The group scattered out into the room, everyone finding their own ways to investigate the scene.

Leth, Worru, and Saber all turned their attention towards physical tracking of the area. Leth struggled to see anything of note (4+3+5 [Roll+INT+Track L3] vs. 15 FAIL), but Worru and Saber had better luck (17+1 [Roll+INT] PASS, 16+4+4 [Roll+INT+Nomadic] PASS).

Whereas Leth's area of focus looked, as he had worried, to have been trampled by one of the Adventurers already, the other two spotted fresh tracks deeper in the room than the others had traveled thus far. Interestingly enough, one of the tracks pointed directly towards the other, as if the second step was taken directly after the other...

Save that they were several meters apart, a far longer distance than the stride of any normal individual. There was a light layer of dust covering the entire distance between the steps as well; no prints existed between the two.

Meanwhile, Katsuro took a more magical approach to things. His blade reacted strongly to his will and began seeking out the source of any item that may have been taken (15+5+3 [Roll+INT+Will] PASS), however...he soon ran into complications. Not only was he surrounded by a plethora of magical objects, exuding all types of spells or enchantments, but its ability to detect evil was overwhelmed by an aura coming from the entryway -- quite possibly a remnant of whatever vile magic had broken the barricades and alerted the Adventurers in the first place. Against that monsoon of evil, every other trace of darkness was drowned out entirely.

Orpheous's abilities proved no less successful (10+5 PASS), but like Katsuro it resulted in him finding nothing. There appeared to be no secret passageways, and really that made sense. Another entrance meant another point of access, and that meant another way intruders could attempt to enter. For a vault meant to store incomprehensible values, that was not a risk many would want to take.

Simon had better luck (17+5 PASS), though it was hardly based on luck -- the wound was pretty obvious. Though blood had flowed out to cover the neck, torso, and all the clothes surrounding them, the thin line that sliced straight through the man's jugular vein still stood out. No other marks could be seen on the man's face, and save for the blood his clothes and armor appeared immaculate and undamaged. Whatever had happened, that one strike had been all it took.

Artorius nodded in greeting as Darkin walked over. "Bruise marks on our friend's neck," he muttered to the Rito. "Choked until he passed out, I imagine. He should come around eventually, but it won't be a painless experience." He glanced at one of the Sheikah moving through the room. "If I needed to guess, I'd wager on Kasei's hypothesis. Whatever happened, it happened before the pair realized anything was amiss."

Much to Leth's frustration, he quickly found that searching the immediate vicinity for anything other than obvious tracks was out of the question; the group had disturbed the dirt and dust around the entrance too much to make anything discernible out of it.

He pulled his gaze up and moved over a little deeper into the chamber, hoping to find hints where there had not been much activity. He moved slowly and carefully, hoping that his movements would not be destructive themselves, and cast his dedicated search back on the floor, meticulously analytical of every visible dust particle and mark on the ground. [Track Lv. 1]

Tapping his cane lightly against the end of a display shelf, Kasei finished his trip around the room, with nothing to show for it. A second trip around the room seemed a good idea - best to be thorough, after all - but The Rebel Flame felt he had neither the patience nor the skills necessary to find anything he couldn't already discern. The others present could continue the search just as easily without his help. For the moment, Kasei turned around and limped his way back to the Sage.

"Surely you can guess what worries me the most." The shiekah said, eyes moving from the sage, the guards, and then back to the room. He didn't feel the need to continue; surely the others have realized it as well. No normal thief would likely know about this room, much less have the skills necessary to get in and out undetected. In addition, the nature of many of the vault's artifacts makes them almost worthless to a regular thief. The magic spells, also, made it unlikely that they would get far in their pilfering. Finally; as the night of the Yuletide Celebration, no robber would risk his life, knowing the massive guard presence in the castle.

