Laguna Gaultier
Profile
Name - Laguna Gaultier
Age - 19
Height - 5"9
Dominant Hand - Right
Fencing Style - Nocturne
Weapons - Griffe de Chen (Cat's Claw), Rapier, Musket
Notable Companions - Cadwallon ap Heilyn (Musketeer), Jacques le Fontaine (Musketeer), Louis de Berck (Musketeer), Unknown (Informant), Unknown (Informant), Unknown (Informant)
History
- Enlisted with the King's Musketeers on recommendation of his Fencing Tutor.
- Bears a striking resemblance to a lesser known actor among Paris' theatres.
Assignments
- The Vanishing Nobles
The Captain briefed them of a recent phenomenon involving murder among the nobility, and informed them of the murder of Baron de Rochefort that very morning. He tasked the new recruits with investigating the murder, and restoring the King's peace. The Captain also explained that the Baron had last been seen alive at his regular drinking haunt, Le Cordon Bleu.
Deciding to head to the Baron's home first, to assess the crime scene and gather information, the group set off the the de Rochefort home. The arrived at an extremely well appointed and lavish property. As they entered the courtyard in front, they were greeted by an assembly of housekeeping staff who were led by the Baron's head housekeeper, Lucien Dupont.
The remainder of the housekeeping staff appeared a little in awe of the fabled Musketeers, allowing Louis and Jacques to use their charms to glean nuggets of information about the events that took place there that night and morning. Laguna, along with Cadwallon, was led up to the Baron's office on the 2nd floor of the building. The hallways and stairwell were immaculately kept. There was no trace of a struggle, or any destruction taking place. The hairs on Laguna's neck stood suddenly upright, as Lucien opened the door to the scene of the murder.
It was all he could do to resist the urge to vomit. Crimson spattered every part of the office in a scene of animalistic savagery. The bloodied body of the count lay face down, surrounded by chunks of flesh and pools of blood. Lucien explained that the coroner had stated that the wounds were deep lacerations which bled heavily and appeared to have been inflicted by a long, straight, possibly bladed article. Among the flesh and blood, Laguna spotted strands of straw strewn haphazardly across the office. He pointed them out to Cadwallon, who took a sudden interest. His well-honed hunting skills taking over and he soon discovered what appeared to be footprints. Though these footprints were unfamiliar to anything either of the two men had seen before.
These 'footprints' didn't appear to have a "sole" as such, but they led to a nearby window which appeared to have been smashed from the inside. It must have been the route this assailant had taken to escape once the murder was carried out. Laguna, keen to take a look at the landing site for further clues, brought Lucien and Cadwallon with him as he went back downstairs to the atrium. To reach the rear courtyard, they needed to pass through the kitchen. As they walked through, Laguna took note that the kitchen appeared immaculate, with not a single spoon out of place. He stopped abruptly as he realised the sorry state of the large wooden door that led to the courtyard. Cadwallon sent him barrelling forward as he bumped into him, unaware his companion had stopped. The affable Welshman muttered a jolly apology, and the two men shrugged it off.
The kitchen door has been smashed to smithereens. The door appeared to open outwards into the courtyard, but had been broken open inwards with great force. This must have been the entry point, thought Laguna. Closer inspection of the door showed claw marks and wisps of straw. Taking a look outside, he saw shards of broken glass from the window above, but no visible footprints or additional evidence. He tried to remember any French folk tales containing a beast, or jabberwocky of some kind that left strands of straw in it's wake - but nothing came to mind. He asked Cadwallon if any such creature appeared in Welsh folklore, but the Welshman also couldn't recall anything similar. Cadwallon suggested that they check the stables, the most likely nearby place to contain straw. Laguna agreed, it was worth checking for further evidence.
Back upstairs, Louis and Jacques had split up. Louis attempted to gain access to the Baroness' chamber, to question her on the incident. Jacques meanwhile, went to the servant's quarters to ask questions of the staff.
