Team Fauna: Thread 2

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

And so, for a little while, they stayed above ground.

Rooms 3, 4 and 6 on the map were pretty much open to the elements. There were things to see there, certainly, but they were things of historical and archaeological significance. They decided that they were going to explore, however, and explore they did. In general terms they learned a lot of things. The symbols, for example, were fairly straightforward.

A door was a rectangle shape. There there was an open rectangle, the door was intact. If there was a line through the rectangle, it was either damaged (horizontal line) or not there (vertical). There was also an archway, rather than a doorway, identified by two very small lines and no rectangle. And then there was the squiggly lines. Those were a doorway which was half doorway, half rubble.

It was rooms 1, 2 and 5 which they got to explore. In those rooms, they found the same general thing. The rooms had been tidy. Organised. There were tables and chests, more equipment (the heavier stuff and things that were used very regularly). There were inventory lists, there was a feeling of real organisation. Like the first stage of drawing and calculating and cataloguing had happened in a very well planned manner.

and then.....

The rooms had, at one point, been tidy. But here again things were chaos. Equipment was smashed against the walls, tables and chairs were broken and in pieces. Chests had been broken open and the contents, which was still evident, had been smashed and shattered.

This was not quite the same as the way the tent had been. In the tent it had seemed almost like the chaos was created to cover up the stripping of information.

This? This was just carnage.

So, they had three rooms. All full of wreckage. It would take some time to fully explore all three, probably into the next trial if they were to do so properly. They could explore one and surmise from the rest, or they could accept that whatever was here could be examined in more detail later. If questioned, the slave (who stayed as close to Arwel as possible) would say that last time she had seen these rooms, they had not looked like this.

Decisions, decisions.

OOC Info

!

Message from: Pegasus

Welcome to the new thread! Again, please let me know what you vote, and we'll go with the majority. There are things to find / discover in these rooms, but doing so will take a chunk of time. It's a genuine conundrum and there is not a right / wrong answer. I will post again on 10th July ~ if you all post before then I will post sooner No placeholders, please. One post between mod posts, please - no posting order. Please don't control the NPCs, feel free to direct things to them - they'll respond in my next post Please pm me with any questions.

NPCs

Your archaeologist companion is a male Sev'ryn called Kris

► Show Spoiler

He looks to be in his mid fifties
He wears a sword at his hip and carries a crossbow.
Kris is a friendly, chatty fellow.
Although he is an experienced archaeologist, this is his first time on Immortals' Tongue.
He has a temper and doesn't like feeling mocked.
He is cautious
He likes to record and observe.
He is a competent tracker / hunter
He appears to be very anti-slavery
He can pick locks.....
He ignores good advice.

Your guard was a female mixed-blood called Petra. You lost her!

Samples

None this round.

[Kali'rial]

Kali proceeded every step into a new room with arrow notched and drawn, scanning the area for danger with serious periwinkle eyes. She noticed the same thing the others would have. The utterly devastating chaos that was everywhere. Much like the tent the rooms had been organised, and now they were annihilated, however this was much less reflective of purpose. Whoever had done this destruction had just exploded, as though in a fit of blind rage they had torn the place to pieces.

"Moseke protect us." She muttered, shaking her head and lowering the bow. Closing her eyes, the young woman took a deep breath. She released the breath slowly, trying to find her centre and calm her nerves. The huntress needed to focus, and whilst she didn't have the luxury of a full meditative cycle, she knew that sometimes a few deep breaths was all one needed to relax. Opening her eyes again, the brunette huntress moved closer to the slave, offering her a smile. If the Sev'ryn's earlier suspicions were right, this girl was less of a threat that she'd previously surmised. The Master had, without a doubt, tied the girl up away from the rest of the chaos and madness. Why, Kali had no idea, but she was aware that others had been dragged down here and yet the slave was not.

