The outpost's innards met you with the same idyl that reigned outside: a newish makeshift doubled horse pens that stood empty, a solemn logs-made watchtower looming over the scene, and an older barrack hut with signs of recent repairs to its thatch roof. There were no apparent signs of any recent structural damage to buildings. The yard still hosted what one would describe as a minor habitual mess (a relatively new campfire spot, the degraded orderliness of a firewood stack, a few clothes & rags drying outside). One might've had a hard time assuming something horrible as mass murder happened in these walls if not for a single grim landmark: a body of a person lying face-down in the fresh grass between the barrack entrance and the fence gates. At some distance from it, an oversized black hound whined when staring at the body, accompanied by his similarly unnerved master. Two unfamiliar figures with pensive looks on their faces were combing the inner yard for more clues behind Krom and Elgar; the latter barely threw a short stare at you as an acknowledgment of your arrival.
"And here we are," Inga interrupted your brief surveillance, noticing your stare at the dead body, "Shall we proceed like the last time?"
"Like the last time?" Ren injected.
"Back in the haunted stead, we separated into groups to cover the ground more efficiently," You hurried to take the initiative. "Speaking of it, what is the scene's layout?" you switched to Inga.
The gvuroth lady inhaled some air as if steeling herself before answering, "Most of the skirmish happened in the barracks: Bilguun, Gazrog and Gosse lie there; you saw Tombaatar already, and there's also Ankhbar by the rear barrack entrance."
The names listed by Inga rang hollow to you as you never knew the victims, but the way she spoke of them suggested she was yet to accept the losses mentally. By no means were you an expert in anatomy like Isaac, but perhaps something would come out if you inspected the victims in the ways you can, along with some assistance to substitute for your shortcomings?
"Karl, would you mind if we proceed to inspect the victims?" you suggested, "We should've probably brought Isaac with us, but you might be the second most qualified person to do so in his absence."
"You overestimate my expertise in pathologic anatomy, but I'll try my best. If our guide allows it, of course." With that, Karl tilted slightly tilted his head towards Inga.
"For as long as it won't prevent us from giving the deceased fitting obsequies." Inga's rather cold reply was likely shaped by unfamiliarity with the term Karl shot out carelessly.
"We will comport the investigation with the most respect. I'll make sure of that," you injected, visibly giving Inga at least some ease of mind. "But what about the others?" you turned to address the rest of your group, "Something you feel closer to your fields of expertise?"
"I'll go into the hut and see the skirmish spot," Ulren replied, "Indoors slaughters always leave a lot of clues and narrow down the scenarios, meaning it might be easier to find something out about the culprit."
"Then I'll go and take a look around the outpost for infiltration points," Seph followed Ren's suit, "The way murderers got behind the defenses would likely shed light on their motives, traits, and behavior."
"Good, good..." Inga nodded to no one in particular, "Then I'll make those who didn't go searching for Bayar's whereabouts know of the plan, so we could coordinate proper." However, shortly after turning around and joining other hunters, she looked back at you, saying, "And, once again, thank you for doing this for us."
You wished there was a more jovial reason to exchange pleasantries. In response to the sincere gratitude of a dolorous and likely scared person, you only managed to give away a sad, acknowledging smile.
_________________________
In contrast to the inner yard, the barrack's interior was an absolute mess: table and tabourets turned over, caskets broken, a shelf with weapons slumped, blood and various items scattered all over the floor, and three dead bodies filling the air with putrid hints of decay. Midst all this mess, Ulren was inspecting the positioning of all the objects, dents, and cracks with the cautiousness and filigree one would not expect from a creature of his size.
"If you wish, I can do the... interfacing part," Karl offered while seeing your face becoming squeamish from realizing you'd have to at least turn the corpses to get a complete picture.
"No, that would not be necessary," you replied while steeling yourself. The experience wasn't looking pleasant by any margin, but if you deal with the spirits of the dead, what excuse do you have to be fastidious of their empty shells?
Cautiously, you turned around the body before you from its side to its back - the other two victims in the barrack were more or less assessable in their posthumous poses. The person you rolled around was a youngish male lander with an unkempt beard, hazel eyes, and the expression of abject terror frozen on their one warmly-toned face. This person in question was of above average size for a lander: not in height but rather in stockiness characteristic to indigenous freelanders. Their hand was stretched towards a handaxe lying at some distance - an indicator they might have belatedly tried to brace for a confrontation. As for their injuries - there was one single deep cut on their chest. For whatever wicked reason, your mind undug the recollection of the lethal wound you inflicted to a briarite combatant a while ago. With some effort, you shook off the delusion: neither it was the time to dig in regretful memories nor the trauma in front of you was anything like the bloody mess you did back then - it was singular and almost "clean."
