Witchers of Nifelheim

Twilight was looking at the open window, thenthrough it, noticing the fire escape ladder. With that info, she takes a closer look.

"This must be how he escaped. I don't know why he would bring out this much of that smell along though. But both could be a clue."

She walked to some of the officers and spoke up in her best Soren.

"You should take note of the scent and go after that. Maybe we can literally sniff him out."

She then went to the body. When she saw it, she swallowed back some bile that has built up in the back of her throat. But she still went to study the pentagram and the symbols she could make out, trying to deduce the origin of the ritual.

"Hmmmm..." She rubs her chin

Kaylee Brown wrote:Amy passed her open laptop to Tomas and followed Sand into the hall. In turn, Tom began looking over the scanned documents on the laptop.


"This is the 6sth victim. Female, unicorn. Identity still unknown." Tom said after a while, scrolling through the documents:

"All the other victims were found in the same way. A stab wound through the heart and the bodies completely burned, left in the middle of a pentagram.
The smell of 'Rose Hips' was also noted in all other crime scenes"



He looked at everyone in the apartment: "I have all the data about the previous victims, here on the laptop. We should start going through all of it, to find similarities between the murders.
If there's a pattern here, we might be able to predict his next murder"

He slightly squinted at the screen:



"All the documents were hard copies, scanned into the computer however. I won't be able to run a digital search, and there's just too much data to go through all of it.

But if you give me a specific inquiry, I'll be able to quickly locate it in the data.




For example, if you'll ask, were all the victims unicorns, I'll be able to pull data on all previous victims and say..... there were unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies among the victims. So there's no visible similarity there.


"Let me know which other fields you'd like to check for similarities.
Hopefully that way, we may be able to find a pattern between the murders"





Amy stepped out into the hall and looked at Sand with some level of worry:

"Yes, Sand? W-what's wrong?"

"Were there lots of blankets and used tissues at all of the other crime scenes? 'Cause that seems like a recurring theme here" Rogue asks Tomas as he gently pokes open the wardrobe in the living room to see what's inside.

After thoroughly examining every room, you only find two possible escape routes.

The fire escape ladder, behind the open window in the kitchen.
And the front door.


Once you walked passed the front door a second time, searching for anything off, you noticed that the doors keyhole and lock have been completely melted.
The door won't close like this anymore.

You notice faint burn marks around the melted lock and signs of forced entry. It almost looks like the lock was melted and punched in, with a wide sharp object.

Sure enough, after examining the living room again, you find the remains of the melted lock, scattered behind the entrance door.



"Mmmm... these locks are old but still made of metal" Harlequin said, following your line of sight: "They don't melt easily. What could've done this?.."





One of the officers nodded to Twilight: "I understand ma'am. We tried to follow the scent but, there was a brief rainfall, a few minutes ago. The scent disappeared on the streets. We couldn't track it past this apartment"




As you thoroughly study the pentagram, you can't seem to recognize this pattern. You've never seen anything like this.
There were some bizarre looking characters or perhaps even numbers, written along its perimeter. You can't seem to recognize which language was used to write them. Its unclear if the symbols are numbers or characters.

The entire pentagram looks bizarre. You've never seen anything like this.






Tomas squinted at the laptops screen, then called out to Rogue:

"No, there was nothing like this, at the other crime scenes. No blankets, no tissues. This is something new"

He then looked at the charred blanket next to the body: "Wait... why is this one charred? The others on the sofa are fine"

"Sorry" Officer Chabot said with a sheepish smile: "I may have tampered with the crime scene, before you arrived"

"What?" Tomas asked with confusion.

"The victim was wrapped in this charred blanket, when we found her" Chabot continued: "I had to remove the blanket to examine the body.
The victim was wrapped in it, as if she was cold"



"Odd" Tom said: "The other victims weren't wrapped in any blankets"
He went over to the nearest trashcan and took a closer look at the used tissues inside:
"...ew.... yeah, that's mucus all over the tissues..."




