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Envoy Endeavors (rough draft)
Apr. 25th, 2020 10:22 pmWho: Peridot
What: The Priestess sends Peridot on a mission into Stars territory to try and uncover the truth of what happened to the murdered peace envoy.
Where: Stars territory/Gods Wood
When: April 25th
Warnings: Nothing TOO TOO graphic, but there's mentions of murder, and uh, decaying human corpses?
It’s a bit of a surprise to Peridot when the Priestess contacts her. Not that she’s been behaving in a particularly seditious manner, or anything of that sort, but… Well, their first meeting hadn’t exactly gone swimmingly, and Peridot doesn’t exactly make any waves as Fellden’s most gung-ho Moon patriot. Her focus from day one has been almost exclusively on the Decay, and trying to discover new ways of combating it
There are exceptions, of course; outliers from her fixation upon the decay of the world. Case and point: the mystery of the ill-fated peace envoy, murdered some time before she’d arrived here and heavily whispered about in the time since. Lucina had spoken of some rumors regarding the matter during the Temple's last mandatory audience, and Peridot had started forming some theories (that ADMITTEDLY, probably dipped into the territory of wild speculation) as a result. She just hadn’t expected the Priestess to catch word of it, much less take her concerns seriously and task her with leading an investigation.
Peridot jumps at the chance, of course. If her suspicions hold any water, and it turns out that the Emperor never even met with the diplomats? Even she can see the massive implications such a revelation could have. Granted, she’s completely lacking in any practical experience when it comes to the investigation of crimes, but let it never be said that Peridot is the sort of gem who would let something as trivial as lack of qualifications stop her from trying something. She’s seen, like... A handful of mystery programs on TV? More than enough to get the basics, surely. It’s fine. She’s absolutely got this.
-------------
She's sent off with equipment to suit the job: a short distance teleportation bracelet to speed up travel, along with a map of the envoy's route, and an enchantment added to her glasses to allow her to see trails of residual magic. She makes sure to pack her own bag as well, stashing a satchel full of odds and ends meant for jotting down information and collecting evidence. Paper, writing implements, a few handkerchiefs for handling objects without touching them directly. Once preparations are handled, she departs.
Taking the teleportation system to the Medii military base, Peridot heads out from there on foot, making for the border. The country side still bears the scars of the battle that took place a few months ago, remnants of violence which set her ill at ease, so she skips past these place where she can, usually giving the area a cursory glance before blipping ahead another mile or so.
Fast forward a few hours, past all the tedious walking and stressful deliberation. She'd had to make a choice between two trails, which hadn't been easy. The first-- the trail which she did NOT choose to follow-- appeared to lead further into Stars territory. That might have been worth pursuing, but given that the incident took place several months ago, that trail and it's divergent twin were both on their last legs, and she could tell just by looking that she was only going to have time to investigate one. So she'd opted for the far more suspicious looking path, which has lead her to her current location: the very edge of the Gods Wood.
Why an envoy sent to parlay with the Emperor would take such an abrupt detour off the beaten path towards a neutral area like the Gods Wood, Peridot isn't sure. Answering that lingering question is exactly why she'd opted to come in this direction, and it's a choice that's already beginning to bear results. She can see ahead that the trail halts, lingering over a large patch of earth where the vegetation has been torn up, the ground showing signs of significant disturbance within the last few months.
Peridot steps forward to investigate more closely, but as she gets closer she’s abruptly stymied by what is easily the most overwhelming smell to ever hit her nose. It hits her like a punch to the face. She falters and throws an arm up to block it, reeling momentarily from the intensity of it; it’s hard to describe, somehow sweet and putrid at the same time, triggering a visceral reaction that makes her want to retch, despite having not eaten anything in the last few days. The gem staggers over to a nearby tree and props herself against it while she tries to collect herself. She peers venomously at the spot from over her forearm, which remains pressed over her nose and mouth. There's no mistaking it: that's the smell of human corpses. A stench that she'd been blissfully unfamiliar with, before she showed up in Fellden.