After the investigation at the stable turned up no clues, Laguna also thought to question some of the servants. If the beast had burst through the kitchen doors to murder the Baron, surely one of the servants would have been alerted and may have further information. He signalled Cadwallon to follow him back inside. The two arrived back in the atrium to find Lucien, Jacques and Louis all discussing a book which Jacques has found in an upstairs hallway. The Book was adorned with the same Celtic circle design that was seen in the Baron's office, and Cadwallon saw that it appeared to be of Brythonic origin. Cadwallon quickly scanned the book for further clues, and was able to decipher that it was a journal of 'Le Clerc'. Lucien explains that the book was won by the Baron at an auction for 15 to 20 Livre. He often boasted about the purchase at 'Le Cordon Bleu'.
Laguna had many further questions for Lucien, which he proceeded to ask and made note of Lucien's answers.
- Does the Baron have a child? Who inherits?
- Are there are staff of foreign/Brythonic origin, or who may have a grudge against the Baron?
- Why did the servants not alert the Baron when the beast broke through the kitchen door, where was the Cook?
He also mentioned that the household did employ several Welsh servants, but that none appeared to hold any particular ill-will towards the Baron.
The Cook's room is adjacent to the kitchens, and down a short hallway. The Cook was disturbed by the crash, but by the time he had reached the kitchen, the assailant had already passed through and murdered the Baron.
Lucien also mentioned that the Baron had a penchant for the finer things in life. He would often furnish Madame Fournier, a fabled seamstress in Paris who makes the finest of clothes for the city's elite. Her designs are often adorned with rich blue fabrics, as was the cape the Baron was wearing when he was murdered.
Still wishing to question the servants, Laguna and the Musketeers returned upstairs to the servant's quarters. One of the servants eventually mentioned that he had caught a glimpse of the assailant. The creature appeared to be human shaped, and wore a straw hat. However, there was also a glowing symbol visible on the creature, though the servant was not specific as to the location of the symbol, nor it's design. The servant states that he heard it let out an ear-rending scream, before running away into the night.
Cadwallon then remembers the story of 'the Wickerman', a living scarecrow that protected farms around Wales from wild animals, and ill-intentioned people. Laguna returned to Lucien to enquire as to the Baron's business interests. Lucien advised that the Baron was involved in the clearance of some farmland to the East of Paris. Armed with this information, and keen to find a potential grudge with a customer at 'Le Cordon Bleu', Laguna and the others set out for the tavern.
As the arrived at Le Cordon Bleu, Louis and Jacques, as noble born Musketeers strode in confidently announcing themselves to the other customers. Cadwallon, rather out of place, followed them in. Laguna, quickly turned his surcoat inside-out to hide his Musketeer insignia and wore his jacket on the outside as a suitable disguise. He followed the others in and immediately disppeared among the crowds. Darting from table to table, he listened for intelligence, while also helping himself to several carelessly-attended purses. After pocketing his second purse of the evening, Laguna was disturbed by a frantic customer arriving from the streets outside.
"LOUIS IS DEAD!" The man exclaimed loudly as the pub quietened. Laguna, with his stolen 3 Livre, followed the crowds outside, remaining incognito - he scanned the area for any figures in straw hats or further danger. He saw Louis and Jacques head straight for the alleyway and kneel to investigate the body. The body was holding a blue ribbon. They also found a note from a gentleman names Jacques addressed to Marie. The note read;
Marie, I don’t have much time, but you need to know what I’ve seen. I went back to the old farm, L'Clerc’s place. It’s not as abandoned as we thought. The lab—it’s been disturbed. There were signs of something… unnatural. I don’t want to say more, but you can feel it in the air, the wrongness. It’s as if the past has come back, twisted. I’m not sure how much longer I can stay in Paris. If something happens to me, give Sophie the blue ribbon I bought. It’s her favorite. But please, Marie, keep this to yourself and stay away from that place. Something dark is stirring. Jacques
Regrouping, Louis told the others that he had overheard men in the bar discussing a strange light from the East at the old Le Clerc farm. The group heads over to check it out and look for further leads.
