"Yes. Sorry, I thought you knew. Here it is."

Present it to the sheriff.

The sheriff takes the knife and investigates it closely before placing it carefully on his desk. "Apprentice Cullen will probably be wondering where this got to," he says and then, after a moment's thought, he adds, "The Seekers may have jurisdiction because of what we found in Brassman's cellar last night but, after the disappearing act Apprentice Voda pulled, I do not care. It is the only evidence we have with regards to Brassman's killer. Are you sure there is nothing else you can do with it?"

"Perhaps if you did the Identify spell you may see more than I could."

All tiredness seems to disappear from the sheriff's face as he focuses on Guilliame.

"You would teach me?" he asks, sounding somewhat incredulous. "... I do dabble and Saladin taught me a couple of rituals, but he did not know the ritual for the Identify spell." 

OOC Is a spellbook required. If so can Guilliame have retrospectively brought it?

Quote from Guilliame >>

OOC Is a spellbook required. If so can Guilliame have retrospectively brought it?

[OOC: Yes, Guilliame's spellbook would be required but, if you look at post #4427, you will see that Guilliame has his spellbook with him.

On a game mechanic note, for the sheriff to be able to learn a Wizard's ritual spell, he has to either have a level in an appropriate arcane spell-casting class or possess the feat 'Ritual Caster'. Guilliame has already seen that the sheriff doesn't normally have a sorcerer's aura, so what he has said implies that he must have the Ritual Caster feat, which is not that uncommon in this setting but perhaps something of a surprise (see here for details on this feat).

If you read the description of the feat, you will see that the sheriff can copy the spell from Guilliame's spellbook, but doing so will take some effort, some time and there will be a cost involved for the copier (50 gps becomes 5 Engles). This means that teaching the spell can't be done on the spur of the moment.

Guilliame would also remember being advised by his teachers at the School that it is far more lucrative in the longer term to provide spell-casting services to clients rather than give away the knowledge of how to do spells and rituals.

I am not saying that Guilliame can't teach the sheriff the ritual—he certainly can—just that it might not be a quick and simple thing to do and he might be giving up longer-term profits by doing so.]

"It will take some tine and materials, and that means cost. Do you have your own spellbook already?"

"Yes," replies Sheriff Tambor. "Saladin had me buy a special book to keep the rituals he taught me in... But I do not have it here. It is at home. Perhaps we should arrange a special time for a lesson... Will it cost me anything for you to teach me?"

'

"I will have to talk to the school at make sure I am not breaking any rules but I think it will be fine provided I compensate the school appropriately."

The look of excitement leaves the sheriff's face and he becomes serious again.

"Okay," he says, "Now back to the problem at hand. You implied that someone else doing the spell might get different results. How is that possible? Does that spell not reveal the truth?"

"The spell provides a part of the truth. Different people may see different aspects. Also sometimes the spell provides a misleading vision. You may sense something has not quite worked or just get a result you believe to be a truth that could lead you to wrong conclusions. So you always have to question whether the information you receive can be independently confirmed." 

"So, are you saying that the reading you got off the flask you took off the boy might not be correct?" asks the sheriff.

Before Guilliame can answer, he then adds, "Well, that means we were lucky we found that secret room in the cellar. That corroborates what you found out with your ritual, does it not?"

"The information from a ritual is generally incomplete and that may lead to it being misleading. It is not cast iron certain but can be used if it agrees with other information."

The sheriff sighs and says, "It would have been nice to have an ultimate source of truth, but I am afraid that is only available from the gods."

Then after a moment, he adds, "But even that seems to be somewhat unreliable. Have you heard about what happened with Apprentice Vidon?"

"No. Can you tell me?"

"Well," begins the sheriff. "After saying he would come back to the office with us to answer some question, he came up with some excuse and disappeared. Apprentice Cullen was very apologetic at the time and also left shortly afterwards... As you might imagine, I was not very impressed to have my request ignored."

The sheriff takes a sip of his caf before continuing, "And to make matters even worse, Cullen actually admitted this morning that Vidon cast some sort of spell on him so that he could not be prevented from leaving. Seeker Lomani, Apprentice Cullen's master, also told me just before lunch that Apprentice Vidon has apparently gone missing... Though I think she knows more than she is letting on."

"There are certainly spells that can make someone very suggestable for a period of time but normally after they wear off the recipient has a deep loathing for the caster. Did you sense a hatred of Vidon by Cullen?"

"Yes..." replies the sheriff. "He did seem a little... frustrated, or perhaps he was aggravated, when he came to tell me that Apprentice Vidon had gone... Maybe he felt embarrassed about being magicked."

Then, after a moment, he adds, "I believe you know Apprentice Cullen and Seeker Lomani? I would be interested to know if they tell you anything more that what they told me."

After taking another sip of his caf, he then says, "I do not want to let Saladin Brassman's death go unavenged. Is there anything you can do that might help us find his killer? Cost is not a problem."

"We have the murder weapon and that hasn't been helpful. Vidon is on the run and he might know something. Unless there is other evidence that is available or someone else saw something I'm not sure what to suggest."

The sheriff looks a little confused. "I thought you said that the knife belonged to one of the victims? ... Is it not more likely that he was using it to defend himself from the murderer and that the blood on the blade belongs to his killer? Or are you suggesting that this Jacoub was the murderer and that he and Brassman somehow killed each other using the same knife?"

[OOC: For the record, Brassman had his throat cut and Jacoub was apparently slashed a couple of times.]

The sheriff then shakes his head and says, "I do not believe that. Saladin was a sorcerer, surely he would use magic rather than a blade to defend himself. No, I think he had to have been taken by surprise by his assailant and must have died almost immediately from the wound to his throat. Then the killer and this Jacoub must have fought; Jacoub with his belt knife and the killer with the blade he used to kill Brassman."

Taking another sip of his caf, the sheriff then continues, "I keep coming back to Apprentice Vidon's strange behaviour of last night. His being at the scene of the crime at that time cannot be a coincidence. The bodies were cold, so I do not think he was directly involved in the killings as it makes no sense for him to have been still in the area if he were the murderer. But I believe he must know something about what happened."

"Can I ask you to do something for me?" the sheriff then asks. "Using your association with the young Apprentice Cullen, can you try to find out what has happened with Apprentice Vidon? I doubt very highly that the Seekers would actually be willing to tell me anything about a matter internal to their own organisation, but perhaps Cullen might let something slip in private conversation."

[Despite what you might say to the sheriff, I would also like you to make an Arcana check for Guilliame.]