Thus far, Augusta’s efforts into figuring out just what it was that had been going on Baska had not yet yielded any results that she could say were a positive indication of whether or not there were heretics within this part of Fiore or not, and that was greatly upsetting to her. She had been spending more time than she was particularly happy about having to admit or allow be the case, but there was not much in which she could do otherwise. It was a difficult situation, especially given that nothing within the area was giving much indication either way as to if this was proving to be worthwhile. For every indication that there was not a way to go, nor anything that made her believe that she woul have found anything, there appeared to have been another clue, a small breadcrumb that would have kept her engaged, at least long enough to see if it might have yielded any better results. So far though, the constant wondering and back and forth game in which she seemed to have bene playing was infuriating, especially towards someone like her who knew that there were no shortage of lcoations in which she could have been hunting other heretics who had sought to defy the word of God. That she was still engaged in this game, if it did not yield any substantive results, it would have been a terrible failure at least to her. Sure, there would have been the benefit that the work she had done was that it would have led to greater influence and appreciation towards the Church, but that was secondary towards making sure that she did not waste her own time, and by extension, her own talents.

Perhaps even more to her dismay was that the boar in which she had retrieved, she had been barred from the examination of it, which she found to be not only insulting, but a blatant display of disrespect. She was the one who risked her life, though risked was a very strong word as she was never actually in any sort of danger from the boars in the first place. But the point stood. She still sthoul have been involved int eh examination, and that she was left int eh dark was something that she found to be utterly infuriating and insulting on top of that. If it were not for the fact that there might have bene evidence that linked her to towards her intended target, she might have found that as enough reason to burn down Baska to the groun, but that was something that for as justified as she might have been in that motivation, it would have caused even more problems. Now, had they been protecting heretics, that would have been a justified reasoning for such an extreme use of force, but right now, it was best that she keep calm as best as she was able to, lest it give the heretics her whereabouts.

500/2000

Baska was far darker than she had initially figured it to have been, which was great for Augusta. The less detail that one could have made out of her, the better. Her appearance was not nearly as well known throughout Fiore or these areas in particular as was her reputation. Because of that, there was far more leeway that she could have afforded herself than anything else, and fortunately too, it meant that there would no shortage of oppurtunities for her to scope out areas that she had not been initially able to than before. At morning, there were only so many people out and about, and her presence, not being form there, would have drawn suspsicion, but at night, with so many people around, she could have easily passed off herself as a merchant, as a traveler, or of any other role to whichever suited her better in that given situation. Looking throughout the alleyways of where this doctor might have been, she began to get a bit frustrated that it was not as simple of a search as had proven to be in the past. The doctor was usually not one who would try to fit in with a crowd and his appearance along with his physical features often made him stand out, given his height seemingly dwarfing everyone else around him. This time though, looking for him was proving to be far more challenging than what she had expected it to have been.

After a short time, she did in fact find the doctor, though with his outfit, it was hard to tell that he even was a doctor. More, he appeared like that of a cultist, of a missionary maybe, but certainly not of someone as either a doctor or someone who held a strong standing within Baska. It was as though he wanted to be as oblivious and unappealing to the rest of the place as possible. The justification behind this, as he explained was the risk of retribution, to which caught Augusta’s attention. This might have meant that there was more to everything going on than what he had originally indicated to her, which while frustrating her, did give her more to work with. There was clearly something going on beyond just the fact that there was an odd strain of some sort of disease that was affecting the people and wildlife in the area, and it might have been that with the boar that she had delivered to the man, he was better able to piece together what he had come to think would have happened. However though, he was not wiling to say what it was here, which was understandable. This was a delicate matter and if it had greater implications, ones in which she was to some degree hoping for, it would be best not to engage in public, though it did cause her to wonder just why it was that she had been called out to this area at all.


1000/2000

Once it was apparent that they were out of anyone’s possible distance of hearing form within the city of Baska, he began to explain the situation of what was happening. He could not confirm what Augusta had hoped for with respects to the presence of heretics in the area, though he did not dismiss the potential for their involvement. This workaround of an explanation did little to please the Rune Knight, but she listened all the same, making sure as to not make any rash decisions or jump to conclusions too early. As he xplained it, there had been a group that was in the area of Baska, one of whom had not interefered with the people there for years, much in part thanks to a deal made by the doctor to leave them alone. However, in recent time, that trust seemed to have been broken on the part of the group, to whom he would only refer to them as bad people. It was a vague term which lfet much to be desired, but for  the skae of things right now, she allowed it to go on as though she was fully vested and engaged into the situation. According to him, what he found of the boar was that it was indeed infected by some kind of contagion, perhaps Magic, perhaps not. He was not entirely sure, as he was not qualified into examining the effects of Magic on the creatures in this region. If it were a person who he could have examined without putting htem at risk, he would, but alas, he was unable to.

After a short distance, Augusta and the doctor had made it to the apparent location in which he believed whatever was going on was taking place. He would not go into the greater details of why he believed this, but he reasoned that if whateer was affecting the wild life, it had to be something they all had access to, namely the water. For a short time, the two of them watched and waited for what seemed like forever when finally they caught a break with what looked like two men pouring something in the water. Augusta was not sure what it was, but between all of the evidence that had been gathered thus far and from her own knowledge of how things like this, and how heretics worked, she rationed that this was very likely the result of some sort of Magic or at the very elast, alchemy. Either way, it was enough for her to be convinced now that there was indeed something going on. They watched more untilt eh two eventually did leave, and then as she and the doctor conferred on what they witnessed, Augusta began to make her way back to Baska. She had come here hoping to find some evidence that there was heretic activity, and by all accounts, between what had happened, she was now convinced that even if not, there would be blood spilled.

1500/2000

What had originally been a trip that she worried would have been for nothing had turned into something that she could have at the very least pointed towards as an indication that whatever was going on in the provinces that were further out from the Church’s point of influence were not to be taken lightly. Rather, they were clearly meant to have been focused on and this was a very good indication of that. Whatever had been affecting Baska, there was no doubt in her mind that there was now at least some degree of influence going on between heretic involvement and whatever was affecting the people and the wild life nearby. It was a recipe for disaster which while she did not care at all towards the people or have any strong feelings about what might have happened to them, what was very clear was that if this contagion, whatever these people were looking to do to the people, it posed a huge risk of spreading, and in that aspect, it was something that they could not afford to allow happen, nor one in which she could have permitted to occur should it have spread throughout the rest of Fiore if given the chance. The main thing in which she worried about, it was not the people so much, but rather how the Church would be viewed if it knew of the contagion and allowed it to spread. Augusta would not have been the one who would take the fault for this as her expedition here was one in which she had chosen to conduct on her own, rather than involve anyone, and therefore, there was no knowledge that she was even here. That was often how things went, her having been given enough leeway and freedom that while there would have been others who no dobut would have bene penalized and would be forced to suffer for their actions, she could carry on and go about them like it was no issue whatsoever. The biggest issue was that if it were something htat more affected the people, eventually those who did not reside in Baska or otherwise travelled to and from there would tell of what was going on, as while it had been contained up to this point, eventually it would get to a point where it could not be, and then panic would spread, and word would travel all throughout Fiore, to the point where the Church might have looked weak, allowing such a dangerous contagion to run wild. It might have cast them in a negative light, or evne worse yet, cause some who might have had mixed feelings about the Chruch as a whole to instead view their own relgion as a more righteous pathway to take. And while Augusta woul have loved the diea of putting every single one of htem to the pyres, that would be too time consuming and would be a drain on Church resources and time than anything else.

2000/2000