[CLOSED] PLAYER PLOT: The Ashes Underneath His Nails

[amygdalae]

WHO: Jim Kirk, Hermione Granger, Adelaide Leblanc, Herian Amsel, Anders, Inessa Serra, Raylan Gibbs, Ciri
WHAT: The Inquisition sends a group of agents to uncover the truth behind a string of mysterious disappearances.
WHEN: Kingsway 1st - 8th
WHERE: Emprise du Lion
NOTES: Plotting post is here - feel free to post in there still for queries and concerns and further stuff where needed. Warnings for blood, violence, talks about death, experimentation horror, abomination-related stuff etc and eventual on-screen child death. ALSO no tag order - just respond when you feel like you should and I'll try to hit it back if it feels appropriate!!

QUICK JUMP LINKS TRAVELLING TO FROMAGE & FROMAGE GENERAL THREAD ROUTE INVESTIGATION SEEKRIT CAVE ENTRANCE INTO THE SEEKRIT CAVE CAVE INVESTIGATION - LEFT TEAM CAVE INVESTIGATION - RIGHT TEAM KID ABOMINATION THREAD BACK TO SKYHOLD

(—he remembers the chill of the frost and snow biting at bare skin, its usual pure white now tinged a horrid pink from the blood on his hands. He's far away from them now, the danger and the pain and everything else, but the blood will forever be on his hands no matter how much he tries to wash it away. His father had been right all along. He truly was a monster of the greatest kind.)

QUEST: THE ASHES UNDERNEATH HIS NAILS (PART I) The message had come swiftly, the letter itself hastily written with a shaky hand. The request itself was simple; a plea for help from a village at the outskirts of Emprise du Lion, whose people have been mysteriously disappearing over the last few weeks. Considering the ongoing civil unrest that's still transpiring in Orlais the Inquisition made its decision to send out a team of agents to look into this message and see exactly what was going on. The eight agents tasked with the mission were given enough time to prepare for the trip ahead. They would all meet up first at the Inquisition camp set within the Emprise and from there travel for about a day until they reached where their destination was - Fromage, a quaint little village that rested at the outskirts of the area. From that point on, it was up to the agents of the Inquisition to solve this ongoing mystery. The mission: to discover the truth behind these disappearances - and to stop it, if possible.

Comments

[amygdalae]

The weapons for the most part all seem rather normal - majority of them are Templar-standard weapons, and a few that aren't quite Templar standard things--

Weapons like mage staves, for instance. A few of them are propped up with the rest of the weapons. though a particular one is placed rather haphazardly, as if done in a rush.

[dashing]

It'd be a lie to say the staves didn't catch her eye. For all that she has travelled long without one, she misses having that extra point of focus for her magic, and with the Inquisition the need for discretion is not near so pressing as it had been travelling alone.

Her hand hovers over another, before she reaches for that haphazard, out of place stave, that seems almost to blur with the Fade as she reaches to it. She grasps it, and it is warm to the touch, as if it were some living thing, even as it makes adrenaline surge in her veins.

This one. This was hers, and she pulls it from its resting place, and wonders at how her own breath sounds like an echo. This is bound to be a great idea.

[amygdalae]

The haphazardly placed staff goes to Herian's hand and... well, not much happens, really. Whoever once owned this weapon, they're most certainly not around now.

From where the weapons had been propped up the closet thing nearby happens to be the table. The candle on it is still burning rather strongly, and she's probably close enough to see that there seems to be some scraps of parchment scattered across the surface.

[dashing]

Setting her shiny new toy against the table, Herian leans over it to better examine the parchment, trying to see if they are pieces of a whole, or random. Are there any maps, diagrams or symbols that might catch her eye?

In any case, she pulls the pieces of parchment closer, frowning as she examines them.

[amygdalae]

Some of the pieces do look like they belonged to a map of some sort, but they're too worn out and shredded to really be able to piece back together.

The biggest scrap however seems to have words written on them. From the looks of it, it seems like it had been the start of a letter of sorts. It could prove to be something, if Herian wishes to read it.

[dashing]

She frowns at the once-a-map, studying it a moment longer before pulling the words closer, and holding the scrap closer to the candle so she can read over the words better. Herian reads them over, mouthing them out in a silent whisper as she tries to parse the letter, and what meaning there might be in it.

Who is it to? Or who is it from? "How many people knew about this place?" she murmurs to herself, another question that the letter calls to mind, as she looks for any other correspondence that might need to go back to the Inquisition.

blacked out stuff is basically unreadable

[amygdalae]

A good portion of the letter seemed to be smudged so there are a portions where the text is unreadable, but what can be read are as follows:

T - Progression of hello this is filler is about halfway done. All we need is a few more days and then we will be ready to yes more filler yay. The most difficult thing to settle right now is the tranlook more filler how interesting golly gee yay. If there is too much noise we will only draw more attention, and we cannot risk discovery by the Inquisition. EVEN MORE FILLER WOW i wish i had a better way to do thiser will not wheeeeeeeeeeee filler wheeeee hello bella i hope you're reading this. hella is of the essence. - W.

There's also no seal or anything of the sort to really be able to identify where it could come from, unfortunately. And aside from this particular letter there also doesn't seem to be anything else at the table that could be of use, either.

[dashing]

Try as she might (and she does try) she cannot decipher all of the words.

"Transport of lyrium?" Testing it out to see how well it might fit into the frame provided bt the rest of the letter. Not impossible, but neither can it be known with certainty. It feels like there is more to be scrutinised than there is actually legible and she sighs quietly before carefully, rolling it up. More knowledgable eyes and minds than hers might be able to pick more truth from it.

Picking up the candle, she checks around the table, in case any other notes or scraps of parchment might have fallen to the floor.

[amygdalae]

The half-smudged letter is now in Herian's possession, ready to be further scrutinized by others if given the chance.

Checking the floor itself unfortunately yields no real results - there are some other scraps, yes, but they're either blank or so dirtied and smudged that anything on it is barely legible. It doesn't seem like there's anything else here that is of interest.