The guards had a mission to accomplish and a killer to catch. Unfortunately for them, most would find little to aid them in their quest. For starters, the message that had been left inside the torso of the latest victim of the Tourney Stalker was written on a blood-soaked scrap of paper. But as Kasamir Arcleht copied the ragged and scrawled message down to give to their chosen translator, he noticed that it was not actually paper. The Leutz-Vixe inside of him forced him to pause and look more carefully at the material, and he came to realize it was not paper, but red silk. Indeed, the material was not as blood-soaked as it had originally appeared, a large part of its color coming from the dye used to make it. He made sure to note that down, both to himself and to Cieli Le'vilja, who stood waiting. She then delivered their copy of the message to Gabriel de Lachance, recently back from his mission abroad. Unfortunately for them, he did not know it immediately and he gave a tisking comment to himself about poor copy work and quality, though this was not entirely fair seeing the message itself had already been in quite a state. Despite the flaws he had inherited from the condition of the message, it took him mere hours to track down its language. When the two guards came before him, he proudly stated: It was Shalota, the language of the Maraya, but possibly the most corrupted and worst version he had ever seen written down. He had only been able to make out the first part of the message, and that was “He shouldn’t...”. But, that was all the man could offer them, and he quickly ushered them out of his home, insisting that they clean up the message and maybe then he could properly help them out. Ernesta von Rahm and Sibyllad Lykke, at the same time, carried out another branch of the investigation. They sat down the boy who had found the body, Thomas, and asked him further questions. While he was initially scared of the bulky female Orc, Ernesta’s words and the eventual realization that Sibyllad was a calm Orc (something the female worked hard to convey despite the swell of irritation at the child) encouraged him to open up to either female. But ultimately, it was a dead end. He told them all he knew, that he had found poor Johan of Calemberg in the tree, and that the man was beloved. He could offer no more help, except for one small point. He mentioned that Johan always took the same weekly route every night when sweeping chimneys in the neighborhood. He weakly joked that everyone in a house knew the sound of Johan so well that they could all point at the roof mere seconds before he got there. “But...of course, three weeks ago, when he hadn’t…” The child stopped. As he left, he added that he hopes the guards catch all the Shadow Elves behind this. Asking why he said that, he mentioned that there were more shadows in the city. Lately, his parents had been talking about them, and that they were here for the war… He stated bitterly that he hated those Elves as he and his mother left the guards to pursue their next course of action. The two guards had similarly bad luck with Johan’s sister and her family. Recently arrived from Calemberg, he lived with his sister, but she nor anyone in the household was suspicious or hid anything from the guards who visited their home. They investigated the man’s room, clean and well kept with a simple copper ring and a small Unionist prayer scroll his only notable possessions. The sister’s husband and Johan got along famously, as had Johan and his drinking buddies at the Flaming Ridgeback. None of them could offer anything but compliments and good things to say about the man. One of the men did mention something, though not about Johan, and in a quiet tone away from the others of his jolly party. A shadow on the rooftops some whispered about over cups at the tavern, all enrobed and moving fast, definitely not a chimney sweep. After what had happened to Johan though, the men who had seen it were too scared to report it fully. Ultimately, the two guards called it a day soon after, with Johan and all he associated with totally clean. Shirina Davenport, Shane Marth and Fiona the Url were similarly out of luck when they did their own investigations, but this time into the past tournaments that had produced victims. The presence of guards made people nervous. All of their investigations were marred by issues as they were often told no more information beyond bare basics were available because it would upset “sensitive clientele” who attended and paid extra to enjoy the matches from special seating. Nothing more could be squeezed from these people, even with an Url guard snorting hot air on them, and at one office, things nearly got ugly. But despite these issues, there were certainly some legitimate people at a few of the tourneys who did try to help them, but ultimately nothing was turned up. In a similar vein to the others, Leonardo Oliveira and Ara Luro investigated the deaths of all the tournament fighters and any ties between them. The only thing they learned was that the victims were usually the winners or the immediate runners-up of the tournaments, but it seemed as if Race, age, and gender didn’t matter, for the death pool was diverse. Orcs, Half Races, Nelfin and Ailor were all victims of the killer. The way of display after death was also the same, chest deep cut, practically opened up, but the two guards would be happy to hear all the victims were dead of what seemed to be battle wounds before their chests were cut into. Ultimately, the Tourney Stalker Case was turning interesting. They had a language, yes, and a possible motive in the type of fighter killed, but tournament masters blocked their attempts to poke deeper into the tournaments while everyone agreed that Johan had no enemies, so who would have wanted him killed? And then there was the rooftop shadow, an enigma hallucinated by half-drunk men? Or someone real, leaping around the city roofs at night...the guards would now have to combine their notes and plan their next step.