"I don't know what happened to you, but I'm sorry if I frightened you before. Our guard has vanished and I am only trying to protect this group, with a short bow and nowhere near the skills she had." Her gaze filtered to Kris with an apologetic nod of the head. Smiling, Kali tried to keep her tone soothing. The girl was clearly frightened and hurt, and it was a shameful admittance that the Sev'ryn had treated her poorly.

"You don't have a name, and Tio's nickname doesn't really suit you...in fact they don't suit anyone." She shot the silver haired man a wry grin before continuing on a more serious note.

"As a free woman, you have the right to choose your own name. For now though, if you'll allow it, I would call you Alaiwa. It means light in Xanthean." She smiled again, more encouragingly.

"Now Alaiwa, you saw this place before it was destroyed. I feel like we should stay and search at least one of these rooms, and I would very much appreciate your guidance on which room would be the most sensible." Of course, the searching of rooms was a group vote, but if the majority agreed she would take the girls advice on which one to search.

[/style3]

[Tio Silver]

Investigating the room had, sadly, not turned up anything worth taking. In some rooms there had been a lot of scientific looking equipment and notes that detailed what he assumed to be the archaeologist's investigations, but most of that either seemed worthless or too heavy to bring along. All of the stuff in the other rooms was completely smashed to bits and scattered around in such a mess that even if there was anything intact worth selling it might take trials to find it. He couldn't even find any stray nel to pick up! Weren't ruins supposed to be filled with ancient statues made of gold and the like? Why couldn't they skip ahead to the part where they found that sort of stuff?

"As... uh... enlightening as these rooms have been, I don't think it's worth our time searching them any more. We've confirmed that there's nothing dangerous or obviously important we're missing, so perhaps we should return our focus to finding Petra and the uninfected archaeologists." He said with a frown. "If they're still alive then we need to find them, before that changes."

He faked a look of hurt as Kali brought up his nicknames. "How very dare you. I combine the most advanced deductive reasoning techniques, historical legends and philosophical arguments in order to make sure that each and every nickname I give embodies the very essence of who a person is. My nicknames are a better fit than a real name could ever be! For example you wear a lot of fur which makes you look all fluffy, like a cupcake."

"Although she does have a point, with your master gone you're a free woman now. You can go wherever you want, do whatever you like, be whoever you want to be. You must be quite excited right?" He raised a pointed eyebrow at Kali. "Of course as lovely as a name as Alaiwa is, perhaps you'd like to chose what you want to be called for yourself. I'm still gonna call you Kitty of course regardless, but there's more power in genuine names than people realise. You're a free woman now, and free woman make their own decisions."

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

So, there were discussions to have and they were relatively straightforward ones. Kali and Tio put forward opinions, although Arwel and Amaris were less vocal. Kris, seemed rather torn but he nodded his head at Tio. "Whilst I agree with you, Kali, and I'll kick myself if we've missed something useful. I'll kick myself more if the people we're to help get injured because we waited here. There's nothing dangerous that we can see. Lets go down."

The slave looked at Kali with something resembling horror in her expression when Kali spoke to her. "Oh, Miss, no Miss, you have no apology to make to this slave, Miss." There was no doubting it, the idea of a free born individual apologising to a slave was horrifying to her but she looked around and nodded as Kali said that she would call her, "Miss calls this slave what it pleases her, Miss."

If Kali apologising had surprised her, though, Tio's words gave her cause to go into a total tailspin. "Free woman, Sir? This slave can not be free, it must be a slave. It was born as a slave and will die as one." So she had been told every trial of her life and she had no idea if he was telling her the truth or, as she suspected, it was a cruel joke. When he said that he would continue to call her Kitty, though, she nodded, "This slave will answer whatever you call it, Sir."

Kris frowned deeply. Not liking this one little bit, he sighed. "Lets make our way down, then."

And down they went. Down the stairs into what seemed likely to be the shaded area in the middle of the top of the map. It certainly followed the direction and shape and seemed most likely.

