Fate of the Elders

Jonah spends what little time he has between patients to inquire after the fate of the Elder Dorn, Elder Torst, and Elder Rory.

Additionally, he makes an attempt to speak with Vorik, whenever possible.

I would be known via rumor that someone had pulled out two charred bodies from the offices inside of the Town Hall, as well as a few other bodies of what looked like guards. Neither of the bodies would have been recognizable. Perhaps they were two of the Elders, perhaps they weren't. No one knows for sure as of right now.

Commander Vorik seems to have survived. Luckily, he was not on the list of injured and he seems fully capable to speak with people. However, his main priority seems to be determining how best to place the troops and raise morale. It may be a day or so before he has a chance to speak with Jonah.

In the meantime, when Jonah was seen weeping in front of the hospital, a hand would gently rest on his shoulder and give a soft squeeze. Jonah would see Father Gregory standing there with him.

Jonah seems to draw some comfort from Father Gregory just being around. He does not weep for long, but weep he must, for a time. He does not cry for the building, but for what it represents.

Drawing a deep breath, Jonah heads for the Town Center to see what else he might help with. The Hospital still stands; bent, broken, and burned as it is. Not unlike Ilmater, and not unlike himself.

. . . and then the donations came pouring in.

Jonah had posted a notice begging for alms, but the response has been overwhelming. Hundreds of thousands of gold pieces gifted toward rebuilding the Hospital. And rebuilt it shall be: better, and stonger than before.

And just like that, the Hospital no longer seemed lost to him. It was suddenly unbowed, unbeant, unbroken. Not unlike Ilmater, and not unlike himself...

In the following days, Jonah attempts to locate the charred bodies pulled from the government building, and tries to identify them. The fate of The Elders must be determined, else Shadowdale is likely to end up with a new host of problems...

The Captain would find Commander Vorik. "Commander" he salutes "The town holds yet the men are shaken. I have done all I can to prevent dessertion in the ranks. Our leadership is unaccounted for and vicious rumors have already begun. What are your orders?"

DeepFriedMoose wrote:

In the following days, Jonah attempts to locate the charred bodies pulled from the government building, and tries to identify them. The fate of The Elders must be determined, else Shadowdale is likely to end up with a new host of problems...

The bodies are heavily charred almost beyond recognition. As Jonah did his best to study them and find what information he could, he'd note the following:

- There was no metal melted into the bodies. With this being seen, it could be concluded that it wasn't a guard in armor. The clothing that was burned into the body seems basic, so it couldn't not have been leather or any sort of chainmail either.

- They seemed to fit the same general height of the Elders.

- They are indeed males based on the hip structure of the bones.

- What appears to be a pendant is melted into the bones around the chest of one of them. It could be made out to be a symbol of Chauntea.

With all of this information, Jonah could come to the conclusion that these were no guards nor members of militia. Either they were citizens within the Town Hall at night for whatever reason, or they are indeed two of three of the Elders.

The third one has still not been found.

FFSDave wrote:

The Captain would find Commander Vorik.  "Commander" he salutes "The town holds yet the men are shaken.  I have done all I can to prevent dessertion in the ranks.  Our leadership is unaccounted for and vicious rumors have already begun.  What are your orders?"

The Commander seemed extremely busy, and upon seeing the Captain, he lets out a sigh of relief and nods to him. "A f-few of them have s-spoken of your sp-speech. Th-thank you f-for that. See wh-what you c-can about k-keeping posts switched out and m-making sure the s-soldiers do n-not g-get exhausted. W-we'll figure out about the Elders wh-when we can."

He stepped over to Wester and put his hand on his shoulder, speaking very, very softly into his ear. "It d-does n-not look good." He then steps back and salutes him. "Until w-we find th-them, I'll take c-command so t-there are n-no questions. Anyone with c-concerns th-that need to speak t-to leadership c-can be referred t-to L-erion Athr-rakar. He's s-stepped f-forward to help w-with these k-kinds of th-things."

He gives Wester a general description of Lerion ((ADM Popcorn NPC)) and sends him on his way.

Jonah wakes in a cold sweat, startled awake by something fading quickly from memory in the darkness of the inn. Something had been overlooked in his initial findings, and he was certain of it.

In the early hours of the morning, Jonah visits those he firmly believes to be the Elders, in repose at the House of Plenty. He sits with the pair for a while, trying to remember what it was he is meant to be looking for. Wracking his brain, he decides to simply start from scratch again, and begins his investigation on a clean slate. His thoroughness is rewarded early on.

