Witchers of Nifelheim

Twilight took the files, looking at their age, race, employment dates and any pictures to see if one could be the killer by these descriptions.

"Try to establish a connection, but play it cool for now. Don't alarm them directly unless they begin to talk about it. If you can't reach them, step on the gass to get there faster. If they are the killer, we need to lure them in without them going off."

Rain looks around a moment before drawing her short sword. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pair of leather fingerless gloves. She grips the sword by the blade, she looks at the boxes a moment before rearing back and slamming the pommel against the box like a mace.

The box loudly cracked open, sending a few splinters across the floor.
As you pear inside, you notice a large comfy chair. It looks pretty normal.


As you look over the employee files, you see the following info:


Davis Archer
Male
Pegasus
Age: 31
Employed at the factory for over 10 years.
On the picture, he appears to have blue colored fur, very dark hair and yellow eyes. The eyes do not seem to be shining.


Kathy Faniel
Female
Unicorn
Age: 18
Employed at the factory for over 2 months.
On the picture, she appears to have gray fur and bright red hair. Eyes are colored red and do not seem to be shining.



Amy pulled out a military grade cellphone from her pocket and placed it on the table:

"...you guys should make the call. Whenever you're ready. But we shouldn't delay this. Every second counts"


"We should also decide where to hide them... what place would be ideal" Harlequin said.

"Huh... alright seems comfortable... and normal..." she frowns and pulls another box and slams her pommel against it, looking for anything. If nothings in that box she cracks the next one open, "There has to be something. Anything."

"Was that the last shift they ever did?" Rogue asks the manager "if not, did anything seem off about them when you next saw them?"

Sand follows Rain in order to help her. Using the collapsable crowbar she carried with her she starts to open boxes.

"We should check the area they assemble the chairs next if we can't find anything here" she grunts as she works

"That was the next idea... but... Ngh..." she grunts as she opens another box, "...he said they didn't meet quota... so im thinking it could possibly be the last box they packed..." she stops a moment, "...or... their team lead thought they should leave early." She gets on her radio, "Harle who is their team lead and can I get a discription of their features." She gets back to cracking open boxes.

"Their team lead was Mark Buote, Age: 61, killed in a ritualistic murder, a few days ago. Yellow pelt, gray hair" Harlequin said over the earpiece.

After opening about a dozen boxes, you only find freshly made chairs. They all look pretty normal. You don't see anything suspicious.



"It was their last shift, yeah" the director sighed: "I saw them that very morning, they all looked a little freaked out, complained about headaches, went home almost immediately.

That wasn't out of place though. That same morning, all magic in Tesia began to fade, my machines began to shut down and everyone felt a little bit of those... mental breakdowns...

The factory production was going nowhere fast, so I sent everyone home and the factory's been closed ever since.
Charee and a few others called, later on, said they wanted a leave from work, due to health reasons. Might as well, the factory couldn't work anyway" the director sighed and looked longingly at his glass.



"We're wasting time" Harlequin said, biting her lower lip: "We need to call the next victims, Now.
Every second counts."

"I'll do it." Twilight says.

She picks up the phone and dials the number of Davis Archer. "You guys get in contact with the girl."

She waited for it to go over, swallowing a lump in her throat, trying to come up with a fake name for now.

The phone rang for a few seconds, before a firm voice suddenly barked at you in Tesian:

"This is officer Michele Delon, Beusoleil Police Department. Identify yourself, immediately!" the voice barked at you from the other end of the line. He sounded on edge.

She momentarily winces as he yelled into her ear, but she composed herself and spoke to him in her best Tesian as calmly as possible.

"You are currently speaking with Twilight Sparkle, sir. I was trying to contact Davis Archer, to warn him of an impending threat. But I am to presume I am too late with my warning?" Her voice carries her original accent, making it a bit harder to make out the words.

"Sparkle?... yes. I understand" the officer sounded like he was talking to someone else in the background. Where ever he was, it sounded very crowded out there:

"I found this cellphone on a charred body. Am I to understand that the victim was named Davis Archer?" the officer asked:
"The owner of this cellphone was murdered, three minutes ago"



"Shit" Harlequin quietly swore: "We waited too long"

"Was it a ritualistic murder?" Amy shouted into the phone from her seat.




"There was nothing ritualistic about it!" the officer said: "Davis Archer was murdered in the middle of a busy street, in broad daylight.


