Blackwood Gazette #240-Pillar Assassinations Breakthrough as Yves Law Enforcement Takes Suspect into Custody

By Chester Seaton, News

23/5/282- A major development took place concerning the murders of several prominent members of Triumvirate society this weekend, after officers in Yves took a suspect into custody Saturday night.

The arrest happened due to the efforts of the recently suspended Inspector Pavetta Janvier, who had been working on the case since it broke several months ago.

“I was put onto the trail of the suspect by an anonymous source,” Janvier told us. “It wasn’t much to go on at first, but with a little bit of effort and hostile persuasion, I was led to a small living space in Autumn Nook, on the south side.”

The living space, Janvier says, appears to have been used as a safe house of sorts for several individuals over the course of the last decade.

“The scene inside that apartment looks less like a crime scene and more like an archeological dig. The space is covered with various notes written in a hundred different hands and languages. The wooden walls and posts are marked with various tallies and archaic symbols—two of these sets appear to be some kind of macabre scoreboard. The one on the left seems to have won, a bloody hand print and aborted scratching on the right the only grisly evidence of what might have happened to the loser.”

The current occupant, and suspect, was found sleeping within when officers entered. Despite being caught off guard, apprehending the suspect proved costly.

“Traps had been set up throughout the small space leading from all points of ingress to where the suspect slept,” Janvier said. “They were densely packed, well hidden, and meticulously designed so as not to hurt the person who set them. We lost two men outright, and another four were injured, before the suspect even woke up and joined the fray.”

The suspect, a woman in her late twenties, standing over six feet tall and wearing long, raven black hair, was roused from her sleep. She pulled a six gun and opened fire, killing six more men.

“She was subdued while reloading,” Janvier says. “One of our officers was lucky enough to rush into the room and avoid setting something off. There was a scuffle, and he earned a broken nose for his trouble, but the woman was subdued.”

Further details about the woman in custody are being withheld at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped theories. The fact that she wielded a six gun and matches almost perfectly the description of a woman seen shooting up a town in the colonies last year has led many to speculate the suspect is one Arufina Villanova, an alleged assassin with the secretive and legendary Scarlet Circle.

As rewards for her efforts, Inspector Pavetta Janvier has been fully reinstated to her position.


Blackwood Gazette #239-Roderick Beauchamp La Pierre, Formerly Presumed Dead, Breaks Von Grimm Siege on Colonial Port

By Chester Seaton, News

17/5/282- The Mad Mechanist’s reign of terror in the colonies continued last week, when the former scientist turned bandit turned pirate weighed anchor off the coast of Inbocca and fired canon into the town square. He then sent a message via bird demanding the town turn over a specific individual or risk being leveled.

“He wanted us to turn over that nice Rommsbachian lad who’d taken up at the local Inn,” said Meredith Pavlov, a survivor of the attack. “We didn’t want to do it, but we didn’t have no choice!”

According to Pavolov, they attempted to round the Rommsman up (authorities say his description matches that of Klaus Klaudhopper, wanted for the sabotage of Waystation Bravo and various other crimes) and hand him over. However, when they burst into the lobby of the Inn, they found Klaudhopper in the midst of a melee with an unknown individual.

“Oh, he was a brute, he was,” said Christopher Bell, the owner of the inn. “A surly ginger that stank of rum, with a long gray overcoat crusted with salt. He’d come in the night before and started drinking. Then he picked a fight with the Rommsman.”

As the townspeople tried to interject and apprehend the Rommsman, he and the ‘Surly Ginger’ set aside their argument and turned their attention towards them.

“It weren’t a fight so much as a right beating,” Bell said. “All of us might have been able to swarm one of them, but the two of them together? They was like bulls in a china shop, and we was the china.”

Exacerbating matters, it would seem that Von Grimm became impatient and began bombarding the town from off shore. As the situation in town descended into mass panic, the Rommsman and the ‘Surly Ginger’ slinked away. Moments later, an air ship took flight from the woods behind the town, and Mister Bell knew who they’d been dealing with.

“Couldn’t believe me eyes,” Bell said. “But it was the Pernicious Platitude. I’d heard it got shot down, but there it was, right over the trees. It set out over the town, and began firing down on Von Grimm’s ships. Von Grimm pulled anchor and started giving chase. Guess you could say that old La Pierre saved us, in a way.”

Authorities refused to comment on the possibility that the airship sighted escaping from Inboca was indeed the Platitude. They would only say that they’ve set up pickets, both by air and sea, in an effort to bring all involved in this attack to justice.


Blackwood Gazette #238-Former Julianos Captain Assassinated While Giving Retirement Speech

By Isairo Palantes, Monteddorian Correspondent

11/5/282- The Monteddorian Empire is in shock today, after one of its most valiant heroes was brutally assassinated during a speech Monday night. The cowardly murder was witnessed by hundreds who’d gathered to celebrate the retirement of Captain Julian Rojas.

“He was standing upon the stage one minute, recollecting more than a lifetime’s worth of stories and achievements,” the captain’s wife, Estera Rojas said. “His voice filled the room as we all listened. He had that sort of presence. And then, nothing. His head…it…he was gone. His voice was gone. His presence. The room was dead quiet, and empty.”