This could only mean that there's someone out there, likely still in the castle, who was willing to risk combat with not only the guards, but perhaps even renown adventurers and possibly even the Hero himself. Someone skilled enough in magic to break ancient, likely divine spells. Someone who was likely not yet done in tonight's escapades.

Something important, terribly important, must have been down here, something dangerous.

"And we still have no clue what was taken..."

He gripped his cane, fingers tracing around the small red jewel at it's tip; the only decoration on the accessory. The rebel flame eyed the room. "And that's the scariest mystery of all..."

OOC: Of course I discover nothing xD I suppose that's Alpha's way of getting back at me for pestering him.

No. I refuse. I refuse the RG's rule set. D<

Kasei wrote:OOC: ZV, how come you get the cool stuff?

OOC: I wrote the whole thing happening XD
You can find Death Mountain and the Child of Fortune</center> in my profile, along with everything else I've written.

College has been destroying me. With my research paper finished, and both my speech and my presentation over, I have a moment of reprieve. I'm spending it here.

IC:

So much energy swirling about the room. It was enough to make the child's head spin, and it did. The energy rushed from the blade into the boy's arms and body, as if he'd just swung a wooden bat at solid stone. He was knocked to the ground, his sword sliding a few feet away from him. He sat up and rubbed his head as he tried to regain his sight. Everything around him remained blurry for several more seconds before his 20/20 returned to him. He crossed his legs and sat up straight, taking a few deep breaths.

I see... So that technique has risks. Considering that jolt came from only this room, I'd imagine that if Ganon himself were in the room, the shock of his energy backlash might do permanent damage to me, or worse...

He felt his sword slide into the sheath on his back, and turned around to see Darkin standing over him. The scholar extended his hand, which the boy took, and was pulled to his feet. "Darkin, I thought you were gonna help the Sagely guy take care of the guard!" The Rito folded his arms, "Artorius and I both felt the magical snap you suffered just now, and so I rushed in here to make sure everything was alright." The Rito sighed, "Do be careful," he commented in an almost condescending tone before returning to Artorius.

Katsuro shook off the remnants of the magical shock, and popped his neck before attempting a new tactic. "Alright then," he said, his eyes full of zeal. He decided this time to use what he got from his father's manuduction. He'd received enough of the black energy into his body to assign it a sort of fingerprint. This technique that Dogura had taught him would help him single out and trace the energy from the doorway to the exact spot where the item was taken from. It was called...

"Dactylous Galanty!" He called out as he clasped his hands together, and let his mind focus only on the energy he'd felt earlier. If anyone were perceptive enough, they'd notice that his shadow underneath him was stretching out. Shadowy hand-like figures extended from his shadow, and slithered along the floor, each of them tracing around for a direct path to the missing item's former resting place. He began to sweat, his teeth firmly clenched as he let his mind's eye search the room.

His mind wandered back to that time...

"I don't see the point in this..." The boy whined.
"Fool. You need to be prepared for any situation. I'm training you to be a swiss army knife of a warrior." Dogura replied. "Now do it again."

He snapped back to reality. His mind couldn't wander during this technique.

Tch... To think I'd ever actually have to use this... Thanks dad...

The shadowy hands traced the room for the right aura, each of them reporting back information second for second. The technique was certainly taxing on one's mind and stamina. [Awareness Check][+ 5 Will]

Not far from the action, a shadowy figure watched with pride.
That's my boy...

Katsuro
HP: 45/45 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
SPL: 22/22 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
WILL: 4/9 IIIIIIIII

OOC: Kasei, THAT is a technique I haven't written about, so you can shoot me for that one
I'm trying to move this along, as you can see.

Worru had glanced from the tracks, over to Sabertache, and he could tell that Saber had seen just the same thing as he did. The boy gulped then, looking at the tracks for a moment to see if they had any other notable features outside of the absurd stride, but quickly turned away from the steps and focused at the group. "Uh, everyone? There are tracks going deeper into the vault. Also, they're big ones. Not the feet themselves, I mean more like," he fumbled with his hands for a moment before stretching his arms wide, nowhere near the distance shown in the tracks but a good enough example to prove his point, "Like this."

