The Seven Assassins (Fantasy RP)(Started, Closed)

[Malbourne]

I hope nobody was seriously hurt in the explosions.

Kaddika shivered in spite of the weather as he peered at the roiling water hundreds of feet below them. "They couldn't do it in daylight...could they?" He backed away from the side rail nervously. "Somebody would have noticed. Unless they were in disguise, I mean."

 

[Josh123914]

I hope nobody was seriously hurt in the explosions.

Kaddika shivered in spite of the weather as he peered at the roiling water hundreds of feet below them. "They couldn't do it in daylight...could they?" He backed away from the side rail nervously. "Somebody would have noticed. Unless they were in disguise, I mean."

Brady looked at the slim Snow elf, scratching his face ''Well, the bridge is watched at all hours, but guards aren't told to check under the bridge. If I had to guess, the explosives were planted either at night or by ship, since travellers wouldn't just plant them when people could see''

Dareon knew of Brady, a shrewd man who had been working the patrols since before Dareon was born. It was also a surprise that he was even alive, since most of the City Guard had been slaughtered before the Mercenary Army arrived.
''I'll check this store tower of yours for any missing equipment'' Dareon told the elderly guard, there's bound to be something there that would give them a lead, and the Southron Barracks would be useless, since the Assassins were smart enough to put that building to the torch.

Telesse heard all she wanted, ''Alright, I'm going to check the remains of the bridge'' she told them, jogging towards the first blast site.
By the time she arrived at the site, she was out of the cold shadow of the city walls and into the warm sunlight of the bay, with a small breeze catching her long brown hair. She knelt, and performed a couple of motions, and the small chunk of rock detached from the broken bridge, sailing down below the bridge.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Marcelle looked up from her own examination of the rubble to see Telesse running straight for her. Well, not quite. In point of fact, the young human trader had been heading for a nearby chunk of rock, which she set into the bay for no apparent reason. Which in itself was enough to set off an alarm bell in the private eye's head.

"New at this, are we?" Ms. Mauri called out to the newcomer, approaching her with a friendly smile, "It's generally a very good idea to preserve the crime scene as much as possible. Oh, and don't roll your eyes at me as if it were obvious to you because clearly," the P.I. indicated where the rock had been a moment ago, "it isn't."

----

A few hours ago...

Marcelle had been tracking down information on who might have taken out the bridge, and where the official investigation would be focused. She hadn't made any real headway on the former beyond half the traders in the city... but the latter on the other hand...

"Hmm... I'm afraid my memory ain't so good anymore, miss..." the old stall-clerk with a raspy wheeze. He did a good job of feigning stupidity... right up until the impatient elf tossed two more gold coins his way, "Ah! It's coming back to me like it was yesterday."

"It bloody well should," Marcelle cursed under her breath, "It would have only happened about an hour ago."

"Now now missy, just 'cause I'm getting on in years don't..."

"Just tell me where the guards are focusing their investigation!"

"All right, all right. A friend of mine who works at their HQ as a scullery maid had just been about to pop off for lunch when she overheard a bunch of big-wigs making worried bleatings about the bridge that blew up the other day."

"Thanks!" and with that, Marcelle ran straight for said bridge. As it turned out, she'd beaten the main investigation by about 15 minutes.

---

Now.

"Oh... one other thing... well... two, really." Marcelle said, stepping a bit closer to the newcomer, "What was your name again, you look familiar for some reason, and more importantly, you look like a trader. A young one, yes, but still a trader. And after the attack, there are only two kinds of traders in this city: those that benefited from the attack, and those on the brink of having to close shop for good. So... which one are you?"

 

[Quintley]

Marlocke fixed a critical eye on Brady. "It's my understanding that few of the bridge Guard survived. What can you tell me of the combatants? The assailants we faced were...somewhat disorganised."
And yet, think of the damage they caused, he thought, looking at the wreckage that surrounded them.

 

[Malbourne]

"They seemed that way," Kaddika said, crossing his arms contemplatively. "But could it be a coincidence a bunch of rioters happened to torch the inn we were supposed to meet at? Somebody must have been assigning targets." He shook his head. "The swan serpent always has a head, as they say. The assailants must have some element in common, like an insignia, a tattoo, even an accent. Maybe the targets they had will tell us something." He hesitated. "Um, s-sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."