"Karl, do you see anything of note?" You passed the initiative to your teammate, but the response did not follow.
"Karl, are you paying any..." you turned around only to see Norskov gazing at Ulren's machinations with a blank stare. This urged you to lightly pull the mage's collar before concluding your thought: "...any attention?" you said while tilting your head.
"Oh, sure," The mage responded in a way so dry you almost thought he was deliberately demonstrating his utter disinterest, "I was just theory-crafting. Do pardon my eccentrics, if you may." You pointed at the unfortunate soul's body with your eyes, saying nothing.
"Let's see..." Karl got closer to the cadaver, taking a few long moments to inspect it. "Freeland male of about twenty-eight to thirty-one years old, physically developed. The signs of decay, such as skin pattern and coloration, suggest that death came within the last fourteen hours - right before midnight. The likely cause of death is rupture of the internal organs with severe internal and external loss of blood. Whoever stuck this hapless pal down knew well enough how to aim for the heart."
Involuntarily, you squinted from imagining sustaining an injury of such graveness, and, somewhere in the back of your mind, the notion of soon getting your own armor set became even sweeter. But something felt odd with the body in front of you regardless: you sensed minor sediments of a voidling with your supernatural perceptions. When you took a closer look, you revealed tiny dark noduled on the injured flesh.
"Karl, there's something unordinary with his wound: do you see those tiny black clusters? They give off minor entropic vibes."
"Oh? Good eyes you have there," Karl commented and leaned over the dead man with an easily-readable intent.
"Karl! What are you doing?! Didn't you hear what I just said?"
Regardless of your protest, the man was dead set on sampling the substance with his bare hands. And as he did so, it was not the feeling of disgust that rattled you and nearly provoked you to null-blast the arcane aspects in the building, but his blatant disregard of your efforts curing him of the void contamination. While the troublemaker squished and rolled the coal-black clusters of an unknown substance on his fingers, you took a moment to assess its paranormal capacities. To your relief, this residue substance was far too impotent to carry demonic contamination.
You would not call yourself a short-tempered person, but the spontaneous recollection of that poor child's soul you had to vivisect suddenly filled you with anger. So, you slowly, carefully, but insistently tugged Karl by the sleeve of his overcoat and spoke in a quiet if icy tone: "When I mentioned your affliction being cured not without sacrifices, I did not mean only my time and efforts. In light of this, wouldn't you find it most unbecoming should you go through the same predicament twice?"
Caught by surprise by your sudden change of demeanor, Karl's face maintained a confused look for a couple of seconds, after which he slowly grinned in a manner suggesting that only now - in all the day - his genuine interest was picked. "But of course, I'll exercise cautiousness to avoid such a disgrace," he said while his grin turned into a smug smirk, "but you see - this is regular ash. No more and no less." You glimpsed at the index finger of the troublemaker, and indeed: inside the black coating of chunks, there was a friable texture of your ordinary gray ash. Then, even though your worst suspicions did not prove true, you raised your eyes to glare at the mage. You could tell he knew you were mad at him, but instigating a quarrel was the least appropriate thing given the situation at hand, so you released his sleeve with a restive motion.
"It makes little sense: how exactly it would get into the wound?"
"Your guess is as good as mine~," Karl replied nonchalantly, "Although, doubt it to be the case of homicide with a fireplace poker as a tool: locals might not even know about such appliances."
"The tool's most certainly a scimitar of another curved blade design," Ren's sudden input stole your and Karl's attention (and most likely prevented a minor squabble).
"Uhm... Ren? What are you doing?" You inquired, mildly puzzled by the scene of a seizable armor-clad bhiroth playing pretends with invisible weapons and attempting what appeared to be stances and motions replication with his own frame.
"Reconstructing the event from victims' perspective," Ren outlined dryly.
"Did... did you get any leads aside from the assailant's assumed weapon?"
"Aye. The positioning of victims and markings on the interior suggests this was less of a fight and more of a surprise slaughter. Also, there are some odd clues on the murderer's constitution."
