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

[Tio Silver]

It really was by pure chance that Tio, whilst rummaging through the mess of papers and books around the table, came across what seemed to be a map. It had been tucked in between the pages of one of the archaeology books, and as he'd picked it up to skim through it for clues the parchment fell out and landed right in front of him. As soon as he unfolded it Tio immediately realized what it was he'd found. It didn't take a genius to recognize a floor plan, and from the writing on the back there could be little doubt it'd been written by one of the archaeologists and was therefor a plan of one of the ruins.

As he examined it further two points caught his attention. The first was the square shaped symbols in the corridors between the rooms; judging by their positioning they were bound to be doors or some other kind of entrance, but why were they so different from each other? Some of them were just squares, others were squares with lines in them, and some of them replaced the square with dotted lines or nothing at all! There was even one with some sort of squiggly line!

The second was the writing next to the corridors that led to areas off of the map. The north and east corridors were labelled 'no access' and the west one wasn't, so it seemed pretty self explanatory that out of those three the archaeologists had explored the west one and hadn't been able to get into the other two. However the south corridor was labelled 'where does this lead?', suggesting that this area was open but still unexplored. Could the archaeologists have been exploring the area when they disappeared? And for that matter why would anyone put a map in a book? Perhaps it was an old map someone decided to use for a bookmark once they'd explored that area?

Well in any case a map was a map, and if they ended up going into the ruins he wanted to have one. Tio took one of the empty notebooks and a pencil from the mess around him and quickly copied down a sketch of the map, including the numbers, strange symbols and writing. Due to being rushed and possessing little artistic skill the copy he made was messy, but it still clearly represented the approximate size and shape of each room and corridor. He closed the notepad so that the map wouldn't get wet and then slipped it and the pencil into the inside left pocket of his jacket.

"Hey guys I found this among the mess, I think it's a floor plan for the first level of one of the ruins." He passed the map over to Kris. "What do the different symbols in the corridors mean? Types of doors? Anyway according to this the archaeologists were curious as to what was down the southernmost corridor, so perhaps they went that way when they disappeared?" Upon opening one of the chests, Tio was disappointed to find that it was empty. Even if there was something terrible and dangerous inside it at least he could fetch a good price for it on the black market, but even the most charismatic salesman would have trouble selling a box of air to anyone.

"Oh... I guess I was right then?" He closed the chest and reopened it as if expecting the motion to magically conjure up an item of some sort, but there was still nothing inside of it. With a disappointed sigh Tio closed the lid again and returned to his area. Prodding the moss hadn't yielded any notable results, and so Tio decided to turn his attention back to something else to investigate. As he did the sound of a thunderclap rang out somewhere nearby, and with a start Tio realized that even though he could hear quite the furious storm outside there was no rain pattering on the sides of the tent. Was it a dry thunderstorm? That couldn't be, it was quite clearly bright and sunny outside.

Tio stepped outside to look up at the sky, finally spotting the abnormal weather. What this what they called the eye of a storm? He wasn't the kind of guy to point at anything he didn't understand and shout 'witchcraft', but the way that the storm broke so perfectly around the camp and sounded oddly muffled made him feel like they were inside some kind of giant bubble. Could some magical shield be surrounding the ruins, and by extension the camp? Were magical shields even real?

"Wow... now that is weird." He idly muttered to the others. "Hey I don't suppose any of you scholarly types can think of a natural explanation for this? What about you Pe..."

He glanced over to where he thought Petra had been, but instead was greeted by empty space. Weird, he thought she'd been standing right outside here with the tattooed guy. He looked back inside the tent, but she wasn't their either.

"Petra?" He turned to face Arwel, a curious look on his face. "Where'd Petra go?"

[Kali'rial]

Kali drew an arrow and nocked it, watching Tio open the chest with bright periwinkle eyes. She did in fact have objections, but the words were caught in her throat as she felt her chest constrict. Had this man no sense of self preservation??? Stance ready for a fight, the Sev'ryn held her breath as the chest creaked open to reveal...

Nothing. It was empty.

