Originally Posted by
Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh
"No." Ishtar said, firmly.
"The Rot is simply ... slow." After a moment of pressing forward, the Oni slowed slightly before a sigh echoed down the empty hall. "One supposes there is no reason in hiding what happened to the survivors," she finally said. "Those who survived, had turned to cannibalism. Freshly dead at first, to preserve what little of their 'morality' remained. Once the maggots and rot took hold of the corpses however ... they turned on the weakest of themselves." Though this was not unique. Ishtar had seen much of this on worlds where famine, and drought had stripped the planet of its nourishment.
Yet this was ... different.
"After that ? Baric took his time. First he flayed them, not all the way ... no. They would have bled out, otherwise. Died from exposure. So he would flay a little, and then he would wait and flay some more. From there it was simply a matter of, I assume, what he felt like doing to them. Some he simply trampled to death. Others he slowly dismembered. Starting with the limbs, and only stopping once their will broke and Death granted them mercy. For a select few ... Ah ..." The Oni stopped short, to recall everything exactly as it happened; and only when she was satisfied did she continue.
"There were ten left, in the end. All approximately the same height, weight, and genders of equal number. The 'strongest', I suppose. And then he set to work on them, slowly ... almost as if he cared to do it right." If a Nuckalevee could be considered to possess such a thing as that. "He took a blade, produced from I know hot where, and severed each of their structural appendages ... ribs, really; and pushed them slowly through their emaciated bodies at odd angles to produce what I can only call 'wings'. After he was satisfied, a process that took hours ... he ever so carefully took their organs -- I know not which -- and pulled them through two vertical cuts he made in each of their backs."
Ishtar's stopped again, to catch her breath; and though her voice never rose above its whispered monotone, but if one knew here well they could see she was troubled by her recalling of this, all the same.
"I learned later what they were called ... yet at the time, these 'Sanguinous Sparrows' Baric created; for at the time what kept my attention was not the ... grotesque masterpieces, but how the victims never once uttered a word in protest through pain one can hardly imagine ... They only ever blinked."
The state they must have been in, mentally ... all at the hands of a single entity. It was a mercy there were only ever three.
Predictably the details on the Nuckalevee -- Baric in particular -- were difficult to process.
All the same however, Ishtar knew it was ever the better option to offer the truth, in situations like these, over honeyed words. They needed to understand that what they were walking into was not simply another battle quickly fought and ended -- though one could never be truly sure, with this group -- but stood a legitimate chance of being the last thing they accomplished this side of the veil. Of course ... those trinkets proved such to be ultimately inconsequential. Of course, the chances of recovering mentally, should one come back after being killed by a Nuckalevee were ... slim to none.
To die so slowly, and absolutely ... there was only so much a psyche could take.
Ishtar had seen that, too.
When the others asked what might be done, and whether or not it a Nuckalevee could be killed however ... she could only shake her head.
"As to what can be done, and whether or not Baric can be killed ? I assume damaging Baric until he is incapable of pursuit is more than likely probable. Death may too, be possible ... presuming we can strip from him whatever it is that serves as his 'heart'; but in all honesty ? I have no idea beyond showing it as much mercy as it would us."
Which is to say, none.