Session 17 Report: Tampered Tryouts

General Summary

NRPD HQ

After an eventful lunch, and after Draylen Ravawynn checks the strange maze vase into magical evidence storage, the detectives reconvene at their office at NRPD Headquarters. Brand, Dray, and Shoke catch up Karl and Gyrm on what happened over lunch and that while they hadn't yet looked into the vase or moth symbol, they had found Nadein and so could cross her off their missing persons list. The team then went on to review the new sketch artist sketches they had received. No one recognized the individuals from the Roz concert, but Brand, Gyrm, and Shoke recognized an uncanny similarity of the 4th sketch to someone they had previously interviewed at the docks about the disappearance of Erth Hardgloom, the night shift warehouse worker Fin Custo.   Along with these new sketches and recent findings regarding Selu and Nadein, the team went on to discuss their new theories and case mappings on their office corkboard. Finding some gaps, they asked Mindy to request some follow-up materials and home investigations:

• Acquire warrants for and tag in some patrol officers in the area to collect samples (toothbrush, hair brush, fingerprints, etc) from the apartments of:
  • Erth Hardgloom
  • Ligo Flintchewer
  • Grannur Hallowriver
  • Carli Padfoot
• Request a background check on:
  • Fin Custo
• Request copies of all sketches made so far

After the long, productive connect-the-dots session, it was approaching Togday evening so the team decided to head to RUGL to find where the Pep Squad would be practicing. The SIDE officers had been told by Siril at the Student Resources office that the Pep Squad met every Togday through Thesday at 5:30pm on the Merrimack Quad.

RUGL - Merrimack Quad

They made their way to RUGL and were able to immediately find the Pep Squad practicing in the quad by the Student Center. The ten or so members were running through different practice routine sections and calisthenics, all of them dressed in similar shorts and tank top with the RUGL crest on the back. The officers located and waved over one of the students who seemed to be directing one of the groups, an elf who introduced himself as Troomer, a junior and the Vice Captain of the squad. Gyrm calls out that they may want to rename the position to Lieutenant to reflect a more realistic structure.

Actually, the position under "Captain" is "Lieutenant".

— Gyrm

The team questioned Troomer about the two missing students, Stella Bynwalyn and Carli Padfoot, who had some connection with the Pep Squad: they seemed to know each other and had both applied for team captain tryouts. Troomer confirmed this and explained how these tryouts worked. Each applicant would supply a planned routine which was open to all Pep Squad members for review. Then, they would perform it on the day of the tryouts along with their competitors, in front of the rest of the team who would all submit open scores and votes to elect the new team captain. Stella and Carli had competed alongside Karen, the residing team captain, last week and were both ultimately outdone, leading to Karen's re-election. Troomer noted that while both of the challengers were new that year, they both showed definite promise so it was surprising when they seemed to have botched parts of their routines. He mentioned they keep everything on file, including the captain tryout application forms and the routines submitted along with those applications. He went into detail on their routines and where they had missed the mark in a couple spots that, while difficult, should have been within their skillset. While at first skeptical about the idea of a "pep" squad, Shoke seemed particularly engaged by this discussion of the overly technical and mechanical design of the routines and moves.   Thanking Troomer for his time, the group and asked to interview others on the team who might have been at the concert, to which he agreed and waved over a halfling who he introduced as Westcott. They showed Westcott the sketches of the mysterious individuals from the Roz concert. He immediately recognized the tiefling gnome woman, whom he called Vela. She was at almost every concert spinning her glowing poi. He didn't recognize the other three and admitted his memory of the night was pretty fuzzy because he probably had too much to drink and generally wasn't good at remembering things anyway, like the potions test he supposedly had last week that he didn't know about until he showed up to class. Hearing this, Shoke stepped in with an intimidating presence and told him that drinking could lead to other things and he should set his life straight before it was too late, he would be watching. Westcott paled at this, nodding and asking to be excused so he could get back to practice. The officers also made a note to check in with Professor Myri again - that maybe the mind-altering magic was affecting many more students who had been present at the concert - in case she wanted to take some action.   Finally, the team located Karen and asked her a few questions. She gave off a confident and important air and confirmed what Troomer had said about the tryouts. The two women had been new to the team and had probably made some sort of petty decision to only stay on the team if one of them had won captain.

They were good, but I'm the best. I'm not surprised they weren't able to cut it when the pressure was really on.

— Karen

Currently in her second year, she had apparently won the position of captain her freshman year and held onto it easily since then due to her refined talent and technique. The officers eventually let Karen return to practice. She was a bit egotistical and seemed very sure of herself, they began to speculate that maybe she had something to do with the botched tryouts. Maybe she tampered with their performances somehow and did something to them afterwards at the concert just in case? Could this be a simple petty revenge case? They decided to head to the Student Resources office to get some more information.

RUGL - Student Resources

They ran into the familiar face of Siril Castel at the Student Center who was more than happy to provide the information they needed if it meant helping them find the missing students. Siril provided them with Karen's

• dorm room: 201 Beryl Hall
• major: Alchemy
• schedule: seemed like she was ahead of her class and was taking some classes for students above second year

RUGL - Karen's dorm room

The SIDE officers made their way to Karen's dorm room, which they found immaculately tidy and neatly organized. There was a journal tucked under the bed mattress near the pillow, perfectly aligned with the edge of the frame. The officers noted this seemed to be a common hiding place among students as it's where they found Stella's journal as well when searching her dorm room. The journal read mostly as big ego, self-inflating accounts of interactions: times she'd won at something, times she was annoyed by people moving her stuff, and the time two other students, who "obviously stood no chance" challenged her spot for captain.   All of the books on Karen's shelves were also perfectly organized and aligned to the shelf edge. The group took some time to flip through them, focusing on the several which had more sticky notes, highlights, and markings in the margins. One in particular stood out, which seemed to be from a more advanced class, "Advanced Medicines and their Applications". From what they had gathered, while it seemed she would reasonably have this book per her major and advanced studies, the contents were a bit concerning Within this book, Dray noticed some notes of interest, in particular:

• a potent pain medication with the note: "side effects: drowsiness, befuddlement?"
• a highlighted potion for better sleep with the note: "side effects: increased suggestibility, persuasion?"

Character(s) interacted with

• Mindy Chancer: SIDE team assistant
• Karen Den'var: Captain of the RUGL Pep Squad
• Troomer Mumin: Vice Captain of the RUGL Pep Squad
• Westcott Flatbrook: RUGL Pep Squad member
• Siril Castel: RUGL Student Resources staff