#detective work

[dailyadventureprompts]

Mystery: Daughters of the Drossyard Pact

Originally intended to be sacrifices n a fiendish ritual , three orphan sisters managed to outsmart the warlock who’d adopted them and managed to offer him in their stead, Inadvertently becoming the beneficiaries of his profane dealings. Decades later, with the renewal of the pact looming one of the sisters has gone missing, leaving the other two in a lurch fearing the other had something to do with it. One sister desperately wishes to be free of the deal,  while the other may be willing to do anything to hold on to the power it has granted her. Neither trusts the other but both want the party’s aid in discovering the fate or whereabouts of their missing sibling.

Adventure Hooks: 

A pious noblewoman by the name of Lia Rolland initially hires our heroes to investigate the disappearance of a local playwright she serves as patron to as well as look into the strange occurrences around the theater which have only seemed to escalate since. Sleuthing around turns up a gaggle of disgruntled actors and stagehands stretched to the breaking point by an endless series of accidents and mishaps and delays. On top of everything else, prior to her disappearance Mecona, the playwright,  kept insisting on revising the piece over and over again and was prone to bringing production to a halt for days at a time while she buried herself in rewrites, which is why no one initially noticed that she was gone.  If the party are careful with their questions they may just discover that lowborn Mecona and highborn Lia are apparently sisters, a truth discovered by a snooping costumer looking in on one of their meetings. 

As it turns out, the strange occurrences are the fault of a host of dark spirits that have taken up residence in the forgotten corners of the theater, who’ve been amusing themselves by causing all kinds of minor chaos. Inevitably the party will be victim to a few of their cruel pranks or sabotauge, escilating until have to fight an entire possessed prompts department and worse as the demons boil out like a kicked hornet’s nest. 

 Into the chaoic (and potentially burning) theater strides Doc Briar, a scarred and swaggering practitioner of dark magic who aids the party in putting down the fiendish threat before warning them not to trust their employer and portaling out.  Briar will be shadowing them for the rest of the adventure just in case they get into any more scrapes, though it appears she has a motive of her own. 

Background: Once there were three orphan sisters, Rose, Camellia, and Poesy, their parents and last name taken from them by an awful war that saw them bourne from the smouldering remains of village to the big city. For years they were overlooked in the crowds of other refugees, falling ever deeper through the cracks until they were atlast taken in by a cold-eyed man who saw them brought up as servants in his great an empty house. Warry Camellia suspected the man had torrid plans for them, but ever-practical Rose was willing to put up with anything if it meant the  younger two would be saved from the street.

The cold-eyed man did have designs on the sisters, but they were far more sinister than what cruel old men usually do to those who are dependant on them. The man was an occultist of great ambition, and had spent his life seeking the means of summoning a fiend capable of granting his desire for power. After much dark dealing he’d found one, Calceinatis the profaner, but her summoning ritual required betrayal on the part of the summoner. Thinking himself clever he brought the three sisters into his home, taught them the basics of his magic,  and claimed that he’d take the most promising of the girls not only as his apprentice, but as rightfully acknowledged heir to all his wealth and holdings.  Over the next few years the cold-eyed man moved his favor from one girl to the next, hoping to stoke resentment and envy between the sisters, laying the groundwork for that most nessisary betrayal.

It was reticent Cammellia was his eventual selection, passing over Rose who wanted it most and young impressionable Posey to whom he was most like an actual father.  He passed the middle sister off to his peers as his bastard,  an indiscretion from years back that he had sheltered out of shame and only now worked up the courage to admit. Society applauded him for it, and he grinned as he introduced his “daughter” to polite society, thinking of how the other two must have watched their sister from the back rooms with covetous hatred. 

It would take a fool not to notice that the sisters had been on to his game for years, but the cold-eyed man was not just a fool, he was hollow hearted and narrow minded, ignorant of the bonds of love and convinced that all people were as motivated by the promise of power and station as he was.  While the sisters couldn’t know exactly what he had planned, they’d swore to stick by eachother no matter what, and so when their benefactor took them out to the great ash dusted badlands at the foot of the mountains as part of Cammellia’s “ascension ritual” they knew they had to act soon.   The rite had barely begun before the cold-eyed man tossed the sacrificial knife between the girls, claiming that he needed only one blood offering and the other two would be greatly rewarded if they did the deed. He drew close as the girls squabbled over the blade, unwilling to deny himself the violence that would lead him to everything he wanted, the oft imagined vision of young veins sliced open and spilling forth everything he could have wanted. 

