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Bright Journey	As the buildings of the Temple District start to creep out of the shadows of night, the grey drizzle overhead begins to lighten, taking on the more silvery tones of an early morning. Elsewhere in the city, the quiet of the night begins to be banished by the sounds of the city's denizens waking up, moving out, just starting their early mid-week days. Here, though, the sounds are louder, the murmur of the crowd taking on a darker, more excited tone. Fortunately for Bright Journey's sanity and sleep schedule, she hasn't actually had to wake up before dawn for some time now. The laziness that comes from not having to hunt all day just to make ends meet; a pleasant change of pace! But it's for this reason that when she steps out of Silk Moon Lotus' mansion to investigate the ruckus outside, she's audibly yawning and visibly stretching, arms reaching to the leaden sky. Just down the street, at the mouth of one of the innumerable alleys that crisscross the Temple District (and everywhere else in Great Forks), there's a knot of people. The din of sharp words emanates from the group, shoulders hunched and tone heightened with tension. Whatever has their attention, it's clear it's not the circus come to town. r Bright furrows her brow, a worried look crossing over her features, as she looks at the knot of people. She glances back towards the mansion briefly, but thinks better of whatever she was going to do and starts to pad on down the street to investigate.
Amethyst	Sometimes the alchemist doesn't sleep. This last night had her going over and reconciling how the immaculate dragon's stories could be different as to not so blindly make mention of sealing away the 'evil anathema'. Especially Danaa'd, Danaa'd would be all about making use of their might to her own ends and her story has her going to the bottom of the ocean. She briefly wonders if traveling to the seabed of the Dreaming Sea is anything like traveling to the bottom of the ocean. But these thoughts are interrupted by sharp words and loud tones. "Oh goodness sake." Amethyst closes her book and stretches, donning her typical gear and confining herself to at least /mostly/ look human. A vial of something to hold off the sleepies from not sleeping and she is on her way to investigate.
Silk Moon Lotus	Walking home from from an evening of work, Silk finishs counting her winnings. "Another day, another person poorer." she says to herself. Silk finds herself taking the long way through the temple district to admire the different designs of the temples when she hears something unusual this early in the morning. Silk quickly scales a building to get a better view of what's happening. She moves closer to get a view down on the situation below.
Reforged Resurgence	In the back of a humble blacksmith shop, on a bed twice as large as it needed to be, under a small pile of blankets, Reforged Resurgence tries to cover his head with his pillow and ride out what he can't sleep through, at least until someone comes knocking. A few minutes of telling himself "it'll be over soon" pass before he runs out of patience, dresses himself in his typical work-worn clothes, and flings his door open to see what the hell is going on.
Bright Journey	As people get closer to the excited, tense, worried knot of people in front of the alley, the susurrus of voices starts to resolve from meaningless noise to the occasional whispered comment. For those who might hear rumors in the city, the commentary is vaguely familiar, but for almost anyone listening it's...depressing. "He got another one." "The town criers didn't utter a peep, but my smoke shop owner said his best qat dealer stopped coming." "I heard someone went missing by the river just last week." "That happens every week!" "Well, yeah, people vanish, but they don't leave...-that-..." Bright Journey is in the back of the pack, of course, and while she's a bit tall for a girl she's not -that- tall. She strains on tippy-toes, trying to see, but there's too many people and the alley too occluded to really be able to see anything except the people are holding back a fixed distance inside the alley--no one is trying to move further in.
Reforged Resurgence	With the demeanor of a garbage collector, Resurgence makes his way to the crowd. "Alright, people, lemme in." Squeezing, pushing, and elbowing his way through, he grunts a simple "scuse me" for everyone he displaces. "Now what the hell is so interesting? Gotta be more than just a body. Or maybe less than one. Chunks?" he thinks to himself. Eventually, he makes his way to the front of the crowd.
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk moves quietly along the rooftop stopping a few buildings away not wanting to draw attention to herself. She quickly scales down the building upon spotting the distinctive hair of Bright. With the practiced ease of a master thief, Silk moves between the people without anyone knowing why they shift slightly to one side or another. Silk grabs Bright's hand quickly as she reaches her and leaves a path her friend to follow through the crowd to the front for a better view of the trouble they will all to soon have to deal with.
Amethyst	Perhaps Amethyst is small, and she is, but she is also a Dragon. She gives a nod to Bright, and, with a deep breath, she makes her presence known to the crowd. "Alright, what seems to be the issue here?" Loud and concrete, as the barest ripples of her anima come to life, signifying to the crowd what she is, and hopefully by the same token giving her some authority here. The alchemist worries what is that she might find.