He turned back, facing the tracks as he slowly started going forward to look deeper into the vault itself. "They probably didn't bother with anything this early on." he mumbled, just before the real wonder of the vault hit him. "This is all artifacts and magic-infused equipment, right? Is there anything really powerful down here? Or important?" he asked, this time out loud to the sage, although still not turning to face him.

There had to be something especially important in the vault to cause people to go to all this trouble, and not take anything so far.

Orpheous felt so foolish. Of course, the Royal Vault wouldn't have any secret entrances. It was a security risk. Pull yourself together, Orpheous. At least you ruled out a second exit for aperson trying to escape the vault. Now if only there was some way of knowing if the thief was still here .

Orpheous took peace in knowing that Worru asked the question he had been dying too. Hopefully, Sage Artorius would provide an answer. Simon walked up and reported his findings to his teacher. "Nothing to find out with the neck wound. No signs of a struggle though, I can tell you that much. I'd definitely say he was caught off-guard."

Orpheous nodded along, still glancing in Artorius' direction. "Well, that seems to fit the profile. You really have to wonder though why the second guard escaped with his life. In the time it would have taken to strangle him to the point of incapacitation, the thief could have used his magic or whatever weapon he used on the first guard to kill the second."

Orpheous noticed something about Artorius just then. The Sage had blood on his hands - blood from the dead guard, presumably from his previous inspection of the wound. The blood was still wet when he had touched it. How had they missed this?

While he realized that this attack might have occurred upwards of an hour ago, there was a possibility it might have occurred far more recently. Orpheous tried very hard to remember how long ago he had felt that dark aura. How long were the following Artorius into the depths of the palace?

Still, they didn't see the thief on their way down. Of course, it wouldn't be unheard of for the thief to become invisible. The shadow folk were quite talented in that regard; no doubt there were countless other individuals also exceptionally talented at stealth. It would fit the scheme of the murder; the thief could have attacked while invisible or cloaked.

And even so, the thief could still be down here, in the the vault.

Orpheous spoke to the group. "Be cautious, there is a chance the attacker is still in here. By all means, don't stop investigating - just be careful." Orpheous wanted to lead by setting a good example of staying on task. But before he could do that, he needed to give his nervous student some advice.

Simon was clearly afraid of the prospect that such a talented killer may be in this very room. So Orpheous spoke to him calmly. "Simon, try take a few deep breaths. Information could save our lives; it's important we keep looking for clues and that we stay rational and focused while doing it. Given how this vault still seems relatively ordered after a break-in, I'm guessing that the thief didn't have to rummage at all to look for what he was seeking. That implies that he knew its location which also implies that he's probably been here before. But, if the off chance something is out of place in all of this, it may help find a missing item and apprehend a dangerous fiend. Would you mind looking for any areas that look like they've been searched through or maybe an item that looks like it is somewhere that it does not belong."

Simon Grendel took a few deep breaths before nodded. "Absolutely. I'll do just that." Remembering what Worru said about the intruder's stride, Simon decided to focus his search in the back half of the vault. His pattern was to try to divide the vault into sections of related valuables, and from there figure out if any unrelated valuables were strewn in sectors they didn't belong in. With all of the artifacts in the vault, it seemed like a consuming task, but the work had to start somewhere [Awareness Check].

Orpheous, in turn, sought information pertaining to the time of death of the guard. Remembering what he could about the properties of liquid and clotted blood and how long it took blood to clot and dry, Orpheous investigated the dead guard. Wanting to respect the dead, Orpheous wanted to make sure he only had to do what he was going to do once. He ran his hand along the severed artery of the guard, starting off light but applying up to the pressure that he believed Artorius was using when he presumably was feeling for a pulse. He needed to know exactly when the blood smudged off onto his hand. Already, he was preparing formulas in his head for input; he should be able to give a rough estimate of the time of death from there [Insight Check].