The Cold-eyed man never could have imagined that his girls, his pawns, his wretched little orphans, would drive the knife into his belly with all the stregth their little arms could muster. That three little sets of hands would pull as one to tear open his fine suit and spill his guts into the ashen earth. 

He was still alive when the demon loomed over him, two sets skulls grinning, he was still alive when the sharp bear fangs started in on his flesh while the goat congratulated the girls on their marvelous betrayal and the boons they would be granted for this fine offering, he was still alive when the blunt goat teeth started in on his bones while the bear intoned that if the sisters wanted to keep these gifts they would need to return to this spot every sixth year and use the same knife to spill a few drops of their own blood or else… The demon did not finish what it was saying, the cold eyed man had finally died and so the meal was done. It disapeared, leaving Rose, Camellia, and Poesy to drag their father/employer’s body back to civilization, claiming to have been the victim of some savage animal attack. 

Motivations & Complications: 

Lia Rolland  (Cammellia): Forced to maintain the deception that she was the illgotten daughter of the man she helped murder has put Lia in a bind. She would like nothing more than to abandon his legacy and the pact but the resources granted to her but necessity has forced her time and again to rely on both. Wealth allowed her to support her sisters into adulthood, and the few supernatural abilities she’s allowed herself have seen her through hard times as she’s made a family and become a patron of the arts. She’d never break the pact on her own, fearing that all the good things in her life would be stripped away, but she’s terrified Briar has given in to her powerhungry nature and hurt or even killed Mecona to strike a new bargin with the demon of the drossyard.

Doc Briar (Rose):  A life spent looking out for two younger sisters convinced Briar that she need to do whatever it took to gain control of her life, which led to her fully embracing the gifts of the pact. She suspects Lia has done something with Mecona to ensure the pact cannot be restruck, and has hired the party as cover. Knowing she’s on a deadline for the next renewal of the ritual, she aims to track down both her sisters and convince them to return to the drossyard. Failing that, steal the knife and get a bit of Lia’s blood which she can hopefully use to stave off the demon for another half-decade. 

Mecona (Poppy):  Barely old enough to remember her parents before she and her sisters were taken in by the cold-eyed man, Poppy was the only one he seemed to show actual parental affection for, if only out of an attmept to make the other two resent their most innocent sibling. This gaslighting seeded her mind with confusion and guilt as to whether the cold-eyed man really meant them any harm, and if they were really without blame for killing their abuser.  These troubled feelings led her to the arts and later to the stage writing under an assumed name, having developed a real talent for portraying complicated relationships that resonated with  audiences.  As the sixth anniversary of the pact rolled around her guilt over the mater came to a boil (were they really any better than the old man if they benefited from the same dark magic as he intended to use them for?), she decided to isolate herself, let the pact end, and see just what her sisters would do with the matter. 

Calceinatis: What the daughters of the drossyard do not yet realize is that they are once again being manipulated, this time by the fiend whispering in their minds and stoking their darker impulses. Sometime while devouring the old warlock’s soul the profaner realized that the three young women could be useful tools in feeding it again, but realized it would have to play the long game if it wanted them to truely turn the knife on eachother.  By feeding Rose’s ambition, Camellia’s fear, and Poppy’s regret, the Drossyard demon has separated the sisters and set them against eachother just as the cold-eyed man once did, Now all she has to do is sit back, wait, and let momentum carry one of the three past the point of no return. 

If you want to use this in your game, why not take a look at my How to run mysteries for d&d post. 

#mystery #detective work #warlock #horror #mid level #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #pathfinder #project black flag #rpg #ttrpg #Adventure #demon #fiend

[nemfrog]

Prints. Criminal investigation, a practical handbook for magistrates, police officers and lawyers. 1906.