What first appeared to be superficial cuts and scrapes suffered during the chaos of that evening are revealed to go much deeper than first suspected. Jonah slips the thin, polished metal probe, and his face falls as the probe dissappears into the wound. Taking careful measurements, and writing down his results, he quickly sketches out a wound profile with the same length, width and sharpness of a sudden dagger-blow! A list of suspects springs to mind. The angle, location and depth of the sound also seem to suggest that the attack was a surprise to the esteemed Elder -- the list of suspects suddenly shortens by a great deal...

A sudden dagger in the dark... A fire to cover the evidence... This was no simple raid by an undead army.

Jonah steals away from the crypt with haste -- Captain Wester and Commander Vorik must be told of this !

Doing a little snooping of his own, the ex Purple Dragon Knight almost runs into Jonah as he exits the crypts. And looks back the way he had come from with his typical, emotionless expression.

"Is there a problem, sir? You seem to be in a rush."

He looks once more to where Jonah came from to see the bodies of the elders and asks:

"Have you examined the bodies yet? And did you find something...unusual?"

Suddenly startled at finding another living person down here, Jonah examines the grim figure standing in the gloaming between him and the way out. He turns his head a bit as if to glance behind him, but does not take his eyes off the man in front of him.

"I... Yes. I performed an examination on the bodies. Their identities are still uncertain, though. Nothing conclusive..."

He takes a cautious step back. His being approached here of all places, and by a stranger has him suspicious, if not outright paranoid.

"Have we met before?"

"I believe we have spoken at the fire pit. But so many go there that I can not be certain if that is where it was that I remember you from."

He straightens a bit and clears his throat>

"Forgive my manners...it has been a tiring few weeks. I am Alistair Dunscon. I am a fairly new militia recruit and had wished to do some investigating of the bodies and their...condition. It would save me time if we could speak on your findings rather than me disturbing the dead further."

((I can try and meet up with you in game if you'd like. Kinda busy the last week or so, but can always pop on for a IC chat ))

((Let's keep it rolling here, and if we run into one another in-game, all the better!  My schedule is all over the place for the time being, between work and guests.))

Jonah nods to the militiaman in greeting with the same reserved apprehension as before.  After a moment of thought, he lets the tension go, and relaxes a bit.

"It is I who should apologize -- I'm not usually a suspicious person by nature, but perhaps you'll understand better in a moment.  My name is Jonah, Faithful of Ilmater.  I was tasked with examining bodies taken from the fire in the governmental building to try and identify them.

He glances back at the pair laying on the cold stone slab, and sighs. "I strongly suspect that those two are two of our three remaining Elders, though there will be no way to really prove so.  What's worse, when I examined them a second time just now, I found what look like dagger-wounds in their backs and sides, respectively."  Jonah opens his book with the wounds sketched out to their approximate dimensions.

"This wasn't an attack on the town -- it was an assassination."

The tall man listens intently. At the end he merely nods.

"I have an...informant...who claims the two are, indeed, the elders. He also claims they were killed before the fire and in the manner your findings suggest. My informant is not exactly the most...stable. So I had wished to check his story myself."

He looks at the sketch and with the faintest hint of irritation or, perhaps, anger.

"Be wary of who you report the findings to, sir. Assassinations are typically political, so I would caution you to avoid such people. I would suggest only the two of us, the commander, and the captain be made aware of your findings until we have more information."

With that, he moves his armored figure from the man's path so he may pass.

Jonah nods, a bit nervous, even now. "Thank you for your discretion, Master Duncson. I was just on my way to inform the both of them about my findings."

He shuffles past the former Dragon Knight, tucking his journal under his arm.

"I am unsure what to do after informing the Captain and Commander... Political machinations are quite beyond what I am used to dealing with. If you have any parting advice, I would certainly welcome it."

Jonah looks to Ailistair with concern, and not a small amount of gratitude.

((sorry for the delay...been super busy the last few days ))

He nods to Jonah.

"Inform the commander and captain, then keep you findings secret for now. I will try and get a meeting with the two to discuss my information now that your work has confirmed at least some of the report."

He smiles without emotion and adds:

"Once again, you have my thanks for performing this grisly part of the investigation. I am much more accustomed to inflicting wounds than searching for their signs afterwards."

((Completely understood, my friend))

Jonah bows politely; "I trust that you will do the same, Master Alistair. I'm off to find the Captain and Commander at once."

He nods at the mention of "this grisly part of the investigation", and it seems that he is more accustomed to such things, himself.  He shuffles off into the dark, lantern held high.

With due haste, he attempts to locate Commander Vorik, and also Captain Wester.

The Captain would be found at the Tentacus keep where he has taken up a more permanent residence. He spends most of his time attending to militia administration duties but on this occasion he would clearly be seen on the keeps eastern wall watching over the town.

