Th3King0fChaos

O R I F L A M M E

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The Final Chain

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Location: The Walls or Relouse

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Collaberation: Eliis'Qarmena'Luunetar @Suicharte

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Within the walls of Relouse, roars of a monster could be heard bellowing through the walls. Stone begins to melt, the walls seem to crack as an image begins to appear from the direction of the roar appears to be coming from. A dark visage appears as if a towering monster was appearing.

As once the raiders neared the area, what could be seen is a man in the center of the waves of heat and force energy. As a roar happened again as his once contorted legs were righted back in place but no blood magic was used force seemed to have been solely used.

Many called out to the man, "My King!!", "King Kol!!!", all of them called to him as they seemed to have fallen on deft ears as many even attempted to try and step closer, but the heat he is producing seemed to force them back.

As once his legs were set to a usable position he began to lower himself as if he was to ram into the wall.

What a sorry sight she had come upon. And how regretful she'd arrived when the fight was over, for maybe she could have stopped what she saw in front of her from happening. A man easily her height and twice her weight covered in hulking black armour that had clearly suffered damage in the fight was continuing to crawl, using every bit of his Gift to keep his body together and moving, roaring cries of rage and pain all the while. A beautiful but saddening sight, she decided she would remedy the issue before he threw his life away. Such a powerful spirit had more to fight for, and he would surely kill more of the Greenlanders. She increased her pace, hoping to arrive in front of him before the behemoth could complete his charge. But as she got closer and closer, the heat was obscene. Even the screaming crowds could not bear to get closer as the walking blast furnace began to prepare their advance. She would have to act fast and so, she began to draw the heat from the armor, preparing to use the vast amounts of energy to stitch together the bones and mend the broken flesh. Yet, she was being careful. The man would certainly die if she wasn't cautious, with her tendency to overdraw and the severity of his current condition. With a decent reserve of energy, she tapped her nails against his still scalding hot armour, avoiding contact of the flesh as she spoke in a an eerie yet soft spoken tone:

"Hold still. Let me fix your wounds. You won't finish the job with broken bones and bleeding flesh."

As Kol was preparing his charge, his senses ran wild as he felt energy interacting with him as his head flicked to the side where he saw a person touching him. His head twitched violently as he saw her, visions of the Sapling that killed Horik, the Sapling he spared running away seemingly unharmed after Vali followed her, and then the Spider pushing him to this, all Kol saw was red.

As the heat seemingly subsided as it built up inside of him as for a flash of a moment, a light appeared from the mouth area of the blackened visor, 3 dots of light could be seen where the eyes and mouth would be. As immense energy concentrated at the point over the mouth and was ready to explode out, aiming right at the Tree Dweller in front of him.

And just as soon as she'd begun to ready to heal him, the berserker had lashed out. How troublesome did he have to be! She didn't have much time to think about it. Not yet. Using the energy she'd leeched off the armour, she began to twist and turn the absorbed heat into solid matter. Being roasted alive was not desirable after all. A wall of stone was materialized in front of her in a rush, soaking the vast majority of the heat, though she could still feel the roasting temperature through her barrier. It was thin, and wouldn't hold for long, but it'd spare her immediate damage. She'd definitely gotten singed by the initial blast, but avoided serious injury due to having the energy ready.

Eliis knew that this 'king' wasn't in his right mind, but to be unable to distinguish friend from foe was something she didn't seem to quite understand And here, she'd gone through the effort of actually trying to help a human for once. Even if said human was on her side, it was still astonishingly generous and far more than they likely deserved. She'd scold him after the job was done, for now, she had to neutralize the threat. Quickly and efficiently, so that an enemy couldn't take advantage of the confusion. She spun around the wall with a flourish, and placed a leg firmly behind his, before attempting to throw him onto the ground. He was still far too heated to handle for long and heavy to boot, but she could use that weight against him. Especially in his current unbalanced condition. She converted what little she had left from the drawing into force to amplify the hopeful fall

"Cool down, fleshbag. I'm not a patient woman, so if you don't let me work, your men here will be down a monarch." she spoke, the same gentle whispering tone, but it was far more sinister than prior. Maybe violence would make him worse, but she needed this idiot to see reason.

As the flames burst out from Kol's mouth, the funnel of flames quickly dissipated so Kol could press the attack, yet in that moment he began being flung and then falling onto his back. Yet with the incredible reflexes offered to the Mooncaster, even mid-fall he was able to twist and distribute the fall to allow him to roll perfectly out of the throw, almost, as when he was rolling from the throw, the roll was to lead to him standing up, as his instincts seemed to not remember his condition as once he made it to his feet one of his legs snapped under his weight as his body kept moving and slammed his head into the ground.

As his head hit the ground, a large instability could be felt within his mind. As the energy within it seemed to waver and shake for a moment, it was finally then it could be seen, there is so much out-of-control Essence energy! As Kol pushed himself up with his arms, he used Force energy to instantly snap his leg back into place, not worrying about the bones and flesh he might have ripped or pulverized with it. As with such liberal use of energy, it could be felt that his heat is starting to lower.

As once he fully rose from his hands and knees, it seemed his force energy finally stabilized around his legs as he was finally able to stand as he roared, "SsSpPIDAAAAAAA!!!"

What a bother. She'd managed to throw him, but he was a certainly capable fighter even in this state of insanity and chaos, and were it not for his existing injury, he would have came out unscathed. His cry confirmed her suspicion about his delusions, and Eliis knew that if she didn't shut this brute up quick, the Parrench might be inclined to jump back over the walls and do it themselves permanently. Alas, when she spotted the Essence energy practically brimming out of his head, she figured that'd be the next step. The heat was dissipating, so once she removed this, she'd be able to operate.. She just had to draw and defend herself against the behemoth, at least for a little while. And so she began to, getting her wiry frame in a wider stance to counter the charge that was eventually coming, while simultaneously stealing the abundance of Essence energy. Eliis grimaced and braced for the coming counterattack, gesturing for him to charge.

As Kol looked to the 'Spider' his eyes were a complete haze, everything looked like blending colors as he felt energy get tugged away from him. As the haze in one of his eyes disappears, Kol felt himself awaken slowly yet his body still moved. As Kol took a single step forward as he used every ounce of kinetic energy he had to launch himself forward at his opponent, leaving almost a trail of heat, yet the moment he was to about to meet his target, he instantly stopped inches in front of her. Standing there he met eye to eye with Eliis as he almost inspected her for a moment.

The bulbs of light that were his eyes are now gone as heat started to dissipate from around him. Within Kol's mind he was defeating the beasts and monsters let loose, as after a few moments his energies started to deplete. As all he did was look at the Tree Dweller in front of him.

Eliis was ready, and she prepared, for a charge, yet the man stopped maybe a foot away from her. How surprising! She thought this would take longer, but he was clearly of excellent potential to regain control of himself so fast. She let out a small chuckle in response, glad that she wouldn't have to waste more time throwing the supposed king around. Alas, it was good timing. She'd drew a large amount of the essence, and began once again converting it, preparing to use it to heal his now quite severe wounds. It would take her a little while, but thankfully he'd managed to regain control before he'd caused damage that would have taken much more energy to fix. She looked back at him, assessing the results of the battle one final time before kneeling down, and putting a hand on his mangled legs.

"Hold still. Bite a rag if you have to, remember the pain, and pay them back tenfold." she spoke calmly and clearly, the gentleness lost from her voice as she began to focus with great intensity. It was not easy to heal wounds, let alone ones as severe as these, but as long as she wasn't disturbed, it would be done. And however painful his bones being restructured in his leg was, she'd need this "Kol" to bear with it for a moment.

Once Kol had managed himself enough, he was finally able to hear that around him. He heard the yelling, the people, and the calmness of the voice of the woman standing in front of him.

As finally Kol had let himself fall, his large body slamming to the floor as he landed on his ass with his legs out in front of him for the woman to do what she will.

As she went to kneel to look to his legs and she spoke out to him, all Kol gave was a nod. Pain was a temporary things, nothing that would keep him down.

As the healer began, his legs began to slowly twist and twine back into proper place, even with his magic putting his legs back into place, it operated more like a hammer than a knife. Yet the healing done reconstructed the pulverized bones, mended the ripped flesh, and reunification his once dead nerves back into use. As that was when the pain ran through him, Kol flexed his arms in qn instant response yet nothing further. Slight twitching from the beginning yet nothing further.

As the Tree Dweller continued her healing Kol said to her with focus to make sure his voice was steady, "Thank you kindly". Kol knew it would take time to heal his wounds, so he was in the hands of this woman until it was done.

As other Eskandr began to surround them and near the walls. As they let out roars of triumph against them, all Kol could think of was his people, and his Brother and Sister.

For a lesser binder, this process would have taken a vast amount of time. Eliis was not a lesser binder, and so it was that the process was quick. It took maybe 2 and a half minutes, of which Parrenchmen frantically manned the walls, and Kol's troupe surrounded them. And once again, she was amazed at the ability of this hulking Eskandr, for lesser men wept and begged for death at times when being healed in this way, but he simply bared with it. Admirable. She would forgive him for his insanity, but not for the weakness apparent in his eyes as he looked around. He may have been strong of body, but it was clear that he was soft. Softer than the other commanders that she'd seen on the battlefield. While he had been mindless in his rage, Eliis didn't sense that Kol had the ability to commit pure evil like Hrothgar did. She had a lot to learn socially but this much was clear.

"I didn't fix you for thanks, 'King' Kol. I incurred a debt upon you, and I expect you to repay it when the time is right." she quipped with sincerity in her voice as she stood up, wiping the mud from her legs and admiring the handiwork she'd done. It wasn't her fastest, but she'd done a pretty good job in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough to alter the state of the battlefield. The Parrench had fell back behind the walls of Relouse, and the Eskandr were in no position to immediately pursue. It was clear that both side needed to lick their wounds, however the outcome may have appeared immediately. In the distance, she even saw the remnants of a fight coming to a close between two talented arcane casters, keeping the fires alight even in the pouring rain.

"There is not much left of a battle to be fought anymore, unless you fancy throwing yourself at the walls again. What'll it be?" she spoke, waiting for an answer. She was no strategist, but maybe he was. And she didn't mind listening to him if it meant that they'd get inside the city.

Once Kol was healed, he began to stand again. The Tree Dweller spoke she did not heal him for nothing, Kol said in a calm voice as he looked to her, "Yes, as all deeds carry weight. So too does the Healer's Hands. I shall remember this".

Kol began scanning the battlefield as he inspected the state of affairs. As he saw the fighting had started to die down, as the Perranch had hid behind their walls to fight, Kol could only think what could be done. A complete victory might stop the Eskandr force here as their forces would be ground against each other. Even with a full victory here, the army would crumple to the other forces lying in wait.

Kol thought for a moment as he said, "To instill fear in the enemy and purchase us more time, smaller breakthroughs will need to occur. Let us start with a few simple wall breaks, the notion that a hole existing that could let Eskandr in would divert resources and mages to trying to close the holes and break throughs. Then we leave, total victory in this battle would lead to our total defeat in the large scale war". Kol began towards the wall, as he pulled from the eminent heat that he produce not much earlier. As he focused, he put all of the energy then to Force energy within his fist blows as he planned to blow a hole through the stone wall before him, it was his mission now to make entrances for the horde to enter, and buy them time to start their exit.

O R I F L A M M E

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Broken Chains

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Location: Saint Defrois' Rock

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Mentions/Interaction: Lyen'Ivhere'Zulc @Tackytaff, Vali, Twice Born @Wolfieh, and Talit'yrash'osmax @Force and Fury

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Kol's emotions were worn on his sleeve, as his energy flared and faded, he was controlling his anger the best he could. He moved with Vali and the few rangers they had left to begin the back up they had to this. They needed to move quickly, they had very little time as Horik's last act had bought them time to regroup quickly. And now they moved across the many burned windmills, farms, even along the paths. Kol silently gave thanks to each of his men who completed their tasks, they heeded his wishes, burn as they go, it was guised in the idea of burning the Witch Woods down, yet this was the main objective. Incase all else fails, they would need to use the fires, the energy of the storm, everything to hide. Kol needed it most as his energy has been known to fluctuate in certain patterns that made him very easy to spot.

As Kol and the small force had headed towards the Parrench fortress as he began to observe the enemies. Watching as their energies moved, shifted, Kol understood how they concentrated their forces, and knew where to concentrate their forces to drive them against the wall. As they moved, Kol's energy rose as he focused himself, he spoke few words, he gave orders quickly and told them where and how they will hit the wall. Once they neared the wall, Kol pulled in as much energy as he could, drawing in the ambient heat and fires, the energy as the rain fell, as his mind once more begins to be filled with beasts who rampaged and destroyed all in their path, trees, boulders, walls, men, and all in between.

As Kol was but a moment away from the walls, he charged forward at the wall in a roar, as the moment he made impact he smashed his body against the stone walls. As he shifted and started charging across the wall and ripping it apart, sending stone everywhere. Breaking down sections of the wall, as he made it to the door and smashed himself into it. AS he lights everythign ablaze, making fires, smoke, and just to instill fear into the defenders. A he began to hear the horns sound, Kol knew his mission was done. Men and wood burned, stones fell and pulverized, and they began to sound the horns that they recall the troops.

Kol made his way to Vali to collect him so they could quietly move away. Their work was done, they were needed else where, and they could not fight the army alone. As they moved away from the walls and gates, Kol slowly let out his energy again, almost becoming a stealthy shadow among the waves of those with the Gift. As they moved, Kol and Vali were able to sneak their way to Saint Defrois' Rock and were about to make their next move.

Kol and Vali were preparing to leave the area and meet with their allies and send a final strike through, then Kol felt Vali yank him by his arm. Both he and Vali rolled as rocks began to rain. Vali noticed their assailants instantly as he launched an arrow that seemed to meet the mark as a roar turned to a yell of pain. Kol turned to the yell as the rocks rained onto Kol, Kol took in the energy of the impacts as he moved and noticed the tree dweller. She was the one from before so that means the Spider was near and the moment he felt energy underneath him, he knew she was here. He balled up his legs and shifted his body to ball up and use his armor to take the brunt of the surprise attack.

As the spikes of iron rose, Kol's armor broke the spikes upon impact, as they rose him to the air. As once the last of the energy had been expelled and the spikes rise no more, Kol knew it was time to reach. Kol used force energy to shift himself mid-air as he was multiple meters off the ground and he aimed himself towards them and launched himself towards the weaker of the two tree dwellers, Lyen.

As Kol was about to make impact with the Tree Hugger, once more energy appeared and walled off his attack and sent a chock through him again of energy recoiling to him. He landed and shook his head as he felt someone get close and said something akin to go to sleep. Kol scoffs as he swung his hand at hers as he goes to kick off away from her to go back to a normal stance as he tries to nullify the energy within him and says, "You'll have to try better than that darling". Yet the tree hugger grabs onto him again and this time seems to sink her magic into him, Kol decides it's time to attack, as he swings a fast and furious punch at Lyen's lower chest to either throw her far away from the force, or blow a hole through her. The punch seemed to have knocked the sapling down to the ground, then some few feet away. As She clutched her chest as she fought to regain her breath, unwilling to fall again, Kol looked down to the woman he punched in the gut as he said, "Do you give-". Yet before a response could be said he felt a roar of energy. Kol looked up to the Spider as he stared her down.

She seemed to have pulled from everything: the stone, the rain, the wind, and the thunder. She pulled the heat from the fires and the life from the grass. Then...she casted a beam of pure energy that ripped through the night. He stepped to the side of the fallen Tree dweller and then stood his ground as the beam lurched out to engulf him. Kol brought his hands back as he prepared to grab the lance of light. Once it neared him, he threw his hands out and grabbed onto the lance itself as he absorbed all it energy. As the moment he was to finish he ripped his hands away as if he tore the Lance apart. As he stood his ground and never moved as he said, "If you leave with her now, then the wounds will not get worst". As he pointed at Lyen from a bit away.

It seemed the Spider was not even one to bother responding to him. She looked to her wounded companion and said, "If you wish to leave, sister, you may. I can take care of these two myself." Her gaze returned to Kol, unflinching.

Kol looks to Vali as well, seeing what is to come and says, "Vali, same to you. Flee if you must, this one is mine to dance with". Kols gaze lands back onto Tali's as well, knowing once it is settled, they will launch at each other without restraint.

As the moment Kol saw Vali and the Young Sapling run away Kol began to almost twitch and contort as the energy around him seem to almost grow. Heat was starting to almost leak out of him as he prepared to launch himself at Tali. He spoke out in a voice that almost reverberated and projected further than normal, "Let's Dance".

As Kol began to step forward, he saw the Spider raise her crutch and extend her blade to impossible lengths at Kol, as Kol shifted himself away. Yet it flew a speed far faster than expected and slams into his armor and shifts to his side as it slices into his less armored area. Kol did not react though as right when he was about to leap he felt a rush of pain through his body.

He gritted his teeth as it felt as if his whole body flared up in pain, as he howled and roared. He fell his grip on the very close balance of sanity and madness slip. The cages in his mind were broken, the beasts were free.

Kol dropped low as he launched himself at Tali with such force that the ballista on the coasts would look like they were kids throwing stones into the water. As he aimed to be as low as a boar and aim for her legs and take them out from underneath her.

As he hurtled at her at an impossible speed and she seemed unable to draw all of the momentum from him nor cleanly dodge fast enough. She managed to twist somewhat, at least, to protect her single, essential leg, and his armored shoulder took her instead in the stump. Pain pulsed through the Spider, then, and she knew the tiny bone was broken. Gritting her teeth and biting back a scream, she hopped back, all of the rage, panic, and pain fueling her. "Die, you bastard!!!" She grabs hold of him in a Force grasp, her aim to crush him like a bug.

