[hr][hr][center][color=black][b][h2]Free City of Ardaza[/h2][/b][/color] [b]Port City of Ardaza, Heartlands[/b] [sub][b]Act II I Pit of Vipers[/b][/sub][/center] [hr][hr] [center][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/61/c9/6c/61c96ca4dc9ffa9464ff024c6b265b36.jpg[/img][/center] [i]”The Disjunction released not only raw, tainted magic onto Ethica, but it also opened up our world to the spirit realms of the Ancient Ones. This was not the opening of some rift... but rather the loosening of the bindings that separate our world from many, many others ruled by beings of truly alien minds and powers. And although the Disjunction was brief, there was time for all manner of spiritkind to come into our world. The greatest of such beings were the Ancient Ones such as Degolacha, N'oiboth or the infamous Azueral. The lesser spiritkind born of this mighty titans soon discovered they had no essence of their own and were forced into either parasitic or symbiotic relationships with what they found around them. Spirits merged with the multitude of different things, from rocks and rivers to the trees, birds, beasts, and men. Many if these spirits lacked sentience, while others were incredibly intelligent. Some were benign or helpful, while others grew like tumors within the bodies they possessed and such malevolent spirits that took shape into these living creatures that rejected them transformed and became some of the first vilespawn. All things on the face of the planet were affected by this. Few and far between are the examples of things that remained untouched. The changes are too numerous to mention in this brief account but recognize that some terrain became twisted and evil, such as the Shattered Wastes, while real terrors never before imagined began walking Ethica... and new races of men came into being. Some 500 years later, at the time of this writing, there are four documented and at least partially civilized species of men.”[/i] [hr][hr] The morning found Jahard to be in a rather optimistic mood, as he rested on the hard cot of his inn room. A yawn and stretch later he was wiping to sleep from his eyes as he rose to a sitting position on his bed. The cot on the other side of the small room was empty. Jahard guessed his sister had awakened up before him. In the time it took him to get dressed, restring his bow, and splash some water on his face, Aleena had returned their room. Still kneeling over the water basin, Jahard shook his hands dry and shook his head. “Where were you?” He asked without turning his head. “Out,” came the simple response. Aleena kicked the door closed behind her as she entered the room, a bag hung over her shoulder. Still knelt Jahard clutched the open petal amulet fashioned like a rose he wore around his neck. He mouthed a silent, quick prayer to Mother Night before rising to his feet. Stretching the muscles of his left arm and rotating the shoulder joint. He had slept poorly the night before, and he blamed the bed for the stiffness in his neck. The innkeeper had assured them of the quality of their room the night before, and Jahard remained skeptical. Top quality his arse. It seemed the title of justiciar held little reverence here. Unsurprising. “So I suppose we’ll be heading to the spot the guards said the shade was killed?” Aleena asked. “Yes, but first we wait for the guide Manuel promised,” Jarhard responded as he reached for his longbow, placing it in a leather sheath at his waist. Aleena sighed as she rolled her eyes, “yes, of course, the [i]guide[/i]. Why did you even ask for one? They’ll be more a hindrance than any help.” “It allows us a degree reciprocity with the cities Exarch. We might be able to open more doors with a representative of the Exarch with us...and know what doors Manuel would prefer remained closed." Jahard belted his twin axes before adorning the shoulder cape that possessed the symbol of the justiciar and raised an eyebrow at the bag Aleena carried. "Anything I should know about?" Aleena only shrugged, "just some early shopping, nothing fancy." She nonchalantly tossed the bag onto the bed, which produced the distinct sound of metal on metal. "Let go meet this [i]guide[/i] then and hope they're not every bit as useless as I expect them to be." The pair exited their rented room and made their way downstairs to the main hall of the inn. The innkeeper was already behind his desk, sitting on a stool and apparently playing a game of cards with himself. He looked up and gave the two justiciars barely more than a nod before turning his attention back to the line of cards before him. Messaging a sore spot on the left side of his neck Jahard hoped they'd not have to wait