OOC: This topic really is rather phenomenal. Hopefully someday in the future we might finish it. I realize that this post is on the shorter side for my prior work in this topic, but that being said - I'm currently very tired and perhaps a little rusty since I lasted posted here. But hey, I was kind of worried my posts were a little on the longer side before, and that maybe I, like my character, was being overly verbose. Still, while too much detail can be boring, I don't think it's ever killed someone. And, also, seriously, why did we never think about the blood before. If it's on Artorius hands, it's probably still wet, I want to say - which implies that this could be a very recent kill. Sorry if Orpheous' comment ruined the otherwise investigatory flow of the last few posts, and I'm sorry if there is an overuse of caution because of it. Still, he believed he was doing the right thing; warning about the exercise of caution is very critical when you may by in the Royal Vault with this particular wand wielder.

Artorius kept his eyes focused on his patient, but his ears were continually tuned to the Adventurers' started to return results. Katsuro seemed unharmed by...whatever that technique he'd tried to use was; that was good. Worru and others had discovered a pair of tracks that, it seemed, could only have been left by a giant. Orpheous feared that the perpetrator might still be in the Vault somewhere; there were not many hiding places for one to use, but the clutter of it all meant the possibility could not be discounted.

He lifted his hands from the unconscious guard, satisfied that he had done all he could; it was up to the man's own body and mind to awaken now, which meant he might stir in a few seconds or a few hours. It was impossible to tell, and they had more important things to worry about in the interim. Artorius glanced up at Kasei as the Sheikah approached, taking a small bit of comfort in knowing that at least he appeared to understand the gravity of what could be happening here.

Worru wrote:"This is all artifacts and magic-infused equipment, right? Is there anything really powerful down here? Or important?"

About time the others understood it as well. "Indeed, young Worru," he called back as he set the guard's head back on the ground and stood, brushing off his robes as he did so. "That description could match a number of the items stored here. Rods that could melt buildings or freeze them to a brittle ice; gauntlets that could empower a man into being able to lift this very castle by its foundations; tomes with untold levels of sorcery that could cast any number of almighty spells. And, of course, many of the items used by Heroes of the past - touched by his divinely-gifted hands, a number of them are forever changed and carry a small amount of his great essence within them." No need to add that there was no telling what the right people could do with such an essence; his tone carried that implication perfectly well on its own.

His warnings may have spurred some people on, but it also apparently distracted a few of them. Leth may have been one of the best trackers of the Adventurers, but once again he came up empty in his search (2+3+5 vs. 15 FAIL). Perhaps he was looking in the wrong place, or for the wrong sorts of clues? It was difficult to say at this point.

Simon, similarly, failed in his own search for a method behind the madness of the artifacts' orderings (7+5 vs. 15 FAIL). There were a few swords here, a few there, a few deeper inside; spread about between them were mountains of other items, from shields to clothing to gauntlets to wands to books to feathers, all of them seemingly placed at random. If there was a reason for the locations of each item, it wasn't an obvious one.

That said, not everyone's efforts came up fruitless. Katsuro's newest effort proved to be an effective one (12+5+5 vs. 15 PASS); in spite of the still-massive weight of dark magic lingering by the entrance, the new spell's focus on closely scanning each area served to help the boy work past that. Much of it was indeed still gathered at the door, but as they searched his shadowy hands would discover a small trail of the same energy heading deeper into the room. It traveled along the same path that the footprints Worru and Saber had found, and then went...upwards?

Yes, upwards, traveling on top of a few boxes before reaching a set of shelves and stopping there. There was a cloud of the aura in this area; likely, the intruder had spent a fair bit of time in this spot.

