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

[Amaris]

Being careless was not something they could afford so early on. Amaris had already witnessed what that could do last season, and a repeat was something they wished to avoid. So as their guide berated them and set to unfasten the slave woman's chains, the hybrid interceded once more.

"Kris, I understand your sentiments, but that is not a good idea. If what she's saying is true, and if she infected, she would be further along than us. It doesn't look that way, but the lack of exposure to anything thus far could be what has prevented the spread of this infection through her body. And if it changes her behavior, there's no telling what she may do. Her being chained could be what's saving her. It might just be saving all of us." They hated that they had to make this argument, but they must. They were already down one guide and the group could not lose another. "If I'm to be a shameful blight on the group for wanting what's in all our best interests, then I don't mind it. But please, this could be what's keeping her infection at bay and until we know more, I think it woils be wise to give her food and water."

They didn't think to look back to their groupmates, and hoped they wouldn't notice the way their frame shook under the weight of their words. They had already begun to process what the woman was saying. If they were infected already, they had time; the slave did not. She could already be too far gone for them to do anything about and contact with her could speed up their own infection. She could also begin to behave erratically. It would not be unexpected with what she had told them.

Common | Murnasian | Ancient Language

[Kali'rial]

Kali listened to Kris advise the girl was in fact with the expedition, but she didn't lower her bow, focusing back on the slave as she expanded on what had happened to the team. The Master. The word made the brunette huntress feel disgusted, what right did people have to own each other? None. It was an abomination. In any other given situation, the young woman would be first in to help the girl free.

This however, was not any other given situation.

As she talked, Kali frowned. The moss had done this? Moseke be blessed that none of them had touched the moss directly so far. She knew it had been wrong. The brunette turned her gaze back to Kris as he spoke again, feeling her face turn a deep scarlet at he addressed them, more so her than anyone else. He was berating her, for fear and caution instead of helping the slave girl. The Sev'ryn clenched her jaw in conflict. This was an Elder addressing her, dressing her down with shame and disappointed in her. The arrow point wavered, and she began to loosen up ready to apologise and obey the Elder man, until Amaris spoke up. Blessed Amaris, a voice of logic between the haze of duty and respect.

Pulling the bow taught again, the huntress looked at the hybrid with a small smile of gratitude, before looking back at Kris with a frown. To speak against him in any other given situation was filth in her mouth, but then...

This was not any other given situation.

"I'm sorry Kris, forgive me, but I agree with Amaris. This girl is scared and has suffered, but I don't recommend this course of action. If we're infected, right now, then it's too late for us." Swallowing hard, she looked around at the team then back again.

"If we're not, there's no telling what we could be doing letting her loose. We could be killing ourselves. We could be killing her. What would Moseke think if we were in fact releasing a bane of Lisirra? You saw that moss. It's from home. How can that be?" Her eyes pleaded briefly with the Elder Sev'ryn to forgive her, before becoming firm again.

"I won't apologise for being cautious, or afraid. If none of us is even a little afraid, well that would scare me more. We've lost our guard and I won't stand by idly and let others be taken." She stopped then, not moving to stop him removing the chains but making it clear she didn't endorse this action.

"The ruins seem a good next step as any." Kali said softly, wanting to move away from the uncomfortable conflict that now hung between them, ready to move with majority vote on next steps but strongly in Amaris' court.

[Tio Silver]

As the slave girl mentioned the moss-like infection that’d overcome the archaeological team Tio glanced back to the tent, suddenly very glad that he’d prodded the moss inside with a pencil instead of his fingers. Just what the hell was up with this creepy moss stuff anyway? The Sev’ryn in the group talked about the moss as if they knew it, something about it looking a lot like something from their homeland, but didn’t seem to have any answers as to why it was (apparently) causing people to… transform.

Had anyone else in the group touched the moss at any point? He hadn’t been watching the others during the search of the tent, and if one of them had then at this point the certainly weren’t going to own up to it. None of them would want to be chained up and left behind like the slave girl after all. Tio suddenly became far more aware of his personal space, and shifted a little further back away from everyone when they weren’t looking towards him. Until he could be absolutely certain of who had been infected by the moss already and who hadn’t he’d just have to avoid touching everyone.

