Roland sat at rough wooden table in the back of the boar’s tusk tavern which was located on the eastern side of Sodom City. The entire city was a dirty place, where the most wretched components of society gathered to escape the reaches of more lawful territories. That’s not to say there were laws here, after all murder, rape, and arson were strictly prohibited, often punishable by death, but even that required one to be caught practically red handed. So it was no surprise to Roland, that this city is where his current quest had taken him too. After all, he was hunting a player killer this time around, and Sodom was the only major city not considered a safe zone. The information he was given on the quest was sparse to say the least, more or less he was simply advised there was a string of murders in the dark alleyways of the city. The only connection? Each of the murders was a player character. Despite his protest he was assured he had to take a partner with the mission, as such he received their player name and asked that they meet with her somewhere within the city.

The player’s name was Amane Hirota, it wasn’t one he recognized. Not that it was a bad thing, per say, he often worked with many different people and teams in the past. However, for something as sensitive as tracking down a player killer he would have liked to know what kind of person he had been assigned too. Would they be willing to put the player hunter down if need be? Or would they insist on taking them back alive? The lack of knowledge was foreboding but luckily Roland was equipped with dealing with whomever he had been assigned too, “Except the one witch girl,” He thought amusingly. Once he had received her name, he had sent her a brief message.

Roland

@Amane Hirota

It seems we have both picked up on the same mission. Meet me at the Boar’s Tusk tavern in Sodom sometime around sunset tomorrow.

PS: We seem to be short on information, I’ll try to do some digging, you might want to consider doing the same thing.

Once he had sent the message he had headed straight here, investigating the town and picking a few possible leads. However, the biggest piece of information was one he was likely going to keep to himself. He had learned, on one of the forums, that the player killings were somehow related to the real world hacktivist group Deadsoft. In fact, it was this information that had led him to the quest in the first place. His mind twirled as it tried to connect the dots, “What could deadsoft want with player killings?” It didn’t make sense, and may not have even been true, but it was worth investigating. After all they had contacted him about this game in the first place, he’d best try and figure out why before it became an issue.

Sitting alone in the dim light of the grungy bar Roland pondered this for quite a while as he waited for his teammate to appear.

 

A relatively new player, Amane was unfamiliar with the city of Sodom, having stuck more to be beginners' area of Brisshal and Stokbon, and occasionally venturing out to the neighbouring zones when quests called for it. If its name wasn't enough to warn her away, it's reputation certainly was, and she wasn't the type who tempted fate by entering an area that clearly out-levelled her by miles. With the defeat of the recent world boss though, she'd finally managed to accumulate enough MP to invest into her masteries, and along with obtaining level-appropriate gear, at long last the felis felt like she was ready to face the more dangerous — and thrilling — aspects of the game.

Walking along the city's streets, she wasn't quite able to suppress the almost instinctive wrinkling of her nose as she passed by a particularly decrepit area, the homeless and lawless loitering along the buildings that bordered either side. The bricks beneath her platform sandals were thick with grime, and she hurried along, eager to leave the area. Unlike other cities, she heard Sodom wasn't a safe zone, and from the minute she stepped foot into it shivers have been crawling up her spine, like she expected to be mugged at any moment. To be honest, if the state of the city's laws were any like the state of its buildings and residents, she suspected that her fears might become a very real possibility.

Still, she was the one who decided to take on such a mission, despite the briefing very clearly stating that, not only does it take place in Druuk Island, but it was a Player Killer that they would be hunting down. If anything happened and she overestimated the strength of her own abilities, well, she'd only have herself to blame. Suddenly, she was thankful that the mission parameters required a minimum of two people. Though she knew nothing of her partner, one Roland Rutledge, the succinct — not to mention bossy — message that she had received led her to believe that, at least out of the two of them, one person was confident and knowledgable in what to do.

She'd arrived in the city a few hours before sunset, and spent her time asking the various players around if they've heard of the killer, or better yet, if they've encountered them or have been a victim themselves. She'd even resorted to asking the NPCs if they've witnessed anything suspicious, but in a place such as this people were either unwilling to spill information to an outsider without incentives that Amane couldn't provide, or had nothing to spill, for actions that would raise a few eyebrows at least in the other zones seem to be common fare in Sodom, and another killer didn't seem to stand out in the least.

With the sun now low on the horizon, empty-handed she hastened down to the Boar's Tusk tavern, pushing open the door to the sight of a rather grubby room. Lifting two fingers to her forehead, she quickly identified Roland as the the man sitting alone at the bar. "Hello. I'm Amane," she called out, walking over to take the seat beside the other player. When she was sure that she was out of earshot of the other patrons in the tavern, she lowered her voice. "I hope you've found something about the PKer, because I've got nothing," she admitted, giving her partner a rather embarrassed smile.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge

 

Sitting back in his chair, Roland stared at the ceiling of the tavern, taking in its husky aroma. He had gotten here early on purpose, he didn’t like to be the second one to arrive and normally didn’t mind waiting. However, something about this mission had him on edge, and he anxiously tapped his foot against the oaken floor. Just then a new arrival made her way through the door, tapping her fingers to her temple and entering into investigation mode as she did so. Roland didn’t need to do so to know her player name, it was Amane, she stuck out like a sore thumb in the dingy tavern. Or more appropriately she stuck out like a flower among on weeds, which was perfect. Sometimes the best ways of blending in was sticking out in your own way.

Roland observed her as she whisked her way through the bar, approaching him with a rather nonchalance and introducing herself, before taking her seat beside him.

"I hope you've found something about the PKer, because I've got nothing," She said with a demure smile.

