Treachery? Treachery.

[pseudologist]

We have a problem.

...Another problem.

[Usually, Varric's psychic communication comes along with a projected impression of his actual voice. This one doesn't.]

Someone's decided it would be fun to go around slaughtering entire villages with flaming arrows. They've hit at least one in northern Nakamiyo - Higura, if this map's right. It looks like the squad attacking took a position on high ground and fired on the far side of the village to drive anyone who escaped the first volley right towards them. So far, we haven't found any survivors, but we're still looking.

The archers were using fletching favoured by Koroshima's hunters, but if Near's right, the boots they were wearing scream Imperial Army. My money's on the Empire trying to make this look like an attack across the border by Koroshima forces, so they can make damn sure the provinces are focused on fighting each other, not on any kind of alliance. If that's true, they're not going to stop here - they'll need a few more attacks to really sell the story and blind everyone to any of the places where the evidence doesn't quite add up. If we can figure out where they're going to hit next, maybe we can get ahead of them.

If anyone else has experience with this sort of shit and wants to borrow a pair of eyes to get a look at this place, let me know. Just make sure you're sitting down first. It might take a while.

Comments

[fridgeninja]

We'll need proof. The boots aren't enough.

Has anything else like this happened?

[pseudologist]

No shit.

They were careful not to leave behind any convenient identifying badges, and if they took any casualties, they either took the bodies with them, or burned them along with the locals. Unless they slipped up and left something incriminating along the road, we'll either need to find the squad, or find a witness to prove anything. These weren't amateurs.

I haven't heard of another attack like this, but there were rumours of something burning near Suzuki village not long after the summit broke up. Assuming all the flooding and earthquakes haven't wiped out anything left behind there, that might be something to take a look at.

[fridgeninja]

If there's no-one in Koroshima who can go, I'll see if some of us at the Sun Temple can go to get a look at what burned there.

[pseudologist]

I'm not sure who's left there.

[There's a brief pause, and then he adds with what might be a flicker of wry humour if this particular conversation included inflection:]

Or who's left there and isn't neck deep in another disaster.

[truerevelation]

[Kanji's mental voice sounds frustrated, saddened-]

Higura - crap. I'm headin' in that direction now with a patrol... we knew something had happened over there but didn't know it was that bad. Damn.

Is there ... anythin' I should look out for?

[pseudologist]

It's that bad.

The rest of your patrol will probably know to do it anyway, but keep an eye out for campsites. They might be covering their tracks, but it's a lot harder to hide the place where a dozen or more soldiers bedded down for the evening. If they're a group playing hit and run from the fort, they won't have one, but anywhere much further afield and they'll need to stop to rest.

[truerevelation]

Ah, hell...

Yeah, that makes sense. Anywhere a lot of people coulda made a mess.

[pseudologist]

Make sure you have some cloth to breathe through. The smoke's still pretty heavy, and it probably will be for a while.

[Which, in its way, is almost a blessing. It covers up the smell of death, as much as anything can.]

[willyousee]

There is the possibility of the assassins doing this as well. They are extremely careful not to leave traces, so if they did, they would be more likely to tailor them to a certain message. And as there seem to be assassins using similar techniques all across the peninsula, we cannot rule out that there is a large network of them - possibly enough to field a large enough group to pull off something like this.

[The monotone of his mental voice is a little shaky, like he might either be furious or being sick. ...Maybe both.]

Can you tell how many there were?

[pseudologist]

It's possible, but even if there's a flock of crows around, assassins wearing regulation army gear while impersonating Koroshima hunters is a painfully roundabout way to make any kind of point. It's more likely that they didn't count on someone like Spooky being able to identify them from a few footprints and the second-hand chattering of grass.

[Plant elementalism: apparently dangerously weird.]

There weren't many. I'd put my guess at two dozen, possibly three for the conservative bet. We'll have a clearer picture if we turn up a camp, but they definitely weren't expecting strong resistance.

