[ CLOSED ] WAR TABLE: INVESTIGATE COMTESSE DE VELONEY

[comtessedevelony]

WHO: Herian, Anders, Issana, Velanna, Pam, Malcolm
WHAT: A series of disappearances in the Orlesian countryside has culminated in the vanishment of some of the Inquisition's own scouts. A team has been sent to investigate the estate of one Comtesse Eléonore Vaillant de Veloney.
WHEN: Over the span of 4 days in the 2nd week of Harvestmere.
WHERE: Estate of Comtesse Eléonore Vaillant de Veloney
NOTES: Trauma, gore, dark themes, homicide, pretentious wine usage, other things not labeled as to avoid spoilers.

Welcome to the Estate

It is a terrible misfortune, all these disappearances- but with a civil war on and all this strange Venatori and Red Templar activity- with the rifts in the countryside? People simply not appearing where they ought is a sad reality. Nothing to be done for it. That such an esteemed noblewoman has found herself unjustly accused simply due to her wealth and prosperity? Cannot stand. Comtesse de Veloney invited the Inquisition herself to investigate her manor and put the matter to rest- they are to be afforded all the cooperation and respect imaginable.

Even the mages. Even the elves.

They are met at the gate by a veritable delegation of footmen led by the Gardener and Tanner to see them inside and out of the stormy, dreary weather. Packs are secreted off to rooms (a lovely set of suites in the east wing if the Steward does say so herself), baths drawn (The Comtesse insists, it's been just dreadful and they've come all this way), and a lavish banquet prepared.

Comments

[comtessedevelony]

"Yeah- Loupe. He don't ask for any help, he just does the work as he's told- but it isn't just tanning he handles. All those little gloves we stitch and sell? If he didn't get the leather so thin we'd never have them to sell. If he didn't figure out how to do that?" Pff. "So let her know the ones breaking their backs doing the real work? Would like a little something extra come week's end, maybe. So we know we're appreciated."

[dashing]

Herian's eyebrows raised, impressed. "Skilled work. My father worked with leather, himself." She does not continue, and it is the simple fact that her father remains a tender topic, one exposed and rubbed raw with the time spent in that Dalish camp, the blade pressed to her skin—

"Anything I can do to help shall be done." If her voice sounds, just for a moment, a little raw? Be merciful, and ignore it. "We all of us benefit from knowing that which we pour so much of ourselves into is given due worth."

[comtessedevelony]

"Makes it thin and fine enough for any of the ladies to embroider easily- no need for leather needles or special equipment." It is no small wonder the ladies of Orlais have come to covet the gloves quite so dearly. "All he's done, all I've done? It's the real backbone of this estate."

She sets her cleaver aside, pulling out a slimmer, skimming knife to trim fat off the shank. "Putting a good word in for us is mighty kind. What's in it for you? Trying to smooth things over with the Comtesse?"

[dashing]

"So far as I know I've no need to make amends for any ill. Our relationship is amicable enough."

Ha ha ha.

However, she does tilt her head in acknowledgement. "We are here to investigate what happened to our people; I'd hoped you might be able to tell me what you might have seen or heard, on the night the sightings were reported."

[comtessedevelony]

"Nothing." She hauls over another shank, hacking at the joint. "I'm abed at that time of night. Gotta get up early to carve the meat to feed this mess."

[dashing]

"I can only imagine."

Still, she watches intently. "Have you heard any rumours? Noticed anyone behaving strangely around the estate? Changing their routines, going places they might not, normally?"

[comtessedevelony]

"No one wandering where they shouldn't but you lot. Poking around, putt'n us behind our quota. We got pounds of work that needs to be done and we're mincing about answering your questions instead." Whack, the cleaver shears through another knob of bone, muscle, and fat.

[dashing]

"Am I to believe that if those you work with went missing that you'd not devote time to searching for them?'

Herian watches carefully, watching the butcher to see if there are any tells in her expression, the way she moves, though her gaze briefly scans the room to see if there might be any more tangible clues to look to. "We search with the Comtesse's blessing."

[comtessedevelony]

"We ain't got 'em here, so you can poke and you can ask but you're not going to find them." Nothing of them to find, they were at the hedges, they left. "Pff. If Ignatia and Edgar were gone? Not even a little."

[dashing]

"But Loupe?"

He had seemed to be a friend to her, or at least one she respected as a colleague, if nothing else.

[comtessedevelony]

"Wouldn't go missing. He's a tracker, a huntsman, a tanner. Find his way through the Hissing Wastes with a star and a bit of string if he needed to." Still. "IF he went missing? I'd worry."