The hunter let her breath out and relaxed her stance with a low stream of Xanthean curses. The whole situation was putting her on edge, and Amaris' commentary about the whole thing seeming arranged on purpose for them to find was so eerily aligned with her own thinking that the young woman felt a chill that didn't come from the icy tent air.

Noticing that Amaris had taken a sample of the moss, Kali moved away from the chests towards them, keeping the arrow nocked as she moved.

"Amaris, this moss." She pointed to the stuff still on the ground with the point of her arrow.

"This isn't native to the area. This is from home. My home. Desnind." Frowning, she looked down at the soft green velvety growth, feeling a sense of familiarity and concern.

"That in itself, isn't so peculiar I suppose. It's easy enough for plants to be transported. What is peculiar is the speed of growth. This stuff takes breaks to grow, and it needs a wet humid environment. This air is cold, and dry, and definitely no breaks of time have passed for this level of coverage." Looking up she swept the area with hunters eyes, noticing the words on the chalkboard and shooting Amaris a concerned glance, before walking away to follow Tio outside.

The sound of muffled thunder greeted Kali as she stepped out into the warm summer trial that engulfed the camp, feeling in no way warmed by it. The storms beyond the dry grass perimeter were building up, black and ominous, and the Sev'ryn shook her head again.

"Moseke watch over us." She muttered, as she moved to join Kris whilst watching Arwel and Tio with a seemingly permanent frown creasing her brow. As Tio spoke she blinked and turned left, right. Around. Indeed, where in all the Immortals names was Petra. Off to the side in one of the other tents, she saw movement flicker and drew her bow immediately to point in the direction, all senses firing.

"Kris. There." She said in Xanthean, nodding her head towards the tent.

[Amaris]

The first sample of moss withered and died. Not good. The hybrid scholar frowned deeply, and sought to take another sample, slightly bigger than the last. Kali spoke to them, informing the mixed blood that the moss was not native to Scalvoris to but to her homelands. It wasn't unusual for species of plants and animals to find their ways to other lands, but apparently the growth rate was wrong. Odd. They went about taking the next sample with this information in mind. It had not been their intention to, but in so doing it, they scraped off a bit of soil that went with the sample into the vial. They did not think much of it and moved on.

The chalkboard was covered in a slew of random reminders and notes, except two words that took up a bit of space in the middle of the board. Amaris stared for a moment before moving on to look through the papers. There had to be a rationale for this. They had learned, somewhat, to heed most warnings as they came and those words seemed like a promise. They swallowed thickly, sifting through the papers. Nothing useful here—and why was that? If this was meant to be a dig site, would the archaeologists not keep their notes here? Their frowned deepened and they righted themselves to report the findings that they did have. Someone other than the dig team had been here, and they had meant to hide something.

It looked as though the chests were empty. Which was, once more, odd. Odd, odd, odd. They didn't like how often they were starting to think this word. "I think it would be best if we discussed our findings outside of the tent. It's quite chilly in here," they suggested. Anything to get out of the tent, to get them moving towards some sort of objective to speed this search along.

As they did just that, however, they were gifted with the spectacle of storms clouds unleashing their torrential weeping—in a perfect circle outside of the camp site. Odd. "I must apologize; I've never seen anything like this before." The looked over at Tio, the supposed playwright or something. Maybe he'd turn their odd exploration into a full fledged play. The scholar doubted they would see it; either they would not be alive to or they'd rather not relive whatever awaited them. A dark thought to match the darker events surrounding this site.

"You said you found a map." Amaris attempted to engage the man in conversation, though the general attention of the group was soon on the fact that Petra was missing. They could not have been separated for very long, and if the scholar recalled, Arwel had been with her. He, though, was right where the group had left him, if not occupied with something else. It was a little easier to speak with him than the others, perhaps because they had already lived through a three trial near-death experience.

"What is it?"

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language

[Arwel Kyric]

Arwel was very put off by the fact that the clouds were avoiding the area around the camp, and he took a moment to guess at how wide around it was and made a note in his book. It was actually while he was observing around the camp that he noticed someone in one of the tents. Excited at the chance to speak to someone from the camp, he walked over at first, hoping to get clues on what happened, but slowed when he saw that the woman was tied to a bed. He frowned, especially when he saw the brand on her face. He didn't really condone slavery, but moreso hated that they were branded like cattle. He sped up his approach again when he saw the blood, then as she tried to pull away again, he realized he must be scaring her. He held his hands up and said, "I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help and ask some questions." he moved to kneel by her, not noticing anyone else or that someone had disappeared as he pulled around his bag to pull out his first aid kit. "Can you understand me? I'm going to help you with your wrists, is that alright? My name is Arwel."

