Once the door is closed, Leelan turns to his companions. "Well…That was…efficient. I suppose…", he says with a befuddled look on his face. "It seems we have our next direction. Though, this surely means that some of our competitors are already ahead of us. We shouldn’t linger anymore than we can. Unless you have more questions to ask this gentleman, who evidently doesn’t seem inclined to answer them."

“Grugga… perhaps the assistance of a skilled hand at those tools vill make him happier to talk. I’d like to know more about Ranger, and victim. A skilled ranger may lay a false trail.” 
Rohuzar knocks again. 

Guilim raises a brow and shrugs as the man closes the door in their face. "Well that was interesting. At the very least he did not slam the door in our faces. If we can't get any information from the man we can look somewhere else."

After Rohuzar's knock, the door opens again.  The man is drawing in a breath to shout, but then lets it out with a sigh seeing the larger green orc standing before him instead of the more bookish grey orc.  "What?" he asks at last.  "What more can I tell you?  The last man wasted an hour of my time, crawling around like an animal around my upstairs, and the men before him stole one of my good bottles of vodka."  The anger is slowly fading.  "This has been a disaster.  We're barely limping along as it is and now we're like to become known as 'the murder hotel.'  I just want this over with so I can put my business back together."  He steps back, allowing you inside if you choose.

"Just hear us out good Sir, we can offer you compensation for your time. Let's sit down and discuss this and we will make it worth your while." Aubrey says, patting a purse of coins.
Persuasion: 21 Assuming help from someone.

The man allows you all inside the hotel.  The entire ground floor is one open space with the bar and kitchens open to the rest of the dining/seating area.  Two staircases on opposite sides of the room both lead upstairs.  There is a strong odor of both smoke and dampness.  You'd guess perhaps some of the heavy rains from earlier in the week made it past the patch job on the roof.

He looks agreeable to Aubrey's attempts to persuade.  "I mean, of course I'd like to help.  Somebody gets murdered - especially under my own roof - of course I want to see the guilty get what's coming to them.  I'm just not sure what more there is to tell.  I've gone over it now... half a dozen times?  The magister, the people from the woman's employer, all the bounty hunters...".

He recites for you his recollection of the events of the night of May 10.  He tells you that shortly after dark, his only lodger of the night checked in.  It was an older man in a hooded cloak.  He asked for, "A clean room, and to not be disturbed."  A few of his local customers remained downstairs with him at the bar until near to midnight.  After they went home, he was busying himself cleaning when he heard a ruckus upstairs.  It sounded like a man and woman arguing.  Since the old man should have been the only other person in the building, he was alarmed.  He at first thought the old man may have snuck a prostitute in somehow.  Then there was the sound of breaking glass and something crashing to the ground.  He ran for the stairs but as he got close, he heard a roar and light erupted from the second floor like there was a great conflagration.   More shouting and crashing.  When he reached the top of the stairs, he saw smoke and fire in the hall and one of the bedrooms.  A woman slumped to the ground dead in the hall with two arrows in her back and a package wrapped in canvas fell out of her arms.  A human man he'd never seen before, in leather armor and a heavy brown cloak, stood at the end of the hall with a bow drawn.  He thought he was about to be killed, but the man advanced, grabbed the package off the floor, and tossed him a small pouch of coin.  "For your trouble," he said.  Then the man ran past him, down the stairs and out the front door.  He went upstairs and worked to beat out the flames which were still smoldering in the guest room he had rented to the old man... who seemed to have disappeared.  While he was working, he saw out the window that the hooded man hopped on a horse and rode off West right down the main road.  He shouted out the window for someone to ride after him, but the best he got was a couple of neighbors who came to help him finish putting out the flames.

After that it was all cleanup and questions.  He says he was told by the 'folk from Bardstown' that the woman was the old man he had rented the room to, disguised by magic, and that the hooded man with the bow was some ranger she had hired that had turned covetous over whatever loot she was carrying.  

