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| Action Id: 3573 | Crisis: | Participants: Hickson, Carita, Bedivere, Corbit, Evander, Quintin, Wren, Asriel and Delfina | |
| Status: Resolved | Submitted: July 1, 2019, 10:24 a.m. | Public: True | GM: Apostate |
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Silver: 30000 Economic Resources: 1000 Military Resources: 85 |
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Action by Hickson
Hickson organizes an investigation into who is responsible for the annihilation of the Village of Coldreach and House Coldrain. He starts investigating in Coldreach, collecting and recording all relevant physical evidence with painstaking care - from fragments of weapons or armor, bits of debris, an analysis of the likely tactics used to attack the village, to the approximate size of the attacking force. Hickson records any and all relevant information that might lead him to deduce who is responsible for the attack. He will also speak to anyone living near the village, as well as those who may have had contact with House Coldrain in the Mourning Isles more generally or in Arx.
At various intervals, Hickson will hold meetings with his fellow investigators, in order to share information and refine theories as well as help to focus the group's attention to places most likely to lead to them to the answers they seek.
Action by Asriel
It's a personal matter for House Darkwater, this whole mystery of who trespassed onto their lands and slaughtered the people of the village of Coldreach and so while Lord Asriel Darkwater is confident that he's assembled a competent team, he takes to the field himself on this matter as well. The only thing better than a keen eye is one's own keen eye, after all. He wants to examine the aftermath of Coldreach for himself. He'll be going over the settlement and the surrounding area with a fine-toothed comb, because nobody comes and goes without leaving behind a single tell-tale trace and even if they do that can be indication enough of certain things.
Action by Wren
While others venture to the grotesque murder scene, Wren takes a slightly different route and heads toward settlements nearby. She's a brave, charming merchant and good at striking up conversations with people, helping to lower their guard with talk of trade and the area before smoothly peppering her discussion with questions about Coldreach as she'll have steered conversations toward it through some gentle manipulations. It was a horrible and tragic thing after all that happened. Did anyone see anything? Know of anyone who did? Hear any salacious rumors? She's a traveling merchant and needs to protect herself after all.
Once Wren has what answers she can get (and made some possible future merchant-related contacts), she'll reconvene with the others to exchange notes, grateful she escaped having to see the sights (and the smells) of Coldreach itself.
Action by Evander
Evander will be investigating the incident on a couple of fronts:
* He will be pulling up the whites of people who live in Coldreach in the period leading up to the event, trying to determine whether there was any clues, unusual events, or hints of what was coming, or whether there might be clues in the history of Coldreach or the Coldrain family.
* He will be looking for trade and other ship routes that regularly stop by Coldreach in the hopes of tracking down their crews and either directly discussing with them, or following their whites on anything they may have seen before, during or after the event.
He will be sharing these notes with those that travel to Coldreach, but will not be attending himself.
Action by Quintin
Quintin will be doing his best to figure out WTF happened at Coldreach. He'll do his best to figure out the particulars of how it all happened, considering strategies and tactics.
Action by Corbit
Corbit investigates the area, looking for clues, figuring out what exactly happened, trying to reconstruct the scene as well as hopefully figure out who did all this. He will meticulously search both the village and Coldrain house for anything from dropped weapons, to blood spatters to footprints that might still be left both outside and inside.
Action by Delfina
Lady Delfina isn't much of an investigator, but she knows how to use a sword. It seems rather dangerous to poke around in a place where something unknown murdered an entire settlement, so she's there to protect everyone and provide security.
Action by Bedivere
A seasoned veteran of riding up to the disgusting battlefields and then figuring out what actually happened, Lord Bedivere carefully inspects the crime scene from varying distances before finally combing it for every clue that they can possibly find, doing so with intelligent coordination with his fellow investigators and the Darkwater Peers. With an open mind, he tries not to pre-emptively assume but to diligently gather thorough evidence to accurately paint the historical picture behind what really transpired around/within Coldreach village.
Action by Carita
Having been part of the building of Coldreach (See: Action 460), Carita has maps of the village, thanks to Sameera Coldrain (RIP) and what they were shooting for, as well as a general idea of where everyone living there came from (thanks to her people knowing people that kept track of these things). If anyone has already investigated the village, she'd have those same people hook them out for questioning. She's not overly keen on the smells of death, but she's happy to help her family find justice of some sort (while heavily guarded), if only just why it was done. Her goal is to see if these deaths were at all linked with the murder of Oliver Arterius nee Coldrain. The Inquisition began an investigation on him, but it remains open to this day, according to the Master of Questions (Laric), and High Inquisitor (Alistair) who told her the only suspect they had slit his own throat. She would also ask her guards to be very, very aware of cultists that could possibly turn in to a swarm of bugs that bite, and that should that happen fire is best. She's also bringing in the Lament Marines to keep the group safe.
Result
It was a sellsword group of Undrowned Sons.
It's exhausting, compiling evidence. There weren't many eyewitnesses that survived, and none at all at Coldreach, but some fishing vessels did spot ships with no banners sailing towards Coldreach, coming from the southeast, which would have been a direct path from Port Defiance. And while that suggests pirates, this was at least flotilla strength of all warships, including at least one drommond.
Other bits of evidence turn up, suggesting who might have hired the sellsail company. Some Thraxians claim in Arx that Sheena got into some heated argument at the Ebb and Flow with some lords and ladies, and a lady with a dress decorated with a sunflower motif took particular offense. Some darkwater commoners at Darkwater Watch say there had been a few uncomfortable incidents with visiting traditionalists being outraged at the existence of a thrall settlement. It was clear that Coldreach was seen as a stick in the eye of traditionalists, but as to who in particular was offended enough to hire sellswords to murder them all? That's less clear.