Captive Convalesence

Things have been... busy in the tower in recent months. Understandably so, given that it's the single strongest point of power among adventurers in all of Yamato. The Scale's work in fortifying and building infrastructure within the Tower has made it a lynchpin in coordinating defense and absorbing refugees from all over. With one very recent exception, the tower is relatively safe. Tolbana has become a place for all manner of refugees to find solace, whether they're old immigrants from the fall of Ezzo, to the recent Uncrowned fleeing the Palace Lands and adventurers taking refuge in the wake of Mac Anu's capture.

That also means that... supply lines are being strained. They can't take in too many more, not without massive improvements to existing food production. But that doesn't mean they'll turn down adventurers in need.

The Doctor had been briefed of the recent engagement on the walls of Mac Anu. When Shiruba arrives, she finds that the clinic's ward has been prepared to receive several new patients, to diagnose the depths of their injury... And to determine just how many times they may have already died.

There are rumors, after all, about what's been going on in Mac Anu...

There's definitely unpleasant things going on in Mac Anu, rumors or not. It's pretty evident when the trio of Adventurers are brought in. With the way they're shuffling and stumbling even with help it's evident they're still suffering the effects of the multiple status and debuff conditions that was used to keep them from struggling against their punishment at the hands of the Rosenheim Sheriff. They shudder uneasily on their feet and occasionally mutter about not wanting to go back to the Church again and again.

And that's not even the physical injuries. Whatever is going on in the Root City, it is -not- pleasant for the non-Palace Land adventurers still inside.

Shiruba brings up the rear, not wanting to be in the way of getting the three into the Ward and onto beds or tables or whatever it is the clinic has, concern clearly etched into her expression. Even the efforts made to aid them on the trip from the Dukedom to Alne and the Tower has only gotten so far. "Whatever they've been through, it must of been traumatic."

The ward is specifically furnished for relatlively less serious cases. Convalescent care, in other words, rather than emergency surgery or anything like that.

...Not that Prophylaxis has figured out /how/ to make surgery a thing here yet, but there are still more intensive medical procedures he can perform that require appropriate tools and furnishing. This room, though, is mostly full of beds and nurses equipped with potions and antidotes and so on, many of them brewed by the doctor himself.

Prophylaxis nods and touches a hand on each of the adventurers in turn as they arrive, apparently performing a medical Inspection on them. "I've heard terrible things. There are... consequences to dying, even here. To be die over and over and over again, even without being crowned, it's an unthinkable fate. Who could in good conscience ever order such a thing...?" Prophylaxis shakes his head slowly. "We'll take care of them as best we can, but I've yet to find a cure for mental trauma. Thank you for bringing them here."

"I don't suppose you learned anything about what was going on in Mac Anu while you were out rescuing these poor people, did you?"

"That is... something that cannot easily -be- cured, even in an age of magic and mystism," Shiruba admits with a sigh. "Still, I'd rather they be in the care of a professional, Doctor." Though she nods a bit as well. "As we have learned. And Shirin was proclaiming they would 'die until they no longer resisted or remembered'," she's paraphrasing a little, but it gets the point across. "Presumabling to take advantage of those consequences. They likely had people waiting in the Church to crown them," she looks to the trio as they're taken to beds, "Or worse. Probably saw it happen to others, while they were chosen to make an example of, as bait for a very vicious trap. One we could not risk not engaging, because I'm certain he would of gone through the with threats if we hadn't." Just thinking back on it makes her hackles stand on end.

"Not specifics, but it's clearly not pretty for any of the Dukedom aligned Adventurers inside. Captured and either locked up, or put through... that until they can be Crowned. But they leave Landers alone... or at least don't intentionally try to harm them, it seems." Shiruba finds a spot that she won't be in the way while the professionals work. "These crowns are an artifact even I don't want anything to do with, and I'm an Archeologist!"

'Die until they no longer resisted or remembered.' The doctor's eyes go cold at the statement, a flash of frigid rage darkening his expression. "Shirin. The so-called sheriff. Yes, I'm familiar. I doubt that memory loss is strictly necessary for the crown to function. No, this is probably nothing but callous cruelty. Utter disregard for their fellow human beings. To kill someone until they're hollowed out, an empty vessel with which they could do what they pleased..."

He shakes his head slowly and releases a long sigh. "I'm glad you were able to get them to safety. But they're just a drop in the bucket. How many adventurers are still stuck in there, unable to leave...? Every single day is another memory lost for so many. The sooner we can liberate Mac Anu the better, but to do that... We need to secure the other root towns first. Have you had any luck on your end of things in that regard?"

