The Befuddled Man Session 2

After stopping for cabbage soup at Bauman’s, gnome mage Eric Smith, halfling child impersonator/thief Terry Grey, and consulting detective wolfman J. Wolfington III, continue looking for Yehudite runesmith Hershel Cohen. Wolfington and Grey followed up the business card they found, and walked to the Metropolitan Board of Works. After a brief frustrating inquiry with the elderly porter they looked up Hershel in the records room and his associate Algernon Gwint. They found nothing.

Smith traveled to the London Guildhall in Bishops gate, and looked up magical academic Algernon Gwint. Among a list of accomplishments and publications was his address and a note recording he is an expert on architectural thaumaturgy. After brief study in the library on architectural magic, Smith met up with his companions, and led them to Gwint’s home in Bayswater.

Gwint’s valet Withims, a Bulldogman, answered the door. After checking with Gwint, Withims reluctantly showed the party in, and introduced Algernon Gwint an older human magician in a wheel chair. Hearing they were friends of Hershel and knew a bit about magic, he invited the whole group to lunch. Over the meal, the investigators asked Gwint about Hershel and they were working on. Gwint revealed they were working on a theory that Thaumatergy and Runelore could be combined to enchant architecture of a certain geometric shape to make incredibly powerful pentacles, which could greatly enhance a spells power, only academically of course. Hershel told him of a place he wanted to Gwint to see before he disappeared: Green Circle, Mile End. After finishing the fine meal and a glass of brandy Withims showed them out.

Arriving in Green Circle, the party discovered a portion of sewer has been excavated adding the smell of raw sewage to the bouquet of industrial smells of the tannery, the distillery, the textile factory and the chemical plant. Grey remembered articles he had read describing a string of brutal murders in the area. Each victim had terrible wounds and parts of their body missing. The party entered a gunsmith’s shop to ask about recent happenings.

The gunsmith, Hamish Copperburn, happily gossiped with the group, informing them there has been at least one body a night since the sewer was opened 5 days ago, between the murders and the sewer smell his business is lousy. The first body was found by Pold Tollson the dwarf that runs the tannery.

Entering the Tannery, the group found Pold Tollson after a bit of language trouble. The Dwarf showed them the alley where he found the body, and said he heard a noise by a tall stack of boards. Wolfington climbed the boards and found a small ripped piece of crud covered cloth. Terry’s nose picked up the fetid odor of raw sewage coming from the cloth.