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

When Tio found the map, he showed it to the others and Kris, specifically. Kris took it and looked, noting the points that Tio made about the doors and he nodded. "Aye. Different kinds of doors. The rooms are numbered, too, so that means there's a written key to this somewhere." He frowned and examined the map carefully. "If this was one of my digs, or any of the ones I've worked on, the plain square would mean a door, just a normal door. With a line through it? Probably that would mean the door was damaged but still there. Where there's no square, like here," he pointed to the symbol between rooms four and five and in the south of room two, "that's an archway. Just lines, no squares? Funny square no lines and squiggly line? Those will be specific to the place. Here it might be something like archway with religious symbols, or rocks or... it depends on the layout of the site and the preference of the archaeologist." Some basic symbols were universally used, it seemed, but far from all of them. Hmmm.

On the idea of the southernmost corridor, though, Kris nodded. "Well, this is the below ground level. So, depending on how intact the ground level is, who knows? Someone else's map is only useful when you know where you are in it. Still, should be fairly straightforward." Kali defended Tio as he opened the empty chest. It was strange, all the chests were empty and even the close-it-open-it-again trick didn't change that. Which was a little disappointing for all concerned, really. The moss was odd, though, very strange in a number of ways which Kali explained. How it got here was strange, considering the difference in climate, but it's growth rate and disintegration rate were beyond unusual and into impossible.

Amaris took samples and then moved over to the chalk board where, amongst the mundane and trial by trial information there were two words which seemed very clear. It seemed like a perfect time to exit the tent and make their way out into the outside where at least things would be less odd...... theoretically. Outside, less odd was a relative term at best; in fact it was a complete lie. Outside, the weather was possibly the least strange of a very strange set of circumstances. They had all made their way outside now, and they all saw that Petra simply was not there. There was no sign of her, she was just gone. The others were focused, understandably on that, and they might even look around or call out. It would be to no avail. If anyone was of a mind to do so (and Kris would if no one else did it first), they could even see Petra's tracks quite clearly. They moved, they came, they stood..... they stopped. It was like she had just disappeared in mid air.

By now, though, the slave had seen them all and she looked terrified. Arwel spoke to her, though and she calmed, her eyes widening. "You speak... speak Common tongue, sir? Sir, you should leave, it's not safe here. They changed, became terrible things." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper and her gaze was locked on Arwel. "Sir, you shouldn't touch this slave, sir. This slave might be infected, sir, it's why Master tied it up." Apparently perfectly comfortable with referring to herself as 'it', the slave looked at all of them and then spoke to Arwel. "But it was too late. They all changed and this slave didn't. Sirs and ladies shouldn't touch this slave, sir. Should leave, before it's too late for you all, sir."

Arwel spoke in a kind and gentle voice and she slave focused on him, but she also saw Kali and Amaris and she seemed more relaxed, marginally, when she looked at them. Tio, Kris and even Arwel to an extent, made her more afraid. "This slave will answer all your questions, Sir." As the young woman who was kneeling on the floor and tied to the bed made that assurance, an enormous clap of thunder sounded and the skies in the circle around them darkened further.

And in the camp, the sun shone.

OOC Info

!	Message from: Peg McPeggy of the Clan McPeggy
	I will post again on 18th June. 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 [color=#0000ff

updated[/color]]
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

Your guard is a female mixed-blood called Petra

► Show Spoiler

Where did she go?!

Samples

None this round.

[Amaris]

By this point, one would think that Amaris was already well acquainted with oddities. They would eagerly beg to differ, especially in light of their current situation. They were not skilled in tracking or hunting or any such skill that would likely have done them well in finding a possible answer to where Petra had gone, but they looked all the same. They happened upon the tracks of their group members and tried to recall the exact place their guide had been before she went missing. There was only one set of tracks that happened to stop and end entirely, as if the person had just...vanished. They didn't dare think the word that came to mind.