As you open the wardrobe, you find a surprisingly little amount of clothing inside. Whatever clothing was there, looked very worn and old.
One of the coats looks recently worn, its still wet from the rain.











Outside, in the hallway, Amy gingerly smiled to Sand:
"I'm... freaking out as well, trust me. I'm just trying not to let it show" she slightly wrapped herself in her arms and looked away:
"...I don't want to affect the morale of others. They have enough on their plate"

She looked at you, releasing a sad smile: "...I never imagined myself in a place like this, you know?
I was supposed to be a software programmer, working in some high-tech firm. That was my dream during university years.

If you told me last year, that I'd be recruited into a special military task force, of my ancestors homeland, I would've probably laughed.

I've never even been to Nyx. Now I'm part of its military"



Amy sighed and looked at Sand, with a sad smile:
"This isn't what I wanted to do in life, you know? This isn't how I imagined it. A tech specialist on the front lines? This isn't me. But..
After what happened in Adelheid... after what happened with the Digital Waltz...

I... I don't know if I could get back to my old life after that... how could I... when there's some horror lurking in behind the scenes that I don't know about?"



Amy released another sad smile and wrapped herself tighter in her arms:
"I don't like that. Not knowing. I don't... like that...
Especially when I know I'm good at programming... and there's something only I can do. I want to be there. you know?

I want to be there when something bad happens. So even if things go wrong, I'll be able to face myself in the mirror and say, I did all I could"



She sheepishly smiled: "....deep down, I'm scared... I'm terrified. I.. almost died today. I have to keep taping on, on my laptop, to keep my hands from visibly shaking" she lifted her hand to her mouth:

"I.. don't want others to see.. don't want them to worry..." she looked away: "....anyway"

She looked back at Sand:


"...listen, you should.. take a few moments outside, catch your breath. I want to go with you, you shouldn't be alone right now but, I have to go back there.." she looked back in the direction of the crime scene:
"...I'm a data analyst. A good one. There's something only I can do. That's why I have to be there. Even if I'm really scared"


She looked at you and smiled: "...there's probably something only you can do.
Once you find it, take a small break, then come back inside. We need you. Okay?" Amy smiled to Sand.

Rain kneels down next to the pentagram tilting her head, "Have we got any idea what this ritual symbol is made out of? What kind of ash it is? What its composition is?"

Kaylee Brown wrote:After thoroughly examining every room, you only find two possible escape routes.

The fire escape ladder, behind the open window in the kitchen.
And the front door.


Once you walked passed the front door a second time, searching for anything off, you noticed that the doors keyhole and lock have been completely melted.
The door won't close like this anymore.

You notice faint burn marks around the melted lock and signs of forced entry. It almost looks like the lock was melted and punched in, with a wide sharp object.

Sure enough, after examining the living room again, you find the remains of the melted lock, scattered behind the entrance door.



"Mmmm... these locks are old but still made of metal" Harlequin said, following your line of sight: "They don't melt easily. What could've done this?.."





One of the officers nodded to Twilight: "I understand ma'am. We tried to follow the scent but, there was a brief rainfall, a few minutes ago. The scent disappeared on the streets. We couldn't track it past this apartment"




As you thoroughly study the pentagram, you can't seem to recognize this pattern. You've never seen anything like this.
There were some bizarre looking characters or perhaps even numbers, written along its perimeter. You can't seem to recognize which language was used to write them. Its unclear if the symbols are numbers or characters.

The entire pentagram looks bizarre. You've never seen anything like this.






Tomas squinted at the laptops screen, then called out to Rogue:

"No, there was nothing like this, at the other crime scenes. No blankets, no tissues. This is something new"

He then looked at the charred blanket next to the body: "Wait... why is this one charred? The others on the sofa are fine"

"Sorry" Officer Chabot said with a sheepish smile: "I may have tampered with the crime scene, before you arrived"

"What?" Tomas asked with confusion.

