SESSION TWO - Honorary Detectives
[Tulistar, 17th day of Sigen]
With enough dilly-dallying about the town and new acquaintances, Miguel seeks to get down to business and start tackling his job for the day - interviewing people and trying to get information about the strange happenings the mayor was concerned about.
Though perhaps to his dismay, he wasn't getting to work alone, as Ross had decided to follow him as everyone parted ways. Ross deciding it was important to follow Miguel, from his understanding, Miguel was a hunter, so Ross should stay close to ensure he didn't kill anyone. Miguel tries to explain he's a detective, not a hunter, with much frustration on his part. Eventually resigning when efforts to clarify and also push Ross away are met with a hard wall, and letting the selkie tail him while he works.
Coming across the first interviewee of the day, it is a tall dark skinned human dressed in common street clothes, with buzzed-short hair, and dark brown eyes by the name of Rodney Copperbottom, who is excited when Miguel introduces himself as the new detective in town, and is happy to help out where he can.
Miguel cuts right to it, asking about the strange happenings going on. Rodney divulges that he was a construction worker responsible for the resurrecting of the clock tower that was unveiled this morning, and while he can partly confirm the rumours of hallucinations occurring during construction, he notes that it didn't happen to him personally, but he knows someone that it apparently happened to, and that they frequent the nearby tavern. Someone by the name of Dale.
Ross is dumbfounded by the conversation, how could someone share their name and information so easily? He knows there's faefolk around these parts, and that name magic can be very tricksy to deal with. Both Rodney and Miguel pass off this concern however, as Miguel is not fae, and Rodney's never had a problem with faefolk, and in fact his half-uncle is half-fae, so he's got a decent connection with them.
The interview concludes, Miguel offering that should Rodney ever have the need for his services, that the agency is open. Rodney wishes the man luck, and the detective heads off to the tavern, begrudgingly with Ross in tow.
On their way down to the tavern, they come across Caira, with Edenberry tucked away in her pocket. Miguel wavers on his better judgement for a moment, before asking "Is that a fox in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" To which Caira admits its both, then offers one of the bottles of wine to them, handing the bottle specifically to Ross.
Grouping up together once more, they all head to the tavern. It's fairly quiet, being mid-afternoon, the usual crowd that frequents the place hasn't quite started trickling in, likely still at whatever work or errands they need to tend to. Most notably is the colourful trio of pirates having lunch together, and a few folks playing at the pool tables towards the back of the common area in the tavern. Humans, two men and a woman, one of the men in peak focus as he lines up a shot with his cue, lining up several angles before finally committing to one and shooting, nearly landing the white ball in the hole. The other two around him cheer, mentioning his name to be Dale - the next lead.
Ross recognizes pool as "the ball and stick game" out loud, and Caira is delighted, deciding to adopt the name for it into her own vocabulary. Miguel is perplexed, there's lots of games with balls and sticks, how would that name work to differentiate between different ones? Ross doesn't know those other games though, so he's not bothered.
Trying to refocus on the task at hand, Miguel sets off to talk to this Dale fellow, but not before passing the colourful pirates and their luncheon. Yak, the large orc with dark dull green skin, and lighter coloured branding scars along his face and arms, recognizes Caira as "the little one from earlier" and happily greets her. Caira greets back, and with awkward flair, so does Ross.
Caira tells the pirates that Ross needs more friends, and that Ross needs to believe in himself a little more. Ross isn't opposed to it.
Back to the pool tables, Miguel introduces himself to Dale, a tanned skin man with dark brown hair that's tied back into a tight man-bun, wearing construction worker's clothing. A well-worn shirt with half-sleeves, pants made from a thick denim, with leaher patches on the knees for reinforcement and protection. Along with clucky steel-toes boots.
Miguel wastes no time in asking to interview him. Dale is hesitant at first, a little awkward, but ends up agreeing to talk to him. Miguel mentions Rodney was the one to lead him over here, saying that Dale had some first hand experience with the strange hallucinations that were being reported.
Dale awkwardly tries to explain what all he can remember, one minute he was working on the tower, the next he had lost track of time, staring at the clock's face. He recalls that at one point the face of the clock turned to a hazy vision of the moon hanging low in the sky. He then calls over his buddy Briar for more input.
Briar is a short and very pale/fair skinned man with bright orange ginger hair and covered in freckles. Wearing very simple, cozy clothing. The man goes on to add to Dale's story, coming from the outside perspective of that night. Apparently Dale was ranting and raving about how the moon was too low in the sky and looked as if it was about to crash into the earth. It took the other workers a lot of effort to get him to snap out of it, to the extent of holding him down and dumping cold water on his head before he finally came back to his senses.
Miguel asks the man if he's okay after such an experience, Dale replies that he still feels shaken up about it, but he's just counting his blessings that it hasn't happened again. He seems to think maybe someone slipped something into his drink, or maybe it was just some weird happenstance, he's trying best not to dwell on it too much and move forward from it.
He also gives Miguel the next possible lead, a triton apparently was reported to be under the influence of some hallucinations about 2 or 3 days prior to today. He didn't catch a name or a face however, so he is unable to confirm if Murphy, the triton sitting across the tavern, is the triton in question or not. As they part ways, Dale wishes Miguel luck as the new detective, and issues a warning to just be careful, the last detectives in town met quite the gruesome end.