Despite his and Kali’s objections Kris seemed determined to play the hero, and made to free the slave girl with a pair of lock-picks. For an archaeologist the guy sure wasn’t acting very smart; after a bit of food and water the girl would be fine, and would be a heck of a lot safer here than she would be if given the chance to wander around alone on an island full of monsters. He was risking six lives for the sake of one person’s discomfort. Fortunately Amaris voiced her support for his and Kali’s side of the argument, which would surely be enough to get it into Kris’ head that he was making the wrong move.

“Well well well, know your way around a pair of lock-picks do you Tiger?” Tio chirped, deciding to disarm some of the tension surrounding the group with a spot of (probably unwelcome) humour. “Could it be that the respectable seeming archaeologist secretly has a checkered past? Or perhaps you’ve had some practise getting up close and personal with girls who’ve been tied down?” He raised an eyebrow suggestively.

After the issue of what to do with the girl had been dealt with, Tio listened as Kris suggested they head into the ruins. To be honest he was surprised that at this point the others all seemed up for continuing the search. The smart thing to do at this point would be to go back to the academy, run some tests on the moss, find a way to protect people (and perhaps even cure them) from the infection, and then come back and search for Petra. Their mission was complete; they knew that the archaeologists had gone missing because they’d caught moss-fever and transformed into freaky moss monsters, and there was no way they were going to be able to help them given how unprepared they were. Petra’s disappearance was a problem, true, but one they were very poorly equipped to deal with considering that Petra herself had been the only one who knew how to properly fight. It worked out well for him, after all he still hadn’t found something worth swiping yet, but it made him wonder what exactly the others thought they could accomplish here.

“Well if she needs a name I vote Ivana.” He looked over to the girl. “But surely someone’s given you a name before now right? I can't image calling someone 'You There' all the time would be very practical.”

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

Arwel didn't go any further in helping the slave and Kali and Amaris both argued against what he was doing. Kris looked between them, frustration on his face. He listened to Amaris and then Kali spoke and it was her that he answered.

"Moseke would not leave anyone chained, bleeding and afraid. Amaris took samples, I saw. Not using anything, just scraping the moss. You going to chain her up, free woman?" Kris shook his head. "You're suggesting leaving her here, chained and unable to do anything. If we don't come back and she isn't infected, then she will starve to death and the beasts will feed on her and it will be our responsibility. Yours and mine. Are you prepared to have that? To take a life of an innocent because of your fear?"

Looking around at them all, he motioned to the girl. "It started a ten trial ago and she's been chained here for five. If we believe her, then she obviously isn't infected according to her own timeline. If we don't, then we don't believe there's an infection. You can't have it both ways." As for Amaris' point about how being chained might have saved the slave, he snorted. "Then chain yourself and hope that you're right."

It appeared that he was not backing down and he unpicked the lock. Then he knelt in front of the slave and handed her some food. "No, Sir, no name," the slave responded to Tio. "This slave was born a slave and it has been all it's life. This slave is not permitted to refer to itself in a way suggesting humanity, Sir. Master refers to this slave as 'slave', Sir." She looked at Tio as she spoke and then dropped her gaze to the ground again.

Judging by Kris' expression, the tightening of his jaw, this was not really making him think that he'd done the wrong thing, certainly. "Since you're all concerned about her, I suggest she stays here, then. I've touched her so I suggest none of you touch me. I'd advise no contact full stop at this point, especially since we don't know whether it's touching the moss that infects."

It could be breathing it, being in the room with it. The moss, after all, might be a symptom not a cause. There were just too many unknowns. "If we order you to stay here, will you do so?" The slave nodded, immediately obedient. Kris sighed, it would have to do. Whether she came with them or stayed here was up to the others and he turned and walked out. Either with the slave or not, they had all agreed on one thing and that was that it was time to head to the ruins. This they did and they discovered a number of things. The dark clouds which were in a circle around the camp were still in evidence and the weather had grown worse since they arrived. Outside the beautiful circle of weather they were in a full blown storm and tornado was raging. Rain fell in sheets and thunder roared. The almost complete blackness outside their area of beautiful weather was broken only by flashes of lightening.