 

[Quintley]

Marlocke looked appraisingly at Kaddika. "A coincidence? Perhaps. But in that case, they were being unusually...thorough...about trying to eliminate the patrons of a fairly unremarkable tavern." He waved a hand irritably, as if dismissing the notion.
"This attack was chaotic, yes, but the riots started almost simultaneously. It must have been organised in advance. I would say that, from the perspective of a band of active assassins, a particularly tempting target would be a meeting of the group tasked with tracking them down. Especially if the meeting was in such an unprotected and, ah, collapsible location."

He paused for dramatic effect at this point. Marlocke had no intention of letting anyone forget about the effrontery of a person of his position having a building fall on top of them.
"Also consider - there could have been an individual target in the tavern, with the rest of the destruction used to cover this up." He shrugged, and gestured toward the store tower. "Dareon, perhaps." He refrained from adding "or myself", but was certainly thinking it.

 

[Malbourne]

"Oh..." The elf looked away, thinking. "If it was organized in advance-" He gasped, rounding on the inquisitor, his voice panicked. "But that-that would mean...Did somebody leak the meeting's location? That wouldn't be possible! W-weren't we all brought in from outside?" He shuddered. "Or maybe we were being followed! There could be a bunch of assassins watching us right now..."

What if it was Marlocke who'd been followed? Wasn't he a person of stature in the city? And what about Dareon or Telesse? How could anybody they worked for be trusted? Kaddika felt his head starting to hurt. He didn't know enough about this city to probe every one of these questions!

 

[Josh123914]

...after the attack, there are only two kinds of traders in this city: those that benefited from the attack, and those on the brink of having to close shop for good. So... which one are you?"
Telesse looked up at the figure now towering above her, ''I was at Port Neven during the fire. Oh, and neither, I'm hired by Dareon'' she called up, having her rock slab scale down the bridge's white supporting column. ''So should I explain what I'm seeing or what? Because there seems to be a lot of soot here''

The assailants we faced were...somewhat disorganised. ''Well no surprise, if I was to commit a crime like this, I'D have others do at least one of the jobs for me.'' Brady had been at his job for long enough to know that be it petty thieves or scheming merchants, those with high aspirations rarely dirty their hands personally with the likes of him.
''As for how they ambushed us, they came from the Walls and the smoke, so either they were ferried by the bay... or...'' Brady stopped, glancing over the bridge's precipice to a small pipe jutting out from under the city and into the bay. ''Tunnels.''

Dareon ruffled through endless piles of burnt tinder, but to no avail. Squatting on a charred plank, he pondered for a moment. Who could gain from an attack here? Well merchants and traders with stock in shipping, but that's too large to wade through.
The attacks didn't need to be for the same goal.
Glancing onto the large walls that now no longer shadowed him, he noticed something peculiar.
Now, with guards here dead, and new ones reluctant to come forth, who would benefit from that? And who would replace them?
''The Mercenaries'' He mumbled.
Leering at the new sentries that oversaw the ruined bridge, clad in armour of various sizes and shapes.

 

[Quintley]

"Tunnels?" Marlocke repeated, following the guard's gaze. "They'd have to be pretty large, given the size of the force. And they'd have to climb up..." He peered over the edge down into the bay, skeptical of the suggestion. Then again...
Certainly now with the support columns ruined, it would be difficult for any non-mage to scale the bridge, but with the bridge intact it could have been possible for the assailants to climb up and surprise the guards.

He straightened up. Obviously, the possibility would have to be checked out. And, obviously, there is no way that he would be doing such a dangerous task himself. With all the wreckage, you'd have to be mad to--
Marlocke turned to the snow elf. "Do you see the fairy anywhere?"

 

[Malbourne]

Kaddika started. "Uh..." I completely forgot he was supposed to be meeting us at the bridge. "He wasn't at the tower either, was he? If he's not here, he could be anywhere."

...Unless the fairy had been intercepted by somebody else. Hopefully Dareon or another one of their friends; for all they knew the tiny companion was already in the hands of the assassins, having his feet roasted for information. But then, maybe he'd think they were courteously massaging his heels.

"Short of teleportation, I don't think there's any way we can count on Felldryt to show up in the next few seconds."