A Report Filed to the Zhentarim.

This report is passed off to an appropriate officer by the mercenary a short while after the incident. Its written in a surprisingly professional, beautiful, flowing script;

Quote :

Incident Report,
Mirtul 7, aprox. late evening to early morning-


The office of Wakefield was approached by a man who appeared to be a farmer. He said his name was Frank, and refused to give more than that. When asking if this was an issue, I told him that I would be frank and say how suspicious it was to only give one name... but it fell flat, because telling a man who is ACTUALLY named Frank that you'll be frank is awkward.
I mean, if I was being frank, who was he supposed to be? The whole thing was very confusing.
Moving on.
He claimed to have been kicked out of the house by his portly wife, and said he went to rent a room at the Old Skull Inn. His story goes, he went inside, found a pile of dead bodies, and walked out.
Refused to go to the zhentarim. Wakefield and myself went to validate the information and make sure it wasn't some sort of prank.

It wasn't.
Upon entering the room (room seventeen), key still in the lock, we located four bodies (to start with). Three male, one female. All had their throats slit, and one of the males had his head bashed in as well
The female held a dagger of darksteel make loosely in one hand. Considering her loose grip and the fact her own throat was slit, this was more than likely planted by the killer.
One body seemed to have been clutching something in death, but the object was missing. Likely paper or something similar. The corpse with his head bashed in was by a book case, which held one bloody book: a book on poisons. The book had threads of hair in the corner as well as the blood, marking it as the likely object used for the bludgeoning. The final man had expired near a bed, staring after a single bloody glove.
The glove was likely used by the killer during the murders.

We began to to search around the room, and it was about this time a naked, dead woman made the moves on Wakefield: she toppled out of a cabinet right at him.
No wounds were visible, but some poking and prodding revealed she had been poisoned. A sample was collected, and a smilie face painted with blood was found in the back of the cabinet.
And then the room was lit on fire. A chair was put beneath the door on the other side to lock us in.
We managed to make it out with our lives (sorry for the broken door, and no I will not pay for it), and put the flames out with a bit of effort. The scene was compromised, obviously, but all the evidence has been collected. Wakefield's office has it, should you require it at all.
Officers arrived at this point to take over and close the scene off.

Questioning of the innkeeper revealed her roster of residents had been tampered with (pages torn out, probably during the time she was running around screaming 'Oh my gods the inn is on fire, where are zhents when you need them?!), and that this Mr. Frank (who's description she recognized) hadn't rented a room, but had in fact come to meet with people in room seventeen.
It was about this time I informed Wake we probably left a mass murderer napping on his couch.
Upon returning to the office, we found the second bloody glove lying on his desk.

I vote we call this serial killer "Mr. Smiles". It's moderately creepy and Frank needs a last name.

-Grimm

((Edit: Any zhent can take this and run with it. I didn't know who I would PM it to, don't have access to zhenty forums, etc, etc, so this seemed the most appropriate place.))

Hector retrieves the notice from a nameless Swordhand that Grimm gave it to. Taking it he heads to the barracks.

Wakefield spends time in his office to research several pieces of evidence while waiting for the Zhentarim guard to identify the victims.

The poison obtained from one victim is tested and analyzed with the aid of a small alchemy set and some books focusing on the subject. Though not an expert, Wakefield has spent many years working with chemicals, both on himself and seeing them in previous cases.

The remaining glove is studied for any maker's marks or unusual crafting elements. After covering the exterior portions, he would turn the glove inside out to inspect its interior.

Both the dagger found at the scene and the recently-received bloody katana are submitted to similar scrutiny, seeking links to the weapon creators, victims and, of course, Mr. Smiles.

At Wake's direction, Grimm spends several hours trolling -- that is, investigating -- around the market stalls. Having recognized one of the bodies as a stall-keeper near the tavern and the barracks, he snoops around to try and learn her name and if she has any family nearby.
Regardless of whether or not that's successful, he would also try and determine if any other merchants have turned up missing (meanwhile pondering how odd the term 'turn up missing' is, considering if you turned up, you wouldn't BE missing).
Depending on what's found, he would continue to hassle (read: charm) these folks, attempting to discern if they knew one another, how well, and what connections or reason they may have had for being in that room together.

Incident Report
Acting Investigator: Detective Wakefield, Wakefield Investigations
Date: Mirtul 18
Location: Shadowdale, between the Apartments and General Store
Time: Mid-day to early evening
Crime: Multiple murders, sexual abuse
Victims (in order of discovery):
6 - Unknown Male
7 - Unknown Female, “Wife”
8 - Unknown Male, “Husband”
9 - Unknown Male, “Stained”
10 - Unknown Female, “X”


Roughly mid-day, outside the Shadowdale Apartments, I observed a large pool of blood with a trail leading from it. The pool was directly against the rear wall of the Adventurer Supply store, near the Western stone facade. After seeing the blood, I reported it to the nearest Skymage on patrol. Receiving permission to investigate further from him, I returned to the trail. Another Hin, Morgan, had seen the blood as well and helped me look into the case.

