False Alarms

"Where should we go today, the historian, seamstress?  Any other ideas?" queried Varrid as the party finished its breakfast of cheese, bread, black pudding and fried tomatoes.  "Let's go see the historian," volunteered Grunyar.  "Also we should see the town in the daylight," added Baru.

Koth Rigsby provided a map of Paridon and told the party to seek of S.H. Williby at Williby & Heffnel Notaries, INC near Regent Park.  Ire McMoran shop, the Winking Eye Stitchery is on Threadneedle Street at Westminster Street.  Off the party headed north to Regent Park.  Outside the air was still full of fog but it was daytime so one could see further in the fog.  The buildings were dark brick structures layered with dark grime.  The streets were paved with cobblestones and as the party walked, several carriages passed by.  The men on the street wore dark woolen pants, cotton shirts, high-button boots and heavy cloaks or capes.  Some better dressed men wore top hats and white or gray gloves.  The other men wore simple cloth caps.
Women wore somber-colored long dresses, high-button boots and hats.  They all had capes of various styles and cloth.  The better dressed women wore large brimmed and elaborate hats while the others wore simple bonnets.
All along the streets were vendors hawking a variety of items, some sold household goods, bottles, rags and hot wine form pushcarts.  Other vendors offered a variety of cooked food, fried fish, pig's trotters, meat pies and plum pudding.  Some streets were full of buskers - street musicians and performers -- including stilt walkers, hurdy-gurdy players with trained monkeys, puppeteers and fiddlers.
The adventurers were astonished at some other activities.  Vendors were selling padded metal collars, that they saw some women wearing.  Hand bells, sold by the dozens, to be rung by citizens when they saw someone of the murderer's description.  City guard were stationed all over the city, some were seen with wizards scouting out the buildings along dark alleyways.  Arvien asked what they were looking for.  "We place an alert at the corners to call the city guard in case of people with weapons ready," came the reply.  "Like magic mouth?" asked Arvien.  "Exactly!" was the reply.  Baru was utterly amazed at how fast the city had created these items within one evening of the killing.
At last the group came to the offices of Williby and Heffnel, inside were several men sitting at desks writing or copying information into books of various sizes.  "Just like the monks," stated Ralom.  Asking after Williby, they were soon greeted by an old man, coughing and wheezing, with a long grey beard, wearing a tight brown skullcap.  "oW may I be of service?" he enquired.  Varrid started the conversation with the new murder from last evening and asked what he knew about the murders from 13 years ago.  Williby began, "The murders started 156 years ago.  Every 13 years there's a series of six murders, all young women -- and all mutilated.  The murderer is member of the aristocracy." 
"How would you know that?" asked Arvien.  "You know there is always the "crazy relative" hidden away in the manor houses of Paridon." was Williby's reply.  Varrid showed Williby the crest that was on the door of the carriage.  "Don't recognize it.  It doesn't belong to any family in Zherisia," replied Williby.  "So it comes from outside the city?" Varrid countered.  "The city and the realm are the same," Williby stated with a snort.  "Speaking of Zherisia, you know that the lord of the realm, Sodo, is really a changling, switched at birth for an evil shapeshifting child." he state conspiratorially.  "Bring me some evidence of the killer, I can do some research, if you are interested," Williby concluded with. 
The party left the shop of Williby and Heffnel with little more knowledge than when they came.  Varrid wished to find a member of her sect and was attracted to a sleight-of-hand performer who delighted in showing passersby his card tricks.  Varrid stopped and struck up a conversation with the performer who introduced himself as Scrags Gallant.  When Varrid mentioned the murder Scrags eyes lit up and he revealed he was one of the last people to see the murder victim alive.  He also got a good look at the man she was with at the time.  "Beatrice Bump, well known for her entertainment of men," he added.  "For a fee of 50 pounds I can describe the man and show you the object wot fell out of 'is pocket."  Varrid was skeptical but he was convincing.  Just then Drovic whirled around and seized a young man behind him.  "Stay away from by purse," he bellowed.  Scrags pleaded with Tim to leave the good people be.  Tim begged to be released as Ralom joined Drovic in an intimidating display.  Varrid, even more skeptical now, raised the possibility of bringing Inspector Logan down to investigate.  At the mention of Logan, Scrags retreated swiftly into the alleys with Varrid following.  She soon lost sight of Scrags in the fog and twisty little passages leading to little twisty passages.