Internet Archive

#fingerprints #pattern #criminology #identification #nemfrog #detective work #1906 #early 1900s

[pastelalleycat]

There's a frame at the end of the "commercials" video that only appears for less than a second before we see Frank's concerned face- I'm not entirely sure what its importance is yet, other than Frank's arms not being outstretched towards Eddie as in the next shot, but I thought I'd put it up so y'all could see it easily.

#welcome home #welcome home spoilers #welcome home theory #<- the beginning of one. we are cooking #frank frankly #mint's posts 💛 #detective work

[p-redux]

Everyone from that boat were at the same hotel. Please investigate better. It was a corporate event and all were there. Does that mean he is dating every woman on that boat? No.

I am all for your side of this fandom, but your “detective” work needs work!

Ohai shipper in disguise...hahaha

The one who needs to investigate better is YOU. My Peak Challenge is based in Los Angeles. The staff is based in Los Angeles. Yes, it was a staff event, but since they live in Los Angeles, there was NO need for anyone who lives in L.A. to stay at a hotel. DOH. The ONLY ones who stayed in a hotel were the out of towners: Sam Heughan from Scotland and Susie Evans from Texas.

Let's look at some of the main guests on the Marina Del Rey boat video posted a few days ago with the My Peak Challenge crew.

I won't post a pic of Alex Norouzi because everyone already knows he lives in Los Angeles.

But here is Melanie Raymond, the woman who posted the Marina Del Rey video on her Tik Tok account. This is her role in My Peak Challenge 👇

Here is her Tik Tok account. Where does she live? LOS ANGELES. 👇

Even Sam's long time Scottish friend, Marina Campbell, who was also on the boat NOW lives in Los Angeles aka in SoCal aka Southern California. 👇 Kudos to her for talking like a native now. As an aside: People outside of SoCal say Cali. People in SoCal NEVER say Cali. You can tell someone IS NOT from California if they refer to it as Cali. It's SoCal, dudes. Or I guess if you're in Northern California, it's NorCal. It might as well be a different state though. Now you know.

Here is Melissa Polson, the ONLY one that was on the boat that follows Susie Evans. And she ALSO lives in Los Angeles. Here she is at SoFi Stadium, yes IN Los Angeles. 👇

Here is another MPC crew member who was on the boat. Guess where he lives? LOS ANGELES. 👇 Anon, are you seeing a pattern yet?

My Peak Challenge crew live in Los Angeles. None of them stayed at a hotel, let alone Shutters On The Beach in Santa Monica, one of the MOST expensive hotels in Los Angeles. The MPC crew drove from wherever they live in L.A. to Marina Del Rey where the boat was docked, partied, and then drove home...in Los Angeles.

The only ones who were not from Los Angeles and stayed at a hotel were Susie and Sam. And as I said in a previous post, there is NO reason for Susie to have stayed in a $5,000 a NIGHT suite all by herself. If she was visiting L.A. for whatever reason, and was friends with one of the MPC crew, she would have stayed at one of their houses OR stayed at a $200 a night hotel, like a normal person. But NOPE, our Texas darlin' most definitely stayed in The Beach House $5,000 a night Suite at Shutters On The Beach in Santa Monica 👇 And so did...

One fine, golden, delicious Scotsman named Sam Roland Heughan. 👇

There's the detective work, my friend. 🤷‍♀️😘

#samheughan #sam heughan #susie evans #susie nicole evans #susie ev #marina campbell #melissa polson #melanie raymond #alex norouzi #joshua corbo #boat #marina del rey #santa monica #shutters on the beach #the boat house suite #detective work #shipper #extreme shippers #samusie #texas #austin #scotland #socal #my peak challenge #mpc

[trevlan]

Columbo expert foot-combing technique

#columbo #footcomber #foot combing #detective work #foot comb technique #peter falk

[humanfist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_rjBWmc1iQ

#channel bumpers #digital archives #detective work #9/11 #defunctland

[applesfallingfromblondehair]

So funny thing Ross didn't sit during Happiness during my show in Columbus and I was shook tbh! And I was curious why he didnt in Newark but once those pap pics dropped it allll started making sense! ): Ross seemed so upset in Newark, I'm glad he was in a much better mood at last night's show! Also I am also VERY intrigued by them playing 28 all of a sudden 🤔 Also adding JC2005 like........the timing of them adding one of gayest songs they have (and have Polly sing it!!!) Anndd adding 28 (A reminder that they ALSO played it in Hawaii where Matty called him and Ross 🚬 ..... 👀) idk what it means but it definitely feels.....significant?? But ya know I could just be delusional and they just wanted to add it......

