Truador stares intently at the page, soaking in as much information as he can. He glances up briefly when Nyral approaches the table, but says nothing. He had seen the drow at the funeral. Being a white dragonborn who stands head and shoulders over most people made him easy to pick out of a crowd, but the one armed, dark skinned elf stuck out just as much as he did. Up until this point he couldn't tell whether or not the drow was a local. Truador is not from this area, so he is unfamiliar with the townsfolk. However, his suspicions have now been confirmed, the drow was here for the same reason he was, to find a murderer.

"Hmmm, this is interesting. I've never heard of such a thing. Could be poison, but I doubt it. More likely it is some sort of black magic, like a curse or a magical disease." Lowering the paper, he asks for the other two autopsies. He had a feeling they were much the same, but he wants to make sure he didn't miss anything.

Investigation: 12

He had several more questions, but not enough time to ask them today. He'd have to wait. Looking over the group, he asks, "Are we staying in this Inn? Or do we have rooms elsewhere? If we are staying here, perhaps we can talk in one of our rooms." Then he adds in a lower voice, "I have a theory, but I don't want to alarm any of the villagers."

Marvin will absentmindedly browse over the contact files since he was handed them investigation: 21

He murmurs into his tankard as he takes a drink "all I'm saying is no one was dying until the carnival came to town"

Zanibi neatly puts away the papers she had been examining as it seems the Mayor is heading off for the night.  "Yes, an excellent idea to stay here for the night! This can be our base of operations - at least to begin with.  I presume we can get some rooms here."  She glances around, not sure who to ask to arrange that.  "Once we have a more private space we can discuss the remainder of our plans."

She eyes the drow that had been lurking around the group.  He was certainly no more imposing than many of the others Mayor Lugash had hired.  But it certainly didn't help that rather than volunteering to help he was trying to spy over their shoulders.  She said nothing for now, but was certainly going to be wary of him.  

Nyral nods to the aged red tiefling.  The man doesn't seem bothered that a drow let alone one without an arm wants to help?  Nyral likes this man.  Most would turn away a prying eye or make polite excuses.  Most wouldn't trust a Drow.  Most would assume he can't help with one arm.  Instead this tiefling seems willing to invite the drow?  The rest of the group seems to follow suit and Nyral wonders if he might be some kind of lead on this investigation.  Looking at the human with a bear belly and ragged clothes it could just be they take on anyone wanting to help, or maybe they are muscle of some kind.  It definitely doesn't have the feel of your typical investigation which makes him nervous but at the very least Nyral trusts his own judgement and there too much info here to pass up the opportunity to learn.  

He replies to the tiefling first saying "No ties to the circus if you're worrying about that.  With the exception of having gotten a ticket beforehand.  I'm actually from the capitol Pisor and I came to Esperal to enjoy the show."

The second person he replies to is the mayor asking his name. "Nyral.  As I said, I'm from out of town but I have some friends here that knew Elibyn.  They asked I look into it."

Nyral ignores the human but the other two ask about where to go and talk in private.    "I have a room here already if you want to move this to a more private area.  I would like to hear the the theory the white one might have.  I'll share some of my own insights as well."

He tries to get a sense of the group dynamic.  The white dragonborn carrying a glaive seems ready for a fight more then anything but is studying the documents closely.  The tiefling seems to be in charge and doesn't seem to have any preconceived bias which is a rare trait.  The gnome that was also checking out the documents might as well have a sign on them that says "I'm a wizard, attack me first." but they seem to have some kind of bubbly energy to them.  The human seems to just be tagging along and drinking but also a local.  They likely know a lot about the people here and that's probably why they are on he team.  The others Nyral doesn't have a good read on yet.

Inquisitive listened and nodded as the mayor spoke and left, pocketing the business card he left on the table for them.

"Yes, continuing this in the Nyral's room sounds good." He said and stood up, quickly gathering up any documents not carried by someone else.
"The name is Inquisitive, Inquisitive Embershade." He said to the drow, about to offer his right hand as he remembered the drow had none, giving him a curt nod instead, ready to to follow him upstairs.

Truador:

Marvin:

Nyral nods to Inquisitive as the tiefling partially offers his right hand but stops before doing so.  Nyral just smile at the familiar reaction people have to him and offers his left hand to shake with, "As luck would have it I still have one arm." Hand shake or not Nyral doesn't seem to take offence and then motions by tilting his head in the direction where the rooms to stay are.  "This way then.  I got room 1.  Wanted the luxury.  I'm supposed to be enjoying a vacation after all."  as others already grabbed the paper work Nyral just leads the way to the room he purchased for his stay.