Roland scratched his chin, cracking a wily grin, “I picked up a thing or two” he replied in a low whisper as he reached out his hand, “The name’s Roland, a pleasure to meet you Amane.” He knew that she would already be aware of it of course, but sometimes manners just dictated an introduction. Glancing over he noticed the bar tender nodding at him. He had asked for privacy earlier, slipping the man a gold coin as payment. It seemed the barkeep had misunderstood the reasons why, which worked in their favor. Turning back towards to Amane he flashed her a charming smile as he tried to assess her ability. She wasn’t wearing starting equipment, which was good. More importantly it seemed her kimono was considered light armor meaning she was primarily a spell caster which was a good compliment to Roland’s own swordsmanship. Other than that he had a hard time placing her disposition, he’d need to figure that out, but it was best to start with what he’d gathered.

Roland leaned forward slightly so he could speak in a low tone and be easily heard, “Well I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, given the occurrences being so sporadic it’s a good chance our target is working alone. From what I gathered the target normally goes after lower level player characters wandering the streets alone, never attacking more than one individual a night. The bad news is, none of the victims have ever seen the target. They state that one moment they were heading somewhere, and the next their health started plummeting to zero. Those with pain sensors working fully stated all they felt was a dull ache at the back of their skull.” Roland leaned back scratching the back of his head, “Best I can figure it’s likely some sort of spell that drains their stamina and health, but to be honest I have no spell casting abilities so that’s just a wild guess.”

With a shrug, he leaned forward again speaking in a hushed tone, “I need to know, before we plan anything. What are you capable of doing? I don’t mean in terms of mastery, well actually I probably need to know that too, but that’s not what I mean. What I mean is, are you willing to kill this player killer if it comes down to it?” Roland let the question hang in the air as he looked at her with a discerning glare.

@Amane Hirota

 

Taking Roland's hand in her own, she cracked a matching grin. "Likewise." As Roland scrutinised her, no doubt trying to judge and rank her own ability, Amane took the opportunity to observe him in turn. His gear marked him as a veteran player, no doubt about it, and several pieces, if she wasn't wrong, looked like they came from the world boss Arachna herself. He must have pretty strong skills, she figured, in order to amass that much valor. Which meant that he probably outstripped her in both masteries and gear, for even if she had chosen to pick some armour from the boss' loot, she wouldn't have the necessary skills to equip them regardless. A veteran player, perhaps? Or maybe just a very skilled, not to mention dedicated, gamer.

Not that she was complaining, if anything having a powerful partner would only aid in the quest. In fact, Amane would have been more worried about her own suitability, if she'd hadn't priorly invested everything she had into her healing; guaranteeing that, while she wouldn't be the most versatile, at least a branch of her magic would be up to par. And, judging by Roland's medium armour, he was probably one who favoured the martial masteries over the magic ones, providing an excellent enough counterpart to Amane's own Illumancy that the felis was almost surprised that she managed to get such a partner from a pick up group. Then again, she has been lucky with those so far.

Listening carefully as Roland debriefed her with everything that he'd gathered, Amane committed the words to memory with the same fervor that she employed in lectures and lessons. As she didn't manage to contribute anything of her own, she figured the least she could do was to pay attention. "A solo killer, huh," she speculated when he was done. "Then, as a group of two we should be quite safe, especially since neither of us look like newbies ourselves. For the spell, it sounds like it could be Malefimancy. I mean, it could be Felmagic and maybe Demonomancy as well, but if the killer is only going after newer players, than I doubt they've the required mastery points for an advanced one, or we'll be seeing a lot more veteran player deaths.

"But again, I could be wrong," she said, shrugging, an abashed grin on her face. "Not sure if you've noticed, but I'm not really the type who's well-versed in dark magics herself." As she spoke, she gestured to the colourful, almost flamboyant ensemble that she wore. "And there's always the chance that it's something science-based, or what this game passes for science, like some special alchemy poison or something."

When Roland leaned forward, Amane was slightly ashamed that her first, barely suppressed instinct was to lean away, in order to put some measure of distance between them. She supposed he was quite attractive, with a face and eyes that anime fans would describe as bishounen. Still, she knew this was hardly the time for thoughts such as this. Roland's next question, however, shocked her enough to banish all prior thoughts from her mind, and she narrowly managed to keep herself from staring dumbly at him, a stupefied expression frozen on her face.

"My masteries are Arcanamancy, Illumancy, and Astramancy," she answered absentmindedly, on a sort of autopilot as her mind raced over the more abhorrent question that was posed to her. Amane wanted to immediately deny, that of course she wasn't going to kill the player, serial killer or not, but Roland's solemn gaze implored her to properly consider her answer. Could she kill someone? NPCs, she thought she might be able to manage, for no matter how advanced an AI they had, they still weren't the same as other humans. But a player? Unwillingly, she remembered a rain of lethal projectiles, of blinding agony, of a monstrous creature on a rampage, bodies scattered and players brought low in its wake. Could she subject someone else to the same?

...But the killer, too, was no innocent. If it meant saving someone else from that pain, perhaps she could bring herself to commit such a crime. "...If it was absolutely neccesary," she said at last, slowly, staring Roland in the eyes with a steady gaze in a bid to convince him of her own sincerity. "...I'll like to think I could." Thinking that she could do it and actually following through were vastly different things, she knew, and Amane supposed time would tell if she was truly able to commit the act.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge . A bit of a subpar post I'm afraid (writing at 3am does that to you xD), but I didn't want to make you wait for another 7 hours or so while I slept. Sorry about that!

 

Roland’s lips dipped into a frown for a microsecond before he forced himself to smile despite the girl’s answer, “Well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” He meant the words too, but only because he’d be afraid for her if she hesitated. Often the difference between life and death lied in a decision you had only a moment to make. He tried to push the thought away and move on but it nagged him too much to let it go without saying, “…but if it does” he said taking a serious tone once more, “Just remember, hesitation can kill.” Still the girl’s response bugged him, it wasn’t that unexpected, but it was just such a soft answer. “I’ll have to be careful on how I handle this.” Roland thought to himself before he shook the thought away.