"The victim was wrapped in this charred blanket, when we found her" Chabot continued: "I had to remove the blanket to examine the body.
The victim was wrapped in it, as if she was cold"



"Odd" Tom said: "The other victims weren't wrapped in any blankets"
He went over to the nearest trashcan and took a closer look at the used tissues inside:
"...ew.... yeah, that's mucus all over the tissues..."




As you open the wardrobe, you find a surprisingly little amount of clothing inside. Whatever clothing was there, looked very worn and old.
One of the coats looks recently worn, its still wet from the rain.

"So they were out in the rain and caught a cold" Rogue summised "Can we get CCTV footage from the streets, see if we can trace her movements back to anywhere where she might have met whoever did this and come back home with them, or was spotted by them and followed back to her home?"

Chabot looks at you apologetically:
"...regrettably, all the CCTV cameras around the city, were powered by magic. Ever since it began to disappear, we couldn't record any footage in the past 4 days. I'm.. sorry" he sheepishly smiled.




Tom began typing away on the laptop: "...lets see, I know the forensics team already analyzed the chemical composition of the pentagrams in the other crime scenes...
Amy? Could you come back in? I can't make heads or tails of this program.."


"Let's see" Harlequin leaned in over his shoulder: "......there... press that... no, yeah.. that one there" she pointed at the screen.

Tomas pressed something and began reading, then called out aloud:
"It seems all the pentagrams were drawn using a simple blue chalk. How it managed to catch fire and burn down, is beyond me"

Sand takes a deep breath and compses her self. "If you can go in there terrified then so can I. Thank you, it's good to know I'm not the only one about to lose it. I think I know how I can help"

Sand walks into the room, stops a moment, swallows, then walks right up to the body. Copying down the pentagram and the symbols into her book several times over a few pages she starts isolating the parts that look like the letters or numbers and writes them at the bottom of each page. She also isloates any symbols that repeat.

Sand knew that languages often followed patterns. All she had to do was find the pattern in the symbols.

Kaylee Brown wrote:Chabot looks at you apologetically:
"...regrettably, all the CCTV cameras around the city, were powered by magic. Ever since it began to disappear, we couldn't record any footage in the past 4 days. I'm.. sorry" he sheepishly smiled.




Tom began typing away on the laptop: "...lets see, I know the forensics team already analyzed the chemical composition of the pentagrams in the other crime scenes...
Amy? Could you come back in? I can't make heads or tails of this program.."


"Let's see" Harlequin leaned in over his shoulder: "......there... press that... no, yeah.. that one there" she pointed at the screen.

Tomas pressed something and began reading, then called out aloud:
"It seems all the pentagrams were drawn using a simple blue chalk. How it managed to catch fire and burn down, is beyond me"

"You linked the security systems to magic?" Rogue asks increduosly "What's wrong with good old fashioned electricity, you know, technology?"

"Like we're to talk about not relying on magic." Twilight said half-jokingly to Rogue.

She gets up after studying the pentagram, visibly pondering over it.
"Strange... Hmmm..." She turns to the group wit the computer. "Okay, I may be grasping at straws here, but let's try to point out all the murders on a map. It may seem weird, but this ritual here is clearly not enough to start draining all the magic. But what if it's part of something bigger? Maybe they murdered here... Because it's part of another seal."

She turned away. "Also, when back at the university, I'm going to need more books on magic languages. This seems very important to find out what this says."

Rain just stares at the symbols the body and takes a deep breath of the smell, "Open the door..." she whispers to herself glancing around, "Open. The. Door..." she bites her tongue trying to come up with anything, "Blue chalk... burned bodys... a possible enchanted weapon... ritualistic killings..." she shakes her head, "I see more then enough reason to proclame there is more then one killer..." she calls, "...If people are seeing the same dream all this is ritualistic and I just get this feeling its a group... a cult. Open the door... That door has to lead to something of religon esqe significance and all this..." she waves her hand around the room, "Seem like signitures of a cult."

//Going camping for the week. No responses from me untill at least Friday

// kk mate, have fun on the trip ^^



After thoroughly examining the symbols in the pentagram, you believe you have isolated several segments that may be words or sentences. Perhaps even a very long number.
You can't seem to understand what it means though, you're unfamiliar with this language.



