure. “I’ve got it! He must have gone back after you saw them split up, killed Kaver, and dumped his body in the creek.”
Leta sighs. “We can’t rule it out, but I’m not sure that that’s likely. Still, if it wasn’t him, that means the true killer is on the loose.” She nods to the woman who just arrived. “Thank you for your testimony, ma’am.”
“…Alright.”
She moves to slink away.
Relieved that the high-tension situation is diffused, Arius chooses to remain silent while occasionally keeping an eye on the witness. He has nothing to report to the militia, and the missing person was found. Dead, perhaps, but found nonetheless.
It is not good to judge people without properly getting acquainted with them, but given the circumstance, Arius put a mental note for himself to be wary of the half-orc (i.e. Wanderer) in the event that the accuser from the militia is correct.
…suddenly, a doubt pops up in the man’s mind, and he begins to approach Martyn Kaver’s body once more to take another look at the body.
((I would like to learn whether Arius can discern whether the cuts were made by blades, bush thorns, claws, etc. Basically, I want to learn whether the former magistrate was murdered by sword, or died from something like falling from a waterfall.))
[You can do that – give me a Heal check or a Perception check, your choice (but tell me which)]
13
Looking more closely at the body, it seems that the most prominent cut, the gash on the stomach, was definitely not natural – the wound is far too clean, with smooth edges, for it to be plausibly the result of a fall. There’s something else about it that looks a little strange, but you can’t put your finger on what’s off.
Some of the smaller cuts do seem more jagged and irregular, consistent with those ones being from natural causes, but that’s hardly surprising given the circumstances under which you found the body.
Having taken a better look at the corpse, Arius presumed the ex-magistrate was indeed murdered.
(In other words, there is a killer on the loose in the vicinity of Granitehill. The thought alone puts a bitter taste to my mouth…)
(Murder happens all the time, but unfortunately not all deaths are equal.)
(For instance, if someone like that guy, who is living a distance away from the village, were to suddenly die… would the militia have reacted as fast as they did for the ex-magistrate?)
(Whatever, I suppose.)
(As long as this is a one-time incident and not the start of a serial killing spree, I should be able to continue working at the village.)
“Ma’am,” Arius says to Leta, realizing in hindsight that he might have unintentionally called the witness. “What are your plans of operations now that the missing person is found?”
(i’d like to make a Lore check about the dead man, provided i’m allowed.)
[yes, you may]
+5, 14