15strangers | FINAL INVESTIGATION

FINAL INVESTIGATION

[Fifteen X-Passes. Six weeks. Freedom at last.

But it's not the end. Of course it's not. There are questions to answer, and souls to save. And now that the group is outside, they can see where they are.

They are inside a massive cavern, illuminated in an eerie green light, standing on a stone path. On one side is the ship-or rather, a massive, ship-shaped tangle of bloody branches, the trunk-like roots snaking out and into the river its buoyed on, as well as into the ceiling of stalactites. Said river is wine dark, but it's clearly not water. No-it is blood.

And on the other side of their little pathway? A root-encrusted palace. It sits over a labyrinthine city, bathed in emerald, and all is eerily silent save for some sounds coming from within the castle. It's clear the infestation somehow started here. And it is here that answers are likely to be found.

The doors are right in front of the group-and they are already open, covered in branches. From the outside, it seems little more than a ruin. Once everyone goes in, though?

It's even worse. The tree has taken over. Whatever lives here is no longer in charge. There's no easy way to disentangle the Qilphoth from this place. But there is life here, somehow. You can see figures entangled within the roots as you explore. And-they are still, somehow, alive. More than alive. They are beings that bleed ichor instead of blood-beings of incredible divinity and power. They are gods. And they are hostage to the tree, forever and ever, trapped in induced ennui, unless something is done.

So welcome, Strangers, to the House of Hades.]

[Once you enter, the investigation shall begin.

Good luck.]

((OoC: And here are team assignments!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Should we split up, do you think?

[She is keeping an eye on Hubert, but he appears to have found something at the end of this long room.

Might be a good idea. We can cover more ground that way.

[He too is watching what Hubert is up to, but at the same time he's trusting that the other man can handle himself. He did toss him that knife during the trial for a reason, after all.]

[Ok!

Well, currently Gai is standing in a hallway.]

[So hey, is that a room off to the side there... he'll head towards that.]

[Yup! And-

Oh god. OH GOD. OH GOD. IT'S...IT'S....

A BRUREAUCRATIC RECORDS ROOM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!]

[... LITERALLY WHY, HE HATES PAPERWORK.

He is having massive regrets right about now but SURE, let's take a look around.]

[SO. MUCH. PAPERWORK.

Anyways, there's a shelf that seems to be labeled "Recent Deaths", if you want to check that out first.]

[HE SURE DOES. Time to read the obituaries--]

[Awesome!

Gai now can see how everyone has died. Including people from the previous two rounds. Incidentally, a lot of people were "mass executed by [REDACTED]".]

[Well, now that's interesting. Mass executed, huh?

Are there any particularly notable names among these?]

[Well, there is one name that is noticeably not there.]

[And what name might that be...]

[Zack Prince. There's only [REDACTED] in the spot where Zack's death-or deaths-happened.]

[... yeah, he can't say he's surprised by this at all.

~~He's harder to kill than a cockroach~~

Anything else of note in here, or time to move on?]

[Yes, actually.

There's someone else who seems to have died repeatedly-albeit, before the rounds proper started, judging by the sudden changeover in name patterns in the dead ledger.]

[Hmm. So is it Aoi, or is it Akane?]

[Neither, actually.

Instead, it's some guy named Zagreus. His last deaths before he abruptly disappeared was...uh. Stepping on a rake and having it hit him in the head. And...smelling a flower.]