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

[Moriarty has also been floating nearby, a bit ominously - but as brain says that, he starts mumbling to himself.]

...the byword of everything here...what charon asked for...even as spirits, we could...found underneath....could it be...?

[Brain glances over at him at that, head tilting. He's quiet for a moment, listening to Moriarty mutter]

It sounds as though you have any idea. If you're going to think out loud, do so a little louder.

[so he can hear what you're on about]

[He startles a little, but then sighs.]

It's hardly conclusive, and given we have no record exactly....this is just mere conjecture. But, what has been the most fluid involved in all of this? What we, as the dead, could still do? Where, exactly, he was found trapped under? And finally, what Charon himself asked for in order to give items to the dead?

[A Pause, before -]

Blood. It has always been blood.

…blood…

…………

I suppose there’s a lot of it around…

[Also the fact he’s not as shocked to see all these ghosts…maybe? He doesn’t know??? But. It feels. Proper, for lack of a better word.]