The victim was waiting for a public bus, together with a dozen other people, when a cloaked figure suddenly emerged out of the alley and brandished a flaming sword, charging right at the crowd.
Everyone ran and there was panic.

The victim attempted to flee, but the cloaked figure pursued him, hurling lightning bolts across the street and cutting off his possible escape routes.
Until the killer finally reached David Archer and ran a flaming sword right through his chest. Archer died and his body burned to ash in seconds.
After that, the killer ran.

There are dozens of witnesses, all claiming to see the same thing.


This was no 'Ritualistic Murder'. It was an assassination.



The killer is acting sloppy and isn't attempting to hide from view.
My men are secretly tailing him now. The killer appears to be unaware of their presence. We will continue a covert pursuit, until he leads us to his lair.

Will update you or Harlequin over the usual radio channel, once the killer stops moving"





Harlequin scowled: "He's not even bothering with the ritual anymore.
He just wants these people dead.

We need to call Kathy, now!"

Twilight nodded to the ones in the room.

"Thank you for the cooperation, officer. We'll try to inform the potential next victim. Keep up the good work, we'll call you when we know more."

She hung up, then tried calling Kathy Faniel.

"Hope we're not too late here..."

The phone rang for about 10 painfully long seconds, before a startled young voice suddenly came through:

"H-Hello? Hmm.. Khm.. Yes, Hello?" a young woman's voice called.

"Domt wait any longer... you guys need to fucking book it petal to the metal go go go!" She says over her radio to the fireteams, "Davis is dead, get to kathey, sheilds up and swords drawn, once you get to her if she is there keep her alive at all costs and nuturalize the threat. Failure is not an option here." Rain rolls up her sleeve revealing a thin piece of metal on her arm, "Twilight, Harle, We need to get into the skys ASAP If the fireteams cant get to her we can." She starts her way out, "Come on sand lets move." She starts jogging her way to the exit, "Talk and fly twi."

She spoke again, hoping her Tesian was casual enough.

"Hello Kathy? You're currently speaking with Twilight Sparkle. Now, I don't want to panic you, but there is a dangerous individual coming towards you with malicious intent. But don't worry, our forces are on their way to pick you up and give you protection. Please go along with them, they'll keep you safe from the lunatic. Where are you right now, we'll pick you up there."

Her heart and mind are racing, knowing full well how easy it is for a spellcaster to travel to their desired location.

~Ditching my own plan so easily, shameful. I didn't expect to be this far behind of our killer, damn it! Now, she's our last hope. If the serial killer continues, who knows who he hits next. We'll be back to square one.~

Kaylee Brown wrote:"Sparkle?... yes. I understand" the officer sounded like he was talking to someone else in the background. Where ever he was, it sounded very crowded out there:

"I found this cellphone on a charred body. Am I to understand that the victim was named Davis Archer?" the officer asked:
"The owner of this cellphone was murdered, three minutes ago"



"Shit" Harlequin quietly swore: "We waited too long"

"Was it a ritualistic murder?" Amy shouted into the phone from her seat.




"There was nothing ritualistic about it!" the officer said: "Davis Archer was murdered in the middle of a busy street, in broad daylight.


The victim was waiting for a public bus, together with a dozen other people, when a cloaked figure suddenly emerged out of the alley and brandished a flaming sword, charging right at the crowd.
Everyone ran and there was panic.

The victim attempted to flee, but the cloaked figure pursued him, hurling lightning bolts across the street and cutting off his possible escape routes.
Until the killer finally reached David Archer and ran a flaming sword right through his chest. Archer died and his body burned to ash in seconds.
After that, the killer ran.

There are dozens of witnesses, all claiming to see the same thing.


This was no 'Ritualistic Murder'. It was an assassination.



The killer is acting sloppy and isn't attempting to hide from view.
My men are secretly tailing him now. The killer appears to be unaware of their presence. We will continue a covert pursuit, until he leads us to his lair.

Will update you or Harlequin over the usual radio channel, once the killer stops moving"





Harlequin scowled: "He's not even bothering with the ritual anymore.
He just wants these people dead.

We need to call Kathy, now!"

"Wait, just think for a minute. If the ritual is optional, then why would he bother doing it for all the other murders in the first place? It'd just mean he'd be stuck at each of the crime scenes longer than he has to be? Unless..." Rogue ponders "Can we bring all of the witnesses to a police station and show them a picture of Davis Archer, to confirm that the man they saw incinerated was indeed the person we think he is?

