G17 - Twice Killed

Date: Sunweal (6), Sunday 8th

Waking up at the inn, the party, to their surprise, saw Ren came downstairs instead of being stolen. After meandering a little bit, they headed to Rock & Sons to meet the last person to have seen Zagreb Rock Rockland, Lem.

Lem came with his cart to deliver rocks to the stonemasons. Leah Hanali and Ren decided to help unload the rocks. While Lem was questioned, Otis used his detect thoughts device to gain extra information. He appeared casual, but evasive or at least not straight forward.

He unsuccessfully attempted to get the party to like him by taking them to the Drunken Goat. Otis and Salvo took a ride with Lem, while the rest walked there not trusting him. Lem's plan backfired, the party grew even more suspicious of him. He mentioned another woman that was missing Laura Mistsneeze, a blacksmith.

The party felt that he

* Had access to all the victims
* Was evasive
* Didn't appear very smart
* When asked about his whereabouts during Feyday the 13th through the various months, he didn't have a good alibi
* His mom was also missing

As Lem was getting ready to leave, Otis took the opportunity to steal Lem's book of deliveries to take a better look at. Looking at the book, they discovered that Lem had lied to them while pretending to consult his notebook in one of the dates in question.

In the afternoon, they headed to Tabaxi Steve's house. The house and garden had seen better days. While Salvo went outside to play, they asked some more questions and saw their bedroom. They found out that Tabaxi Steve had found a half completed stitching of a lion discarded in his garden. Between the dates being consistent and the stitching, and all the victims being strong women, they started to see the MO a little better.

Otis gave Steve 1gp and asked him to fix his garden and try to take care of the house's upkeep.

Next, they headed to the port to see if they can get more information about the missing dwarf woman. Some sailors suspected her crew might have turned on her. In the process of asking around, they noticed a commotion at the end of the port.

They found out that a body was located in the port. They tried to talk to Doctor Stein and Detective Constable Lars about the connection they had found, but Lars' mixture of suspicion about the party itself and his arrogant attitude turned them off and they walked away. Furthermore, they did confirm the victim was female and a gladiator by the ring she possessed.

To avoid any future issues, they rented a new space at a different inn, Warrior's Cauldron. There they tried to plan a heist into the guard house to cast speak with dead with the newly found body. They wanted to plan for it, and also wanted to investigate Lem's house for clues.

They went to Skiveys to find out Lem's house location, which they received for 5gp.

The next day, they headed to Laura's Armory to find out more about the blacksmith's disappearance. Her apprentice Hook was mostly helpful. They figured out that she was also last seen on Feyday 13th. Lem also did have access to her because he delivered metal for the armory. Finally, they saw that her door upstairs has a stitching of a lion 3/4 done. Hook also mentioned that it was the gladiator arena had that exact same lion as their banner.

Then, they went to Lem's house during the time that they knew he had a delivery. Snooping around, they saw a 3/4 done lion stitch similar to the others with a needle still attached to it. They also found locks of hair in one of his dresser drawers.

They hid, waiting for his return. As he entered, Posco commanded him to stop, Neth cast hold person, and Posco cast zone of truth. They interrogated him and learned that he kept the hair as trophies and that he drowned them in the pier and dumped them there. The interrogation did involve killing him, raising him and threatening to kill him a second time.

Unilaterally, without even discussing it, Neth murdered him a second time. To hide the body, Otis opened Lem up, added some rocks, sewed him back up and through him in the water.

With the female murder spree resolved, what will the adventurers choose to do next?