Peculiarly, Ren said this over continuing his experiments, "I'd tell more after confirming something, so don't mind me."
"Well, I'll be damned: roths are capable of applied acting in contrast to the beliefs of associates of mine. Should we call for our madam Desert Rose to shatter her worldview once again?"
"I say we should make ourselves useful lest we want to become a laughing stock for thers."
"Aw. Why do you have to shoot down my wits like this? The Lucifina I knew wasn't so opposed to the concept of fun."
Back at Narvic, you got a whiff of Karl's incredible topographic cretinism, but now you also witnessed his outstanding tone deafness. Instead of falling into the man's trap to prolong the banter or imagining how much of a paint he used to be in his youth, you shook your head disapprovingly and proceeded with the investigation.
________________________
The two other bodies in the barracks were men: a young freelander and an alvizian. The body of the more youthful freelander chap partially dangled from one of the two two-storied beds: it seemed like he was asleep when the commotion took place, with the killing puncture strike cutting short his attempt to lift from the bed and react appropriately. The alvizian lad, in his last moments, seemed to be engaging with the awake lander in some sort of a table game; he was forcefully pressed against the wall and then pierced into vital organs.
Not to lose any essential details others would not be able to reach, you enacted your supernatural senses. But alas, the objects you decided to scan for peculiar engraved memories did not contain anything relevant: the assault was so fast that the victims' shock and fear did not have the time to imprint upon the last items they interacted with. Yet, while spiritology did not yield any clues, the thaumaturgic assessment of the barracks revealed a voidling trace of increased concentration than it was outside the outpost.
Following the trail, you and Karl returned to the yard where you saw the first body. The departed was also a freelander approaching their middle age, with a short but dense beard, brown eyes, and the expression of terror frozen upon death. Unlike the rest of the garrison, this person's killing blow came in from behind, piercing through the back and exiting through the abdomen. If your capability of reading poses, combining clues, and modeling events were worth its salt, you could tell that this one was trying to flee the barrack in futility while their comrades were slaughtered in quick succession. Moreover, the voidling's trace intensity felt the highest around this particular body as if a demon's conceptual obsession flared up in their presence.
Even though the amassed clues began to form a pattern, you and Karl proceeded to review the last reported victim. The body belonged to yet another freelander male of, according to Karl, middle to late twenties. Typically black-haired for a freelander and with gray eyes, there were several noticeable differences between him and the rest of the victims: he was clad in leather armor and carried a short spear, his pose indicated a lack of any struggle, and unlike the rest, his death came not from slashing or thrusting injuries but from upper spine disruption. You and Karl quickly concluded that this man was carrying a watch shift while his comrades recuperated before the attacker snuck in and quietly broke his neck.
As sound as this theory appeared, it raised some questions: where exactly was the missing hunter at the time of the assault, whether or not they witnessed it, and how exactly they disappeared. But for now, without any way to fill in the gaps in the sequence of events, it was time to resort to your more magical abilities. Scanning the victim's belonging did not bring any valuable intel, but you've noticed something else during the attempts.
"Inga, you there?" You yelled into the yard while counting the number of soul spark readings in the proximity.
"Yes," Inga's voice came back from behind the barracks, "did something happen?"
"No, just want to know how many other hunters are with you in the yard!"
"Myself, and then three more. The rest are away seeking the missing. Why, though?"
"Trying not to mix traces," you replied (and technically truthfully more so), "Thank you!"
If only you did not have something more urgent at hand, you might have imagined how Inga shrugged at you. Yet, her answer caused you to diligently revise the readings you were getting from others' souls: Karl nearby, Ren moving from the barrack, Inga with a scatter of three unfamiliars at the opposite side of the yard, Sephie moving closer along the fence... and one more in the watchtower. Instinctively, you trained your eyes at the building, deciphering the unfamiliar spark from a distance, and your sneaky suspicion got its confirmation - the "alien" soul had no vitality shell. Moreover, the pattern of its fluctuations coincided with the tracery of memory imprints on the short spear you've just assayed.
"Karl, it seems we might have an extra witness," you retrained your sapphire eyes at the mage, pretending not to observe your antics with interest.
"Is that so?" he feigned surprise, "How come no one recovered them yet?"
You pointed down at the body for a moment. "He hasn't moved on, it seems. Maybe, he doesn't even fully realize what transpired."