Bright Journey	Bright Journey blinks rapidly as Silk drops down basically right beside her. It makes perfect sense--Bright's unusual and very visible hair certainly make her easy to find. She takes Silk's hand without thinking, but before they vanish from the back of the crowd she spots the rippling blue coming off of Amethyst--the only way Bright had a chance of spotting the short alchemist. She has no time to speak, but she does give the girl a wide, animated 'come-hither' gesture, trying to get her to follow, before Silk's insistent tug pulls Bright deep into the crowd and towards the front. Reclaimed Resurgence is in the front of the crowd, almost invisible to anyone not already in front due to his height but quite obvious once others arrive. Silk and Bright slip through the crowd soon enough, emerging in front as well mainly because they're willing to go further into the alley than any of the normal folks here. As the pair of girls look on (and Amethyst may be right behind them), the sight in the alley isn't too far off from the darker imaginations the public might come up with. A liberal splash of drying crimson decorates one of the alley walls, although it's still a little dark to make out details. There's no footprints yet visible, but the other visible object takes a moment for everyone to process, since it's a bit out of context--a leather boot, crushed against the same wall and flopped down into the pool of blood. Sticking from it is tattered flesh and splintered bone, with another generous splash of crimson. Bright Journey is looking grim, but determined, not queasy. Her lips are pressed into a thin line, and while she says nothing, she looks to her side at Silk, Amethyst, and the new fellow. She makes no secret of looking at everyone for their reactions.
Reforged Resurgence	Resurgence approaches the bloodstain, then lets his gaze drop down to the boot. He crouches before it, brow furrowed, before standing back up and turning around. Out of the crowd, the only one he recognizes is Amethyst, but these new ladies aren't like the others. They're standing too close to the boot to be passersby. He clears his throat. "Morning. I guess you're here about the same thing." He gives the boot a small tap with his own, much smaller, boot. "Any idea who this was?"
Amethyst	Amethyst does indeed follow, and when she gets to the front, there's a few blinks. "Oh. Oh no." She closes her eyes and mutters a prayer in high realm, "<<Oh Hesiesh, please let the poor soul who died here enter the cycle peacefully, for they did not deserve this fate. And grant me the strength to discover what has happened here.>>" Turning her attention back to the scene, and she takes a few moments to gather reagents from her pouches, places them in a flask, stirs them briefly, and then the flask begins to glow so she and the others might get a better look at whatever's happened here.
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk looks on at the grisly scene. Her face changes from her normally friendly demeanor to one of interest mixed with disgust. Silk looks at the man who has wandered into the murder scene and quickly assesses the man. "Indeed, we shall look into this." Speaking quietly to Bright "Think you can convince people to go about there day and let the professionals handle this?"
Rishi	The curvacious southern healer was coming back from a long night with a patient to visit with Ammy, but, when she saw the knot of people around the alley along with the scent of blood, she went to go see if she could help. Edging through the now dispersing crowd, Rishi sees the knot of Exalted and says "Ah. What has happened?" nodding to Ammy and her other friends.
Bright Journey	With Amethyst's help, there's enough light to see by now, and everyone who has been searching the crime scene does manage to find a couple things. First, the extra light makes a few more details visible. Aside from the blood, there's some fragmented bone in a couple places, a few pieces stuck to the wall in the blood, and several more on the ground in the pool the boot is in. They're all far too small to identify which bone, but it's obvious to everyone that between them, the crushed boot, and the splatter pattern, the victim must have hit this wall with considerable force. He or she probably had already been wounded already, though--that's a -lot- of blood for an initial crushing injury, if it was only one hit. That's not entirely clear, though. The boot is of even greater interest. As Resurgence examines it, the light coming off of Amethyst's glowing potion reflects off something inside, something glimmering between the shattered ankle and the leather inside wall. Several coins are inside, one of them slightly bent. The boot itself is wholly unremarkable, the ankle and foot inside (if pulled out) unidentifiable. It's callused and dirty, the foot of someone used to labor of one variety or another. Bright Journey nods in understanding to Silk, and while she gives Resurgence a curious look, now is clearly not the time to ask. Instead, she turns and looks at the crowd, calling out to address them. "Everyone! Please, lend me your..." She stops, grimacing, and starts again. "Please give me your attention. First off, has anyone gone off to find the guards? If not, I ask that someone do so. Second, the group of us will do everything we can to help, but please, I'm not sure there's much more to see here, unless any of you saw anything. If you've any information we could use to track down whoever did this, we would be grateful. Beyond that, we could probably use a little space."
