Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Jade helped Kevin lean against a helpful wall and stepped around the retching Khoo. She went white at the sight of the scene before her.

"Oh.. Gods." She said quietly. "How many people is that now? That's too much blood for someone to be still..."

The blacksmith began casting around for a trail to indicate the direction the body must've been dragged in. If the victim had been hurt that badly they would've hardly left the cabin on their own.

......

"Speaking of which, if you see one, let me know, okay?"

"You'll be the first person I'll tell." Leo said, not meaning a word of it. Something about his sudden companion was rubbing the mercenary the wrong way and the urge to pry was rising in him.

"So, are you just here for the smoke and the view..." He nodded in the direction the half-elf had gone. "...or do you have business on this cruise? I've never held with the 'don't mix business with pleasure' motto myself. I often find some pleasure enhances the whole experience."

OOC Just a quick one. I'll knuckle down and re-read the thread in the next day or two./OOC
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Graybeard
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Really pleased to be resuming both of these, and it would be extremely fabulous to get some other people involved with the Majestic Otter! Just to respond to what you wrote, with the possibility that the second one will allow two or maybe more sub-threads to merge some time soon:]
"So, are you just here for the smoke and the view..." He nodded in the direction the half-elf had gone. "...or do you have business on this cruise? I've never held with the 'don't mix business with pleasure' motto myself. I often find some pleasure enhances the whole experience."
Heinrich chortled again, blew another smoke ring. "All three." He too nodded toward the door where Tori had lingered. When he continued, his booming voice had dropped several more notches in volume. "See, looking after, as well as at, that beautiful young ass is business." Another smoke ring, and another drop in volume. "Don't tell anybody I said that, okay?"

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

Khoo fought back nausea. "I'm not much for the kind of magic that might help here," he confessed. "I did have an 'Introduction to Divination' class a couple of years ago. Let me see what I can remember from it." Truthfully, he was pretty sure the answer was going to be "nothing useful," but the effort would at least get his mind off what he was seeing.

He hadn't yet cast anything when he, Jade, and probably Kevin heard footsteps approaching in the corridor. He was instantly on his guard as he peeked around the door ... and saw the comely Tori, whose derriere had attracted so much attention in the bar a couple of minutes earlier, briskly drawing near.

"I, uh, heard I was needed here," she said, puffing slightly as she got close to the door and Khoo. "Our Lifemage is -- off duty, I'm just her assistant and student intern, but can I help you? I do have a bunch of Healing magic." A frown crossed her pretty face. "You're not supposed to be in here without one of us, though, so please --"

She abandoned her sentence as she looked through the door.

"OH, GODS!" she had time to yell before her retching joined Khoo's, rather more explosively.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Annabelle had an idea. "Maybe the chief steward? He has to know where all his own people are, at least."

It didn't take long for Elke to nod approval. "Let's see if we can find him, and then come back to this subject after we do."


"Leo gave me a pretty detailed layout of the ship from his brother after we arrived." Eve said. Admitting her surrogate older brother had been helpful wasn't something that came easily to the young mercenary but she did it anyway. The fact was she'd found herself becoming more appreciative of the people who'd taken her into their home as she'd gotten older. "I'm sure we can track him down lickety split. The real question is; how do you want to play this? Are we going in sweet as candy or hard as nails? I'm good either way."

OOC I'm keeping my posts short for now to knock the rust off. If you need my characters to do anything specific to advance the plot just pm me grey./OOC
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Graybeard
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: The "pretty detailed layout" remark got me thinking: I'd probably misjudged where Takashi, the chief steward, would spend most of his time, at least when the boat was not in harbor (and remember, it's standing off from land at this island). So let's put him where he belongs -- momentarily -- and move forward, in more ways than one.]

"Oh, I know where that is!" Anna-Lisa said as Eve described the location of the ship's officers' quarters. "It's right down the corridor from our honeymoon suite!" She paused long enough to sigh theatrically; romantically. "Come on, follow me, and I'll take you there!"

So the ship's Lifemage doesn't rate accommodations with the rest of the officers, huh? That's interesting, Elke thought as the women made their way to the bridge deck. (Speaking of bridge and decks, a loud, acrimonious argument was coming from a card table in one of the nominally quiet lounges as they passed. Silly, to get that wound up over a card game, Elke thought, but it was none of her business. This may or may not have been accurate.)

