"Well, unless this pillow is new..." Inqusitive started to respond to Nyral's question, taking a closer look at the pillow, trying to determine if it is (Investigation: 13 ) "...and was given to Elibyn by our killer, I would guess the killer was here at some point and placed the magic on Elibyn's pillow. As the trigger most likely would be Elibyn using it as she slept it would likely have been placed there on the day it was triggered." Inquisitive speculated as he put the pillow in his backpack. "Could you tell whether the magic is still active?" He said turning to Zanibi, watching as she went through the wastebasket with her magical hand.

"Well, this is interesting," Truador says while still looking at the Journal. "Would you say that curse on the pillow could cause nightmares?" He looks up at Zanibi. "This entry is from a week ago. The girl wrote that she was excited for the carnival, but couldn't shake the feeling that something would go wrong. She also wrote that she was having terrible nightmares." He closes the Journal, making sure the ticket is still between the two pages he just read. "I also noticed some interesting grammatical choices in this entry. She made similar choices in the last one, which I thought were just mistakes. However, she seems to have been in her right mind when she wrote this one, so they could hold some significance. We should look into those when we get the chance."

"A week ago?" Inquisitive said with a hint of surprise in his voice. "That would be before the magic of the pillow was triggered? She could of course have had nightmares not caused by the Coachmare spell. Or another Coachmare spell was used before the one Nyral discovered." He continued his theorizing, deciding he should definitely read that journal too later tonight, taking a closer look at those grammatical choices Truador mentioned. He usually didn't sleep much anyway while on a case. That would simply have to wait.

"If the pillow is new, I would assume it was given to her by someone she knew. And if it isn't new, then she was likely targeted." Amy starts to pace the length of the room, thinking. "It seems like a lot of work to break into someone's house and curse their pillow, only for the victim to be someone completely unknown to you." She rubs the back of her neck. "Just a theory, though."

"It's definitely a lot more complex then it seems."  Nyral nods towards Amy in acknowledgement then points to the door,  "Lets head to the next building to see if there are any similarities between here and there.  If we can establish a pattern that'll help a lot."  The drow moves towards the door and begins to make their way to the Theymoor house with the others once they are ready to move.  They will walk next to Zanibi or Inquisitive depending which one heads out first.

"As soon as Zanibi is finished." Inquisitive said to Nyral as the drow was leaving. "We also need to fetch Marvin to find our way to Thaymoor's house still." He added looking at Zanibi work again. "I recall a case Zanibi and I had a couple of years ago where the killings we investigated actually turned out to be random as our killer was only doing a practice run of his intended plan. In this case though I would be very much surprised if these were random victims though as you pointed out Amy. I believe we will eventually find something in the victims' backgrounds that will tie them all together."

Zanibi, you don't find anything in the trashcan, just a bunch of soiled tissues. Inquisitive, however, you have better luck with the pillowcase. Bile and blood stains aside, there are a few other, older stains that suggest that the pillowcase is not new.

You all exit the house to wait for Marvin, with Inquisitive bringing along the pillowcase, Zanibi bringing the box of letters, and Truador bringing the journal. Looking over at Kidra's porch, you can see no one's outside, but the doors are closed and the lights inside are on. Now you have a little bit of down time, seeing as none of you really know where you're going, and Marvin is at Kidra's. You can take this time to rest, look more at the things you've brought along with you, talk amongst yourselves, etc. etc.

"Yep. I'm sure we'll have to go. Hopefully later than sooner. Maybe we'll even figure this out before going, but I doubt it. I'm pretty positive I can handle killer clowns. Best not be any killer baby clowns though. That's just not natural" Marvin pauses a moment, looking down at his hands before continuing "and I know a thing or two about being not natural." He finishes his ale "well, I suppose I best be off to see where they're at." He begins walking towards the door before turning back "oh! I was suppose to ask if you had seen anyone enter Elibyn's house recently, except the officials. Almost forgot about that thinking about all these demons."