As Kol slid from his tackle he felt for a moment a pulse of energy surround him as it whipped him up into the air, and squeezed with everything that the girl could muster it felt like the world was trying to crush him. Yet Kol roared against the attack, as he pushed the energy away from him with his very voice. Yet pieces of his dragon armor was beginning to be ripped apart and into weapons to smash into him and pierce into his body. As his bones snapped and organs punctured, he was dying, yet very his rage increased until the point were his roar grew to almost breaking everything. The energy he was producing was able to shatter the walls, melt stone, and It almost dulled the sounds of victory: three blasts on a horn. Then, another three. The immediate call to retreat. Yet it was not for him, it was the Parrench's call to flee.

Kol was dropped as it seemed that his opponent heard the sounds and was to retreat as well. Kol was lost in his rage, the energy he was producing was out of control, as even when he landed he was absorbing the energy of his landing. As he saw the Spider running, he began to stand, and fell. His legs were shattered, pierced, and contorted, yet not even the gods would stop him. Kol looked to them and it seemed he used magic to put them in place, he was not known to be a blood mage, so it must have been the use of force magic. As they flexed and fitted to a placement that would be even usable, Kol roared out with such energy it drowned out the cries of victory and terror. The very ground underneath him shattered, and the sky even rumbled and quaked to his anger. Kol's helmeted head faced forward twitching as it looked to the wall of the city that he saw the Spider had fled to. As he drew all the energy he had and was ready to launch himself at it with such force, that he was unable to contain it within him as it began to seep out to the surrounding area. He was aiming to blow a hole through it where he thinks the enemy would have ran.

Yet before he could launch himself, someone stepped in front of Kol and tried to stop him. Kol looked up to see…

Avalia

Time: 2 pm, early afternoon
Location: North Pass Odds and Ends
Interactions/Mentions: Rue/Sairose @Potter, Raven/Eris @Tae, Bowyn @Helo, Kaleb @FunnyGuy, Annya @princess, Bardulf @Lava Alckon, Bron @GingerBoi123, and Kharne @Kazemitsu
Armor:
A full suit of Steel Half Plate & a
Steel Targe
Steel Half Plate
Weapon(s):
Steel Longsword
Devil's Reach, an Adamantine electromagnetic Railgun

Inventory: A sturdy set of winter clothing, his dog tags, a set of faux demihuman Wolf ears, a Ring of Disguise, a set of Winter Boots, Eye Protectors, Dark Sight Glasses, Way finder.

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Ismael had spent quite a bit of his time working on something he thought would be both an interesting endeavor while also a fun time to spend his free time and pick up some new skills.

Cost Summary and What Ismael Spent His Money On

Equipment & Tools:
Blacksmith Tools- 50 Amas
Carpenter Tools- 50 Amas
Eye Protectors (Sun Glasses)- 2 Amas
Dark Sight Glasses- 40 Amas
Way Finder- 10 Amas
Winter Clothing from North Pass- 80 Amas
Winter Boots- 25 Amas

20 Steel Balls- 15 Amas
1 Adamantine tube- 250 Amas
Materials to make a rifle stock and creating a break action system to lock and hold the tube while easily loading in the next round.- 20 Amas

Devil's Reach

This musket like weapon is made of a long Adamantine tube fitted to a stock made of wood collected around North Pass, and attached to a mechanism and houseing made of iron and steel. This mechanism is meant to both lock the barrel onto in place to make sure it fires properly while also loosening to either let the barrel slide a little to allow for the next shot to be loaded, or to allow the barrel to completely fall out so it can be cooled more easily and make sure that it doesn't melt, warp, or burn the stock and holding mechanism.

The mechanism is both a break action and lever lock mechanism to keep hold of the barrel. The lever lock is meant to hold the barrel, as when the heat becomes too great you can smack the lever upwards to force it to open and the barrel would just slid out. While the break action has a lock to the side that locks the barrel in place. When the action is unlocked the barrel will fall downward but still be attached to the mechanism so that the next round can be loaded into it. As when the round is loaded the barrel can be grabbed from the mechanism and then locked back into place.

Ismael uses the gun in tandem with his lightning powers, by creating electrical currents within the barrel to propel the steel ball loaded within at increadible speeds to deliver massive force onto anything that is hit by it.

Total Costs for Equipment:
542 Amas

Mount & Vehicle:
Dire Boar, Named Billium or 'Billy'- 400 Amas
Four Seat Cart (5 Seat)- 700 Amas
5 Lanterns- 15 Amas
Supplies to reinforcement of the cart, adding extra strength to the wheels, the axels, a strengthened harness for Billium, and the sides of the cart had been reinforced and raised to provide cover to act as a fighting platform- 100 Amas
Total Costs of the War Wagon:
1215 Amas

The Rightgeous Indignation or The War Wagon

This is a 4 seater wagon that has been modified and reinforced by Ismael to meet his wishes. Ismael had reinforced the axels and wheels of the wagon to make sure that they are able to handle more difficult terrain, the strengthened the harness to make sure that Billium is able to exert his full strength without destroying the harness and running away. He strengthened the walls by layering extra wood on them and the increasing the height by raising the walls. He also made it where the raised walls can be lowered by unlocking them and a hinge system will allow it to fall while being attached, giving more protection to the lower areas while allowing those inside to jump out more easily.

Ismael had also extended the seats on the long sides of the cart to accommodate 2 more passengers while he also reinforced them with iron and fur to make them more comfortable and to make sure that their living tank, Kharne, did not just sit down and shatter the wooden seats.

Crafted Item:
3 Repeating Crossbows- 195 Amas
12 Repeating Crossbow Disks- 240 Amas
600 Wooden Bolts- 30 Amas (lol the Blacksmith must hate me, I equivalently said 'here's 30 bucks, now make me 600 wooden bolts'. I didn't do this all at once, it was over some time, so he doesn't just get an aneurism and just bar me from ever getting something from him)
Supplies to create the gear crank, the turret mount, the custom firing system, and the swivel system for the turret.- 50 Amas.
Total cost for the Triple Threat:
515 Amas

Triple Threat

This is to be the mounted turret on the wagon that Ismael had been sinking his money and a decent bit of free time during this time. The turret is made up of iron and wood collected from around North Pass. Ismael had then affixed 3 repeating crossbows onto the turret, mounted to each be angled slightly towards the center to allow for when they fire the bolts will fly and converge at the same point at 100 meters.

To use the turret you take hold of a handle underneath a shoulder stock you set over your shoulder to control the turret with the movements of the body. Then to fire the weapon, there is a crank to your right side that you turn to fire the weapon. When the crank is turned it will turn multiple gears to rotate the gears on each of the repeating crossbows to both load the next bolt and then fire the crossbows. In a single rotation the disks on top of the crossbows will be turned, the string will be pulled back, and then once they are loaded the crank will be making it's turn as then once reset to the neutral position the crossbows will be fired.

The crank is able to complete a rotation in under a second and is able to completely empty the repeating crossbows in about 7 seconds. Meaning that with including reloading it can shoot anywhere between 150-180 bolts a minute. Ismael uses wooden bolts at the moment because he had been fine tuning the weapon and doesn't want to waste money on bolts that could get lost in test firing, also this is meant to be an anti-personnel weapon, a stick that is laced with nasty stuff is also very useful when it just sticks into a bit of flesh.

Total Cost of Everything:
2272 Amas (Exactsies on what I have, now I am as broke as I got here. But I now have some dope ass shit and some baller ass drip)

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4 months is a long time

Once Annya made it back, she seemed to be quite peeved about losing Shae, yet it seemed after a letter and some explanation, she calmed down enough. And once she did she introduced them to their new companions, and it seemed that they already met one of them before Kaleb. Yet it seemed that after gaining some new members, one wanted to leave, Raven. Ismael witnessed Eris able to open up a portal to send Raven back, which made sense. Raven was a normal person, she witnessed death, pain, and was struck with fear. Few could handle such things without either changing or being able to cope because they've seen it before. It left something strange, a looming quiet was left for a bit before they left. Ismael knew what that meant.

As before the sun has even rose, or the night was broken, Annya had already been waking everyone up and get them to the docks. Upon leaving there were 20 soldiers with them providing an escort to the land of North Pass. A land that Ismael found out was covered in ice and snow, yet that was the destination, the travel was tedious. Annya reawoken Ismael's military spirit, he woke up minutes before Annya would try to awaken him, eating was monitored, then they had to meditate, exercise, combat practice, then came the etiquette course, after which they ate more, and then were either given designated 'fun time' or even learned to sail to help around the ship.

During this time they were each given a little notebook to write thoughts and feelings, yet Ismael had very little to write within it. Even when he kept everything he saw, everything he felt, it always looked the same: Actions happening and the time it happens, what he's feeling, a couple of jokes he had that he didn't say because the timing was off, felt strange, or was too dark or raunchy for the time. Ismael had always known it was very easy for him to actually keep himself composed, keep his feelings tamed, and letting things go. Which made him slightly chuckle to himself as he remembered when he needed to lose control, he needed to let his emotions go to actually use his magic. He wonders if that is something he'd need to train more, he wouldn't hope so as losing control isn't something he personally enjoys, letting his emotions go seem second nature. Yet this time was enlightening to Ismael, he was able to learn how to sail! It was something he did not expect to learn unless it was on a small boat, yet he got to sail on a large ship and even help sail. He found the time enjoyable and even began befriending the other sailors when they were traveling to North Pass.

Yet once they passed the point where land could be seen, magic training was to begin. Ismael focused himself onto his magical use quite fervently, dedication lead to focus, focus lead to results, and results leads him to power. Lightning power, electrokinesis, there could be more to this power he was given, all he needed to do was focus it. As Annya seemed to have wished to try and make sure that the training never got stale as Annya even had Rue and Bowyn enter in and train with them to better train their magic. The very blunt nature made it easy for Ismael to understand, and the assitance of Rue to almost act as they every cheerful aid made the time almost fly by. Yet even with this a week was a short time in the grand scheme of training that they wanted. As they made it to the promised land of North Pass.

When they entered North Pass, Ismael instantly recognized the architecture, as he had visited quite a few times for many different things. He went there for buisness, pleasure, and anything in between, so he knew quite a bit of the culture and found himself quite comfortable with land. The locals were such kind people, as the Chieftan Nana Ruma welcomed them with such hospitality it reminded him of the old woman who would sell dumplings near the market. She even provided inns and soup for them, Ismael made sure to show his thanks everyday to her in anyway he could. If she needed any assitance he would do anything within his power to help her, even if it was something minor. The next day they met with the police force of North Pass, the Blizzard, and their leader Botan Nagarashi, a Panda Demihuman who seemed to have some real size to him being near the height of Kharne. And just like Kharne he also seemed to have quite a bit of skills within combat.

As their training with in North Pass, Ismael had taken a much more active approach in his combat training. He talked to Kharne and Bron to accelerate certain parts of his training. His physicality was at it's peak, his skills in certain weapons were quite good, yet he wished to get training in certain weapons if he ever found himself on a battlefield. One handed swords, 2 handed swords, axes, spears, and other weapons inbetween. Ismael had confidence in some weapons, yet others he had little hands on experience with them. He did not need training in combat, he needed sparing and experience, and Kharne was one of the best for him to train against with his blade. Kharne and Ismael Clashed blades quite often, and Ismael felt a bond form between them, a bond that would occur in combat.

Bron was a short man yet had a hearty vigor that of a warrior and that of a man who would not fail when time came. His voice was seldom heard except for when conversation was struck with him or when he notices a mistake. So when he was heard, that meant someone messed up, and almost everyone tried to right themselves to make sure he did not need to repeat the same word. Similar to the pressence Kharne produced, both would have made good Drill instructors, yet Ismael had a feeling neither would have liked the idea, as Ismael was quite similar.

Magic training was quite rigorous, often times Annya would run them ragged as Eris, Bowyn, and Rue assisted. Ismael became quite intrigued with Eris her pressence had a very familiar feeling to it, one he could not quite pinpoint. Yet it seemed like she had a strange gravity to her, as if she was the center of attention while none either knew it or complained. Ael had spent the time here quite often getting closer with not only his fellow Humans, but also those who trained them. This training was important, yet Ismael knew that getting close to those around you was much more important. No matter the competency of the group, if you cannot trust the people around you with your life or your kid, then the group will crack and shatter. People will die and people will begin to play blame, so Ismael often would not only use his time he could during training to get closer to others, but also outside during his free time.

A Gunsmith is a Tinkerer restrained

Yet even with this, Ismael had some ideas he needed to let out, he spent many nights cutting into his sleep so he could draw up the designs for his many different weapons he thought would either be fun to make or useful, the first would be a cart. Ismael knew getting around would be top priority, if they wanted to work or move or truthfully cross land distances, they would need some vehicle, and Ismael had a few ideas. He first bought and ordered a cart to be made, as during this time he also bought a blacksmiths kit and carpenters kit. He wished to learn some new skills, and this was the time. As Once the cart was made for him, he spent some of his free time working on this cart. He often even invited people out to work with him, or just talk with him as he worked on it and even asked suggestions that they had for it. Ismael took into consideration they amount of people so he changed seating locations and made sure it was able to accommodate more people. Next he made sure that it could bear the weight of Kharne, so he often made sure to put extra support, reinforcements, and had Kharne come out multiple times to test different areas. Ismael next worked to set up the many extra fixings he wanted to make sure that the cart would be able to withstand tough terrain and other such things. And after this work, the cart was complete, yet it needed a beast to move it. A work horse could work, yet it would move slow from the weight that all of them, their gear, and such would create. So he sought a tougher beast.

Ismael landed on the Dire Boar, an aggressive creature that would be able to pull the weight of men, earth and even gods. Well it was an exaggeration, yet the aggressive nature, high endurance, and strength would make it something akin to the perfect beast to pull them through earth, sand, and snow. Taming one was a difficulty, Ismael needed to show his will to fight against the beasts temper. As through out the time it took much time to reigns it's temperament in a little, even now Billium does not fully yield to Ismael, yet it was nice to at least call Billium by his name or nickname and the Boar would notice.

Next came a fun project to begin working with more precise metal working, as Ismael wished to make a mounted weapon for the cart. He created schematics for a mounted turret that would be made up of multiple repeating crossbows, each of which would be attached to a crank system to constantly load the next bolt while also cocking back the crossbow string and firing them. After tweaking and making Ismael was able to build a weapon system able to belt out nearly 200 bolts in a minute. The weapon was still within its testing phase yet it was good to go and operate for it's first few test runs.

Finally came Ismael's latest project was something to give him the edge he's been missing for some time. He was sadly not able to utilize his many years of training with firearms. So as Ismael's skills with his power became better, he devised a weapon that was futuristic tech even for his time, a Railgun. He had to find a material to handle the heat that would be generated. Thankfully this world had magic so it would be quite easy to handle that, yet he did not have the money for such things. He was so confused on where his money went, yet he instantly was reminded of his many purchases and how his money dissappeared because he wished to do these many projects. Ismael laughed as he realized he was now going to need to figure out a method to keep this weapon cool. That was going to be a difficulty, yet he had a plan similar to what was done with the German MG 42 and American M60, he was going to make the barrel able to quick release through a lever and quick bolt. As he started to craft the mechanism that would house the barrel and hold it still for him to use his magic to fire a steel bullet at super sonic speeds. As he worked, he had to go through multiple tests, multiple designs, and a few faults in the mechanisms. Yet finally he was able to create his first prototype, the Devil's Reach.

By this point he has spent quite a bit of time not only working with others to make things, but also began learning some things that they might even find interesting. Ismael tried to use this time to maybe sneak a peak into their minds, and maybe he could make something for them. Even if it is slightly gimmicky, he would at least try and make something that could connect them.

Ismael had spent this time feeling almost at ease, he was working, he was training, he was being fed, and he was housed. Strangely it was freeing, it was as if he was in the military again. It was easy, yet also restrictive, Ismael thought of the things he could do, and knew if this wasn't what he was doing he could be exploring, yet in the same vein, he wouldn't be here. Ismael chuckled to himself when he thought about the time he had in North Pass, Annya had quite the temper, and all he could do was laugh. It felt slightly easy here, everyone was focused, yet Ismael had almost reverted to a form of normalcy he had missed.

Ismael sat up as he rubbed his back a bit, caressing the large scar upon his back before he stood up and stretched. He noticed the note that was left for him, Ismael was enjoying the morning for a while longer before he got out of bed. He took the note and lightly read the note aloud, as Ismael chuckled to himself thinking of Annya being a worry wart as this being one of their first days off, would she be able to handle them having free time.

Ismael finally began to gear up, he began to put the furs and leathers he has on, then came putting on his metal armor. Ismael quite honestly hates the cold, as often the best way to survive the cold is to comfortably cold. If you put too many layers on you can sweat and the liquid would ruin the insulation you have, and having too little is death. Ismael thought about how lucky it would have been to be gifted the powers of fire, maybe he wouldn't need to freeze in his armor. Ismael also thought about the fact he could have also bought himself a ring of warming and circumvent this entire problem, yet he is where he is now, and all he can do is laugh off the decisions he made.

Once his armor was on, Ismael began checking his weapons, he picked up his sword and began to check the blade. This was something Kharne had taught him to do, checking for a rolled edge, chips, or even warping. Because of his blade being made of steel, Ismael knew his weapon is combat able, yet through the immense force Kharne put out, Ismael had to develop skills to make sure he weapon did not break on clashes. Using parries, redirections, guiding attacks away from his body with his weapon through how he blocked and shifted his body.

