[ti]dungeon[/ti]Round 2: Drink Till We're Offline

Round 2: Drink Till We're Offline
#Corruption #Insight #Threat

Yggy Br00ks's tub of ice cream hits the keg, splattering against the side. Pale stripes of Para-Lychee streak the outside of the prison, hissing and bubbling on the heated casing.

Alice!, Moon Bunny, and Laguna attack the keg with spoons. Alice and Moon Bunny's weapons of choice, metal spoons, ping against the outside, letting off a discordant note like an off-key tuning fork. Laguna's wooden spoon, extracted from the lawnmower in the greenhouse care of Furrlicity Purrfection, hits with a soft thunk.

Her second, stronger hit caves in the side of the keg, and chunks of blackened shell fall away, revealing the from of a man trapped inside.

"Sidera somnia ferri."

Laguna's words linger in the night air, both a code and a commentary on the event she's just witnessed. The man on the ground is curled in a ball, soaked, his once-pristine suit covered in beer and albumin and corrupted juices, and yet as he stands up and adjusts his glasses there is an unmistakable air of dignity and power. A certain moustache that commands respect. An odd muscle twinges in his neck, and a shadow retreats from his eyes, kept at bay for now.

"You rescued me just in time. I was beginning to think you couldn't understand my messages," says the man in the drenched suit. "My name is Cygnus, head of the Mythstar guild, and you have my thanks."

SPOILER: Click to show

{CYGNUS THEME}

He looks around the garden at the assembled partygoers. Bros with their mouths open wide, crawling shadows under the tables, and Chadwick, clutching a physical copy of the dossier and with eyebrows raised high enough to merge with his thick hair. "Uncle Cyg?"

Cygnus strides over and plucks the thick stack of murder notes out of Chadwick's hands. "Important things are afoot, Chadwick." His eyes catch on the names of the victims, and he frowns. "There will be time for mourning later. For now, let me clear up this mess."

His eyes skim the pages, moving at a phenomenal speed as he absorbs the information within. He nods. "Well it's clearly Elmerich," he says, as if offering the time of day to a passerby.

"He has the motive, the means, and the opportunity. Arguing with Ophelia? That's a red flag right there, and a fools errand. He obviously spiked the ice cream with Poison Powder, mixing it in with the wooden spoon, which he then disposed of in the garden shed, simply trying to move the evidence as far away from himself as possible."

"Most likely he was busy covering his tracks when you got home and unknowingly slipped past him," Cygnus says to Chadwick. "You went to sleep upstairs while your father was hard at work in his study, mere feet away from the murderer. Reginald takes a break from work and Elmerich, waiting for you, ambushes him in the hallway near the training room. Poliwhirl scorches the flooring with a Flamethrower before realizing it's attacking the wrong Bronstanton. And when it switches to Water then the fight is quickly over. Water beats Ground every day of the week."

"Elmerich breaks into the study and Poliwhirl smashes open the safe, but instead of savings-bonds or cold hard cash he finds the one thing that it Poliwhirl can't touch: Water Stones."

"Which just leaves one loose end: the Move Mod." Holding the folder like a mage about to cast a lighting spell, he turns and points towards Chadwick with such conviction that the muscle-bound Guild Leader flinches. "I believe that Furrlicity Purrfection was on the right track, but asked the wrong question. Chadwick, can you show us your second strongest move? And I'm not talking about Double-Edge."

"Yeah no probs," Chadwick says, and with a nod to Bruiser the Audino slams the remains of the snack table with Wood Hammer, obliterating a tray of brownies.

A lesser detective would have smiled here, but there is no room for levity in Cygnus' voice. Only cold, hard, facts.

"Your mother gave that to you, didn't she. For self defense?"

"She said she was worried about someone in the house trying to hurt me."

"And who would that be? The Vanillish? The Butterfree? Or perhaps the Poliwhirl whose signature move is Flamethrower." He pushes his glasses up his nose, and a band of light from the flaming Greenhouse slides dramatically across the lenses. "Of course. Ophelia was a wise woman. Though we can't always see how pressing a danger is, nor can we prevent disaster from striking."

"This whole event is a fiasco. I leave for a week and everything spirals out of control. What was intended to be a lesson in healthy eating turned into a double homicide." He sighs, resting a hand on Chadwick's shoulder.

"Well let's get him! Throw him away for a thousand years. No key, no kale cakes, and no weights bench! Hell, maybe not even any free weights!"

"Elmerich will pay, Chadwick. That I promise you. No force in this world will keep the scythe of justice from finding its mark upon him, but that must wait. For now there is something far more pressing," Cygnus says, as another massive explosion shakes the grounds. A monstrous roar splits the air. A cacophony of pain and fury, coming from the Greenhouse.

Cygnus holds up the burning core, and those close enough can see thin lines of black Corruption snaking across its surface, like veins filled with tar. "As I'm sure you've noticed by now, the spread of the Corruption is considerable. Far worse than I feared. We must protect this Heart at all costs. It's already struggling from being submerged in that muck for so long." He points an authoritative finger at Yggy Br00ks, who is still covered in his markings, and Laguna, Moon Bunny, and Alice!, who are holding spoons. "You young women look hale and hearty. I designate you as temporary Knights of Mythstar. Protect this Heart with your life."

DUNGEON COMPLETE

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