Stalking their way across the fields, they stopped around 100 yards from the farmhouse, lanterns lit. They saw a number of scarecrows, a few of whom still wore blue ribbons, similar to the one found on the dead Louis in the alleyway behind Le Cordon Bleu. They were discussing their objectives when a piercing shriek rang out through the calm night air. They turned as one to see a scarecrow in a straw hat standing next to Cadwallon. It let out a second shriek and the group sensed movement all around them. More scarecrows were closing in.
The nearest scarecrow attacked Cadwallon, but the wild slashes missed the Welshman by centimetres. Jacques then stepped forward and attempted to draw their attention to him with a confident taunt. Louis began waddling his enormous frame over to the farmhouse for cover, using the time Jacques had bought. Cadwallon froze in the face of the scarecrow, the Wickerman from his legends. Laguna, seeing his comrade stood in place, leapt forward, slashing at the scarecrow and putting himself between Cadwallon and the enemy. In one smooth movement, he rolled back to his feet and shoved Cadwallon off in the direction of the farmhouse. A blue light emits from the eye holes and mouth of the felled scarecrow as Laguna turned back, the body remaining lifeless on the floor. Inactive.
He turns to follow Cadwallon towards the farmhouse. As they close in, Laguna breaks away from Cadwallon and runs to hide behind the nearby pig shed for cover. Cadwallon continues to the farmhouse and using his agility, he boosts himself onto the rooftop and lies flat to hide from view. Jacques, with the attention of a number of scarecrows, attempts to intimidate them with gunpowder, but he fumbles his powder holder and drops it to the floor. He recovers by threatening to throw his torch on the spilled mix and start a fire.
Louis, arriving at the farmhouse pulls out his musket and fires it at a scarecrow coming around the side of the building. He sends it hurtling backwards from the shot. Cadwallon having recovered from the shock, began providing covering fire from the roof to Laguna and Jacques in the field. Louis barges his way through the front door of the farmhouse and finds himself in a living room. Meanwhile, Laguna runs up to a nearby scarecrow he had spotted which was still in possession of a ribbon and pounces. He tackles the scarecrow to the floor and steals the ribbon. Springing back to his feet, he runs back towards the farmhouse and his friends. He hears a loud shriek behind him and feels the gaze of all scarecrows turn to him. Jacques runs over and alongside him as he made his way to the farmhouse and whispers for him to hand over the ribbon. With surprising sleight of hand, Laguna noticed, Jacques took the ribbon and ran off in the opposite direction across the fields. Cadwallon continued to fire down from the roof, covering his comrades' retreat, felling several pursuing scarecrows.
Louis, inside the farmhouse, drags the body of the scarecrow he felled inside the building and hacks off its legs and arms to inspect it. Laguna, still being pursued, stops and turns as after leaping the farmhouse's outer wall to throw his trusty dagger Griffe de Chen expertly through the facial sack of the scarecrow, bringing it down as Cadwallon felled yet more scarecrows from above. Jacques speeds around the farmhouse with the ribbon in hand and leaps through a glass window, sending shards scattering across the living room. Inside, he finds himself confronted by another scarecrow that pins him to the ground, unable to move. He struggles to draw his rapier when Louis steps over and slashes at the scarecrow's arm, severing it and allowing Jacques the opportunity to wrestle the scarecrow aside and return to his feet. Cadwallon's covering fire allows Laguna to return to the farmhouse unscathed, after retrieving his dagger from the incapacitated scarecrow outside. He sees Louis and Jacques tousling with the scarecrow inside. Louis, enraged steps in and with several, animalistic blows, hacks the scarecrow into several pieces and ending the immediate threat.
Relieved, the group began to look for further clues. Laguna went outside to find another ribbon from a scarecrow and attempted to destroy it with the fire from his lantern. Nothing happened. Jacques, after flipping through the book he found at the Baron's home, looked around for an inscription of the celtic circles. He spots one on a 'trapdoor' leading to a cellar, and informs his colleagues. Opening the trapdoor, Louis begins by kicking the carcass of one of the scarecrows he killed down the dark, stone steps. He hears the bounce echo for 10-15 seconds as it descends. Unperturbed, Jacques strides down the steps, closely followed by Louis - with Laguna trailing behind. Cadwallon remained above ground the look-out for further threats and sound the alarm.
