• Event • [Moderated Thread] Digging in the ruins: Fauna

[Arwel Kyric]

Arwel smiled at the young girl as she allowed him to tend to the wounds on her wrist, though the smile faded a bit when she mentioned bruises. He had nothing for that, unfortunately, but at least she was willing to come with him to find some clothes. They were able to find something for her to wear without any real trouble, and he politely turned his back while she changed.

When they were ready to go to the ruins, he glanced at her as he realized she was staying close to him. To be fair, the strength of the storm being barely held at bay was unnerving him as well, but she seemed to trust him to some extent and he did his best to put on a brave face. "Don't worry, just stick close to me and I'll look out for you," he said to her, giving her a small smile. He made notes of the drag marks and what everyone said about them in his journal, and easily jumped at least a foot in the air when the bolt of lightning struck. "Fauldrun's pants!" he gasped out, moving to pick his journal up from the ground, having dropped it in his surprise. "I wonder why the lightning struck here if the storm is out beyond the radius of here?" he murmured to himself. "Maybe it's a warning...."

[Amaris]

The hybrid had fallen silent, seeing as their previous speech had gone awry. They followed as their group moved onward to the ruins. They still felt it was a horrid idea to let the slave loose, but it was not a matter up for discussion now. So they held their piece. The way to the ruins did not greet them happily. Instead, as Kali pointed out and Tio mused, there tracks of shuffling feet and those being dragged. An obvious sign of things not going well for the expedition team. This must have been from what the girl had told them of before.

Amaris reached for the simple chain link that held their tags, perhaps out of the idea that holding them would comfort the mixed blood. The tags usually had that effect. Their fingers flipped one tag over the other, the distinct pattern of the Common word he under their finger tips. Their habit of looking down did not help them much, considering the only thing that might have stopped them from going forward was a near collision with Tio--and a lightning strike.

"That doesn't bode well."

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

The slave girl stayed near to Arwel and when the Aukari spoke to her, she looked at him with wide eyes. "This slave should not bother you, Sir. It is sorry." With that, she tried to not show her fear and failed rather miserably. She tried, though.

Tio had a lot of theories. A lot of them and some of them were aimed at the slave in question. She looked up and executed a curtsy, but did not speak since Tio had addressed his question to Kris (aka Tiger). Kris nodded, "There were three women, in the dig. Think carefully, now, girl." It seemed that he was not going to be calling her either 'slave' or 'kitty' any time soon. "After you were chained, before you were. When you saw the others, who was infected?"

The girl took a deep breath, obviously nervous and she thought about it. "This slave is unsure. The moss, it looked... no, this slave did not see any women. Only the male Sirs and Master. This slave is sorry, it did not think of that before." Then, she looked specifically at Tio, for there was one part of his question which she had not answered and so did. "This slave does not know its race, Sir." It appeared, no one had bothered to tell her. She appeared human, but then, that said very little. She looked around, though, at them when they talked about the map and waited until they had finished speaking, then raised a hand.

Assuming that one of them gave her permission to speak, then Kitty did so. "This slave knows that Master has a map of the ruins on the ground, if you wish this slave can draw them again, this slave made many copies."

If they let her, it meant that they could get hold of a copy of the ground floor of the ruins. If not, the layout would become more or less obvious once they got there anyhow. The lightening bolt was sudden and unnerved them all. Tio even got to feeling a little paranoid about it, which probably didn't feel like an over reaction to anyone.

The suggestion that Kali made was that they followed the drag-marks. With that, the map (if they had taken her up on the offer) and their vision, it became very obvious that, whilst the trial - by - trial footprints went all over the ruins, the dragging ones (both those of people being dragged and of dragging, shambling steps) were heading to one place.

The stairs going down.

"Alright," Kris said, with a sigh. "Two options. Go straight and follow the trail. I'm tempted, but the second option is to make sure that we're not leaving anything unpleasant behind in our rush. With Petra gone, we're down a fighter anyhow, so I see plus points to both. My vote would be to follow the trail, but lets go with the majority."

As they made sense of where they were, it became obvious that rooms 3, 4 and 6 were much more ruined than the others. The others were largely intact with holes in walls and ceilings but they would have to enter the ruins in order to ensure that they got to where they wanted to go.