If Davis Archer is our man, and he knew the police were on to him, he might reasonably think he could avade detection by faking his death. He could've picked out a random stranger, killed him with the flaming sword so the police wouldn't be able to identify the body, and planted the phone on him during the struggle to make the police think it was him."

"What?!" Kathy's panicked voice rang through: "D-don't let him get me!"

"Kathy, where are you?" Harlequin called.

"I'm... outside?" Kathy slowly replied.

"Where outside? You need to be more specific" Harlequin called again.

"..next to a... patch of green land" Kathy replied. She sounds unsure of herself.


"A park?" Amy asked aloud: "...there's several in Beusoleil"
"What else Kathy, what do you see!" Harlequin said: "We need more detail!"

"There's a... fountain in the middle" Kathy called: "With a statue of a big.. fish"



"...big fish?.." Amy repeated, looking at her laptop: "There's a dolphin shaped fountain, in the Summer Park, about 10 kilometers east of here"

"Alright, stay where you are Kathy, we're coming to get you" Harlequin called.

"O-okay" Kathy said uneasily: "P-please hurry okay?"




"All Fireteams, this is Harlequin, our VIP is in the Summer Park, all units, head over there now" Harlequin called into her earpiece, before sprinting back to the SUV's:

"Rain, we should drive there together. You'll exhaust yourself flying there. If we run into our killer, we'll need to be in top shape to repel him" she said, taking a seat next to the driver.




Amy sprinted back into her van and put on a seat belt at her work station:

".....Rogue... you're right..." she quietly said: "This is definitely something we should consider. I'll call the police department and relay your instructions to them.
I'll also ask them to send a few police cars to this factory, they can finish combing it for anything suspicious that we've missed in our search. Specifically, the chairs made during the cursed night shift and the workstation they used at the time"




"Lets roll out" Harlequin calmly called over the radio, as everyone entered the vehicles. The cars made a sharp U turn and speeded away from the factory in a single file formation.





"Okay, lets analyze what we know" Amy called over the earpiece:


"This factory. Four days ago.
Something happened during the night shift.

The 8 employees present, halted their work and freaked out.
They waited till morning, then left, complaining of headaches.

The same morning, magic began to fade and mental breakdowns increased.
Shortly after, an earthpony mage began hunting the 8 employees.
Conducting ritualistic murders each time.



It's clearly important to him. Rogue noticed this correctly.
The killer wouldn't needlessly risk getting caught, by staying at each crime scene longer than necessary. The rituals are clearly vital to him.


Then why did he break the pattern now?



Rogue may be right, Davis Archer may be the Beusoleil serial killer. Attempting to stage his own death and escape our notice"



Amy paused, thinking things over, as the vehicles speeded ahead:

"For now, we did all we could.
The cloaked killer is being covertly pursued by police. If all goes well, he will lead them to his lair. Then, we can stage an assault on his base.

In addition, the police will question the witnesses of the recent murder. We'll establish if the recent victim was Davis Archer, or his scapegoat.

Finally, it seems we identified the last target - Kathy. We should reach her shortly. Once we do, we need to decide where to hide her, until this mess is finally over"

Kaylee Brown wrote:"What?!" Kathy's panicked voice rang through: "D-don't let him get me!"

"Kathy, where are you?" Harlequin called.

"I'm... outside?" Kathy slowly replied.

"Where outside? You need to be more specific" Harlequin called again.

"..next to a... patch of green land" Kathy replied. She sounds unsure of herself.


"A park?" Amy asked aloud: "...there's several in Beusoleil"
"What else Kathy, what do you see!" Harlequin said: "We need more detail!"

"There's a... fountain in the middle" Kathy called: "With a statue of a big.. fish"



"...big fish?.." Amy repeated, looking at her laptop: "There's a dolphin shaped fountain, in the Summer Park, about 10 kilometers east of here"

"Alright, stay where you are Kathy, we're coming to get you" Harlequin called.

"O-okay" Kathy said uneasily: "P-please hurry okay?"




"All Fireteams, this is Harlequin, our VIP is in the Summer Park, all units, head over there now" Harlequin called into her earpiece, before sprinting back to the SUV's:

"Rain, we should drive there together. You'll exhaust yourself flying there. If we run into our killer, we'll need to be in top shape to repel him" she said, taking a seat next to the driver.




