Mokley

LANTERN (redux)

(Watch out for any NPC named Tom!)

The Legend of Gobbledygook

@ShwiggityShwah@Nieszka@Moon@The Mad Hatter@13org@OppositionJ@Astarael42@Girlie1Bomba

A post, a post for you! :3

The way I'd like to work this mystery is that I'll take cues from your character's actions and theories and craft clue trails around them -- there will be no posting in circles trying to find the one right answer, because there isn't one.

In other words, don't worry about figuring out the right answer. Whatever you hypothesize or investigate -- however crazy -- we can work with. ;)

The Legend of Gobbledygook

At the heart of the Tangle, in the warm shadow of the King's Hall, lay the misty blue Forest of Gobbledygook.

The gentle streams gurgled and the gibbons whooped a haunting echo against the distant walls. Everything here was heavy with green and dew; sunlight filtered dim through the thick canopy and fog tendriled the flower-carpeted ground. Jellyfish cast eerie illumination as they quietly swam through the spaces between the trees. It is here, the folk say, that magic weaves into each breath and sound --

-- until it all went still.

The great sentinel bees that had for centuries stood guard at the entrance -- the buzz of their enormous wings a constant comfort within the Forest -- were now frozen, fallen statues of blind stone that riddled the path. The King's Door, always open and inviting as long as anyone could remember, was shut tight. The gibbons had all flown off.

"Come with me." Crow was the King's right-hand and most trusted advisor, known throughout the Tangle for his clever lies and quick fingers. Dark shining feathers molted behind him as he stepped nimbly along the flagstones between the beds of flowers.

Above them, dangling from the mossy branches, were shiny bells and long chimes, and colorful streamers made of delicate silk. There, at the center of it all, was a beautiful garden of succulents, and nestled among them -- the size of a tea saucer -- stood the frozen little form of Gobbledygook herself.

She had been turned to shining obsidian.

Gobbledygook stood on her hind legs, her stone wings spread in suspended preparation for flight, her eyes cast fiercely up toward the canopy and the Cobwebs beyond it. There was a tiny, perfect hole in her scaled chest, vacant and cold.

"No one heard anything," Crow explained, hopping into a tree to perch there, raining black feathers. His bright eyes blinked. "At least, no one who can hear now, heard anything when it happened. I suspect hearing something is precisely the reason they can't hear anything now. But who can say what they should have heard, or been listening for?" He scratched the back of his head, and he shook the feathers from between his fingers. "The bees hadn't left their posts, you see. They hadn't heard anything, unless they only heard it too late."

He peered up at the white tower, the King's Hall, that presided over the Tangle. "The King wanted to meet you here himself, but he's so distraught he's been in his room sobbing since it happened."

Crow leaned forward, his arms balanced on his knees. A few more feathers drifted to the ground as he grinned with a flash of a tooth. "So, then. What do you think happened?"

The Legend of Gobbledygook

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

The Legend of Gobbledygook

@Moon Today! Ooorrr tomorrow! :D

LANTERN (redux)

@Cairo@drewccapp@Virgil@Girlie1Bomba@WittyReference@c3p-0h@baraquiel

A thing has been posted!

NPC speak-colors have changed in an attempt to not be similar to currently-assigned PC speak-colors. xD

LANTERN (redux)

The woman at the tower (stout and strong, with a whip of black hair tied tightly behind her head, and eyes a piercing blue) appraised Izzy with a cool, interested gaze -- as if she could peer through the washed-ashore traveler and see something very curious. She accepted these advances confidently, even as if they were expected.

North, upon Izzy's question, startled with a quiet yelp and fidgeted with her blouse; she'd been very busy trying to appear as if she hadn't noticed the intimate exchange.

"O-oh! Ha, ha! No ... no no!" North laughed, showing her palms with a hunch of her shoulders. "I'm very prone to motion sickness and those scythes quite frankly scare the shit out of me ... ahem." She pressed a fist to her mouth and took a second to compose herself. "I must go ensure my son is all right. Go! Save your friends."

"Right. Let's get moving." The uniformed woman grabbed Izzy's arm in a firm grip and ushered her quickly into the tower and up the spiraling staircase; the stone walls were illuminated dimly by little glass flasks filled with a gelatinous, blue-glowing liquid.

"Izzy the Lost at Sea," the woman said, and her voice echoed up the staircase. Above them were shouts and whirring engines. "That's a tragic title you've got. You may call me Gale of the Storm. You're not from Pyre or Echo, are you? No -- if you'd ever seen a Hollow before, you'd know there's never only one."

They emerged into the blue light of the landing above, where women in close-fitting leather uniforms rushed and shouted sharp clear words. Spears and halberds, crossbows and strange guns with red-violet glowing components were tossed between them and strapped to their backs. With gloves, helmets and goggles each lighted upon their own shining, whirring machine: each was like a metallic scythe, as wide as the height of three men, that shone a deep and threatening crimson-violet underneath as the machine rose into the air.