long. He sensed today would lead to at least some of the answers they needed, so his patience was more strained than usual. Scarcely a minute passed before a lithe woman made her way into the inn donning the uniform of the Exarch's Guild, the Order of the Unseeing Eye. Briefly scanning the room before approaching the pair the woman smiled warmly and proffered her hand, “Justicars, I'm Lilika Sisinis. I’ll be at your disposal for however long your investigation requires.” Jahard took the hand offered and gave a single nod, "Jahard Nhazum, and my sister," he added with a gesture of his chin, "Aleena. I take it you're aware of our current purpose here in your city." “Of course,” Lilika's smile faded as she spoke almost apologetically, “My guild works closely with the city guard, though I was only recently briefed by the Exarch. It's hard to believe though, if not for your presence I would have had doubts.” With a glance, Lilika pulled a few loosely bound pages of bleached parchment out of the bag on her hip and continued, “I have the document you asked for here. A record of unexpected arrivals at the docks, correct? The Captain had it done up last night, but I can't say it's the most complete list, the Guard’s records are far from perfect.” Jahard took the parchment with a nod, "excellent this could prove to be very insightful. Once we know where to look," Jahard carefully placed the documents into a large pouch at the small of his back. "Hmph, I hope you don't expect me to read through all that," Aleena yawned, "Alright now that's out of the way we should get to it." "Agreed," Jahard looked to Lilika. "We'll head to the sight the victim was found if you might please lead the way." “Certainly Justicar, it’s not a long walk.” With that Lilka turned and strode out the door, her blue eyes looking back only for a moment to ensure the pair followed. Jahard followed Lilka's lead with Aleena not falling far behind. As Lilka had said, it was not an overly long march through the already crowded streets. The sun was already rising high in the sky when they reached the location mentioned by the guards. The alley was no different from any other, with a few pieces of strewn garbage and broken crates littering the length of the pathway. Jahard, however, could see the echoes of what might have been a struggle still evident. A barrel overturned, its contents scattered and the water within it having since long dried up, leaving the markings of what was once a puddle with the odd fish bones laying over the faded marking of it. Dark splotches could be seen mostly upon one side wall, mostly faded but just visible. Aleena stepped lightly into the alley first, eyes roaming up and down as if looking for something specific. He knew the followers of the Bloody Handed God were adept in finding trace magic, so he left her to her own devices. He lifted a hand to one wall, over a dark patch and looked closely, it was was dried blood to be sure, however, without hemomancy, it was impossible to tell who it belonged too. "Did the guards mentioned anything else out of the ordinary when they found the body?" He asked Lilka without looking directly at her. Lilika ran her hand along the building beside her as she approached Jahard, stopping to investigate the grime on her fingertips before she replied, “I was told the shade’s body was found headless. It’s not unheard of, especially since the body had been marked by one of the local gangs. Nevertheless, it did warrant some attention. As I understand it there was a brief search, although nothing particularly notable was uncovered.” Lilika took a small cloth from her bag and cleaned off her fingers with a grimace before continuing, “The head was either disposed of somewhere far away, or it was taken as a macabre token. That aside, I’m not surprised there’s so little evidence here. Even if the killer bled our shade dry, there’s enough filth in this ally that it’d only serve to add to the mix. The docks have always been a disgusting place.” Jahard nodded, his face stoic and unreadable. He turned his attention back to the alley itself and tried to envision what might have transpired. However, with so little to go on, he was coming up short. Jahard could scarcely believe common thugs had done this, at least not alone. A possible means of throwing them off the trail of the real killer? Possible. Anyone bold enough to kill a shade would still wish to remain anonymous. No sane man wanted to earn the ire of the Shade Enclave, or worse the Archon of Shadow's attention. Of course, it could be possible they were unaware of the identity and allegiance of the murder victim. Merely coming across someone snooping into the someone's