Yet that did not stop the wear and tear, so Ismael had gotten very good with his blacksmith tools to make sure his Steel sword was still combat ready. Ismael thought about maybe upgrading, yet that would require a bit of more time. As Ismael grabbed his targe he realized it was quite beat up as well, yet it was still sturdy and after a bit of maitnence the spike was still able to hold a point. Finally Ismael grabbed his gun, the Devil's Reach, it was his most recent addition to his repertoire, and one of his most comfortable weapons. It was a straight shooter as it came, using his powers he was able to fling a steel ball with such speed and accuracy, he would be able to use his years of training and combat experience to some of its best. Ismael checked the metal clasps, locks, and levers to make sure none were sticking and locking up from opening properly. Then came the barrel, the very reason why this works at all, Ismael looked at the dull green metal and marveled at the very concept of what could this metal could be if magic did not exist. How would it form, or even could it form on earth. Ismael dwelled on the question for some time as he inspected the barrel, making sure no warps occurred, and making sure it would be able to fire properly.

Once Ismael finished his inspections and maitnence, he stood up and began to leave the inn, he knew that Bardulf said they should meet at 2pm, Ismael just wished to check on Billium. As Ismael went to the stables, he saw Billium resting in his stall, as he noticed the earth was rustled up and the metal slightly bent, as Ismael made it over he waved to the stable master and looked to the large boar as he said, "Billy~, I came with some food". Ismael produced a basket of food for his boar. Ismael sat down infront of the cage as he held out a vegetable for Billium, as the boar began to stamp and get roudy, Ismael shifted the food away and behind him as he said, "Uh uh uh, you need to be calm while you eat. If you act like that then I'll eat it myself". Yet as Billium began to get more impatient, Ismael began to eat it right infront of him. As once Ismael finished the first vegetable he did the same thing, as he continued to do the same thing with each food item. This was the same thing Ismael did with Billium for nearly 3 months, yet today seemed to have been different, as after the first food item, Billium calmed down. Ismael had a smile on his face when he saw this as he said, "Oh?~ Hehe, alright I guess you can have some".

After making some real progress with Billium, Ismael began to walk the town, assisting in things he sees as he moved through the town to get some real food. Often times assisting with carrying things for people, helping fix simple things around the town, and soon he realized that he had spent the better half of the day helping around. Ismael laughed as he grabbed something quick as he made his way towards the Odds and Ends, as he saw both Annya and Bardulf already there, Ismael waved to the two of them as he called out, "Hey you two!" As Ismael got closer, he patted Bardulf on the back as he said, "Thank you for the invitation". Ismael saw that Annya had a basket filled with rice balls and felt his stomach rumble as he looked at them as said, "Oh rice balls. Don't mind if I do~". Ismael began to jokingly extending a hand to grab a rice ball from the basket, knowing that Annya might get upset with him trying to eat one already.

The Hourglass Order

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Collaboration of: @Th3King0fChaos, @A Lowly Wretch, @dragonpiece, @Pirouette, and @Force and Fury

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Into the depths

Benedetto had noticed the odd urn marks and clumps of irregular glass in the sand, just like Penny. There were few... almost as if they'd been purposefully cleaned up. As the others talked, he tapped on the wall and, with a start, couldn't help but notice that it was hollow. Bastards, he thought, trying to hide something from me? While the princess was busy consulting with one of her allies, he turned to the others with a significant look. "We should go in," he whispered. Or I'll break you. He kept the last part to himself. Whatever lurked beyond... perhaps it might even be interesting.

Trypano reached out with her mystical senses, looking throughout the cave, feeling out the terrain around them. She used her power to draw in some pieces of elements from the rock around them to better identify it so she might be able to manipulate it further. She was alerted to a possible hollow point notified by Benedetto. The others were investigating another location but his path also showed promise.

"Perhaps we should try and see what's past the wall before attempting to open it should there be an ambush laying wait."

Glancing Trypano's way, Ismette nodded. "Agreed. Something about this doesn't sit right." She took a sniff of the air with those well-developed olfactory senses of hers and thought that she could detect a slight whiff of.... sulfur?

Desmond had been drying off this entire time. He grabbed his hat and began to shake it of water and sand. He was slightly upset that the ship had sunk, yet he was at least happy he was able to keep the flag. He could hang it up on his wall, or when he gets a bigger ship, fly that as well. As they made it in, Desmond was curiously looked around, it was until he began a rhythmic beat appear he became alert. Benedetto had been tapping on the cave trying to search for something. Desmond became intrigued in his search, where when Benedetto found something, Desmond was already on board in searching.

"I think it'll be interesting to see what's hidden"

As when Trypano and Ismette spoke Desmond thought it would be smart, yet it's not something difficult as Desmond begins to extend his senses to 'see' if anyone or anything is beyond the wall. Well, sense the energies beyond it.

Ingrid was utterly humiliated that they had missed. Not only that, they had been saved by Benedetto. Again. What am I even doing here? I'm useless. Benedetto seemed to have noticed a hollow point on the wall and was itching to investigate. Ingrid wasn't driven by curiosity at this point. The only thing she knows is that without help, she'll die apparently.

Ingrid listened to her team's observation. Ingrid thought it could be a sulfur gas behind the wall with what they have seen. Ingrid spoke up that it would be best to make a gas escape on a higher part of the wall if it is gas and that she could make if they would like.

Penny had been struggling with the terrain. Her muscles ached and her joints strained like those of a woman forty years older. There was only so much that kinetic magic could do to make up for the lack of a left leg and hours worth of desperate flight, combat, and adventure. She was exhausted. She glanced at the others surreptitiously. "I think you should do it. Go see. I'm out of steam, though. I'll occupy my 'fellow royal' in the meantime."

Desmond gave a nod to Penny as he said, "Alright, be careful don't rest too hard, we might have a bit more to do"

Trypano nodded in concurrence with some of the other suggestions.

"Perhaps if we create a hole we could light a flame to burn off the excess flammable elements behind the wall. We'd need to stand clear of any possible shrapnel in case of an explosion capable of shattering the false wall. Alternatively I could try converting the elements in the air within into it's less flammable, more breathable compound."

Ingrid nodded and sent vibrations through the stone, feeling how the energy moved through the stone to determine the appropriate area to place it. She heard Trypano's suggestion and it seemed safer. Ingrid nodded and made a 2 inch hole in the stone to let Trypano start converting the gasses.

Benedetto could sense Ingrid's mopeyness and it was hard to suppress a grin. The strong cope and the weak fold, he thought, but he had better things to do than mess with some dumb Eskandishwoman's head. Instead, he thought it might be fun to throw her a bone. He jerked a thumb her way. "Honestly, she's right." He reached out with his senses. There wasn't much that he could detect beyond, aside from a few of the chemical reactions one would expect from a cave. It was almost... too easy. They would need a meatshield. "We should make a gas escape and do the converty thing and I say that Ingrid should lead. She's worked underground unlike the rest of us. Besides, she's the only other one I'd trust to deal with whatever comes our way." He even threw a smile at her. Of course, Benny could've done it all himself, but sometimes it was fun to watch other people do it. He'd blow something up later to make it up to them.

Meanwhile, Penny was saying her temporary goodbyes. "I'll be on call. If you're not back within an hour, I'm leading a party down there." She returned her attention to Princess Amelea, separating the two groups with far more political grace than Benny ever could.

After a couple of minutes, the smell of sulfur lessened, but Ismette made it clear that there was still more behind it, almost as if there was a source somewhere in the distance beyond the hollow wall. With that, Benedetto had had enough of waiting around. He punched a hole through the wall and twisted, grinning, to Desmond. "Hey!" he taunted, "Think you can punch a bigger one?"

Ismette blinked and looked at the others. She made some light in her hands and shone it in through the hole. "Punch away, boys," she said with an eyeroll.

Benedetto was impulsive and prone to bickering, both impairments to progress. Still, he had helped both earlier and in finding this hidden location. Trypano wasn't going to throw out his suggestion regarding Ingrid out of pure spite for his character as it was a sound idea. Someone familiar enough with mining would be some use in proper tunnel scouting. Perhaps not the best but still.

"I'll continue to maintain purity for us. Ingrid, since you are familiar with tunnels you should be able to alert us of other visible dangers regarding such spelunking."

That said she was disinterest in their punching competition, enough so that she actually caught that Penny was heading out. She gave a glance and a wave as she departed.

Ingrid was wondering where the sulfur was coming from. Their is a chance that their is some volcanic activity and this is just some of the gas leaking through. Either way, if it was coming from deeper than they couldn't change all of it.

Ingrid destroyed some matter on the shape of an arch with a flat bottom and then gently using her kinetic magic moved it out of the way with out making a spark.

She looked at the punching competition and simply said be careful, if their are other gasses and you ignite it than we're all in trouble.

She nodded to Trypano and said thank you.

Desmond waited for some time as he listened to the others, he was constantly using his senses to see if anything changed as they let the gases out and changed them. It seemed as Ismette said that there is a source that is producing more, and in that moment Benedetto punched a hole in the wall as he looked to Desmond and tried to taunt him. Desmond chuckled as he drew his fingers across the wall as he brought his hand against it for a moment before he threw his punch.

Using his knowledge from many different martial arts, he knew how to best produce the maximum amount of energy from the body. He was in a slight bend of knees as he drew his fist away as that was the moment he threw his punch. As his fist flew, he extended his knees to generate power from his toes to transfer it to his hips, twisted his hips to transfer the energy to his back, twisted and extended his back to send it through his shoulder, his shoulders twisted, to send the energy through his arm, as his arm twisted to send all the energy he culminated to his fist. As the moment before impact Desmond prepared as upon impact he would take in the kinetic energy from his punch that he would take back from the force so he is able to put every ounce of force into the punch without fear. As he planned to send his fist through the wall and possibly take it down if the wall is too weak.

The rock collapsed with a clatter, Desmond's punch doing the job, and Benny raised his eyebrows in approval. Thankfully, there wasn't enough flammable gas in the air to make anything ignite, and Ingrid had soon smoothed out a nice, simple path for them.

Of course, very quickly, the floor became rocky and uneven. It was treacherously dark in here, the light from their entrance dim and fast-fading. Dampness and clay and lime soil made the ground deceptively slick, and water pooled in certain areas. he ceiling was low and the three tall women had to watch their heads and move in a crouch at times.

Yet... this subterranean space was not nearly so cold as it should've been. There was a chill, but it was quite bearable, and so the group went deeper, maintaining arcane light with their hands, watching their footing, and stretching out with their senses.

Once again, Ismette's keen eyes revealed things for them. "Look," she whispered, voice echoing in the sill, dripping darkness, "more of those same tracks." It was like a number of soft people-sized things had been dragged over the rocks. The space was energy-poor as well. Aside from some minor chemical reactions and a very small amount of ambient heat and kinetic energy from dripping water, there was vanishingly little, almost... unnaturally so.

"Nothing to fucking draw from," complained Benedetto, but there was something else: a growing noise in the background. Ingrid, who'd saved up enough energy, was able to call light out in front of the group for a fantastic bright burst that illuminated what lay ahead for a split second.

Beyond the wide but low area that they crept through lay an enormous cavern. An underground river wound its way past, fed by a waterfall that only now came into drawing range, providing ample energy. Stalactites and stalagmites rose from the floor and ceiling, colossal, and grimy crystals veined the walls.

The river branched two separate ways and the group would have to decide which to follow.
That was when Ismette spoke up, shining her light on the near edge of the underground stream. "Look at this," she said, "it's uniform here. This bank wasn't carved by nature."

The cavern wasn't very surprising to her. What was surprising was the sulfur. It could be made my organic means but the temperature was still relatively warm. As a small precaution, Ingrid sensed for radiation. Their shouldn't be any but until they know where the heat was coming from she couldn't rule it out.

As Desmond brought down the wall, he turned and threw a smile to everyone and said, "Looks like I win", as he did a light bow before the entrance as he said to Ingrid, "Ladies first".

As they traveled Desmond was keeping watch over everything, in caution he waited to use his own energy, as Benedetto so wisely stated, they had nothing to draw from. Yet the moment they made it to the opening they were able to draw from a waterfall.

And in Ismette fashion she noticed the very nature itself seem off, as she said the stream wasn't carved naturally.

"Hmm, that's odd", Desmond generated some light on his first 2 fingers on his right hand as he began to look at the rock near the stream and asked Trypano, "Hey are you able to check if the rock has anything weird in it?"

As they proceeded out into the enormous cavern Trypano's eyes were drawn to the enigmatic crystals formed within the walls. She drew from the material that comprised it in order to get a better understanding of it's composition. Ismette was overheard discussing the nature of the river's formation.

"It is quite possible that a mage dwelt in this location, be it recently or long ago. I'm guessing it's had more recent guests given the tracks."

She then cast a glance over to Desmond past the corner of her eye.

"Already on it."

The group's studies revealed a number of things:

Firstly, that the sulfur was coming from upstream and that it seemed to be warmer in that direction. There was no radiation aside from the heat one might expect, though the source itself was still too far to sense.

Secondly, that the composition of the stone was natural in essence but had been altered. It was effectively concrete. There were a very few minerals, as well, that seemed entirely alien to this cave, as if they had been brought here from some distant place.

Finally, the recency of the tracks was confirmed by Ismette as she took a swab with her fingertip and examined it. "The different layers of soil are deposited fairly uniformly, except for floods. This has been disturbed recently," she confirmed, "and often."

Her keen eyes peered into the dark reaches in both directions and then she started, scrambling backwards. "There!" she hissed, pointing downstream, in the opposite direction of the source of the sulfur. "I saw a light!" Her chest heaved with anxiety. "A red one," she continued, "maybe two. Small, and just a flicker, but Vyshta damn me if I didn't see it!" Instinctually, she reached out with her senses, but whatever had made that light either gave off precious little energy or, more likely, was too far away to sense. That did mean, however, that the river and its narrow banks in that direction were a fairly straight shot, much in contrast to the way upstream, which looked narrow, winding, and fast, with a waterfall and rapids.

This was such a fascinating discovery to Trypano. Not only was this an artificially designed structure but it contained elements she had never seen before. She absorbed as much of the info regarding the natural features of these elements as she could while the others spoke up, pointing out details regarding the river itself. Also, it seemed, they were not alone.

"While sulfur can sometimes emanate from natural pockets it is also produced from organic sources. If something is still living in this location I would not be surprised if prolonged stay would result in such buildup."

Ingrid was relieved to know their was no radiation here but was much more concerned about the small red light that Ismette claimed to see. Ingrid couldn't catch it herself but she didn't doubt Ismette. Ingrid says "it was most likely eyes if she were to take a guess. Sulfur burns blue in most cases so It could be a creature and you caught its reflection. Either way, absorb some of the kinetic energy of the water and ready yourself because that is the direction we are going"

As Ismette hissed out what she saw, Desmond quickly flicked himself to the direction, bringing up his long gun, which he had retrieved after the ship battle. He aimed down there for a moment as he said, "Alright, guess we were given a direction".

Desmond looked on for a moment longer as he used arcane magic to magnify his sight in hopes to maybe see something, Ismette saw a small flash of red light, that meant one of 2 things, someone is trying to light fire, or someone has some strange looking eyes. He looked down the dark area as he continued, "I guess with sulfer coming from there, they might have been trying to light a fire like a fool, or as Ingrid said-" Desmond stands up and puts his long gun onto his back as he continued, "Guess someone has some magical looking eyes".

Desmond walked a bit forward before he said, "Guess we got some investigation to do, I'll take lead here", as he prepared to walk forward leading this time, as he was comfortable with much more precarious walkways.

Ismette swallowed and took a couple of steps back. "Oh Bringers," she squeaked. "Why are we going towards the ...thing, whatever it is? This is the part where the smart people - those who don't die - decide to leave!"

Her foot splashed into a small pool, disturbing an Ohm that had been resting there, and it made her flinch even more. The eyeless salamander skittered away with a splash and things went quiet again. Sulfur one way, red light thing the other way. Why are these people so hellbent on death!?

"Those are eyes," crowed Benny, with the confidence and certainty of a boy going to shoot rabbits with his father's rifle. "And I wanna see what they're attached to." He shot a glance at Ismette over his shoulder. "Stay in the middle of the pack if you're so scared. I'm going up to the front with this guy." He jerked a thumb at Desmond and stalked up right behind him.

With the matter seemingly decided, the five youths pressed forward, Desmond taking point, Benny right behind him, Trypano, Ismette, and then Ingrid guarding their rear. The water was dark and frigid and the entire place had a weird smell. Aside from the wet crunch of their footsteps and the barely-audible flow of the stream came the sound of dripping water as they went.

Then, just as they had reached where Ismette estimate the red light had been, they heard it: Something moving, and not a small something either. It was... in front of them, behind them, above them! Benedetto shone a light up and the cavern had opened up again, impossibly tall. He couldn't even see the ceiling. Things hissed and slid, echoing in the enormous, near-empty interior of this place. Eyes stared back at them: red and reflective. Yet, when the group reached out with the Gift, hoping to sense anything, they found that they couldn't! There was no magic. They couldn't draw, couldn't sense, couldn't cast!

A strange feeling thrummed through their bodies and even their arcane lights winked out. Things crept nearer.

While always nice to have their suspicions validated it hardly prepared them for the issue at hand. Luckily they weren't in complete darkness as Trypano hadn't relinquished the lantern since the last experiment she made with it. As they approached the next cavern it seemed they had stumbled upon this grizzly host of theirs, some mysterious entity with eyes that reflected light with red menace.