"Is it time to share the findings?" Sephie's voice ringing from the yard drew your attention away from the latest lead. "If everyone's ready," Ren's voice sounded meditative, "speaking of..."
You did not wait to hear what he inquired of, turning back to Karl: "We will have to postpone attempts to question the victim until getting more context from others and sharing our clues," you addressed Karl, "With more pieces uncovered by others, we'd have a better idea of what to question the spirit about, don't you agree?"
"Haven't even considered debating it, Lucifina." For some reason, you found his compliance insincere. Although, it might've been you still adjusting to the recent changes in his style of conduct.
________________________
"There's a rough trail of footprints by the outer northern side of the fence. At first, I thought it might belong to your folks, but if stalking under the palisade with an evident aim to find a comfy scaling point isn't weird enough, doing so barefoot is even stranger. As an extra, our stalker spent some time circling and pining for a fitting moment to dive in, leaving a lot of prints. And about them diving: they must be quite an acrobat to not leave any markings on the palisade or deeper jump point footprints by the outer side." Busy revealing her observations, Sephie fiddled with the pommel of a sheathed knife. "When I followed the second set of prints, the patchy trail led to North-West from the outpost until it cut off. Seems like the culprit headed towards Tevon or its surroundings." With that, she leaned at the wall of the barrack, tilted her head, and threw a smug look at Ulren, saying: "And how's your haul? Any luck, perhaps?"
Ren, being himself, hasn't even noticed the subtle "challenge" gesture (or just outright ignored it), answering: "In fact - yes. Plenty of findings." He raised his hand and pointed towards the back entrance to the barrack. "The attacker was likely alone and, just as the daeva just said, knew what they were doing. They haven't raised any alarm with the approach and rushed through the rear entrance at full arms. Three awake people inside were caught by surprise and had barely any time to react. The first one - the bearded freelander lad sitting at the table and playing caravans with the alvizian was sliced first. Then, the oldest lander decided to run while the alvizian reached for his weapon. Considering the position of the table where hunters had the game, the attacker rammed the alvizian, staggering him against the wall and piercing up his guts."
Growing increasingly articulative with his hands, Ren pantomimed the direction of strikes made, after which he turned towards the barrack again and pointed at its midsection and main entrance, "by the time alvizian was taken out, the oldest of the group was at the main door, and the youngest lad in the garrison must have woken up to commotion." Saying that, Ulren frowned as if imagining something particularly unsettling: "The attacker noticed the previously-sleeping chap's reaction and decided to take no chances, making a three-quarter stance recovery turn followed by an aimed pierce over the shoulder," he shook his head at that, "perhaps, the kid might've survived should he remain idle. But anyway, after taking out the youngest guardsman, judging by the blood drops on the floor, the attacker employed the low guard stance and charged after the fled survivor. The chase was short: the fleeing man likely stumbled on their run towards the main gates and was ran through by the attacker's weapon."
After reconstructing the events, Ren turned toward the rest of the assembly and crossed his massive hands on the chest. "The whole encounter did not last even for a minute: there were only two charges by the murderer before no one was left alive. And here's the most interesting part: the nature of cuts and markings left suggests that the used weapon was some variation of a curved blade."
You noticed pairs of eyes staring at Ulren questioningly. You are not an expert in weaponry (and even not an amateur enthusiast), but did Ren say something so out of the ordinary?
"Aye, that's right: over two elbows in length, curved backward from the working side, and even mildly jagged in at least one section. The pushing force of the wielder was abnormal: easily twice more potent than an average lander's punch while their frame proportions and swinging arcs were lower than that of roths. But the weirdest part - the stance recovery from the first charge I mentioned would've been impossible with the conventional saber or scimitar. To pull that off, they either had some exotic two-bladed sword with the handle near the length center, which they simply turned, or an equally outlandish grip with palms positioned above the guard."
With nothing else to add, Ulren shrugged vaguely. "Hah? If even half of what you said proves correct, then that's pretty impressive expertise," Sephie complimented unironically for once.
"If that gets proved correct," Ren low-key objected, "The image of the attacker and their used weapon aren't something you'd likely encounter in this part of the world."
"It is because they aren't from this world, technically speaking," You picked up the metaphorical torch of the conversation, drawing everyone's confused stares at you.