There were a lot of stairs down and why became obvious as they stepped into the corridor. High, vaulted ceilings were a constant reminder of the fact that they were deep, deep underground. It was strange, also, and immediately apparent that they were not in the total pitch blackness they should be in. It was.. gloomy, Dark and gloomy, but there was some light. There were small stones set into the walls, here and there, which gave off a slight glow. There were few enough of them and the place was so vast that they didn't do more than cast a gloomy glow and created a lot of shadow, but it meant that the group could see.

As they entered, they turned left into the large room (which, if they were correct was the room marked 4 on the map). The strange square in the entrance lined up with where there was a beautiful, ornate pillar with a lot of strange carvings on it.

The room itself was large and felt larger because of the vast height. In here, each one about ten foot in towards the center of the room from the wall, but situated so that it was in the middle of the wall, were four altars. They were beautiful to see, light-giving stones glinted from within the delicate carvings. Each altar was a squat rectangle on a raised dais, three steps leading up to it. Atop each altar were three things. They were identical on each altar.

There was a chalice, a carving of a pretty, delicate butterfly and, finally, a jar of liquid. The chalice was empty, the carving was of wood and would fit in the palm of your hand and the liquid was clear and the jar it was in stoppered.

Four altars. Three items per altar. Two exits, where one would expect, according to the map

OOC Info

!	Message from: Pegasus
	Both Amaris and Arwel have missed one round of posting. I will post again on 14th July ~ if you all post before then I will post sooner No placeholders, please. One post between mod posts, please - no posting order. Please don't control the NPCs, feel free to direct things to them - they'll respond in my next post Please pm me with any questions.

NPCs

Your archaeologist companion is a male Sev'ryn called Kris

► Show Spoiler

He looks to be in his mid fifties
He wears a sword at his hip and carries a crossbow.
Kris is a friendly, chatty fellow.
Although he is an experienced archaeologist, this is his first time on Immortals' Tongue.
He has a temper and doesn't like feeling mocked.
He is cautious
He likes to record and observe.
He is a competent tracker / hunter
He appears to be very anti-slavery
He can pick locks.....
He ignores good advice.

Your guard was a female mixed-blood called Petra. You lost her!

Samples

None this round.

[color=#0000ff

In your next post[/color]]
Please be very clear about what you are going to do. For ease, call the altar's the North, South, West and East. What might happen if you touch / interfere / breathe near / look at the items is different depending on which item on which altar so please be very clear.
Also - for reasons which might, one day, be apparently, please let me know if your pc is walking around the outside of the room or is stepping in the middle / central area

Thanks!

[Kali'rial]

Shooting Tio a raised eyebrow in return, Kali looked at Kris with a slight twitch of the jaw before nodding in agreement. She would like to explore even one of the rooms, but his logic was reasonable and he was an elder. The slave girls words saddened Kali, how could someone be made to be so broken down? In Desnind, people were sent to slavery as a form of punishment, but the brunette had no experience with someone on the other side of the fence. This girl quite didn't look as though she was Sev'ryn, and certainly not like she'd done anything of punishable offence. Even so, this was cruel. The slave, Alaiwa as Kali called her now, was a shell. A husk of a being left to the hands of others. It made the young huntress furious.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to Alaiwa, not anymore. As the others have said before, we just want you to be safe now. Once we're safely out of this place, we can talk about it more." It was clear the girl wouldn't suddenly be convinced she was a free woman by herself or by the others, not here. She was broken, damaged. The concept of being free would take time, patience and care. Somewhere quiet and calm, not here.

