The Molag Bal Game XVII

[Musicman247]

Mu stayed behind to bury the body, as had been his custom from the start of this whole ordeal. It did not take long and he was soon back at the inn sitting at one of his own tables, tired physically, exhausted mentally and emotionally.

[The SheoDovah]

"Do'vah would like some ale. Or mead. Or anything that will dull the pain." Do'vah said to Mu as he sat down in front of the fire place and cried into his hands.

[Musicman247]

Mu didn't exactly feel like getting up either, but he trudged over to the bar anyway. He took out a bottle of ale and took it to the Khajiit. "Feel free to get your own next time," he said before returning to his seat.

[The SheoDovah]

"Do'vah thanks you." Do'vah told the nord and consumed the ale as tears continued to fall down his cheeks.

[Emzi 43]

Threes came back to the inn "Again!" he yelled "It could be any of you, Mu? Perhaps you are just hospitable, perhaps you just gather us here to distract us and poison us with your words, Do'vah, perhaps it was one of the late villagers who assaulted you, in their own defence? Lara, why have you been denying Mu's advances, perhaps you don't want to become close to him before you kill him?" he shouted, before sitting down quietly, simmering with anger. "My vote falls to Mu" he said at last, refusing to give any reason, or to speak to anyone

[Aarah]

'I doubt a cultist would care if they got close to someone before killing them. That would imply they have a conscience, and the beasts obviously have nothing of the sort!'
Lara replied to Four-Threes, not blaming him for questioning everyone's actions.

'I would be careful voting before tomorrow if I were you.' she muttered quietly to the Argonian.
'We don't want to give anyone extra reasons to dispose of us tonight.'

[Dirty Spaceman]

"Not just an innocent civilian, but a healer?" muttered Darba. "Will we not find the murderers until it is too late?" He had not been one of those who had condemned M'hras, but that didn't make the loss of another villager any easier for him. He knew how dire the situation was getting.

Not knowing what else to do, he simply returned to his home as usual, to eat a small dinner and go to bed.

[Believe]

Ba'Lee refused to return to the tavern with the others.

Instead, he went for a walk around the town he loved, now tainted by murder and the foulness of the Daedra.

"This one hopes for this all to end... Sooner rather than later.." He muttered to himself before returning home.

[Emzi 43]

Threes hissed "You are correct, possibly innocent, my vote stands however, I may change it in the morning" he snarled, before leaving the Inn. He returned to his home and cast a frost rune once more over the door, and the windows, and around the bed, before getting in and going to sleep

[ArgonianDunmer]

"There isss a way to get them," Runs-with-Dunmer said, turning to Lara, "tomorrow, casst your vote for Tatur. If we are to live through this ordeal we must put aside our fear. Tonight, I have no reason to fear, how many of you will say the same?l"

With that, she stormed out of the inn and off into the night.

[Taters]

Tatur slowly followed the others back to the inn, only to pause outside the door upon hearing the Argonian's comments. As Runs-With-Dunmer left, seeming not to see Tatur standing off to the side, Tatur let out a heavy sigh, took a step toward the inn, then turned about and headed for his smithy.

[Aarah]

After Runs-with-Dunmer left abruptly, Lara got up from her seat to head to her room in the inn for the night, but before doing so, she went over to where Mu was sitting.

'Thank you for your hospitality in these dark times.' she said to him, noticing he seemed quiet and weary on that particular evening.
'It has really helped us all.'
She gave him a warm smile, before bidding him and Do'vah, who was still crying, goodnight.

[The SheoDovah]

"Do'vah wishes you goodnight." Do'vah said through his tears and downed the rest of the bottle. He got up and grabbed two bottles from the counter before returning to his seat. He started to drink the mead after he removed the cork from it whilst tears flow freely down his hairy cheeks.

[Musicman247]

Mu watched as people continued to leave the inn, finally leaving just him and those who had gone to their rooms. He took his place in front of Lara's door and waited for the morning.

Hidden:

Figured we should push on.

[AKB]

Tonight was the night. They had their target, and were ready to see it through. The path to their mission was simple, break off from the group when no one is looking, traverse this dark alleyway, climb up the crates stacked there, reach the rooftop, climb to an overlook and wait for the right moment.