What pulled itself upon her was a choking sensation. She was cut off from her senses, from her essence. The very energy inside her just... Dropped, lost to her due to circumstances outside her current understanding. The beast must have been connected to this, most likely anyway, but how?

"I suggest we step back into the narrow entrance and set up a firing line. Draw the beast into the cavern hall and shoot it in a place it cannot dodge within."

She was already backing up and quickly too, fully expecting the rest of them to follow suit.

Ingrid knew that the cave was either going to open again given the amount of sulfur their was or we would see a lava plume of some sort and know would know where the sulfur is coming from. Instead the smell got stronger and they were suddenly surrounded by creatureas and something negated their magic.

Ingrid grabbed Ismette's hand and turned on her heels saying this way. She readied herself to face the creatures with her sword, unknowing if Ismette could raise a hand against any life. Being rear she remembered the path very well as was her job.

From everywhere and nowhere echoed a chittering, hissing noise, rising and falling in chorus. "B E A S S S S T" it almost seemed to say.

Desmond quietly and deftly moved across the narrow walkways, he watched himself as he heard Benedetto was pulling up behind him. Desmond didn't show his emotions he held them in, he couldn't get back at him, not yet.

As they made it to where they would find the eyes, a voice rang through his head, calling out in a voice he could not really make out saying, look alive.

Desmond brought up his gun fast, fast enough to almost look as if he was a blur.

Desmond felt something, like a hum, a burning in the center of his back, it was telling him to fight, run, hide, death seemed to have surrounded them. As he reached out to sense what is surrounding them, he felt nothing, as he noticed when he shifted his foot, he couldn't 'feel' it. His magic wasn't there.

He face hardened as he began to think, Trypano tried to get them to run, but they might be trapped, so Desmond though, it might be best to try. They might get to see it, and if they can, they get to kill it.

Desmond stood up and put his back to Benedetto as he said out loud, "Get close! we can't leave a hole for it to take advanatge of, Ismette keep watch high, Benedetto watch low, Trypano and Ingrid watch to either side and infront as we try to move. I'll keep watch behind"

Desmond began pushing against Benedetto telling him to move, he was ready to fire the moment he say this beast try and lash out.

It was a brave defence. It was a good plan, but it was uncoordinated. In any event, it wouldn't not have been enough. Grouping together made them a single target and the hissing walls closed in on them. The eyes multiplied. The air took on an even more potent smell and Desmond swung at one enemy with his rifle butt. Ismette punched, Benedetto kicked, and Ingrid slashed with her sword.

The eyes drew back. The air grew fouler. A faint feeling came over the group. It was... hard to breathe. There were few points for visual reference, but things were growing hazy!

Feeling himself fading, Desmond opened fire. Muzzle flashes illuminated his immediate surroundings for a split second and he and any others who looked that way would've peered through a thick haze. It was hard to make out anything in detail except what looked, for a moment, like massive tentacles or coils.

They were surrounded and from the little she saw from Desmond's gun, they couldn't fight it. Only way to get out would be the water. It is risky but it the best option.

Ingrid grabs Ismette and hops into the water. All she said was hold your breath.

The moment the gun flashed, he saw what they were fighting and knew this was no fight they can win. They were losing time, breathing was not an option anymore as they were being gassed, so every movement took that away. As Desmond looked to the bank he silently nodded to himself, as he tossed his gun off into the bank and turned to Benedetto. He picked him up like a child and threw him in, as Desmond looked to Trypano and yelled to her, "GO!" He flicked over and brought up his pistol as he loaded a phosphorous shot with a Ahn-Shune's Light shot, knowing the moment they make contact with the intended target, they should spark and ignite with the mixtures of chemicals, hopefully starting a fire in to cause it pain and keep it at bay for long enough for them to make a full escape.

Once he fired that shot he will attempt to hop into the bank as well.

Ismette, grabbed and... womanhandled, blinks furiously. Her larger lung capacity makes her far more susceptible to this sort of attack, but paradoxically far better able to resist it if she holds her breath. Her eyes are better adapted to seeing in the dark and she was able to get a decent glance at what was attacking them. It was -

She hits the water and is forced to continue holding her breath.

Well they just rolled the holy trio of terrible coincidences. Not only had they somehow lost access to magic but they were surrounded AND assaulted with some sort of anesthetizing gas. Fan-tastic.

Not even sparing enough time for Desmond to tell her to go Trypano takes a quick breath away from the gas cloud and through her sleeve, holding it as she then dives into the waters. She might not have long to fight if the creatures come into the waters with her but she'd still have longer than she'd have had still breathing on land.

Time to see what came with the water.

They raged, then, against the dying of the light but, in their desperation, failed to heed that the river's current was carrying them towards the greatest bulk of their mysterious enemy.

Less able to see or move, the darkness claimed them one by one. Last to go were Benedetto, fighting for every last moment, raging at how his strength hadn't been enough, at how there was something out there yet much greater than he, and Trypano. She had, at all junctures, taken the route more logical, but perhaps this entire endeavour had been a grave error in judgement. Yet, as she went under, she saw something that inverted her expectations.

Deeper Than They Know

They all came back at the same time and the first thing that they felt was the heat of a warm room and the lack of any lingering effects. Yet, there was no crackle of a fire, and no nice, woody scent. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a surprisingly bright and almost entirely featureless room. The walls were made of a light grayish substance that they could not recognize and there was a sort of lamp on the ceiling that emitted a soft white light.

When they tried to reach out with magic, however, they still found its familiar touch absent. "Oh, hello!" said a voice in accented Avincian, seeming to come from a small mesh cover on the ceiling. Behind it came a whole chorus of hellos. The voice sounded male and relatively young, but there was a strange quality about it, an alien one. "We're very sorry for the way you were brought here, truly."

"Sorry," another voice echoed.

"Truly."

"Very sorry."

"Yes, so sorry."

"There was... some concern that you might be another group of humans entirely."

"And yasoi," reminded a background voice.

"yasoi," echoed another.

"humans and yasoi."

"Yes, some concern about your group."

"About your group. Another one."

"Yes, some concern you might be another one."

"Do you have any questions?" asked the first voice, and the usual chorus followed. "Would you like any... food?"

Desmond raged, he shot fire, he spewed smoke, he lept into the water that was cold, he tried to stay awake against it all, yet it could not be.

When he awoke he shot to his feet as he grabbed for his gun, and nothing, he reached for his sidearm, nothing, he even tapped where his bullets would be, nothing. Desmond felt naked, he had none of his weapons, his magic was gone, and he did not know where he was.

Desmond began to hear the voices, they sounded so strange, as when they talked Desmond was patient. He heard what they said as when they asked them if they had questions, Desmond almost barked out, "Yeah where are we?"

Ingrid awoke with the others in a weird gray room. The room was warm but the lack of detail made it hard feel alien to her. She would normally feel trapped but everything just felt muted at the moment. The odd voice caught her attention but she didn't say anything. She looked to see if Ismette and felt a small joy that she was still alive.

Trypano instinctively fought for breath upon reawakening, even despite not experiencing the natural side effects of drowning. It was simply natural given how starved for oxygen she remembered her lungs being. As well she recalled that face, the one who fished her from the waters. It appears she wasn't the only one as she rose to sitting, looking about to see her comrades also around and, for the most part, unharmed.

Still it felt like an entire piece of her being was shorn from her. There was nothing beyond the five base senses she used to feel the world through. It felt like being blind in some senses. This feeling of disembodiment did not abate with the strange nature of the voices which addressed them.

"I have a question: What do you mean by 'Another one'? Who else are you speaking of?"

Ismette came to, sitting up and rubbing her head. She turned to Ingrid to check on her and breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, everybody seemed alive and.... where the hell were they!? Then, Desmond was on his feet and demanding an answer.

"An excellent quessstion!" said a voice from a strange mesh on the ceiling.

"Excellent," repeated another.

"Excellent quessstion."

There was a drawn-out pause.

"You're in a safe house. You're sssafe."

"Sssafe," echoed one.

"In a safe house," clarified another.

"Deep underground, with us, human: the sssirahi!"

"Sssirahi," added a voice.

"Deep underground."

"With usss."

Trypano, too, was awake, chest heaving before rationality overtook instinct. "I have a question," she asked, "What do you mean by 'Another one'? Who else are you speaking of?"

"The cave people," came the voice, with its usual chorus of agreement, almost as if these people shared thoughts or shared a need to be affirmed by each other. "The ones who blocked our observations."

"Blocked them."

"Those ones."

"Blocked our observations."

"The ones that you fought and beat," said the voice that the others seemed to - generally - take direction from. "We thought it might be a holdout, or some escaping."

"We thought!"

"A holdout or escaping."

"They found one of us: the sirrahi."

"Sirrahi!"

"Found one."

"They... harmed her." There was no chorus this time, and the voice had a different, harder tone.

Before more could be divulged, Benedetto happened. He was quick to his feet like Desmond. "Why should we trust you!?" he snarled. "Show your faces!"

"We're very sorry!" said one of the voices.

"Very!" confirmed another.

"You will be compensated."

There was a strange pause and not even background noise could be heard from the mesh. Then, sounds of bickering in some other language. "Our faces," said someone on the other side.

"Yes, faces," added a second.

"Our faces."

"But of course we can show you those!"

"Yes, of course!"

"We can show you."

For a moment, a slot in the wall opened and a head peered out. It looked like this:

"Hi there, new friend! Here's my face." It was one of the voices that they recognized from the mesh.

"Her face!" confirmed another.

"There is it is."

"Her face."

"Face, yup." They were coming from beyond the wall, faintly.

"Right there!"

"I am wearing what I believe you yasoi and humans call 'hair' in an attempt to relate to your primitive species better. Is it working?"

"Yes, is it working?"

"Is it?"

"Yes, hair."

"Mhm, hair."

"Yasoi and humans."

"Yes, tell us, primitive ones: is it working?"

"The hair, that is."

"Yes, the hair!"

Desmond listened as they answered, they were in a 'safe' house, underground. "Of fucking course", left his mouth immediately. As they continued they answered that Trypano's question and then Benedetto shot up and barked out and snarled similar to Desmond trying to get to know why they should be trusted and their face.

As finally they showed their face, Desmond looked on and saw her and heard them speak. They were alien, trully, Desmond looked on and was just dumb founded, he just looked on and said, "Uh...yeah, I guess it does make you seem more relatable, I guess".

Desmond was confused. They found something so strange he could not believe what he is seeing. Yet here he is, talking to a reptilian person, what a life.

At Desmond's response, the sirrahi woman smiled in a most unnerving way and let out a little squeal.

"By Ipte, I am so happy!"

"So happy!"

"by Ipte!"

"Happy!"

"Very."

"Nice to meat you, friend!"

"Meat you"

"Friend."

"Friend."

"Very nice."

And Desmond was disturbed upon her opening her mouth like a snake. As Desmond said to them just standing there still dumb founded, "Yep nice to meet you as well, I guess"

Ingrid tried to swallow nothing, a habit when she was nervous. Since they seem excited to talk, she decided to ask them for food. "Um, Sorry to be a bother but do you think I can have something to eat or drink?"

Desmond's Interaction

"Five, record this in your observations, immediately!" she chirped.

"Immediately," echoed another.

"Record this,"

"In your observations."

A section of the wall slid away, shuddering and clunking. It was simply a sliding door, for all that it appeared to be technologically marvellous. The.... being that came... slithering out looked very much like a vaguely human or yasoi upper body on a snakelike lower body. She leaned forward as she moved, straightening only when 'standing' still. "Human, you do not seem comfortable," she said, slithering right up to Desmond and leaning until they were almost nose to nose. She tilted her head to one side and blinked. "Was this meeting perhaps too abrupt? Was our very rude first encounter too traumatic?" She twiddled her fingers nervously and Desmond could see that they sported wicked claws that had been purposely filed down. "We are very sorry," she said, glancing behind herself at the doorway as if for reassurance, where a handful of other sirrahi peered uncertainly out. A handful echoed her and she seemed more at ease. "We...um, excuse my rudeness." Colour rose to her pale cheeks. "Many of my people find you rather... terrifying." Her voice was nearly a whisper.

Desmond saw a part of the wall slide. He was astonished, such a marvel without the use of magic must take great skill and engineering that he wouldn't even dream of seeing. Yet what came out just frankly seem to be what he expected. Half snake half man.

She rode up near him as Desmond stood his ground, yet she seemed to get closer as she got up in his personal space and then literally only centimeters away. As she seemed to exhibit signs of uncomfortable and nervousness as she spoke to him, yet Desmond listened to her as she spoke.

As once she finished speaking Desmond said in a calm voice that hid is true feelings, "Oh, why would they find me terrifying?"

Not making mention of the literal fear factor this could cause from such closeness with an other worldly being.

"He he he," Nine giggled. "I believe that thisss is human humour."

"Human," echoed another sirrahi.

"humour," said a third.

They kept going on. Perhaps the similarity of the words 'human' and 'humour' amused them.

Her face returned to normal. "Humans are just ssso..." she tilted her head pensively, as if searching for a word, "openly and freely violent, and you use magic ssso, dangerously." She slithered back a foot or two and her fingers started twiddling anxiously again. "Did you not arrive here with multiple of your killing devices?" She blinked again with her big red eyes, waiting for Desmond's answer.

Desmond heard her giggle and he chuckled himself, her voice seemed human-like, yet she seemed to be odd. Maybe they found the similarities of Human and humor to be witty. Yet as Nine spoke she made a point to speak of their use of violence.

As she spoke of the use of the liberal use of violence humans employ, and even himself having multiple himself, he chuckled nervously as he said, "Yeah I did come here with my weapons, and we can use magic in violent manners. Yet it seems here we are unable to, can I ask how that is?"

Desmond began to make an act to maybe get them to reveal some secrets, as he acted uncomfortable and nervous as he shifted his hand up to his belt and seemed to start tapping it as he continued, "I'm wondering because with magic I can sense things, yet right now because I don't have it, it feels as if I'm missing something. Like things are duller or like even missing the ability to smell or taste"

"I am sssorry that you feel thisss way, human." Nine pursed her lips, and it was clearly an awkward gesture for her. "But you did bring a violence stick..."

"Sssorry!"

"feel thisss way."

"Violence ssstick." It was the final statement that caught on. The handful of other sirrahi who had emerged from the sliding door 'stood' clumped together, bobbing up and down and repeating it.

"If we trussst you more, then perhaps this is sssomething we can discusss." She smiled, businesslike, and clasped her hands. "Besssides, I do not even know your name." Nine blinked. "If you forget sssuch basic things, you are not a very good human, are you?"

Desmond almost laughed as Nine spoke, 'violence stick', what a way to speak of a gun. Desmond thought they might have never seen one, which would be strange yet intriguing. As she spoke he started hearing her mannerisms as he noticed the more snake-like tendencies. When they seemed to almost speak with extra s's, like they were slithering with their tongue.

Trypano's Interaction

It was not often one comes face to face with a species similar yet so different from oneself. While her colleagues were of course discombobulated and perhaps a fair amount vexed, Trypano was astounded. While their control over her magical capacity was disturbing to some degree their measure of understanding stood well and far above her own, especially regarding whatever all...This was.

"I see. How did these 'Cave People' block your observations per say? Which method of observation had you been using that was being blocked?"

She wasn't going to squander the opportunity to know more unlike her cretinous colleagues. For what little help they had been it seemed they poorly grasped the magnitude of this discovery. As for their attempts to better put her own kind to ease it felt almost rather similar to herself. She always felt like she was wearing this form just to appeal to the society within which she dwelt. She dressed like them and adhered to their standards but in thought they were of two species almost entirely. Even the yasoi, so utterly primitive in scope. This, however, was a discovery of something major. Something that perchance understood magic better than they. That was something she could not let slip through her fingers.

Their host's tongue flicked in and out of her mouth annoyedly a couple of times. "Thisss was our cavern. It has been since we lived on this island, though we do not anymore. We use it to come and go and to set up our devicesss."

"Come and go," said another sirrahi.

"Devices," echoed one more.

"It is important that humans and yasoi and.... the othersss develop properly."

Two other sirrahi, in the doorway, nodded vigorously, bobbing up and down in a sort of rhythm as they did so.

"Develop properly," one mumbled.

"Important," confirmed the other.

"These.... foolish onesss blocked our exit, occupied our cavern and, when we tried to contact them, they shot at us!"

"Shot at usss!"

"They shot!" The voices sounded a bit angry. There were a few hisses.

"They thought they were hunting monsters!" said the sirrahi woman. "Imagine that!" She shook her head, the gesture oddly human or yasoilike.

"Monsters-ss-ss," laughed another.

"They hurt Seven," she said, shoulders slumping, "very badly." Her face changed for a moment and she seemed threatening again. "We do not like it when people hurt our brothers and sisssters." Once again, there was no echo, merely more of those bobbing nods.

Ingrid's interaction

Ingrid just watched and listened. It was creepy but they were answering questions at least. They were further underground and were in a safe room. Just a lot was happening and she was trying to adjust. Then a fucking snake person. Why not. And apparently they were wearing hair to be more primitive. Ingrid was not even convinced she was awake. Maybe this was just her hallucinating before she dies. Who knows.

"Ah, yessss! Human." Their host paused as she turned and strode up to Ingrid and began inspecting her. "You are a human, correct? How wonderfully, abnormally tall you are for a female of your species!"

"Wonderful," echoed another sirrahi.

"Abnormal," chirped a third, oblivious.

"Nine," said the first voice that they had heard from the speaker upon arrival, "You are forgetting human cussstom."