Unsure of what to do with this finding, they continued looking. Their redhaired companion had moved inside another tent, talking to someone. Someone? A softer, more timid voice drifted towards them and they followed the Aukari into the tent to see a woman chained up. Their eyes went to her brand; a slave. Maybe she knew something. It would seem she did, because she was going on about being infected.

With that in mind, the hybrid was quick to intercede before Arwel got too close. If she was infected, it would do them no good to come into contact with the woman. "Gloves, Arwel," they stated. They looked back to the woman, a tingling in their fingers at the sight of wrists. The chains had rubbed them raw, and while they were sure a good rub of alcohol and bandaging would be fine, they would need to remove the chains to be sure there wasn't an infection there. They swallowed, looking back up to the woman's face. She seemed calmer, less afraid.

"What do you mean 'they all changed'?"

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language

[Arwel Kyric]

Arwel nearly forgot himself, being so concerned about the wellbeing of the young woman, almost forgot the lesson learned in the ice caves last season. Luckily, Amaris had followed and reminded him of something rather important; don't just touch things bare handed. He'd actually forgotten about the fact that he wasn't wearing his leather gloves, he'd taken them off for writing and hadn't put them on again yet. "Ah, thank you Amaris. I'd almost forgotten that I had taken them off..." he murmured, looking at the young woman again as she spoke of infection. "I want to treat these injuries you have. Do you know where the keys are? I can wear gloves while treating you, and I'd much rather talk to you with you not tied up to the bed and with your wrists taken care of." He said, looking around in the process in the hopes of seeing something to get the chains off.

[Kali'rial]

Kali'rial watched her team mates as they moved towards the young slave girl in the tent, her arrow firmly drawn and trained on the stranger as she moved close enough to fire if required. The whole situation was sitting poorly in her gut, and the brunette huntress was not ready to suddenly become the touchy-feely saviour for a person that clearly called out they might be dangerous. The sky roiled and churned with dark clouds outside of the camp perimiter, and thunder clapped loudly in stark contrast to the summery setting around her.

"Arwel. I don't think its wise to let her loose." The Sev'ryn said with drawn brows, her periwinkle eyes flittering over the situation with concern. The hair on the back of her neck rose with a sense of foreboding dread. Their other guide had just...vanished...quite literally. Her footprints just ended. As though she'd just popped out of existance. Now they had some slave girl clearly stating something almost unable to be believed. The expedition team had changed, had become - as the words stated - terrible things.

Her nerves were on edge, and she felt dreadfully underprepared as a group. Their guard was gone, as far as she could tell Tio and Amaris were not armed, and Arwel was busying himself with the strange girl so not ready for possible danger. Kali had training, and her own skills from hunting, but she was one person. Kris appeared armed, but how skilled he was, she couldnt be sure. Judging by the conversation with the team on the docks, there were at least two people in the expedition team. Which meant two...creatures...based on the slaves word.

Hang on...

"Kris, do you know this woman? Was she part of the expedition?" The young woman asked the archeologist, glancing back at the Sev'ryn with a questioning frown, before looking back again.

[Tio Silver]

For perhaps the first time since they'd started this expedition Tio felt a spark of worry flicker around in his gut. Petra had just disappeared into thin air, and the trail of her footprints ended abruptly and offered no explanation as to why, and more importantly how, she'd vanished! Up until this point the mystery of the strange disappearances on this island hadn't particularly mattered to Tio; they'd only happened to people he didn't know and didn't particularly care about, and so it had been easy to distance himself from it. Now though it had happened to someone he did know practically right before his eyes, and it drove home the realization that if it happened to her, it could just as easily happen to him too.

Arwel ignored his question about what had happened to Petra, and as he looked to see why he finally spotted the slave girl tied up in the tent nearby. There was a slave girl here? He hadn't expected an archaeological team to bring along a slave, but then again someone would have had to take care of all the cleaning and cooking whilst the boffins focused all their attention on the expedition. She seemed frightened, especially of the more masculine members of the group (for reasons he didn't want to think about), and so Tio made sure to stand at the back of the ground as they assembled around her and began to ask questions.

