FINAL INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

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!))

Comments

[strangerpeople]

[There is, actually!]

[onychomance]

[Kira reaches for whatever this is.]

EVIDENCE

[strangerpeople]

[It's a purple-bound journal. It's a bit decrepit and musty, as if the book had been forgotten for years before being found and picked up again.

There's actually a lot written in here, and whoever wrote in it originally had very delicate handwriting. It's almost impossible to tell what was actually written before, though, because someone has defaced every single page with increasingly angry-even unhinged and despairing-writing in red ink.

Here's a sample:]

THEY WERE AFTER ME. NOT THEM. AFTER ME. NOT THEM. AFTER ME, NOT THEM. NOT THEM. WHY. WHY. WHY. CONTRACTS. I MUST BREAK. BREAK IT. BUT I CANNOT. THEY WERE AFTER ME. NOT THEM. UNGRATEFUL. I DID THIS FOR THEM. NOT THEM.

THEY WERE AFTER ME!!! NOT THEM!!!

[onychomance]

What the hell? Contracts...?!

[does the handwriting look at all familiar?]

[strangerpeople]

[Not even remotely, unless you happened to see the rambling paper found in the Captain's Quarters.]

[onychomance]

[By popular demand Kira was hogging that room for much of the days before this, so probably he had....

Anything else of note?]

[strangerpeople]

[Nope! Everything else in this room is with Makima.]

[onychomance]

[Hooray for less work. Then it's time to go see if that dark mirror does anything for his reflection. Kira walks up to it and stares for a moment.]

[strangerpeople]

[It only stares back.


And you know what they say about staring at the abyss...]

[onychomance]

[So it's not a mirror of truth. Probably for the best. Kira is still curious about the power he senses. What if he touched it?]

[strangerpeople]

[He would feel cold.

This is pure darkness, pure night.]