"Forgetting," scolded a second.

"Human custom," added a third.

"Ah, yesss!" squeaked the sirrahi, who had now slithered up in front of Ingrid. "Ssso sorry! I've been ssso rude! Introductions are cussstomary, I believe?" She blinked and smiled, close-lipped this time, perhaps catching on that her full smile was unnerving to the primitives. "I am Dissska Nine Sileen!" She blinked and furrowed her brow before remembering to offer her hand. "You can jussst call me Nine, though."

She smiled a bit more broadly. "As for sssome food, we have that in abundance." She tilted her head inquisitively. "I believe by your size, complexion, and the inflection of your words that you are Eskandish, correct?"

"Eskandish."

"By your size."

"By complexion."

"We can prepare a delicacy of your homeland!" Nine squealed, evidently excited. She paused and touched a finger to her lips. "We may do a horrible job, though."

Ingrid was at visibly hesitant to them coming so close but it seems that is how they are. She took a breath out and tried to accept their kindness. " Yeah I'm human. I've never met anyone like you. You're a Sirrahi, right?" Ingrid listened to them try to correct their rudeness and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "No no, It's fine to call me abnormal. I'm the tallest girl in my family by maybe a foot. It's nice to meet you Nine, I'm Ingrid Penderson and you can call me Ingrid," Ingrid smiled and shook her hand. Ingrid found it interesting that they could just tell she was Eskandish but she does look like a pretty stereotypical Eskandish girl minus the height. Ingrid smiled to reassure them, "I'm sure how ever it turns out it will be delicious. Thank you for even cooking for me, I am honored"

"I am... consssidered rather abnormal too, Ingrid." Nine swirled around Ingrid and, for a moment, reached up to play with the false 'hair' she was wearing, as if amused by its presence. "We abnormal girls should ssstick together."

"Stick together."

"Abnormal."

"Girls should."

Then, the voice from the speaker. "She isn't lying about that," it said dryly.

"Not lying."

"She isn't."

"About that."

"Shut up, One," hissed Nine, taking Ingrid by the hand. "I just love that you are ssso tall!" she squealed, unleashing one of those big snakey smiles by accident. She quickly closed her mouth. "I will feed you well, human. I will not burn the food. You humans like your food cooked, I know, even barbariansss."

Nine tilted her head to one side as seemed to be a curiosity tic of hers. "Why do ssso many other humans call Eskandish 'barbarians'?"

"Yesss!" added one of the sirrahi in the doorway enthusiastically.

"Why?" another practically demanded.

"Barbarians," said a few more.

"So many humans!" It seemed to be of considerable interest. Nine made a sympathetic face, perhaps realizing that it was appropriate and that this may be a sensitive topic. "You... do not ssseem so very different from others to me..." she trailed off.

Ingrid felt a more personal connection when Nine admitted she was considered abnormal as well. Ingrid never disliked her height but it has bothered her on numerous occasions how people treated her. She wasn't a freak and neither was Nine in Ingrid's opinion. Ingrid smiled at her like a new friend, "Us girls should stick together." Ingrid kept her arms a bit more loose in case any of the other girls or guys wanted to slither. They seem pretty physical.

Ingrid blushed a little at Nine after complimenting her height so genuinely, "Oh thank you Nine. It feels nice to be complimented on it. I have to say though, your hair is done very nicely. Gorgeous even. I tend to have issues with mine after it gets wet..." Ingrid finally noticed how her own hair was messy and started to fix it. When Ingrid saw Nine shut her mouth when she smiled, she wanted to say it was alright but she is obviously trying to be considerate to our group. Maybe I'll get a chance to tell her personally that I don't mind.

"Yesss, my hair," said Nine, flicking it over her shoulder. "It is gloriousss."

"Glorious!" echoed others.

"My hair," said some.

Ingrid may have noticed that some of the sirrahi, particularly the women, had repeated after her. "Girls," they said, "stick together," said others. "Stick."

"I like you," decided Nine, appearing over Ingrid's shoulder and resting her chin on it very forwardly.

"Like you," said some others.

"I do," added one.

As the Eskandishwoman started to mess with her hair, the sirrahi seemed to take that as an invitation to get involved in the process. She helped Ingrid comb some of the knots out, her long, thin fingers extremely dexterous if not as gentle as human equivalents.

When they acquired about the barbarian thing Ingrid tried to explain it quickly. "Barbarians? Oh, that has to do with our older history. It is true that long ago my people pillaged and were seen by northerners as simple barbarians. Now it is more of an insult. To some extent though, our leader used it to his advantage to drop their guard around him believing him to be simple. Were just normal everyday humans, maybe a bit taller."

At Ingrid's explanation of her ancestors and the term 'barbarian's' current use as an insult, Nine nodded supportively. "It is always good to use cruel people's assssumptions againssst them. They will learn not to do it."

Dinner Reservations

Ismet's head settled as the circumstances of their rescue came to light around her. She bit her bottom and arched her eyebrows in bewilderment as she started to understand what was going on. These snake people, Sirrahi, had rescued them and brought them here. Wherever here was.

There was a lot of information here and they seemed so open. Naturally or falsely? They knew of Yasoi and humans but as far as she could recall, nobody ever cited claims of what the Sirrahi were. Why hide and more importantly, why is it important that humans, yasoi, and... others (that had so many implications it was making her head ache) 'develop properly'?

One question at a time and one that would ease her concern about this. They were in captivity. They didn't mention much about them being able to leave.

She lifted her shoulders, shrugging as she finally chimed in. "Why go through the trouble? What are humans and yasoi to you, Sirrahi?"

"Oh hello, new friend!" Nine slithered over, shooting a dirty look at the others in the doorway, perhaps because they were making her do all of the work of interacting with the scary humans and yasoi. "We were worried we'd broken you by accident," she said.

"Worried," a few others chorused.

"By accident," they assured her.

"Sssince you work a little differently from humans."

"Differently."

"Work that way."

"We are very sssorry," she repeated for the umpteenth time, and perhaps it was a cultural quirk of these odd people.

"Very!" echoed others. "Sorry," said some more.

"You are our purpossse," said Nine. "The all-knower's purpose, and we carry out the all-knower's commands." She smirked at Ismette's visible confusion. "Hehe, trusssst me, we have just as many questions for you. Now, would you like sssomething to eat?"

As Trypano listened to their responses, it yielded a great number of answers and yet an even greater number of questions. It seemed for how much advancement these creatures held these firearms of theirs still posed them risk. Ironic, given what plethora of means one with magic could utilize to neutralize the threat of such clumsy weapons.

"I do suppose humans have a terrible habit of lashing out at things they don't understand." And exploiting the things they do She kept the last words to herself, simply shaking her head at the pitiful behavior of the species she's had to call her own.

"It was quite fascinating this air-born sedative you employed against us. Further still your ability to quell our mana's core functions was ultimately what left us vulnerable to such method. Remarkable, truly." While she nodded on this point it seemed Ingrid had taken them up on the offer of food and drink. It seemed she was introducing herself to these strange new hosts of theirs. She supposed this would provide a valuable in for her.

"How about this: Since you're keen to learn more about us how about we share information on ourselves in exchange for some in regards to our kind hosts here? My name is Trypano and I would be happy to help represent the better examples of our species to make up for our worse population's behavior."

"We have noticcced this bad habit of yours," Nine said glumly, and her body seemed to tighten up. "We have noticed it very much."

"Very much," echoed the others.

"Noticed it," they agreed, and she shot a concerned look back at them.

"My... sssister noticed it," she said weakly.

The others did something with their fingers, then, making some kind of gesture simultaneously. "But we are not here to talk about Ssseven," amended Nine, straightening and smiling. "Or the many methods we have for preventing magic and violence."

"Magic," said a few.

"Violence," said others in refrain, bobbing up and down, the two words coming together before they faded out. "At leassst not yet," Nine clarified. "Not yet, Trypano." She flashed another smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I think we would love to know more about what constitutesss a 'better example.'" Glancing over her shoulder at one of the walls, she was affirmed by the others and by the voice of One though the mesh on the ceiling. "We would like to know very much what the criteria are," he remarked.

"Does it, perhapsss, have something to do with being very tall?" Nine circled her momentarily. "You are even taller than Ingrid. Remarkable for your ssspecies."

"But I get ahead of myssself," said Nine. "How rude!"

"Ahead of myself," someone echoed. "Rude," scolded a few others.

"For now," she continued.

"For now."

"Can we offer you sssome food? A drink?" Nine smirked mischievously and leaned in. "I promissse there are no sedatives in this one."

Desmond relized he had never gave his names as he nervously said, "Ah, yes my name, sorry. my name is Desmond, uhm-oh, Desmond Catulus. I'd um, like to maybe eat with the others." As he gestured to the others by pointing with his left-hand crossing over his body and pointing around his shoulder to the group as he looked and continued to speak, "It's been a long night and some food would be nice, I guess".

"Desmond," Nine said with a nod. "Desmond," a few others singsonged. She leaned in conspiratorially, voice dropping. "I will confess, Desmond, to sssimply referrringg to you as 'Violence Ssstick' in my head up to now." She pulled back, grinning like a magpie, and her too-wide mouth started to come apart in that way that so unnerved him until she tamped down on it.

At the second part of his statement, however, the sirrahi clapped her hands together, shaved-down claws clicking a bit against each other. "You are Enthish!" she chirped, clearly pleased with herself by this deduction, "A land famous for its bad food!"

"Bad food," echoed others. "Famous," they confirmed.

Nine smiled and nodded eagerly. "I shall cook awful food ssso you feel right at home." The end of her tail flicked back and forth. "I will be back!"

"Back," said more sirrahi.

"She will be!"

Desmond would have been unnerved with everything going on. Yet if he was able to control his laughter at this point, it explains perfectly what he remembers of Enth, Terrible food and terrible tempers. As she was about to leave he said, "Yeah that's Enth, bad food and violence sticks. How could you tell?"

Nine twists and flicks some hair over a shoulder, grinning. "Why... you are one of the three pictures that we have for 'Enth' in our encyclopedia of human nations." She blushed for a moment. "Well, a younger version of you."

Desmond looked confused as he looked to everyone else as he shrugged and said, "Dang, guess I'm famous?"

Nine merely shrugged and Desmond may have noticed that a few of the sirrahi echoed him. "Famousss," they said, "dang."

"Your face has been... much discusssed among our people," she said cryptically, and the usual refrain followed her.

Ingrid heard this and was very curious about the photo they were talking about. One of a younger Desmond. Ingrid looked towards Desmond while addressing Nine "Picture you say, maybe I can see it too?" Ingrid is assuming they have a younger, cuter picture of him and Ingrid really wants to see it

There was a further echoed chorus and then a promise to find an encyclopedia to bring to dinner for Ingrid and Desmond's benefit.

Trypano notices that they were still keeping some cards to their scaley chests. Understandable given their history and what was probably the death of her sibling Seven, older sibling if she were to guess by order of precedence. Trypano moved some of her long red hair aside in response as the reptile remarked on what qualifies a better example.

"I suppose for the purposes of cultural exchange a proclivity towards diplomatic relation building would be one such quality."

With her arms modestly crossed over her clothing which she definitely assumed had been taken from her at some point during her unconscious period given they were not presently wet nor caked in sea-salt nor mud like they were prior.

"For the time being lets discuss topics more to your pleasing over whatever you have prepared for us as far as nutrient intake is concerned. I certainly have no worry about further sedation as it would benefit neither of us at this current juncture. I'd be happy to accept your offer."

She offered out a hand for a handshake to Nine, simply holding it out and patiently awaiting her response.

"A handshake, a cultural greeting of ours which derives it's origins from humans who would clasp one another's arms to prevent those they spoke with from drawing sharp implements with which to harm one another using their dominant hand. Seems symbolically appropriate, given our circumstances."

"Interesssting," Nine replied. "That would ssseem to go against what the humans we have observed appear to value."

The usual chorus followed, with the words 'interesting' and 'against' seeming to take precedence. The sirrahi was about to leave following their exchange about 'nutrient intake', and a couple of the reptiles seemed to chorus the words as well. But as she was about to go and begin cooking, she instead shouted another three numbers: "Twelve, four, ten!"

Those numbers bounced back at her in the voices of others.

"Get us started ssso they don't have to wait too long."

"Wait too long."

"Get us ssstarted."

She turned back to Trypano and shook her hand eagerly, careful not to bite into the human's tender skin with her filed down claws. She smiled her full smile, gauging that this one would not react with fear. "I have learned something about the thing you call 'handshake' today." She smirked. "That makesss it all that much better. I shall return shortly." She released the human's hand and hurried off.

Beyond What They Know

The sirrahi disappeared and the six humans and yasoi were left to their own devices in the strange grey room with walls made of a very unfamiliar material. Nine assured then that she would be back in twenty standard human minutes. Presently, the floor opened up, two doors sliding open and a knee-height table emerging from the floor. cushions fell from apertures in the ceiling and, then, the strangest thing of all happened: from the mesh in the ceiling came music such as they had never heard before. It was apparently, "the newest, hottest music, from the hottest artists, all day, every day. 105.7 VNM FM."

"All day."

"VNM FM"

"Every day."

"Newest, hottest."

Ingrid was startled by the moving room once more but she was getting use to it. The music played and she never described music as hot. It was more free spirited and it consisted of instruments she had never heard. All in all she started nodding her head to the music. Ingrid looked towards the others, smiling as she kept vibing to the beat, "The music is pretty nice right?" Ingrid was letting go and going with the flow at the moment.

Desmond watched as Nine slithered away and left them and felt as if this was going to be a long 20 minutes. Well, until tables and cushions came out and music began to play. At first he was confused as the voice from the mesh seemed to be different than from the others, as it spoke about certain things before music came on.

As the music played, Desmond found it lacking as he sat down and leaned on the table as he decided to just bear with it as he said. "Meh it's alright, I guess". As unbeknownst to him, his foot underneath the table began to sway.

Watching as the Sirrahi woman departed, Trypano arms were folded and she was left to the company of her thoughts. She wasn't aware yet just how much more this place held but it's secrets were many. When the table rose up from the aperture in the floor and the voices started speaking out of the meshes on the ceiling she found herself subject to more elements of their alien culture.

She calmly sat down on one of the cushions and took to deep thought as music started to emanate from the meshes above.

"Fascinating. Perhaps their fascination with sound modification ties in to both their culture and possibly more."

Ingrid took a seat next to Trypano. Ingrid listened to her quandary on what music means to them and just said, "Maybe they like music as much as us. If we could have it as easily as this, don't you think we would be playing it as well"

She glanced over to Ingrid as she weighed in on the matter. "What's more is how they are producing it. All of this would be duplicable with mana using kinetic arts. They seem to have found ways around the use of mana to store and convert their energy however."

While she imagined this revelation should hold some gravity she had her doubts about how well these colleagues of hers could truly grasp the importance of this factor.

Desmond listened as Ingrid and Trypano spoke, they seemed to be fascinated with the way music was being played. Desmond weighed in as well as he said, "Well, if they are producing it, it could be similar to how kineticist do it, but through mechanical means. Vibrating and controlling the flow of the air to produce sounds. Maybe some bag is used and can produce high and low vibrations to change pitch, similar to how instruments can strum to vibrate the air, or how you con constrict and loosen your own throat to change the sounds."

Desmond thought on the energy as he said, "It could be a form of energy like magnetic energy, mages will often store the energy found from magnetism within them. So what it to say you can't find a way through metals to seal it and store the energy for later? Using other forms of materials to let the energy out slowly for you to siphon"

Ingrid merely shrugged at Trypano, " It could be a whole host of things. We can assume something is vibrating to make the sound. And if it is one thing making the sound it would have to be moving very quickly. But whatever, I'm going to let things sink in and ponder later."

Dinner with Other Worldly Beings

The group passed their time in idle speculation and exchange, and the music changed a handful of times, each with a voice speaking through the mesh to introduce it. At one point, Benedetto tried speaking to the voice, but it ignored him entirely and kept on extolling the virtues of the tunes to come as if it did not even hear him. 'Well fuck me sideways," he muttered. "I don't even think there's a real person on the other end."

Then, as if out of nowhere, they heard a familiar voice. It was One's. "Sssome very good observations," he allowed. "Anyhow, my sissster is coming with your food. She and I shall join you." There was a pause as other sirrahi echoed his words in that haphazard way of theirs in the background. "Pretend that you like it. Even if it'sss awful," One added quickly and guiltily. A couple of others echoed him in whisper, and others snickered in their snakey voices.

Desmond chuckled slightly as One spoke about his sister's cooking. Desmond has eaten worst, so playing like the food is good and reminds him of home. Desmond waited, he was curious still of the music, almost too quickly did he turn from someone who disliked the music to one who was humming to it.

As he looked over to the others he said, "Well let's see what's being brought in, Benny come on-". Demsond patted the cushion next to him as he continued, "Let's get ready to eat, it's been a long night"

Ingrid had to agree with the Sirrahi. Eskandish food while comforting for Ingrid was by all means bland and starchy, or very salty. It was of course better than Enth food. Maybe they will grab one of the more exquisite meals from her homeland. Maybe some good spice to it as well.

She wondered how the others might fair against the sometime surprising spice of Eskandish cuisine, I hope to see a lot of red faces, begging for relief. Ingrid just quietly smirked imagining it.

Sitting with her finger tips together, resting in an arch, Trypano watched one of their hosts enter and make mention of their foods approach. "Thank you for the warning." She responded, returning her red gaze to the remainder of her little team.

