[Haven] The Trail on The Road

[Balthazar Black]

2 Ymiden 721

Balthazar and Elisabeth had moved down to the beach where they'd seen the merchant going towards as he departed from the settlement. In theory it could be easier for the man's wagon to hug the beach along the coast on the way to Hopetoun that it would be for him to go through the woods. Balthazar felt like a fool for not watching the stranger more closely during the event but he was determined to make up for it now. They would find the thief. The wagon that the merchant had brought with him left a trail that was not easily found, but was easily followed once it was found. The trick was finding it. Balthazar was certain the merchant must have spent a good amount of time planning their crime. He wasn't sure how it could have been done otherwise without magic and if there were magic, they should have been able to tell. Maybe he was thinking too much like a Rupturer but it seemed the most likely for criminals to use. Isabella had.

The initial trail moved out from the settlement and down towards the beach which the duo found rather easily, however a good piece of the trail was erased by a higher tide which Balthazar concluded must have been part of the thief's plan. A less experience or maybe just a less motivated detective might have called that the end of the trail. However it was a wagon, not a boat. It had to come out of the water somewhere. "We can hug the coast and move that way- it seems like the wagon could have gone through there." Time and water had damaged a lot of the evidence but not all of it. "It's possible the wagon left more clues further down that way." And if not, they would not be any worse off than they already were so Balthazar thought it was worth exploring. "Do you want to come with me or report to the others that the trail ran cold by the water?"

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 2 Ymiden

Walking next to Balthazar, Elisabeth let him do his thing. Investigating things was something the Yari did well, and she was happy to let him lead the way. Her eyes were only good if she knew what she was looking for, and in this case, the young mage didn’t.

It made sense that the thief had considered the tides, but she wasn’t completely convinced a boat wasn’t involved in some manner. “Are we sure he couldn’t have escaped by boat? I know a larger boat couldn’t beach here, but is there a type that could, that would be big enough to put a wagon on?” Elisabeth wasn’t familiar with boats at all, but she just wanted to exclude that as a possibility before moving on.

“Although, I suppose if we find wagon tracks further down, we will have our answer.” She wasn’t as skilled at investigation as Balthazar was, so sometimes it took her a bit to figure things out for herself.

His question caused a soft grin to form, arching an eyebrow gently. “I think I’ll stay with you. There’s no need for us to report back yet and besides, I shouldn’t turn down such an opportunity to learn investigation from such an experienced teacher. As I recall, we make a pretty good team.”

The last time they had teamed up to work on something together was a rumor Balthazar had come across in Viden. They had scoured the Prime Atheneum for a good while, finally finding what they had been searching for. It wasn’t lost on her that that trial, and the current one, had similarities and differences.

Two investigations. The one in Viden had occurred on a trial where they had been reunited. This one, the trial before a separation. Elisabeth tried to keep her mind from thinking about it, but the fact was there, lurking.

Taking a deep breath, the young mage looked around, trying to distract herself. “Could he be headed for the main docks?”

[Balthazar Black]

2 Ymiden 721

"Elisabeth, I am worried that escaping by boat is exactly what he did." Balthazar said in a somewhat frustrated tone when she suggested the possibility. He wasn't frustrated with her at all, he was frustrated that it seemed likely a boat had been used. If that were the case, they'd have almost no way to track down the thief from Faldrass. "But even if he did, I don't think he could have taken the wagon with him. He'd have to have used a dingy to get to shore and the same to get back out to a ship." Balthazar explained, "He could fit what he took on the smaller boat but not a wagon." Which, Balthazar was hoping, meant that he'd abandoned the wagon somewhere along the coast and they could use it to find more clues... but they had to find it first.

When Elisabeth said she was going to stay with him rather than report back because there was no point yet and she wanted to learn from an 'experienced teacher' Balthazar nodded his head and in a very absent-minded manner said, "I'm good at this, but not teaching. You should know, you've endured my unarmed training." Balthazar figured the two skills were not all that different. He was probably the best human he'd knew in terms of unarmed skill but more often than not his teaching method was do-first, learn-after. It wouldn't be any different in terms of investigation. Balthazar was more quiet while looking at clues and trying to piece together a hypothesis than a teacher should have been. "Although," Balthazar's voice trailed off as a different thought popped into his head, "I'm not sure I can argue I'm good at investigating- just experienced."