Baru urged Ralom and Drovic to let Tim go on his way, and they relented once Drovic determined there was nothing missing from his purse.
Arvien spotted a news hawker on the corner offering the Newsbill for 5 pence.  "Read all the dirty details, Bloody Jack strikes again.  Get your story here, Strumpet found decapitated, and mutilated.  Get your Newsbill here."  Arvien bought a copy and found it full of false information, blood splattered all over the alley, decapitation, and mutilation. 
Grunyar wandered the streets inquiring where the "ladies of the evening" congregated and was surprised that they were known all over the city.  He was given the name of Felicia Street as a possible contact.  "If anyone knows wot's happenin', guv, it's Felicia." said the painted lady Grunyar confronted.  "Fancy a quick one, discount for the little man."
Grunyar, Seglun, Arvien and Ralom headed to Felicia's address, farther north of Regent Park.  Varrid, Baru and Drovic went to find the seamstress.  At Felicia's abode the group found her speaking to a group of fellow women, trying to convince them to stay off the streets at night.  She had little to offer but said she would keep her eyes and ears open and let them know of any information she finds.  She also appeals for funds to help pay for Beatrice's funeral.
The other party members appear at the Winking Eye Stitchery, where they find a young woman, Ire McMoran who sells dresses made of brooding colors, usually maroon or navy.  She displays capes that catch Varrid's eye.  The better ones are 1 pound (gold piece to Varrid), the lesser a few shillings.  Ire was the woman who identified Beatrice the last evening and she sneers as she recalls the trollop's fate, "Get what they deserve I say."
Varrid and crew then head to the Paridon Guard Headquarters at Old Bailey and Westminster, where they catch Logan listening to various men confess to the murder.  He pulls them aside and says that their help would be greatly needed on the streets tonight, and every night till we catch this villain.  If they would patrol the streets it would appreciated.
As evening falls on the streets of Paridon, pranksters are seen taunting the Paridon Guard byt crying "Murder!" and then running away into the fog.  Innocent women are terrorized by hooligans leaping out of dark alleys to startle them.  The party is split into two groups, some in the northern sections circling Regent Park, others staying around Lodge Road, where the previous evening's murder occurred. 
Grunyar and crew walked streets cloaked in fog.  Here and there a shadowy form lingered on a corner, or hurried past, cloak drawn tight against the chill.  Suddenly, from off to the right, they heard a woman scream.  The sound was overlaid by a pealing bell.  Someone was sounding the alarm!  Rushing to the alley, the group found a young woman ringing a hand bell and wearing a protective collar.  She wailed that her purse had been snatched, but the young hooligan had already fled into the fog.  As Seglun attempted to follow the purse snatcher an voice sounded from the nearby wall "Call the guard! The murderer is passing by!" repeating endlessly.  Soon three Paridon guards arrived and the small group had to explain who they were and why they were carrying weapons.   After the guards retreated, close at hand just inside the mouth of another darkened alley, a male voice cried out.  "Murder! Murther! Come and shee the murther.  Seglun hastened to the alley where a man, hardly able to stand, held up the furry body of a rat and waves it in Seglun's face.  "I've committed mudder!" he gleefully chortled in a slurred voice.  The rest of the group appears just as the drunk pulls Seglun close and whispers urgently.  "Da rats'll bite yer tootsies if ya don' cover yer feet.  Can you spare a few pence for a par'ner?"