Disappointment awaited on the top deck, though. The hallway beyond the honeymoon suite ended in a very obvious hatch with an "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" sign on it. There was also a highly conspicuous Ward glittering on the hatch. Anna-Lisa studied this, decided she could disarm it easily, but also decided it would probably be a good idea not to, at least not yet. Was Khoo starting to rub off on her? Then, reverting to form, she got an idea ...

"Aha! I know! We'll just pretend that we're going into our suite for a card game, just like down in that lounge! But I'll fumble around and make it look like I lost my key, and then we'll call for a steward, and Takashi will pop right out! It's perfect!" None of the women having Khoo's extensive experience with Anna-Lisa's "perfect" plans, the groans from this declaration weren't as loud as they should have been.

In fact, however, almost no subterfuge was needed. The women were still in Stage 1 of Anna-Lisa's plan, milling around in front of the door, when the Ward dissipated and the hatch opened, to allow three people to pass their way from the officers' quarters. Only one of them was expected.

First, and most surprising, was the large woman whom Anna-Lisa had seen being menaced by the unpleasantly deceased (maybe...) Chigaku Kawamura as they were preparing to board. Glowering like a thundercloud with a bouffant hairdo, she swept by the group without deigning to notice them, swearing under her breath in Tsuirakuan and at least two other languages as she went.

She was followed only a few seconds later by First Officer Morokuma, the man the crew called "The Stuffed Shirt". The insulting nickname fit here; he was all decked out in his regalia, including some medals that none of the women recognized, and looking just as thunderous as the woman had. He did, however, deign to notice the four, and snarled, "No unauthorized personnel allowed beyond here. Can't you read the sign? That means you." Honor thus satisfied, he stalked off without awaiting a reply. The ten-second lead the large woman got on him as a result of this pause might have been significant. It might not have.

And finally, Chief Steward Takashi stepped through the hatch, trembling like a leaf, sweating profusely, and looking white as a sheet.

[OOC: And on that note, which I'd been pondering for weeks -- sorry if it's too long as a result -- over to you....]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Eve took in the man's appearance with an uncharacteristic note of concern, waving a hand to get his attention.

"Uh buddy? Is everything ok? You look even paler than my red headed friend."

OOC Glad the forum's finally back. I'll get to writing more when I can./OOC
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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Takashi's ashen face turned quickly from one of the women to the next, with a distinct deer-in-the-headlights demeanor, or what would have been such a demeanor if the deer was facing four sets of headlights. "I -- I -- can't --" was about all he could get out, until finally, he got to Anna-Lisa.

"Taka?" she said, as gently as she could manage; being gentle wasn't one of her strengths. She extended a hand toward the terrified man, only to find that he jumped away as though it was holding a snake.

The gesture did achieve its purpose, however, at least a little bit. Takashi shook himself and managed to get out a complete sentence. "A.L., I -- I'm not supposed to talk about it."

True to form, Anna-Lisa immediately blew the chance to get her friend from her Mesuinu Enterprises days calmed down. "Talk about what? What's so scary that --"

Takashi didn't wait for the rest of the sentence. He took off at a run for the far end of the corridor, past the honeymoon suite, and went pounding down the stairs.

"Should I have stopped him?" Annabelle wondered to Elke, who shook her head. "From the way he was acting, he might have had some kind of magic on him that would have just killed him on the spot, maybe worse. And speaking of magic --"

In his haste, the chief steward had left the hatch wide open. The corridor through officers' quarters lay before them; and even Elke and Annabelle, neither a spellcaster, could tell that it was redolent of magic.

[OOC: One thing to work out before we move on. Who, on a ship this size, would rate a cabin in officers' quarters? Morty and the first officer, obviously. Niranjan is known to have a small berth there, and presumably the navigator and chief engineer, neither of whom has appeared here (yet?), would too. Any others?]
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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OOC Update. I'm now re-reading the entire thread so I can get back to making longer posts. Might take another day or two. Hope you're having a good week Grey :D

I think if there's a head of entertainment they'd probably get a cabin too. /OOC
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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OOC: Good catch about the entertainment person. There would also have to be a chief purser, distinct from the captain or chief steward. Which is giving me an idea ...) I'll try to do a bit of research about others. Having things done magically can only go just so far (and, in the case of the Mesuinus, probably in a weird direction).

Take your time. Rereading some of this seems like a good idea for me too, actually. If you find references to other senior crew before I do, feel free to "adopt" them and put them in the crew's quarters for fun times ahead.
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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"Don't tell anybody I said that, okay?"