[willyousee]

[Excuse him while he's slightly derailed here.]

...I beg your pardon. Spooky?

[pseudologist]

Near. It...just sort of stuck.

[leftbehindagain]

Do you need any help checking the trail? I'm still in the area.

[pseudologist]

If you can skip through Liminal Space to meet up with us, another set of eyes couldn't hurt. But with a patrol inbound, it's probably not the best idea for a pack of obvious foreigners to stick around long enough for someone to catch up the normal way.

[Or to burn their best escape route to make a door.]

[leftbehindagain]

My portals aren't that fancy, unfortunately.

Kanji'll probably turn up something useful when he gets there with the army. And hopefully be able to talk them out of immediate counterattack mode.

[pseudologist]

And we don't have the muscle to spare to pull you through. Damn.

Here's hoping you're right. I get the feeling that stopping this after one of the local factions makes a genuine retaliatory strike will be a hell of a lot harder than stopping it before already is.

Some time later on, once the patrol has reached the village: [death/gore talk]

[truerevelation]

[Kanji's mental voice is rather weak and tired as he speaks up again.]

Okay. We're at Higura ... and ... uh. I think it might be best if I just show people what's goin' on. It ain't a pretty picture, so ... if you wanna see it, tell me now and I'll share it with ya on a private line.

Just say the word.

[Private to anyone requesting it:]

[The view that comes through should someone ask is far sharper than it should be, almost like a high-resolution picture, the colours shifted oddly in places. However, those details are rather small stuff compared to the fact the view's from considerably higher up than expected - an aerial view of the devastation.

The village is every bit as bad as it's generally been described - burned and ruined, patterns left by flame indiscriminately stretching up from the southern end. Scorched earth, scattered bodies, some of whom, outside the village itself, look like they've met a particularly grisly fate - not just burned but missing parts.]

...yeah. This is ... shit, I dunno what to say.

[leftbehindagain]

[viewing filter]


...fuck. Whoever's behind this wants to make damn sure everyone keeps fighting, that's for sure.

[just Kanji]

You don't have to know what to say.

[truerevelation]

You think that's what it is? All this ... all this, just to ... piss people off?

[Well. It's working on him, anyway, and it's showing in his tone for a moment. All his hard-earned control is on the edge of snapping.]

[Naoki only]

I ... ugh, I guess not, but ... all this, and I can't -[He hesitates slightly before-] I don't know what I can do, man.

[Fires now easily beat hospitals as far as his least favourite places to be go.]

[leftbehindagain]

If it keeps them too busy tearing each other to shreds to really start questioning the 'reward' for doing so?

[Kanji only]

Focus. What you can do is help make sure these people get justice. This isn't like the last fire. It's a mess, but there's still something you can do.

[Not that he doesn't agree about fires sucking.]

Private

[pseudologist]

[Varric's pretty sure what he's going to see when he opts in on the private stream - it's not so long that much could have changed in the village.

He's wrong.

It's worse somehow when viewed from above, the devastation taken in all at once rather than in pieces, an entire tapestry of horror in which each individual act of destruction knit together to form a whole greater and more terrible than the sum of its parts.

There's a sense of silence that stretches on for several moments.]

Don't worry, kid. Shit just about covers it.

[truerevelation]

Y-yeah. It does, doesn't it.

[Kanji's voice is still subdued as he replies.]

Never seen anythin' like it...

[pseudologist]

I have. Just never quite from this angle. How are you pulling that off, anyway?

I won't say you get used to it, because no one in their right mind wants that. It'll fade in time, though.

[tailforbrains]

[Since the other two handled the "wow that's awful" comments, Neeshka goes straight to:]

How are you doing that?

[truerevelation]

Heh. Green magic transformation spell. I'm a bird at the moment.

[At least he can describe this much a bit more calmly, taking his mind off the details of what he's seeing.]