Amethyst	"I think we can reasonably rule out the cult." Amethyst says. "They abduct people, they don't... do this." Or so she hopes. Amethyst places the light source down and looks around. Her eyes grow slitted for just long enough for her to try to locate where on earth the rest of the body must be. And the alchemist grins at Rishi, and then focuses as her face turns solemn "I dunno what happened. That's what we're trying to find out. Surely there must be some chunk of mass around here that was a body at one point."
Reforged Resurgence	Resurgence gives a small nod. "Hard to say if we're gonna find anything else. Whoever or whatever killed this person wasn't being discreet. We should look around, because we'll probably find bloodstains or something."
Rishi	Rishi sweeps into the alley, eyes sad at the carnage. She crouches down, and closes her eyes, essence moving through her perfect nose, making it ever so slightly bigger and much more sensitive, before she takes in the full picture of the alley, both in the normal world and that of the spirits.
Silk Moon Lotus	"This was a common man on his way to work more than likely. He kept his coin in his boot as he has been robbed before." Silk shakes her head. "Either this was a crime of opportunity or it was very personal."
Reforged Resurgence	Approaching and looking up the side of the two-story building, Resurgence lets his imagination get handholds and footholds on the bricks. He can envision his path as it stretches vertically before him. He unlaces his boots and pulls them off, letting his feet stretch a little on the pavement. With an exuberence most people might call crazy, he digs in with his fingers and his toes, pulling himself up with any purchase he can find.
Bright Journey	t Reclaimed Resurgence lunges up the wall, climbing fast and free, with energy and confidence. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that this is not a task in which he excels. His hands are soon slick with morning dew, condensed on the dirty, slimy brick, and what looked like hand and footholds from below were not nearly as easy to grip once he made it nearly to the top. Even worse, some of the stone moulding around the edge of the roof, a piece he was absolutely counting on to grip and pull himself up the last step, was cracked and immediately gave way. He plummets almost two stories to the cobbles below, the only saving grace is he was feet first and not back first. He lands on his feet and the momentum rolls him back, with a cobble catching him right on the back of the noggin.
Bright Journey	Soon, the crowd doesn't disperse, exactly--many people are still watching--but they at least step back a few, the ones that don't actually have anything better to do at that moment, and give the people who have stepped up a chance to work. The course of the investigation takes time, and while it doesn't appear anyone actually had gone and gotten the local constabulary like Bright had asked, a few guards show up anyway. Fortunately for everyone else, Bright is more than capable of convincing them everyone else has well in hand, and besides which, they can hear the party talking so the discoveries are not being kept from them. They do readily accept Bright as their spokeswoman, however, and bother her rather than everyone else. That said, the investigation does bear some further fruit. Rishi may be an odd sight anywhere else, but in Great Forks she's practically normal, what with all the gods running around. Bright gives her a grin and nod as she walks in, but doesn't have time to chat as Bright answers the guards' questions. There are no further chunks of body. Whatever else was here is long gone, unfortunately, and though the kill could only have happened last night, the possibility of scavengers can't technically be ruled out. Somewhat unlikely, though, given the leg and boot. And coins. The fact that the coins are there could be significant, though, as Rishi pointed out. As for blood trails, there -are- some small splotches of blood that lead further into the alley. Not as much as one might expect, though. Rishi's charms are particularly effective. The smells here are as overpowering as one might expect, but the magics of Luna help separate wheat from chaff. Aside from the obvious (rain, blood, garbage, urine) there's a distinct, earthy, spicy odor. Rishi, you recognize this scent instantly--the exotic scent of Malfeas, and even more tellingly, you smell something similar practically every day, with every new outfit you try on. It's not precisely the demon spider that spins your clothes--the scent is stronger, and judging by the boot so is the spider!--but definitely a close cousin. This exact scent, however, is new to you.
Rishi	Rishi's eyes flash open in surprise and a certain amount of alarm. She beckons the others closer, and, in a quiet voice, warns them. "There was a demon spider here. Not the one I have bound, but another type. Much, much larger I am suspecting. ...However, I think I am having it's scent, so we could be trying to find it." When Resurgence lands heavily, Rishi goes to check on him, making sure the crack to his skull is not a major injury or concussion.
Reforged Resurgence	Resurgence, grasping the back of his head, leans against the wall he was just climbing and mutters things you'd never want said about you, even going as far as to use a few choice words about crown molding itself. After a moment of hesitation, he allows Rishi to inspect his head, muttering "it's not broken yet, I think".
