Triel's face turns ashen as she's thrown back. Her eyes are wide and frozen open in fear for a few seconds before she finally blinks, gasping for air and covered in a cold sweat.
"...so helpless... ...no one should ever experience that..."
"Not drow poison, no... perhaps just magic, then?" Jonathan's head snaps around as Triel falls, but he seems less worried when he realizes she's come to again. "What did you see? Could you see the face of whomever summoned this creature, or anything that might help us find its master?"
Triel shakes her head. "...no... just a feeling of complete helplessness and terror. And then nothing else."
She takes a breath and pushes herself to her feet. "...I can try reading the blood of the other victims, if need be."
Elek turns quickly when Triel swoons,'Helplessness and terror, that makes sense.' as she recovers quickly he extends a hand, "If you would be able to that may prove useful."
Triel steps towards another corpse (rather shakily) and kneels down, dipping her fingers in its blood as well...
As Triel focuses on the blood again, she's once again bombarded by the sensations of fear and pain, though she is less overwhelmed since she's prepared for it this time. She manages to get a few broken images between the surges of emotion. Humanoid shapes in black cloaks move around the victims, with echoing words in a harsh guttural language occasionally breaking through the hazy of terror.
"Humanoid shapes in black cloaks. Harsh, guttural language." Triel sighs and gets back to her feet. "Clearer this time, but not enough to go on."
She moves to the third victim and dips her fingers in its blood. "I hope this time's clearer--we're running out of corpses here."
Zalika hesitates, fairly torn in this situation. Up until now, it was a fairly straightford investigation, and she had considered it a massive priority to find out who had carried out the assassination. However, seeing the harsh toll the blood reading was happening on her ally makes her hesitate.
"Triel...I say this not to query your abilities, and this is an important situation for us to solve, but are you sure you don't want to take a few moments to take a further break. It must be hell reliving final moments from these people and despite the gravity of this mission, I hate seeing anyone suffering this much over it".
'The circle was different, but I don't think it's that kind of relationship to Shax." While they are taking a break, Elek walks away from the circle to clear his head. "Lets look at what we know: It's definitely a summoning circle and a Babau is involved. But I've never seen a circle done totally in blood." Turning to Triel he asks "Triel, you said Shax, red hand and slaughter. But if I remember right The Red Hand isn't related to Shax."Looking at the rest of the group he asks "Does anyone know what it is?"
Zalika frowns in concentration, before having an embarrassed shrug. "To be honest, blood, red and slaughter tend to seem similar to Shax, so I can see how it appears to have a connection - but I don't think my studies specifically covered anything about a Red Hand."
Zalika is (uncharacteristically) silent for a moment more, before brightening slightly. "I know, if it came up, then I would have recorded it within a notebook of mine that I keep on my person - purely because I wanted information available during diplomatic discussions, which I have sadly been sidetracked from. I'll check it now.
Triel appears to be too focused on reading the blood to reply to Zalika.
Triel's next vision is clearer still, though still covered in a haze of pain and fear. She hears more of the chanting and sees another figure joining the others. This one is obviously female and she can make out greyish skin on her hands as she executes the victims one by one.
Triel hisses and gets back to her feet.
"...another one joined them. A female. Executed the victims one by one." She growls, looking down at her hand.
"She had greyish skin."
Aramus hums a jaunty tune to himself, grinning at passersby and hoping the group moves on from bloody murder soon. If the boys only knew what I was up to today... They might not even try to follow it up with a story of their own. He glances over his shoulder at sounds of talking inside, but it doesn't seem the others are done just yet.
"I would guess that was the same woman you observed in the Primarch's quarters," Jonathan says plainly, no longer examining the bodies. "If not drow poison, I would assume magic. Still, it seems these cultists are more widespread than we thought."
Zalika vaguely recognizes that term Red Hand as some kind of name, or title, but she can't seem to place the exact details. Given the context, it's must be some sort of demon or person related to the Abyss, but that was rather obvious already.
Elek shakes his head, as if he's heard a riddle he cannot solve. "Male or female, evil doesn't care, but grey skin?" He looks from Triel to Zalika to Jonathan. 'I don't want to put to much strain on Triel, but we need more.' Walking nearer, Elek asks Triel softly, "Would it be possible for you to attempt to learn more? If not we will understand."
