Frozen

[Faith Augustin]

82nd Ashan 717

it was cold, Faith realised. She didn't feel it, thanks to her Zuuda mark and Faith gave thanks to Famula for this gift. The island of Ishallr was freezing all arc around, Winter or summer made no difference here, no difference at all because it was always just freezing. No matter that her Zuuda mark kept her warm, Faith was wrapped up against the elements here. Not being susceptible to the cold was one thing, but the ice and the wet would still be an issue.

She was here with Professor Til'na, and they were going to be looking at the effects of sub zero temperatures on bodies. Specifically, on a group of bodies which had been found in one of the 'stasis' caverns on Ishallr. Faith looked at Professor Til'na and she could not quite bite back the smile. It was sensible, she knew, he was wrapped up well and it was important that he was, but she was going to have to take it on his word that he was who she thought he was, because all she could see was a pair of eyes hidden behind fur.

Zach, the leader of the expedition, came over to speak to them. He was a quiet and subdued man, Faith thought. Like somehow the joy of life had been sucked out of him. Maybe he'd been close to the man who had died when Padraig and Niv and Amaris had gone with others into the ice caves. His way of being was of a man who was grieving, she thought. Anyhow, there were four guards with them and she and Professor Til'na were subjected to a 'safety briefing' which taught Faith that Zach was thorough. She listened to it all and stored it in her memory. Then, they were led down a long corridor and into a cavern.

It wasn't one of the ones Padraig had gone into and mapped, Faith knew that. This was a cavern on it's own, no exits from it and Padraig hadn't described any rooms like that. So, she and the professor went in to it, and Faith's eyes widened in surprise at the place. There were patches of ice which glowed and yet, it was not those which her eyes were drawn to.

Around the cavern was largely empty, yet in one corner, for want of a better word, there were groups of huddled people. They were huddled together in a group. Faith frowned and looked at Professor Til'na. He pointed to the second group which were in much the same formation and he moved that way, whilst Faith went to look at the ones she had, apparently, been assigned.

Kneeling next to the bodies, Faith took out her journal and started carefully recording what she saw. As a medic, she was able to write details which a layperson might not have so she understood why this was what she and Professor Til'na were being used for in this expedition. Although the bodies were, undoubtedly, dead they didn't seem injured. There were no wounds or such, they did not seem to be emaciated and there were no signs of dehydration. Faith looked down and noticed the strange crystal snowflakes ~ each body had one and there were others laying around. Yet, equally, they were different each one. Like real snowflakes, she supposed. For now, she noted the observation and did not more.

In the time it took her to do that, Professor Til'na had stood up and walked around the cavern three times, each time walking briskly and slapping his upper arms with his hands. Faith did not comment, but he looked at her as he passed her on the third circuit. "Do you not feel the cold?" It was meant as a joke, or at least something sarcastic she suspected, but Faith looked up at him and smiled, shaking her head.

"No, Professor, I do not. I am marked by Famula and can regulate my body temperature."

He looked at her and grunted, obviously not quite sure what to say and so he went with saying nothing. Faith smiled and turned back to her work. She continued to write down observations until such time that she had covered every detail.

[Faith Augustin]

She continued to make notes, but eventually there were no more notes that she could make without actually taking care of the bodies themselves. This she was happy and willing, in fact positively eager to do, but before she did, she had to collect up samples of the environmental conditions. Snow, ice, and the strange crystalline snowflakes would have to be taken and stored, measured and cataloged. Each individual's clothing and so on was already listed in her careful notations, but a visual assessment could only give so much detail, even when the individual doing the recording had the kind of meticulous attention that Faith did.

Having removed her gloves for writing, Faith decided to keep them off. She didn't need them and they meant that she might miss small differences if she had them on. They dulled her senses and so she didn't want to keep them. There was no indication that anything was dangerous here, so she collected samples of snow, of ice and rocks, labeling each one and then she picked up the crystalline snowflake and started the process of measuring it along each side. Professor Til'na did the same with one where he was working and let out a stream of curses. Faith moved over and checked him, then realised that it had frozen his glove. Where he touched it. She helped him take that glove off and, although his hand was cold, it was not frozen. How strange.

"You can have my gloves." Faith said with a smile and then realised that her hands were, in comparison, very small. Still, small warm gloves were better than none at all and she gave him one of hers to replace his. Then, she touched her spare glove to the snowflake and, true enough, it froze it.

Interesting, Faith thought to herself and she smiled slightly. "So, these seem to freeze what they touch. It might be useful to take as many samples as we can in order to use them in our studies?" Professor Til'na agreed and so Faith went through and collected them up. She still recorded them, their placement and pattern, size and all other details. Once she had gathered them, she brought them over. There were fourteen in total and the Professor said to box up ten, and that they should take two each. This, Faith did and then she turned to the bodies.