Leaning back in his chair Roland visibly relaxed as he shifted topics, “But, Arcanamancy, Illumancy, and Astramancy, huh? I see, I’ll be honest with you my abilities are purely swordsmanship and as such I don’t know too much about the different magic classes. So I will be relying on you on the magic front, if you think alchemic poisons are a possibility its worth investigating.” At that he tapped his chin as considered their options out loud, “As far as our next move goes, to be honest I’m out of ideas. If it were a normal mugging situation, I’d say one of us could act as bait while the other trails them, but given the fact that we don’t know the killing method I would say this is likely a bad idea.” He paused as a familiar face walked in the door. It was a smaller Feris about 13 years of age who scanned the interior of the tavern as he fidgeted nervously with his overalls. Roland cracked a smile, “I forgot to mention I had hired a few of the orphans I saw in the streets to keep an eye out, it looked like one found something.”

Roland pushed himself up from the bar heading towards the gaunt child with a smile, “Looking for me I hope?” He asked in a jovial tone.

The Feris child’s eyes lit up in recognition of Roland and immediately began to let out a barley incomprehensible torrent of words, “Hi there mister! We just saw something happen, just like you said watch out for adventurer walking alone and suddenly falling all on their own. Well we just saw one. Well I didn’t, Bairen did. Well I saw the body, but Barien said he saw him fall down. I told him to come with us but he’s scared. But Im not scared I said we can get a gold if we see that happen. I remember what you said. Come here to this tavern and look for you. Sure enough here I am.” The boy suddenly stopped his barrage of words looking at Roland expectantly.

Roland dug a coin out from his pocket, handing it to the child asking him to lead the way before turning back to Amane with a sly grin, “No hesitation, right?” He didn’t wait for a response, bursting through the door after the teenage cat person who had run to a nearby street. As he left, he waved his hands sending a party invitation to Amane.

Invite

Roland Rutledge has invited you to their party. Accept?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It turned out that Rolly, the teenage Feris, led them relatively nearby through the twisting back streets of Sodom. The weather had turned sour while Roland had been in the tavern, and now rain steadily drizzled down upon them. Crashing through the small puddles that collected in the paved roads they arrived at their intended location. Sure enough a female player’s body laid face down on uneven pavement stones before them, a small puddle of blood forming around the girl's head. Roland pulled out another coin pushing it towards Rolly, “Here, take this to your friend,” and sending the boy on his way.

Roland crouched next to the corpse, tapping his temple with his index finger as he did so, causing his investigation mode to kick on. This highlighted a variety of things within Roland’s immediate field of vision (As well as any one in his party). What they saw was as follows:

• The body of Liara Strum (human), a younger avatar around the apparent age of 20 with a height of about 5’5 and short blond hair. Gear indicated the player was relatively new. She had received a head wound while falling.
• A small pool of blood around the head of Liara, not enough to be lethal
• A broken bottle with a foreign label nearby
• A ring grasped in Liara’s hand
• A copper dagger at Liara’s waist, unused.

With a frown, Roland stood up investigating the immediate area. It was a long alley way with one or two small enclaves that were not large enough to hide much more than a rat. The only two doors were bolted shut and led to abandoned buildings. The buildings themselves were about three stories high, but none seemed to have windows facing the alley. “Well,” Roland asked pensively, “Any ideas?”

@Amane Hirota

 

"I wouldn't hesitate," she promised, inwardly praying that this was one that she wouldn't unwittingly break. "If it came down to us, or the killer, I can kill him." I think, Amane thought, I hope I can. Every fibre of her being was repulsed at the thought of murdering someone — sure, this game wasn't real, and death wasn't anything permanent, not for a player character, at any rate, but it certainly seemed like it. Terrasphere captured combat in a startling level of realism, from monsters charring up at a Pyromancy spell, to spilling the guts of a creature when fought in close combat with a one handed slash weapon. Thankfully, the creatures she had encountered so far were all monstrous and vile appearance-wise, so attacking them didn't stir up any instinctual feelings of pity, not like attacking an adorable rabbit would have, for example. Imagining a faceless player's head exploding from an Arcanamancy spell that Amane herself would cast, on the other hand, incited a strong bout of nausea.

She stared curiously at the child that entered, his age a strange sight in the dingy bar. Shooting Roland a glance, she had to admit, hiring orphans was an incredibly smart decision. Few people would suspect children of ratting out information, and to the residents here, these homeless kids must be little more than background — countless numbers of them all minding their own business. If they weren't NPCs, Amane reckoned she would feel rather guilty, for using orphans like this. Still, she supposed this must be a source of income for them. "Thanks kid," she told the child, smiling softly in what she hoped was a welcoming manner.

Accepting the party invitation request that had appeared in her UI, Amane followed the both of them out of the bar, scowling as she was immediately pelted by rain. By the time they reached the location that Rolly had wanted to show them, her hair was sticking to her nape in fat clumps, her gear drenched all over, the silken outfit not handling the water too well. When she nearly tripped for the third time, her geta sliding on the sleek stone pavement, Amane had half a mind to voice a complaint, but bit back the urge. Whining wouldn't have solved anything, and Roland was still a new enough acquaintance that she daren't risk a bad impression.

Turning into an alleyway, there the body was, lying face down on ground, diluted blood running in rivulets to the side. Amane swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable in a manner that didn't have anything to do with the rain. This wasn't the first time she had come face to face with a corpse, but during the boss fight...well, she hadn't the time to pay much attention then. Tearing her gaze away from the dead player, she offered the boy another coin when Roland did. "Here, thanks for helping us," she said to child. He could probably put that gold to much better use than anything she could possibly spend it on. Maybe it'll go towards feeding him and his friend.