It was getting, quickly, to the point that stepping into that would be dangerous. This was the kind of weather which was like.... well, actually, unless any of them had stood in the eye of a tornado, it was like nothing they had ever seen. Thankfully, though (or not, as the case may be) the ruins were also in this circle of beautiful weather. There were some parts of them which were now only waist-high walls where once a room was, and in other places the walls were tall enough that the lintels of the doors were visible. Some of the rooms had some of the ceiling still intact, but mostly things were open to the air.

There was no sign of any of the moss. But once they got there they had to decide. Would they explore, map, try and find a way to line up their map with what they were seeing? Maybe they'd try and work out what happened here by the footprints or so on. Lots to decide.

OOC Info

!

Message from: Pegasus

Arwel has missed one round of posting I will post again on 27th 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 let me know whether your pc votes to bring the slave with you or leave her in the camp. We'll go with the majority. Kris will only vote in the event of a tie. Terms and conditions apply, please see the small print 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.....
He ignores good advice.

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

Samples

None this round.

[Kali'rial]

Kali blinked at the elders ongoing tirade, watching him unlatch the girl with a frown. It was difficult to believe that someone who was supposed to be a respected member of her people in his age and wisdom would truly let his feelings of moral superiority outweigh sound advice and logic from no less than four people he was supposed to be somewhat responsible for. She glanced at Amaris, looking at the woman's pack. The brunette sighed, lowering her bow and loosening the tension.

"He has a point my friend." She said with a frustrated tone, not aimed at them. Not quite ready to put away the bow or arrow, the Sev'ryn looked at Amaris with a shake of her head.

"I hope to Moseke you didn't touch that stuff. Is it in your pack? Maybe you should leave the whole thing here." The young woman passed Tio, shooting him a wry half smile.

"Come on then Bubbles, may as well take her with us. We can't be more infected then we potentially are now." The huntress said with a raise eyebrow, figuring if he wanted to give bizarre nicknames he himself could have one. Walking towards Kris and the slave, she sighed.

"No touching, agreed." It was the first sane thing the older Sev'ryn had said since they found the girl. Looking at Arwel, the Sev'ryn offered him a slight shrug, as if to indicate they didn't really have a choice in the matter of the slave anymore. Her periwinkle eyes glanced around them, and she swore again in Xanthean. It was unlike any weather she had ever seen, ever. Kali had no doubt if they were to set foot outside of the summery arena, they would not survive. And so it seemed, in a twist of fate, they were trapped for now. Moving towards the equally sunny ruins, the huntress glanced around at the ground and surrounds, keen eyes searching for tracks and signs that might indicate where those before had walked, map or not.

[Arwel Kyric]

Arwel watched the arguing go on quietly, not feeling like it was his place to say anything. When the chains were removed, he felt better, they reminded him too much of dark memories he didn't want dredged up again. Deciding to focus on the girl, he pulled his gloves on and said, "Let me help you with the wounds on your wrists." in a soft, soothing tone, then moved to carefully treat both of her wrists with antiseptic and wrapped them in cloth bandages. He didn't think it right to leave her chained, and he moved to grab his waterskin to make sure she had something to drink. "Do you have any injuries anywhere else?" he inquired softly, handing her his waterskin to drink from. As the young girl (He refused to call her slave out loud or in his mind) spoke, he glanced at the others and back at her. When Kris mentioned leaving her, his eyes snapped up to him and he bit his lip, then stood and said, "I-I don't think its a good idea to leave her. She might disappear like Petra, and I already have that weighing on my conscious even though I've no idea what happened when I turned to look at the young woman here. She should come with us, I'll take care of her, it'd be no problem for me at all." It was funny actually, as he looked at her, he was reminded a bit of the ghost girl from the ice caves, Carla. She had died in those caves because of someone else, and was as helpless as this young woman. If he could do anything to keep that from happening to her, he would. "I don't want anyone else to disappear." he said softly. Deciding that he'd said enough, he reached a gloved hand out to the girl and said, "Come on, you're going to need some new clothes if you're going into the ruins with us. I'm sure there's something in one of these tents that will fit you." he tried to sound reassuring so that she'd come with him, and besides all the arguing was making him anxious and he wanted to get them both away.