A polite knock, followed by a quick entrance mark Jonah's arrival.

"Forgive me for barging in, Captain. I have grave news concerning the fates of the Elders." Jonah quickly recaps his new findings, and shows Captain Wester the pages he had detailed his findings in. "It would appear that the Elders were murdered, and I'm convinced that the fire, and perhaps even the attack on the town itself was simply a diversion and attempt to conceal the assassination."

"I met another in the crypt that also has reason to believe that these are in fact the missing Elders, and he seemed unsurprised that they would be assassinated."

The breeze atop the wall is crisp. Wester forgoes the formalities of simple greetings and faces Jonah listening to his finding's. He looks away, back toward the town and folds his hands behind his back.

"I am not surprised either, there have been several attempts on their lives. For some time during the winter season they went into hiding and the town fell under martial law. This was inevitable, yet they ignored our concerns for their safety."

He crooks his neck to look at Jonah. "Your findings are..." He trails off then readies himself. "Come with me, we must inform the Commander immediately. There may be more to this than meets the eye." He would leave and head toward the town looking for the commander.

Jonah folds his sleeves against the wind, and turns his back against the chill.

"I was unaware that previous attempts had been made on their lives. I wonder who might be responsible..."

He nods as the Captain suggests finding the Commander, and follows Wester off the wall to try and find him.

It would not take long for the two to find the Commander. He would be easily seen at the training grounds working with some new recruits. He seems tired and troubled, but his actions towards the new recruits and their training is relaxed and patient.

"Commander" He'd salute.  "The healer Jonah has brought information about the deaths of Torst and Rory that you should know about." Gestures for Jonah to show the Commander the written findings. "I feel that there is more to this than just another assassination attempt that we failed to stop. For the longest time we have been preparing ourselves in defense against the undead. The latest attack reduced us to less than half our number and with another assault like that we fall. That's an unquestionable fact. Yet they don't attack. Nothing comes. Why?"

"Because we are bait. Why destroy us for a small number of troops when you can use us and bleed us dry! I believe this assassination attempt is linked. My reasoning comes from the last words I got from Xyrmoria's vampiric messenger after rescuing Dorn. 'This is a gift'. What I am getting at is this. To use and control us first they remove our leadership and plant one of their own among us. Right at the top level so they know everything that is going on. I think Dorn may be a plant. I don't believe he is undead, too easily detected and Icarus had the blessing of detect undead when we rescued him. But there may be other magics at play."

"I pray that I am wrong about this, but if it is true we should not reveal ourselves or our suspicion just yet."

Jonah offers his notes to the Commander as well, and listens to Wester as he gives his own take on the situation, nodding along with him at certain parts.

"I agree with the Captain. Getting Dorn back, and having him be the only source of authority is dangerous. I am unsure what role he might have had in all this -- it may be that he is a victim as much as the rest of this town.

"Has anyone examined Elder Dorn for any kind of influencing magics?"

The Commander looks over the notes, reading them over as the two speak to him. The weary look on his face deepens, creases of the beginnings of wrinkles showing more at the corner of his eyes.

"I've kn-known Elder Dorn since I was b-but a child. The m-man is not c-c-capable of such atrocities, especially against those he wo-worked with. Even if we d-disagreed with the other Elders' decisions, we b-both respected them."

He hand raises to his temples and he massages them briefly, thinking of the best next course of action.

"I would imagine he had b-been checked over after he and the other guard were f-f-found within the cell. However, I can not c-confirm for sure if he's been examined or not. I advise taking caution in d-doing so, however. He d-doesn't take to such inquiries well. Since the Tsochar attack, he's been examined, c-cross examined, and looked over time and time again to m-make sure the worm infesting him had left. D-do not take it p-personal or think ill of him if he gets upset w-with whomever checks him."

Vorik looks to Jonah now.

"Are you able t-to examine him? Or is s-someone on your hospital s-staff c-capable? If n-not, I c-can have a B-battlemage assist."

Raises his hand "Maybe am not getting through to either of you?"  his tone becomes serious "If you go straight to examining him, discover I am right and their is magic at play then remove it, what do you think our enemy will do?"  He grimaces "We could force them into an end game situation where we are too much trouble to be used as bait and they decide to wipe us out."

"Hear me out.  If you are going to examine him you'll have to do it without him knowing.  If you discover any magic's at play and they are controlling him then do not do anything to remove it.   Let them believe they are control and we can work around it.  If it turns out am wrong and you do it quietly no harm done."

"As you say Commander, he has been poked and prodded enough after the Tsochar problem."