Then, the same door as before opened and Nine could be heard giving some others a tongue-lashing. "Will you ssstop being such ssscaredy-eggs? They are just squishy little humans and yasssoi. They won't hurt you."

"Won't hurt you," one repeated meekly.

"Scaredy-eggs," murmured another.

"Sssquishy little humans."

"But one had a violence ssstick," murmured a voice.

"Violence stick," the others echoed in a chorus, their silhouettes bobbing up and down.

Nine zipped through the door, then, leaning forward in that way she did when actually moving at a decent clip. She held a plate in each hand. "Hello friends!" She shot a look back at the other sirrahi who cowered in the doorway. "My brothers and sssisters are all scaredy-eggs." She placed these in front of Benedetto and Trypano, the latter containing a salad of leafy greens, with fish, nuts, and berries. "These are all sssuperfoods," she announced proudly.

"Sssuperfoods," singsonged the sirrahi in the doorframe.

"All of them," added one more.

"Very high in almost all nutrients that humans need."

"Very high."

"Humans need."

"Nuuuutrientsss."

"I'll be right back!" she chirped, zipping out the door and back in with surprising speed. "For you, Ingrid!" It was... Surströmming: most certainly an Eskandish dish, and with a whole assortment of garnish to choose from. For Ismette, she brought Rainbow Mushroom Jamb'ysp Cake. "Please don't tell me if it'sss awful," she teased. "Lie to protect my feelingsss." With a flick of faux-hair, she made for the door, but stopped as she reached it.

A small, pale sirrahi with thick-rimmed reading glasses and a stern face emerged. She slipped around him and grabbed a final dish, holding it high. With a flourish, she placed this in front of Desmond. It was... haggis, and a hunk of black pudding, with mushy peas as a dipping side. "A tasste of home!" Nine squealed. "Home," echoed One, seating himself at the head of the table. "Now, tell me, do you primitives engage in... prayer?"
"Prayer," echoed Nine, absently.

"Primitives," said a sirrahi in the doorway.

One tilted his head to the side inquisitively. In front of him waited an enormous steamed ham. His sister, who they knew somewhat better, eyed a massive rack of ribs. They pulled out cute, matching little napkins with numbers that corresponded to their names, and tucked these into their collars, preparing to eat but willing to make time for prayer if they had to.

As the door opened up and food was to be brought, Nine seemed to call her siblings scaredy eggs. Desmond laughed and said, "You tell'em Nine"

As food was brought in, he saw the food looked good and regionally appropriate, and he was worried. As Nine came over and set down his plate, Desmond knew it to be true. Haggis and Black pudding with mushy peas.

Desmond looked to Nine and said with a smile, "Thank you, it reminds me of home already". As much smaller Sirrahi seemed to slither in and take a seat at the table, he asked if they engaged in prayer. Desmond said with quick response, "I do not".

One blinked. "Interesssting, and highly unusual." Nine seemed to be trying not to drool.

Ismette, meanwhile, bowed her head in a quick prayer to Oirase for providing for her even in this alien place.

Ingrid was... Surprised? Surströmming was indeed an Eskand product but did they just have this laying around?

Ingrid had already done a small prayer when the food arrived. She knows not everyone prays but Ingrid can remember the education she recieved for not doing it once in front of guest. Ingrid looked towards Nine and One and offered thanks for the food

Interesting Ingrid thought, as she ate it with the accoutrements. It had a strong smell and honestly she worried that instead of red she be seeing green on their faces. It is an acquired taste and and even more a harsh smell.

Ingrid turned to One and Nine, offering them some Surströmming as well. She would offer it to the others but believes she will be made fun of either way for eating it later

Trypano noticed that the Sirrahi certainly were industrious, bringing out such a prodigious amount of food in so little time. Then again, after everything else the bar for what would impress her was set fairly high.

Then approached was the topic of prayer. She had to fight off the urge to cringe as memories of many dinners flooded to mind. While she held certain beliefs her father was still something of a traditionalist in many senses. Both in public and amongst family she'd been co-opted into these things before. She cast a look of interest over to Desmond as she'd expected otherwise before returning her eyes to One.

"While it is customary for people under the umbrella of the Quentic faith to offer prayer unto the five I choose not to. I believe that for the same reason I do not offer prayer unto the nobility nor unto wizards of higher RAS than me I offer none onto the gods. There will always be beings more powerful than I but those beings neither require my praise nor do they necessarily deserve it."

Even as the others spoke, Nine was busy polishing off rib after rib, her taloned fingers and kerchief covered in sticky oozing barbecue sauce as she gaped as wide as she could and cleaned them off right to the bone. She paused when Ingrid offered her a bite, bone sticking halfway out of her mouth and a blush rising to her cheeks.

She reached up and slid it out from between her teeth, swallowing hastily. She ripped another rib free from the rack. "We should trade," she decided, not really waiting for confirmation and just shoving it onto Ingrid's plate. "That's Nixie Five's Bull BBQ. It's got some nice kick."

"Nice kick!" groaned a sirrahi from the doorway, gazing jealously out at the smorgasbord. "Nixie Five's Bull BBQ," whined another.

Her brother turned to Trypano for a moment. "How very... unique," he remarked. "You know, basssed upon my observation, your sssociety appears on the precipice of a great transssformation." He began to gorge himself, then, on steamed ham. "We shall speak at greater length," he promised, receiving affirmation from the doorway and his sister. "But first, I believe we should should finish thisss meal."

Still busy eating, utterly unladylike, Nine swallowed, spat out a bone, and turned to Desmond, dabbing her mouth clean with a napkin. "Hi, friend!" she chirped, leaning in (for she was seated beside him, some of her coils all-but pressed up against him). "Are you enjoying your... 'food'?"

"Hi friend!" mimicked someone from the doorway.

"A great transformation you say? How... Interesting you should say." Trypano responded.
"I would be happy to exchange information after consuming this meal." With that she took her fork and began to politely eat her salad. It was quite filling and nutritionally balanced which was good. Ordinarily this would be valuable energy for her magic as well but given the circumstances she felt oddly cut off from that aspect of herself as well. It would take getting used to. Still, there was something more at hand here than what others truly grasp.

Surströmming was delicious and all but ribs? "Sure! I love a good kick with my food," Ingrid smiled as she picked up the rib and took a bite. The Rib was tender and had a meaty quality the played as the backbone of the dish. Nixie Five's Bull BQQ heavily spiced with a splash of acidity to balance out how sweet it was. Ingrid will have to remember to use this process to her own cooking as it was so good! "That was delicious Nine, thank you for sharing with me."

Desmond watched as people ate, each seemed to eat very differently. Some ate with a voracity that would be seen by that of someone who had starved. Others ate with some elegance and normalcy, yet some ate almost calculatedly. They ate just enough to not make others upset or nervous, and Desmond was one of them. He was very calm and mannered with his eating, yet he was honestly very curious on how they were able to make Haggis and Black pudding with such speed. To make either was an endeavor on it's own at least taking near an hour, yet they completed it in 20 minutes.

Desmond had some doubts on them not already having some of this prepared, the dishes made for both him and Ingrid takes much more time than they allotted themselves. So they must have already had it prepared and stored someplace or already prepping for them expecting for them to wish to eat when they awoke.

As Nine seemed to talk to Desmond, she leaned onto him more than anything, almost as if she would spill over into his seat if given the chance, Desmond looked up to Nine with a smile as he said, "Hi Nine" Desmond then turned to the door as he waved to them and said, "Hello friend". As he turned back to Nine and then said, "Ah, the food. It reminds me of Home for sure". Desmond looked to Ingrid's actions and had an idea, a smirk came to his face as he cut some black pudding and said, "Here, wanna try?"

It was to Nine's great delight that she ate the wonderful thing known as 'Black Pudding' that she had prepared from a book of recipes. It was truly a delectable dish and she began to feel bad. Perhaps it was too good. The people of Enth were creators of poor cuisine, after all, as judged by their fellow humans. Perhaps they had an idiosyncratic taste that made them enjoy it. Perhaps Desmond was not truly enjoying the food. It was too... good.

In any event, the crisis soon blew over and dinner was more or less complete. One finished wiping off his face, placed his napkin on the table, and knit his fingers together. "Ssso, it now comes time to ssspeak on other matters," he said.

"Time to speak," Nine echoed.

"Other matters," said a couple of her brothers in the doorway.

One held a hand up to forestall any discussion of a certain nature. "The one thing that I will warn you now is that we have revealed ourssselves to you mossst accidentally. We had believed we were dealing with the sssame intruders who had done us harm before. They were to be disssposed of."

"Warn you," chorused some.

"Most accidentally," Nine repeated absently.

"To be disssposed of," warned a couple of her brothers and one sister ominously.

Nine looked to her brother and he nodded for her to take the reins. "Ssso, basically, thisss interaction never took place."

"Never took place."

"Thisss interaction."

"There is so much we'd like to know about your peoples. I am ssso personally curious." She touched a hand to her chest.

"Ssso much we'd like to know," echoed One.

"Ssso personally curious," repeated one of her sisters.

"But, if we answer too many of your questions on knowledge and devicesss, it might affect the development of your ssspecies. That is not something we can risssk. It may give you an advantage over the others which is unfair and result in... bad outcomes."

"Might affect the development of your species," mumbled One.

"Too many quessstions."

"Something we can risssk."

From somewhere beyond that sliding doorway, there came a ring, almost like a bell but muted in an unnatural way... almost as if it was an imitation sound. After a moment, one of the sirrahi who'd been peering out ducked inside and muted conversation could be heard. She poked her head out again. "Brother," she addressed One, "it's for you. They say it's important."

As their meal wrapped up, Ingrid anticipated that the somewhat lightheartedness of the conversation they had held earlier was coming to an end. Ingrid appreciated that they were being forward with them about the current position we are in. With their power, they may be able to completely wipe their memory of this event. Ingrid understand that their knowledge was dangerous to us humans. She felt conflicted. Ingrid was personally looking for better mining practices, magical or mundane. With the look of the materials they can create, there is no question that they have advanced much further in mundane production. Even the simple act of creating sound however they did could create dozens of advancements to just reach that one feat.

Our actions of theorizing on the sound, speculating on the materials they used, and Trypano's attempts at information exchange should have made it obvious to them that we are part of what they worry about. Capable scholars that given the opportunity will absorb whatever they will accidentally give.

Ingrid knew she shouldn't be greedy, for more reasons than she cared to name, but at the same time didn't want this experience to vanish. Ingrid had no idea what they were capable of but wiping their memory is highly likely. Ingrid could feel that unbearable cold in her chest when she imagines going back to her thoughts before meeting them. Ingrid would fight to remember them

"I guess the first thing I should say is thank you. You didn't need to spare us, nor did you have to treat us as guests but you did and I can't thank you enough. But. I do not want this meeting just to be forgotten about." Ingrid's cheery demeanor faded for an air of seriousness. Ingrid wanted to be clear that she wants to remember them. Ingrid loosened up and continued to speak, "I'll keep answering questions if I can remember you guys," Ingrid said while glancing towards Nine.

During the meal, Desmond was more focused on making sure his hospitable hosts couldn't turn on them without them being aware. Desmond knew they had only a few precious chances to defend themselves, and being in the same room with him is one of those few chances.

Yet as the meal came to an end, it seemed nothing strange happened, sure talking was to be had, yet some were much more focused on finishing their food. And it was time for them to get to the questions. Desmond had many things he wanted to ask, but most were dashed away when One spoke and told them that they were to be disposed of if they were the intruders they were intending for. Desmond was grateful they were not a shoot-on-sight kind of people, so Desmond should thank them for that. Yet One continued about saying they couldn't ask too much about their technology. Desmond was annoyed yet understood as he said, "Well either way, thank you for taking the time to make sure that we weren't the people who came here before. That is much appreciated."

Desmond listened to Ingrid, she seemed willing to give information as long as they got to remember them. Desmond agreed, not because he cared to remember them, but more because he dislikes the idea of having himself tampered with. He despises the idea of having his memories messed with, and will damn well fight them, yet he knew in this moment, that fighting their way out would be suicide. Based upon the amount of voices, the numbering systems, there should at least be 9 of them, but based upon the voices there might be at least 10-12 of these snakes. Desmond might be able to take down one, but multiple would be a real stretch.

He sighed as Desmond said with a bit of an aloof smirk on his face, "Yeah, I'd be willing to give information if I can ask a few questions and keep the memories. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, would be a sad thing to forget such memories". Desmond chuckled a bit as he said the next part, "And besides, we haven't even seen this encyclopedia you guys were talking about. I still want to see if you guys were able to get my good side"

Her brother had left the room to take the call and Nine was left alone with the humans and yasoi. She snorted despite the generally serious turn of the situation, and shot Desmond an appreciative look. "I assure you it caught... a side of you," she responded with a hint of cheekiness.

"I assure you," repeated another sirrahi.

"A side of you," echoed a few more. Others snickered.

"Now, as for your concerns..." she paused to brush some hair from her eyes. "Ugh, this stuff gets annoying after a while. Why do you not just cut it short? Does it serve as insulation?" She furrowed her brow quizzically. "Does it serve... mating purposes?"

There was a broken echo of many little parts of her question, but she shook her head as if to clear it. "I have no intention of erasing anybody's memory or letting any harm come to you. I am not some wicked witch."

"No intention."

"Wicked witch." The sirrahi in the doorway echoed that one in particular until Nine twisted and hissed in their direction.

She turned back to the primates, tucking some hair behind her ear, all smiles again. "As for questions," she continued, "I can answer some as pertain to my people, our culture, and our mission here but, for the reasons I've already stated, I can't hand you any science or technology."

"Can't hand it."

"Science or technology."

"Our culture."

A thought seemed to have occurred to her, however. "Ten!" she shouted, and was joined by a chorus of others until a second sirrahi who looked very much like her slithered meekly out of the doorway.

"Yesss, sissster?" the new arrival asked, eyes darting warily at their guests.

"Bring the encyclopedia!" Nine giggled, grinning in her snakey way. Others repeated the command and Ten blushed. "But Nine..."

"But Nine," they mimicked, exaggerating the whininess of it.

"He will be embarrassed."

"Embarrassed!"

"He will be."

Just then, One returned, his manner businesslike. "I shall ask you once: are there any further members of your group?"

With the end of their meal came the time for questions. A time to approach some answers in exchange for answers to some of theirs. Trypano noted, however, that there was more happening around them as they spoke than they were letting on.

She noted Nine's annoyance with the wig she had donned. "More the former than the latter I'm afraid." With an idle gesture she cast a long lock of her vermillion hair back behind her shoulder. "Much like peacocks we pride ourselves on our aesthetics, our own appearance holding an important role in our psyche. We use colors and decorations to appeal to others not just for mating but also to establish one's self in an aspect of social hierarchy as well as a means of self expression. There are those who spend their entire lives absorbed with both their appearance and with the public's impression of them, their image becoming not just a reflection of them but a facet of their personality as well."

Turned her attention back over to her comrades she noted Ingrid's concern, a notion Desmond seemed to share. Trypano simply shook her head.

"If they just wanted to learn about us I doubt they'd of needed to seek our consent for such questioning given the position we're in. All reassurances aside given the guidelines they've professed such an outcome could be possible but I have some doubt."

Just as she was about to approach her question however One returned, maintaining a professional front but something was definitely up.

"To be precise we came with a group. Two more individuals who didn't follow us into the concealed cavern are classmates of ours, a woman with a false leg and a yasoi. Both the woman with the false leg and another woman are royalty from separate kingdoms. Accompanying the latter individual are pirates, sea-faring bandits who steal property off boats using violent coercion. You're likely familiar with them as they comprise a fair number of this island's residents up on the surface. There were a large number accompanying us, though much fewer followed far enough into the cavern to happen upon the route we took. Whether or not that has changed since last we were rendered unconscious is unknown to me."

The last thing they needed was for the Sirrahi to believe they were up to some manner of subterfuge here. If any of her remaining comrades created issues for the underground locals she'd need the good will in order to better negotiate for their survival. The Sirrahi seemed reasonable but they held a certain fear towards humanity's more aggressive tendencies. Like with any animal, regardless of the quantity of their sentience, it was never wise to provoke something into acting out of fear...

And cornered snakes are known to bite.

Desmond listened with a small chuckle, there was no way for them to have taken a photo of him he would be embarrassed in. He was already prepared for what was to come, and what if it was a really flattering picture! It would be such a fun thing to talk about, yet is seemed One came back and asked them an ominous question.

As Trypano answered, Desmond asked the obvious question, "Why? What happened?"

What Happened

Half an hour ago:
It had been close to an hour and a half. Penny had been generous with time, but something was not right. "They've been in there too long!" she'd insisted to Amelea, but it had taken another twenty minutes to coax an escort out of her. Now, the Perrenchwoman voyaged through the dark and treacherous depths of an immense cave system, a grizzled old sailor with a stump for an arm and a callow cabin boy ranging out in front of her every so often before pulling back so as not to leave her behind.

In truth, she was pretty sure that they were frightened. This place gave off an unnatural feeling. Further in she went, though, and the faint whiff of sulfur she'd detected intensified. Geothermally heated? she wondered, but she didn't know. She knew little in here and there was little energy to be drawn as well. The lantern that one of the men carried was everything: its faint yellowish light swinging back and forth on a creaky handle as he walked, casting long shadows.