Taking the stairs, Kali followed along beside Kris with bow at the ready. The downward path went on and on, giving the brunette a sense of eerie discomfort. They were deep down, beneath the earth, where dark and dangerous things could be lurking and people had been dragged off too. The Sev'ryn wondered briefly how anyone could make these stairs with an injury that would cause them to shamble like the tracks prior. Frankly, it seemed impossible. There was no blood she could see, and no bodies on the staircase. Somehow, that knowledge made her far more concerned than previously. Stepping off the dimly lit stairs into the shadowy room, Kali glanced up at the cathedral ceiling with a state of awe. Whomever had built these ruins must have spent years on them, years of dedication and commitment. Looking down again, she moved to the ornate pillar just past the stairs, examining the carvings closely in the hope that they would give some clue as to which Immortal these ruins were indeed dedicated to. The idea of infection, of changing....the Sev'ryn couldn't shake the feeling that this was somehow related to the workings of Lisirra or her cult. The thought gave the young woman a cold chill in the pit of her stomach, knowing the stories from Desnind about the Cazav and their dark experiments.

Moving around the outside of the room, Kali approached the North altar first, climbing the stairs to the dais so she could get a closer look at the carvings before glancing up at the three items a top it. A chalice, a butterfly and a jar of fluid.

A butterfly?

Nope. The hairs on the back of Kali's neck raised slightly. She let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding, which swept across the jar on the altar.

"It could be coincidence, but stories from home tell that Lisirra is preceded by butterflies when she is seen. I'm not sure anything here is safe to touch." They'd already established no-touching, but the Sev'ryn was now very certain she didn't want any contact with anything.

[Tio Silver]

It was weird, disturbing even, to hear Kitty talk about herself in such a submissive way. Did she really have no respect for herself, no desire to rise above her current station in life and become better than she was now? Sentient creatures should have more ambition than that, after all it was the lust for greater things that separated races from animals, and when deprived of the chance to realise those ambitions it was only natural to get angry and fight back against those who denied it to you. Yet there was no fire in her eyes, no spark of desire even when the chance for freedom was literally handed to her on a silver platter! It was like listening to a dead person; one that could move and talk but ultimately had forgotten what living was all about. Spirits even husks possessed more life than her, and they were literally dead!

"So you say, but what's actually enforcing that, hmm?" He gestured to the place around them. "Your master isn't here, there are no chains around your wrists, heck if you asked us nicely I'm sure we'd all tell anyone who asked that we never even saw you here. You could stowaway on the next ship to Viden or wherever you wanted to go and nobody would stop you. All you have to do is walk away and in an instant you're free, simple as that."

As they descended down the stairs and entered the gloomy room Tio's eyes lit up at the sight of the chalices on the altars. At last, something that might be of value! It was too dimly lit for him to make out what the chalices were made of, and so as soon as he was down the last step Tio made a beeline straight to the east altar and immediately picked up the chalice upon it, turning it around in his hands to get a better look at it. He then looked at, but did not touch, the butterfly carvings and the jar of liquid, giving them an appraising look to see if they might hold any value as well.

It was at that point that Kali mentioned Lisarra again. He'd heard the name Lisarra before, mentioned in passing by his mother as an ally of their family's patron Immortal Syroa, but like most Immortals whose domains didn't immediately click with him he cared very little to find out more about her. Wasn't she the queen of bugs of something? By the way that Kris and Kali acted whenever she was mentioned it seemed like they thought there was something about her to be feared.

"You guys keep bringing up Lisarra like she's about to stab you in the back any minute now. What's the deal with that? Who exactly is she?" He asked Kris and Kali, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two Sev'ryn.

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

Tio's words to her were challenging, Kali's much more gentle, but both said the same thing and the slave looked at them both with wide eyes. "This slave...." she searched for the words, and Kris spoke, looking at her with a slight smile. "She's been a slave since birth. It's all she's ever known. Any wish for freedom has been beaten out of her, I imagine and she firmly believes that she can not be free. It's why they get them to refer to themselves like this. To call herself this slave, it. She's nothing more than an object in her own eyes. Is that right?"

She looked at Kris and nodded, a single nod, "this slave was born only to please it's owner, Sir."