"The attack occurred around midnight - the "hunting time" of demons, devils, and other voidlings or ethereals. Aside from the unusually high concentration of chaotic aethers in this area, a distinguishable trail of corruption passes through this outpost, falling one-in-one with the discussed route of the killer. Moreso, the void residue gets denser inside the barrack and reaches its peak near the last victim's body, suggesting that the entity's prime driver was its elimination. This may explain how other victims were killed and one missing person: the bounding concept of this particular voidling brought them here to cut short one life in particular, while others just happened to be in its way."
The more you spoke, the more confused Inga grew. "This might be an explanation for the uncanny acrobatic feats and alien choice of weaponry of this creature. If nothing else, it coincides with our observations and experiences from the assault at one of your night patrols in Tevon: the beast was unnaturally fast and delivered grievous cutting injuries to its victims before the latter could even defend themselves."
You took a tiny pause to let others digest your hardly-believable findings, after which you continued: "Peculiarly, we've also found another detail that should not have been there under more "normal" circumstances: small clusters of ash in victims' wounds. The entity's murder tool was covered in soot and ash as the character of impairments did not suggest they were made with searing-hot weapons that would've chalked victims' flesh. And, as you might imagine, there are absolutely zero reasons for a murderer to deliberately infest victims' wounds with burning sediments."
"So that's what those spots on the floor were..." Ulren murmured, to which you weakly nodded in confirmation.
"So..." Inga visibly struggled to pick the right words, "What you are saying is this slaughter was committed by an uncatchable, chalked abomination the like of which we encountered below that hexed mansion, which is bent on purposefully culling down our higher ranks using a savage blade?"
You could only shrug at her with your shoulders, saying: "I would not have believed this myself; shouldn't my friends and I have encountered multiple voidlings in the past, that is."
For a few moments, Inga's face changed a couple of times, with one of the shifts suggesting something clicked in her mind. Something battered through her mind's walls of disbelief and maybe even more. "I see..." she finally muttered with a weak sigh, "If not for that raid of ours and testimonies of Elgar, Loїс, and Altan, I would've never believed this. But whatever picks us out gives not a flying shag about such trivialities." Pensively, she looked away from you to a side. "There is still some time before we prepare the victims for their last rites and return to the longhouse, so if there's something more you can or want to examine, now is the time."
Even though she wasn't looking at you, a tiny nod indicated your willingness to cooperate further.
_______________________________
Phase 2 out of 3
Assign characters to the tasks. One character can only investigate one zone during one phase. Each character will make rolls mentioned in the tasks. The higher the scores, the more & better clues would be discovered. If more than one character is assigned to a single site, the highest score will be considered, with a chance of getting additional bonuses.
Each character has unique expertise and talents, which may yield extra clues.
More options might open in later phases, depending on the progress made.
[] Investigate the skirmish scene again. (Perception attribute roll, Intelligence attribute roll, Wisdom attribute roll, melee skill roll, defense skill roll, balance skill roll, coordination attribute roll, luck roll)
-[] Lucy
-[] Ulren
-[] Sephorah
-[] Karl
[] Study the location around the skirmish scene once more. (Reconnaissance skill roll, sneaking skill roll, mobility attribute roll, burglary skill roll, perception attribute roll, luck roll)
-[] Lucy
-[] Ulren
-[] Sephorah
-[] Karl
[] Inspect bodies for the second time. (normal willpower skill roll (20), perception attribute roll, Intelligence attribute roll, pharma and treatment skill roll, melee skill roll, luck roll)
-[] Lucy
-[] Ulren
-[] Sephorah
-[] Karl
[] Help seeking for the missing person. (Reconnaissance skill roll, geography lore skill roll, huntsmanship skill roll, nature skill roll, perception attribute roll, luck roll)
-[] Lucy
-[] Ulren
-[] Sephorah
-[] Karl
[] Try communicating with the remnant spirit in the watchtower (Exclusive to Lucifina)
-[] Lucy
[] Talk to someone regarding the series of murders. (Hard CHA check (20) OR Hard persuasion check (24), Luck roll)
-[] talk to Inga
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
-[] talk to Loїс
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
-[] talk to Elgar
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
[] Talk to someone regarding the victims' identities. (Easy CHA check (13) OR Easy persuasion check (17), Luck roll)
-[] talk to Inga
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
-[] talk to Loїс
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
-[] talk to Elgar
--[] Lucy
---[] Disclose the leads on the murderer
---[] Do not disclose the leads on the murderer
--[] Ulren
--[] Sephorah
--[] Karl