Chabot looks at Rogue apologetically again:
"You must understand, Tesia's prosperity was always spearheaded by magic. It is rooted deep in our culture. And the Tesian mages are considered the best in the world.
Proving to the world that you can construct a capital city, and have it function on magic alone, it was a matter of pride"

Chabot shyly smiled: "We've come to rely on magic too much.
No one could ever imagine that, one day, it would all just disappear...

And now that it did... we feel like we lost our hands.." Chabot looked away. His smiled became a little sad.




Tom grimly looked around the room again: "...this does look like a cult's work, doesn't it.
The question is then, what are they after? What is their goal?"


Amy slowly walked into the room and liberated the laptop from Tomas, who seemed more than eager to pass it to her.

"Mark all the murders on a map.. huh... we haven't considered that yet" Amy said, beginning to type away: "If the murder locations are significant, if they really do form a massive seal, it would indicate that a massive ritual is being placed on Beusoleil.
Perhaps, the ritual that's been draining the magic, and causing the mental breakdowns.



But, more importantly, we'll be able to predict the location of the next murder!"





Amy began energetically hammering the keyboard with her finger tips, her eyes squinted and focused.

After a few minutes, she called: "There! I got it! Come take a look"
She motioned you to the screen, before even looking at it herself.



Once everyone gathered however, her excitement faded completely:


"Huh???..... this.... doesn't form a seal at all...... it looks..... completely random..." She frowned and squinted at the screen:

"I don't understand! This was a good idea! If all the murders formed a seal, it would prove our theory but....
These locations, they look completely random. Its not even symmetrical..."



She looked at the pentagram on the floor:
"...the pentagrams at the crime scenes were extremely symmetrical. Logic would dictate, that a larger seal over the city would also be symmetrical.
But, these murder locations look completely random, they don't form any kind of shapes... just a group of scattered dots...


I... don't understand..." Amy said, the energy and hope audibly fading from her voice.





Harlequin looked at the screen as well:

"Well, we can say for sure that all murders happened inside a 10 kilometer radius. This is the killers area of activity, so he will likely strike again here"
She drew a circle on the screen, with her finger, encasing all the dots together.

"If we know this much, we can at least double the police presence in this specific region. Make it harder for the killer to move. Maybe someone will spot him"






Harlequin nodded to herself, then looked at everyone:
"Alright, lets look at the scene as a whole again.
There's several things we still have to do.


We need to establish the identity of the victim.

We need to question the neighbors, they may have new information.


And we need to start analyzing the data on all previous victims.
These murders are ritualistic. There must be some kind of system in play. A way the killer chooses his victims.
If we can analyze all the victims and find a similarity between them, we can predict the killers next move"

Rain clears her throat and cracks her knuckles, "Well... if they are making a circle I would imagine their final destination will be in thw middle." She crosses her arms, "I imagine its one big ritual."

Kaylee Brown wrote:// kk mate, have fun on the trip ^^



After thoroughly examining the symbols in the pentagram, you believe you have isolated several segments that may be words or sentences. Perhaps even a very long number.
You can't seem to understand what it means though, you're unfamiliar with this language.



Chabot looks at Rogue apologetically again:
"You must understand, Tesia's prosperity was always spearheaded by magic. It is rooted deep in our culture. And the Tesian mages are considered the best in the world.
Proving to the world that you can construct a capital city, and have it function on magic alone, it was a matter of pride"

Chabot shyly smiled: "We've come to rely on magic too much.
No one could ever imagine that, one day, it would all just disappear...

And now that it did... we feel like we lost our hands.." Chabot looked away. His smiled became a little sad.




Tom grimly looked around the room again: "...this does look like a cult's work, doesn't it.
The question is then, what are they after? What is their goal?"


Amy slowly walked into the room and liberated the laptop from Tomas, who seemed more than eager to pass it to her.