Kris looked at her and sighed, "So, telling her she's free is a bit like telling you, look, you're a woman. Go over there and be one. You just don't know how, you've got no frame of reference and it isn't your reality. For now, though, Kali is right." Kris smiled at the younger Sev'ryn. "We need to get going and here is not the place to talk about it."

Kali considered the stairs and Kris vocalised her thoughts. "How did they get down here dragging and shambling and shuffling? I can't see any signs?"

The pillar that Kali examined was covered with intricate carvings and she saw that they were, in fact, a depiction of a sort of story. She'd seen similar carvings done in Desnind, though there it would be in wood, not stone. The 'story' was one of worship. Of people coming and leaving offerings here, of worshiping and praying.

In terms of which Immortal? Well, what Kali came away with was a very clear idea that these ruins might well be, like the island itself, dedicated to them all. Or at the very least - a lot of them. From what she knew and what she could ascertain, the festivals and worship depicted were to many different Immortals.

Whilst Kali examined the pillar, Tio made a direct line to the east altar and he picked up the chalice. As he did that, a few things happened for Tio specifically, but nothing that anyone else saw.

As Kali let out a breath on to the jar, she might realise that there was no dust here. None at all. It was like the cleaners has just been in here and tidied the place quite thoroughly. Odd.

As for Tio's question about Lisirra? Well, as Kali turned to answer, she saw Tio standing, holding a chalice in his hands and wondering about it. Kris was copying down the design on the pillar and left Kali to that.

Thus far, they'd gone to opposite altars, no one had checked the north or south altar in any detail and they hadn't explored the room fully, but there were still the two exits.

OOC Info

!	Message from: Pegasus
	Both Amaris and Arwel have missed two round of posting. I will post again on 19th July ~ if you all post before then I will post sooner No placeholders, please. One post between mod posts, please - no posting order. Please don't control the NPCs, feel free to direct things to them - they'll respond in my next post Please pm me with any questions. Secret PM sent!

NPCs

Your archaeologist companion is a male Sev'ryn called Kris

► Show Spoiler

He looks to be in his mid fifties
He wears a sword at his hip and carries a crossbow.
Kris is a friendly, chatty fellow.
Although he is an experienced archaeologist, this is his first time on Immortals' Tongue.
He has a temper and doesn't like feeling mocked.
He is cautious
He likes to record and observe.
He is a competent tracker / hunter
He appears to be very anti-slavery
He can pick locks.....
He ignores good advice.

Your guard was a female mixed-blood called Petra. You lost her!

Samples

None this round.

[color=#0000ff

In your next post[/color]]
Please be very clear about what you are going to do. For ease, call the altar's the North, South, West and East. What might happen if you touch / interfere / breathe near / look at the items is different depending on which item on which altar so please be very clear.
Also - for reasons which might, one day, be apparently, please let me know if your pc is walking around the outside of the room or is stepping in the middle / central area

Thanks!

[Tio Silver]

Tio could see what Kris was saying; if you'd been raised all your life to act a certain way or believe a certain thing then it was pretty hard to just stop doing that because somebody told you to. But although he could understand where he was coming from he most certainly did not agree with him. How to be free was not something that needed to be taught after all, indeed freedom was all about not doing what you were taught to do but whatever the hell you felt like doing. You didn't even necessarily have to do anything to be free; you could sit on your ass doing nothing all day if you wanted.

And Kitty could be free if she wanted to be; all she had to do was walk away and it was hers! It was almost annoying to think that some slaves fought and bled and gave their lives for their chances at freedom, but when such a chance was handed to her she wouldn't take it just because not knowing how to do it scared her.

Well Kris had been right about one thing; this wasn't the place to talk about it. He had no interest in helping people who didn't have the will to help themselves, so it was time to drop the subject and let it go back to being none of his business.
As he picked up the chalice Tio's eyes widened slightly as the strange things happened, and one corner of his mouth twisted up into a half-smirk. Now that had been interesting! These chalices were more valuable than he'd initially thought! He could definitely get a few good gold nel pieces out of this one.