[Tio Silver]

As the slave girl responded to his question about her name in such a timid manner Tio felt a tiny shred of pity nagging at his conscience. Damn it, he hated it when his conscience got involved! Normally he was an expert at ignoring other people's problems and thinking solely about himself, which was one of the reasons why a life of crime suited him so well, but every now and again something would happen which set this little voice off in his head that made him feel annoyingly guilty about what he was doing. He hated those moments; though they were admittedly few and far between, when they did occur he either ended up missing out on some great chance to profit or else feeling really bad for the next dozen or so trials if he chose to continue on anyway.

And this girl, who looked like some kind of kicked puppy with her thrice-damned downcast expression and sob story history, had been able to bring about one of those moments. Bringing her along could only make things worse for them, but Tio knew that if he didn't he was going to end up worrying about her now for the rest of the trip, and if something terrible did happen to her he could say goodbye to a good nights sleep for the rest of the season. Either way it was a lose-lose situation for him.

Bloody morality! Why did it have to be such a pain in the ass?

"Okay fine I give, let her come along. If we're all going to get transformed into monsters anyway I guess we may as well do it together." He replied to Kali with clear exasperation, then turned to the slave girl. "Just please try to be a bit more upbeat or something, I swear you look like a drenched kitten. In fact I'm calling you Kitty from now on."

If only he weren't in a tent right now. He felt like bashing his head against a solid wall.

When everyone was ready to go the group headed out to the ruins, and it wasn't too long after the start of the journey that Tio noticed that the storm outside their little safety bubble had grown worse, as in run-for-your-life kind of worse. Lightning was falling like rain, and if he was seeing things correctly there was even a tornado! It was actually kind of beautiful in a terrifying sort of way. He hoped the other group and Petra had found shelter though; if they were out in that somewhere they were as good as done for.

"So, Bubbles eh?" He said to Kali, a suggestive smirk growing on his face. "Because of my bubbly personality? Or is it because everyone likes to blow bubbles?"

[Pegasus]

20th Ymiden, 717

Making their way to the ruins the group decided that they would bring the slave girl with them. The girl in question hung her head and tried to make herself seem smaller, if she could, as Kali continued to speak about her, but not yet to her. Kris, too seemed content to stalk out of the place. When Tio told her to seem more upbeat, the slave nodded her head, "This slave will try, Sir."

She did not seem surprised by any of this, but it was Arwel's kindness which took her off guard. "Sir?" Her eyes were wide and she held out her hands as instructed for him to put the antiseptic on her. When he asked if she was injured anywhere else, it obviously confused her a little, but she answered quickly. "Just bruises, Sir."

When he offered her his hand, the slave took it immediately and went with Arwel. It was relatively easy to find some clothes for her, she took them and got dressed. She didn't speak unless spoken to and kept her eyes to the ground almost all the time. They made their way to the ruins and Kali spent some time tracking as they did. She looked at the footprints and tried to make sense of what she saw.

Because she saw a lot. There had been a lot of recent foot-traffic here, which made sense of course. Kali watched it and there quickly became an obvious anomaly in what she was seeing. There were footsteps ~ trial by trial, normal, usual examples of what she could expect. People moving in both directions, from the camp and to the camp.

And then, there were the other footsteps. Like people were shuffling. Dragging their feet. Shambling.

Oh, and of course, there were the signs of at least two, maybe three people being dragged. The shuffling, shambling tracks were very much going in both directions but the dragging was from the camp, towards the ruins.

The ruins, as before, were there. Some areas more and some less intact. However, they had these drag-marks. They were heading in the direction of one of the more intact ruins, holes in the ceiling, but the walls intact. Or, they could try and work out where they were in relation to the map. Or... whatever really.

As the storm raged around them and the sun shone down on them, the slave girl watched, trembling in fear and staying closer to Arwel. and Kris breathed in through his teeth. "Shall we try and work out where we are in relation to this map? Is that possible?" He thought so, but he was more than a little unnerved. As he spoke, just out of the corner of her eye, Kali saw movement but when she turned, there was no one there. Tio's spine tingled in some very unpleasant feeling and a single fork of lightening hit the ground directly in front of them.

Which was odd, in this sunshine.