Every ten seconds, Penny stopped, reached out with her senses, and searched for energies. Paranoia crept in and was firmly entrenched by the time that the trio reached a large, underground waterfall. They cast about, left and right. One way was narrow, rocky, and had the waterfall and rapids to contend with. The other had reasonable banks and wound slowly into the depths. Leaning towards the latter, she did another sweep. That was when she felt it: something large in the distance - more than one 'something'. Penny reached for the Gift to draw energy, but that was when she noticed that the Gift had disappeared…

Questions Desmond will Ask

1- "So are you guys from this world?"
2- "So I noticed your names have a first, middle, and last structure. First is your name you are referred to be differentiated from your middle and last, your Middle seems to be a number which you each use to call each other and even those you are close to, and the last is probably a family name. What does the Number mean?"
3- "So Nine I noticed you enjoyed the Black Pudding a lot. Do you like the blood taste? I personally don't like it much, but it's what I know some people like it for."
4- "So you talked about the reason why you are down here is because of some All-Knower. Who is this All-Knower?"
5- "So do you guys normally wear clothing?"
6- "How good of swimmers are you guys? I know some snakes are good at swimming, but I'm unsure how that translate upwards in scale."
7- "So your music seems very different than ours, I also noticed many instruments I've never heard. Are those ones you invented yourselves?"
8- "How it is so cool in here? I understand if it is technology and you don't wanna talk about it, but I'm curious because of where we are it would be much warmer"
9- "Do you guys have your own language system or is it Avincian?"
10- "So how does your reproductive organs work? Can you mate with others like Humans and Yasoi? Or is it 100% within your species?"
11- "Do all of your species live underground? Or do you all live in the little mesh in the ceiling? Hehehe I'm joking about that"
12- "Is there a way for me to maybe, possibly, with permission, somehow, pretty please have a way to listen to music like the way we did down here but in a portable form?"

TLDR;Summary

Our Crew of School sanctioned Pirates have found themselves a secret tunnel. Upon entering they found a man-made cave that seemed to have been used often as they ventured to hunt down mysterious glowing eyes. When they found the mysterious creature they thought they saw, the Group lost their ability to use magic and were captured thereafter.

They awoke an hour later in a grey room as mysterious people spoke to them through a mesh spoke and talked to them. As they talked to the people behind the mesh, they eventually showed themselves to be snake people, the Sirrahi. After some talking the group was left inside this room with music coming from the Mesh so that the Sirrahi could make them dinner. After the group ate with two Sirrahi, One and Nine, they will be able to ask them questions as a form of Cultural exchange, well, until Penny seemed to have gotten herself into trouble.

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Location:
Abandoned Neodymium Mine
Eunsan Mountain Range
250 Kilometers Southwest of Balya Gora
Date/Time:
March 22nd, 3030/ 0800
Interactions:
Cheif Solomon Aadil (Quick)
Gear:
His clothing: Boots, long-sleeved shirt, pants, gloves, holstered handgun with 20 rounds

---

Once the Colonel made his presence known, he handed out punishments in short order, and Tarak made it out with only a blanket warning. As he quickly snuck away, he laughed for just a few moments longer before he was away from them and his face returned to normal within a moment. Almost as if he was never laughing, this was a skill that Tarak had fostered, more a quirk, as often his emotions disappear like a spark. As he made his way through the cave, he was going to do a bit more walking before the meeting.

Tarak listened to the plan that was being laid out, many had different opinions, and some to the idea of attacking a transport with some unarmed personnel seemed dishonorable. Others seemed more than ready to commit smash and grabs and other things. Tarak was ready to do the same, they lost people, and their people are starving here, captured in another place, and possibly dying because of poor treatment. So now, gloves are coming off, Tarak knew it was time to let the reigns loose a little, hitting a transport is something simple in the grand scheme, the enemy could paint it how they feel, yet it wasn't anything too bad.

Water, food, and ammo. The few things that would make or break a combat force, and they had none of that. Tarak is watching his people slowly wither away without food. Their voices became raspy without water. He watches them freeze in the cold climate. So now was the time to rectify that, and prepare to settle a few scores. Tarak had no questions during this briefing, he understood the mission, the plan, and the environment, so, now it was time to get ready to get the show on the road.

Once dismissed, Tarak began to leave, as he saw that Reya was called out and asked to stay behind to have a word with the Colonel. Tarak could only know what they are talking about, maybe it was some old grudge still showing through, or he could be asking her if she could go with them to make sure that they don't just grab random ammunition. Tarak took a moment but shook his head against sticking around to see what they are talking about, Tarak wouldn't want to get in trouble right before things get started. He needed to make sure his gear was ready, he didn't truly need to. He makes sure his gear was ready and usable every day, yet he needed to do something with his hands, he was getting fidgety in anticipation, he wanted to get going. Do something. He needed to get his mind off of this. Something. Anything. And it seemed it came to him.

Chief Aadil appeared at a perfect time, telling Tarak about a corner of the cavern becoming vacant for the night. He spoke of Tarak seeming to have some injuries on his knuckles that seem to need to be resolved. That was when he knew what the Deck Chief was speaking of, the Scrapyard was opening up again. Tarak just gave a small nod and said with a smirk, "Alright Chief, thanks for the check up. I'll take a walk over later to check it out". As Tarak left with a light wave to the man, Tarak knew tonight was going to be an interesting night.

O R I F L A M M E

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Sparks of Anger

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Location: The Witch Woods

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Mentions/Interaction: Otios'yyia'thala @Fetzen, Lyen'Ivhere'Zulc @Tackytaff, Vali, Twice Born, @Wolfieh Horik the Gold, and Talit'yrash'osmax @Force and Fury

---

As Kol stepped through the fires he had created, he began to feel his skin prickle as heat began to surround him. He followed the younger men who threw themselves into war as if they had no fear of death. They threw away worries, no longer do they resemble men. Men have responsibilities, people they would need to take care of, loved ones who would miss them. Those Kol had sent forward with his gifts roared like beasts, hunted like dogs, killed like wolves, and died like cattle. Yet as Kol passed their bodies, they seemed to have passed in peace, Kol gave each man a final rite, a pray and snap of his fingers, as fire consumes them. Kol walked from each fire, his helmet covered his face, as his eyes flickered with his emotions, as he lowered himself readying to leap, an old dog was stretching his legs.

Kol threw himself far into the sky, using the energy that he was taking in from the rain, the heat from the fires his people create, and the rage he feels from feeling the sparks of the men who follow him become snuffed. As he flew multiple mages poked their head out of their hiding spots in hopes to take an easy target down, yet as magic flew to kill Kol, he struck out with greater force. As spikes flew, he threw out fire to burn it. As energy searched to touch him, he dodged and crushed the area with a kinetic push, and as fire flew, he put out fires of greater power.

He crushed everything in his wake, trees, men, the very earth itself. Kol made great infernos that became funeral pyres for those who followed him, and hell itself grabbed them to take them to their working hell. There they can work to make the north even warmer, like Kol was doing now. As Kol stretched his legs, he flew from battle to battle, smashing into enemies and routing them from their position, he made his men feel invincible, and the enemy as if they were a child to a monster. Kol was not here for games, he couldn't talk to these people, he couldn't try and do his usual business, not here. No, this was the beginning of war. A war to determine who was to be written down in history. Many understood this in different ways, so many fought and stayed their course.

As Kol crushed many under boot and fist, he felt a presence, he reached out with his hawk vision and felt the energy of a very powerful essence mage being pressured by 2 larger mages. As he threw himself to the air again, he waited high in the tree and looked down, as there he saw one of his finest, Horik the Gold, fighting 2 Yasoi. Yet upon his retreat, Horik looked up and their eyes met, as that was when a silent trap was set. Kol pulled in energy slowly as he waited for the opportune moment as the female Yasoi, Lyen'Ivhere'Zulc, launched her attack, Kol threw himself with great force down onto the Yasoi to crush her where she stood. As he blasted through the Yasoi's puny shied as if it were nothing, his teeth gritted as he prepared for impact, yet just as he is about to crush her, he felt energy reach out and a barrier of force energy comes out of seemingly nowhere and hits him like a stone wall, stopping the Eskandr king and dazing him momentarily. Kol shook his head to clear it and shouts a curse and a roar, "Hel!!".

As he got up he sensed a fast-motion moving object coming at him, yet it felt familiar, Kol lowered his body as he made an area for the familiar 'object' to use him as a ramp to launch themselves off of him. As the moment Kol felt impact, he shifted his body to roll with the object, as once he turned he saw Horik flying into the enemies, yet he ran straight into the male Yasoi's lightning trap, Otios'yyia'thala, as Horik was sent reeling, the woman tried to take Horik out, yet found out Horik was not one to lose his senses to pain. As he parried her blade away and sunk his axe into her shoulder, Kol used this moment of desperation the other tree child was probably feeling to make him act rash. As Kol rushed the now downed woman, he made himself look like he was to end her, yet he pivoted and leaped as he intended to put his energy into the fall like a falling star onto him. Yet the man seemed calm enough to stop such an attack as felt his very armour turned against him. Slowing in midair, his dropkick misses the Yasoi and he finds himself feeling unusually warm - enough to cause a growing discomfort, yet this strange occurrence wasn't enough to deter him from his fighting. The moment he landed his eyes locked to Otios as he took in the heat energy within him and cooled himself down as he took in more energy from the surrounding areas and focused it into his mouth as his vision hazed near completely as he imagined Wyverns far larger than any man, any home, any fort, as a glimpse of an even darker and larger beast lurked for a moment. A flash of red filled Kol's eyes as he roared out in pure anger fire and brimstone to consume Otios in the rage of Wyverns.

As the fire left his mouth and subsequently his helmet, a fire ripped its way through the maybe 20-foot distance that was made between Kol and his intended target, yet as if a mosquito who would not leave, Kol's dancing partner arrived. As the Spider had appeared and launched a wind tunnel of air to send the fire back at Kol, yet he continued to draw in energy and pour it out to counteract such a thing. In the end, the sheer force of the Eskandr's attack is too much to turn against him, but Tali is able to mostly negate it and a towering funnel of flame momentarily rips through the forest. Otios is saved from the worst. Singed but otherwise functional, he survives the apocalyptic-looking attack to fight another day. Kol stood in the wake of his destruction in silence looking at his foe, a thought crossed his mind, yet was instantly quelled as she launched her attack towards him. A whirling funnel of water and splinters turns to steel and intends to grind him to nothing, yet Kol was not a man to be taken down by such half-hearted attacks. As before he threw himself to the spell he roared out to Horik, "Major on me!", trying to get Horik to assist with the takedown of a major power player in this war. The moment Kol felt the storm of steel hit his armor, he drew energy from the many millions of impacts that could rend steel to Razor-sharp shards pinging and popping off of his helm and armor until he used the energy within to create a massive push of Force to dissipate the death tornado.

As he rushed forward, Kol noticed Horik follow his lead as he sent out thousands of projectiles and blackened splinters, to shower the area. The attack is so quick that it catches the younger Yasoi woman off-guard but, the moment that stray sliver draws blood, she hammers it away with a colossal force push. Kol was not expecting such a thing, he was preparing for a small and accurate defense, yet it seemed she threw something of a tantrum as she released a great amount of her energy in a Force push to send everything away, friend, foe, and projectiles alike. As when Kol landed, he landed on his back as he noticed one of the injured Yasoi rises from her prone position to take his head. Yet her hands seemed shaky from her injuries, it would take more than this half-hearted attempt at life to take his life. As Kol batted away the blade coming for his throat, he drew in energy as he roared out in frustration, "Enough!!". As he let out force energy in a thunderous roar projecting it as a wave surrounding him. As the woman leaped away just in time to only get pushed away from him rather than taking the brunt of the force.

Yet as he rose, he saw what he feared would occur, as Kol found Horik had left himself open to a brutal charge from the tallest Yasoi. His massive war horse bears down upon Horik and tramples the Eskandr, who screams as one of his legs, an arm, and two of his ribs are crushed. Kol took in the energy he gathered and launched himself into the horse to shove it aside just enough to stop Otios from immediately wheeling around to deliver a coup de grace. The horseman is relentless, however. Kol could not stop the Horseman this time as he strikes out with a powered spear of lightning and it struck true. Yet before anger could overtake Kol, he felt Horik's energy raise, as he spoke words: "Brother!" he shouts, voice rough and cracking. "I ride to Gronhalle! The Valkyr! I can see them brother!" They are galloping towards him on their winged steeds. His spirit is leaving his body, but his king is in danger. For a moment, he thinks of what a shame it is that any of the fine warriors here have to leave life's adventures behind. Then, he has one more thing to do. He forces his soul to stay for a moment longer. The valkyr beckon. He draws every bit of energy that he can, without pain or restraint. Kol will know what it means. Kol will know to clear the area. "Father! Mother! Sister! Brother! I leave now, for the Visitor's table! Witness me!!!" All of the Essence: he unleashes it all. Kol drew in all the energy from the fires he had created and launched himself high, and then used the same energy to launch him then far, he could hear his subject's last words ring through his ears.

Kol landed and turned to where he knew the explosion would occur and did the one thing he could do to honor his subject's last act. As Kol used the energy he stored from his landing, he dumped the rest of it into the body of Horik the Gold. The moment upon explosion, Kol gave a quick word as the battlefield shook and rocked, "And may we see each other again". Kol stood there for a time just basking in the rain as he felt a calmness come over him, war. His energy flared as he pulled in every ounce of energy he could, he could not waste more time, play time was over.

Kol heard a familiar voice call to him, Vali, as he called for them to enter the fight once more, together this time. Kol nodded as he began walking towards the forest once more. "Let's", was the only thing that left his mouth, his voice almost reverberated, as heat and steam seemed to emanate from where the rain fell on him, and where his feet were. Kol, Deaths Hand was finally awake.

The Hourglass Order

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Collaboration of: @Th3King0fChaos, @A Lowly Wretch, @dragonpiece, and @Force and Fury

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War is not Free

Penny

The thing was that, for all of her bold words, Penny was no naval tactician. She knew a good deal about magic. She knew how to fight. She knew precious little about ships, though, and even less about what they'd actually e facing. It would seem foolish to assume that they'd have only the Nera to contend with. Hence, when he stepped aboard, surprisingly nimble, she announced that she would defer to the wisdom of Captain Falzon.

Ingrid

Ingrid stood there listening to the new revelation of Penny being a princess. Honestly, she couldn't see it but Amelea had no reason to lie so it was best to move on from that for now. Ingrid knew that they didn't have a choice in the matter. 2 of the objectives are still unobtained and she couldn't let this ordeal be for nothing.

Ingrid looked towards Amelea, "I will be frank, I would join in the fight if in addition to some of the spoils of battle, I could have a favor of my choice down the line." Ingrid understood such a payment was hard to agree to but The Princess could use every mage they could for this battle.

Amelea

Amelea might have rolled her eyes inwardly. She was dealing with mercenaries, more or less, and they knew that they had her in the weaker position: a place where she'd spent most of her life. Outwardly, however, she managed a tight, professional smile. "You will have my gratitude should you be of assistance. So long as your request is reasonable and not something uncouth or abhorrent - and I would not expect such - you have my word that it shall be honoured."

She knit her hands in front of her and waited for the next demand.

Desmond

Desmond took in a breath as he heard what the princess said, now was the time for battle. When Captain Falzon stepped aboard Desmond gave the man a nod before turning back to Amelea as he gave his answer, "I am willing to join but, just like Ingrid, I would like some of the loot and a favor of my choice". Desmond knew he needed to keep it quick, if they were going to plan they needed to work fast, so what each person wants up front is the best move.

Desmond did throw in a little quip, "What's the trouble of giving a mercenary a favor? We might never meet again anyway~".

Penny & Amelea

Penny quirked an eyebrow. "Now that I think about it, I've a request of my own: speak with my father after this and we may make common cause against Doge Prospero." Truth be told, much as she was slightly taken aback by the brazenness of her classmates' demands, she couldn't fault them and, to some extent, had even put them up to it.

Amelea nodded, hurried. "As Nelle and Dami are my witnesses-" She gestured at Penny. "-all such requests will be honoured, of course, so long as they remain within the bounds of decency and reasonableness. Now, we have an enemy to plan for and I am as open to suggestions as she is."

Ingrid

Ingrid made a slight glance to Penny, to essentially seal that the future queen of Segonia gave her word. Ingrid refocused her attention on Amelea and smiled, "Thank you Princess Amelea, I'll be sure to draw up some proper documents for record keeping. I should formally introduce myself as well." Ingrid gave a traditional greeting one would give of her rank, "My name is Ingrid Penderson, a noble of Eskand Ath."

Trypano

How disappointing. The lamp, that is. She couldn't care less about Penny probably being royalty, let alone the royalty she was speaking to in the first place. Nobility was subjective, a social construct built up by society as the natural evolution of chiefs ruling over tribes. Truth is that their position mattered little as any husk of flesh could occupy the title given it has literally no requisites apart from your people agreeing to uphold that said husk possesses the title. What mattered was Mana, the thing that ran in many a noble's blood thanks to their tight control over breeding and monitoring for magical levels, stronger mages becoming viable breeding stock for nobility and possibly higher. She knew that well. After all, she was one such stock.

"The truth is that what I expect out of this mission I will only be receiving if we meet the criteria we were sent to fulfill. My main prerogative is to keep our team alive so they may fulfill the criteria requested of us. Anything else is irrelevant."

Trypano had taken a brief second from looking at the lantern with a focused studying glare to interject into the ongoing conversation.

"If we are on the topic of offers from those who are asking our aid I'd kindly ask you and any in your fleet to cease harassing my family's cargo vessels."

She posted her question to the Captain himself, seeing as he was likely among the many issues that plague their trade upon the seas. It was mostly as a favor to her brother as she cared little for the business as a whole, the money simply a means to facilitate a far greater ends.