Yeah idk them playing 28 all of a sudden does feel very significant, especially considering what the track record of that song in 2023 is 👀

I am happy to be delusional alongside you baby 👀🌚

#answered #matty and ross #28 #detective work

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Leopard Ray

* * * *

"To be a kid requires detective work. You have to piece together the entire universe from scratch." — Karen Russell, "The Ghost Birds" in The New Yorker (2021)

#Leopard Ray #sea creatures #quotes #Karen Russell #kids #children #detective work

[sohannabarberaesque]

Poetry Corner

The common denominator of Super Snooper and Blabbermouse, Inch High, Private Eye and Undercover Elephant on owl-shift assignment:

Coffee.

Strong, black coffee.

Unsweetened.

Even if it has to be kept in a travel mug and procured every couple hours or so from some cheesy all-night convenience store. And no decaf for them; alertness requires "the good stuff," essentially.

As in plenty of the old caffeine.

And sometimes a hot case sandwich. Or maybe some cake or sweet roll.

And you wonder, in the end, how such caffeine dependency all comes out.

I'm still looking for some interesting Hanna-Barberian poesy to fill this Sunday midday space. And I assume you know whence to share same.

@warnerbrosentertainment @groovybribri @theweekenddigest @indigo-corvus @iheartgod175 @archive-archives @themineralyoucrave @thylordshipofbutts @screamingtoosoftly @thebigdingle @warnerbros-blog1 @restroom @ultrakeencollectionbreadfan @jellystone-enjoyer @funtasticworld @warnerbrosent-blog

#hanna barbera #poetry #poesy #late nights #owl shift #detective work #snooper and blabber #inch high private eye #undercover elephant #coffee #black coffee #hannabarberaforever

[saintwrld]

the detective work by @zayswriting and @pocketsizedpanther today has me SEATED

#letitia wright #eva apio #detective work #i am INVESTED

[dailyadventureprompts]

Something with low-mid level players (level 7-10) in which they prevent a group of malfunctioning warforged from escaping the factory they were built in and slaughtering the people in the surrounding city?

Adventure: The Ironmongers

Fed up with mercenary captains who'd negotiate exorbitant prices and then refuse to die fighting to protect her holdings, the Archon of Tolraba has commissioned a trio of dwarven artificers to construct for her a legion of combat constructs. Five years after the foundries started up the gamble has paid off and the streets, walls, and outlaying settlements of Tolraba are defended by battalions of automata plated in the Archon’s crimson and gold.

Not everything is running like clockwork however, the artificers are late on delivering the archon’s latest batch of solders and while they claim it’s because they’re testing out even more fearsome combat modifications they've sealed off part of their factory and sent many of the workers home for the time being.

Hooks:

The Kuparipata brothers always had a talent for two things: destroying buildings and building things that destroyed. Beginning their carriers as war engineers serving in many conflicts across the continent, they caught the eye of the Archon when their mobile artillery platform shelled a meeting between an invading mercenary commander and that of her own hired soldiers, who was evidently looking to negotiate a preemptive surrender which would leave the brothers unpaid. Working for the Archon is the cushiest gig they've had, and they desperately don't want to disappoint her so they're more than happy to use their intermediaries to hire the party and set them to cutting down a batch of mindless constructs who've gone rogue in their factory.

There’s more going on  in the foundry than meets the eye. The constructs the party are hired to put down seem shoddily made, rush jobs,  plating and blades grafted onto metal skeletons and given just enough of a mind to kill. It won’t take a genius for the party to realize these are rush jobs, made by the. To cover for over two dozen disapeared warforged who deserted one night escaping to who knows where. The Artificer Brothers will pay well to keep this hush hush, but the Archon will likely pay better. Perhaps the party will want to conduct their own investigation.