OOC Info

!	Message from: Pegasus
	Amaris has missed one round of posting I will post again on 1st July. 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 looked up at Tio with a scoff, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"Definitely the personality here.." She mumbled with a small smile, before directing her periwinkle gaze back to the tracks before her. This had been a thoroughfare, footsteps moving in and out of the ruins with no unusual movements. But then there, a glaringly out of place track.

A disturbingly out of place track.

"This isn't right, these here." She spoke out loud to the group, pointing at the marks on the ground.

"Here see, someone's been dragged through here. Maybe more than one." Using her hand, the Sev'ryn pointed along the tracks leading from the camp into the ruins. Pausing, she shifted around carefully with a concerned frown.

"And there, this one I don't understand. It looks like shuffling, dragging of feet. An injury perhaps? But why would you keep walking around if you were this injured? Surely you'd sit out the exploration." Straightening, she turned her head to listen to Kris only to snap it back immediately, bow taught and pointed at what she thought she had seen. Movement, right out of the corner of her eye. Slowly she began to back away from the ruins closer to the group, keeping her keen blue eyes on the general area that she swore there had been something. Kris' words were sensible, but frankly the tracks had shown her enough.

"Is there any need? Those tracks indicate where they went, or at least where someone has gone. That's the reason we're here right? To find them?" A streak of lighting exploded then, behind her and before the group. A single solitary crack of light that struck right between them. Not out in the maelstrom beyond the camp, but here. In the summer kissed camp site. Kali swore loudly and jumped back, her hair standing on end as she spun to look.

"What in Moseke's name.." The huntress growled, before turning back to the ruin with wide eyes. Her heart thumped in her chest from the shock of the lighting bolt and the movement she was very positive she had seen, regardless of if she couldn't actually verify it. Glancing back at the group, she shook her head.

They shouldn't have released the slave, she was sure of it. Too late now though.

"Please be safe Pash." She muttered, wondering if the Biqaj in the other group was having just as....interesting a time as she was.

[Tio Silver]

At some point Tio hoped that things would start to make sense, because the closer they got to the ruins the more things happened that just raised more questions about what was going on but never provided any answers. Where did the infected archaeologists go? Where did Petra go? What was up with the moss? Why did the slave girl seem to be fine? What was up with the sky? The list just kept growing!

And now they had even more questions to think about! Kali directed the groups attention to a mess of tracks on the ground, and pointed out how one of these tracks showed that at least one person had been dragged from the campsite to the ruins. More concerning than that though was a set of tracks that seemed to have been made by people dragging their feet, which Kali suggested belonged to injured people but pointed out that it was illogical for people like that to be walking anyway.

"Kitty said the archaeologists transformed into some kind of... moss zombies right?" He leaned in to take a closer look at the tracks. "Perhaps these tracks were made by the transformed people. The dragging tracks only lead from the camp to the ruins, so maybe they kept dragging the things from the archaeologist camp to the ruins and then coming back for more?" His eyes widened as a thought suddenly struck him. "Hold up! If these tracks are of people being dragged," he pointed to the drag marks, "then maybe not all of the archaeologists were transformed after all! The majority of them got infected, knocked out or killed the uninfected, and then took them and everything else in the camp into the ruins."

He glanced over to Kitty. "Which could also explain why you seem uninfected. This moss fever thing might not be able to affect certain groups of people, or maybe something else can make you immune to it. If so there's a chance that some some uninfected archaeologists are still alive. Tiger, Kitty, what do you know about the members of the archaeological team? Maybe there's a certain demographic Kitty is a part of that can't be transformed, maybe females or those of a certain race? Come to think of it what race are you miss?"

After Kris asked his question about the map and Kali responded, Tio nodded his head. "I agree with Cupcake. The map said it was for a subterranean level right? I don't think there are any landmarks we can use up here to find our bearing, we'll have to find the entrance to the right underground level and go down it before it comes in any use."

A cold shiver ran down Tio spine, making him wince in discomfort, and then suddenly a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and hit the ground right in front of him. He jumped in surprise and looked up, expecting to see a storm cloud rolling in above their heads, but there was nothing but clear blue skies above them.

"Why do I get the weirdest feeling that was aimed at me?" He muttered to himself. He hadn't done anything to piss a lightning wielding Immortal had he?