Orpheous's study of the blood proved equally fruitful (15+5 vs. 15 PASS) and perhaps a tad more curious. The crimson liquid was still trickling out of the wound, though at a pace that none would notice if they did not look closely. It could not have been more than a few minutes ago that he was struck, which was...odd. It had taken the group probably ten or fifteen minutes to get down here from the ballroom, after all, so for it to be more recent than that...

"The wound looks rather clean," came Artorius's voice from above. The elderly man now stood over Orpheous and the dead knight as well, obviously intent on studying the man himself. It didn't seem like he intended to kneel beside this victim, however, what with Orpheous on one side of him and a pool of blood on the other. "Can't understand why he was killed but the other was left alive; tell me, have you examined the rest of the body? Is there anything else to it?"

OOC: This post brought to you by popular(-ish) demand. Huzzah.

Orpheous was shocked by his findings. This warrior was murdered after the thief had already broken in. There could be no doubt about it. Perhaps originally both sentries were just knocked out, and there were aggravating circumstances that lead the thief to kill this one. Additionally, it could have been possible this soldier was the first responder on the scene after the seal was already broken. If he was not mistaken, nobody ever said that two sentries were always posted at the door. And even still, what if one or both of the sentries (after all the second one could have been attacked after the seal was broken as well - he reminded himself) had left their post in the preceding chaos of the bustling party upstairs or the return of the Hero?

He could always ask the Sage if the guard was one of the regulars stationed at the vault entrance, but for now it was better to just assume that he was. Perhaps the knight was starting to come to from being knocked out when he was sliced. Wasn't the other doorman choked? Was it possible that the same was true for this victim? But Simon had said there had been so signs of a struggle. Perhaps the thief used their bizarre magical abilities to render him unconscious. Why not just do that to both guards though?

Perhaps, both guards were knocked out magically before the thief dispelled the barrier. The thief then could have needed to extract information, so they could have interrogated both of the guards after bringing them back to consciousness. The murdered guard could have been killed as a motivator to make the other talk. Then, the remaining sentry could have been chocked until he revealed the information the thief desired. At which point, the thief could've kept up the chocking to cut off the air flow and knock out the still living guard again. But, to do all of that in fifteen minutes? It seemed unlikely.

Familiar with problem solving principles, Orpheous couldn't help but think of Occam's Razor. The problem in this situation was that there were so many competing theories as to what could've happened, and nearly all of them that Orpheous could detect required a lot of assumptions to be made. Still, better to at least provide a theory and follow it to the end.

Seeing as how the dead victim's body didn't point to the signs of a struggle in that individual confrontation, that told Orpheous that he probably wasn't going to have any bruising because he probably wasn't chocked out to be knocked unconscious. Coupled with the fact that he was attacked a considerable time after the seal was already broken, Orpheous guessed that the most likely possibility was that he stumbled upon the scene of the robbery/attempted robbery, and was likely killed while still in a state of unresponsive situational confusion.

Without moving from the body, Orpheous turned his head to call to Artorius. "Sage, this guard's neck injury was made after the seal on the vault door was broken. Earlier, at the celebration, I felt a wave of dark energy. Only a moment later did you gather us up to follow you. I assume that the seal was dispelled at the moment that I felt that energy, and that's my frame of reference for comparing that against this man's time of injury and death. I am about to continue with the rest of my examination.

"I'm still trying to make sense of it all, but it seems to me the most likely possibility is that this soldier wasn't actually one of the sentries. Rather, he could have stumbled unto the heist in action. Perhaps you can grant insights by telling us if you know if this man was stationed here tonight? Or, perhaps, if he is a normal sentry for the Royal Vault? Also, because of the urgency, I'm going to continue with my examination. But rest assured, I'm listening very intently for your response."