Peridot shakes her head and gags, pushing back off the tree again to fix a sharp gaze on the patch of Earth. There's a very big part of her that wants to just draw the reasonable conclusion about what's under there, and leave it at that. Like, what are the odds that there could be a bunch of random, non-peace envoy related corpses at the end of the trail she's been following? Pretty low, she hopes! But then on the other hand… This might be the only chance anyone will have to investigate. It would be foolish not to confirm while she has the chance.
She just wishes confirmation didn’t have to come at the expense of getting up herself right close to a bunch of reeking organic rot.
Groaning piteously to herself, Peridot steps closer and starts to scuffle around in the dirt. For the first time in her life, she finds herself wishing desperately that Jasper were here with her. A physically capable gem, who also lacks a sense of smell? That would pretty much be the ideal person to handle the unsavory task of exhuming bodies from an unmarked grave. And hey, as long as she's in the business of wishing... She also desperately wishes she’d thought to bring along something to dig with! She’s forced to delve into the earth by hand, which is WAY less than ideal, considering what it is that she’s having to dig up. She keeps pausing to gag between scooping up fistfuls of dirt, the smell getting more intense the deeper she goes.
It takes a while, but eventually she digs deep enough to find exactly what she’s expecting, in the worst possible way. As she goes to scoop up another fist full of dirt, her fingers brush against… Someone else's fingers. She yelps in disgust and yanks her hand back quickly, shaking it off with a shudder before leaning forward to peer into the hole with extreme distaste. Sure enough, there's a human hand there. Albeit one that is in an advanced state of decay. So that's what grave worms look like.
She hates this. Hates hates hates this. But she keeps digging, uncovering just enough to confirm that there's a ragged stump at the neck where the head should be. So that tracks! It would be inaccurate to say that she's satisfied with her findings, but that does give her the information she needs. Letting out another gurgling groan, Peridot starts filling the grave back in so she doesn’t have to look at (or smell) the body anymore.
She backs off to think for a bit, then. Far enough off that the smell is at least a little less intense, but also so she can still keep an eye on the scene. She gets her compass out in the meantime, mindlessly snapping some reference photos of the scene. It would be far more ideal, she thinks, if she could positively ID the corpse, or somehow verify that the number of bodies in the grave matches the number of people in the envoy. Thing is, she is not about to commit to excavating eight entire human bodies by hand. No goddamn way. Which... leaves her at something of a dead end.
Finding some headless bodies outside of the woods doesn’t really prove anything, beyond the fact at least one of the group-- if that is a member of the ill-fated party-- never made it to the Court of Stars. Like, sure, maybe it’ll give that one human's family some peace of mind, to know where the remains are. That’s great. Whatever. What it doesn’t do is help provide any actionable evidence to the Priestess. It’s not enough to help push for the peace between the factions which Peridot longs to help facilitate.
Grumbling, the gem stares sullenly off into the tree line of the Gods Wood, shoulders slumped, focused on nothing in particular. That’s when she spots it: there's the tiniest, faintest offshoot of magic, wending its way away from the grave and into the Gods Wood itself. A clue so small, she very nearly missed it entirely. Stirred, Peridot hops to her feet, rushing to follow it. This time, she barely even notices the grave stench as she runs past.
---------
A dismantled shrine. That’s what it leads to. Just past the tree line, obscured by foliage, Peridot practically starts vibrating with excitement when she pushes aside the brush and spots it. It’s in a state of ruin, but she can see the remnants of… Offerings, perhaps? Items scattered among the wreckage. She snaps a quick pic with her compass and then kneels to start pawing through the wreckage, taking inventory of her findings. A broken sword hilt, caked in dried blood... A peculiar medal, also covered in blood... Another broken sword hilt? Surprise, covered in blood. And…
Fingers? There are fingers. Peridot recoils slightly and makes another disgusted noise, lamenting the number of times she’s had to touch dead human touch stumps in this one day alone. What the hell kind of god would want fingers as an offering, she’s not sure she wants to know? There’s three of them in total, and they are also (unsurprisingly) soaked in blood. When she has everything gathered she lays all these items side by side, cocking her head, trying to think if there's any commonality that ties them all together. Is there a theme here? Aside from being taken from conquered enemies, she can't really see one. In fact, the only similarity between them all, is that they all have the same bizarre engraving on them. It's crudely made, featuring what looks like... a crown, being struck by a bolt of lightning? Peridot certainly doesn’t recognize it, but she’s guessing the Priestess might.
