Murder of Hector the Ducal Tax Collector

MAL 8

 * On the way back to Hastenport, the party chatted with some farm boys who mentioned that the Ducal tax collector Hector had been having strange lapses in his memory. The party went up to the windmill with one of the boys, Emmett, and discovered Hector's body in a crate in the mill (Adriel also heard Chavalk's mocking laughter echoing in the mill as she entered, although she did not tell anyone about that except Bay.) The party decided to take his body swiftly back to Hastenport, sending Adriel and Red ahead to fetch Captain Black. Examining the crime scene, Zadkiel determined that Hector's neck had been broken and that he had been dead only a few hours, and Red detected no one else's scent in the windmill recently other than Hector's. Using the Speak With Dead spell, the party learned that some of Hector's possessions were missing (including his purse, his signet ring, and his tax records) and also that his version of events doesn't match Emmett's-- Emmett says that Hector spoke to him, went up to the mill, returned from the mill, spoke to Emmett again, then rode into market with a wagoner named Fletcher. Hector, on the other hand, says he only spoke to the boy once and went up to the mill, and that he never left the mill again.
 * The party met Captain Black and Detective Noyar at the temple of Altaris, where they turned over the body, relayed what they had learned at the tower, and gave Sister Astilla the talking skulls to lay to rest. Black dispatched a guard named Brian to go with the party to the market square and see whether Fletcher or anyone else there had seen Hector.

MAL 9

 * The party went to the village square with a guard to find Fletcher the wagoner. Jon questioned Fletcher while Red sniffed around his wagon, concluding the scent of the murder victim, Hector, was not on the wagon, although Fletcher was insistent that Hector had ridden into town with him. Adriel and Zadkiel did some shopping, and Aler and Angara impressed the crowd with tricks and advertised for the circus, learning as they did so that the circus was looking for a new acrobat.