Panels of information suddenly appeared all over her interface, no doubt Roland's work, and Amane swiftly scanned through them. "Well, she's obviously a dagger user," the felis speculated, thinking quickly. "The ring could be an accessory, but unless Liara took up Magical Tools along with 1-handed slash, its probably not hers, especially since people typically wear the accessories that they plan to use, rather than hold them. Perhaps its this killer's signature? Like those serial killers you see in crime shows, who leave behind something as a calling card." All those late night reruns were paying off, helping her make logical connections that she otherwise would never have thought of. The bottle stumped her though.

"I'm not sure why the wine bottle is there," Amane admitted. "It looks like she was carrying it, and it shattered on impact when she fell. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't buy a bottle of wine that expensive looking here, so she probably brought it in from some nearby city. Why she would bring it here is anyone's guess, though."

She casted a look around the place, taking note that there didn't seem to be many hiding places around for the killer to have sniped Liara. "Maybe the killer creeped up on her from behind," Amane suggested, "Or they could have been on the roofs?" She added, eyeing the abandoned buildings on either side.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge

 

Tapping his chin, Roland considered the situation silently for several minutes as the rain began to pass leaving them in a gloomy overcast haze. Deciding to check through the clues one more, he approached the broken bottle, picking out the piece still attached to the label. It was in a foreign language he couldn’t understand, but as far as he could ascertain, Amane’s statement of it being a wine bottle was accurate. With a grimace he tried to look for any split contents nearby the bottle, finding none, determining whenever this bottle was dropped it was empty. In a quick gesture, Roland pocketed the label before putting the glass back down. Moving back to the dead girl, he pulled the ring from the girl’s hand inspecting it closer. “Hum,” he said solemnly, “There’s an inscription on the inside, it says, 'For my friend Liara.'” Standing up he began to brush himself off with one hand, as he held out the ring for Amane’s inspection with the other. A couple possible scenarios were beginning to tumble around in his head, forcing him to look upward

“I don’t think they were up above, “ Roland said out loud suddenly, “That would require a great deal of pre-mediation of knowing a solo character would walk through this specific alleyway, or a lot of waiting for one to do so. Not to mention at that height it would be hard to tell if the person was a NPC or a player, much less their level. Don’t get me wrong, it’s possible, but I think you’re earlier guess was more likely.” As he spoke he pointed at the remains of the bottle, insinuating that the contents were poisoned. “Spiking a bottle of wine, would be relatively easy for rogue characters, and would make targeting a specifically lower level player characters a simple matter”. Roland shook his head, “Regardless of the method, what I still don’t’ understand is the motive. In most games players that hunt down other players do it for one of two reasons, fun or money. The murders each occur with the victim not even knowing that they are about to die before they suddenly do so. I don’t know about you, but that would take any thrill of the hunt out of it for me. This leads me to think this string of murders led to the latter reason of theft, but if this body fits the pattern, one with all of its equipment laid out in the open untouched, they aren’t merely robbers. So that begs the question, why is our perpetrator even going through all this trouble in the first place?”

Roland furiously stroked his chin as the answer eluded him, “There’s something I’m missing here, a key component to this case that I’m simply not understanding. Killing for the sake of killing, is pointless since player characters can simply be resurrected, and yet there haven’t been any reports of NPCs falling to the same murderer. Whoever this is, is specifically targeting player characters on purpose. Why?” Roland let the rhetorical question hang in the air as he looked down at the body Liara, who only now was beginning to fade away. “She’s respawning at the temple…” He said rubbing his own, “As far as I can tell we have two options here, we can try and find her at the temple and ask her some questions. Or we can try and go to the market and see if anyone has any idea where this bottle came from. For all we know it was spiked three towns over.” With a shrug Roland turned towards Amane, clearly intending for her to make the decision for them.

(OOC: @Amane Hirota )

 

Spiking, of course, that would answer a lot of questions about the method of deaths — namely, how none of the victims had managed to catch even the slightest glimpse of the killer. Amane was a little embarrassed that she hadn't managed to think of that, herself. With a growing sense of unease, she realised that, the more they discovered about the killer, the less leads they had to go on. A spell or even a poison dart had to be thrown from the nearby vicinity, with a clear line of sight to the victim. Roland and she could have searched around, or asked nearby NPCs if they caught sight of anyone acting suspiciously, but with poison? It could have happened anywhere, even off Druuk Island, for all they knew. With this new theory, that method of investigation had been rendered unfeasible.

"Hm," she hummed, her forehead furrowing slightly in deliberation. "I mean, I'm no expert in the motives of PKers, so you might want to take what I say with a pinch of salt. But Terrasphere is a pretty realistic game, right? They don't only offer heroic quests; I've seen a couple of slightly morally dubious ones floating around Stokbon, like conducting heists and such. Nothing very incriminating for a virtual game, but I suspect, if you know where to search, there's a whole range of quests available, where the objective is to kill people rather than save them. If someone happened upon a mission that specified player deaths as the objectives, with a decent reward...some people would probably jump at the opportunity? That could explain why the killer doesn't seem to care about the thrill or the loot."

Personally, taking on a mission to kill people was something that Amane wouldn't have been able to bring herself to do, no matter how enticing the rewards — despite the game being virtual, and no death permanent, getting over her aversion to killing, with how realistic it was in Terrasphere was another matter entirely. Being able to clearly draw the line and separate oneself between in-game matters and that of the real world was an admirable quality, one that Amane was sure that Roland himself possessed. She'd doubted he'll be so blase if these deaths were actually happening outside of the game. Still, trading one's aversion to killing in order to advance in a game, even one as brilliant as Terrasphere, seemed like quite a tragic exchange to the girl.