Perhaps the meaning of that is best researched later. She's aware she needs to keep moving, having plenty of information to take back to the Priestess now. With the shrine thoroughly examined, she pulls some of the cloth wrappings from her bag and starts gingerly wrapping up all the clues she can, to bring back as evidence. She even packs up the grody severed fingers, placing all three of them in one cloth and tying it up into a tiny bindle. She’s not sure what use severed digits might be, but it makes more sense to her mind that she bring them along, rather than leave them behind. Even if they are disgusting, and will probably make her satchel smell bad.
One last cursory search of the area surrounding the shrine leads to one final clue: the charred remains of a uniform, in the colors of a soldier from the Court of Stars. She wonders... Was it a disguise? Why would someone disguise themselves in such a manner? Was it to trick the envoy? Was it to trick other soldiers? She's not sure just yet. She takes another picture of the site, and nabs a sample to bring back with her as well. She thinks her word is worth quite a lot, but it's always better to provide physical evidence when it's available.
She makes haste back to Moon territory after that. Peridot gets word to the Priestess as soon as she’s able, insisting on providing-- in person-- the most thorough report she can offer. She turns over all evidence as well: the scraps of charred clothing, the shrine offerings, and the pictures of all the relevant sites. Perhaps most importantly, she hands over the map she was gifted at the start of her quest. She’d made sure to annotate it as she went, marking the locations of noteworthy information. Most notably: The crossroads are circled. From there, there’s an arrow pointing in the direction of the trail that she did not follow, and a line tracing along the path of the one that she did. She has even circled the approximate location of the grave site, as well as the locations of the dismantled shrine and the burned clothing within the Gods Wood.
The Priestess can do with this info what she will, but Peridot will give her conclusion to her straight: There's someone out there who is trying very hard to ensure that the war continues unimpeded.
What: The Priestess sends Peridot on a mission into Stars territory to try and uncover the truth of what happened to the murdered peace envoy.
Where: Stars territory/Gods Wood
When: April 25th
Warnings: Nothing TOO TOO graphic, but there's mentions of murder, and uh, decaying human corpses?
It’s a bit of a surprise to Peridot when the Priestess contacts her. Not that she’s been behaving in a particularly seditious manner, or anything of that sort, but… Well, their first meeting hadn’t exactly gone swimmingly, and Peridot doesn’t exactly make any waves as Fellden’s most gung-ho Moon patriot. Her focus from day one has been almost exclusively on the Decay, and trying to discover new ways of combating it
There are exceptions, of course; outliers from her fixation upon the decay of the world. Case and point: the mystery of the ill-fated peace envoy, murdered some time before she’d arrived here and heavily whispered about in the time since. Lucina had spoken of some rumors regarding the matter during the Temple's last mandatory audience, and Peridot had started forming some theories (that ADMITTEDLY, probably dipped into the territory of wild speculation) as a result. She just hadn’t expected the Priestess to catch word of it, much less take her concerns seriously and task her with leading an investigation.
Peridot jumps at the chance, of course. If her suspicions hold any water, and it turns out that the Emperor never even met with the diplomats? Even she can see the massive implications such a revelation could have. Granted, she’s completely lacking in any practical experience when it comes to the investigation of crimes, but let it never be said that Peridot is the sort of gem who would let something as trivial as lack of qualifications stop her from trying something. She’s seen, like... A handful of mystery programs on TV? More than enough to get the basics, surely. It’s fine. She’s absolutely got this.
-------------
She's sent off with equipment to suit the job: a short distance teleportation bracelet to speed up travel, along with a map of the envoy's route, and an enchantment added to her glasses to allow her to see trails of residual magic. She makes sure to pack her own bag as well, stashing a satchel full of odds and ends meant for jotting down information and collecting evidence. Paper, writing implements, a few handkerchiefs for handling objects without touching them directly. Once preparations are handled, she departs.
