>>5457786Before you do anything else, your first priority is to comb the scene for clues and highlight anything that sets off your instincts.
Even the most minor of details can play a critical role during the course of information gathering.
You do your level best to clear your mind of all its doubts and fears and focus instead on dispassionate analysis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byaqLE39ajcOne of the first details that catches your eye is in regards to the equipment scattered around the room; cots, discarded trash, empty water bottles, a dirty chemical toilet sequestered in a far corner, etc.
You had previously pegged this room as a command post, but that might not be entirely correct. On closer examination, this area seems to have doubled as a temporary barracks; like a staging post for expeditions deeper into the catacombs.
It makes sense in a coldly clinical way; send the cannon fodder into the depths while the lucky ones hang back and ensure that lines of communication stay open and that nobody tries to back out midway through.
And should nobody return, send in the next batch to do it all over again.
Sure matches with Intergang’s human resources policies.
The next fact of import is how all of the deceased still have their rifles slung over their shoulders, their pistols in their holsters, and their knives in their sheathes.
Whatever killed these guys not only pulled it off without anyone letting off a shot, they did it without alerting a single soul.
It tracks with some of the environmental details you had already noticed; like how if a weapon had been fired in an enclosed space like this, the tell-tale smell would still be sticking around.
A quick and dirty examination of the floor proves that there isn’t any spent brass, further lending credence that they were all taken by surprise.
Overall, your deductions have raised more questions than answers.
Perhaps a more arcane touch can provide the details you seek.
To that end, you switch on Magesight and examine the scene once more, on the prowl for any magical anomalies.
It’s not easy to pick out specific details over the veritable sea of interference, but you manage to adroitly power through it.
One fact which quickly apparent is that something spectacularly awful happened in these tunnels. You’ve only felt a similar power in places like Slaughter Swamp and Rockwell’s library; all of which have a truly terrible provenance.
You don’t probe too deeply into the source, mostly because you are physically unable to handle the strain.
The sensation it causes can be compared to nails slowly and fastidiously scraping against a chalkboard. Except instead of your ears, it’s your ability to think and process.
If you weren’t on your guard before, now you certainly are.
That heightened alertness guides you to another morbid discovery; there are similar pockets of foul magic surrounding each of the corpses.
