Damien - Human (?) Sorcerer (288 points)
Morgan Merkle - Human Mentalist (317 points)
Boras Stormtouched - Human Initiate of Kord, the god of battle and storms (132 points)
Sindri Blackshield - Tiefling Knight (325 points)
Virgil the Grim - Human Barbarian-Swashbuckler (318 points)
Day 183 (Cont.):
Amothius 23nd, 2526
Weather: Heavy Rain
The party sent Lyn away and brought Yong Han to the "interrogation room". He confirmed that the dagger found in the back of Master Fung belonged to him, but the only other thing the party discovered was that he thought very highly of himself, and wanted to leave the temple to explore the outside world. With all three suspects interviewed, they took the dagger to Master Evard to have him use Psychometry to get any useful info out of it.
Evard got nothing out of it, confirming that the dagger was not the murder weapon, so the party went to the kitchens to track down the source of the poisoned tea. Thanks to Morgan's Diplomacy, they were able to learn from a burly cook that Jung had come to take the tea to Master Fung last night, and was accompanied by Lyn when he left.
They next went to the gardens and spoke to a blind gardener who pointed them towards the red lotus plant, which Virgil noticed was missing enough buds to create Naga's Blood poison. They headed to the library to find a formulary for the poison, but discovered that the three pages detailing the recipe had been torn out. The party then had the idea to search the suspects' rooms, only to discover that each shared a bunkroom with 4 other acolytes.
After much searching, they discovered the missing pages in Yong Han's mattress. After a debate as to whether Yong Han was being double-framed (poorly), or if he was some kind of criminal genius completely outplaying them with feigned ineptitude, they decided to bring each of the accused to Evard to have him read their thoughts during another round of questioning.
The second round of interrogation didn't get any new facts, other than that Lyn and Jung were (possibly) romantically involved, and that Lyn would like to leave the temple, so the party headed to the apothecary, right beside the gardens, to see if anyone had been brewing poisons recently. The master in charge hadn't seen anyone there, but recalled hearing the sound of breaking glass while sleeping the night before. A quick search found that one of the setups had been used, but that there was no signs of any missing or broken equipment.
A look in the master's bed chamber found that there was a window which looked over the cliff, and on the walkway 50' below, shards of porcelain could be seen; the missing teacup! Damien cast Hawk Flight on Virgil, but at that moment, a harpy flew in to grab the shiny shards. Virgil flew down (at Move 30), slammed the harpy clear off the cliffside, and grabbed the bits of shattered teacup.
They took the remains of the teacup back to Evard, who confirmed that Lyn had poisoned it while Jung was distracted the night before. However, the party were unsure of her motives, and returned to an earlier clue: the mysterious scratches on the windowsill. A quick look around Master Fung's chambers found a spot on the bookshelf with no dust, where something was clearly missing. Damien suggested looking on the roof, as Lyn had clearly been Levitating when she had grabbed it.
Sindri climbed up and found a small wooden box, which contained Master Fung's journal. It detailed, amongst other things, which of the three suspects he had chosen as the next Jade Eye, and the party discovered that Fung had chosen Yong Han over Lyn, because she hadn't trusted him, for some reason. They showed the book to Lyn, and she became furious that Yong Han, the overconfident hothead, would be put in charge instead of someone like Master Evard.
With Lyn's guilt and motive confirmed, the party convinced Evard to execute her, rather than exile her to the Iron Forest, as she was too dangerous. Virgil gave Yong Han his dagger back, and let him read Master Fung's journal. Yong Han flipped through until he saw his name, got very excited that he was going to be in charge, and promised the town of Carda both military and monetary aid.
Their mission complete, Damien, Sindri, and Virgil went to the Fountain of the White Poppy to find answers they had been seeking. Sindri realized that the Gloves of Climbing +3 he wanted had been inside himself all along, and Virgil realized that he could find Dante through teamwork and perseverance.
More importantly, Damien realized something more tangible: his features clearly marked him as being of infernal parentage, and one of his parents must have orphaned him deliberately, while the other was a devil, uninterested in raising a child. But he knew somebody else who had had dealings with devils: the orcs besieging Carda!
Day 184:
Amothius 24th, 2526
Weather: Clear Skies
In the morning, Lyn was executed in the temple courtyard. Shortly afterward, the ceremony to appoint Yong Han as the next Jade Eye took place, and, at its conclusion, he gave the party a pot of gold with which to pay the dragon, and swore that a contingent led by Jung would join the defenders of Carda.
Notes:
It went well, for the most part. The biggest problem was that they got caught up on who had planted the papers torn from the book; clearly nobody would be so incompetent as to frame the same person twice? I had to inform them that they were overthinking it and that Lyn had just been sloppy.
Damien brought up an interesting point, before they showed Lyn the book: if she didn't know why or how she'd killed Master Fung, could she really be said to have murdered him?
XP:
2 for general success
MVP went to Morgan for taking the lead during questioning
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