"Not natural indeed." Kidra shakes her head at your mention of killer baby clowns. Her features then soften a bit as she adds, "Marvin, y'know you're welcome anytime. If you need some'n, jus' let me know." She stands up and scurries ahead of you, opening the door as you walk out. "I don't reckon I have, no, just them law enforcers an' that priestess that was at her funeral. I think she had come to collect her body." She stands outside with you, resuming her position on her rocking chair. "Well, I hope I was able to answer all your questions. Let me know if y'all have any more, I'll gladly answer 'em to the best of my abitilies. Take care now, I gots to go back to my quiet time."

"Have a good night Kidra." With that Marvin leaves. Killer baby clowns he shudders just thinking about them.

(OOC: Did I recognize the priestess from the funeral?)

"Yea, there doesn't appear to be anything here.  Where do we go next?"   Zanibi heads outside with the others, but once it seems they need to wait for Marvin she will sit down and start to take a look at the items in the box.  She decides to begin with the old journals, try to figure out which is the most recent of the bunch.  She will start to quickly read through them. 

"As far as I can tell the pillow was not new by the way." Inquisitive said as they gathered outside Elibyn's house to wait for Marvin, still speaking to Kidra it seemed. "Now, let's head over to Thaymoor's." Inquisitive said as Marvin joined them a little while later, motioning for Marvin to lead the way.
"So, did you get anything useful out of Kidra?" The tiefling asked Marvin as they started to walk through the Esperal evening.

Truador will sit down with Zanibi and open the journal again. He will read the two entries out loud, both for himself and for anyone listening.

The most recent entry:

"I can't do this. I feel horrible. I can't go to sleep or else hell be there watching me when I lay down from the corner of my room. Oh please, God, Jez, Mick Mac Magnus MacCawley, help me. I can't stop throwing

Hes here. I"m not even asleeep but hes here. I feel like i mgonnadiejeziloveyou"

The entry from a week ago:

"Dear little book,

I'm going to the circus in a few days with Jez. It's going to be our first date in years, since she first decided to become a traveling nurse. Though I'm excited, I can't shake the feeling that something will go wrong. I guess these nightmares really have been taking a toll on me.

I had another one last night, another nightmare. About my parents. I was 30 again, at their funeral, standing over their open graves. They crawled out, bullet holes and all, telling me it was my fault they died, and that I never should've given that man directions." 

You notice there are tear stains all over the next page, where the entry continues.

"No matter how many times Jez tells me that I was only doing my j ob, and that I couldn't have known, and it wasn't my ault, I don't believeit. I mean, dreams are supposed to be reflection s of our subconcious. Every day I oelieve more and more of what my "subconscious"' says.

I just hope that Jez comes back safe tomomorrow. She always knows how to cheer me up.

Thanks for listening,
E"

After reading it aloud, he goes back though it in his head, pondering what it says.

Marvin absentmindedly leads the group to Thaymoor's house, but says nothing, only gestures when reaching the house. He seems stuck in his head; he's recalling Kidra's words in his head never show fear. But how can he do that, when he's constantly fearing that he's a monster, himself?

(OOC: I'm going to wait until I know if Marvin recognized the priestess before saying anything on that matter)

Inquisitive listened attentively as Truador read the excerpts from the journal. "The questions we have for the wife are just piling up now. It should be a priority to get in touch with her tomorrow, but first we have to figure out where she is."

Marvin:

Zanibi:

The crisp summer night envelops your party as Marvin leads you further out into the countryside, in the direction of the Shadowdancer residence. The world is quiet here; the only sound is the chirruping of field crickets, your footsteps, and the breeze running in the grass.