"Of course not." Leo replied with the most convincing smile he could muster. "Well, time and tide wait for no man and I have a little business of my own to attend to. I'm sure I'll see you later."

With that the handsome mercenary got up from his seat with a nod and made for the exit. Mentally filing Heinrich under 'persons of interest' as he did. There was nothing wrong with a little cockiness and perversion as far as he was concerned, but something about the man was rubbing him the wrong way.

In any event he had a message to follow up on, although the low throb still in his jaw had him inclined to twist the blade as far as his brother's 'trouble' went.

...................

In his haste, the chief steward had left the hatch wide open. The corridor through officers' quarters lay before them; and even Elke and Annabelle, neither a spellcaster, could tell that it was redolent of magic.

Eve cursed internally and gave a sigh that was tinged with an edge of dread; she hated magic. She looked slowly and deliberately at the other women and then back to the open hatch.

"I'll go first if no-one else wants to." She said. "I'm pretty sure pregnant women and students shouldn't be leading the charge in this magical mystery tour."

...................

"OH, GODS!" she had time to yell before her retching joined Khoo's, rather more explosively.

Jade's colour was coming back slowly. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on one's perspective) blood had been something she'd seen a lot of in recent years. The blacksmith absently scooped up a bowl and handed it to the retching lifemage assistant to catch whatever was about to come of her mouth before returning to her investigation.

"Is it just me, or does everything seem easier with magic?" She mused. "A detection spell to identify blood, for instance. That would be useful here. Or some, I don't know, aura tracking spell to find the path the son of a bitch who did the stabbing took after they left would be a help or..."

Then she spotted the boot print. A bloody stamp near the main puddle.

"...the mark I eyeball has it's uses I suppose." A half smile crossed her lips. "See the pattern on that? We might finally have a clue to identifying our resident murderer."


OOC Of course, the size of the boot print and what the pattern is I leave to you./OOC
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Re: Murder on the Majestic Otter

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[OOC: Nothing more from Heinrich, who's just enjoying his cigar and ogling whoever the best-looking women are in the lounge, now that Tori has left. Thanks for the boot print; I can work with that...]

"I'll go first if no-one else wants to." She said. "I'm pretty sure pregnant women and students shouldn't be leading the charge in this magical mystery tour."

"Oh, no problem," Anna-Lisa said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "That's just a Damping spell."

"Huh?" said three voices at once.

"Keeps the noise down," she went on. "Crew work strange hours. Lots of traffic while they're trying to sleep, so a hard-wired Damping is in the hall so the noise doesn't keep them awake. Totally harmless, totally safe, in fact we--" She stopped mid-sentence. She'd been about to say that she and Khoo had found it expedient to cast a Damping spell when putting the honeymoon suite to its intended use, having discovered through experience that her boyfriend could be a bit, er, loud. Even Anna-Lisa had limits as regards getting into intimate details on things, however, as she'd realized just in time.

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

Tori gulped and pushed the bowl back. "Th-thank you," she said, "but I don't think I'll need that. I'll -- I'll be okay now." That might have been true for some definitions of "okay," but she still looked pale.

She wasn't too shaken to respond to the needling about magic, at least; Khoo was already getting some basic detection magic up, and she was only seconds behind him. She was also only seconds behind him when he frowned and shook his head, puzzled. "That's weird," he said. "No signs of magic on the blood, except for one thing. It's actively resisting the spells. Somebody went to some effort to cover their magical tracks."

"Didn't cover that one, though," Kevin chimed in as he saw where Jade was pointing; he was getting his equilibrium back as well, although he was still rather the worse for the injury. "Looks like a woman's boot," he added with a bit of surprise in his voice. "See the pointed toe, thin foot?"

Khoo's estimation of the man went up a notch; concussion or not, he was sharper than he looked. But there was something that wasn't making sense. "What kind of criminal would go to all that trouble to get rid of the magical evidence, but leave something like that around?" he wondered.
But then he answered his own question. "One who's used to doing things with magic, maybe, rather than with non-magical police work. I -- knew people like that at Sashi Mu." This didn't seem like the time to describe what he and Anna-Lisa had been working on that caused them to be sent to the Mushroom Woods.

"In other words, a Tsuirakuan," Edgar's voice came from behind them; he too was recovering from the jolt of the bloodstains. "Or ... someone who wanted that print to be found." He lifted off and plopped down on Khoo's shoulder to study the print.

Khoo was surprised at this, but he didn't have time to say anything before Edgar added, "Y'know ... I think the missus has a boot that would just about fit that print."
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