final investigation

[arsholes]

[It's been almost a week since Orthrus' lucky escape. Almost a week, of all calls to Heisenberg going (metaphorically) to voicemail. Almost a week, to rest and recover from the harrowing losses of the previous Friday.

It's been almost a week. And the storms are getting worse.

You know the locked door on the first floor? The one that goes into the center of the tower, right across from the great entry hall doors?

Today, there's a heavy iron key sticking out of the lock. With a familiar crest on the head.

The key is sticky with wet yellow paint, and wetter blood.]

Comments

[arsholes]

[Good news! If she sits down in the thinking chair with the cipher, she can read the old-ass journal.

This journal is bound in an exquisite leather that seems to be several centuries old. It's gilded at the corners, and perhaps most unusually, it's shaped like an equilateral triangle.

The journal is written in immaculate cursive, and seems to be a journal belonging to a powerful alchemist. This alchemist, who never calls him- or herself by name in the journal, seems to be desperate to create the Magnum Opus in order to use its power to find someone that they lost.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei takes... some time to translate this, but she thinks she gets the gist of it. She bites her lip and hesitates, then gently shuts the books. Now on to the non-journal book. Is this alchemical theory or something?]

[arsholes]

[Actually, no!

It's also a nearly ancient tome, with a fine leather cover that was probably once resplendent. The gilded paint on the title and the authors' names has worn off over time, but the relief where it was printed is still there.

This is a book about monsters, and how to kill them.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei shivers. She recalls the notebook and also some early team meetings, so she'll flip to a few sections: vampires and demons if they're there.]

[arsholes]

[The book is very thick but incredibly well-organized with entire sections and subsections on nearly any type of creature you can think of: vampires, zombies, demons, ghosts, Night Creatures. It reads as either very well-researched or written by someone who's experienced these things.

The section on demons isn't especially large but it is thorough. Primarily they are confined to Hell, doing their duties to punish damned souls and the like. They are capable of being summoned, either through dark rituals or through the work of a Forgemaster to put them into bodies of the dead to create Night Creatures.

The vampires section is especially thick. It starts off with a basic definition of what a vampire is: an undead creature who, through the consumption of blood or other types of life essence (such as bodily fluids, psychic energy or life energy itself), sustains it's own life. Because of this these creatures have potential to live for hundreds of years at a time. Many of them are even able to pass for human despite their monstrous features such as their red eyes and elongated canines that they use to puncture skin to get access to their food.

There are also mentions of rumors, taken from word of mouth and books left behind by generations of monster hunters, of other types of vampiric creatures. For example, the rare dhampir. They are the result of a union between a vampire and a human. They have many of the vampires' strengths and, because of their human half, few of the weaknesses save for a desire (but not necessarily requirement) for blood.

But even more rare and sort of buried in another section are elemental spirits, nigh immortal beings that have existed from the beginning of time. Some humans revere (and mistake) them as deities when really, at least in the author's opinion, they're merely disgusting parasites. Entities that lurk in the shadows and feed on the suffering of humankind to sate their own endless appetites.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei shudders, reading all of this. She takes some notes and tries to commit the rest to memory.

Box time. Is it locked, or does Heisenberg reserve that for his personal massagers?]

[arsholes]

[It is not locked! In fact, the lid opens very easily to reveal a half-full box of cigars. On the inside lid is a familiar logo in sticker form, marking these as a delivery from Fantasy Costco.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei giggles. She puts the cigars back, piles the books onto her bundle of supplies, and goes to check the chair. Anything hidden or interesting around there?]

[arsholes]

[It's a very comfortable chair. Nothing especially interesting or sinister about it.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Okay! She'll pack up and head to the others, then.]

[arsholes]

[Fair enough! Does she want to take one last quick look at the monster hunters book cover? Maybe getting the authors will be useful.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Sure! She'll make a note of that one.]

[arsholes]

[The names, legible through the imprint more than any actual ink, read as S. Belmont and A. Tepes.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[with the anti-spirit propaganda, she was almost expecting G. Fujita

I, however, am screaming at a level only audible by dogs]