Balthazar shook his head to dismiss the thought and went back to looking for another clue or sign of the wagon as he walked along the coast. Elisabeth suggested that the thief was going towards the main docks and Balthazar shook his head again, "I don't think so. It would be easier to use Hopetoun's than the main one and even then, I'm not sure the wagon could make it." One benefit of their isolation was that it left few paths out of the settlement. Yet even that was soured by the fact that it would be harder to track the thief if they did use a ship.

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 2 Ymiden

Elisabeth understood his frustration, and as such hadn’t taken it personally. She was frustrated too, truth be told, but frustration wouldn’t help their current situation and she was mindful of that. Casting a glance around, she listened while he explained to her his reasoning.

“Agreed, but aren’t there types of boats that can land onshore without the use of the smaller boat? I don’t remember the name of them, but I think I’ve heard of such a thing. I mean, I’m sure it’s a long shot, but it would go a long way in throwing someone off, using such a thing. Just a thought.”

Balthazar was operating under the assumption the wagon was abandoned, but then that led her to another question. “How did they get the wagon here in the first place? I mean, I guess he could have gotten it here on the island, somewhere…” Things just weren’t adding up, but Elisabeth wasn’t a detective, nor did she have the experience Balthazar did. All she had was logic, and things weren’t making sense.

A soft laugh slipped free when he mentioned his teaching techniques. “Well, ‘fall less’ does leave something to be desired, it also pushed me harder to be better. Teaching has a learning curve. I think you did pretty well.”

Falling silent, she let him examine and look, doing the same herself. Her eyes, arguably, were better than Balthazar’s, but one had to know exactly what they were looking for, and hers didn’t. Elisabeth was learning, slowly, but the types of things she noticed weren't of the same variety as the Yari. That made them a good team, but she needed to get up to speed quickly so that she could be of use.

They were looking for where the wagon went, which was fine, but maybe if they could figure out where the wagon came from in the first place, that would hold a clue to the whole situation. Either the wagon had been procured on Faldrass, or it had been brought with to Faldrass.

[Balthazar Black]

2 Ymiden 721

"I'll have to ask the guards if they saw any unusual sails last night when we return. It's better not to rule anything out until we know what happened for sure." Balthazar said as a strange feeling began to rise inside him. It was strange but it was unfortunately familiar. Balthazar's eyes narrowed a little, he ignored it for the moment and continued talking to Elisabeth. She'd asked how they got the wagon on the island and Balthazar silently hoped the answer was not magic. He didn't suspect a mage was involved given the silence of the crime but... whoever had done this had either been very clever or very good. Regardless they were not perfect. Balthazar didn't have a good answer for Elisabeth but he told her what he suspected.

"I think that they either got it at the docks on the southern side and carefully have been moving our way to get to a ship they planned to meet on near the garden or they... broke it down and brought it in parts? I'm not sure." Balthazar turned around suddenly as if he'd heard something behind him but he didn't concentrate enough to figure it out yet. He stopped walking and looked down at the sand. He didn't address her comments about his teaching because the strange sensation had overtaken his focus. He knew what it was now. A tangible force. Death. He turned back the direction they were going and gestured for Elisabeth to come with him before picking up his pace.

They would both smell what Balthazar had discovered before they would see it. In fact it might even have been the smell that distracted Balthazar first- not a feeling. A short distance ahead of them a body laid face down in the dirt with the waves gently tugging it. A few feet away sat the merchants wagon with a broken wheel and none of the decoration it had the night before. Balthazar gestured for Elisabeth to check the wagon while he moved over to the body and knelt down beside it slowly. He could tell immediately that it was not the merchant who'd visited but the dead man wore dark clothing and a cloth mask around his face that had been cut when someone slit his throat. There was dried blood in the sand stretching from where the man was to the wagon. The injuries that caused the death were obvious but the circumstances were not.

Balthazar rolled the body over and a quick burst of the terrible scent was released. He covered his mouth as he examined the body but did not recognize the man. "Did you find anything over there?"