But why only settle for one?

He slung his backpack off his shoulders and rummaged around inside of it until he found one of his empty rucksacks, which he brought out and placed the east altar chalice inside of. After closing his backpack and slinging it back on again he then walked through the middle area of the room towards the west altar. Once at the west altar he did pretty much the same thing he'd done at the east altar; he picked up the chalice with his left hand, turned it over a few times as he examined it, and then put it inside the rucksack along with the east chalice.

Then he turned his eyes to the southern altar, and to anyone who might be watching him it would be pretty clear by this point from his expression that he intended to take the chalice from there too.

[Kali'rial]

Kali noticed the lack of dust as her breath brushed across the jar, frowning as she stood. So far she had determined; the ruins didn't seem to be dedicated to any one Immortal, the carvings depicted acts of worship not unlike the carvings from home, the shambling and dragging tracks had perhaps not been accompanied by injury and the items in the ruins appeared to be cleaned regularly. Without turning to face Tio at first, the Sev'ryn began to answer his question, her frown deepening.

"Lisirra is Moseke's Sister, the Immortal of not just insects but also of pestilence, toxin and decay. She took great pleasure in experimenting on and ultimately destroying Moseke's people, and as such the Mother sent her away. Lisirra sent out a terrible plague that destroyed almost everything in Desnind, but by Moseke's loving grace the Sev'ryn were reborn. Today, we still fight back the Plague. There is a throng of people, the Cazav, who worship and serve Lisirra and her evil experiments. These people are dangerous, and work to spread her plague across the many lands of Ida-" Turning then, her periwinkle eyes widened with a gasp and she froze on the dais as she saw the chalice in Tio's hand.

"What in all the Immortal's name are you doing?!" The huntress said with a tone of incredulous horror. What had Kris said about touching? What had she just said about touching, about the plague of Lisirra. Staring, unable to believe her eyes, the brunette watched the silver haired man shove the chalice into his pack before crossing the room to collect the western chalice. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, seeing the fool eye the southern alter. Moseke save me, does he think he's on a treasure hunt?!

"Kris! TIO, STOP NO!" Running from the northern alter, down to the middle of the room in the hope of placing herself in a position to stop him if he made a step towards either of the remaining two chalices, Kali'rial put out a hand to indicate he needed to stop. She held her bow and arrow gripped in her free hand, not moving to draw her weapon on the man lest he be acting on innocent misunderstanding. If he didn't stop however, she would.

"Are you mad?! We have no idea what these things are or what they do. This isn't a bloody market place shopping trip, it's a temple to the Immortal's and we're supposed to be saving people." She growled, her mortified tone clearly implying she thought Tio was a fool. And fools were often a danger to themselves and those around them.

[Amaris]

quick ooc note

for the remainder of the expedition, I’ll be referring to Amaris using he/him pronouns. Aside from the slight deepening of their voice, nothing physically about them has changed Their tags are also visible so if you wanna comment on it, go ahead.

Amaris had not been as vocal as he was before, and for the simple reason that he assumed his thoughts would be more inclined to align with Kali. She was vocal enough for the two of them and that was fine enough for him. He followed towards the back of the group as they went. The hybrid was pleasantly surprised by the spacious ceiling; his last venture below ground had not afforded him the chance to stand upright.

While Tio and Kali checked the altars, Amaris remained in the middle of the room. He made notes of all they saw, including what was on the altars. His thoughts, however, were interrupted as Kali raised her voice. His attention was drawn then to Tio, who seemed eager to take everything in sight. Not good.

“Leave everything where it is!” Touching things seemed to be the basic principle of this group, and that was not something he could have. Especially given the circumstances. “Put it back, Tio, and wipe your hands off quickly.”

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language