So, what did they do?

OOC Info

!

Message from: Pegasus

This is the last posting round in this thread. I will post again on 6th July, and start a new thread where you are "in" the ruins. Please, therefore, be very clear about what you are voting (explore ground level or go straight below ground) and be aware that, once you enter the ruins, you will lose access to the camp. 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.

[Amaris]

The slave girl -- Kitty, now -- stated that she could draw a map in the ground. Amaris encouraged it, actually. Once it had been done, the hybrid copied what they saw. They could appreciate a more geometric shape to the architecture of the ruins, as opposed to what they had previously seen in the Ice Caves on Ishallr last season. It didn’t make them feel any better about the whole situation, though.

Once the map was copied, they focused then on what they should do. Going with the trail would put them right on the tail of the previous expedition team, but that might not be such a good thing. If what Kitty were saying was true...the team would likely not be welcoming to them, if anything. But straying from the trail could lead to another set of dangers they might not be prepared for. They were down a guard and while Kali might have been skilled enough to make up for the absence of Petra, that might not be enough for a group of their size.

Lips pursed, Amaris found no other option than to agree with Kris. “I say we check the rooms, and then follow the trail. Just to be sure we’re not missing anything of import.”

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language

[Arwel Kyric]

Arwel blinked when she looked at him with wide eyes, then apologized. "Oh, no it's alright." he was quick to reassure her. "You aren't bothering me. I want to make sure you stay safe, that's why I want you to stay close. We don't know what to expect in the ruins, and I don't want anything to happen to you. If it makes you feel more comfortable, I-I can order you to stay near me." He wanted her to trust him, but was also nervous about it. What if he wasn't good enough? What if she got hurt and he couldn't protect her? He wanted to do his best for her, but what if his best just wasn't enough?

When she mentioned the map, Arwel pulled out his journal and said, "Do you think you could draw it in here? That way we have access to it when we go into the ruins." He was thinking on a name for her as well. While Tio was calling her Kitty, he wasn't sure if that's what she wanted. It didn't hurt to have alternatives. Maybe he could find a name that she would feel comfortable being called. When she mentioned not knowing her race, Arwel tilted his head. He didn't really know enough about the races to know what she might be.

Regarding their next move, Arwel bit his lip before getting up the courage and saying, "I think it would be a good idea to explore and make sure there is nothing in any of the rooms that will potentially try and attack us on the way back in who knows what condition we or the others might be in. While it might seem prudent to go straight for the trail, the idea of there being hidden dangers elsewhere that perhaps could have caused whatever happened was a real threat to him.

[Kali'rial]

Kali frowned, watching the team as they deliberated on the approaches that Kris had proposed. To run in, head straight for the obvious route that had been stamped into the tracks was her preferred option, as it meant they could get to the root of the situation as soon as possible. Yet this could also be dangerous, they could be missing something vital or critical in the other rooms, or leaving themselves open to having their exit blocked by....Moseke knows what!

The moss and the slave girl nagged in the back of her mind. Something old and familiar and yet not. The huntress chewed on the thoughts, trying to pin down the feeling she was missing something extremely important.

Moving closer to see the map that the slave had drawn, Kali looked the woman over far more closely taking in as much information as she could. The brown haired girl was unremarkable from any other person, no outstanding features or oddities of note - except for her slave brand and the fact she'd been tied up and left behind. Why, if the men then were the only ones confirmed as infected (or even seen by the slave), did this woman say she'd been tied up for suspicion of being infected. Why not tie themselves up as well? This...master and the others? Who's protection was it actually for? None of it made sense, and yet something nagged. The Sev'ryn looked at the map, noting the strange marks at the joining junctions. Some squiggles, some open, some open with a cross. None of it made any particular sense to her.

"I vote we check the rooms too. That stairwell leaves us vulnerable, like corralling animals into a trap. Last thing we want is our only potential exit being cut off." Her periwinkle gaze turned back to the ruins, wondering if she should mention the movement she had seen. Thought she had seen. It seemed important, then again...it could have been a trick of the light.

Tricks. Infections. Moss...of course. That was what swaps niggling at her. It should have triggered earlier, but didn't. Kali looked at Kris with a frown.