The moon had risen high into the sky on Ba'Lee'Va's walk towards his home. He was one of the responsible for today's failed lynching. The weight of the world seemed to be crashing down on Uthenni, and the guilty party had not even been glanced at yet. A different kind of weight crashed onto Ba'Lee'Va. Maybe he was just too lost in his own thoughts to notice it, but A shadow rose over the cat, and promptly drove him into the ground, face first. Had he been able to focus at all, he would feel rather unclean, being smashed into the ground with such a force that it produced many minor gashes for blood to seep from out of his body.

His assailant crouched atop the Khajiit's back, having grabbed his head on their descent and smashed it into the ground. This not only broke their own fall, but made the feline's own experience all that much worse. As the rogue character slowly rose off of the cat, they paused next to the smashed body. They listened to Ba'Lee'Va's groans for assistance for a moment, and then calmly kneeled down next to him, grabbed the furs on the back of his blood-covered face, and smashed it into the cobblestone once more for good measure. With the Khajiit now going silent, the attacker calmly rose from their victim, and strode off into the night again.

Ba'Lee'Va has been incapacitated, and will not be able to participate in the next round.

Lara was missing something. It might had been just some timekeeper to some, but she knew she could not lose it, not now. She had to find her hourglass, with its black base, the clearest glass imaginable, and crimson sand the shade of blood. She made so many plans for this town, for herself, and these cultists had interrupted it all. Death might had just been an inconvenience for this Breton, but all was lost if she could not find that keepsake. Her breathing became weird, she was hyperventilating.

Surely she could not have been so careless to just misplace it? As she returned to her room to find the missing hourglass, she went through her plans once more. If nothing else, she could survive what would happen next. The cultists were proving to be far too elusive for the townsfolk, with so many dying, sacrificed in the name of rooting out Molag Bal, and not a single one caught. Lara's mind burned with the questions that all the villagers were asking themselves, was it even possible for them to defeat their enemy? How many more will die before the cultists are just as strong as the villagers in number? And once they are, why would they still play this lethal game, and not just end it all?

She believed that it would take a heroic effort to save any of them, or at least a magical one. Her hourglass was the key to her salvation, at least. She began searching her things, the drawers for any sign of it. Over and over, she found nothing. Her daily path went through her mind, details on everything she had done, and who might have had access to it went through her mind. She considered asking that innkeeper at the door for assistance in finding it, but she wasn't sure she could trust anyone with any evidence of her crime against the nature of life and death.

Still, it wasn't there. After all, it was never misplaced, but stolen. Elsewhere in town, another resident of Uthenni had Lara's hourglass, and her soul. The spiritual vessel, while powerful enough to stop death itself, could not stop the hammer that was brought down on it. And with her soul released from its mortal bonds, Lara's body turn to dust, just like the contents of the hourglass.

Lara has been killed. She was:

The Necromancer - Regardless of her public standing, her character was a practiced necromancer. Her mastery over life and death has given her the ability to revive any character after they have been killed once during the game. However, their is a limit to this ability. She must make the decision to save someone within an in-game day of their death. Should she choose to not save anyone (she didn't get the chance), she will instead resurrect herself should she ever die. If she does resurrect someone, she can either choose to make them aware of her action or not.

It is now day.

[Musicman247]

Mu knocked on Lara's door as he had the past few mornings. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, expecting to hear Lara's voice once again asking who it was. It took a bleary-eyed moment for him to realize that there was no answer. His eyes widened as his thoughts turned to the worst he could imagine. He slammed his shoulder into the door, the impact nearly breaking down the swinging piece of wood.

"Lara!" shouted the Nord as he entered the room. He expected to see a bloody corpse on the bed, lying in a pool of blood. His eyes scanned the room, but saw nothing. No blood, no Lara. His quick shallow breaths slowed as he called himself, grateful that he was not seeing that gruesome sight. He sat on the bed and ran a hand through his hair, sighing heavily.

It was then that Mu saw Lara's clothes on the floor. They were heaped as if dropped on the floor, but there was more. Dust. A mound of dust was under and inside her clothes. He knelt down beside the pile, running his hand through the powder, not understanding at first. His experience in battle then came back to him, remembering a necromancer that had been destroyed. He had turned to dust just like this.

