Z-TWH01 (May 2, 2023)
Puzzle
“Brain Drain Tar Lumbar Wince Rinse Wrapped Trapped.”
Pathologist Trivia | 1 Word
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: These are steps detailing a certain process.
Clue 2: It's to do with burial.
Clue 3: What burial rites 'wrap' a person in something? Use the name of the process itself.
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Mummification
Explanation: This is a description (a really strange description, but one nonetheless) of the process.
Summary of Receipt
Capgras' trip to Vile City seems to have worked. As a bonus, he'd been wanting to use Shaka's 'seven miracles' anyway. Regardless, the Pathologist takes some notes of the Sebetti corpse the Zulus have. It's soul-less, which has interesting implications. Very likely, this is similar to how Phantom, Fate and Wicked died: them having a physical embodiment, then short-circuiting the mortal form to the Elder itself - causing the mortal body to absorb the Elder's soul, 'diluting' it to a level where it can be destroyed. Still, this was only possible due to Warden's powers of energy manipulation (see Debt Come Due's Adynamia of the Archons), which leaves two questions: How did Fenrir become the Sebitti's physical embodiment, and is he working with Warden?
Transcript
Receipt: Z-TWH01
Author: Pathologist
Status: Secret
Subject: Hyperion Cult
Well, that went better than I expected. Of course, Capgras has been dying for an excuse to try out one of Shaka’s seven miracles. Though speaking of cosmic oddities, I was brought on board for a reason… you have a very dead Elder corpse. A contradiction, to be sure. Though… this isn’t the only strange corpse you’re keeping, is it? Well, let’s hope that after we save the world or whatever we’re trying to do, I’ll be able to get a look at that one as well.
As for the corpse of the Sebitti, it is a strange thing indeed. I’ve done multiple tests on the body, including a Soul-Corpse reduction, and I can confirm that this is a soul-less body. Now, the actual process of killing an Elder is rather novel and quite controversial, isn’t it? On the one hand, an Elder’s soul was never explicitly tied to their body, was it? This could very well be a trick of sorts where our fearsome Fenrir simply removed the Sebitti’s soul from its body and has hidden the Sebitti soul elsewhere. At least, that is what I would have assumed if not for the very real deaths of Phantom, Wicked, and Fate itself. Though I wasn’t there when those Elders were killed, I’ve heard most of the details of the process. In the simplest of terms, it involved two steps, correct? A physical mortal embodiment of the Elder and a sort of “short-circuit” between their connection allowing the mortal to “absorb” the soul of the Elder in the process diluting the Elder’s soul to the point of destruction. Of course, this was only possible thanks to a unique Elder’s powers of energy manipulation. This leaves two problems with Fenrir absorbing Elder souls:
1. How did he become the physical embodiment of the Sebitti?
2. Is he working with Warden?
As for the first one, it’s hard to say without having seen what exactly he did to the Sebitti. As for the other… well… I suppose that’s something you should start looking into, Shaka.