"Have you ever encountered Lisirra's Plague? I've heard the stories, and I know we still fight in Desnind against it, but I've never seen it in person before. Could we be seeing Lisirra's influence here?" The possibility made the brunette's stomach churn with concern.

[Tio Silver]

Slavery wasn't really as issue Tio usually paid much attention to, but even with his limited knowledge on the subject he was beginning to think that Kitty's master was a particularly rotten person. Buying a person and refusing to give them a name was pretty bad already, but not even telling them their race? It just seemed needlessly cruel, not to mention inefficient. For a second he entertained the thought that she might be one of his kind, but he dismissed it immediately. If her enslavement was as rough as she was making it out to be she'd probably have been on the receiving end of a beating quite a few times, and would have noticed if her body was just an illusion then.

Which raised another question for Tio; would he be immune to this moss disease? Normal poisons and illnesses couldn't affect a Yludih because they had no flesh and blood, but then again normal illnesses didn't turn people into moss zombies either. It sounded like his earlier guess may have had some truth to it since Kitty never saw any females transform and the amount of them in the group matched up nicely with the amount of people who seemed to have been dragged into the ruins, but that could also just be a complete coincidence. Either way this moss stuff just kept getting creepier by the minute.

Tio also had no objections to letting Kitty draw out the map, and as she did so he took out the notepad and pencil he'd gotten from the command tent and sketched out his own copy in one of the other pages. He wondered exactly how it connected to the map he'd found earlier, but figured they'd figure that out when they came to it.

Then the group started voting on whether to double-check the area or follow the trail straight into the ruins, and it immediately became clear that almost everyone was in favour of checking the rooms. That was his vote as well, but not for the same reason as everybody else. Searching the rooms was more likely to turn up something valuable he could take than following the trail was, and he was in no rush.

"Guess we're checking the rooms then. Personally I hope one of them is a kitchen, I could do with a snack right now."

[Pegasus]

Thread 2!! Wooooo hooooo

PS: This will turn into a review. Eventually. Soon. Soon... ish?

[Pegasus]

The Review

Kali’rial

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Overview

I really enjoyed seeing how Kali interacted with Tio’s outrageous behaviour, with Kris and his stubborn determination that he’s never wrong and with the whole, very strange experience. I love your writing style, your honest way of playing your pc and I’m really pleased that you’ve joined this expedition. Looking forward to tormenting…. torturing… challenging you in thread two!

Experience & Fame

Points: 20

Fame: +10 Event Participation

Knowledge

Cartography: Map drawing
Cartography: Map reading
Cartography: Symbols on maps
Detection: Searching for information before you arrive gives you clues.
Detection: Sniff and taste the air
Detection: Spotting small, unnatural details
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: A real thing
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: Only affects boys?
Gardening: Desnind moss?
Gardening: Moss growth
Hunting: Determining patterns of movement from tracks
Hunting: Determining types of movement from tracks.
Hunting: Spotting irregularities
Hunting: Tracks shouldn’t just stop
Investigation: Lingering scent can provide clues
Investigation: Sensing when something is not natural
Investigation: Sensing when something isn’t right
Lisirra’s Plague: Moss Zombies?
Location: Immortals Tongue
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: The Immortals walk here?
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Unique flora, fauna and monsters
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Very odd weather
Logistics: Organization of camps
Monsters: Moss Zombies
Monsters: Moss Zombies only male?
NPC: Jo’ne: Mayor of Scalvoris Town
NPC: Kris (please feel free to take all the knowledge of him in the tabs of this thread, if you wish it)
NPC: Reza: Overseer of the Shrines on Immortals’ Tongue
Tactics: Don’t go underground if you don’t know what’s behind you

Injuries

None…. Yet

Loot

1 x map of Immortals’ Tongue

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Tio

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Overview

OMG! I love Tio he is such a wonderful pc and great fun! What I’m really impressed with is how you manage to emphasize his mortality around those awful jokes and sexual innuendo. Really well written, really interesting pc and I’m really glad you’re part of this expedition! What could possible go wrong!?