"No," Mu said sadly. He stood quickly and moved away from Lara's remains. He tripped and fell back on the bed, tears streaming down his cheeks.

[Taters]

Tatur grunted heavily as he fell out of bed. "By Mauloch, I need a bigger sleeping rack!", he thought. As he made his way toward the inn just after dawn, he happened to peer down an alley to his left. In it, he saw the crumpled body of a Khajiit. He took a cursory look, scratching his head and not sure what to do with the prone, but clearly living, form.

"Someone", he mused, "Does not like cats..."

He made his way down to the inn, to report his finding, but, seeing no one at the bar, and hearing weeping from one of the rooms, sheepishly sat down and waited for someone else to arrive.

[The SheoDovah]

Do'vah was woken up by Mu's shout of anguish and got up from the floor. He picked up a chair and ran into the room that contained Mu. He believed something bad had happened and hoped that he would have no need to use the chair as a weapon. He also had a hangover from Oblivion and had passed out at 3 in the morning.

[ArgonianDunmer]

Runs-with-Dunmer was not surprised by the night's offerings. Her anger bubbling over into a frustrated rage she made to find the other remaining villagers, and their vicious tormentors.

"Today is the day we put thisss right," Runs-with-Dunmer cried, once again bursting unceremoniously into the inn, "Today, as it has for many days now, my vote isss for Tatur. Do not allow yourssselves to fall into the sssame folly that has failed husss for too long now."

[Taters]

"You know", Tatur said, glancing up at Runs-With-Dunmer, "I don't see what it is that makes you think I had something to do with this. Maybe I'm ugly to you, and that makes me guilty, eh?", with this remark, Tatur sneered, "Besides, I believe it was you who said yesterday that you had nothing to fear in the night, and, sure enough, here you are, safe and sound. Seems awfully suspicious to me. As with yesterday, but with much more reason to do so now, I vote for you."

[Musicman247]

Mu entered the main room of the inn, cheeks soaked with tears, hands dusted with Lara's ashy remains. "I vote Ba'Lee," he said, his eyes focused, his voice tinged with resoluteness.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Darba made his way to the inn as usual, chewing on an apple as he went. Even in these grim circumstances, he hadn't neglected his orchard. On his way to meet the others, however, he noticed the unconscious body of Ba'Lee in the alleyway. After that, he significantly hurried up his walk to the inn.

"Everyone, Ba'Lee has been hurt," he reported once he arrived there. "He's lying unconscious in an alleyway, but he seems to be alive and okay. We might do well to carry him here..." He trailed off, as he picked up on the conversation that had been going on.

"Have we already started the voting?" he asked. "Alright then. Since Ba'Lee is in no position to be dangerous today even if he is guilty, I won't do the dishonour of naming him again. No, today my vote is for Do'vah."

[ArgonianDunmer]

"That hissss where you are misstaken," Runs-with-Dunmer snarled at Tatur, "It is the sservants of Bal, not we innocent folk, who have reason to fear. I have nothing to fear becausse I have done no wrong. Can you truly claim the same?"

She paused, sharply drawing in breath, "You and your ilk cannot claim my life in the shadows. I will not allow you to force me to live in fear! Now the choice is your's: will you move against me here in public view, revealing yourselves in the same fell swoop, or will you allow your own fear to prevent yourselves from striking me down as you so desire?"

[The-Shadow-One]

One-Sahdow was awoken by wails, and he stumbled down from the room he was in, eyes widening in surprised at the news of Ba'Lee he turned and looked. "This one still votes for Do'vah, concidences cannot be ignored can they? This one believes he is right, that Do'vah is a guilty member of this village, a worshipper."

[The SheoDovah]

Do'vah followed Mu into the main room and put down the chair. He was very sad that Lara had died. "Lara is dead." He sadly informed everyone before starting to cry. "Do'vah is horrorified that Ba'lee has been hurt." He said as he retrieved a bottle of mead for himself and Mu. "Do'vah was busy drowning the pain and he was attacked recently." he informed those that had voted for him. "Do'vah believes that one sahdow is up to something. Do'vah believes one sahdow is one of them for that one has been very quiet. Do'vah wonders if one sahdow was the one that attacked him." He sadly said to everyone as he handed the bottle over to mu whilst tears ran down his cheeks.