It's the largest room with all the extras you can imagine.  A very large and fluffy bed with extra blankets and pillows.  A mini-bar with a small variety of cheeses, wines and crackers sits off to the side which hasn't seemed to of been touched yet.  There are extra couches, chair and other luxury furniture for one to sit at and relax.  Each adorned with silk lining and comfort theme coverings.  There's even an extra large bath that boarders on pool rather then bathing bath.  The coloring theme of the establishment flourishing in here with the greens, purples, blues and golds.  Nyral points at a low height coffee table between a set of couches and chairs and then just plops down on one of the couches and lays out stretching a bit as they get comfortable and lay back to watch the rest take seats.  Their back resting against the arm rest of the couch.  "To be honest, its a bit much for just me.  Oddly, its nice to have some company to share in it."

This is the largest room Truador has ever seen. He looks around taking in all of the fancy furnishings. He isn't sure if he likes it or not. It has a lot of space, but it is also far more extravagant then he found necessary. Before sitting down, he takes his glaive off of his back and pulls out a leather sheathe for the blade. After putting it on, he leans the weapon up against the wall, then sits crosslegged on the floor in front of the table. He looks at Nyral, "Yes, it is good to be in a pack again..." He stops for a moment after realizing what he said. He shakes his head as if to rid himself of a bad memory, then continues, "As I said before, I have a theory. However, I would like to hear what other information we have before I tell it to you. I do not like making false accusations, so I would like to know if anything any of you know would prove me wrong."

Once they arrive in Nyral's room, Zanibi takes a moment to look about. "Quite the posh place!" she says.  The gnome picks a spot to stand near one of the chairs. 

She gives Truador a brief look, almost puzzled, but then nods her head, giving him a smile. "It seems early to have a theory, Truador.  But theories are fine if you are willing to measure them against the evidence."  She then holds up the file that she had taken.  "There is a bit of information here, but I think there is much more to discover.  It seems there are quite a few people to talk to that might paint a better picture for us. How do we intend to proceed?" 

Truador flashes his wolfish grin, "It is never to early for a theory. I've found they give you a good place to start. Even if they are wrong, looking into them may lead you to the correct answer." He looks at the rest of the group. "I do agree that talking to the people will provide us with some much needed information, but we don't need to simply ignore what we know." Leaning forward on the table, he continues in his deep voice, "According to the Autopsy, the victim died from blood loss, fluid loss and seizures. They also suffered from an excited central nervous system and peripheral autonomic ganglia, which can cause hallucinations. This, and the fact that the victims made it home before they died, leads me to believe we are either dealing with poison, or a curse. Noting that the autopsy did not contain any evidence of poison, magic is the more likely cause. Of course, the one creating the autopsy may have overlooked that detail, but i think that is unlikely." He looks around at the group, "My theory is that someone at the carnival has poisoned or curse these individuals. Now, this does not mean that the carnival itself is responsible. While it could be someone working for the carnival, that is not the only option. The carnival has attracted may people from outside of town, so it could very well be a visitor who is responsible. The third option could be a local who simply found the carnival as a useful tool to cover their tracks." He pauses for a moment, "I think my theory is solid, however it leaves a lot out. We have a good idea of how they are killing people, but don't know why. If we can figure out any reason someone would kill these individuals, that will give us a better idea of who might have done it."

"You are presuming they went to the carnival.  The notes aren't clear, just that they had tickets. They may not have even gone yet." Zanibi says.  "Something we can check out though."

Following Nyral upstairs Inquisitive simply nodded as he entered the extravagant room, taking a seat in a comfortable chair, placing the documents he brought on the small coffee table. He then proceeded with going through the rest of the documents while listening to Truador's theory. "Yes, it seems reasonable to go to the carnival at some point, but perhaps we should examine at least the last crime scene ourself and speak to those people mentioned as contacts in these documents first." He said, nodding at the papers on the coffee table. "If something really happened to these people at the carnival it would be interesting to know if they were there with someone who could account for their movements at the carnival, possibly also making other useful observations." He continued, looking at the others in the room. "Does anyone have any preferences on whether we go about doing this as a group or split up making this go faster? I would like Zanibi to work any crime scenes while I will focus on the contacts."