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 2 Ymiden

Elisabeth continued to cast glances around. The whole situation was a bit bizarre really, and while it had been a good idea to come looking for clues, it was making less and less sense really. Something she had learned about investigation was that while evidence could lead in one direction, trusting one’s instincts was a viable response too. There was a theory that instincts were born of doing something over and over and over, so many times that one’s response became almost instinctual, and unconscious. The concept wasn’t bad, but she had always questioned why she was having ‘hunches’, being relatively new to investigation.

The answer, she thought, perhaps rested in her past as a researcher. Researching was like investigating. Both began with a question or subject that needed to be examined and studied, to best determine that path to take. Research sometimes was a part of investigating really so it wasn’t too much of a leap. At any rate, in the past, Elisabeth had noticed that she and Balthazar investigated well together because both had divergent thinking processes that complemented each other. She enjoyed working with him when the opportunities arose, although she wasn’t thrilled that it was at the expense of the settlers.

He spoke his thoughts but suddenly, something caught Balthazar’s attention, and by extension Elisabeth’s. She watched the man she loved glance at something, but she could tell his mind was somewhere else, trying to figure something out. She also knew that it wasn’t the time to ask him questions, and that he would say something when he figured out what he was trying to sort.

He gestured for her to follow him, and Elisabeth did so without question. A foul stench soon found them both, and unlike Balthazar, Elisabeth had no clue what they were about to find – a dead body.

“Is that…what I think it is?” Elisabeth’s words were soft, but not emotional in any way. It might have been her first dead body, but she wanted answers and if a dead body could give them to her, so much the better.

He wanted her to check out the wagon while he looked over the body, which was fine with her. Walking over to it, the first thing she noticed was the blood. There were blood trails all around the wagon. While it appeared a bit different, the wagon was indeed the one from the descriptions given. Many people had commented on a particular identifying marker on the side of the wagon – a ‘1’ that seemed to be burned into the wood – and the very same symbol was present on this wagon.

There were a few minor things in the wagon that indicated things had been there – remnants of glass, plaster, fabrics…as if things had been unloaded quickly. Before she had a chance to tell Balthazar about any of it though, he asked after her, wondering what she had found. “Seems to be the same wagon. The descriptions of the wagon match and it looks like whatever was in here was offloaded quickly. And then, there’s blood trails. A few smears against the wagon. A fight maybe?”

Balthazar would know better than she, but that was the current theory she had, although Elisabeth wasn’t sure where the dead body fit into the mystery.

[Balthazar Black]

2 Ymiden 721

Balthazar's examination of the body revealed little that they could not have theorized from the state of the wagon and the bloodstains spread across it, and the sand. There were bruises on the man's knuckles and a cut across his forearms where it seemed he might have tried to protect himself from a knife swipe. As Balthazar looked over the body he felt like he could see the fight in his head. His eyes shifted from the body to the sand for a moment but he couldn't quite make out the footwork- only the places where blood splatter hadn't been destroyed by waves. There was a stain on the floor that Balthazar thought looked like the bloodstains that he flown from the many injuries he'd seen in the past with a knife. So a struggle- as Elisabeth suggested, was not entirely impossible and it was becoming the lead theory.

Yet why had the struggle occurred? The body was not of Haven. It was not one of the many settlers Balthazar had familiarized himself with so it must have been someone who'd either come with the thief or been exploring Faldrass and happened upon the fleeing criminal. The latter seemed less likely because he thought that anyone exploring this far toward Faldrass would have been able to protect themselves better. So... maybe one of the thieves partners had a change of heart and got a blade through it for that? Balthazar realized Elisabeth was waiting for a response from him about her suggestion and he nodded his head.

"There was certainly a fight but it seems it was short. His throat was cut. He would have only had a few moments to struggle." Balthazar knew that from personal experience. He knew exactly how long he could remain conscious after his throat was cut open so he assumed most people had roughly the same timespan. "He has a wound on his arms from a blade. Probably the same one that cut his neck. The blood by the wagon... it might still be his." Balthazar rose to his feet and looked out towards the water. The fight had been short, if there had ever been one. There was only one body but they couldn't assume there was only one thief. Balthazar was working under the assumption, based on the resourcefulness he'd seen, that they had been targeted by a group of thieves.