"It's an ongoing process. New World had arrangements to help secure Fort Ouph's Church, and most of us that haven't set up there or on the Isle when Shibuya fell have migrated to Dun Loireag. But finding these 'keystone' individuals is a much more complicated matter. We still don't even know entirely what we're looking for, other than the limited information we got at the war council." Shiruba folds her arms idly in thought. "I'm still trying to figure out why Mac Anu is the one they went for. They're clearly targeting places with high concentrations of Adventurers or that are Adventurer maintained... but why Mac Anu? Any of the Root Towns would of given them Adventurers... and if they really wanted to cripple the Dukedom Navy they would of went for one of their dedicated ports..." Her ears flick as she shakes her head. "Their methodology is so hard to get a read on..."

"There are methods you could try to employ to find them more quickly," Prophylaxis explains, his brow creasing with thought. "Enigma pieces of Oracle or Loremaster for example. They may not be able to pinpoint their exact positions, but they could give you a hint as to where to begin. I'm surprised that the Mage Tower hasn't begun using some of the ones they've been collecting, honestly." Or perhaps there's a very good reason they haven't been used. After all, they're... not exactly the most auspicious items in the world. "If you have an actual loremaster or oracle on call, that would be even better, of course."

"We've been focusing our efforts on Carmina Gadelica and Dun Loireag, ourselves, though any help you might be able to provide on the latter would be excellent. I know Hifumi runs a restaurant in town; he might have some connections in the area he can tap. Maybe that one... suspicious candy merchant. Hm."

"Regardless, I can think of a few reasons they went for Mac Anu," the doctor says with a shrug. "They immediately went for Eas afterwards. It seems like they're primarily targeting Adventurer-held or Adventurer-associated areas. You said that they weren't hurting Landers-- it may be that they're working on a paradigm that prevents them from doing so without just cause. Now that Yamato's Landers are mobilizing as well, the situation may have changed, though..."

Wolven ears perk up. Then Shiruba umms softly, sounding slightly embarassed. "I'm a Loremaster, actually. Seems I unlocked the ability somehow with establishing that museum. I, ah, haven't brought it up in public because if word gets out and the enemy decides to target people with the advanced abilities like tha--" Then smacks a palm to her face after realization fully sets in. "I am such an idiot. I've been running back and forth between various things as Guild Leader and trying to help with the refugees and these rescuess and that and I barely even considered what I could do with that ability..."

"Oh, well that's certainly convenient," Prophylaxis chimes with genuine relief, "The more we have on hand, the better. Don't beat yourself up over not thinking of it; there's been a lot going on in the world. Far too much for any one person. The important thing to do now that you realize what you should do is to move forward and do as much as you can as best as you can. What came before is immaterial until all is said and done and the whole can be examined in retrospect."

"In other words, now that you've remembered it, let's take advantage of it as soon as we can. I won't assume that the enemy doesn't have similar powers available to them, but for now we need to press as many advantages as we can. Do you know what sorts of things you can examine with that ability of yours? I know that each iteration of a Power seems... limited in scope, at times."

"That has been the story of my life ever since being talked into the position... But I do the best I can to help others where I can." Talking about something other than the dastardly things possibly going on in Mac Anu puts her a little at ease, though. Better to talk about what one does know, than the unknown and their imagination can fill the gaps in with things probably worse than the reality. "Items and objects. Though not necessarily 'material' objects," Shiruba goes into explaining. "I was able to get information on the divergent sect of Gnolls by examining one of the summoning rituals they were using..."

An awkward pause.

"Oh, by the way, there's a divergent sect of Gnolls that are into demon worship and other occult practices. Problems like that don't go away just because there's a war grinding through the area. But Robert also knows about it, I filled him in since he was part of the group that got us to that point that I was even able to scan the thing."

"Hmmn, so for instance... Could you attempt to analyze the magic that allows the Lynchpins to control the root towns? Trace it back to the source, so to speak...?" Prophylaxis asks, his mind already wandering through the possible applications. In contrast to Shiruba, the Doctor seems like... Well, by reputation, some kind of terrifying engine of efficiency that runs on caffeine and a limitless well of spite held towards any and all who doubt what a madman with absolute control over the timetables can accomplish if sufficiently motivated. But really, he's just very good at managing projects. "Fascinating. It's almost like an extension of the Inspect ability. Hm. I wonder if you could Loremaster the root towns themselves...?"