Taking the teleportation system to the Medii military base, Peridot heads out from there on foot, making for the border. The country side still bears the scars of the battle that took place a few months ago, remnants of violence which set her ill at ease, so she skips past these place where she can, usually giving the area a cursory glance before blipping ahead another mile or so.
Fast forward a few hours, past all the tedious walking and stressful deliberation. She'd had to make a choice between two trails, which hadn't been easy. The first-- the trail which she did NOT choose to follow-- appeared to lead further into Stars territory. That might have been worth pursuing, but given that the incident took place several months ago, that trail and it's divergent twin were both on their last legs, and she could tell just by looking that she was only going to have time to investigate one. So she'd opted for the far more suspicious looking path, which has lead her to her current location: the very edge of the Gods Wood.
Why an envoy sent to parlay with the Emperor would take such an abrupt detour off the beaten path towards a neutral area like the Gods Wood, Peridot isn't sure. Answering that lingering question is exactly why she'd opted to come in this direction, and it's a choice that's already beginning to bear results. She can see ahead that the trail halts, lingering over a large patch of earth where the vegetation has been torn up, the ground showing signs of significant disturbance within the last few months.
Peridot steps forward to investigate more closely, but as she gets closer she’s abruptly stymied by what is easily the most overwhelming smell to ever hit her nose. It hits her like a punch to the face. She falters and throws an arm up to block it, reeling momentarily from the intensity of it; it’s hard to describe, somehow sweet and putrid at the same time, triggering a visceral reaction that makes her want to retch, despite having not eaten anything in the last few days. The gem staggers over to a nearby tree and props herself against it while she tries to collect herself. She peers venomously at the spot from over her forearm, which remains pressed over her nose and mouth. There's no mistaking it: that's the smell of human corpses. A stench that she'd been blissfully unfamiliar with, before she showed up in Fellden.
Peridot shakes her head and gags, pushing back off the tree again to fix a sharp gaze on the patch of Earth. There's a very big part of her that wants to just draw the reasonable conclusion about what's under there, and leave it at that. Like, what are the odds that there could be a bunch of random, non-peace envoy related corpses at the end of the trail she's been following? Pretty low, she hopes! But then on the other hand… This might be the only chance anyone will have to investigate. It would be foolish not to confirm while she has the chance.
She just wishes confirmation didn’t have to come at the expense of getting up herself right close to a bunch of reeking organic rot.
Groaning piteously to herself, Peridot steps closer and starts to scuffle around in the dirt. For the first time in her life, she finds herself wishing desperately that Jasper were here with her. A physically capable gem, who also lacks a sense of smell? That would pretty much be the ideal person to handle the unsavory task of exhuming bodies from an unmarked grave. And hey, as long as she's in the business of wishing... She also desperately wishes she’d thought to bring along something to dig with! She’s forced to delve into the earth by hand, which is WAY less than ideal, considering what it is that she’s having to dig up. She keeps pausing to gag between scooping up fistfuls of dirt, the smell getting more intense the deeper she goes.
It takes a while, but eventually she digs deep enough to find exactly what she’s expecting, in the worst possible way. As she goes to scoop up another fist full of dirt, her fingers brush against… Someone else's fingers. She yelps in disgust and yanks her hand back quickly, shaking it off with a shudder before leaning forward to peer into the hole with extreme distaste. Sure enough, there's a human hand there. Albeit one that is in an advanced state of decay. So that's what grave worms look like.
She hates this. Hates hates hates this. But she keeps digging, uncovering just enough to confirm that there's a ragged stump at the neck where the head should be. So that tracks! It would be inaccurate to say that she's satisfied with her findings, but that does give her the information she needs. Letting out another gurgling groan, Peridot starts filling the grave back in so she doesn’t have to look at (or smell) the body anymore.
She backs off to think for a bit, then. Far enough off that the smell is at least a little less intense, but also so she can still keep an eye on the scene. She gets her compass out in the meantime, mindlessly snapping some reference photos of the scene. It would be far more ideal, she thinks, if she could positively ID the corpse, or somehow verify that the number of bodies in the grave matches the number of people in the envoy. Thing is, she is not about to commit to excavating eight entire human bodies by hand. No goddamn way. Which... leaves her at something of a dead end.