Despite the Kuparipatas' unique "genius" it takes a lot of hands to keep a construct factory running, including warforged tasked with helping to construct their fellows and a gaggle of Tolraba foundry workers who've become stranded in more fortifiable corners once the rogue skab-bots went berserk. A couple of those workers happened to be of the radical type, and got to talking about the warforged they were helping to outfit about how labour is entitled to all it creates, and since the warforged were technically doing the hard work of guarding and fighting the Archons wars, they should be entitled to the same rights as any other member of the Tolraba citizens militia. With heads full of exciting new thoughts and hands full of pamphlets and foundry layouts, these warforged have struck off into the city's underbelly to spend some time talking about what the future holds for them. They're arguing a lot, which might be progress.

While talented in their own right, the only way the Kaparipata brothers were able to create life was thanks to a backwards engineering a strange mechanism of celestial clockwork they found rusting in an old junkyard decades ago that has inspired many of their previous creations. The device has since allowed them to program the warforged into being obedient and competent soldiers, and so they keep it under lock and key. Disaster might strike should any of the warforged be allowed to interface with the device, which will begin domineering their cogwork mind and transmitting visions of how to use the foundry and Tolraba's resources to rebuild itself.

#warfare #warforged #construct #artifice #steampunk #industry #mid level #town #city #monster hunt #detective work #mystery #noble #mechanus #rescue mission #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #5e

[nemfrog]

Plate I. Criminal investigation, a practical handbook for magistrates, police officers and lawyers. 1906.

Internet Archive

#criminology #crime #evidence #collection #hair #csi #detective work #nemfrog #1906 #early 1900s #found art

[pastelalleycat]

Words so far in the secret puzzle:

I (2x)

Will (2x)

Answer

Understand

Phone(?)

A

Find

Help

You

Way

Soon

#welcome home #detective work

[betweenthetimeandsound]

"Sounds like a you problem."

--prompt from @fictober-event

Marina leaned on the doorway with a casual lean, but with an eagle eye as David looked through the files which scattered around his desk. Throwing a case file and a few wrappers across his left shoulder, David leaned over and crossed his arms above his head--today's work weighed on him further than the blond-haired corpse which hid in between the files. even when he couldn't see it, the image still haunted him, and the girl who found it even more so.

"You look deep in thought, Gutierrez," she snarked, loosening herself up from a break. "Is it because of the recruiting?"

"Probably," he said, trying to play with his hands to ground him back into his affairs. "Do you think it will help in doing anything with the conflict?"

Marina twisted her lips. A several month ceasefire allowed her to relax a little bit; she retreated back to petty cases of robbery and occasional drug trafficking. Bags of heroin and meth find their way into her office as if she was prepared to sell them; however, the faces of those who retrieved them hinted at the damage they entailed. In contrast, the attack on Shoreline reverted her back to a stiffened sense of paranoia, one in which any subversion from the law equaled a chance at treason.

"How would you like the conflict to end, Gutierrez?" She sneered, sauntering back to her desk and checking a few more pieces of information.

David sighed, before his hand inadvertently stretched back to his stomach, back to where the bullet grazed his intestines so many years ago. A phantom pain flustered as he fiddled his flesh--trying to stop the flustering past from coming into view.

"Which conflict?"

"The one between us, and the Republicans," she muttered, "the civil war will have to end somehow."

"But why would they want to kill a random civilian--a possible refugee to boot? What did they want to say?"

Marina sighed. "It's up to you now, Gutierrez."

#prose #my writing #writers on tumblr #wip #iodine #third person #fiction writing #speculative fiction #mystery #detective work

[differentsoultrash]

Does anyone know who drew this image? I think I screenshotted it off of Instagram, but I can't remember the @ of the artist.

#dmsp #niki niachu #mermaid #illustration #who drew this #twitch #twichstreamer #minecraft #detective work

[luminixeterna]

The Reidenbaugh Disappearance (Chapter 2 Done!!)

A mystery story involving the sudden disappearance of a journalist who went missing while undergoing research on the paranormal activities on the nearby mountainous region of Craydonville. Chapter 2 finished - - -Luminixeterna

#digital art #mystery #fantasy #investigations #detective work #colors #original comic #book cover #gold