Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Graybeard
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"So what now?" Annabelle asked as soon as the group was clear of the crew quarters.

Leo was on the verge of recommending his idea about looking for a full manifest of crew and passengers (which, when it did come out, would be thought by all to be a good plan) when a panicky-looking Anna-Lisa shook her head vehemently and put a finger to her lips. The message was clear enough: first, find somewhere safe to talk. Right next to the honeymoon suite obviously wouldn't qualify; practically the entire ship's complement would know by now that that was where she was sleeping. That would include Griwoldiel, in all likelihood.

The others could practically see the light bulb come on over Elke's head. "Let's head for that quiet, no-smoking bar." She moved quickly down the corridor and started down the stairs. Once she got to the next deck, however, she stopped and turned to Annabelle. "Got a better idea. Give me something to write on." This was done, and she wrote a single word on it:

CHAPEL

------------

Meanwhile, Edgar was approaching the ship, followed by the Wind Sprite ... and the hard work for Khoo was about to start.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Peee-YOOO!" Edgar complained as soon as he got back to the Majestic Otter. "That thing stinks!"

"So do you," Kevin retorted, amused. "Like a combination of seaweed and burning coal." The familiar cast a reproachful eye at him, but Khoo was doing his best to ignore the repartee. Yes, the Waffenbruderschaft ship would undoubtedly stink, and seaweed draped on the submarine would make it worse. Furthermore, the Wind Sprite, which was what Khoo cared most about, didn't smell so good either ... but that was the point.

"Here, let me help you out," Khoo told the familiar, brandishing a large comb. "Why not just a Hygiene spell?" Edgar grumbled, but he got the point, even as Khoo willed the Wind Sprite into a small jar that he'd picked up from the dining hall. The idea was to collect all the gunk carried by Edgar and the Wind Sprite and do some Forensics magic on it, magic that might shed some light on what the ship, particularly the submarine, was carrying. He held still while Khoo groomed him and dropped unidentifiable stuff into the jar.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Short, but gotta try to keep it moving...]

"What are you going to do with that disgusting stuff?" Jade wanted to know. Khoo didn't answer directly, but placed the jar containing Edgar's dandruff (or whatever it was) just inside the door of the infirmary. Next, he cast what amounted to an Affinities spell, although it was just part of a thaumatic diagnostics suite he'd learned to use for his thesis project. (Brother Miguel and the other Veracians who'd struggled to cast this spell would have been surprised, and no little bit envious, at how easily it came to Khoo, but then again, he was a Tsuirakuan.) He waited a few seconds for the magic to take hold, and then looked carefully at the jar ... and quickly saw what he was looking for.

There were a few particles at the bottom of the jar that were glowing faintly with magic ... just as the blood all over the infirmary was doing.

"There," he said, panting slightly; the spell was relatively easy for him, but it still took some energy. "There's a match. That shows that whoever's blood this is, they're on the sub, or at least they were. We --"

Jade interrupted him. "Or whoever killed them is, if they're clumsy enough not to have cleaned up afterward."

"Maybe," Khoo retreated. "They" --

Kevin's turn to interrupt: "They weren't so clumsy that they couldn't cast the Ward in there, to make sure the crime scene would be discovered..."

"... And blamed on the missus," Edgar finished.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Okay, let's summarize what we learned up there," Elke said as soon as the women and Leo were settled into the chapel and Anna-Lisa had cast a Damping spell to overlay the one that was already there. Elke had to admit: the young Tsuirakuan could drop the lovestruck goofiness and get serious, and magically proficient, when she had to ... although she suspected that the lovestruck goofiness might return at any moment.

She started ticking things off on her fingers. "Item --" she glanced at Leo -- "something has your brother the Captain scared shitless, and that something, or somebody, gave him a memory wipe that he has not been able to fight off completely. Right?" Leo nodded grimly. "And you were unable to get a passenger list from him?" Another nod.

Elke muttered a quiet Farrelian curse and continued, this time looking at Anna-Lisa. "Item: that chief steward Takashi, who you knew back in Tsuiraku, is also scared shitless and has had a memory wipe, and he's another one who has a passenger list that we haven't got our hands on yet. Right?" Anna-Lisa's turn to nod grimly.

"Item," she continued, "Second Officer Niranjan, who we think is on our side and dislikes and distrusts Officer Stuffed Shirt -- '" ("Morokuma," Annabelle supplied) -- "as much as we do, is still alive judging from the snoring from her cabin, and not due to come on duty for a little while." Her own turn for a grim nod. "That's one for our side, although for all we know, her memory might have been screwed around with too. She also will have a passenger list, and she'll probably cooperate in letting us see it."

Anna-Lisa looked like she wanted to say something, but Elke pressed on. "Item: Morokuma himself stomped out of the bridge looking extremely pissed off about something, and we don't know what. Yet another one who --"

Anna-Lisa couldn't hold it in any longer. "One of the Morokumas," she corrected Elke, who scowled but let her continue. "We saw a second Morokuma who was still on the bridge. But that one is really Waldo Griwoldiel. I'm just sure of it." She shuddered theatrically.

"And meanwhile, a whole shit-pot full of people have died," Eve chipped in. "With evidence that some of 'em have been reduced to body parts."

The ship's horn sounded again (which would interrupt Khoo, one corridor away, in the middle of another Forensics spell); the ship was getting ready to get under way. There was a brief, enthusiastic round of swearing. Apparently the horn could somehow defeat the Damping, or for all they knew, it had a sub-horn actually blasting off in the chapel. Either way, when her ears stopped ringing, Elke summarized. "So there is abundant evidence that some kind of organ-smuggling operation is going on here. and we don't know who is on what side of it. But there is somebody in the picture who can cast damn powerful mind magic; there is somebody who kills without even thinking about it; and --" another arch look at a blushing Anna-Lisa -- "there is now somebody on the bridge with arch-mage-level shape-shifting skills, for Luminosita alone knows what reason, and he may know that we're onto him."