Finding some headless bodies outside of the woods doesn’t really prove anything, beyond the fact at least one of the group-- if that is a member of the ill-fated party-- never made it to the Court of Stars. Like, sure, maybe it’ll give that one human's family some peace of mind, to know where the remains are. That’s great. Whatever. What it doesn’t do is help provide any actionable evidence to the Priestess. It’s not enough to help push for the peace between the factions which Peridot longs to help facilitate.
Grumbling, the gem stares sullenly off into the tree line of the Gods Wood, shoulders slumped, focused on nothing in particular. That’s when she spots it: there's the tiniest, faintest offshoot of magic, wending its way away from the grave and into the Gods Wood itself. A clue so small, she very nearly missed it entirely. Stirred, Peridot hops to her feet, rushing to follow it. This time, she barely even notices the grave stench as she runs past.
---------
A dismantled shrine. That’s what it leads to. Just past the tree line, obscured by foliage, Peridot practically starts vibrating with excitement when she pushes aside the brush and spots it. It’s in a state of ruin, but she can see the remnants of… Offerings, perhaps? Items scattered among the wreckage. She snaps a quick pic with her compass and then kneels to start pawing through the wreckage, taking inventory of her findings. A broken sword hilt, caked in dried blood... A peculiar medal, also covered in blood... Another broken sword hilt? Surprise, covered in blood. And…
Fingers? There are fingers. Peridot recoils slightly and makes another disgusted noise, lamenting the number of times she’s had to touch dead human touch stumps in this one day alone. What the hell kind of god would want fingers as an offering, she’s not sure she wants to know? There’s three of them in total, and they are also (unsurprisingly) soaked in blood. When she has everything gathered she lays all these items side by side, cocking her head, trying to think if there's any commonality that ties them all together. Is there a theme here? Aside from being taken from conquered enemies, she can't really see one. In fact, the only similarity between them all, is that they all have the same bizarre engraving on them. It's crudely made, featuring what looks like... a crown, being struck by a bolt of lightning? Peridot certainly doesn’t recognize it, but she’s guessing the Priestess might.
Perhaps the meaning of that is best researched later. She's aware she needs to keep moving, having plenty of information to take back to the Priestess now. With the shrine thoroughly examined, she pulls some of the cloth wrappings from her bag and starts gingerly wrapping up all the clues she can, to bring back as evidence. She even packs up the grody severed fingers, placing all three of them in one cloth and tying it up into a tiny bindle. She’s not sure what use severed digits might be, but it makes more sense to her mind that she bring them along, rather than leave them behind. Even if they are disgusting, and will probably make her satchel smell bad.
One last cursory search of the area surrounding the shrine leads to one final clue: the charred remains of a uniform, in the colors of a soldier from the Court of Stars. She wonders... Was it a disguise? Why would someone disguise themselves in such a manner? Was it to trick the envoy? Was it to trick other soldiers? She's not sure just yet. She takes another picture of the site, and nabs a sample to bring back with her as well. She thinks her word is worth quite a lot, but it's always better to provide physical evidence when it's available.
She makes haste back to Moon territory after that. Peridot gets word to the Priestess as soon as she’s able, insisting on providing-- in person-- the most thorough report she can offer. She turns over all evidence as well: the scraps of charred clothing, the shrine offerings, and the pictures of all the relevant sites. Perhaps most importantly, she hands over the map she was gifted at the start of her quest. She’d made sure to annotate it as she went, marking the locations of noteworthy information. Most notably: The crossroads are circled. From there, there’s an arrow pointing in the direction of the trail that she did not follow, and a line tracing along the path of the one that she did. She has even circled the approximate location of the grave site, as well as the locations of the dismantled shrine and the burned clothing within the Gods Wood.
The Priestess can do with this info what she will, but Peridot will give her conclusion to her straight: There's someone out there who is trying very hard to ensure that the war continues unimpeded.