They were frozen together, huddled into a large group. Faith knelt next to them getting as physically close as she could to each individual, giving prayers to Famula and Vri for them. As she finished those prayers, though, as the final dedication of the bodies there left her lips, Faith looked up and realised something.

"Professor, there are no souls here."

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Faith realised how that sounded. "I am marked by Famula. I see souls, the souls of those who have passed on. There are none here, but they are everywhere." She saw them everywhere, after all. Everywhere she went, there they were. Whilst Faith had grown better at blocking them out, she still saw them and there were none here. Looking at the professor she raised an eyebrow. "I put it down to there being no bodies here, but there are. I have never been anywhere where there are none of them. It must be specific to this place."

Yet, Faith knew, Padraig had seen a ghost here, for the first time in his life. He hadn't said as much but he had to be hoping that it was the last time, also, yet how was it that he saw one and she saw none? Standing, she did what Professor Til'na had done previously and she walked around the room. There, she saw nothing. No souls, no anchors, nothing. It was like the world had been before Famula marked her and it made simply no sense to Faith at all.

This, the young woman determined, was going to need some more investigation.

However, for the moment they had to concentrate and so, once Faith was sure that she had said every prayer she could and collected up every last detail, she worked with Professor Til'na to start loading the bodies. It was going to be a problem, she had thought, but the snowflake crystals solved it. Faith went out to the store room which was where the base camp was and she gathered together blankets. Each body had a coffin ready for it and so, into each coffin,
Faith draped a blanket. Then, she placed one of the snowflake-crystals into the coffin and the blanket froze. The box itself did not. That gave Faith an idea and she looked at that set-up with interest.

Now, however, was not the time to start thinking about using these as means of keeping chilled food and so, once each of the blankets had been connected to the snowflake, Faith and Professor Til'na moved the bodies one at a time. Where they had frozen together, that required careful cutting, but Professor Til'na had brought a number of tools from the university made with Faldrunite ore as part of the alloy, which meant that they were warm. That helped and so the two of them worked.

It was hard, labour-intensive work and Faith's muscles were screaming at her by the end of it. Lifting the bodies required strength which she did not really have and so she needed to endure the pain in her muscles; thankfully, she was much more used to that. Once each body was laid in the coffin (which also required some manipulation, with some of them), Faith wrapped them in the frozen blanket and made sure that the coffin was labelled with which corpse they were (they each had a number) and then they could go.

There was more to discover here, she knew. Why were there no spirits? Where were the souls of those who had died here? There were too many bodies for there to be no souls, yet there were no souls. These were all things to consider but now she had to get back to the lab and start working on the effects of sub-zero temperatures on flesh with Professor Til'na.

[Maltruism]

Come and get your Loot!

(There's plenty more where that came from)

FAITH:

Rewards:

• Story: +5
• Collaboration: +0 (solo)
• Structure: +5

These points can NOT be used for magic.

Knowledges:

• Crystal Snowflake: Froze the Cloth, but not the Wooden Box
• Crystal Snowflake: One on Every Body in the Ice Cave Cavern
• Faldrunite Tools Work Well in Cold Conditions
• NPC: Zach: The Ice Caves Expedition Leader
• Research: Examine Frozen Bodies Found in Different Caverns
• Research: Frozen Bodies Show No Injuries of Any Kind
• Research: Gather Samples of Environment as Well as Subject
• Research: Taking Note of Crystal Snowflakes in Ice Caves
• Scalvoris Location: Ice Caves
• Scalvoris location: Island of Ishallr
• Socializing: Don't Offer Worship Views Until Invited
• Sociology: Offer Your Gloves to a Boss That Needs Them
• Strength: Carting Around Frozen Bodies
• Zach: Quiet and Somber, as if There's Little Joy in Life
• Zach: Thorough Regarding Safety
• Zuuda: Burning Blood: Icy Wetness Can Still be an Issue
• Zuuda: See The Dead: There are No Souls in the Ice Cave Cavern

Loot:

2 crystal snowflakes

Fame: +2

I expect ol' Doc Til'na will drop your name about a bit.

Devotion: +2 Fam / +1 Vri

Because prayers

Loss and Injuries:

Nothing to speak of

Comments:

Intriguing. I hear Nir'wei's brains are a dish best served cold.
Great bit of story for such a short thread. And certainly no structure problems.
Getting very hard to find a Knowledge you either don't already have or would just add to the 40+ you already have in a given skill.
I try to find new skill categories to list them under.
Anyway at least it's another 10xp.
Nice to see one where I don't have to avoid giving you your 60th "Padraig" knowledge As always, PM with any concerns.