FFD6 The Dicening, Group 1, Chapter 1, Mission 1

[Bard The 5th LW]

'Well this explains a lot,' Ralts thought to himself as they made there way deep into Maris. Corpses everywhere, seemingly all of them were dead.

"Probably used magic seeing the lack of wounds," he spoke quietly, mostly to himself as he slowed down, "not sure what spell they could have used though. Maybe a draining spell? Must have been obvious to the rest of the populace."

"Whats this?" The Red Mage suddenly stopped in his tracks, attention focused on a particular corpse. On the cadaver he momentarily saw a glint. Like light reflected from metal. "Hold on," he then proceeded to stray away fro the group to take a closer look at the victim.

Examination revealed that the body was embedded with different pieces of metal. Steel and mythril he wagered. Not shrapnel either, these were implanted on purpose. "They seem to be holding it together," he examined. "Hey,what do you all think of this?" he asked turning his head. Perhaps one of them were better informed on these matters?

[Menarker]

Ark marched silently with the group when he had dismounted the cart before entering Maris. His tiny companion sat on his shoulder with a pensive mood. His sword and shield were already held in hand, expecting the worst from a town already afflicted with its current disaster. As they proceeded down the roads past the increasing number of the... terminally unconscious to put it most accurately, Ark stopped in his footsteps, as if expecting the others to do the same.

"Hey,what do you all think of this?"



"New Data Compiled"
"Among the bodies of the terminally unconscious include representives from several races including Elvaan."
"Advanced Detection Function Observes alarming frequency of alteration among the bodies."
"Clarification of present use of "Alteration": Over 50% of the observed bodies have minimal traces of android based tampering. Alteration severity low among the individual bodies as noted by fewer mechanical functions or grafts when compared to normal androids.
"Said bodies exhibit varying state of tension. Some show fear or resistance or awareness of threat, despite lack of wounds. Others do not possess this quality as depicted by the lack of struggle. This observation has no observable patterns in regards to bodies in possession of alterations or not."
""Previously mentioned circumstances effects wide variety of living targets without collateral impact on surrounding environment."

"Suggested Conclusions Compiled!"
"High possibility of the cause of local circumstances being magical in origin.
"High possibility that if the cause of local circumstances is intentional, the agent or agents intended for their intended target or targets, whether object or individual, to remains undamaged."
"Tertiary Possibility: Due to high numbers of android alteration, it is plausible that the local circumstances may have been designed to interact with it. The purpose of said interaction, whether to create alterations or to attack pre-existing alterations cannot be defined with current data."

"Suggested Course of Action: Accquire more data."
"Suggested Means: Search the marketplace. If cause of this disturbance is due to an intentional act of an outside agent, the probability of finding culprits increases due to possibility of looting, regardless of the agent's primary target. Upon finding culprits, subdue and interrogate."
"Additional Consideration: During suggested course of data collection, remain attentive to identities and locations of potential political or high ranking targets of possible agents and the location of their residence or critical possessions to pinpoint next focus of reconnaissance with minimal waste of time and effort."

Ark finally stopped reciting his findings and remained standing erect and silent as Jugan kept his watchful eyes on the surroundings, rather discouraged by the chilling stillness in the atmosphere.

[IHateMakingNames]

The condition of Maris was roughly the worst condition Kole had expected. Dead people everywhere, yet no clear signs of enemies. Meaning that the killers must of course be hiding, waiting to strike again. Clearly, Kole had turned his nerves to max. His katana was already out, ready to slash at anything threatening. The blue mage made sure that he was roughly in the middle of the group, but away from the traitorous Dark Knight as best he could.

No corner, window, roof, ground, or empty space escaped Kole's darting eyes. After suddenly becoming nervous about a particular spot, the over cautious man turned to check. Some drapes from a house's broken window were flapping from the spot Kole thought he was being watched.

"There's some one over there!" Kole yelled out in a panic, ignoring what was going on he pointed his weapon at the window, standing ready to fight.

[mauve]

Corpses and metal shards. Not much of a welcome wagon. Elsa prodded one of the bodies with the blunt end of her scythe. What had been going on in this city?

Ark started talking, but Elsa wasn't really paying attantion. There was something about this place.... She couldn't immediately put her finger on what it was that felt "off." It wasn't the multitude of corpses, strange as they were, it was something... beyond them. Something about the city, or perhaps something within the city. It was difficult to tell. Nothing looked immediately wrong.

Then it dawned on her. It wasn't something she was seeing; it was a feeling. She was getting a definite dark vibe from that place. She wasn't sure how she could have missed it, actually. It was familiar-- it would have been familiar to anyone who served as a Dark Knight. Something in that city was drawing from the powers of darkness, or perhaps had come from beyond this mortal plane, from a much more sinister place.

"Well now, that's quite interesting." she said to herself. "And here I was starting to worry this trip would be boring."

She took a few steps towards the town's main gate, staring intently up at the silent rooftops. She stood there for a long moment.

"Yep," she finally affirmed to herself, nodding in satisfaction. "No doubt about it."

She turned back to the rest of the party. The blue mage seemed preoccupied with something, but Elsa had been too busy with her own thoughts to notice what he had been saying.