Miguel then decides to interview the colourful pirates next, inviting himself, Ross, and Caira over to have a chat. Murphy mentions that they do mind if the others sit there, but is quickly out voted by their more hospitable crew. Miguel eases his intrusion with a round of drinks. A few of the folks at the table partaking in the house special a 'Rainy Day Drink'. As the group converses, and their drinks are brought, Ross perplexes the group once more, as he pours salt into his water. Rather than asking Ross directly if that works, the group looks at Murphy who suggests it probably doesn't work like that with table salt, from experience, it doesn't taste the same.
The conversation derails further as Ross proclaims he's old enough to think for himself, and also to get kicked out of the sea, leading to further questions on if there's actually an age limit to living in the ocean. Murphy clears up that there's not an age clause to living in the water that they know of. Ross confirms it's just something personal to him.
Miguel and Ross renew the questions game. Though Ross keeps adding conditions for Miguel to try and weave around. Eventually leading Miguel to dismiss things and get to the proper reason he sat down in the first place.
Murphy is a triton, and he's looking for a triton! Murphy quickly answers that they are not the triton he's looking for however, which puts him back a bit in his search for clues. Murphy asks him and the others to leave, and when they get a no, they ask their crew to leave, who decide nah, they're gonna hang around and be detectives for a day.
After a brief stint of flirting with the bar keep, and finding out he's a proud Loxodon father of three. (It was very important for Caira to know this) along with finishing their drinks and playing a round of 'ball and stick' it's decided to head to the docks to try and find the triton they're looking for.
On the way across town on the way to the docks, they pass by another construction worker that seems to be headed off on a break towards the tavern. His name is Robert, he's a dwarf, with tanned skin, many tattoos up his arms, a short scruffy bear, and long fabio-styled hair with tight ringlet curls, along with his working uniform he wears a gold chain necklace with a pendant of the symbol of the moon spirit.
In a brief interview with Miguel, Robert (or Robby, as both Caira and Miguel decide to call him) explains that he was part of the early phase construction crew, and while he wasn't present for anything, he did hear that another person from his phase of construction came down with some of the wigginess people had been describing, and they were currently hiding out in Heartmoon Hall trying to heal from the experience, a half elf by the name of Rat. Caira adopts the name Rat for herself and instructs Robby to call her that.
As Miguel is distracted, further interviewing some others, Ross decides to talk to Caira, divulging why he's here in Duskmire, since he trusted her more with that information than he did Miguel. He explains he's been traveling and living with a Siren who became an adoptive mother figure to him.
Ross' siren mother told him to go out and find his place in life, a soft 'kicking out' and Caira finds this very interesting as her situation feels similar but also different. She's trying to find her parents, she's not sure if their missing or dead, or if they abandoned her, but wants to find out. Ross has never known his true parents either, and the two of them make a pact to help each other out in their search for answers.
Murphy meanwhile is very busy pretending like they didn't hear the word 'siren' several times, while glaring at Babs and Yak to keep quite. Babs is snickering to himself about it, while Yak is very invested in watching Miguel do his detective work.
Ross and Caira notice the symbol on Robert's necklace and begin asking more spiritual questions and if the moon is okay. Robert confusedly replies that he thinks the moon is fine?
Ross then gets annoyed as Miguel tries to ditch him once more, having a short argument with Robert as the dwarf tries to leave.
While Ross tries to catch up with Miguel, still bitching out loud to Caira about how Miguel doesn't come off as a good detective, because he's being rude and ditching him so much. A passer-by chimes in and drops the tea about the last detectives, how they were gruesomely spread between heartmoon hall to silverspire, it was a terrible sight to see. Ross is suddenly concerned about Miguel's fighting ability, asking if Caira thinks he seems any kind of capable. Ross waffles over asking the stranger for a name, because he's fae, the stranger smiles and reveals that he too is fae, and gives him his name anyways, Feather.
After Caira introduces herself as Rat, Feather confirms that he knows another person by the name of Rat, who's hanging out in Heartmoon Hall.
Having not realized this was a piece of information that Miguel already has, Ross and Caira get excited, thinking they have a one-up on him, and carry on to catch up with the detective.
Having finally reached the docks, Miguel and Murphy find two fisherwomen pulling in their latest catch, a female Locathah and a human woman who happen to know the triton Miguel is looking for, they mention his name is Lorenzini, he lives and sells out of the building next to their dock, a tradesperson and magic weaver who specializes in magical wares. The two fishers haven't seen him in a while though, so they're a little concerned.
Miguel uses the information to go and check the building, it's hard to see inside, but he hears what sounds like some kind of talking. Ross and Caira catch up this time, and decide to lockpick the door, trying a couple times before successfully opening it. Inside the source of the voice is revealed to be a parrot named Benny, likely a pet to this Lorenzini. Ross' intentions turn directly to making sure the parrot has food and water.
Meanwhile Miguel has a look around, finding footsteps, shifted carpet, hand-shaped burn marks on the table and doorframe and a scroll of 'burning hands' that looks to have recently been used.
Ross tells Miguel to pay for the scroll, and so does the parrot, Miguel pays, and then Ross decides to buy something too, a small stone of Shellrock. He's not sure what the price is and places down a silver. The bird can't tell between coin pieces, just that there was a payment, so it seems satisfied.
They say goodbye to the parrot and close up the shop once more, and make their way back through town to try and find this Lorenzini.