Meanwhile on Lodge Road the Drovic and crew heard a brief, shrill scream that ended abruptly with the sound of a body falling heavily to the ground.  All three sprinted to the sound where they beheld the body of a young woman lying in a heap on the ground.  The dim light revealed another figure, standing stiffly and looking down at the corpse.  Then the figure turned and, with heavy, clanking footsteps, strode purposefully down the street.  Baru and Drovic followed the figure while Varrid knelt by the body.  As the figure walked into the light of a street lamp, it was revealed as a woman.  Her face gleamed with an odd sheen, and her movements were jerky and unnatural. Strange creaking noises emanated from her body.  Drovic called to the figure to halt and when it didn't Baru tackled the metal woman.  Varrid looked all around the body for blood, or injury and found neither.  The young woman slowly awakened from her swoon and looked around in fright.  Apparently she had fainted at the sight of the "woman".  As Baru started to try and dismantle the creature several men came running out of the fog shouting for Baru not to hurt their creation.  Drovic sensed a Evocation magic from the figure as Baru asked what this creature was.  The men of the Metalworker's Guild explained that they, with some wizardly help, had created this tin golem as a lure for the killer.  They wanted to take it back and work on it longer.  Baru relented and the Guild members led the "woman" away.
Bong... Bong... Bong... Bong...
The city clock started to toll the hour of midnight and the party had not found the killer.
Bong... Bong... Bong... Bong...
Curse the fog!  It is impossible to see more than a few feet in any direction.  The murder could be happening anywhere.
Bong... Bong... Bong... Bong...
An eerie silence descended as the last echoes of the city clock faded away.  The whole city was still for a heartbeat... then a shrill scream of a whistle split the night.  Baru and crew headed up Oxford street in the direction of the scream.  After 5 or 10 minutes of running they came upon a group of Paridon Guards, retching, shaking, or in a trance, staring at a woman's body on the steps of the Minced Meats butcher shop.  The throat had been sliced open, and various internal organs and been removed through holes in the torso.  Drovic turned to a dark alley and lost his supper.  Baru and Varrid examined the body, noted that the cuts were clean and precise, obviously made by someone with a steady and skilled had.  Just as they had seen last night, there is not nearly enough blood, either in the corpse or at the scene.  The dead woman was identified as Annie Smitters.  She was a woman whose only source of income was the sale of her companionship.  Inspector Logan arrived shortly, he was stuck on the removal of organs from the body.  Clearly the killer was someone who is skilled with a blade -- perhaps a butcher, since the body was found on the steps of a meat market.  Together with the Guard they began ticking off physicians, soldiers and undertakers as other possible murder suspects.  Varrid knocks on the door of the Meat Market rousting Hoag van Render, red headed with a bristly beard.  He knew nothing about the killing, only heard the scream and was loathe to investigate.  All his knives and carcasses are intact in the shop.  "I can't believe this is happening again," he acknowledges with sorrow in his eyes.  The body is sent off the Morton's Funeral Home and the party heads for the Twilight Yawn Inn.  Even the crew from Regent Park finds its way to the Inn after learning of the murder from word on the street.
After a few hours of rest Arvien finds herself once again standing in the front room of Renee's boarding house.  There are chairs, a couch, a desk, thick carpet and plush drapes.  The front wall consisted of a door, to the outside? and a large window that looked into the night.  As Arvien turned around she found that all here companions were here, sitting or standing in the front room.  There was a staircase winding up into darkness and another door leading deeper into the boarding house.  The rooms walls, floor and ceiling were not straight, but moved in slow motion to fantastic shapes.  The air was tinged with a myriad of colors, that swirled and looped around. 
Outside the window the fog rolled in, filling the street outside, pressed at the window glass and even sent exploratory tendrils of glowing vapor under the door.  The screams started next.  They were far off initially, but they got louder and closer as tense moments passed by.  Other noises filled the night, ripping sounds and the crackle of fire, high pitched shrieks, chittering and the strange sound of far-away music.  Filled with gloom Arvien opened the door leading into the house.  The whole scene shifted as the colors and sounds whirled all about.

DM's Notes: The party earned 100 XP for the night and now have 15028, needing 7972 additional for 5th level.