FINAL INVESTIGATION

[umbralant]

FINAL INVESTIGATION

Time continues to pass. And before long, it's the end of the week once again. Maybe it feels strange to call it that when there's such little sense of time besides the changing phases of the moon, and maybe the exact day doesn't even matter to you anymore. But regardless of the day, regardless of the month, regardless of the year, one thing is certain:

The time for preparations is over.

Because as the moon in the sky shines blood red, it becomes clear that all of the fog and the tremors were nothing but omens for what was to come.

And so, on Friday morning, Survivors will find themselves waking up to the sensation of energy practically buzzing through the air, prickling and tingling on skin like static electricity. Those who venture outside will also find that the fog that's creeped up in the recent days has been dispelled entirely, which includes the impassable kind that once hid a number of the buildings. Despite this, the tremors themselves do not lessen, and in fact, the earth itself seems to be vibrating with this energy as well.

The feeling will only get worse as the day progresses, and those who have been marked by the manifestations may feel more restless than normal.

The clock is ticking and there are some new areas to explore. No one's coming to save you, so there's nothing to do but to save yourselves, right?

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[drydrown]

Do avenge me if something eats me.

[All right, then, let's...go downstairs, he's got his sword with him and he's keeping it drawn and swear to fuck, he hates basements. Basements are where the weird people keep their torture pits and feed children to monsters and generally leave gore strewn about, and the Lady is so Ragou-tier weird. So here's hoping this basement is not also Ragou-tier weird.

First question: is there light down here?
Second question: what are we looking at(/what is he looking at even if there isn't light down here)? is it a gorefest. are there lizards.]

[baitless]

[that about tracks given... about everything else he's seen here, to be honest.

does anything stick out in the sense that it looks like... i don't know... you could press it and find a secret passage or something?]

[umbralant]

[ A'scouting Cumore will go. The basement is not lit, so sending the Sonui is a good choice. It's also a decent ways down because Antumbra clearly wants all of survivor pool to get their steps in today. The stairs open up to a large room, ostensibly a dungeon at some point given it's cobbled rock floors and walls.

From what Cumore can make out with his echolocation, there's several workbenches with items on top. Notably there's no signs of lizards, or a gorefest. Phew. ]

[umbralant]

[Well, he's got the right idea for sure. While most of it is pretty useless or probably too technical for most of the people here to decipher, what Erik will notice is that despite the volume of paper... he'll reach the bottom of the drawer quite quickly. And, well, is a single drawer supposed to be this heavy on its own?]

[drydrown]

[Just. Over to the damn stairwell we go, then.]

It's a dungeon because of course it is! Bring light down here, it looks like she was using it for something else, I have no idea what.

[umbralant]

[It's been fixed into the ground, but think of it like a one of these kinds of control panels but smaller. The only button that might be somewhat obvious is the one in the right-hand most corner that's green (but not lit up), but the rest is honestly difficult to decipher otherwise.]

[psychophant]

[Down we go!! Give us a moment to make it down here with light!!]

I don't know what else you expected...

[castle basements are always dungeons, aren't they??? Anyway, now that we've got some light down here, can we get a better idea of how many workbenches there are and what's on the closest ones?]

[umbralant]

[Nothing like that! Although it's notable that of the human-like figures, most of them don't have facial features outside of red-painted eyes save for one.

There's also some of the reliefs on the walls if he wants to look at that, though.]

[baitless]

[Well, he'll check out the human-like figure that has facial figures first, then he'll go for the reliefs!]

[bawcock]

[ It sure isn't!! He runs his fingers over the bottom of the drawer, feeling for seams or anything else out of place. ]

She's not the most subtle person, is she? [ If only he had still had Peep so he could check inside to see if there was a trap!! Even if it only works on treasure chests, whatever. ]

[umbralant]

[It isn't anyone Seteth would recognize unfortunately(?), but it's a rather androgynous sculpture of someone looking over at the crowd of blobs and other figures. Their expression is rather cold and there's what looks to be a stone halo behind their head and a swirling ball of energy in their right hand.

Huh.

Meanwhile, it looks like there's a series of 4 scenes depicted by the reliefs, although there's one pretty close to the sculpture that Seteth's looking at, so that one's pretty hard to miss. That relief depicts a figure that, while stylized, stands with a cold expression and a shining halo behind their head.]