While a few scythes and their nimble riders sliced quickly down over the town and toward the water's edge, Gale shoved a helmet into Izzy's chest. There was a bright blue light -- more glass filled with a luminescent gelatin -- embedded in the helmet's forehead like a miner's torch. It was the only light they would have to see by.

"Keep your feet at shoulder-width," she instructed as she led the way to an empty scythe, strapping on her own helmet and goggles, "hook your arms around my waist, and lean when I do." She planted her feet on the scythe and took its reins into her gloved hands. "You know, we're recruiting new Windriders. But let's see if you don't throw up first."

The scythe lifted weightlessly off the platform, then plummeted headfirst, the wind rushing around them, before they leveled out and shot like a bullet over the candles and campfires of the town, tilting and weaving expertly in the spaces between the dark spires and towers. Ahead, the other Windriders' violet engines and blue headlights flashed in the night, scattered but all heading toward the darkening ocean.

Behind them, the moon was getting low in the sky, half-hidden by the mountain in the distance.

Meanwhile...

"Friends?" the boy's head raised at that, and he seemed not to hear much else of what Elliot had to say before he was leaping across the rocks to get a better view of the two dark figures on the shore, who appeared to be staring down his griffin. He stood with his shoulders back and a foot up on a higher rock, almost imitating the eagle image of his feathered hood. He took in a deep breath, but paused instead to watch more closely.

It wasn't every day that the griffin met a stranger without ripping their heads off.

The girl, meanwhile, tilted back her fox hood and stared at Elliot with unblinking eyes. Her hair was a ratty blond, and her pale face had no recognizable expression. For a moment she only stared up at Elliot, both of them illuminated by the glow of the Obelisk of the God of the Wind.

Finally she took a small step forward, into churning ankle-deep water, but her eyes never wavered.

"You're from very far away, aren't you?" she asked in a breathy voice, somewhere between astonished and very confused. Her eyes widened even further. "You've seen the sun, haven't you?"

The griffin nuzzled its beak into Golde's palms, relaxed as if she had cast a spell with only her trust and her gentle words. She would find that the beak was scarred, the feathers rough and broken and grayed with age.

It opened an eye when Ifor spoke.

The beast stared at him, studying him with an unsettling intelligence -- as if Ifor possessed some agency or knowledge that was gravely important. It turned its beak toward Ifor and made an urgent, warbling noise in its throat.

"Lightborn," the girl whispered in awe.

The boy -- confused and distracted by the spectacle on the shore -- looked back over his shoulder. "Hah?"

The girl had begun to breathe quickly in excitement, and she finally broke her gaze to grin up at the boy. "Lightborn! Fang, they're Lightborn! They're here!"

The boy paused a moment, tilting his head and squinting. He wasn't sure he'd heard her. "What?"

But the girl had already grabbed Elliot's wrist tightly in her fingers, her eyes pleading. "You have to help us, everything is wrong, the light is in pieces and the Dragon is stirring, and the Gods have locked themselves up, we're at the mercy of the Dark --"

The griffin took a step toward Ifor, and had just begun to lower its head when it panicked suddenly, thrashing and screeching, tangled beneath something webbed and dark that had dropped out of the sky.

SKKRRREEEEEE

While the griffin struggled beneath the heavy woven net, the roar of engines accompanied blue and red-violet lights overhead; the scythes of the Windriders darted through the night air, descending upon the obelisk.

The second griffin flung into the air, just in time to avoid being trapped by another web -- and with a deft tilt of its wings and a midair somersault, the griffin sunk its claws into one of the metallic scythes and flung the machine's rider violently into the sea. Two more scythes gave chase through the air, but the griffin was too quick for their guns and spears.

"Looks like your friends've been captured by Kith," Gale informed Izzy as they approached the scene: the floating yellow obelisk, the aerial battle between a griffin and two Windriders, Elliot and two fur-wearing children on the water-sprayed rocks. She leveled a spear at the boy, while the children both confidently yanked their hoods over their faces -- the hollowed heads of a dead fox and an eagle, demonic in the cast shadows of the obelisk's light. "We'll rescue them -- and then we'll clear the beach."

She was referring, of course, to the small army of Hollows that crept nimbly along the sand, from the direction of the place where their first encounter had escaped.

Nothing to worry about.

The Legend of Gobbledygook

@Girlie1Bomba Well this is an unexpected turn! xD Normally I'd be wary of a character with essentially insta-death powers, but I know you're good at what you do, and trust you with this power. ;) Totally approved, and very interesting! Vain characters are always hella fun, haha.

LANTERN (redux)

Shore yup yup! If anybody's holding onto a post, best give a shout! :D @Cairo@drewccapp@Virgil@Girlie1Bomba@WittyReference@c3p-0h@baraquiel

The Helium Frightful

@Ink Blood Hey hi hullo! :D Following PM discussions, welcome to the crew! Gyman's totally approved!

Everyone: we've worked out a way of introducing Gyman late to the party, by saying he'd stowed away on the ship ahead of time. @Scrub Mage@Vaelin150@Eventua your characters' particular sleuthing abilities may possibly discover him in his hiding spot. ;)