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From the Writing of Pamorata, Mage of Pnyx, Murder Investigator to the LandKing.
This being the Chronicle of the Events of the Past Month.
The latest case had been Philinus, Elder of House Nicander, murdered in his bed, between the hours of eleven and twelve at night. Injuries leading to Death: A single stab wound in or about the region of the Heart. No-one in the house heard or saw anything, even Ariadne, the wife of the Deceased, sleeping in the same room, heard nothing. Ariadne was interrogated, by Judge Sacas of Odemia, and was proven Innocent. Those were the facts. A perfect crime, and the only suspect proved beyond doubt to be innocent. At the time, I had thought that writing out the facts would clarify the Situation, but to my eyes it was more convoluted than before. And it bore a frightening similarity to three previous cases that had occurred in the week before Philinus’s murder. First had been Thuria, of House Attis, in Cademia, 12.10. Then her successor Malis, 14.10. And last, Cybele, 16.10. Philinus was next, 18.10.
The following is a description of the Mystery, the undertaking of the Challenge and the Solution.
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Pamorata walked into her spartan, yet comfortable office in Pnyx, thinking hard. She almost missed the note on her desk, bearing the seal of her agent in Catamarca. She opened it carefully with the letter knife.
After scanning the note twice, she crumpled it into a tiny ball, threw it on the fire, and began swearing, fluently, unselfconsciously and in three different languages. She kicked the desk hard, and instantly regretted it. After hopping around in agony for a few minutes, and another exercise of her wide vocabulary of invective, she sat down and put her head in her hands.
“Five! Propontis now!” she muttered. “Why?”
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Two days later...
This time, there were two letters on her desk. One had the same seal as the previous letter, but the other was plain. Pamorata opened the sealed one first. She only read it once, then threw it on the fire. More swearing ensued. Clearly, this was one exasperated mage.
“And now Sardis. Damn and blast! This murderer is seemingly targeting all the Houses. But not Comana. Again, why?”
The next letter was curious. Capital letters spelt out: THE NEXUS LORD’S DOING. HIRED BY A RICH MAN.
Who is this Nexus Lord? Pamorata thought. A rich man... Somewhere to start, at least.
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Part Two
From the Writing of Pamorata, Mage of Pnyx, Murder Investigator to the LandKing.
Our band (by which I mean Baldor, Melchior, Talinor and myself) set off in search of the employer of the Nexus Lord.
Before I continue my recount, I must describe my Companions and myself.
Baldor is tall, and has blonde hair and blue eyes. He is slim of build, but no less strong because of it. He is the Fighter in our party, and is a good one. Equipped with a double handed Sword, which he wields with great skill, he is an adversary to be reckoned with.
Melchior is shorter, with brownish hair and eyes. He is also slim of build, but strength does not matter much in his profession. He is the party’s Thief, and also our walking who’s-who when it comes to wealthy ladies and gentlemen. His only weapon is a Dagger, and he prefers not to use it.
Talinor is tall and well built, with black hair and blue eyes. He is an expert Archer, and carries a magnificent Longbow, made secretly to his own specifications. He refuses to tell anyone what it is made of, but it is truly beautiful.
And myself? I am fairly short, with red hair, green eyes and (ugh!) freckles. I am the mage of the party, for a mage is needed to determine whether or not our subject is telling the truth.
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The party started for Cademia, pausing only to exterminate a small group of ruffians. After Talinor had dispatched the last with an arrow, the four checked the corpses. Melchior was looking pretty happy as he checked the pockets of the corpses.
“That’s unusual. One hundred oboloi from five ruffians! They must have struck lucky earlier.”
The others said nothing, although all three were privately wondering if it was actually more than one hundred oboloi Melchior had found while checking the corpses.
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Once in Cademia, our heroes headed straight for the local tavern, always a good place for gossip. A bit of judicious mingling later, and Melchior had found a nearby beggar had heard a low hissing noise before Malis’s murder. Talinor had found nothing beyond where to purchase arrows, and Pamorata had no more luck. Baldor just got drunk.
The group left the tavern before the fighter imbibed a dangerous amount of alcohol. He had to be led out by Talinor.
“We’d better find somewhere to sleep, a long way from any spirits.” said Melchior, scowling at Baldor. “Mingling and asking questions does not involve drinking copious amounts of what ever takes your fancy!”
“But you never shpeshfied what we were shuposhed to do when we were minglingiling.” complained Baldor.
Talinor retorted, “Well, you never arshked.”
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This post has been edited by CrazyChick: 27 January 2007 - 02:17 AM
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