Finishing his briefing and questioning, Orpheous returned to examine the corpse. Artorius had asked if he had examined the rest of the victim. From Simon's previous report, the student had said that nothing seemed out of place. That the nature of the posing, lack of a sign of a struggle, and cleanness of the cut all pointed to the fact that the man had been caught off guard. Orpheous thought of the possibility of staging the body after the fact to hide any basic attempts to infer more details about the murder, but it was likely that the intruder would not have had the time. Still, the discrepancy of the time of the wound was odd enough to make Orpheous consider all the wildest possibilities. Perhaps the body was indeed staged.

Another thought occurred to Orpheous. Maybe the thief had taken an item off the guard's corpse, and he had killed the guard so the guard wouldn't be able to report the item missing. The thief would only have taken the time to steal what was absolutely necessary for the purposes at hand. And any object he would have taken off the sentry would likely have been of enough importance that others would have realized the sentry had it. Items that came to mind included potential means of identification such as badges or perhaps even sets of keys to different keys in the palace for the thief's getaway. And likely there would be no point to kill the guard to keep him silent, for Artorius or anybody else of note would have realized that such effects were missing off the victim anyways. It seemed like a waste of the thief's limited time in which they had to conduct this robbery - although, again, maybe the thief didn't realize that Artorius would have responded so quickly and brought adventurers with him. While checking to see if the body could have been staged in any way, mostly by looking for discrepancies in Simon's report, Orpheous also checked the guard for personal effects, removing every item that wasn't a piece of clothing and lining them up alongside each other - setting them next to the corpse but away from the pool of blood [Awareness Check] (honestly, I expect it's more like an insight check, but you'll have to let me know what you think).

Simon, meanwhile, not aware of Katsuro's findings, continued on trying to make method of the madness, while still trying to group like items together for his own frame of reference, his specifically turned his search for any area that looked especially disheveled as that was mostly likely the place where the thief spent the most amount of time searching through items [Awareness Check]. While he was slightly discourage from his lack of findings thus far, he was pretty sure that he'd stumble across something eventually.

OOC: Also, I'm not sure if you've been remembering to add the Human Ingenuity bonus for my rolls. If not, I'm not insisting that you go back and recalculate the rolls or change the results. Just try to keep it in mind when you perform future rolls. Of course, if you just wanted to scratch that bonus, I wouldn't object. I kind of like fumbling around in the metaphorical dark about the situation. It allows my characters to have outlandish theories.

Leth shook his head and stood up, once again failing to find anything of note. He closed his eyes and thought for a second.

Okay. What's our objective here? Obviously we want to find whoever came in here, but so far all of my efforts to track them have been fruitless. Perhaps a more indirect option would be better - if we can figure out why they came in here, perhaps we can guess where they might have moved on to... Also I'm pretty sure Artorious said something about looking for missing objects. That's probably the most logical thing to look for next... and if I still can't find anything... well, I just hope the others have more luck, or we just might have to move further into the castle without any hints.

Leth opened his eyes, having found a new temporary goal, and cast his gaze one last time around the room, this time looking specifically at the vast piles of treasure, trying his best to decipher whether or not there was anything obviously missing - perhaps an area that looked freshly disturbed or an empty display stand or shelf. After having spent so long in this underground room without any big clues to work off of, Leth was beginning to get desperate to find anything at all. [Awareness Check]

The boy turned towards the back of the room and slowly followed the trail of energy. He passed Saber and Worru, following the tracks and upon coming to the end of the tracks, dropped his arms, reality snapped back to him. He turned his eyes upward towards the shelves, where the energy signature had dissipated.

"The energy follows these foot-prints," he announced, extending his index finger up towards the shelves, "and it stops right there. The problem with that is that it didn't completely dissipate there; it wasn't teleportation or a vanishing act."

He began climbing onto the boxes, careful with his footing as he ascended towards the shelving where the tacks went cold.

"It ended really abruptly, right here." He began feeling around the shelves for a button or a lever." I think this is a false shelf..." He gave up on his search for the button and simply tugged on the shelf, attempting to slide it out of the way.

[Awareness Check?]