Following the trail of blood, Morgan and I found that it circled around to form a ring. Inside the ring, two large pools, a semi-circle and a final medium pool of blood was found. The blood formed the shape of a “smiley face,” leaving little doubt that this was the same killer as in the tavern slayings, “Mr. Smiles.”

In the center pool was a Human male corpse. His neck was slit and his body had numerous smaller cuts. He had nothing on his person and neither myself nor Morgan could recognize him. His face showed shock and surprise, much like those of the victims in the tavern. At this point, I looked around the area and warned Morgan that Mr. Smiles had loitered around the previous crime scene. He was instructed to be suspicious of anyone who approached.

We followed the trail back to where it branched, leading to a shed with its door open. Inside, three bodies were located. One female, two males, all Humans. One of the males and the female had matching wedding rings. The other male had a darkish brown stain on his shirt. All three had slit throats.

Morgan attempted to use magical abilities to detect any lingering traces of magic, but found none. Mr. Smiles appears not to favor magic in his acts.

I checked the body of the married woman to get a rough idea of the time of death. She was cold and her joints were very stiff. The killings likely took place around or before sunrise. The location of the killings and the size of the scene would have been difficult to do much later than that.

Assuming that the killer was the same man and followed similar styles in his crimes, I directed Morgan to look into one of the nearby outhouses while I checked another. Mine turned up empty, though I saw Morgan topple over as a form fell onto him. When I reached him, I found another nude female Human, dead. No signs of poison were found on the victim, but she had the most gruesome acts performed on her. The woman's face had a large X carved across it, her throat slit and her body sliced in several parts. I asked Morgan to turn away as I examined the woman for signs of sexual abuse, which I did end up confirming to have taken place. The victim was likely alive during the event.

At this time, another Human male approached from behind the residential building at the Southernmost edge of the blood circle. He had black hair and wore a black shirt. From a distance, I could not recognize him. The man drew a torch as I approached and told him to halt. I recognized his face as that of “Frank Smiles.” He then grinned and entered the circle of blood, dropping the lit torch into the blood, saying, “Just... smile!”

The ring of blood forming the shape of the smiley face burst caught fire, quickly following the trail. Morgan used his powers against the man, sending a swarm of insects to attack. Mr. Smiles cursed and fled, with Morgan chasing after him. Fearing the fire would damage evidence, I returned to the three bodies in the shack, recovering the two wedding rings and cutting the stained cloth from the male victim's shirt. Fortunately, the flammable portion of the blood seemed limited to the smiley face alone.

Morgan lost sight of the man and returned as I was collecting the evidence. I sent him to get guards and Skymages to put out the fire before it spread. Captain Westscar arrived first, asked about the situation and then ordered Skymages to douse the flames magically. He instructed me to continue the investigation after the flames were put out, while the guards built a barricade around the scene.

As we did not find a knife yet, I returned to the outhouse which contained the nude woman and examined it. Inside, I found a blood-soaked but otherwise unremarkable dagger, stuck through a note and lodged in the back wall of the outhouse. The note read: "Remember, simply smile." At the bottom was a smiley face drawn in blood, looking like a signature.

Morgan handed over the torch which Mr. Smiles had left, and then excused himself as the Skymages and guards constructed the barricades. At this time Swordhand Raegar approached and offered to assist in the matter. As all noticeable evidence had been collected, I informed him that the primary goals at this time are to identify the ten victims. We need to know who they are, where they work, how they're related and when they were last seen. The secondary action during this time would be to bring in any potential witnesses for questioning. This particular crime happened in a much more bold and visible area, we may find that some citizens of Shadowdale had seen something out of place, despite the quiet time of day it happened.

Collected Evidence:
Two (2) wedding rings, similar in design. Taken from Victims 7 and 8.
One (1) cloth scrap, stained dark brown. Cut from the shirt of Victim 9.
One (1) torch, used by Mr. Smiles.
One (1) blood-soaked dagger.
One (1) note, written by the killer.


Conclusions:

While I cannot draw any true conclusions from the crime and evidence, Victim 10, the nude woman with the X carved into her face may be the original target of the killer due to the time he spent with her and the attention given to her death. If any of the victims should be identified first, Victim 10 and Victim 5 (the nude female from the Tavern killings) should be our primary objectives. It's probable that the other victims would share common links to these two women.

I will more closely examine the evidence collected from this crime and send an second letter with my findings to keep the Zhentarim aware of the killer's actions in Shadowdale. During this time, it would be valuable if the guards on patrol could turn in any reports of missing people in the area. Ten people would not be missing without someone observing. An empty farm would suggest that an entire family could have been killed, for example.


I swear the above to be truth.


-Detective Wakefield




*Rough sketches of the scenes and locations are included with the report... but screenshots are here to show off the DM's impressive work!*
((Click to enlarge images. Full-resolution images are there.