Arriving in a dimly lit labyrinth beneath the farmhouse, the musketeers lit their torches and began to stalk around. Louis quickly finds a door and decides to open it and head inside. Laguna, cautious, looks to Jacques who steps through behind Louis. Before Laguna could muster the courage to approach the door, he heard the sounds of battle break out as Louis and Jacques were engaged by a scarecrow. It lashed out with its claws, shaking Jacques. He tries to strike back but his blow fails to injure the scarecrow before him. Louis charges in to join him and brings down the enemy. Ending the immediate threat. Laguna then joined them to continue the investigation.
They discover a large machine of some kind deeper within the laboratory, and some kind of mucky stable nearby. Laguna noted the awful stench and the presence of dirty straw. A second scarecrow leapt from the dark to assail Jacques and Louis again. Jacques steps forward, looking to even the score between himself and Louis and slashed at the scarecrow. He deals it a glancing blow, but fails to sufficiently wound it. The scarecrow retaliates and slashes with its straw claws at Jacques, wounding him. Instinct kicked in and he shook off the wound. He turns to see Louis throw his knife towards the scarecrow, but the smaller blade also missed. Laguna, aiming to be more helpful this time, shuttered his lantern and stalked towards the scarecrow, hidden, rapier drawn. Louis, drawing his rapier struck again at the scarecrow, shaking it. It lets out a shriek and recovers quickly to lash out at Jacques but the awkward beast stumbled as it struck and the blow missed. As Laguna approached, he was intercepted by a laughing Louis who slashed viciously at the scarecrow, eviscerating it and ending the threat. The group continues to explore the laboratory.
They find a room filled with electricity that wards them away from the far end of the lab and find a door in the southern wall. Louis and Jacques confidently lead the way and enter. Laguna readies himself in the hallway. Louis immediately fells a scarecrow near the door and turns to face a second one. Laguna, seizes the chance to dart into the room and strike out at the second scarecrow with his rapier, but the foe was equal to the blow and parried it with ease. Thankfully for Laguna, Louis charged in and destroyed the second enemy with a single slash. He turns and refers to Louis as Le Jean de Candlewick.
As they search the office for further clues, the team is worried by a scuffling sound in the hallway behind them. It grows ever nearer, approaching the door. Laguna clutches his rapier tight and prepares to charge. The door slowly creaks open to reveal Cadwallon's smiling face. He spots the scattered scarecrow limbs strewn across the office and remarks that they showed clear signs of being created with 'Alchemy'. He inspects them further and suggests that some form of 'blood arts' were at work here. A form of alchemy that gave life to objects through blood sacrifice. Cadwallon looks around at the shelves and finds blue cloth, ribbon and dye everywhere. Jacques alerts the group to a book with a matching celtic pattern adorning the spine. He pulls out the LeClerc journal he found at the Baron's home and holds the two side by side. Cadwallon steps over to inspect the new book and flicks through the pages quickly. It appears to contain three years of notes on LeClerc's experiments. He seemed to be attempting to create replacements for his peasant workforce.
Jacques spots a key hanging on a hook on the wall and returns to the hallway in search of another door. He finds a door in the northern wall at the far end of the laboratory, and tries his newfound key. The door remains locked. Louis, following closely tells Jacques to step back and he attemps to charge through the door. He succeeds and finds himself in an office. He sees a magnificent blue dress adorning a mannequin and signs of a struggle around the room. Cadwallon, back in the hallway, finds another door to the North at the near end of the hallway and calls Jacques over to try his key. Jacques was busy helping Louis investigate the office, so Cadwallon attempted to blow the lock on the door using gunpowder and a flint. He succeeds in breaking the lock, but the door still does not open. Louis, suitably recovered from crashing through the other door, walked over and offered to do the same with this door. Cadwallon cleared the area and gave his colleague some room.