As the group began discussing freeing her however Tio spoke up. "I agree with Cupcake," he motioned his head towards Kali to show that that was who he was talking about, "freeing her doesn't seem like a good idea. We can come back for her later when he have more information and better protection from this... infection. I know it sounds heartless, but the last thing we need right now is to complicate this whole mess further by risking getting ourselves infected."

Especially if this disease was as bad as the slave girl had made it sound. 'Changed' was a rather loose term; she could've been talking about a change in personality, some kind of visual mutation, or perhaps even both, but whatever she had meant Tio had no desire to have it happen to him.

"When you say 'they', you're talking about the archaeological team right? Where did they go?" He glanced over to the trail of Petra's footsteps. "They wouldn't have happened to disappear by any chance would they? Or maybe fly off?" By the sound of it the archaeological team may already be beyond help, but with any luck they might still be able to find Petra and get the hell out of here before things got even worse for them.

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

The slave looked around at them all, wide eyed and fearful. Arwel was moving to help with the cuts on her wrists, but then Amaris, Kali and Tio spoke and the girl looked, thinking through all the questions. "This slave believes Master has the keys, Sir. He put them in his pocket."

Kris looked over at Kali and nodded, "There was a slave with the group, yes. Belonged to one of the archaeologists." Kris shrugged slightly, "That's all that's listed though. One female slave. I guess that's her."

The slave in question looked around and tried to answer the questions asked. "They.. it was like they had some kind of moss growing over them, Sir," she continued to speak to Arwel, obviously getting more overwhelmed by the minute. "It took over their bodies, hands and arms and legs. Grew all over them, Sir. Master was already half covered when he chained this slave up, Sir."

Tio then asked her a direct question and she turned to answer him. "This slave doesn't know where they.. the archaeology team, went Sir. The infections started a ten-trial ago, Sir. Master was the first, this slave thinks. But then over the next two or three trials they all succumbed." She lowered her head and tried to move, to gain a slightly more comfortable position.

"They grew more cautious, more paranoid. Master chained this slave up five trials ago." It was not a surprise that she sounded hoarse, judging by her next words. "Then Master and the others went and they moved things, this slave heard them. Heavy moving, it sounded like." She sighed and continued, licking her parched lips. "Three trials ago, Master came back in, gave his slave some water. He was covered in the moss and he spoke in a different voice than normal." She lowered her head and fell silent, whilst they decided her fate. Kris listened to them speak, to Arwel's kindness, Amaris' question and then Kali and Tio's reticence and he shook his head. "I don't know about you lot, but that there's a human being. A mortal child of Moseke an' I'm not letting fear get in the way of doing what's right." His frown was deep and he looked at all of them, but perhaps especially Kali, his fellow Sev'ryn. "Shame on you all for thinking different, let alone saying it. Everything about this is wrong. Everything we've touched could have infected any one of us." His frown deepened and he shook his head. "You wouldn't leave a free person chained up like that, well you shouldn't leave any."

That said, Kris moved to kneel next to the slave and she did her best not to shy away from him, but didn't quite manage it. "It's alright. I'm going to unchain you, stay still." He didn't speak to her gently or even sympathetically. In fact, his voice was quite firm. It worked, in so much as she obeyed and then, from his boot, Kris pulled a set of lockpicks and got to work. As he worked, the slave spoke again, to all of them, "this slave does not know where Master and the others went, but it has been to the ruins to take care of the heavy lifting, Sirs and Lady."

As the chains fell free (unless of course someone stopped him), Kris stood and breathed in. "I suggest we give her a name and then some water, food and equipment. Then go to the ruins? What do you think?" Maybe, he thought, maybe that was where they would find Petra, but he did not say so.

OOC Info

!

Message from: Pegasus

I am so sorry! I thought I was due to post to here today! I was a day late! Sincere apologies! will post again on 23rd June. 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 It isn't guaranteed that Kris will unchain the slave ~ feel free to argue with / stop him. Please pm me with any questions.

NPCs [color=#0000ff

updated[/color]]
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.....

Your guard is a female mixed-blood called Petra

► Show Spoiler

Where did she go?!

Samples

None this round.