[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

[fleurdesel]

"It is why I came." To see and help, even if these poor souls are beyond saving. Even if she has never seen anything so precisely visceral in her entire life as a healer. No battle, no surgery has ever been quite like this. They were testing something.

But what? "We do not know how deep the trench is, Herian. Don't."

[dashing]

"They deserve better than being left to rot. Their bodies has been desecrated. I will not leave them like this." Fire in her words, there, the slight brightening and flaring of the fire that burns atop her new stave.

It is the Spire, once again. It is leaving people who deserved better to rot instead of burn, and she cannot—

[fleurdesel]

"And we shall not leave them like this." Adelaide reaches out- resting her hand upon her student's wrist. "But we cannot save them now. We cannot save any that might remain at all if you are trapped with them. Once we are certain that the area is clear, that we have helped all that we can? We shall return and give them peace."

As best as they are able.

[dashing]

Herian is still for a moment, and inhales slowly. The smell of this place is abhorrent, and she is still for long moments before she nods.

"Of course." Adelaide is correct. Adelaide is, more often than not, correct. There is a moment, and: "I tried to—"

This is not the time, though, and she shakes her head.

[fleurdesel]

"I know." What in particular Herian tried- she doesn't know. But she does know that whatever it was? It was noble and worth doing and if it was insufficient, if it was impossible or beyond her grasp? It is no fault of hers.

One of the few things she knows in this world for certain: Herian will beat herself bloody against a wall before she gives up on anything she feels is true and just and right.

[dashing]

She looks up sharply, at that, the stormy green-blue of her gaze sharp and focused. For a moment she is very close to the young woman Adelaide taught in the Spire, an openness to her that the person she has become so often lacks. The guard is lowered, before it inevitably slides back into place.

"Do you want to examine them? Or move to match pace with the others?"

[fleurdesel]

The moment of familiarity, brief as it is, breaks her heart. To see what has become of her student, what the war and fighting has hammered her into? Children forged into weapons for their skills, loosed only to fight as armies and nobles dictate. That Herian claims the mantle of knight does not make the blood poured on her hands any better.

"...Examine them. If you are able to safely fetch a second, that would. Be helpful." She turns her attention then to the corpse, to examine precisely what was done, and how.

whoops didn't see this

[amygdalae]

What had been done is that the parts that had been gouged out look just like that - forcefully gouged out. If anything it seems like they're more concerned with getting out whatever it is than to actually... well, preserve the integrity of the body.

At least one thing is for sure - there people do not know how to do proper surgical things. Or perhaps they don't care at all. Who knows.

writing a strongly worded letter tbh

[dashing]

She moves quickly, with a practiced efficiency, carefully hooking her hands under the arms of another body. Hauling the body, she pulls it back with her, ignoring the smell, and the give of flesh under her fingers. As Herian moves, she murmurs a prayer, and lays the body down alongside the other with a quiet apology, setting her hand on its shoulder.

"Maybe we will be able to find a ledger of names."

She doubts it, but — perhaps they will find something, to let these people be identified to their loved ones.

filing a complaint w/ ur supervisor how dare

[fleurdesel]

"Unlikely." No matter how much she might wish it otherwise. An easy answer isn't going to be available for them here. Sleeves rolled back she examines the cuts- the gouges. Nothing precise. Nothing practiced. Nothing knowledgeable. "This is no work of a surgeon- I doubt they used proper tools..."

From the jagged edges and tearing-

Were these people alive when they were cut apart?

8(

[amygdalae]

There is definitely some signs of... struggling. Or perhaps thrashing. Again its hard to be definitive, given that these bodies aren't exactly fresh. Enough time has passed for the bodies to already reach the putrefaction stags, so a lot of... stuff isn't going to be particularly helpful, honestly.

[dashing]

The rotting is no easier to deal with the longer she is here, the more she looks upon their faces. In such dark, damp conditions as these, the decay has set in all the more quickly. She is reminded, for a moment, of the days following the Spire, waking up with a bloodied gash across her head, in finding the bloating, greenish bodies of those who had taught her, who she had studied with, who she had begun to teach.

Herian rests one hand against the wall, but otherwise appears unaffected. Breathe, let it pass, do not unveil that weakness, do not falter.

"Should I bring you another?" Comparison. Contrast. Just an excuse to move, she hardly knows.

[fleurdesel]

"No." Two points to draw from is not enough to establish a pattern- but it will only be more of the same. More careless butchery. At this point finding anything more would be difficult and likely? A waste of their time. The dead are not going anywhere. They can return after they finish the search. "That- this is sufficient."