Under the dim light of a candle sat in a sombre atmosphere 3 men and a woman around a round table. "Give me your reports, paladin Damsey, you first." Said seriously the woman, a few strands of blonde hair dangled to the wind in front of her forehead, dancing together with the flickering flame of the candle.
Paladin Damsey stood up, his eyes sunk in darkly as proof of how hard he had worked in these past few days. "No one has left or entered the city; due to some minor revolts we were forced to react violently causing more than fifty deaths and more injured." He sat back again, flinching under the hard gaze that was being sent his way. "Were those deaths necessary?" Asked Haley with burning eyes.
"Absolutely, they had become violent. Even I received a small injury while quelling the revolters." He justified himself. While it was true he had been injured by a glass bottle, it had only been a minor cut that healed in less than a day. Had he actually used some of his paladin's skills he could have stopped the revolters without causing or receiving injuries. Unfortunately, he had hailed from a noble family, the notion of peasants lives being expendable being deeply rooted in his head; that's why killing a few revolters sounded sweeter to his ears than just scaring them off.
Haley pursed him no further, turning her gaze to a young man on her right, their blue eyes met for half a second before he stood up. "My men are kicking down doors and interrogating people as we speak." he took a breath and picked a piece of parchment on the table. "According to various witnesses, one of the guards had accused a man of putting something in someone else's beer; said guard has unfortunately passed away during that faithful night due to... extreme fatigue *cough*." Noticing he was the only one flustered about that guard's death he avoided the other's eyes and read from the parchment. "According to the gathered testimonies the man had dark blonde hair, green eyes and well-built body over one point ninety meters; his whereabouts are currently unknown." He concluded sitting down.
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Haley pondered on the gathered intel while stroking her chin, "good job paladin Lucas; have your men detain any man found corresponding to that description, I'll interrogate them personally." she then turned to the last man in the room. "paladin Marcus, will you?" she said gesturing with her hand for him to speak.
The last man stood up, his wavy black hair went in front of his face and he had to fix them before speaking. "I have nothing new to report to this table about that man, however," he took a doll from the pouch he had on his waist. "My men found some of these dolls around the city, mostly in green areas and deserted alleys; while there is nothing particularly suspicious about the doll itself, we found too many to be a mere coincidence." he placed the doll on the table, "I tried using my eyes of truth but nothing popped up, maybe you will have more luck." he said before sitting down as well.
One after another the paladin's eyes glowed yellow as they checked the doll from various angles, however even after opening up her belly they found nothing. The last to give it a look was high inquisitor Haley; she observed in silence for a moment before her eyes turned horrified. She took off her gloves and squeezed the doll, as her body warmed it up she could see a small cloud of gas leaving the doll.
"May sol'har save us... Quick, take anyone you can and divide them into two teams, one will look and destroy these dolls as soon as possible," she stopped talking as a shiver ran up to her spine.
"And the other one?" asked Damsey.
"The second team needs to visit every family with children," she took another pause. "and cleanse them all." The paladins around the table finally realized what was going on, their faces paled in horror. "Quick! There is no time to waste."