"Mark all the murders on a map.. huh... we haven't considered that yet" Amy said, beginning to type away: "If the murder locations are significant, if they really do form a massive seal, it would indicate that a massive ritual is being placed on Beusoleil.
Perhaps, the ritual that's been draining the magic, and causing the mental breakdowns.



But, more importantly, we'll be able to predict the location of the next murder!"





Amy began energetically hammering the keyboard with her finger tips, her eyes squinted and focused.

After a few minutes, she called: "There! I got it! Come take a look"
She motioned you to the screen, before even looking at it herself.



Once everyone gathered however, her excitement faded completely:


"Huh???..... this.... doesn't form a seal at all...... it looks..... completely random..." She frowned and squinted at the screen:

"I don't understand! This was a good idea! If all the murders formed a seal, it would prove our theory but....
These locations, they look completely random. Its not even symmetrical..."



She looked at the pentagram on the floor:
"...the pentagrams at the crime scenes were extremely symmetrical. Logic would dictate, that a larger seal over the city would also be symmetrical.
But, these murder locations look completely random, they don't form any kind of shapes... just a group of scattered dots...


I... don't understand..." Amy said, the energy and hope audibly fading from her voice.





Harlequin looked at the screen as well:

"Well, we can say for sure that all murders happened inside a 10 kilometer radius. This is the killers area of activity, so he will likely strike again here"
She drew a circle on the screen, with her finger, encasing all the dots together.

"If we know this much, we can at least double the police presence in this specific region. Make it harder for the killer to move. Maybe someone will spot him"






Harlequin nodded to herself, then looked at everyone:
"Alright, lets look at the scene as a whole again.
There's several things we still have to do.


We need to establish the identity of the victim.

We need to question the neighbors, they may have new information.


And we need to start analyzing the data on all previous victims.
These murders are ritualistic. There must be some kind of system in play. A way the killer chooses his victims.
If we can analyze all the victims and find a similarity between them, we can predict the killers next move"

"Well maybe the pattern isn't finished yet, and there're a lot more murders to go" Rogue suggests "We don't know how many murders're actually needed in total, but whoever's committing them might realise that their path could be predicted if they did them in a recognisable order, so they could have jumbled them up so we wouldn't guess until the last few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fell into place and it'd be too late?"

"I'll go talk to some of the neighbours, see if they knew anything about the victim, or heard anything at the time of the murder" Rogue says, heading towards the door, "Anyone want to come with, or am I doing this solo?"

Amy nodded to Rain:
"..I kinda wish it was like that now, but..."

She looked at the screen again:

"...these dots don't form any kind of shape, they look completely random... no symmetry"




Tom began following Rogue: "I'll come with" he said, stepping back into the hallway:
"Lets see... we're on the 3rd floor. The entire apartment complex has 5 floors in total.

There's four different apartments on this floor, including the victims.
Where do you wonna start, I'll follow your lead"




Harlequin inched closer to Rain:
"We should start looking for similarities between the past murders. If we can find a pattern, it will be the lucky break we need"


"Right" Amy nodded: "Just give me an inquiry and I'll run a check between all the murder cases.
For example, if you ask me something like: 'Were all victims female?', I'll be able to run a quick check and say......"
She tapped a few keys on her keyboard:

"The victims were both male and female. So no similarities there"


She looked at everyone and nodded: "Give me another inquiry and I'll run a quick check"

Amy nodded to Rogue: "You may be right. Its a pain that we don't know how many murders need to happen."

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought.

"A cult, hmmm..."
"Not yet complete, that could be it..."

She looked at Amy.
"Amy, I have two requests if possible. First, is it possible to search for their workplaces or places they visited? Also, can I have a few copies of the map you just made, along with a list of the murders of oldest to newest? I'll focus on the map itself, trying to find the magic used here."

She looks around the room, nibbling her finger. "What is this magic?"

"We already know all the victims have burn marks that start around the wound yes? We have the scent down as well... are all the symbols the same?" Rain pulls out her phone and takes a few pictures of the symbols she bites her lip as she sends them to her sister.