But of course, that was all speculation and hearsay. For all she knew, the killer got a kick out of their victims' cluelessness, did this out of boredom or a way to practice their masteries and earn MP on the side. Unless you counted crime shows, this was the closest thing to legitimate investigation work that Amane had ever done, and while she would hate to admit it, she was a bit out of her depth here. Which was why, when Roland turned towards her, obvious indicating that their next move was up to the felis, Amane's eyes widened, and the look on her face could be described as mildly alarmed. "...We'll go to the temple," she decided after a pause, hoping that her voice sounded more confident than she felt. It seemed like the only logical choice. "As you said, there's no point asking around about the bottle if it was bought in another city — that would take too long. And though it's unlikely that Liara saw the killer, it'll be easier if we just asked her directly where, or whom, she got that bottle of wine from, and trace her route from there." With that said, Amane began walking out of the alley, stopping only to see if Roland was following her, before going on their way.

'

The temple was a large structure, almost a cathedral, really. Two flights of staircases led to a giant set of open doors, surrounded by four pillars on either side. On the stairway many players gathered, presumably both the newly resurrected and the party members of those who had fallen. Amane silently thanked her fortune when, just as the two of them arrived, a woman with short blonde hair had just begun descending down the stairs, a familiar dagger sheathed at her waist. "There she is," the felis pointed out, gesturing towards Liara's direction with a sweep of her hand. She hurried over, and when she was close enough to be heard, dropped her voice down to prevent possible eavesdroppers. One could never be too careful, the killer could be anywhere. And now that she thought of it— "This place is perfect for our killer to pick and choose victims," she murmured, partially to herself, but mostly to her partner in crime the investigation. "Filled with newbies who'd just bitten off more than they could chew, all of which confirmed players."

Turning her focus back to Liara, Amane directed her next question to the woman. "Sorry to bother you, my name's Amane, and this is Roland," she said, lips widening into what she hoped was a friendly smile. "We happened across your death in Sodom. You're not the first victim, and we've actually been hoping to bring the PKer to justice ourselves. I don't suppose you'll mind if we asked you a few questions?" She said her lines more slowly than usual, though still quick enough that it shouldn't sound too awkward. Casting Roland a glance, she tried to signal with her eyes that the more experienced player was free to interrupt at any time if she said anything she wasn't supposed to, and take control of the conversation.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge. And if I'm not wrong, this should be 4 posts each? Also I sort of imagined the temple to look like the Cathedral in log horizon, but if it doesn't, I'll edit the post~

 

((OOC: Cathedral looks like how ever you want it to look like imo =D))

Roland followed Amane in suit as they rushed to the Cathedral. It was the logical choice, given the fact that they were running low on clues and the victim would likely shed some light on their investigation. As they walked in Amane remarked how good the area would work for a murderer to choose their victims. "You might be right.," Roland said in a hushed tone that matched Amane's as he looked around. The killer could be right next to him, and the thought sent shivers down Roland's spine. Despite his every growing paranoia, they managed to find the victim with relative ease.

It was disconcerting to see her standing before him. After all, it hadn't been that long since he saw her corpse lying in the alleyway underneath a puddle of her blood. Here she was seemingly unphased to the point that she seemed calm. Amane was the first to speak, as she asked about the player's death. Oddly the player cocked her head to the side and responded, "Yes? What about it?"

It was very evident something was wrong; she didn't seem like a player who had recently gone through death. Roland spoke up, "We were curious if you had any idea who your attacker was or the method in which they attacked you."

The girl shifted her focus towards the ceiling as she tapped her chin in thought, "No..." she responded a few moments later in a lackadaisical tone, "I can't say I saw anyone or really anything. One moment I was walking somewhere the next I was...well dead."

Roland shot a glance towards Amane as if he wanted to say something but bit his lip. Instead, he turned back to the girl, "You were carrying a few things that fell onto the ground, the wine bottle, can you tell us where you bought it?"

The girl again had to think of the answer for a moment, but eventually replied, "Ahhh yes, it was an odd cart outside of Sodom, I believe it was some magic potion? I don't remember actually... I was so happy... I don't remember why..."

Roland raised an eyebrow at the response, the gears in his head turning. "Thank you." He said as he turned to move away before suddenly jerking back. "Oh that's right I have a ring that you lost.. Here let me give it back."

Roland held out the ring in question to the girl who looked at the object inquisitively for a moment before her nose wrinkling in disgust, "That's not mine, I would never wear that thing."

"Ah, I see my mistake then..." Roland said as he pocketed the piece of jewelry, "Actually I just thought of one more question....What was your death penalty?" The girl looked at him with a confused glare, "When you die, you gain a random mental attribute. What was yours?"

The girl pawed at the air a few times before responding, "Oh, amnesia."


----------------


After Amane had asked any further questions she wanted too, Roland surmised heading to the cart outside of Sodom was their next best destination. During the walk back to Sodom, Roland waited until they were alone to strike up a conversation, "When the world boss came, I was one of the first people there. As such, like many others, I died during the battle. It was painful, scaring even. It was not something I walked away from like an average video game. Her reactions they were, muted, and her death affliction, amnesia? I think they are correlated to the killer somehow. When I died, I gained arachnophobia, which was very specific to the manner of my death. Something about the way she died is tied to her memories...." Roland pulled the ring he had kept from within his pocket, holding it up in the pale moonlight, "Which means forgetting this, is likely the best clue we have."

