Ariel grimaced as they entered into the room of corpses after Alm had given the okay, the stench of death hitting her almost like a wall. She squinted and turned her head around in an attempt to get a better idea of their surroundings in the dim light, tying a piece of cloth around her mouth and nose in an effort to keep her previous meal in her stomach. From what she saw, she was almost certain of one thing. Whatever had killed these men, who she assumed to be the expedition, was not human. Or if it was...[color=f26522]"They are inhumanly strong..."[/color] she breathed as she examined the remains of one of the men, pinned to the wall and missing all of its extremities. She was no stranger to death. Hell, it was pretty common in the darker parts of the City, but she had never seen anything this grisly. 

	Ariel winced and wrenched her gaze away from the poor man's remains. Part of her screamed to run far, far away from this madness, to return to her comparatively mundane life in the City. But at the same time, she knew she couldn't, and she cursed silently at herself as she checked the corpses one by one for any signs of them being the missing noble. [color=f26522]"How do I keep getting myself into these situations?"[/color]

	As she proceeded with her sombering task, a worrying thought occured to her. She couldn't be certain, but none of the bodies appeared to belong to the offending party. Were they too quick to hit, or immortal? Or was there something more to this whole scene that she wasn't seeing? Shaking her head, Ariel picked up a sheathed short sword, its owner presumably never having gotten the chance to draw it from its hardened leather sheath.