Beat.

"Oh! Right, the Gnolls. I was actually intending to drag Schneider out to see if they can't be purged of their... extremely glitchy demonic infection. Whatever they worship, it doesn't seem to 'stick' properly to them. I don't suppose you found any altars made of bone or teeth?"

"That might be a little too abstract. I.. don't think I can cover an entire city, not without more time and experience." Shiruba gestures with her hands only so far apart in front of herself. "I don't know how much of a range there is, but the best results do seem to come from being in closer proximity. I haven't tried such a big target, but Uta says she got one hell of a headache trying to utilize it in relation to a city and it's past events. Of course, her focus is different so... Uh. These abilities are still such a new concept, don't know all the limitations yet." The lifts one hand to cusp her chin once more. "If we could reduce the range, it might be possible to try and hone in on a connection..."

Oh, right, the glitchy Gnolls. "The ones that seem to congregate around a glitched version of Hoggar? Yeah, seen those too. They may or may not be connected to the demonic ones, who follow a demonic gnoll god instead of the classic nameless one the standard packs do. But they are still an issue, especially if the glitching gives them unorthadox abilities."

"Hmm, I see. I suppose that's fair. I know Uta's throat starts to ache whenever she overuses her abilities. 'Voice' and 'hearing' seem to be vitally important things in this world. Moreso that other abilities and senses. At the very least, our voices seem tied to the 'Powers' that we might possess. There may be something to the resonance of song as well, but I've only just started down that particular rabbit hole."

Says the man with the floppy bunny ears.

"Well, we'll do what we can. Maybe if we find something inextricably tied to a root town, like the Chaos Gate or something, that might be 'small' enough...?" Or maybe they need someone with Know Being.

"Yes, those are the ones," the doctor confirms. "So they don't worship the Beast, but something else...? Interesting. I wonder what it could mean that they worship demons? Which demon in particular, I wonder, and why?"

"Finding a specific something to focus on would increase the likeliness of results, at least in what I've found with my aspect of the ability. It's.. well sometimes the hardest part of a search is knowing where to start, other than the search itself."

Shiruba's attention shifts as the conversation goes back to the Gnolls, particularly when Prophylaxis makes the perfect opening for her to exposition. "Yeenagi. His rise to power through trecherous use of demonic and dark magics actually caused a sort of civil war amongst the Gnolls, of which a rift still exists because the standard tribal gnolls condemn magic, prefering their packlike hunting and combat tactics. The demon-posessed gnoll we had to deal with was likely one of his devotees, sent to spread his way of occult power amongst the subsect." Then she shakes her head. "I don't know the name of the older god the other Gnolls worship, it's become so obscure it wasn't in any Lander writings I have access to. There's still animosity between the sects, but they don't go out of their way to antagonize each other. Usually. It's like.. a Gnoll Cold War."

It gets another huff out of. "I want to investigate this issue farther, Monsters gained power into methods they normally don't access is a danger no matter how you look at it... but with the War taking priority it has to wait, unless we get any more abrupt outbreaks."

"A gnollish god..." Prophylaxis cants his head to the side. Something about it rings in a familiar way in his memory, but to jump to conclusions now would be hasty. "Well, if you'd like to join us one of these days when the situation quiets down, we'll try to strip these demonic gnolls of their... 'blessings.' A friend of mine can purge corruption from monsters and players alike. Maybe these gnolls are not serving their demonic lord as willingly as it seems-- or maybe we'll find something interesting from the investigation."

But that's a future problem. Other, far more important matters are absolutely occupying the present. "It's a shame we can't recruit monsters to help us fight off the Palace Landers. But I suppose that's probably still a bridge too far. Well, regardless, we should focus first on figuring out the Lynchpin problem... And figuring out how to deal with the Palace Landers' battleship. Though I do have certain things in the works on that front, at least."

"The matter is just -finding- it. At least when we do, we have the other Navys to back us up. It's a small blessing that while the capital of the nation Mac Anu is not the Dukedom's main port." Shiruba nods as she gets up from where she was resting. "At least we can rest a little easier knowing these three will be getting cared for, even if magic and medicine can't solve all their problems... And if you need me, Doctor, I shouldn't be hard to find. I'll be around Tolbana, helping with maintaining the defenses and building housing as Kita teachs me the art of woodworking crafts." The wolfgirl bows briefly. "I know our Alliances have their differences, but I am thankful to you and Scale for being able to look past those to work together on this threat to all our lives. Good night." After which she turns to head out of the Clinic.