 

@Amane Hirota

 

Hidden: started the post way too early in the scene asdfghjkl

OOC: Feel free to skip this. I realised how redundant this portion was, but by then I couldn't bear to just delete it after spending time writing it all out. ^-^;;

To say Liara's responses threw her off would be an understatement. A few days later her own death still lingered at the back of her mind, coming to the forefront at inopportune moments, reminding Amane that Terra Sphere was, in all areas that mattered, very much real. Even after reviving, she couldn't face the boss, restrained by a fear that went beyond a mere death affliction and into something that came from her. The game didn't need to imitate Arachnophobia by forcing quirks on her avatar (though it did that too) — at that moment, she had been terrified of Arachna all on her own. But Liara? She was behaving particularly nonchalant, and even if her death had happened suddenly, without warning or pain, she should still have been shaken, to a lesser extend at the very least. To remain completely unaffected immediately after death would required a level of skill in compartmentalisation that Amane couldn't even begin to imagine.

Listening to Roland conduct the questioning, Amane thought it was quite unfortunate that Liara didn't seem to know much. Then again, they had expected such a scenario, and made the decision to make their way to the Temple regardless. A magic potion outside Stokbon though...that was interesting. Roland's theory of a poison being the murder weapon seemed to bear more and more weight. The way it made her feel "happy" suggested that it was some kind of drug meant to induce a high, or whatever the magical and alchemical variation in Terra Sphere was called. She'll have to discuss it with Roland after they were finished with questioning Liara.

When Liara rejected the ring, disgusted, and subsequently informed them of her death affliction, a lot of things suddenly became clear. No wonder none of the victims knew anything, Amane thought. They physically couldn't. That the game had such control over one's own mind sent a shiver down her spine — Arachnophobia was one thing: as far as she could tell it didn't actually induce fear, only controlled her avatar when she happened to glimpse at spiders — the horror and alarm that typically resulted was all on her. But to actually manipulate memories? Unconsciously clenching her first, Amane absentmindedly followed behind Roland as he lead the way to their next destination, mind racing. When she'd first joined Terra Sphere, she certainly hadn't signed up this. Suddenly, the full consequence of granting such technology access to her thoughts hit her, and her heart was enveloped in a brief, descending chill.

'

Nodding along as Roland explained his theories on the way to the cart that Liara had mentioned, Amane added her own two cents once he was done. "Do you think," she mused, "if we received Arachnophobia, as if the game decided that after such an ordeal we should be afraid of spiders, and so made it such that we had to be, perhaps her death affliction works the same way as well? That it's not just vaguely related to what caused the deaths, but a direct consequence of being killed by such a stimuli. As in—" she paused, struggling to find the words she needed to coherently convey her thoughts. "If Liara was inebriated when she died, the game could have decided that her memories should get altered as a result. Because if she was drinking something like a drug, she wouldn't be remembering anything with perfect clarity in the first place. If that makes sense?"

With the ring as their new clue though, she wondered how much they would actually gain by tracking down where that bottle came from. There was always the possibility that it had nothing to do with how Liara died. Liara still remembered it, after all. But it was the most concrete clue they had, and they were already on their way there, so Amane supposed that there wouldn't be any harm. At any rate, the felis trusted Roland knew what he was doing. If he thought finding the cart was an important pursuit, then finding the cart it was.

They had wandered around the skirts of Sodom for a while, Amane's eyes peeled for anything suspicious (which worked about as well as you would expect in a place like Druuk Island — where everything could pretty much be considered so), and finally on its edges they found the cart at last, docked outside an entrance to a side alley. The store keeper was waving a bottle in one hand, grinning toothily at the people who walked past, most of whom ignored him, conducting about their business with a quiet, shady efficiency. He didn't seem deterred though, moving his attentions from one person to the next, cajoling them into buying his goods. The bottle itself was an exact match to the one that Liara had been carrying, and though a distance away the label looked to be the same as well. Quickly tapping her index and middle finger to her forehead, Amane entered investigation mode, hoping to see if the store keeper was a player or NPC. No such luck. Well, that wasn't the only way to find out information.

On the off chance that the store keeper was the killer, she unequipped all of her higher-end gear, swapping them out for the trash-levelled dress that was given to her when she had first logged in. Preparation complete, she sauntered forwards, giving a wide, friendly smile, trusting that Roland would back her up; or stop her, if he thought she was doing something particularly stupid. "These look...interesting," she would say if not halted, pointing at one of the bottles. "I'll love to buy one." She would be fibbing through her teeth. Even through the tinted glass of the bottle, its contents were still noticeably blue, as if someone had swapped out the wine within for antifreeze. Amane didn't think she had seen anything so unappetising in her life. Thank goodness she didn't think she'll need to drink it. Too late, she would realise, that if she had wanted to blend in with the rest of Sodom's populace, acting cordial wasn't the way to go about it. On the bright side, perhaps now she would seem even more like an inexperienced player?

OOC: @Roland Rutledge

 

After Roland had divulged his thoughts to Amane on the situation he couldn't help but cast her a content smile as she began to arrive at the same conclusions as he did, "I agree, there is no doubt in my mind that currently death afflictions are affected by the cause of one's death. Furthermore, if they were drugged somehow via this wine, amnesia would be possible. I think we have the murder weapon; we still lack a clear motive and suspect. Let's hurry to Sodom..."

Without delay the duo arrived back in Sodom, Amane took the lead locating the peddler with relative ease, on the streets of Sodom. He had set up shop outside the inlet of an alley, directly across from a large street where there were a few far more reputable stalls as well as few people standing in the street selling smaller wares like flowers. Roland turned to Amane who was already donning an outfit of a lower level player; he had a hard time containing a small laugh at her enthusiasm. When he had first met her, she had seemed reluctant about the quest, but now here she was taking charge and even going undercover. He prayed it would stick once the suspect surface. She approached the shopkeep, asking him for a bottle in a shaky voice, Roland couldn't tell if she was nervous or just extremely talented in acting as a lower level player. For her sake, he assumed the later.

