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

[yesorwoof]

My primary findings were a bed containing a tape recorder with two unlabeled tapes. Tape #1 consisted of Delta speaking with someone I'll call the "Savior", who was holding onto a photo Delta owned (calling him a twin?) and asked him whether out of twin infants, he would prefer to save the one that would grow up to be a remorseless mass murderer, or one with a life full of suffering that would ultimately lead to killing the same number of people. The Savior then claimed to have a plan to "save those twins from that fate" and that Delta would not "refuse, now that you know of her". Please verify whether the baby crying on the tape is Ayame-chan, as we were told of her importance to Delta's plan.

Tape #2 was a conversation between Aoi Kurashiki, Delta, and who I'll call "This Zero". I am surmising that Aoi-kun had experienced Ayame-chan being kidnapped and now was himself kidnapped by This Zero, who was wearing a costume, perhaps the one we saw on the screen. This Zero was not the same in voice and was separate from Delta, who told Aoi about the fact that the conversation would be forgotten.

The bed was strangely permeated with the scent of the ship - as well as that of Zack Prince. Examining the wall scrolls in the room, I couldn't help thinking that he had lived an entire parallel life for months or years in this sandals-and-studies sort of place.

[That is Makima's handwritten summary. There is also a handwritten transcript of the two tapes, the actual two tapes and recorder, a photograph of the room, and finally a pillowcase taken for verification of her description of the scent.

On a smaller piece of paper:]

By the way, I also spoke with a sheep who revered some kind of queen who had sent the tree to let the gods sleep.