[umbralant]

[ There's two benches, one of which has a device of some kind, in the light it looks like it could be some kind of gauge but you'll need to look closer. On the other bench is something you're all exceedingly familiar with, skala! Or more accurately, a giant pile of skala.

Next to the scala is a blender. And while you're here, there's scuff marks on the floor surrounding the benches which track back to the stairs. ]

[pr159]

[ All right... let's check out the work tables and machinery, unless this already counts as the machinery. ]

[umbralant]

[It'll take a bit of work, but Erik's skilled fingers will find a seam for sure, and it won't take much effort to pry the thick wood panel out of the drawer. Thankfully, there are no traps so Erik will survive just fine today, and be able to look that those two folded up sheets of paper laying there.]

[baitless]

[...that doesn't seem like Christianity, but he's not sure enough about the wider iconography to be sure. It's probably connected more to the blobs though!

Let's look at the rest of the scenes, then!]

[umbralant]

[It doesn't! ...Well, okay it does but there are other bits of abandoned machinery around. Either way, there's not too much to be found here, although it looks like... there's something that she's made that looks antenna-like? Like, not just a small one, this is actually rather large and looks like it would fit on a pretty big machine. But aside from that, there's just a lot of other junk around that doesn't really look usable unless someone's good enough with machines to make use of it.]

[bawcock]

[ Man, Rembrandt was so right about her. It's kind of sad. She probably never imagined someone would figure out her trick drawer.

When he's done shaking his head at the Lady, he picks up the folded sheets of paper! What do his eyes see? In before they're blank 'cause it's invisible ink or something. ]

[inordertobelieve]

So that's... where we got our sludge.

[ Presumably? BUT WHY????

Mikami is going to leave that to Iago, who is an expert by now, and approach the device instead. What's its general shape etc? What's going on here? ]

[umbralant]

[One scene runs beside the congregation of blobs, and appropriately it shows one person getting attacked by them and some lizard-like creatures. The person looks pretty freaked out and distressed!

The next scene a little away from the rest of the sculptures shows a person standing before an arch with a circle overhead, showing their back to the viewer.

And the last scene is also a bit of a distance from the other sculptures; it shows a person standing in front of a open door with their arms spread out wide, and a lot of light streaming out from the entrance.

Hm!]

[umbralant]

[Wow, he will see things!! Does it smell like lemon to you. Either way, I hope you enjoy notes Erik, because the first of them is something written by The Lady about Rembrandt (pretend the bolding is something being circled):]

OBSERVATIONS: Shapeshifter, night vision, pyrokinesis, teleportation, conjuration, superhuman strength, agility, restoration (both organic and inorganic), and even the ability to make plants grow. Is there anything he can’t do? This demon is like a toolbox with anything you can ask for. He is even great at cooking! This versatility is both a curse and a blessing for me. Even if I counter all the abilities I’m aware of, he could have another that I don’t know about yet.

According to the research I did in my own world, demons are incredibly strong and dangerous to deal with. I made sure to get as much information as possible before performing the summoning ritual -- I even made sure to sacrifice someone valuable to me. While I would love for him to obliterate this body, it’d be such a waste to not make use of its talents in case something goes awry.

But I don’t trust him. All the warnings, all the cautionary measures, it’s clear what’s the meaning of it all is: I’m playing with something incredibly dangerous. Oh, the challenge! Now, if the need arises and my hand is forced, how shall I defeat a demon?

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: Bodily harm, spiritual harm (possible but may be too risky), exorcism (costly and dubious), containment

[pr159]

[ Does it look like it would go on the big not-door machine anywhere? ]

moves this here instead!!

[psychophant]

[deadeyeing the skala.........]

Why.

[But fine, apparently he's an expert now, so while Mikami's checking out the device, he'll go poke the skala! Is it exactly the same skala we're all used to? Is there anything else off about it?]

[baitless]

[...he'll, uh, write all this down in his notebook. descriptions. don't ask him to draw that shit he's not an artist it would look bad. maybe he'll ask rideaux to come back and take pictures...

Anyway, anything else about the reliefs to note?]

[umbralant]

[It doesn't! The the big not-door looks complete, for lack of a better word; the only real issue is that it's off. It looks more like an aborted or failed part that was meant to go elsewhere!]

[drydrown]

[So for the sake of efficiency and because he imagines he can't 100% get away with just standing here looking cute, what kind of scuff marks are we looking at? Like something was dragged across the floor? Like some kind of substance...?]