Nyral listens as they lay back and as the theory is shared Nyral seems to ponder it.  They listen closely to others and instead of going through the effort of reading all those notes and papers Nyral decides to ask for info instead.  There are things they want to know to fill in key blanks.  "So we know a possible method or two of how they attack.  I agree it sounds like magic of some kind.  I think we can limit the suspect pool a little too.  The mayor mentioned there were no killings in the towns before this.  If this information from the mayor is reliable and not just them trying to cover their ass when they may have known about this beforehand.  Then it means the carnival picked up someone dangerous between here and their previous location of performance, or someone arrived to see the carnival here that is dangerous or someone was waiting for an opportunity here but that would require a connection between the three victims that we need to find.  Do we have a timeline of when things happened?  Specifically when did the carnival arrive, when was their first show and when was the first, second and third death.  Was Calda killed before the first show or after?"

After saying some things on their mind and asking a few questions Inquisitive suggests a splitting of the team.  This worked fine for Nyral.  He doesn't know these people and just learning what they know is good enough for him to work.  Their thinking right now on finding the why.  How can help them figure that out but the why is more his style.  He reads people better then reading facts and piecing stuff together.  There is a possibility he is afraid may be the reason but without knowing more about the victims he cannot act on it.  Luckily, Nyral has already done a bit of leg work and just needs to connect a few dots or cross out the possibility all together.  "Well, who do we have for contacts that might know the victims?  I have some questions on the first victim so I wouldn't mind checking those who knew them out.  I was going to check their home after the funeral of Elibyn but then I heard the mayor declaring all of you were working on the same thing."

"It's all here Nyral." Inquisitive said to the drow, handing him the document titled contacts.

  "But no, the documents does not include a timeline unfortunately, so that we would have to work out for ourselves. I would say there is at least one more possibility though, that the murderer has traveled with the carnival and that these three and maybe more in this town are on a target list for some reason. It is important that we don't rule out possibilities at this early stage I think, we should at least interview the contacts and look at the crime scenes before that, especially considering what the mayor said about the local law enforcement." The tiefling said looking at the others in the room.

"I can assure you, the mayor is not covering his ass" Marvin huffs at the drow's remark "there's been no murder in recent years here, until the carnival arrived" he looks around the room, taking in the well taken care of room "It's nothing compared to this, but I can offer my house as a place to stay if anyone needs it. I perhaps suggest we travel together and not split up, in the case we encounter time sensitive information with no way to share it with each other, folks will be more receptive to your questions with me around, plus I can introduce you to Kidra. She knows many a thing and may know something. Most folks avoid her."

Truador listens to the others before responding, "The mayor told me that two obvious similarities between these killings were the cause of death and the fact that they had all gone to the carnival before they died. So I would not ignore that detail." In response to Inquisitive, "I agree that it is too early to rule anything out. However, I do think we have a good start and as you said, once we speak with the contacts we will be able to paint a clearer picture. I'm not too sure about the crime scenes, I don't know how long they've been sitting. I suggest we start with the most recent one, and work backwards, less the trail goes cold." After Marvin says his piece, he states, "I am not against splitting up, however I do understand your point. I think we should just go with whichever seems to be the best option at the time."

Zanibi looks at Truador, "I thought the mayor said they had gone or were going to go to the carnival - unless he spoke to you privately.  I presume the mayor was reacting to the investigative report about the carnival tickets.  Again, something we will need to follow up on."  She pauses before continuing, "And I would imagine with something like the carnival in town, we would find the majority of people here had either gone or were going.  Other than Marvin of course.  The information hardly makes these three unique."

"I think we have a lot of people here."  She looks around, counting heads. "We are not an invasion force, we just want to talk to these people. I think smaller groups might be best."  She then turns to Marvin. "And if something is time sensitive, wouldn't it be better to split up so we have a better chance to learn it sooner? Rather than choosing the method that will take the longest time to learn the information?" 

Truador thinks for a moment, “I suppose you may be right.” He smiles, “Another benefit to having a pack. Perhaps my bias against crowded places made me hear only what I wanted too… And yes, what you say makes sense, smaller groups may be ideal to begin with at least. Now the question would be who is doing what.”

Amy takes a step forward. "Talking isn't my strong suit, but I'm very good at reading people, if need be. Just put me to work wherever I can make the largest impact. These deaths..." she trails off.

Nyral looks at the contacts and their locations.  He hands it back to Inquisitive after looking it over. Committing the names and their locations to memory it seemed the group wanted to split up the task between folks.  This worked fine for Nyral.  Larger groups can be hard to move around in, especially when you don't know each other.  

"If we dividing up tasks I'll check out Calda's home and talk to her roommate Nym to see what they know.  See if I can find anything at the place of her death and if Nym saw anything strange before it happened." Nyral stands back up and seems ready to go.  He looks around the room at the various folks and says "Meet back here tonight then.  Anyone joining me to check on Nym and Calda's home?"