Louis crashes through this second door and stumbles in to find two scarecrows and a third, larger scarecrow that was administering some kind of liquid to an unknown, dark figure laid upon the table. Louis calls out to his friends in the hallway and draws his rapier. The large scarecrow flashed its straw claws at Louis, severely wounding him. The musketeer slumped to the floor in a heap, barely conscious. His vision faded as he heard Cadwallon fire off a shot from his musket, a direct hit on the bottle of green slime the large scarecrow was holding and leaving it with only one functioning arm.
Jacques runs in and engages the two smaller scarecrows. He pushes them aside and begins administering aid to Louis on the floor. One of the smaller scarecrows recovers and lashes out at Cadwallon, shaking him. Laguna runs over to some nearby debris and hides himself, waiting patiently for his opportunity to strike. Cadwallon recovers from the blow he took and fires his pistol directly into the 3rd scarecrows face, killing it. He quickly reloads the chamber and fires a second shot at the other scarecrow. It reels from the shot, but continues to strike at him. The large scarecrow now engages Cadwallon and slashes wildly at him, but the Welshman quickly dodged the blow. Laguna sees his chance, and speeds in flashing his dagger at the second scarecrow. He shakes it and leaps back. In a single smooth motion, he sheathes his dagger and draws his rapier. Stepping forward again, he drives the blade through the spinal stump of the scarecrow, bringing it down with a haunting shriek.
Jacques continues to administer first aid to Louis, whom he brings around, spluttering. Gaining his second wind, Louis angrily steps toward the large scarecrow and slashes hard at it, shaking it. Distracted, the large scarecrow slashed out at Laguna, causing him a wound. Jacques tries to gain an advantage against the scarecrow and moves behind the enemy. He attacks three times, missing the first two strikes and hits with the third. Again shaking the scarecrow. Cadwallon's pistol, now broken is thrown to the ground and he picks up his musket again. He quickly loads it again and fires it into the facial sack of the scarecrow. Causing massive damage. The scarecrow, quickly pulls the body of the lifeless figure on the table into Cadwallon's line of fire, the shot passes through her as it hits the scarecrow. Cadwallon suffers wounds himself as a shriek echoes through his mind. The scarecrow turns to slash at Laguna in its agony and causes a second wound to the young actor.
Laguna, knowing his team had the numerical advantage, attempted a spinning back kick to unbalance the scarecrow and succeeded in leaving the foe vulnerable. Louis sees the chance and steps forward slashing with both his rapier and his dagger. He fails to inflict the killing blow but causes the scarecrow to flail in panic to create distance between it and the musketeers. Cadwallon, firing his musket again fails to hit the target and grumbles as he reloads the weapon again. Louis slashes out with his rapier, but the scarecrow passes harmlessly beneath the blow. The scarecrow send out some straw claws to hit Cadwallon and interrupt his reload, but misses under pressure from the other musketeers. Laguna, attempts to shove the scarecrow to unbalance it and misses with a follow up strike. Cadwallon, shaken from the near miss earlier, fails to raise his musket and fire. Louis steps forward and slashes again at the scarecrow, dealing it little more than a glancing blow.
The scarecrow strikes out at Laguna again with straw claws, wounding him. He successfully soaks the blow and strikes back twice at the scarecrow. Whilst the strikes hit home, they failed to seriously wound the enemy. As the battle dragged on, the musketeers were losing stamina and hope. Jacques, striding forward confidently prepared a flurry of strikes at the scarecrow. His first, targeted strike misses, and enraged, he flails a second attack at the scarecrow, catching it cleanly on the blade and dealing the fatal wound. The scarecrow shrieks and Jacques' mind is filled with horrific images of the scarecrow's life. It howls again as it falls to the floor.
Jacques then resuscitates the unconscious figure, who is revealed to be Madame Fournier. She thanks him and the two spend the next few weeks together until she has regained sufficient strength. Laguna returns to Paris to recover from his wounds and continues to assist his musketeer colleagues with the investigations and his friends in the theatre district. Louis spends the next few weeks, thanking the Lord for his continued existence, and whores his way through the numerous cathouses of Paris. Cadwallon's hair, grey from the ordeal appears to age more than a decade. He becomes addicted to licking frogs as a way to deal with the trauma. He is regularly visited near the frogponds by Laguna.
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