"And," Leo added miserably, "I don't even know whether my brother knows that his first officer has been compromised, since he had the smoldering shit-pot that is his brain wiped."

"That too," Elke muttered, and things got quiet for a small interval.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Is there any way to restore his memories?" Leo suggested. "I don't know about you Elke, but I'm starting to feel as if we're grasping at straws here. Me and mine are better at being criminals than investigating them."


OOC Just a short one. But I finally made a post./OOC
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Hey, welcome back, long may it last! And thanks for the hook to get "Professor Patel" back in the picture; he has been seen before, but not named. /OOC]
"Is there any way to restore his memories?"
All eyes turned to Anna-Lisa, since she was the one spellcaster among those in the chapel. She shifted uncomfortably before answering. "I -- don't know," she finally said. "Not my field of magical specialization. But yeah, I think that a good Lifemage, like this missing Saraya is supposed to be, could help get some of them back. Problem is, she's missing." She did not seem bothered by her redundancy.

Elke remembered something. "Saraya's husband, a Professor Patel I think, is supposed to have archmage-level body-magic skills. He --"

"-- And to be perpetually drunk on his ass since his wife went missing," Annabelle interrupted to remind her.

Elke did not exactly welcome the interruption, but she had to admit, her underling was right. "Well, if we can dry him out, he might be able --"

As if on cue, before she could finish the sentence, a disheveled man wobbled through the door and into the chapel past the boundary of the Damping, eyes red and body reeking of alcohol and other things, but wearing the robes of an archmage. "S-shorry," the man slurred. "My mishtake, thought this was the men'sh john. 'Shcuse me." He turned to go ...

------------

...Just as, one cross-corridor away, Edgar was perking up his ears as Khoo swore virulently about the interruption of his Forensics spell.

"Uh-oh, gotta go, the boss is up," the familiar said apologetically, and took off on magical wings, heading for the chapel.

[OOC: So enter Saraya's husband. I have little on him, except for what's above, and the facts that (1) he is genuinely distressed about the disappearance of his wife and (2) Edgar can vouch for having been with him when various people got dead, so he's not a suspect in their deaths -- assuming that Edgar isn't either, anyway. Otherwise, he's fair game for some development; enjoy. :lol: ]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Leo strode forward at the entrance of the distraught drunk, putting on his best business smile and extending a friendly hand.

"Professor Patel I presume? You're just the man we were looking for. My name is Leo, Leo Landau. I'm the brother of the Captain. My companions and I are charged with finding the bastard who is responsible for your loss. We were hoping you could lend us a hand."
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Sorry this has taken a few days, long story. Once again, feel free to put words in Patel's mouth...]

Patel, for it was he, blinked blearily at Leo. "She ain't lossht, she'sh jusht misshin..." he managed to get out, and then, incongruously, he broke into tears.

"Know any magic for sobering this guy up?" Elke asked Anna-Lisa, sotto voce, getting only a headshake in response, as expected; a Healer could probably dispel the toxins in the man's system, but there was this little problem that that was exactly who was "misshin." [OOC: As far as I can tell, nobody in this sub-group knows that Tori is the ship's assistant/apprentice Lifemage, but in any event, I don't think she's experienced enough to know the relevant magic. Anyway...] She was trying to figure out what else to try, when from the main corridor at the end of the cross-corridor with the chapel came a loud "BOSS!"

Patel turned to look at the source of the noise, just in time for that source, Edgar, to impact on his midsection with an audible thump. Mage and familiar went down in a heap, the former recovering his footing first, improbably enough. With a wide grin on his face, he slurred, "Where ya bin, ya big ape?", but before Edgar could reply, the tears started again.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Moving it along a little more, since the other half-group has been sitting around while Khoo casts spells:]

Meanwhile, Khoo's Forensics spells were starting to show interesting things.

The dander from Edgar's fur, unsurprisingly, showed traces of pretty much all of the investigators, even if none of them had ever been aboard the Waffenbruderschaft ship or sub. (Had they?) The smoke and ash brought back by the Wind Sprite did not, with one curious exception: Kevin.

"Now wait a minute," that large, fit, if injured, fellow started to complain. "I've never been on a damn Waffenbruderschaft ship in my life. How could --"

Khoo cut him off. "Peel out of your shirt for a second."

"Huh?"

"This is the same shirt you were wearing when somebody unknown busted up your shoulder in the gym, right?"

Kevin was getting the message. Without another word, he dropped his shirt (revealing a buff body, apart from the bruising around the shoulder, that Jade couldn't help but notice) and handed it to Khoo, who was still concentrating on his spell ... and lo and behold, magic glowed on the shirt, particularly at the shoulder that had received the blow, but not on Kevin's torso.

"So the bastard that did this to me is on that ship or sub somewhere," Kevin growled.

"It would appear so. Are any of your tampered memories of that -- mugging, might as well call it what it was, coming back?"

Kevin concentrated hard. "No. Just, I guess I'd say, mind shadows."

"As expected. Damn -- we need Saraya. Still, we're learning things," Khoo concluded, "but some of the big questions are unanswered. Anybody got ideas on where we could find stuff from some of the other interesting people to test against?"

[OOC: And that's your cue. :-) Feel free to lead this crew traipsing around as the ship is getting ready to get in motion.]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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OOC I'm going to need to re-read this whole thing to figure out where to go next. I just came off a month where I had 3 days off and then went straight into being ill for a week. I'll have free time at work tomorrow./OOC
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