"Beyond that, I'm not sure what other help I can be to you.  If you have any other questions, I will try to answer them."

Leelan listens carefully to the innkeeper’s story. "This story is quite regrettable. You have my deepest apologies. Were you by chance able to hear what the man and the woman were saying?"

"Just bits and pieces.  The man was shouting for her to tell him where she had hidden something.  A reliquary?  That she needed to hand it over.  The woman just kept shouting for him to get away from her, to leave her alone.  She also said some weird stuff I didn't understand....".  He tries his best to mimic the words spoken by the woman.

If you have proficiency in Arcana:

"A very polite murderer, paying for your trouble." Aubrey says thoughtfully. "Would you mind telling us about these bounty hunters that came here?"

"Hmmm... I'd wager you heard her cast burning hands. Is there legal recourse for the poor man, Aubrey? I know you're a, erm, litigious nation..."

Taking a moment to allow Aubrey to answer, he then continues on, "Would you mind if we took a look at the crime scene? We might be able to spot something that would help our investigation."

History (Law) to recall regulations regarding possibility for any legal compensation for the Innkeeper: 16

Quote from Oberon99 >>

"A very polite murderer, paying for your trouble." Aubrey says thoughtfully. "Would you mind telling us about these bounty hunters that came here?"

"Aye.  You're the fourth lot to come through."  He strokes his goatee as he thinks.

"First, it was the elf.  He came through mid day yesterday.  Young, just a kid, but well equipped.  He had a longbow that was studded with jewels, if you can believe that.  He had an imperial Scourge's outfit too and claimed to be on official business.  But the Scourges have all been through here already and besides, I know most of them by looks at least, and there ain't no teenage elves among them.  So I called him on it and he admitted he was trying to pull a fast one and just like that - poof - he was wearing leathers and a traveling cloak.  Nice cloak, though, and nicer armor.  Still had that bow, too....  Anyhow, he asked a ton of questions... about the woman; the man; the package.  Did I see it?  Touch it?  Had anyone else been by asking about it.  He went through the room upstairs and then he left, just like that.  Gave me a bit of coin and some advice about clientele... not to trust any folk in red cloaks.  Also told me to watch out for a well dressed man... with a hat and cane.  'Stay away from him if you can, or do whatever he says and pray for your soul if he pays you a visit...' and then he was gone."

"Then just before mid night came the second group.  A couple of women, a dwarf, and a young man.  Real young, like the elf.  The kid was riding dutch with one of the women.  They said they were riding hard to be the first ones on the case and one of their mounts up and died on the road from Bardstown.  While the dwarf was asking questions, the kid helped himself to one of my best bottles of vodka.  I chased them out and told them if I ever saw their faces again I would be calling for a magister.  Bloody idiots if you ask me."

"But gods, they weren't the worst of it.  The last one was here just before you lot rolled in.  You can probably still smell him on the air, though I wouldn't recommend.  Looked and acted like he just crawled out of an ogre's arse hole.  He didn't ask too many questions, and by then I was done entertaining folk.  What he did do, was proceed to crawl over just about every inch of my upstairs... sniffing... scratching... poking around any and every where.  I'm going to have to de-louse the place in addition to the rest of my repairs.  Then up and left without a word."

"Everyone of them rode off west, far as I saw."

Quote from Rockchewer >>

Taking a moment to allow Aubrey to answer, he then continues on, "Would you mind if we took a look at the crime scene? We might be able to spot something that would help our investigation."

He sighs.  "Be my guest.  Take either set of stairs." 

Quote from Oberon99 >>

History (Law) to recall regulations regarding possibility for any legal compensation for the Innkeeper: 21

Aubrey, to your knowledge - and you're confident you know a great deal about this subject - there is no legal recourse unless the guilty party can be identified and collected from.  In this case, the offender who caused the fire is now dead.  Liabilities stemming from crimes or property damage do not follow after the death of the liable party - unlike contractual or financial liabilities, which of course do follow on to the heirs and inheritors of the deceased - part of the bedrock of Imperial financial law. 