After a while, you arrive at Thaymoor's house. It looks almost ominous; all the doors and windows are shut, and the blinds all pulled. There isn't a light on, inside or outside of the house. The house looks secure---locked up like a coffin. There are two flower boxes in front of the house, filled with ornamental ivy and pansies, but they look like they've been left unchecked for a bit. The ivy has started strangling the pansies.
The same barriers of tape and fence that surrounded Elibyn's house encases Thaymoor's. The area seems unpopulated, there's no one around you.

"So besides the officials, the only other person Kindra has seen visit the house recently is the priestess. Kidra believes she was there to collect the body." He pauses a moment before continuing "she's a local priestess. I've seen her around."

As they walk, Zanibi muses about what Truador read. "Elibyn's nightmares started more than a week ago, and before she went to the carnival.  But the spell we found was triggered 4 days ago. If this mysterious spell is the cause of the nightmares, then it would have had to have been several spells.  Over a period of time."

She then looks at Martin, "And when you say Kidra saw nobody enter recently, is that after Elibyn's death?  You didn't happen to ask about visitors in the prior weeks?"

As the party waited for Marvin, Nyral had to wait as Truador and Zanibi were reading the items found.  The drow would check them later.  He wasn't in a rush, at least not yet.  As the dragonborn and gnome read the notes however that left Nyral with the others.  He was always one to find out more about a person.  Learn who they really were.  

As talk continued on notes and evidence he waited.  It wasn't until there was a lull in that topic that he breaches the subject of "Inquisitive, while we are waiting, mind if I ask what a detective like you does when not chasing murderers?  Or are you one of those lives only for the job kind of guys?"

A light hearted conversation and a welcomed distraction from the images of what he imagined happened to poor Elibyn.  There was time to check the evidence back at his room.  Right now he just hated thinking how she suffered.  Whatever the case eventually Marvin shows up.

The drow continues to snub the man.  Nyral avoids him for the most part by walking opposite and away from him as they continue to the next building.  The talk of evidence, priestess and the wife coming up again.  Nyral only nods.  There was definitely something odd going on at Elibyn's place.  He just don't know if it connects or not.  The spell was weird and having never heard of it the drows wants to know what it does though.  "Hey, tour guide."  he directs a question to Marvin.  "Is there a local library with access to arcane information?"

Nyral might check it out if so.  Perhaps find details on this couchmare spell.  Like what precisely it does, how it's cast, and what limitations it has?  Who can cast it? Is it divine or arcane in nature?  He's thinking Zanibi might join him for that.  She seems very intelligent and her expertise in magic will be valuable in finding the information they need.

It doesn't take too long before they reach the next building.  This one seeming darker somehow, more ominous, it has him on edge.  Nyral plays it cautiously at first.  Casting detect magic once again as they approach the exterior of the building.  He asks the group in general "Have we confirmed if those that were staying with Theymoor are here or housed somewhere else while the investigation is going on?"

Other then asking the question he approaches while keeping a keen eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

Perception: 18

Inquisitive listened to Marvin and nodded in agreement with Zanibi.

"I suppose I am one of those lives only for the job kind of guys then." Inquisitive answered Nyral with a weak smile, always reluctant to get into too much detail about the true reasons for devoting his life to criminal investigations. There truly wasn't much else to be said for his life, no real interests beyond his work, no accomplishments, and certainly no friends. Well perhaps he could count Zanibi as a friend of sorts after all these years, although their relationship had always been primarily a professional one. "I'm sorry Nyral but there isn't really much else to say. What about yourself, any prior experiences with crime investigation? I'm still somewhat surprised how many that volunteered to help out with this case. There is perhaps something that interests you with this particular case?" He said, looking closer at the drow.

As they reached the Thaymoor house he realized that the wife Tare Onshaneo-Shadowdancer might not live there right now as the house was obviously still considered an active crime scene by local law enforcement. He carefully moved past the barriers of tape and fence and up to the front door.  "We have no information about where the wife is staying, but I assume she is not sleeping here while it is still cordoned off as an active crime scene." He said to Nyral as he tried the door, just in case it was not locked.