Café de Nuit

Jamethon responds to Ino:

''Well, I wasn't able to get much of anything from the fellows who handled the other six bodies, but I did at least find them. It's just as Watch-Captain Rask said: several victims, of various ages and of both sexes, all with their heads cut clean off their necks. With so many dead, it took a while for anyone to put together a pattern....by which time the bodies had been burnt to ashes. No one seems to know for sure if this fellow Delthrin brought in a headless body.''

Asked about the book, he comments-

'' I started reading about Damara months ago, when we were guests of Lord Scoril. It was Lord Scoril who lent me this book. Sadly its mates were lost in the fire. With Sergej planning a military expedition to Damara, I thought it would be helpful for me to gain a better understanding of the situation in that country. ''

''As for the Witch King, I gather he was an evil wizard of great power. Ah....I suspect the Damarans in our company know more about him. He seems to be an important figure in their nation's history.''

"I dunno much about tha Witch King, unfortunately. Afore me time, I fear. Mebbe that ole man there" she says with a twinkle in her eye as she points to Archedius "Knows more."

Shana shrugs, relaxing in her chair

"Who cares which king? What are you going to do about the decapitator stalking the streets as we speak? If this conversation is drifting off into the history of the far north, I have other places to be..."

tarlyn wrote:Thass like human ale an me. It tastes like goat droppins and has no kick to it. Yet people still have it.

Blaise pauses in mid-sip. "Well, I'm glad I ordered the wine..." he mutters.

kintire wrote:Shana shrugs, relaxing in her chair

"Who cares which king? What are you going to do about the decapitator stalking the streets as we speak? If this conversation is drifting off into the history of the far north, I have other places to be..."

"Yes, I love history more than most, and later I'd very much like to talk to Lord Scoril about his family tree, but this doesn't appear to be related to the headless bodies." He looks at the group. "The description of Fortis that you got sounds much like Delthrin: an older but very muscular gentleman. Yes, it could be the same person.

"Delthrin was very precise in his language to us, specifically saying that he's not murdered or beheaded any woman in the past month, and that he did not recover the body of a lover. Yet if Fortis and Delthrin ARE the same, then he couldn't have been responsible for taking this girl Nell's body ... unless of course Deltrin/Fortis and Nell were never lovers in the first place. And that's IF the body was Nell's. Too many if's."

Jamethons shrugs and says-


''Yes, back to the matter at hand. I agree with Rardi, this Delthrin bears watching. Necromancy is black magic, it corrupts those who practice it- in soul, mind and body. I don't know whether he is behind these murders, but whatever the case, I don't trust him one whit!''


Jamethon finishes his drink.

''Well, I don't suppose I've learned anything new today, regarding the murders, I mean to say. Do we have anything else to go on, my friends? Who or what might have done these murders, and why? Who cuts people's heads off just like so, anyway?''

"Someone cuts people's head to prevent them turning to vampires or to recognize them. Actually we are not sure that this woman is Nell and we know nothingabout the other 7 victims. Since all of us seem to agree that Delthrin is Fortis or that at least has nothing to hide better ask Captain Rask if he knows his lastname."

Turning to Rardi Inovidil asks:

"Rardi, can cast any divinaton spell and ask Lathander for any clues?"

"I'm not sure this person cut the head off cause he/she thought it was a Vampire. It's too clean cut. It is probably somethin else. It's too nasty a crime ta be a Vampire Hunter. I gots experience in Vampires an I ne'er seen that afore. Plus, if twer a Vampire how'd it get cut clean like that? Is way too clean cut fer that. The Vampire had ta let the person do that cause he or she'd have ta be close to cut it that clean."

Jamethon says-

''Too clean? Oh yes, Rask did say it was all single-strokes that did them in, didn't he? That's rather impressive, taking a man's head off with just one cut. ''

"The person who did that wasn't a vampire, most probably was someone very skilled with axes or heavy swords. There are many spells that can polymorph a wizard or give him high strength but even with them do such clean cut would be difficult. For this reason I said about divination, I think someone else is behind this."

VAN wrote:"The person who did that wasn't a vampire, most probably was someone very skilled with axes or heavy swords. There are many spells that can polymorph a wizard or give him high strength but even with them do such clean cut would be difficult. For this reason I said about divination, I think someone else is behind this."

Jamethon asks-

'''Someone very skilled with axes or swords, eh? A soldier, maybe...or an exceutioner? A mad headsman? ''

"A soldier or a fighter. We can ask about adventurers that were here during the catastrophe, fighters, rangers or even barbarians."

Inovidil turns to Ironheart

"No offence, we know that you came here only 2 days ago."

Then turns to Jamethon and continues:

"Also the one who did that should knew what will happen if a vampire bite someone and wanted to prevent that. Or he wanted to hide the victims identities. Without heads will be very difficult to recognize them. But in that last case why bother do a clean cut? He could behead the victims with more hits. I'm a little confused about that actually..."

Inovidil sighs as she says that.

"Also we are not sure that was only one who did that, maybe were more."

"No offense, but even with an experienced headsman or warrior, it will rarely ever be one stroke. By the Hells, you have to PAY a headsman to take fewer blows for your execution! Never underestimate the capacity of a body to take a blow- and bear in mind the corpses didn't appear to have been restrained."

Archedius rubs his lips with his thumb, "No, no, we're dealing with one of three things: magic in the form of enchanted weapons or a spell, an inhuman executioner or something mechanical."

Inovidil looks at Archedius perplexad.

"Mechanical? Do you mean a construct or a golem? Both use to have high strength but need very precise instructions to do that. Also cost very much to craft them."

Turning to Inovidil Rardi tells the mage "Yeah, I kin cast some divination to try an get some clues in tha mornin. But I dun think it'll help much. Commune is a better spell but I can' cast it."

Shana frowns slightly in puzzlement

"Didn't appear to be restrained? You don't know that, do you? We haven't seen the bodies. Anyway, it seems to me you have two lines of investigation. Nell, and what she was doing just before her vanishment, and The Necromancer... likewise. If you can identify some people connected to either who are also missing, you might be able to work out what the common factor is the lead to their deaths. I think I have a lead in to some of Nell's colleagues who might know a bit about her. I might chase those up... in a purely freelance way."