Back in his office, Wakefield starts going over the most recently collected evidence piece by piece. His previous chemical work had revealed the poison on the fifth victim to be Iron Golem Fumes, a deadly inhalant.

Starting from the top of his list, the two wedding rings are inspected critically for engravings, the metal and stones in hopes of finding more details about the couple who had been slaughtered.

The stained cloth receives much more attention from Wakefield. The mystery substance is visually examined with his magnifying lens, checked for odor, and then partially soaked in a bottle of water to distill the brown fluid. His alchemy station is once again fired up as he tests for the nature of that discoloration.

The remaining items were all personally used or created by Mr. Smiles, prompting more of a comparison to the other scene. Two blood-soaked daggers are set side by side and looked over for similarities and differences.

The note, haunting and jeering, leads to a handwriting sample of the killer. If nothing else can be gleamed from the document, they will at least have that.

And finally, the torch which ignited the ring of blood. While a long shot, Wakefield gives it a closer look for anything unusual or unique about it. So far, it remains the only surviving piece of evidence the killer has touched after the crimes.

Incident Report
Acting Investigator: Detective Wakefield, Wakefield Investigations
Date: Alturiak 11, 1377
Location: Shadowdale, Old Skull Inn
Time: Mid-day


The “Mr. Smiles” case can be considered closed for all intents and purposes.

Laura Katelle, daughter of the two married victims found near the Shadowdale Flats, had invited myself and Grimm for drinks in order to talk. I was not present at the time, and found the note on my desk upon returning there later.

Entering the upper common area of the Skull, I found a distraught and sobbing Laura holding Grimm's hat. She paced back and forth until I asked what had happened. According to her, she had been sitting an waiting for us to arrive when someone placed Grimm's hat beside her. She saw no one in the area at the time. As she told me this, Laura looked into the hat and found a note. It contained a warning and instructions that I was to go to a designated area in order to settle things with Mr. Smiles. I asked Laura if she'd seen the note before, and she said she had not.

As I looked over the note, Laura began pacing again. I observed that her skirt had a stain on it, so I took to examining the area. Laura showed some nervous behavior as I investigated. Finding an empty wine glass on the floor, a spill matching the color of the mark on the woman's skirt and a full glass on the table, I was suspicious of the woman's story. As I questioned here, I began to sense magic in the area. Being personally against the Weave, I pressed her for answers, challenging her on her behavior earlier- why had she been crying and worried when all she had was a hat appear beside her? Her answers were poorly formed, and her anger allowed the magic surrounding her to fade.

After a time, Laura released her illusionary magic, her form changing to a white-haired woman with red eyes and unusual armor. She had pact-mage energies about her as she taunted me with new information. She revealed that she and her brother had been working together from the start- apparently from the very day he vanished a decade ago. The two of them were “starting a family business” according to Laura. This is likely related to the Katelle family will, though the true nature of their goals and the contents of that will are unknown to me.

Laura attacked me and I was forced to kill her in self-defense. Her body can be found in the common room of the Old Skull Inn, second floor. Finding no further clues on her corpse, I followed the map which ad been provided to me. The trip took me an hour South of Shadowdale, through a small cave and into a crowded valley.

When I emerged, I found “Frank Smiles” (real name Aidan Katelle) standing with blades drawn. My partner, Grimm, was being held in a magical field and unable to free himself. After confirming that Grimm couldn't be harmed from outside the field, I took to speaking to Mr. Smiles. He seemed content with the situation, feeling he had the upper hand on us. As he spoke, he mentioned that his sister was late to the show. He was enraged when I revealed her death. While he was distracted, I commented that her powers were hopefully not all that kept Grimm contained. Grimm took the opportunity to show that he was, in fact, able to escape. Launching his powers against the field, he cause it to explode and send Mr. Smiles flying into the nearby rock wall.

Still alive, Mr. Smiles proceeded to taunt us once more, signaling to another attacker. I heard a crossbow being readied and defended myself against the bolt as Grimm found Mr. Smiles springing into an attack. The masked man on the hill top was killed by me using a bow and arrow. Grimm tore Mr. Smiles apart, the two of us ending his life together eventually.
The corpse of both the unknown assassin and Aidan Katelle showed oddities upon death. Both men's faces were found with eyes wide open, a hauntingly large smile visible. After looking over both bodies, I found a list on Mr. Smiles, though it was largely illegible due to blood. It seems he was planning to frame Laura for the crimes, however. He was also carrying a family portrait, showing himself, his sister and their parents. The mother and father had smiley faces drawn in blood, both with an X drawn at a later time. I confiscated his weapons- two daggers.

The assassin had a crude drawing of a Halfling with a bolt through his head, and a map of the general area we were in. Other than that, there was no indication of who the man was or how he was related to the crimes.

I am including copies of the maps and documents I've recovered with this report in order for the bodies to be collected properly.




If there are any further details to this case needed, kindly inquire at my office.





I swear the above to be truth.


-Detective Wakefield