'You seen anything like this? Im sending these to you if you can read them it would be a huge help thanks -Rain'

'Never seen em before. Cant help you with that. Its strange, I've never seen anything like it. If you havent already however I would link it to the reason magic is going missing. Then again I have no idea, I've seen many cults before and this looks like the work of one Sorry i cant help you. -Fire'

Rain sighs resting her fingers between the bridge of her nose, "It seems to be leaching magic... you had that experience with Tirek a while back im thinking that it could be around the same idea Princess..."

"Got it" Amy enthusiastically nodded: "Okay, lets start with workplaces.


Mark Buote,
Male,
Age: 61
Workplace: "Loyd's Silverline Plane-tech Factory"


Barret Carrel
Male,
Age: 23
Workplace: "Loyd's Silverline....  Plane-tech Factory"



Third victim, Denis Voyer
Male
Age: 45
Workplace: .......Loyd's..... Silverline......  Plane-tech Fac- what the hell?" Amy frowned at the screen and began rapidly scrolling through it.




After a few moments, she looks at you, stunned and baffled:

"...all the other victims... worked at 'Loyd's Silverline Plane-tech Factory'.
Its located just... 10 kilometers away from here. Inside the killers active radius"

She looks at the screen, baffled:



"This is the connection? But it... doesn't make any... sense... why only target people who work at this factory??
If it turns out that the latest victim worked there as well..." she looked at the burned body.

"If this is a coincidence... then its one hell of a coincidence..."





She spent a few moments, chewing her lower lip, squinting at the screen, then looked at you:

"Regarding places the victims visited, there's.. a lot of data, but they mostly visited places around their homes. Most places were inside our killers active radius.

I'll give you the list of victims, from first, to last.

Mark Buote, Male, Age: 61
Barret Carrel, Male, Age: 23
Denis Voyer, Male, Age: 45
Alesya Wion, Female, Age: 19
Viau Zay, Female, Age: 53
And the unknown victim in this apartment, female, age and full name unknown.

I'll print you a map, once we're back inside the SUV. I have a work station in one of them"

"All the pentagrams were the same, in all the previous murders-" Amy nodded to Rain:

"Each pentagram consists of over a dozen distinct symbols"

Kaylee Brown wrote:Amy nodded to Rain:
"..I kinda wish it was like that now, but..."

She looked at the screen again:

"...these dots don't form any kind of shape, they look completely random... no symmetry"




Tom began following Rogue: "I'll come with" he said, stepping back into the hallway:
"Lets see... we're on the 3rd floor. The entire apartment complex has 5 floors in total.

There's four different apartments on this floor, including the victims.
Where do you wonna start, I'll follow your lead"

"Well let's start with the old lady's flat, since she seemed to take an interest in the whole thing when we first arrived" Rogue shrugs and walks over to the door, knocking promptly, "Do we know who's in all of these boltholes by the way?"

"No" Tom shook his head wistfully: "We don't have any information about the resident's here."

As you knock on the door, you hear the elderly lady begin shouting something on the Tesian language, right through the closed door.
You're not quite sure what she said, but she sounded very angry.

A few moments pass, but it seems like she doesn't plan to open the door.


"..we may need a translator" Tom said, looking at you helplessly. It seems he doesn't know Tesian.

"I say we pay a visit to this factory." Rain crosses her arms, "If they all work there mabye thats where our killer is hiding. Hell who knows. Me might just kick the hornets nest." She huffs.

Harlequin thought for a moment, then firmly nodded:

"You're right. We cannot overlook something so big.
Five victims worked in the same factory. I don't understand this connection, but the answer may lie in the factory.

We'll head over there, as soon as we've gathered all we can from the crime scene"

"The map would be most helpful indeed." Twilight says.

Then her brow furrows. "Though that is an odd coicidence, we may have found something. But to answer that, we would need the information of similiar murders in other nations. With the currect state of chaos there, I doubt we'll get that easily."

She looks to those present. "The factory is our main target here, maybe something is going on that sucks the magic into there, with these people either finding it out by accident or being chosen as sacrifices. But the fact is, it's not an everyday situation there."