The group, bemused by unsolveable mysteries, mundane discoveries and which of the dust on them was brick dust and which was the dust of Elisim Deorsin’s dead relatived, decide to clean up and seek expert help. The best place for that was the Temple of Ghalmerha, the place they had come over many weeks to find, Not only difd they still have accommodation there, a library and scholars, but it is where Harvan, their employer, a scholar himself with an interest in magical things.
One mystery he solved easily, When asked about people who could shift between hyaena and human, that Harvan knew the answer to, Rabalisu or, in the southern lands of the West Bhukerat, the Hyaena folk. Rabasilu are mortals who have descent from dark, bestial spirits. If the person is good in their human form they will resist the change, as in hyaena form they are wicked, murderers, despoilers of graves and snatchers of children. Wicked people will change frequently, to cause mischief and harm.
In hyaena form they are larger than most hyaenas, and are able to stand upright and use human speech, using words to gain entry into houses or lure others to their doom. Rabasilu in cities usually form only very small groups, but outside cities they can form large bands of extended families, usually with a lair in a cave system. When found, these caves are piled high with bones, both mortal and animal. Many are just littered on the floor or on heaps, but some families build them into shrines to a noted ancestor.
As far as the other mystery, and coffin bereft of a corpse and an abandoned lamp, one of his staff, Azadah, a priestess of the Three and mage of the College of Celestial Magics, shed some light, so to speak, on the other mystery. The Celestial College has three branches, those who study darker paths than her can walk into a shadow, and walk out elsewhere. With that lamp, she could have crawled into a shadow in the coffin, to emerge outside the crypt, to reenter and despoil the corpses of valuables.
The group also learned one reason why the intruder hung around the Merchant Factors, casually defacing paintings and, inexplicably dropping the thing they had stolen in a covered punch bowl. Why. They had no idea. Walking through Shadows, changing form, potentially masking themselves from the searching Nightwatchman, though not his dog, all took energy, and a tired intruder would need time to recover. Recovering, perhaps they damaged the paintings out of sheer boredom.
From the house of the Deorsin family and the Merchant Factors, the group went to “The Tower’s Base“, an upscale place of entertainment habituated by the rich and entertainers. Decried by Elisim’s steward Harpar as a sinkhole of depravity, the place seems more than that. Yes, with its mix of supposed magical and religious symbology, it is in terrible taste, but it is upscale and provides the service it overcharges for.
The group settled down, gauging the place, the rich bourgeoisie, the louche actors and folk trying to make contacts, and lets the acts do their thing, the dancing and singing containing satirical jokes, the juggler and escapologist who escaped from a locked chest with off-duty guardsmen sitting on it, the singer who started slow and had the whole club singing along with drinking songs.
Then, the last act, of the first set, a dancer, “Ihradel” was announced. The group studied the veiled dancer as best as they could, given the excited audience jostling for a good view. As Jalabu tried to study the covered features to compare to the portrait painted on the empty coffin, one of the group of guardsmen, who they would later would learn was called “Rakhi“, got up and. batting a bouncer away, tried to get closer to the dancer, shouting “”that’s not her, that’s not her””. Between another bouncer, Jalabu and his mates, Rakhi was guided outside.
Jalabu followed as “Ihradel” retreated and the owner called for Open Stage and Farshad took his chance, supported by his comrades.
Outside Jalabu asked Rakhi what he meant, and was told. Ihradel was Rakhi’s lover, or something, for a night, he had been held in jail for a fortnight, this was his first night out and he came here to see her, only she wasn’t here.
Jalabu returned in time to hear Farshad, whose act had been initially appreciated by the crowd, earn the horror and abuse of the crowd with his rendition of “The Goat Song”. Was it the song itself, the rather distasteful dance movements, or a combination of the two that were to introduce such dread into the future nightmares of those that saw it? The house band quickly came on to take over and a bouncer lifted Farshad off stage and over to his companions.
Suspecting that the guardsman was right about a fake Ihradel, they snagged the owner who admitted to the deception, Ihradel never having returned since she left to get married, neither had Aghbari, the young wastrel she had married. The false Ihradel was another dancer, Tsisanna, not a friend of the real Ihradel as Tsisanna thought that Ihradel, being gifted with natural grace and talent, could not be bothered to put the effort in to hone her skills and become truly great. A later conversation with Tsisanna confirmed that opinion of Ihradel.
When he was eventually told, the owner, Saylhin, was surprised to learn of Ihradel’s demise, but then confused when the group talked about her as living and in the present tense. After Saylhin left, one of the house musicians, Bhaddas, told the group that his predecessor had gone a little over a fortnight ago, and that the other musician Gethiuz might have information.
Gethiuz told a story of his friend Andilaz becoming suspicious of Ihradel reacting badly to being hit on the bare flesh with a silver coin. Andilaz was a Perim, and knew that, generations ago, Gethiuz’s family included a Perim, and he wondered if Gethiuz could see what Andalaz thought he could see in Ihradel.
Soon after asking him about this, Andilaz turned up in an alley, decapitated, just over a fortnight ago. No murderer was found.
This led the group to question who in the club stayed where, and they asked Saylhin to take them to where Ihradel stayed, a house converted to separate rooms and a communal dining space. Ihradel’s room had been let, briefly, after she left, but a search turned up a single ear-ring, brass with a bell, but in a concealed compartment they found two more earrings, gold and inscribed “To Ihradel with all devotion – Dahlgik“, and a closed wax tablet with notes about the Deorsin family. These, written in archaic Araya, were taken over time, mostly concerned with power and riches.
The group took the tablet and earrings, whether or not they would add anything substantial to what they know, they will find out in time.
And there we left it