The two talked for a small amount of time negotiating a price while Roland looked around. Granted not many were taking much interest in the man, walking down their paths, but the man was here for a reason, and the multiple empty spaces in his crate indicating some of his goods had sold. Roland focused thinking inwardly, "There's something we're missing. The killer one killed one person a day, and they were all at lower levels. This was likely caused by poisoning, probably meaning the killer could only craft enough poison to kill one lower level character at a time. Meaning, they'd have to be picky, and choose their targets. Setting up shop and waiting for someone to come to them wouldn't make sense."

That's when he saw her. Just a few stalls over was a girl around the age of fourteen standing on a corner, a bouquet of flowers tucked underneath her arm. When he had noticed her earlier he had assumed she was peddling them, and yet he hadn't heard a single call, nor had he noticed her approaching anyone. Instead, she stood there eyeing the various players, her eyes mingling on Amane from afar. As Amane began to finish her purchase the girl began to walk in her direction, Roland could feel a sense of dread wash over him paralyzing him. "The killer would have to be the one to approach the victim; there's no other way around it." The girl reached into her bouquet tugging at a small vial she produced as she approached Amane. With a sickly sweet smile plastered across her freckled face, the girl spoke, "Woooooould you be interested in a love potion? If you drink it, the next person you kiss will fall in love with you guaranteed!" Her sales speech with accented with an occasional innocent giggle, her curly hair bobbing, as she held pushed the vial forward to the Felis.

Roland finally snapped out of it, jerking forward, "AMANE!" he shouted in warning from across the street. The flower girl's head snapped towards him, all innocence fading in a split second, replaced by a glare of pure malice. Without saying a word, the flower peddler tried to shove Amane and run past her into the alley behind the wine merchant....



ooc: @Amane Hirota

 

Interrupted from her haggling with the storekeeper — he was a potential killer under investigation, she wasn't giving him all her gold just for a bottle of overpriced wine, if she could help it — Amane smiled down at the fourteen year old that stood before her, a bouquet of flowers clutched towards her chest. "Hey," she said, bending down slightly so that she'll be level with the girl's height. "How much is it?" She didn't have any need for something like a love potion; first and foremost she had no crush or infatuation with anyone in the game, and even if she did, she wouldn't use a love potion to get them to reciprocate her feelings. With something as dubious as that, either it doesn't work and she'll have wasted her money, or worse still it does, and she'll have to carry the crushing weight of guilt that she'd manipulated — twisted — someone else's mind without their consent. In a game, no less. But the girl standing in front of her was adorable, and Amane couldn't quite bear to cold-heartedly turn her away, not if the potion was cheap, and the gold nothing that she would miss. It wasn't like she couldn't just leave it collecting metaphorical dust in her inventory anyway.

"50 gold!" The girl said with a giggle, shooting her a hopeful gaze. That's easily recuperated, Amane thought, and who knew? Perhaps a potion like this would be useful on a future quest. "Alright, I'll buy one~" the felis decided, opening her inventory to manifest the coins required to pay to an NPC. Stretching out her fist full of gold, she was about to accept the vial in return when Roland's shout startled her, the coins dropping onto the ground in her surprise. She turned, flustered, about to ask him what was going on when the girl outright bolted in front of her eyes, heading straight into an alley, sprinting as if she were afraid for her life. Or her freedom, Amane began to realise, with a growing, clammy sense of horror. And then it clicked, that the killer was the girl all along, and she felt so vexed with her own stupidity that she could've have punched herself, if one were even capable of dealing damage to their own avatars in the game. Without stopping to think of the consequences, she shot after the girl, shouting back to Roland behind her. "Damn it! Thanks though, I completely didn't realised." She almost waited to see if Roland would chase after the girl with her, but despite how young she looked the girl was fast, and Amane had the sneaking suspicion that if she slowed even the slightest bit, she would lose sight of the killer immediately.

Through pure adrenaline, or some sort of strange fortune, she managed to keep up with the girl, even if her platform shoes did slide slightly on the wet pavement from the recent rain, and though their path brought them through a mess of winding streets that Amane had zero familiarity with, and conversely the girl navigated with a surety that spoke of home. But already a couple of seconds into the chase and she could tell that this luck wouldn't hold, and while she didn't know about Roland, she didn't have the stamina to run at a full sprint for much longer. She'll have to stop the girl here and now. Eyeing her energy bar, Amane considered a teleportation spell to propel herself onto the girl to pin her down, but just as the words were on her lips, the girl veered into a particularly decrepit part of the city, the buildings practically falling apart ahead of them, nary a person — player or otherwise — in sight.

An idea came to her then, something that she would have never entertained if she weren't desperate. Other than potentially Roland, there didn't seem to be anyone around who could report her for it, and something told her that the other player wasn't particularly worried about abiding by all the facets of the law himself in the first place. A quick incantation fell from her lips, and Amane raised her hands, throwing her strongest [Arcane Blast] spell she had, not at the fleeing silhouette of the girl, but at a building in front of her. It crashed into the top story, and a large section of the roof broke off, skittering down and falling into the alleyway, blocking off the girl's route. Instantly, a dizzying wave of fatigue overtook her, and she tripped, stumbling and bracing herself against a wall as she looked up at her handiwork. But though Amane was no longer in any condition to run, it hardly mattered — for now, the girl was fenced in, the only exit leading straight through two adventurers that were almost guaranteed to be more prepared for a battle than she was. Well, one adventurer, at least. Panting, Amane hoped that Roland was in a better condition than she, because she for one wouldn't be casting too many spells any time soon.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge

 

Roland cursed silently under his breath as the girl managed to take off down the alleyways. With her small frame, it was unlikely that he would be able to keep up with her. He had hoped that Amane would have snapped out of it and grabbed her then, was she actually going to buy the poison? Roland shook his head; he didn't have time to think about it, he had to chase the girl. Luckily Amane did have the presence of mind to chase after her, heading down the winding streets of Sodom in front of him.

