Blood & Scales - Nerd Squad

Episode 13 - A Letter From the Korsu


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It has begun to rain. Since you have a bit of time before the "brunch" appointment with Iago you decide to head over to the KAAHRP Anthropology Office to speak to Flanders about the mysterious notes you discovered. After asking the innkeeper Ursula for some rain gear you head out into the storm. You find Flanders on his way out the door and show him the mysterious notes. He guesses that this may have been given to you by the Korsu , as they would be the only people who may still be fluent in the ancient language. Since he was heading to a meeting, Flanders leaves you in his office with access to his Athari'las language resources. You decide to try and power through with as much of the translation as possible. The pictographs can be transliterated into Athari words, and the Athari can be translated into Pexwa (common) Transliteration: Sul famdemu mu tannon Satum derusulpetre nin Te’ esanu nineltu mu eltu mu Xali’a Mai felue sul tas sitasa kaks Se kaksabat thuxa Iso thued xe’ Within the shadow of the wall Under a courtyard where You smell smoke from the flame of Xali’a (an isoxu) Someone at this dance works They pervert the gifts Iso (god of the isoxu) gave us Leaving the Anthropology Office you head up to The Inner Ward , a walled district deep within The Conclave district and make your way over to the Palace [Conclave] . On the way, you decide to go over your leads and tactics you should use when questioning Iago Tridega . Once you finally sit down, face to face with him, he seems friendly and mentions he is nervous for his big night tonight, entering the Aggro ring for the first time in years. He trains with his personal trainer Jaris , whom he also went to the theater with in a timeframe that matches up with the third murder. Iago mentions that the crowd that tends to hang out around The Corner House tend to be much younger than Iago Tridega so he doesn't visit often. He skirts around the topic of why he was in The Briny District but eventually divulges that he was visiting Selia the Oracle to try and get his fortune read. Iago willingly speaks about his version of events from the night of the fourth murder. He claims that he was the one who trailed a suspicious man and an elven girl and rushed in to help the girl only to find her suffocating, alone, before smoke begins coming out her mouth, and spikes of bone erupt from her skin, then she dies. Iago yelled for help until an elf came wandering by, taking the girl off his hands. Iago describes the alleged killer as tall, skinny, black of hair, younger than himself, and wearing a trenchcoat. Iago also reveals that he suspects the disappearance of Karmen Kenezzar has to do with the sap blackmarket trade. Iago is conducting his own investigation into the The Morningstar District involvment in buying sap from [KAAHRP District. He says he thinks this con runs to the top of both organizations. Iago gives you the address of this training facility in the Conclave. You warn Iago to stay with friends tonight, for he may be in grave danger. In order to head north you have to walk east, past the city walls, and then up into the The Morningstar District near where you met Enrique . On the way there you run into Lydiala , Linory's guard who franticly informs you that Gesper has run off the previous night. You decide to stop by Enrique's building and ask his neighbor if she had seen him recently. The neighbor tells you that she only knows that there is a Pascal who lives next door, but no Enrique. You knock on his door and when you don't hear an answer, send Tundi through the space under the door. Nothing seems too amiss, until you notice four metal barrels. Finding this odd you decide to knock down the door. After investigating you try and open one of the barrels and are shocked to find them filled, completely, with blood. Within the apartment you also find a small bottle of sap, and notes dated for a meeting with Rasmus and participating in some sort of vote. With much debate, you crack open the other barrels, which are also filled with blood, and fix the door to mask the intrusion. You take a growler full of blood... just in case you need it. You continue heading north till you get to the Temple of the Isoxu , where a sweet smelling smoke drafts from the chimney. You look over the map with Ferron and decide to check out the headquarters of the Morningstar Assembly, which looks like it has a quartyard. After using Tundi to get a quick look around the ground floor you find that there seems to be fairly vacent, with activity only on the second floor. Firn decides to shimmy up to a ventilation shaft to sneak inside, as she does so she overhears a conversation. In the room above Firn, she recognizes the voices of Rasmus Vasa , Enrique , and others that you don't recognize. Firn makes her way around to the other side of the door and unlocks it for you. You all successfully rush in and hide within a storage closet while the people in the meeting upstairs pass by, unsuspecting, breaking from their meeting. investigating the ground floor, you find: -A dissasembled mechanical crane -Letters addressed from Devin Seboya -A large clock that does not tell the time -Notes to a councilmember from Tulio Fonstiwere  You investigate the large statue in the middle of the courtyard, It is of a woman, clad in armor and holding a morningstar mace with the ball towards the ground. You find that by pushing on the mace you it will click and move left and right. When you move the mace you then find that the minutehand on the clock also moves. After discovering that a dagger on her belt also moves and turns the hour hand, you figure out that the clock needed to be at 7:35. The tiles underneath the statue shift and form a staircase spiraling down below the complex. As the Assembly reconvene, Ioanna sends Tundi to go and listen in. You hear Tulio Fonstiwere 's voice. It seems like Rasmus is in control of much more information than the others. He hears the people in the conference notice the noise from the new staircase. Your group rushes down the stairs before anyone can catch you. Ioanna casts darkness above you and you pull a lever at the bottom of the stairs which retracts the spiral staircase. Around the room you see many scientific tools, and instruments, piles of junk and suits of armor as well as 30 barrels like the ones at Enrique's house. A suit of armor turns towards you, asks for the password, and not satisfied with your answer draws its sword and attacks, along with four other suits of armor. After a difficult battle, you hear the stairs beginning to make their way back down to you. Panicking you grab a tablet on the table, filled with Athari writing and head down a hallway, away from the sounds of Rasmus and others, walking down the stairs. 



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Blood & Scales - Nerd SquadBy Nerd Squad