Amy sprinted back into her van and put on a seat belt at her work station:

".....Rogue... you're right..." she quietly said: "This is definitely something we should consider. I'll call the police department and relay your instructions to them.
I'll also ask them to send a few police cars to this factory, they can finish combing it for anything suspicious that we've missed in our search. Specifically, the chairs made during the cursed night shift and the workstation they used at the time"




"Lets roll out" Harlequin calmly called over the radio, as everyone entered the vehicles. The cars made a sharp U turn and speeded away from the factory in a single file formation.





"Okay, lets analyze what we know" Amy called over the earpiece:


"This factory. Four days ago.
Something happened during the night shift.

The 8 employees present, halted their work and freaked out.
They waited till morning, then left, complaining of headaches.

The same morning, magic began to fade and mental breakdowns increased.
Shortly after, an earthpony mage began hunting the 8 employees.
Conducting ritualistic murders each time.



It's clearly important to him. Rogue noticed this correctly.
The killer wouldn't needlessly risk getting caught, by staying at each crime scene longer than necessary. The rituals are clearly vital to him.


Then why did he break the pattern now?



Rogue may be right, Davis Archer may be the Beusoleil serial killer. Attempting to stage his own death and escape our notice"



Amy paused, thinking things over, as the vehicles speeded ahead:

"For now, we did all we could.
The cloaked killer is being covertly pursued by police. If all goes well, he will lead them to his lair. Then, we can stage an assault on his base.

In addition, the police will question the witnesses of the recent murder. We'll establish if the recent victim was Davis Archer, or his scapegoat.

Finally, it seems we identified the last target - Kathy. We should reach her shortly. Once we do, we need to decide where to hide her, until this mess is finally over"

"One thing we might want to consider, is how our man is tracing each of his targets" Rogue pipes up "Even if they were all close work colleagues, they might not've known where they each lived, and as the boss said, that information'd be confidential, so they couldn't just look it up.

So irrespective of whether our man is Davis Archer or not, they've to've some way of finding them all. Maybe the killer just stalked each of his victims in turn, but that'd require a longer timeframe then we currently've seen, unless this was all planned in advance and simply first revealed recently, we still don't fully know what happened at the night shift. Since they seem to still've access to magic, and the victims all seem to be ritually linked to the whole thing, the killer might've some way of magically homing in on them?

If that's the case, then it wouldn't matter where we take the last target, as the murderer could just follow them anywhere?"

"Oh my god" Harlequin blinked: "... you may be right.

Magically homing in on them... it would explain the short time frame between murders. Finding their addresses aside, the victims obviously move about. Beusoleil is a big city. To find each one so quickly...

If he really has a way to home in on them..." she frowned into space.



"...what do we do?" Amy asked, concern written all over her face.



The cars pulled to a sharp stop, next to a small but beautiful park, hidden amidst the skyscrapers and apartment complexes.

Among the thin crowd, present at the scene, you noticed a young girl, matching the description you've seen in the factory files. She looks confused and disoriented, but she clearly noticed you looking at her and she began looking at you in turn, nervously rubbing her fingers together.

She looks unsure if she should move toward you or not.

"We take her and keep moving." Twilight says. "Something tells me this sloppy murder is done not to just throw us off, but because they're running out of time. Even if the ritual is missing, the way to murder is the same. But why murder someone with the sword if you can just fry them with lightning? Or telekinetically snap their neck? What makes the sword plunged in the chest important."

When they arrive at the scene, she reaches to the door. "I'm going out there. Stand ready to provide backup."

She steps out, looking at Kathy. She walks to h, motioning to come closer.

Kathy looks frightened and hesitates to approach, but decides to come closer after a moment:

"Hi! Hi, Um... hi" she said and nervously smiled.


The Summer Park was pretty small, only a few trees, comfy benches placed in the shade and a half dozen people slowly walking around. A lot of the bystanders were looking at you.
The functioning vehicles and the military attire must be attracting attention.

Twilight holds out her hand to shake it.

"Kathy Faniel? I'm Twilight Sparkle, we spoke on the phone. Now, I know it sounds strange, but shall we continue this conversation in the car? There is a lot going on now, we need your help."

"O-oh.. my help?" Kathy says reluctantly, nervously shaking Twilight hand:
"I.. don't really understand what's happening... w-why is someone trying to hurt me?" she asked, looking at everyone.

She nervously follows you to the car and enters.

"...where should we drive?" Harlequin asked: "..just.. forward?"


"...the killer may be running out of time, huh...." Amy quietly said to herself. She seems to be rapidly thinking.

Rain fiddles with her revolver. She keeps an eye out of her window and her finger on her sheilds trigger just in case she has to deploy it inside.