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk walks over to Reclaimed "When you want to scale a wall like that, you must think of it like a game of Go and not a race. There are hand holds and toe holds all over the wall if you know where to look." Silk nods to Rishi's statements and smiles. She pulls out a small tube made of horn that resembles a scroll case and flexes her hand. Both ends of the scroll tube expand out and she is now holding a bronze staff. "Lead the way"
Amethyst	Amethyst looks frustrated. "No dead body, no rite to ensure that they enter the cycle of reincarnation." She mutters to herself. "I suppose I could _try_ the rite with just what we have here, but I've not done it to someone who wasn't in one piece. Now the question is what became of the corpse if it's not here." The immaculate doesn't like the idea that it might have been eaten by some demon. She nods towards Rishi. And with that, Amethyst focuses. The essence around her shimmers, her tattoos flicker and brighten. It feels darker and more primal, her spirit imposing itself upon the essence surrounding her as she shapes her spell. Taking her athame in hand much slower than she usually would. The blade decorated with the hilt resembling a dragon, and two tones of metal. Gently, she draws it across her hand, in the very center of a particular rune. And as the blood drips it begins to swarm around her hand, gradually drawing out more and more until a lash forms from it all. She cleans and sheaths her blade, and then looks to follow. Amethyst is ready for this thing, whatever it might be.
Bright Journey	Bright Journey looks back in alarm as the discussion has traversed the gap between "horrible murder" and "demon spider". She frowns deeply and looks back at the few stragglers left from the crowd, plus the guards, who are starting to look rather grim themselves at the mention of a demon. She addresses them. "Everyone, it looks like we will be going on a hunt. The soldiers will help out anyone who still needs it. Soldiers, I recommend you stay here and guard the crime scene. We'll let you know if we find anything." Strictly speaking, the guards probably shouldn't just be letting the party go. But by this point Bright has them well in hand. They stay put, and she walks over to where everyone else has been standing. With a voice much quieter than before, she addresses Resurgence. "Sir, are you all right? Also, I'm afraid I don't know you..." She glances at everyone else. "Can anyone vouch for this man? We're not going to hunt bandits, here..." The unspoken but obvious truth, of course, is she, and everyone else here, has secrets.
Amethyst	"He's a friend." Amethyst says to Bright. "Another Dragon, /like me/. Tho he wasn't born with fae blood like I was." There's a way she emphesizes those two words, 'like me'. And there's a look she shoots Rishi as she says it, and then she looks back to Bright, "We can trust him. Being tossed around in the wyld like that makes you more accepting of strange folks I'd suppose."
Reforged Resurgence	Resurgence shrugs with one hand while rubbing his head with the other. "I'm fine enough to hunt, I think, but I wouldn't mind something for the pain. What I really need is my gear. And as far as trust goes, if I can trust Amethyst, I can probably trust you. I hope you'll extend the courtesy of trusting me back."
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk looks from Amethyst to Reclaimed "If you trust him, then that's good enough for me." Silk smiles and nods her head. "If you need your gear, we can wait for you to get it. The trail that Rishi is following can wait a few minutes for you to get ready, she's an expert tracker." She looks at everyone else, "Do you need more time that?"
Bright Journey	Bright Journey puts a hand on her neck and stretches to the left, getting a nice satisfying 'pop' before stretching once more. "Well, this demon spider isn't getting any closer, but it's already hours gone. A little extra time won't make a difference. If you all feel the need to prepare before we move out, that's not a bad idea. Let's meet back here in...how much time do you need? Just a few minutes? Sounds fine by me." She leans over to Silk, not really whispering but a little quieter. "Hey, how are you holding up, Silk? I just woke up, you've been out all night."
Amethyst	"I keep my gear well organized, I already have everything I'd usually have on my person." The alchemist says. And then she looks at Silk, and grabs a vial from a bag. "Here, this'll help you stay awake. You're not the only one that's been up all night." She has no particular reason for having something that helps one stay awake after getting no sleep. Nope. None at all. Not like she uses it regularly.
Rishi	Rishi tilts her head, considering. "I do not think the scent will be getting away from me...but the spirit might. I am not needing anything further...but" she looks seriously at the two Dragons "After we are finding this demon and sending it away, you are both coming back to Ammy's shop where I will be treating your wounds. ....As will anyone else who may be being bitten by this spider." "Try not to let it be chewing anything off. I cannot yet be regrowing your missing pieces."
Reforged Resurgence	Resurgence grins. "I've got no intention of coming back missing any pieces. And I'm usually too quick to get hit. Anyway, I should go get my stuff. I'll be back shortly." He waves and wanders off to a blacksmith shop just down the street, which has a simple sign over the door that reads 'Reforged Resurgence'.
Silk Moon Lotus	Silk takes the potion and drinks it down without thinking twice. "Thanks Ames, I'm ready now."