The chase had continued for some time before she began to drag, Roland overtook her in a leap heading towards the small alleyway before a missile of energy zoomed right past his ear slamming into a building causing it to collapse into a pile of rubble. Roland shot Amane an angry glade; she could have killed him with that! For her part, Amane seemed spent by the spell gasping for air as she bent over nearby him.

All that left was the murderer, who had produced a small knife as she backed up cornered by the ruined building. Roland easily pulled out a single blade facing the desperate girl, but he did not attack. He had questions that he wanted answers for.

"Why did you poison those people?" He asked, there was no point in mucking around when you had a sword pulled after all. The girl's eyes shifted as she tried to calculate the answer.

"I-i-i don't know what you're t-t-talking about; I just sell f-f-flowers!" She stuttered shivering in fear.

Roland moved forward brandishing his blade, "Fine if you're not willing to talk I'm just going to end this."

The little girl let out a terrified shriek, as she backed up, dropping the knife, "I did it because I hated them! They took my Jeremey! The travelers killed him!" The words poured out of her as tears began to trickle down her cheek, "They don't know what its like to die! But, I found out- I found out that if they die from a certain poison, they'd forget someone dear to them." She suddenly stopped as she looked downwards, "I-I know it was wrong but... What does it matter! Why can't I have revenge! It's not fair! Travelers have no rules! When we die, we stay dead!" The girl's sudden bout of anger succumbed once again to tears as she dropped to her knees, "Just do it, kill me! I don't want to live anymore not in a world without Jeremy!"

Roland sighed lowering his head, he had known something was off, but he had not expected this. He turned away from the girl, sheathing his sword, as he talked over his shoulder, "I know who you are, and I can find you pretty quickly now. If I hear of this poison of yours again, I will find you, and I won't stop to talk to you next time." Roland turned towards Amane who seemed to be recovering by now; he had a stern expression purposefully hiding his real emotions all he said was, "Let's go, we're done here..."

 

Oh shit, Amane winced as the Arcanamancy spell flew right by Roland, nearly grazing him with its proximity. She hadn't expected Roland to jump in front of her just as she'd released the spell, and her moment of inobservance nearly caused the warrior his life. Or at least a large chunk of it — she doubted her masteries were strong enough at the moment to completely take down the more senior player, but surely it would have hurt nonetheless. "Sorry!" She gasped in between heaves of breaths, mentally cringing at how inadequate the apology sounded when compared to the severity of the consequences that could have unfolded.

But aside from a rather pissed off glare, Roland didn't seem particularly hindered, cornering the murderer with surprising ease. Amane slowly inched up from behind, bracing herself against the wall as she observed the trapped girl. Her shaking figure, the desperation in her eyes, all didn't add up to the image of the psychopathic killer that she'd been imagining. She left the questions up to Roland, spending her time eyeing the girl warily instead, wondering with melancholy what could have driven her to such measures.

It was with crushing sorrow that she digested the girl's story about losing a loved one to an adventurer. What could it have been on? A quest? Perhaps this Jeremy had been a bandit against the monarchy, and a bounty had been issued for his head. Or he could have accosted a player with the intention to rob them, his failure costing him his life. But, more probable still, he could simply have been conducting his business, and been in the wrong place at the wrong time. A mercenary guarding a rare artefact that a player had coveted, thinking of his death as nothing but an obstacle in the way of his loot, or even a witness to a player committing crimes, slaughtered to prevent the news from reaching back to the cities, and turning the guards hostile. Just a gameplay mechanic in their minds. Amane wondered if Jeremy had any choice in acting in such a way. Did the game destine him to get killed? On that thought, did the girl have any choice in the matter as well, or had she been preprogrammed with grief so intense that she'll be driven to kill, a hapless agent necessary for a quest, and nothing more?

She shook such thoughts away, watching numbly as Roland chose to spare the girl's life. She was still an NPC, and as tragic as the events were, her feelings in the end couldn't compare to that of the players who'd been traumatised, their minds violated, all for the grief of a machine. Because ultimately this was a game, but the players would be the one bringing the baggage home, into the real world. Still, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the heartbroken girl, whose pain seemed so realistic, even if she herself was virtual.

Jogging after Roland, she couldn't help but judge him a little for his stern and, dare she say it, uncaring expression. Unless he was hiding it superbly well, he was completely unmoved and unaffected by the events. What kind of person was he IRL, that he wasn't bothered at all? Even if he was an incredible partner throughout the whole investigation... Pushing her discomfort aside, she caught up to him, pulling beside the other player. "So, what will you do now?" She posed. "The quest seems pretty wrapped up to me, so I'll probably be heading back towards Stokbon. If you're heading the same way, I could open a portal for you as well? My Astramancy is still pretty weak, but I should be able to handle two people." Hesitating slightly, she pulled up her menu in order to send Roland a friend request. He was an amazing player, and despite everything Amane would like to work with him again, if the opportunity ever arose.

Regardless of how Roland replies, she would begin casting the spell, the length and complexity of it taking a minute or so. When it opens, Amane would enter, pausing long enough to check if Roland would be accompanying her, and if she'll have to hold it open for him as well, before stepping through into Stokbon, leaving Druuk Island and the girl behind.

OOC: @Roland Rutledge. Amane will be exiting here~