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

[hatesdeerstalkers]

...

[He'll float a little closer to Zack, looking at him carefully.]

Because, perhaps, he is your dog. Just as the man over there -

[- one part of his robe lifts, as he 'points' towards Hades slumped over on the desk -]

- is your father. Only...the memories have been...distorted. Reworked. I've experience with that, with realizing exactly who and what you are through the haze of false memories.

[...That he did to himself in service of a scheme, but let's not get into that now.

His voice is firm, but gentle. Perhaps even saying things a bit more slowly and deliberately than he normally would.]

It is up to you to reclaim them - to reclaim yourself. If you wish to live as Zack Prince...perhaps, then, none among us would blame you. It is Comfortable to believe you are normal. Comfortable still, to think that none of your loved ones are in direct danger, and that you are merely an ordinary person innocent of all that has occurred here, no reason beyond malice for your plight.

...However. Can you live with the doubt of knowing such a thing...may not be the truth?

[...]

I can only lead you to the question you must face. You, my boy, must decide your answer for yourself.

[not_a_lego_maniac]

...........................




..................I. I need a a bit to. To think. Please.

[hatesdeerstalkers]

[He'll nod, then, and float away.

Thinking is all he's asking Zag to do, in the end. Just as how he wanted everyone else to keep thinking when the trial was coming to a close.]