Witnesses say that no one heard the shot that took the captain’s life, but evidence suggests that the killer fired a shot from outside the hall where Rojas was speaking. Investigators say they have yet to find any evidence of the shooter on nearby rooftops or within buildings.

“It is our theory that the shot came from the south, through an open window,” said Pietro Regas, Chief Inspector on the case. “We’ve determined the caliber of the round used in the assassination…someone should have heard the shot, even if the shooter was using a suppressor. We’re canvasing the area, but so far no civilians claim to have heard anything.”

Something like a gunshot was reported around the time of the murder, however that report was from several blocks away.

“For someone to have made the shot from the area where the gunshot was reported…I can’t even fathom it,” Regas said. “It would mean we’re looking for a shooter more skilled than anyone in even Julianos’ elite guard. They wouldn’t just have to adjust for the distance, which is plausible…but there are buildings in the way. The shooter would have had to find a spot with line of sight through the windows of several buildings. The thought of finding and detaining someone with that sort of talent and determination makes my blood run cold.”

Regas refused to comment on any possibility of connection with the Pillar Assassinations in Crowndon.

Captain Rojas served in the Ballantine air fleet for nearly thirty years, fighting in three wars and several small engagements over the course of his career. His final military command was aboard the Julianos flag ship Panther’s Reign, where he ordered the bombardment of Sanado Flores in an effort to stamp out the Dougherty rebellion.


Blackwood Gazette #237- Rinkenbach and Sinclaire Hit Pharassus Military Outpost; Empress Bastian to Activate Society Agents

by Basilio Mura, Nor Eastern Correspondent

9/5/282-Rogue alchemist Rigel Rinkenbach and Nor Eastern Agent Pixie Sinclaire continued their reign of mayhem in Sarnwain, allegedly infiltrating a Pharassian military outpost last week, incapacitating several soldiers and making off with an unspecified piece of military hardware. Witnesses to the attack say the pair escaped the outpost and headed in the direction of the capital.

In response, the Primarch of Pharassus has placed the capital and surrounding cities under martial law, and mobilized several teams of the vaunted Pharuss Seekers. The Seekers made a name for themselves during the Harjyk Rebellion two hundred years ago for hunting down prominent rebel combatants that had been harrying the Pharassian military for months.

Not to be seen as taking the actions of the Nor Eastern affiliated Rinkenbach and Sinclaire lightly (or perhaps in fear for Rinkenbach’s safety), the Empress has activated several Subterfuge Society agents to locate and apprehend the pair.

“This is not meant to be an affront to the Primarch’s authority,” Her Imperial Grace said. “His agents and mine will work in concert to help reign in Sinclaire and Rigel. It is my hope that the presence of their fellow countrymen will prevent any confrontation from ending in tragedy, should the Primarch’s forces find them alone. Hopefully they can be taken unharmed and an explanation can be had.”

The Society tells us that four agents have been activated, and that one of them is Gerard P. Shanahan, who recently made the news when he defended himself against hecklers at a recent mandolin performance. According to his file, Shanahan and Sinclaire worked closely together in their early years with the Society. It is hope this will aid in quickly finding and subduing the rogues, before more damage is done.


Blackwood Gazette #236- Former Inspector says Summit Attackers are Target, Not Perpetrator of Pillar Assassinations

By Chester Seaton, News

2/5/282- The investigation surrounding the deaths of several prominent community pillars around the empire grows ever more muddled this week. Leaks from within Crowndonian and Nor Eastern law enforcement agencies seem to suggest that the leadership within said agencies have been tampering with evidence and sweeping certain facts about the victims under the rug.

According to an anonymous source, whose credentials have been confirmed by Chief Investigator Pavetta Janvier, the working theory that the murders had been enacted by agents connected to the Summit Attack last year is not only false, but backwards.

“The officer in question, who has since quit the service and gone into hiding, has told me that our current investigation has been led down a path of deception,” Inspector Janvier said. “According to him, those killed were not targets of the Summit Attackers, but heavily involved with them.”

The ramifications of this implication are staggering, to say the least. It would mean that not only did the victims have a connection to the attacks, but that those still living and associated with them and currently under the protection of various law enforcement and private security firms may have direct connections with the organization that nearly wiped out the Triumvirate leadership last year.

“If this is indeed the case,” Janvier said, “Then it is the first big break we’ve had concerning the entity working to break down the covenants that hold our society together. It is my belief that those we feel may be targets for assassination be detained, questioned, and investigated for possible connections to the so called Men in Blue.”

Such an investigation may not be so easy, however. The commissioners and chiefs of the various departments throughout Crowndon have denied any such accusations, and Inspector Janvier’s own Chief, Jean Marceau, was quick to dismiss Janvier’s claims.

“The idea that our departments, or the victims of these crimes, are complicit in some vast, society crumbling conspiracy is without base,” Marceau said. “We’ve placed Janvier under administrative leave for her seditious comments, pending an investigation into her own activities. While I do not personally suspect her of wrongdoing, that such a promising officer could be easily led down this preposterous rabbit hole is troubling, and illustrative of the stress this case and what it means to the Triumvirate is placing on all involved.”