else's business was enough to earn you a knife in the back. The idea of a shade being that careless seemed inconceivable to Jahard, however, but he could not rule anything out this early. "Does this...gang? Have a name?" Jahard asked. Lilika pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, “I was hoping you weren’t going to ask that. They call themselves the uh… The Stabbers. I’m not kidding. So far as anyone can tell they think it’s intimidating. The guard has a habit of making examples of them when they surface, something that came about after they rather miserably failed to commandeer a ship, but they’ve never warranted a serious response. To think they killed a shade is… To be frank? Ridiculous.” "Huh," Jahard scanned the ground as he added, "I agree, though one might think a native of this city would have chosen a better scapegoat to..." Suddenly Jahard paused as something caught his attention. He knelt to one knee and took hold of the lid of a barrel and lifted it. He brushed aside some dirt and lifted up what looked to be a strip of dark cloth. He eyed it carefully, even as he watched it closely he could scarcely discern the nature of the fabric, as it seemed to fade in and out of the light. It was icy cold the touch, and even as he held it his fingers were fast becoming numb. So much so he was forced to trade hands as he examined it. "What in seven suns..." Jahard whispered under his breath. Watching Jahard juggle the fabric from behind Lilka reached out to touch the dangling piece of fabric herself. It had merely brushed against her hand before she recoiled and scowled, “Dark magic Justicar, unpleasant isn’t it? It’s the sort of unprincipled spellcraft one might find in Sheol, a repulsive magic for a repulsive place. I’m loathe to think its practitioners are migrating here.” Jahard eyed the fabric with new eyes and a grimace of disgust as if the thing had started leaking pus, "and loathsome implications follow if this hints to what I fear." Jahard retrieved a small leather pouch from a satchel tied to his belt and stored the fabric away within for later investigation. Preferably with spells of divination; despite his misgivings, it merited closer observation under the proper conditions. At that point, Aleena hissed from further down the alley, "psst, brother I've found something." Jahard rose to his feet at his sister's prompting seeing that she was eyeing a section of wall with narrowed eyes of suspicion. He walked over asking, "what is it. What have you found." "...something," was all she responded with as she pulled a dagger free of the sheath bounded to her left leg. She used its sharp point to prick the index finger of her right hand. She mouthed something under her breath and raised her hand over a seemingly random spot on the alley wall. Several tense seconds pass before what looked like black ink melted off that section of the wall and ran down the face of it like a living shadow. The unsettling touch of sorcery could be felt for just a moment and then it was gone, leaving the feeling one felt in their stomach after they had fallen from a high place. "Someone used a rather potent spell of illusion to hide something here. I don't know any people outside the Enclave of Shades able to use shadow magic this powerful.... if the maker had taken their time on it I doubt anyone but a Shade could have managed to break it. Lucky for us our shade didn't have that much time by the looks of it." Jahard bent forward quickly intrigued, "seems even in death Shades can keep secrets! Luckily the killer was either unaware of this or was too inept in sorcery to find it. What does it say." Aleena frowned at the letter and numbers, "...I'm not sure, I don't recognize these symbols." Peeking over Jahards shoulder Lilka eyed the scrawled writing and pursed her lips in thought a moment before she spoke, “It’s a pier designation Justicar, and a warehouse address under that. I can assemble a contingent of guardsmen if you wish to move on the building, given the lack of information.” "Hmm, a mustering of the guard might tip our hand," Aleena thought out loud. "That may be a risk we may need to take, we know not what awaits us," Jarhard cautioned. "Still, I'd rather we were the first to the scene." Rising to his feet, he looked to Lilka, "send word to the guard to be ready move on that pier, I and my sister will go ahead to stake out this location. You're free to come along if you wish." Straightening up and dusting off her clothes, as if the very air of the alley had sullied them, Lilka nodded, “I shall inform the guard and meet you there Justicars.” With that said Lilka took her leave, leaving Jahard and Aleena to the scene.