"Somethin's alive in there." she inadvertantly confirmed Kole's discovery, then checked herself. "Well, maybe not alive in the traditional sense, but you get the idea." She rested the massive scythe against her shoulder and grinned. "Whatever it is, it's gotten pretty comfortable with the powers of Shadow."

The grin widened.

"Hope no one here gets squeamish easily."

((Info came from Krylo))

[phil_]

Bello had his hands up like a picture frame, squinting at the hospital. "Well, we know that's not where we want to go. Waaaaay to perfect. The hospital has definitely got to be either the place initial clues lead us or where the final conflict happens. Probably in the basement..."

Bello stopped his musing and put his hands down. "I say we ignore Kole and start this ghost story in the merchant's district." It's important that the first person to see the ghost be ignored for proper build up, he thought better than to add. "I have a good feeling we'll either find looters like Ark said or we'll find some quivering, half-mad survivor. Either one's good." Bello may have sounded a bit too excited about that last part.

[Teal Mage]

The group reached Maris sometime in the afternoon. Expression calculating and composed, Arden's green eyes flicked critically over their surroundings, taking in each individual detail in short order, then promptly discarding most of them. Corpses were strewn randomly and without pattern in their path; not at all unexpected, given the circumstance.

They'd barely entered the city limits when Raltz suddenly stopped. "What's this?" The silver haired Red Mage was staring at one of the corpses that lined the road, expression curious. "Hold on." He stated, moving to examine the body. The rest of the group, politely, waited for him.

What followed next was a series of reports as to what the individual members of the group could determine about their situation. Arden listened politely, taking the opportunity to slip a bronze bullet into her gun. She had little to add to the observations. When the conversation began to turn toward how they should continue however, the silver haired woman looked up - expression darkening slowly as the others began to make plans.

"...I say we ignore Kole and," Bello concluded, "start this ghost story in the merchant's district."

"Why the hell would we do that?" Arden asked, breaking her silence suddenly, "We weren't sent here to capture the people responsible," she shot a pointed look at Ark, "assuming they were still here, they clearly are capable of killing an entire town." The White Mage's eyes moved to Raltz, "How they did it is meaningless; magic, poison or-"

She glanced toward the metal implants in one of the nearby bodies.

"-by bringing an army of Androids to do it for them." There was no evidence that all the bodies belonged to the townsfolk, after all. "And their motives aren't relevant to our mission." She crossed her arms, jerking her head in the direction of the Hospital. "We already know what happened to Maris, and I'll remind you all that this place is still as hostile to travellers as when it first went Dark. Let's just get the data we need and get the hell out."

"Now, come on," she turned in the Hospital's direction, "we have to hurry." Arden glanced over her shoulder toward Jhennek, "We'll investigate any buildings - shallowly - on the way. If we find Lucian's body, we'll take the ring. If not, well, the Wagoneer will understand after we explain what we saw."

She took a step forward, before a thought occurred to her. Arden turned back to the others. "Ark, you should probably go first - especially when we're entering buildings. Bello, Jhennek and myself aren't trained to fight in close quarters, so we'll stay in the middle. Raltz, you should probably stay in the back. Elsa, Kole, put yourselves wherever you think you'll be best."

"We do need to keep moving though." Arden gestured in the hospital's direction - obviously not expecting an objection.

[phil_]

Bello crossed his arms. "Fine," he pouted, "be reasonable; see if I care. I guess we can go fight for justice after we get those files at the hospital."

[Menarker]

"...Affirmative."

Ark ran through the results of the responses of his allies and although there were a few conflicting parameters, they were overridden by the majority rule of his data and the voices of his allies. Holding his shield up in front of him with his blade still ready, he took the foremost position ready to breach whatever entrance he would be expected to open for the group.

[Teal Mage]

Feeling her pride swell as Ark took the place she'd directed, Arden tried to hold back - very unprofessional - sense of glee. Thinking quickly, she drew her simple pistol to her face and opened the cartage case - making a show of examining the weapon. Arden clearly remembered slipping the bronze bullet into the gun earlier.

"Fine, be reasonable; see if I care." Crossing his arms, Bello pouted. "I guess we can go fight for justice after we get those files at the hospital."

Half-skirt trailing, Arden approached the small blond man and knelt down - a small redress to their height difference. "We can seek justice," Arden smiled softly, "by getting the data the Council of Four needs to prosecute those responsible for this. We're out of our league here Bello, but by doing our part, we'll set some of this right."

"Besides," She pushed herself up, turning toward the hospital, "if we're not being attacked after we get the files," Arden's gaze slid to Jhen - expression suddenly unreadable, "we have another contract to fulfil."

"Now," Her voice turned firm, "let's get moving you lot!" Arden waved them forward, starting off - leaving Ark in the Vanguard.

Enough discussion!

[Bard The 5th LW]

"I have to agree with... the White Mage, for the most part," Ralts noted as the discussion went on. He still needed to catch her name. "Exploring the city of the damned would certainly be interesting, but there are probably some dead that were better than us. Best to just move on for now, especially if there are still others here like Elsa and Kole say."

"Anyways, lead the way Ark," he said, taking his position at the back of the group.