Next installment of our reports on the company plotline is below!
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Chapter 2
Some suns after the funeral, Helia and P'etri informed the rest of the Jackals that the Alchemist Guild had finished their analysis. The ashes were the remains of a hyur, not a lalafell, and mixed with a combination of dried voidsent blood, the powdered claws of some sort of creature and a sprinkling of fire shard fragments. Helia was certain they were spell components, most likely for a curse, and she and P'etri headed off to Coerthas to seek counsel.
In the meantime, Inarah had managed to get a lead on whoever had sent the funeral invitations. Tracking the man down to a back alley in Limsa, she found him, but he was no more than a bloated corpse lying face down in a shallow puddle of water. The stench of rotten eggs hung in the air and her ears flattened from a buzzing noise that, whilst so faint as to be almost imperceptible, was relentless. Not thinking too hard on it, as death wasn't an uncommon sight in a big city, she shrugged it off and chased up another lead.
This one led her to the Silver Bazaar in Thanalan and she brought Thara along to investigate. The pair of Seekers found the man's home empty yet there was the same buzzing sound and sulfuric fetor Inarah had encountered with the Limsan lead. Inarah scouted the roof of the building and, in the distance, saw a faint light glowing at the nearby pier. With no other clues to go on, the two miqo'te headed down to the docks.
As they approached the pier, the light winked out and a streak of white appeared a few fulms from the water's surface before vanishing with a loud splash into the sea. The women cautiously moved to the edge and discovered a corpse matching the description of their lead.
With the stench of sulfur and incessant buzzing growing, a flash of darkness seemed to not quite steal all light from the world, but invert it, with black becoming white. The Seekers saw the man's body no longer face down in the water but hovering in the air and, more horrifying still, bearing the faces of their respective mothers - both long departed. The water around them turned into an ocean of white flame and the sky a vortex of, not black, but the total absence of light and colour. All of this, for a split second, with the buzzing a deafening roar in their ears.
The nightmarish scene disappeared and the pair stared in stunned silence for several moments. When they collected themselves, Thara decided they should inspect the corpse still floating in the water and Inarah reluctantly helped her drag it onto the dock. The dark skinned Seeker, remaining cool and calm in the face of Inarah's fretting, conducted her investigation. The poor sod's chest was hollowed out and filled with various rubbish, but also a handful of gems - the same sort of gems the Jackals had stolen from Papusashu's mansion. As realisation dawned upon the blonde miqo'te and she backed away in horror, there was a skittering sound on the other side of the dock. That was the last straw; Inarah raced back to the Silver Bazaar, leaving Thara alone with the corpse.
The pair converged shortly after Inarah's display of cowardice, both disturbed by the night's events but otherwise safe. As they made the journey back home to Limsa, they explained what had happened to the others over the pearl. None could make much sense of it but the company was now certainly on their guard.
Chapter 2
Some suns after the funeral, Helia and P'etri informed the rest of the Jackals that the Alchemist Guild had finished their analysis. The ashes were the remains of a hyur, not a lalafell, and mixed with a combination of dried voidsent blood, the powdered claws of some sort of creature and a sprinkling of fire shard fragments. Helia was certain they were spell components, most likely for a curse, and she and P'etri headed off to Coerthas to seek counsel.
In the meantime, Inarah had managed to get a lead on whoever had sent the funeral invitations. Tracking the man down to a back alley in Limsa, she found him, but he was no more than a bloated corpse lying face down in a shallow puddle of water. The stench of rotten eggs hung in the air and her ears flattened from a buzzing noise that, whilst so faint as to be almost imperceptible, was relentless. Not thinking too hard on it, as death wasn't an uncommon sight in a big city, she shrugged it off and chased up another lead.
This one led her to the Silver Bazaar in Thanalan and she brought Thara along to investigate. The pair of Seekers found the man's home empty yet there was the same buzzing sound and sulfuric fetor Inarah had encountered with the Limsan lead. Inarah scouted the roof of the building and, in the distance, saw a faint light glowing at the nearby pier. With no other clues to go on, the two miqo'te headed down to the docks.
As they approached the pier, the light winked out and a streak of white appeared a few fulms from the water's surface before vanishing with a loud splash into the sea. The women cautiously moved to the edge and discovered a corpse matching the description of their lead.
With the stench of sulfur and incessant buzzing growing, a flash of darkness seemed to not quite steal all light from the world, but invert it, with black becoming white. The Seekers saw the man's body no longer face down in the water but hovering in the air and, more horrifying still, bearing the faces of their respective mothers - both long departed. The water around them turned into an ocean of white flame and the sky a vortex of, not black, but the total absence of light and colour. All of this, for a split second, with the buzzing a deafening roar in their ears.
The nightmarish scene disappeared and the pair stared in stunned silence for several moments. When they collected themselves, Thara decided they should inspect the corpse still floating in the water and Inarah reluctantly helped her drag it onto the dock. The dark skinned Seeker, remaining cool and calm in the face of Inarah's fretting, conducted her investigation. The poor sod's chest was hollowed out and filled with various rubbish, but also a handful of gems - the same sort of gems the Jackals had stolen from Papusashu's mansion. As realisation dawned upon the blonde miqo'te and she backed away in horror, there was a skittering sound on the other side of the dock. That was the last straw; Inarah raced back to the Silver Bazaar, leaving Thara alone with the corpse.
The pair converged shortly after Inarah's display of cowardice, both disturbed by the night's events but otherwise safe. As they made the journey back home to Limsa, they explained what had happened to the others over the pearl. None could make much sense of it but the company was now certainly on their guard.
