MOD PLOT | PÉROUGES

[hornswoggle]

WHO: Bastien, John, Madi, Sawbones, Yevdokiya
WHAT: Investing a series of murders in an otherwise picturesque town.
WHEN: August through Kingsway
WHERE: Pérouges
NOTES: ooc info + cw for discussion of murder, will update as needed.

Comments

the verdict.

[hornswoggle]

If the Mayor is questioned directly about this, he will admit that the enemy--specifically the Venatori who spent some time in the town--rounded up the town's elves and took them away, and that he and the townspeople allowed it because it was made clear to him that the alternative was the enemy taking them by force along with anyone else who resisted. Any other townspeople pressed on this will tell the same story, at times exactly the same story, word for word. If Lisette or Robert are questioned about this, they too will provide the same story. Lisette will tell it convincingly, but Robert will almost verbatim parrot the Mayor's words in a way that makes obvious that it's what they've been told to say.

It's after this conversation that the Mayor and Lisette and Robert all disappear. By process of elimination, smarts, or tracking skills, the team can trace them back to the Mayor's own house, which the Venatori occupied for quite some time, and to the secret basement where--it will quickly become clear--they conducted blood magic rituals. There, Robert and Lisette are holding the Mayor, attempting to force him to write out a confession before they kill him.

They'll tell the team the real story, which they saw play out from their place in the Mayor's office: the Venatori did demand that the Mayor provide a certain number of people for their use, and there was a clear threat that if he didn't, the Venatori would take whoever they pleased. But it was the Mayor and his cronies who decided to offer up the town's elves specifically. At first it was just the handful the Venatori demanded, but when their compliance seemed to grant the town protection from the abuses the Venatori were said to be inflicting elsewhere, they decided to keep it going and make sure that the Venatori received a consistent supply of elven victims, offering them up even before requests were made. Some human citizens complied out of fear alone, but others were eager to seem friendly and sympathetic and reap the rewards that followed (more/better food, guarantees of safety, business arrangements with the occupiers). The few people who spoke up against this were given to the Venatori as well, effectively crushing future opposition.

The Mayor will tearfully admit that all of this is true, but profess that he was just doing what he had to do to keep the town safe, the Venatori would have killed far more if he'd done different, and that he protected Lisette and Robert because they're like family to him, but that's the best he could do. Unmoved, the elves will refuse to stand down and will make clear that their only remaining desire in life is to mete out justice on the people of Pérouges. They will not trust the almost entirely-human Riftwatch team to get justice any other way, or to ensure that they and the mayor stand trial and get the truth out. The options will be to allow them to carry on with their mission of vengeance, or to kill them. Either way, it will also be up to the team what story is presented to the public (and to the Chantry/Inquisition).

pile in pals.

[hornswoggle]

The room reeks of power. It is foul and ill-begotten, but it is there. John felt it under his skin, humming like a current as the entire sickening story flowed forth from the Mayor. He had very nearly reached to draw Madi back, towards the stairs behind them, lest she get too close.

The ultimatum Lisette and Robert issued hangs in the air. There seems very little to decide here, other than how they care to explain or not explain what they've found.

His gaze lingers on Madi for a long moment before he speaks, voice light even in the wake of what they had learned.

"Well," he begins. "Should we take a vote straight away, or does anyone have a case to make for one side or the other before that?"

[okayimin]

"Reckon it depends on how many more they got on their list," says Sawbones, with a cold practicality. What trace of Orlais that could have been found in her accent before is gone and Dust Town sprawls out. The Deep Roads back it, the grit of ash in her teeth when she speaks. "Prefer if he's the last."

But better to show these topside fools there's no such thing as mercy in wars like this. She doesn't say that part, but it hangs in the air as she watches the sobbing mayor.

[filotimo]

Every one of the people they spoke to, all of them telling the same story to hide their misdeeds, are complicit in the deaths of so many. As Lisette and Robert tell it, even in the deaths of their own kind.

Madi draws her gaze away from the signs of ritualistic murders to look at John. She might look inscrutable to the others, but he surely can read her expression: there's no decision to be made here. They deserve their revenge.

But she says nothing, not yet. She wants to hear what the others have to say first.

[deceivingly]

"Did it to protect their people," Doki points out evenly.

She's eating, again, chewing on a piece of jerky she had fished out of one of the pouches at her belt. An Avvar is perpetually overdressed in the summer, leather and fur, and the air in the cellar is stuffy besides heavy with death and the power that came from it. She doesn't look the least bit bothered by the heat. She doesn't look bothered by anything, chomping at her bite of jerky.

"Someone told me I could protect my people by picking who to be killed in their stead, I'd offer to do the killing myself."