Perception 12 (Zemeia is probably also clueless.)

Zemeia runs her hand along the arm that got bit and mutters under her breath as a pale red light glows from her rapidly closing wounds. "Faculty would never want students injured, so my best guess would be other students. Was there anything that links the trunk in the Biblioplex to this? Apart from being a large gathering of students with little to no faculty supervision. And even if this was some extracurricular study, someone must have been observing it. Do you all think it is worth questioning some of the other students? See if anyone was acting suspiciously just before the race?"

"That woman that ran into me certainly was putting a lot of effort into getting students gathered up around the frogs," Idelisa muses in response to Zemeia's comments. "Could she be involved? Or at least someone to talk to."

Zemeia:

You can all see some of your fellows wandering back into the cafe now, Rampart, Melwynthorn, Tilana, Rubina, and Mina who is furiously scribbling in a notebook while pacing in a small area.

Zemeia pauses to stare at the black fluid. "Anyone got a rag? There's something the frogs coughed up. Looks like some kind of oil. Was this a reaction to something they were fed?" She points at what she found when the others turn.

After another small sip of tea, Idelisa gets up when she sees the woman she'd just been talking about come into the café.  She sets down the cup and walks slowly over towards her. 

"Hello again," see begins, once she gets closer. "Although I'm not sure we've met, other than you crashing into me earlier. I am Idelisa Daran. You seem really interested in what happened here."

"Here," Darby provides a vial to Zemeia.  "This...well it looks like whatever was on the mimic in the theater, " the dwarf explains looking at the oily black substance again to see if they recognize it or possibly it's properties.

Investigation 8

Darby you realize this is surely the same substance you encountered earlier with the animated trunk, but you still aren't sure exactly what it is or what it does.

Aisla waves at Zemeia, "Don't worry! I'll get a cleanup crew here in a little while! I still need to tidy up the cafe anyway for the night! But uh, I heard some of the students say they found the frogs wandering around just outside the cafe here, no one said anything about feeding them. Who knows though!"

Mina stops scribbling for a moment to look at Idelisa. "Oh! Sorry! I'm Mina! Nice to meet you Idelisa! Can you give me your take on what happened? This is the most exciting event we've had happen here since.." she taps the pen to her chin for a moment, "...since two weeks ago when someone found some roc eggs and were having games with them. It was amusing until the flock of rocs showed up. Anyway! I saw the race and then ran when the frogs went wild! Were you all hurt? Valiant attacks and defenses? Spare no detail for the Star!" She beamed at Idelisa with genuine enthusiasm.

Idelisa blinks at the woman a moment, confused at the sudden barrage of questions when she was going to ask her questions. 'Ah, the Strixhaven Star, that explains it,' she muses. "Well, it seemed Darby and their mechanical owl, Katar, Aard'len, and Zemeia all worked together to subdue those wild frogs. They were quite the team. Zemeia got hurt a little bit, I think, but nothing serious."  She makes no mention of her own involvement. "However, I was really hoping you might shed some light on events before the race? How were the frogs first found? Who decided to put together the race?"  

Waiting for answers to those questions, she thinks. 'No need to mention the black substance. We'll see if her answers suggest anything.'

Mina shrugged once. "I wish I knew! I was sitting in the cafe having a drink and considering the layout for an upcoming publication, when a group of students came barreling into the cafe, laughing and shouting and passing around the frogs. One of them began marking out lanes while the others dressed them up and started getting everyone's attention, if it hadn't been gotten already. With all the excitement I jumped up and said I'd go see if there were more people outside that might want to see the race, and that's when I ran into all of you." She got quiet for a second. "I am glad no one was seriously injured though. That is not the type of news I like reporting on."

"I fully agree, it is nice if nobody's hurt.  Though, that is the reality sometimes. And you do have to report on the truth, right?" Idelisa replies to Mina.

She glances over to Melwythorne as she noticed him returning, but turns back again to Mina. "The group of students that came in with the frogs, did you note any of their names?" Her eyes shift to the little notebook where Mina had been furiously writing. 'Surely the reporter will have already started a list. Maybe she's even already spoken with some of them. That'd certainly save me some time,' she thinks. 

 Zemeia scrapes as much of the black, oily substance as she can fit in the vial Darby gave her. She corks it shut and slips it into her bag. Overhearing Idelisa's conversation with Mina, Zemeia nods to herself. She seems to have a good intuition for navigating this thoughtfully. She could be helpful if we need to look into this more. Zemeia turns to Darby and says, "After a spontaneous and unexpected fight like that, I might have you help me with an idea. I want to be able to carry my weapons and shield more easily without looking like a dreadnought walking between classes. Think such a thing is possible?"

"As in extradimensional space," Darby replies to Zemeia before pausing to think.  "Well, I am not quite capable of such things myself yet but I know it's possible with magic," the artificer adds. "I would maybe ask a professor...I'm not entirely sure about weapons in general but my whip is always with me uh...as is my natural aptitude for magic," they explain. 

Mina flipped a few pages, "Let's see...Melvin, Draetha, Extem, Balnoris..." she continues reciting down a rather lengthy list of names.

(Idelisa make an Insight check)

(Idelisa Insight: 16)

Quote from Culuril >>

(Idelisa Insight: 16)

 Although Idelisa probably didn't know most of the names listed, she gets the impression Mina managed to get the names of pretty much everyone at the cafe, and none of them specifically marked out for being the originators of the stunt. Hunting down every person on the list to ask them about the frogs is probably going to be an exercise in futility.

Idelisa just nods. "Quite an impressive list," she says. "I don't suppose you've spoken with any of them. Any inkling of where the students got the frogs from?" She's already kind of dismissed getting any information from Mina.  Her attention wanders back towards the others who'd been investigating the remains of the frogs. 

Mina shrugged, "Outside somewhere. Where  else do you get frogs? I'll try to find some of them again..." Mina then too began to wander back out of the cafe area. 

Katar takes Aard'len's advice and leaves Firejolt to learn what he can from the students outside, keeping the tips he's learned from Mina in mind as he does. Perception:16 (in log)

As Katar begins to leave, they notice that the frogs are starting to shrink back down to their normal size. Outside the cafe most of the students have already dispersed, just a couple of notable stragglers milling about, discussing the strange event but it doesn't appear that they can come to any definitive conclusion. The rest of the campus has gotten quite quiet, the evening beginning to descend across the land. A couple of half orcs wearing simple gray jumpsuits approach the cafe and head inside, apparently the cleaning crew summoned.

With Mina heading out, Idelisa heads over to where she'd seen Melwythorne return. "Not finding much about where those frogs might have come from.  We're you able to help everyone get away? There wasn't anyone injured was there?"