Experience & Fame

Points: 20

Fame: +10 Event Participation,

Knowledge

Cartography: Map drawing
Cartography: Map reading
Cartography: Symbols on maps
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: A real thing
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: Only affects boys?
Etiquette: Don’t tell people they’re meat-shields
Etiquette: The fine art of abysmal jokes
Investigation: Check around first
Investigation: Think about what would or should be somewhere
Lisirra’s Plague: Moss Zombies?
Location: Immortals Tongue
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: The Immortals walk here?
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Unique flora, fauna and monsters
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Very odd weather
Logistics: Organization of camps
Monsters: Moss Zombies
Monsters: Moss Zombies only male?
NPC: Jo’ne: Mayor of Scalvoris Town
NPC: Kris (please feel free to take all the knowledge of him in the tabs of this thread, if you wish it)
NPC: Reza: Overseer of the Shrines on Immortals’ Tongue
Seduction: A robust ego is a real bonus
Seduction: Rejection is part of the game.
Tactics: Choose your companions based on self preservation
Tactics: Don’t go underground if you don’t know what’s behind you
Tactics: Weigh up odds of survival with rewards

Injuries

Your conscience is getting a bit itchy. It may have picked up a disease. You should get it checked. None!

Loot

1 x map of Immortals’ Tongue

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Arwel

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Overview

Arwel’s really starting to come out of his shell and I love how adorable he is with the slave! He’s such a sweet pc – thank you for letting me mod you again! I look forward to seeing what he does in thread 2!

Experience & Fame

Points: 20

Fame: +10 Event Participation, +10 (good deeds and helping the slave)

Knowledge

Caregiving: Asking about what the person wants
Caregiving: First aid
Caregiving: Non-threatening posture
Caregiving: Reassuring words
Cartography: Map drawing
Cartography: Map reading
Cartography: Symbols on maps
Discipline: Gloves on first, no matter how compassionate you feel.
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: A real thing
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: Only affects boys?
Lisirra’s Plague: Moss Zombies?
Location: Immortals Tongue
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: The Immortals walk here?
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Unique flora, fauna and monsters
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Very odd weather
Logistics: Organization of camps
Medicine: Basic first aid
Meditation: Early morning has a special significance
Monsters: Moss Zombies
Monsters: Moss Zombies only male?
NPC: Jo’ne: Mayor of Scalvoris Town
NPC: Kris (please feel free to take all the knowledge of him in the tabs of this thread, if you wish it)
NPC: Reza: Overseer of the Shrines on Immortals’ Tongue
Tactics: Don’t go underground if you don’t know what’s behind you
Writing: Write what you see
Writing: You can miss new details while writing

Injuries

None

Loot

1 x map of Immortals’ Tongue

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Amaris

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Overview

I love Amaris! Such fun, so well written. What I really like is how Amaris is so quietly determined and, with just enough courage to speak up or act, will become a real force to be reckoned with! I’m really pleased you signed up for a second seasonal thread, hope you enjoy Thread Two!

Experience & Fame

Points: 20

Fame: +10 Event Participation,

Knowledge

Cartography: Map drawing
Cartography: Map drawing
Cartography: Map reading
Cartography: Symbols on maps
Detection: Unnatural silence.
Discipline: Gloves first
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: A real thing
Disease: Moss Zombie Disease: Only affects boys?
Gardening: Desnind Moss
Gardening: Moss growth rates
Hunting: Basic tracking techniques
Hunting: Human / mortal tracks are easy to spot, usually
Investigation: Why make messes?
Leadership: Be calm and clear
Leadership: State your point
Lisirra’s Plague: Moss Zombies?
Location: Immortals Tongue
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: The Immortals walk here?
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Unique flora, fauna and monsters
Location: Immortals’ Tongue: Very odd weather
Logistics: Organization of camps
Monsters: Moss Zombies
Monsters: Moss Zombies only male?
NPC: Jo’ne: Mayor of Scalvoris Town
NPC: Kris (please feel free to take all the knowledge of him in the tabs of this thread, if you wish it)
NPC: Reza: Overseer of the Shrines on Immortals’ Tongue
Persuasion: Put forward a logical argument
Tactics: Don’t go underground if you don’t know what’s behind you

Injuries

Loot

1 x map of Immortals’ Tongue
1 x sample of moss (dead)

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