Maybe two of them had started to argue, a fight began, and someone else settled it from behind. Regardless, the trail was running cold. Balthazar walked over to the wagon and narrowed his eyes as he examined many of the familiar marks on it he recalled from the night before. It certainly was what Elisabeth said it was but it didn't offer any other clues. "We'll have Ronan and Balder move the wagon and body back to Haven and turn them over to the Elements with a list of the stolen items. Hopefully if any of them surface, or the Elements recognize the dead man, they'll get a lead and we can work from there to find the thief. Otherwise..." His voice trailed off and a moment later he shook his head, "We still have some leads to pursue but this was well planned. I don't like our odds."

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 2 Ymiden

The moment Balthazar mentioned the body’s throat being cut, she knew they were treading into dangerous territory, and she didn’t wish to linger there any longer than necessary. A slashed throat had been the manner of his own death, and she was sure it wasn’t a pleasant thing to consider, even if it was in relation to an investigation.

Eager to move on, Elisabeth listened and followed him as he verbally worked his way through the problem. Knowing that more lay beneath the surface of his comments, she considered the man she loved. His mind was always working, and he was thinking far more than he was saying, but never would she believe he would keep important information from him, so she let the matter go, offering up a nod as he laid out the way forward for them.

“I agree about the planning. There are two settlements on Faldrass and targeting the more isolated one is smart. However, I think there might be a silver lining. Had they struck Hopetoun, I believe there would have been a greater chance of not finding clues or breadcrumbs to follow. Our location forced the hand of whomever did this. They knew we would be on the trail sooner rather than later. The accelerated timeline means, most likely, mistakes were made. Mistakes we can benefit from. Maybe not right not, but this isn’t over.”

Taking one final look at the scene, Elisabeth memorized what she could, wishing to take notes once she got back to the settlement. Balthazar, of course, would have the information, but he had his way and she had hers. She knew she would have to learn how to function as a leader on her own due to Balthazar's imminent departure, and as such, not depending on his abilities to help her or the settlement. It was a somewhat gloomy thought, but she needed to be realistic. They had been a team for much of the previous cycle, but part of the team was leaving and that changed the dynamic where Haven was concerned.

Giving him a bit of a smile, Elisabeth touched his arm gently. "Let's get back and get the guards out here, shall we?" She had a limited amount of time left with him and they had done all they could at the scene for the moment. Balthazar had leads and she had every confidence in him that he would follow them. Soon, they would have answers.

[Doran]

Balthazar:

Knowledge:
Investigation - Recognizing signs of a struggle
Detection - Sometimes you smell before you see

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

Elisabeth:

Knowledge:
Leadership - Leading can mean getting help from a more experienced source.
Detection - The smell of a dead body
Investigation - Figuring out where something came from is as important as where it went.
Investigation - Drawing conclusions from clues
Investigation - Accelerated timeline for criminals means potential mistakes
Investigation - Know where to look for clues
Investigation - Mental picture of the crime scene
Investigation - Different approaches to investigation can be complementary
Psychology - Understanding the emotional damage of a traumatic death

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 15

- - -

Comments: I don’t think that I’ve ever read a thread where Elisabeth and Balthazar investigated together, so that was interesting to see. Balthazar has Master Investigation, but Elisabeth has become a skilled investigator in her own right, and this thread shows it!

I like how they worked together when they were trying to find out where that thieving merchant could have gone.

I found it interesting that Balthazar thought that the merchant used the Hopetoun dock rather than the main one. I can’t help but wonder how the merchant got to wagon to Faldrass as well after his discussion with Elisabeth!

The appearance of the dead body near the wagon was unexpected. I definitely didn’t see that coming. It made me even more curious than before about the case, especially since the dead man was not from Haven. I wonder if he really is one of the thief’s partners that had a change of heart!

With that being said, I appreciate that you decided to involve the Elements in this case, and I look forward to the continuation and hopefully to the resolution of this investigation.

Good luck, and enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: I might have mentioned the dead body in the "Notes/Warnings" section of the review request.