Zalika looks up from flicking through her notebook in search of useful information before giving an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, it doesn't look like I have anything here about a Red Hand - or if my studies did mention it, for whatever reason its not recorded here. I can suspect that its probably demonic related - which I realise is already fairly obvious, but nothing further than that. Sorry guys."
Triel sucks in a breath of air and rubs her brow with a shaking hand. "...I think I'm going to need a bit."
After taking a few minutes to get herself together, Triel walks to the fourth victim and dips her fingers into its blood.
Triel's vision doesn't show her anything she hasn't already seen at this point, though she gets a slightly better look at the woman now that she's specifically looking for her. Her form is very tall and thin, and her skin is more of a blueish or purplish grey rather than an ashen color.
All of the cultists are wearing hooded robes, obscuring their faces and hair. The only reason Triel can tell the leader is a woman is because her robe is rather... tightly fit.
"...more bluish or purplish grey, really. Quite tall and thin."
"And she was dressed in rather tight-fitting robes."
Jonathan's eyes narrow slightly as he looks around the room, listening to Triel describe the cultist she's seen within her visions. After a moment, though, he shakes his head. "We have forgotten something important. This creature was summoned from this place, meaning the trail we followed was not leading here; it led somewhere deep beneath the city streets. This creature may be hunting down our own Captain Rothos, as opposed to working for him. The first of these marks appeared not far from the entrance to his home through which we traveled. If I were seeking to destabilize this city, that is what I would do."
'So now the captain is the hero of our story not the villain, while this demon is still on the loose.' Elek smirks slightly, resting his hands on his hips. "So is it time to return to the scene of the crime and continue our investigation?"
"Possibly. If nothing else, we should investigate which direction the path is leading, now that we know its beginning. If the Captain is in danger, he must be warned immediately, and we cannot know this until we find him or whatever he might still be hiding. I believe, again, our answers will lie below ground."
Zalika frowns as she considers a different option. "Personally, I don't give a damn about whatever was summoned, I care about the person that actually did the summoning. Its clear that there was a probable ritual which means that these people all arrived here, from someone else, either they arrived at this location of their own free will, and a trap was sprung, or they were inconvenienced at a separate location and brought here. Either way, knowing who or where these people were before they arrived here, would allow us to track down who last interacted with them - which would probably lead us closer to who carried out the ritual."
'So where do we go from here? This is the problem when there is no rank, there are no orders, when there are no orders there is no order.' Elek looks from Zalika to the gentleman from Galt. "If I understand we need more information to proceed; either where the demon went to or where the cultists went to or where these people came from." He then looks around the building. "Everyone keep searching we need more answers."
Going toward the door, he sheaths his sword, calling out to Aramus "Aramus look for clues in the alley to see who may have come here or left here." Stopping for a moment, placing a finger to his chin, he continues. "Also start to think about how we can learn who owns this building, if all else fails we can check out the owner."
Turning back to the three in the building with him Elek asks and points to the corpses. "Can any of you three tell how long they have been dead? If we can find no other clues inside or outside of the building we can canvas the neighborhood asking about odd events or people. It would be good to at least be able to put a time to when we are inquiring about."
On hearing Elek's call, Aramus grins and cracks his knuckles. "Right! Time for a clue hunt..." With that, he begins scouring the alleyway with his fine-tuned senses.
"My gods! How have I never seen these things before?"
'May as well see if the second floor holds any information.' Elek draws his 'walking stick' from his pack and heads up the stairs, watching for anything suspicious, he checks the door carefully, and then opens it up and enters the second floor.
"While I agree that discerning whomever summoned this creature is important, I might argue that stopping it from further destabilizing the city of Absalom as best we can is a more pressing goal. The people have already lost their Primarch, losing the Captain of the Guard, assuming he is yet another target, would likely incite chaos." Jonathan frowns, looking back in the direction of the Primarch's tower, his eyes narrowing. "We ought to send them a message, at the least, if we do not intend to track the demon. Securing Captain Rothos will help maintain some modicum of order within the city."