While an argument could be made that the man who attacked her is indirectly responsible for the fire, a skilled lawyer would likely prevail arguing on his behalf that he cannot be held liable for destructive magics cast by another party - even if you have done something to provoke that casting - as the use of magic is not 'foreseeable'.  There is case law to back this position up.  And in any case, that would require the at fault party to be located and collectable to even be an option. 

There are no public moneys available for the rebuilding or repair of damaged private property.  In certain rare instances, public funds have been made available for repairs in the aftermath of major disasters, the collapse of the Bardstown docks in 2003 being the obvious precedent.  But these have only happened by imperial decree and for express, limited purposes. 

There does not appear to be any recourse for this person.  "My name is John Ziebart, by the way," he says, seemingly realizing he has not been introduced. 

“Thank you, John. I am Rohuzar, and ve are with the Red Band. I apologize if the previous searchers had been… unprofessional. Ve vill take only short time.” Rohuzar writes down John Ziebart’s name before going to check the area where the ‘old man’ sat and then slept. Then he’ll look for tracks to try to distinguish between the various parties who’ve come through compared to the descriptions given by John. 

investigation 13 

survival 10 

Aubrey follows Rohuzar upstairs, assisting him with the investigation. (Help action given)
He also discreetly mentions to Grugga that unfortunately there is no legal compensation to be found for the damages caused by the fire.

18

 Rohuzar conducts his investigation with a helping hand from Aubrey.  Most of the inn is covered with a fine layer of soot from the fire.  While John has swept much of the ground floor, the soot is everywhere upstairs.  It has captured a record of the movements of those who have been here since the fire.

- The most recent set of prints are strange.  Its clear that the last person who went through the upstairs both walked and crawled around on their hands and knees.  This largely lines up with John's description.  Following carefully along you see that this individual located a hidden compartment in the wall of the room where the woman had been sleeping.  There is nothing in that space now.  This figure proceeded to check all of the other rooms, which had similar compartments.  They are all empty and if this figure found anything, it is now gone.

- You can not find any prints that would match up with the group of 4 mercs.  Per John's story this group never made it upstairs so that is consistent. 

- You cannot find any prints from the young elf John describes.  A couple of times you think you spot something... but no.  If he was upstairs, as John claims, he moved like a ghost.

- The next newest set of prints are John's.  You can see where he dragged any furniture that could be salvaged from the fire room into a neighboring room and began performing basic repairs.

- There are then a large number of older prints.  These cluster in the upstairs hall, around a large bloodstain on the floor.  Another group enters the room where the fire started and then move to all the other rooms.  There are eight different prints:  four in imperial legion boots, two in traveling boots, and two in fine shoes.  As these are several days old, these would appear to line up with the investigation of the incident by the Legion and the collection of the body by the Rare Earth Materials representatives.

- The soot makes prints from before the fire almost impossible to pick out. 

You find a few other items of interest in the fire room.  Though the window is scorched, you see where a dagger was used from the outside to pry open the shutter to gain entry.  Also, in the scorch marks on the walls, there is the outline of a single figure, with the wall less burned in that space.  Assuming the woman cast the fire spell, it looks like the murderer took a good hit.  It is likely this person would have suffered some burns.

"Hmmm... that big brute was smarter than he looked." He turns to John, "What happened to the body? And did you notice if the murderer was burnt when he ran past you?"

"Anything else before we leave Ruhozar?" Aubrey asks, ready to go downstairs to the others.

Guilim stays close to the door as two of them head upstairs to look over the scene of the murder. As he waits, the halfling will reach for his dagger and mess about cleaning the small blade with a cloth he pulls from his pack.

Rohuzar shakes his head. 

“Time to go. Our competition is… significant.” 

"The journal said she stayed in a fisherman's shack on the coast between Northbridge and Midway. Are we going to walk the lakeside to look for that? Or just march on to Northbridge?"