Location: Abandoned Fort
Interactions: @VitaVitaAR @Conscripts @Krayzikk
No one up here. The guard posts were clean as ever, with no tracks or disturbances. It did clarify some things. No tracks nor signs of intrusions either meaning that it couldn't have been some exceedingly well-coordinated attack. Most importantly however, there weren't any bodies of
guards either. Normally forts like these would have at least a couple lookouts permanently stationed at all times. Even if there was an intrusion from the inside, that wouldn't completely rule out why the walls were completely deserted like this, or why there was only one crazed survivor from whatever went down here.
He jumped down three stairs at a time as he met back up with Steffen and Renar. "A nice view, a check-off list, someone's secret snuff box. No guards though, so either they were recalled for something or got lured into the keep proper. Which means," Lein pulled out a dashed list of guards and ran his finger down the list. It terminated prematurely into a blank list.
"Here. Two days ago. Just about sunset or after; this fellow checked out but there's no one who tapped in for him. 'Less they decided to kick it for the night, whatever happened to the keep must've happened then. But there's fresh blood - either it means there's survivors, or whatever's caused this thing is still in there." Whatever speculation Lein could draw from the fringes, they'd only know for sure if they went in. "I'll dip in and see how's the rest of our folks fare." Lein said, heading toward the strengthening stench of fresh blood.
...
So they go. The three word salute Lein had practiced, honed, swollen in bitter bouts. It was the cultivated carriage of his conscience that had serviced him throughout his travels, a mantra to silence all doubt. Drowned bloated things that sloughed humanity from its bones, desiccated lips that grinned at him in a mockery of the smile just days prior, eyes of glass staring blankly toward the sky. Toes, still twitching as it spun slowly in the air, stained lightly with blood that dripped from bloodied, bruised fingers.
The very first lesson the Hundi ever learned was that the first thing he needed to do before a body was not bury it, but to bury the memory of it. It was never meant to make it easier to stomach what he was seeing. Just made it easier to do what he needed to do. None of what he did allowed him any sympathy for the shapes that were before him, and neither did it allow any of his comrades the same empathy either. Commiseration held no place before praxis.
Lein knelt down and examined the entwined carcasses as he rejoined the main party with Steffen, gingerly pulling apart their swollen wounds with his prosthetic fingers. Sunk their blades into each other in a frenzy even as they had already suffered mortal injuries. Black veins finally started to crawl up through their paling flesh, the desecration of time catching up to the shock that had descended upon this accursed place. These ones were older; the fighting might have started in a single onset, but the end of it lingered for a while yet.
"Killed each other." Lein announced the obvious, though it was harder to get out than he expected. Had they died fighting with their own minds, this would have been far easier.
"Doesn't look organized either; one of these guys tried to use a poker." Lein glanced to the woman standing before them. Too clean and too calm. She was likely neither the culprit nor the victim. That didn't mean friend, either, but Fionn seemed like he had that particular aspect...handled.
The real danger was clear. If the knights didn't have any capability to defend against even a rogue witch bewitching them into a nightmare, they didn't have anything against this kind of spell either.
"Nico - don't have anything for mental attacks, do you? Any way to scout for magic? And Amy..." Lein clicked his tongue. Ah. So that's why Serenity dragged Amy outside. Probably not out of compassion that the Lioness so scarcely dispensed, but to ascertain the cleric's abilities.