Elek searches the stairs for a moment, but there doesn't seem to be anything off or threatening there. However, when he tries to push open the door to the second floor, he finds it locked.
'which do you do, put out the fire or stop the one lighting the fires.' Einar calls down the steps, "The gentleman from Galt is correct we should warn the watch as to what they are fighting. It was our task to find the one who killed the Primarch, not the tool he used. Still the best way may be to follow the tool. Let us learn all we can from this place and then decide."
Attempting to open the door he calls back down, "This door is locked would you come open it? I can break it down but that would seem excessive."
Upon hearing Elek's call, Jonathan heads up the stairs and pulls his lockpicks again from his pack. "Here, step aside and I will see what I can do." With a bit of effort, Jonathan manages to catch the tumblers just right, and with a flick of his wrist the lock audibly pops open. Jonathan keeps his hand clasped on the hilt of his rapier, gently pushing the door open as he looks back at Elek. "Elek speaks the truth; we ought to see what else we can glean from this place before deciding where to go. Shall we?" he asks, gesturing for Elek to head through the now slightly ajar door.
Stepping aside, Elek watches carefully as Jonathan works. As the door opens, Elek nods, the walking stick held casually but a the ready; He walks into the upstairs room ready for anything.
Triel quietly follows Elek & Jonathan upstairs, visibly grateful that she doesn't have to relive anyone's final moments anymore.
It only takes a few moments for Jonathan to pop the lock open. The door swings open to reveal a single room that seems to be an office. There's not much here, save for a desk, a few chairs, and a couple of cabinets. Elek takes a few moments to look around, but he doesn't see anything suspicious at first glance.
Jonathan stands after popping the lock, noticing a lack of immediate danger. Still, the masked man looks around carefully and with purpose, checking the area not only for traps but any valuable information that might get them closer to their target. "Take caution; if these cultists have used this office, it is likely to be trapped. I will do my best to disarm them if I come across them."
Elek, nods his head in agreement with the gentleman from Galt, 'We shall proceed cautiously." He moves along slowly, helping look for anything that could be a trap.
Jonathan and Elek begin to search the office, looking in the cabinets and desk for a moment. At first, it seems that there's nothing there, but Jonathan notices a slight gap in the bottom of one of the desk drawers, indicating a false bottom. He carefully slides it back, revealing a steel lockbox. However, as he goes to pick it up, light flares from the bottom of the drawer and a magical rune, unseen beneath the box, flares with light.
Jonathan curses under his breath as the arcane symbol glows with power, but in the instance before the magic attacks his body he manages to steel his senses, preventing him from harm. Still, he grunts from the effort and slams the lockbox down onto the top of the desk, keeping Elek or the others from falling victim to it. "A Symbol of Pain," Jonathan remarks, breathing heavily. "If we must, I will attempt to disrupt the rune... but let us see if we cannot inspect the box's contents without doing so." The masked man seems taxed, but not unduly so; he pulls his lockpicks again from his bag and works on the box's lock, hoping to pry it open without revealing the symbol again.
Jonathan manages to fight his way through the pain, but the rune vanishes from the wood before he can actually do anything about it. He manages to right himself, now holding the sealed box.
Jonathan sets the box down on the table and starts to work on the lock, though it seems stubborn enough to defy his first attempt, though he's certain he's close.
Jonathan frowns, and adjusts his grip on his pick to better hold the tumblers before continuing.
This time, the box pops open. There's very little inside other than two pieces of paper. The first is some sort of magical scroll written in a series of symbols. The second is a letter.
Disciple Yvonne
We have included the materials and scrolls in the latest shipment of equipment. With this, you and your followers should have all of the equipment you need to proceed with the plan. The Swarm requires that our enemies not be allowed to unite against us. Begin by eliminating the queen and that will throw the hive in to confusion. Once they are in disarray, proceed to launch your attack and eliminate their drones. Then their alliance is doomed to failure. We are relying on you, so do not fail. The Red Hand should ensure that the first missions is successful, but beyond that, the skill of you and your men will be the deciding factor.
For the Locust Lord