Scrying to find a Killer

[GigaBig]

I play in a weekly game and this past session we sought revenge against some individuals while in town. And the DM has indicated that he intends to have the law use Scry to find the killer.

Background details: We met up with the targets in an alley and our pride injured Fighter proceeded to kill them. There were no witnesses, I used prestidigitation to clean us and the corpses (3). Now the fight was mainly 1 vs 3, a Dual wielding fighter(player) vs 3 unarmed monks with a grappling focus(I did intervene once using a spell Murderous command spell). The fight went on for half a dozen rounds. And the monks did get in several decent hits.

Issue: The next day we happened into the local law office to check the bounty board and through a local knowledge check saw and recognized a high level wizard who does work with the law using scrying to locate offenders.

Questions:
            1: Scrying says that you need to knowledge of the target or have a connection. I presume he plans on using blood from the scene, does the use of prestidigitation leave the cleaned materials behind of are they just gone?
            2: If the blood from the fight is left behind then it should be thoroughly mixed, and the PC's blood should only account for a fraction (3 guys killed with swords vs 1 guy unarmed hit and grappled) what if any affects would this have on the use of blood as the connection source?
            3: Is there a way for me to be scryed as I did get involved? Or is the fighter the only one who there is a chance of being scryed?

Now assuming I cannot logically argue the flaws(if any) with trying to scry for us, or our DM says it works BC. What solutions are there? So far all i can find within our budget 20k-ish, is a stop gap Mind Blank as scrolls (3k). Possibly the use of Deathglance Locket(3.86k) if our DM lets us find one.

[NunoM]

IIRC, "Prestidigitation" has a duration (1 hour?), which probably means that anything you did would only last for that duration.

Personally, i don't think a drop of (tainted) blood from the scene is enough for a successful scry. If it's ruled as enough, there are a number of ways to prevent the mage from finding your guy (other than the ones you mentioned):
- place him in an extradimensional space, such as the Magnificent Mansion, during the time of the scrying.
- Mage's Private Sanctum

Or, for some more "down to earth" solutions:
- sabotage the crime scene to prevent collection of evidence (ex.: shoot a fireball into it)
- destroy/replace the evidence and/or blood samples before the scrying (it's amazing what a few well placed "Dimension Door" and "Invisibility" spells can accomplish )

EDIT: Just remembered reading this advice somewhere, so i can't take credit...
- Put the guy in a room lined with lead.

[linklord231]

Any actual change to an object (beyond just moving, cleaning, or soiling it) persists only 1 hour

So cleaning an object is an instantaneous effect; it doesn't re-dirty itself after the duration runs out. 

Also, False Vision is a thing.  You know someone is trying to scry on you.  Why not make "you" look like someone else?  If you can't afford to keep False Vision running for a day or so, mundane disguise would also work.  The scrying sensor uses the caster's vision, so if he doesn't have a good enough Spot to beat your disguise he won't know, and Spot isn't a class skill for sorcerers or wizards. 

[GigaBig]

Thanks for the input.
I am unsure as to how prestidigitation cleans. just "brushes/wipes" it all off (ends up on the floor), or magically removes it to wherever.
if it just moves it all to the ground I am hoping that tainted blood isn't enough to scry on, but if it is used what kinds of effects could it have on the spell? has a % to scry each person whose blood is contained?

[Craiconn]

This spell may be relevant to the specific scenario that the OP speaks of ...

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/blood-biography

It's a PF spell.  But if you are playing 3.5, it looks like a totally viable and balanced backport-to-3.5 spell.

[GigaBig]

That isn't the spell per-say my DM used, but that is similar to what he described. Too late now, but that would leave the question what happens to the material that is cleaned with prestidigitation.

[phaedrusxy]

So what happened? It's nice (but rare) to have a follow up.

[GigaBig]

We gathered more info about the wizard and found out that scrying wasn't what was to be used and that it gave more of a vision as to the time leading up to death. We also found out that the guys we killed were the favored henchmen of the local-regional mafia crime lord.  Armed with this info we bought us a wand of dimension door and burned all 50 charges and scooted like 7 mi out of town in like 5 min and promptly left the province.

We are confident we have bounties now, so we'll have to face them later.

[linklord231]

You spent 21,000gp on a Wand of Dimension Door, when you could have spent 1125 for a scroll of Teleport?   

[phaedrusxy]

You spent 21,000gp on a Wand of Dimension Door, when you could have spent 1125 for a scroll of Teleport?   

maybe they got a bargain? 

[GigaBig]

Valid point, we did pay a lot for our way out. But we did have the issue that we didn't have any idea other than a city name as to where we could port to. (also must have had a brain fart, totally slipped my mind. I had been reading abt the dimensional door the other day so it was on my brain.) But then again the dice gods hate me, 20s for random environment spots and 3-4 on atk/saves.

Though with further look, it wouldn't have worked. I am a divine caster and to use a scroll you must be of the correct type (arcane/divine). And since wands have a lvl 4 cap couldn't have put it in one.