Desmond

Desmond brushed his hands on his pants as he says, "Perfect, alright first things first I think we need to know what we are working with and where the Nera is coming from. We can't build a strategy without knowing where enemies are coming from".

Xavier Falzon

Captain Xavier squinted up at the strange giant woman. He nibbled his lower lip for a moment. "I'd do it," he agreed after a moment, "If I knew who's vessels it was that I'm to avoid." He drew the ack of a hand across his nose and sniffed. "Something for later, assuming we win the day. For now, I agree with this young man." He jerked a thumb as Desmond, nodding in the manner of one professional recognizing another. He turned to Penny expectantly.

Ingrid

It seemed the only person left unheard was Ismette, Ingrid turned to her and asked, " Ismette, do you have anything you want to add? I know you said that killing isn't debatable for you."

Penny

Penny shrugged. "Despite this hat, I promise I'm no actual mariner." She shifted, her boot and crutch thumping on the wooden deck, and pointed in the direction she came from. "Unless they pull something sneaky, though, they'll e coming from the hidden cover and grotto down that way. I only saw the Nera, a lugger, and some rowboats." She paused for a moment, row furrowed, and her eyes dared about. "Actually," she almost shouted, perking up, "I collapsed some of the rock in my escape! The Nera might be slow to get out. She may even have suffered some slight damage." She took a few steps, excitedly, hop-skipping. She turned back towards Captain Falzon and particularly Desmond. "If we make haste, we may be able to corner her!"

Desmond

Desmond looked to Ingrid as she called to Ismette and give her piece, Desmond knew she did not wish to kill, yet Desmond did have an idea, "I know you wish not to deal a blow to another, so why no you join me on my ship". Desmond extended her a hand as he then continued, "I do need someone to fill my sails if we are going to pull this off"

Ismette

The lone yasoi among the group, as she always seemed to be when around humans, Ismette crossed her arms. "I won't take life," she said simply, leaning against the mast, "but anything else, I will do. I signed up for this." She smiled at Desmond. "Your sails will be so full, you won't know what to do with all the wind."

She turned to Amelea. "As for my reward?" She bowed deeply. "Serving in such a noble cause is the greatest reward I could ever ask for." She paused. "However... I would like you to allow some of my people to settle on the land you call Segona, without human interference, should you regain your golden chair." With a languid stretch, she moved to stand beside Desmond, resting her forearm on his shoulder. "I can do more than make wind, by the way. Just... no killing."

War is not Easy

Ingrid

Ingrid listened in on penny's suggestion and was a bit nervous of it. Ingrid looked towards Penny, "I believe they would have moved the rock already. If they are still in the cove, depending on how large the mouth of it is, it could cut off our cannon fire and leave them open to fire on us. Their sight would be larger and they would only have to spend their defense in one direction. If they have enough mages to do that then we lose the advantage of them being cornered."

Penny

Penny... didn't quite understand what Ingrid meant. There was a decent and only increasing chance that they rocks had been moved. As for the bit about the cove, it was another language to her. She'd assumed that cornering a larger enemy in a small space where your smaller ships could maneuver more freely would be a good thing, but she knew little of naval combat and there was the risk of them being bottlenecked, potentially. Besides, Ingrid spoke with confidence that sounded quite convincing. Penny merely shrugged. "If you think it'll be better..." She trailed off.

Trypano

"I'll provide you a list of ship names and banners for reference."

She quickly added in response to the captain before returning her focus to the scene in general. Seeing as the majority of her group was behind this idea of sticking around and finishing off the last of their three objectives she reluctantly consigned herself to pitching in to the battle planning proper.

"Given the casualty rate of our prior plan we'll need to prepare a solid plan and execute this with caution if we really do intend to carry through with it."

With the lit lantern still in hand she looked over to the area Penny was indicating, talking about how she brought down some rubble. Her brow was furrowed with deep thought as she gave multiple ideas great consideration, eliminating more convoluted and impractical plans until a couple remained in mind.

"There are two ideas I have in mind. The first would be for us casters to take to the ground and ambush the ship as it attempts to emerge from the cove while our ships pepper it with fire from the entrance. The other idea would be to hit the cove with an explosive powerful enough to collapse it onto the ship within, either trapping it inside or crushing it."

Desmond

Desmond looked to Ismette and gave her a smile as he said, "No killing". He looked back to Penny talking about cornering the Nera, as she set them up to be in the cove. Desmond thought for a moment as Ingrid brought up a good point, they'd be firing into an arrow chute, yet Desmond brought up something, "I do agree with Ingrid, if we send all our force into cornering the Nera, we could find ourselves firing into an arrow chute, yet I think I got an idea for that". As Desmond gestured his hand towards Ingrid he said, "I'll need your help, but I think we can turn this ketch into a fortress killer".

Desmond tosses a thumb to the Ketch as he says, "The Golden Sun may be small, yet it is loaded with a high-powered mortar, meaning it punches well above its' weight class. I may not seem it, but I'm a great Magusjaeger and Chemist, so making these cast-iron cannon balls into some more powerful weapons and sending them through a small hole is much more up my alley."

Desmond quieted down when Trypano spoke and made her plans known. A smile came on his face as he thought he had the perfect idea for this. Desmond gestured to Captain Falzon and the others as he spoke up, "If we mix a bit of Trypano's plan and my idea, while the Golden Sun smashes the Nera with fire and brimstone, our other 2 ships meet the possible ships that are meant to assist that'll come from sea".

Ingrid

Ingrid looked towards Trypano and Desmond, "Both plans would require explosions so I am more than up for it."

Xavier Falzon

"This assumes that it remains in the cove and under the grotto's roof," Xavier Falzon amended, glancing at Trypano. Then, Desmond spoke. "You... want to take on a near forty gun ship with... a six gun bomb ketch?" He regarded the youth incredulously. "That mortar's a nice weapon, but if the Nera hits you so much as once, she'll maul you." He shook his head. "You should have a second ship with you to keep her honest, or you'll draw too much fire and there's no getting accurate fire of your own off." He crossed his arms. "We should divert one of our other two to take the big girl's fire. She won't worry much about a little ketch if she's got the Royal or the St. Elmo to deal with."

Trypano

She nodded along in thought while considering his suggestion.

"In order for your explosive to work however we have to make sure the enemy mages aren't employing counter-measures against it. Since we have a bit of time to prepare while we set out to meet them we could design a cannon with a longer barrel using means not available to traditional craftsmen."

Already her mind was brimming with all sorts of designs regarding this concept, something made evident as she paced over to the area which would make the best place to mount something as heavy as she was considering. As a semi-experienced sailor she was well aware of a number of issues with how cannons are set up and why. She wanted to see what the formal plan was in full first before she set anything up but she definitely was ready to start engineering something... Different.

Desmond

Desmond gave a smile to Ingrid and put out his hand to her as he said, "Welcome aboard". As he looked to Captain Falzon as he said, "Very true, how about we take the Royal, I have a feeling other ships will come and the St. Elmo would be able to duke it out better while we deal the nail to the Nera's coffin".

As Trypano spoke up, she called to make a weapon much better than what is available. Desmond chuckled as he said, "Alright, if this works well, I might need to ask you to make me a new gun".

Xavier Falzon

"Just... let's focus on sailing for now instead of making experimental guns without any testing." Captain Falzon prepared to return to his boat. The St. Elmo's Fyre had cast off and was coming their way, easily dwarfing the two smaller ships. He paused, though, halfway to his boat, and furrowed his brow. "You know... you lot are good with The Gift in a way that few on my crew are. It occurs to me that the best way to achieve what you're thinking, without constructing an entirely new gun is just to rifle what you have on here. Normally slow and costly, but you've your magic and - unless I'm way off - a precise way about you. Add some extra propulsion using your kinetic magic - nothing that would risk bursting your barrel." He removed his hat for a moment and scratched at his head. "That'd give you more accuracy and make for more range, wouldn't it?"

Desmond

"True enough, I was just curious if I could see something I could have never seen with my own power. I am a tinkerer at heart". Demsond chuckled at the idea as he take off his hat and looked to Trypano as he said, "Captain Falzon is right, using the gift in such a way is the exact same way we Magusjaegers actually reach out so far. Maybe another time then, don't want to lose out on our biggest gun".

Xavier Falzon, Penny, and Ismette

Penny glanced around at the others. "I'll take the Royal in with the Sun," she agreed. "Might need a skilled navigator. I've been flying by luck and the seat of my pants." She reminded herself inadvertently, once again, that she was not wearing a dress. "we drop some people off at the mouth of the cove who can hit the Nera from dry land, and we take her down."

"Mortars are dubious for accuracy," Ismette interjected. "We'll have to hold the Nera still for your shot to work." She pursed her lips, thinking.

"You should stem and stern her," captain Falzon decided. "Hit her with your full broadsides from either end while she's only got her bow and sternchasers to hit back with. Line up your mortar then. She starts to come about, you kite her for dear life, get her to follow the Royal and ignore the Sun."

"Royal's gotta hold her still for a bit, no?" interjected Penny. She glanced concernedly around her new toy, patting the wheel regretfully. "Guess she can afford to lose a few pieces," she decided, eyes flicking down towards her own 'missing piece'. "Long as I can shield any crew with the Gift."

Trypano

Trypano cast a look over to both the captain and Desmond who, along with not even hearing what she was about to propose, suggested they instead perform something as basic as rifling the barrels and using kinetic magic as though that wasn't something that hadn't already crossed her mind.

"While that may add some accuracy to the shot if they have mages on board they will definitely be within range to tamper with our cannons no less than we may with theirs. We want something bigger, a bigger cannon in order to load more powder and thus generate more propulsion to the round Desmond is suggesting. I'm thinking something..."

With a gesture she drew from the surround water, pulling in a large amount of energy over the course of a minute as she generated a titanium block of metal about twice the size of a standard cannon.

"This large. It'll be mounted on a spring attached to a plate interlocked with a half circle ring mounted to the deck so the recoil doesn't send the cannon flying back. With rifling and the fact it'll be shaped from a solid mass of metal it should be able to withstand a far more powerful explosion allowing for far greater distance on our explosive rounds."

Ingrid

"I think I can stop the ship from moving for at least a bit. Whether drawing its movement or incasing it in ice" Ingrid interjected.

Xavier Falzon

The old pirate captain merely blinked, thoroughly unconvinced by all of the techno-babble. Sounded like something that'd crack the ship right open, springs or not, or at least make her sail like an absolute pig with all that weight in her bows. All that force had to go somewhere. Then, the other great big girl mentioned encasing the ship in ice. Well... they'd have a shattered hull, but they could all swim, he supposed, and they'd only need one shot with a gun like that. "Eshiran empower you," he said simply, tipping his hat and leaving in his boat. The St. Elmo's Fyre was now looming alongside the Flamant Royal and Golden Sun. Its crew tossed down a few ropes and these were made fast to the skiff's rings. Presently, they began hauling it up with the help of some Kinetic magic.

Ingrid

Ingrid went over to mess with the lantern as she wasn't that useful at the time. She does go over to Desmond and hand him what looks like an ornate, solid wool box that has considerable more heft to it. "This has some Uranium in it, maybe we can make a shot with it? I'll leave that up you if you think you can handle that. Don't open it without telling me by the way."

Ingrid proceeds to mess with the lantern. This should be the artifact of Shune-Zept. Maybe I need to pray to it to have it work? I should at least try Ingrid stared at the lantern gently as she tried to put the words together about how she wants to say it. Saying a prayer was a but odd but she believed one could be applicable to the situation.

"Our battle is bound to be steep
Many unknowns cloud our decisions and keep us hesitant
We seek the knowledge to prevail through this battle
Shune-Zept Enlighten my comrades so that we may continue to discover this world"

Ingrid didn't have more than a hope that a prayer may help. Their was so much they didn't know and maybe, just maybe, Shune would bless us with his knowledge in some way. Ingrid tried pouring some magic into the lantern as a form of light.

Desmond

Desmond watched in astonishment as Trypano made a cannon far better than he has ever seen. It excited him to see if such a thing could work, but the thing that surprised him more was when Ingrid walked toward him and she set a very solid and ornate box in his hand and said there was Uranium within it. He looked at the box in complete worry, he had only ever held depleted Uranium, he mostly took it as any time an atomic mage pulled from it they would toss it. Desmond knew it was heavy so he used it for some bullets, yet he had never seen the real deal with his own eyes. Desmond looked to Ingrid as he said, "Alright, I'll do what I can". He had some ideas, however testing them would be slightly daunting

The lantern glowed brightly for a moment, seeming to flare, but then it died out, almost as if it was waiting on something else.

Ingrid

Ingrid's mouth went agape as the lantern shined even a candle worth of light. It did nothing else but Ingrid felt this warmth in her chest, a calm knowing that the Pentad are real. But she wanted more from it. She tried pouring more energy into the lantern but nothing major happened. It was obvious to Ingrid that she couldn't use it.

War is not Clean

Desmond

Desmond was thinking as he looked at the box, almost in a moment of clarity, Desmond had an idea. The Nera was not going to be a problem when forced into the cove, and people are not a problem when you put them into a tomb with no oxygen.

As the light from the lantern flashed Desmond said, "Alright, I got it" as he looked to Ismette and nodded to her as he said, "I'd like to ask for help, but I know you don't want to kill so I'm unsure if this would count as killing with helping make a weapon to kill others".

Before she could give an answer Desmond began kneeling down next to a cannonball, they had no time, so all work moments were the most important. As he looked up to Trypano, Ingrid, and Penny as he began to speak about his plan to them, "Okay so this is going to be a bit of an upgrade from what I normally do, so I will need everyone who can help. We need to take all of the metal within these cannonballs except for about the top quart inch of metal layer from the cannonball, and turn the rest into phosphorus before sealing it back up. We are going to be using these as the volley before the finishing blow to keep the Nera where she is. The plan will be to smash the Nera with these cannon balls and set them ablaze to cause the air to catch fire before sealing the cove, and the Nera to it's fate". Desmond took a breath in, he knew this was going to get sketchy, he was going to be giving people a dangerous weapon they never handled, which is why he gave so much extra material, if it was for himself he would make it even thinner but he needs to make sure they don't light themselves ablaze because one of them decided to drop one.

Ingrid

Ingrid thought the plan had some potential. Phosphorus is so reactive that it will be hard for them to stop the fire or at least keep them preoccupied. She can hollow out the cannonballs and make the phosphorus but Ingrid knows Trypano would be able to make the phosphorus faster than herself.

"I believe this can be pretty useful. I am experienced in bomb crafting but I usually take time to be very precise. I will probably be better off hollowing the cannon balls to the correct dimensions than making the phosphorus we need." Ingrid started hollow the balls and leave a small hole for the phosphorus to be loaded. "When it comes time to actually fight, I'm very confident in my ability to accelerate the flames so you can leave the amping of the fire to me."

Trypano

Watching Ingrid make her attempt at utilizing the lantern it lit up briefly during her prayer. A fascinating indicator. Clearly something in her prayer provoked the lantern into activity but perhaps the issue was in the structure of her phrasing.

Her focus on the lantern itself was briefly dragged aside by Desmond as he outlined his battle plan along with the specifics of his ammunition. A novel idea but one not too uncommon unfortunately.

"It would be a sound plan if the enemy ship didn't carry other casters aboard it." She finally weighed in, unfurling her left arm which was previously crossed with her right and gesturing to the cannonball in question.

"As it stands while anti-personnel attacks would suffice in ordinary combat it doesn't sound like this attack will incapacitate the correct people in time, leaving at least some of the mages intact enough to mitigate the harm from this incendiary attack."

She brought her left hand up and rested her chin upon it in thought as she considered the various tactical considerations available to them.

"If we have a highly incendiary round we should target their powder storage rooms within the vessel. If we can ignite a chain reaction the detonation would not only destroy a large portion of the ship, possibly sinking it outright, but would also deny them a valuable resource. Without powder their ammunition is useless as would be their many cannons. We'd be able to engage the mages directly without any risk of fire from their vessel, in fact our own ships could pepper their own with cannon fire which would put their magi on the defensive and split their effectiveness lest they let their ship sink in the conflict."

She strode past, pacing almost as she thought out the specifics of this plan.
"Typically the powder room is located nearby the cannons in order to best facilitate ease and rapidity of reloading. Most ships will have their powder rooms located below the water line to better protect them from enemy cannon fire, and typically at the front and/or back of the ship. Gauging by the size of their ship it's probably both as its size would probably lend difficulty in having to haul reloads from one end of the ship to the other to make full use of their cannons."

Finally she turned back to the group, looking at them fairly directly.

"To my mind that would be the most solid strategy, leaving their mages no time to counteract our damage while also denying them the naval advantage of size and weapon count."

With that said she returned her mind to a more intriguing mystery.

"May I borrow that so I can follow up on a hypothesis?" She asked Ingrid, retrieving the lantern back from her so she might make another attempt to yield use from the lantern yet.

"Shune-Zept, I beseech thee: Illuminate our path and guide us to the captain of the Maria Nera."

A far simpler prayer perhaps but it wasn't truly a prayer. She did not believe herself to be speaking directly to Shune-Zept, rather her belief was in the magic in the lantern activating as per her request. The lantern did resonate briefly upon mention of illumination but her estimate was that it wasn't given direction and thus had no output to provide.

Perhaps given direction the lantern would do as a lantern is designed to do: Illuminate the path.

Time to see if this hypothesis held any merit.

Desmond

Desmond heard what Trypano said, and agreed, he didn't know if they could operate at that speed for a cannonball for the first time they ever tried. But this was a time to try what they could, Desmond gave a response to Trypano's piece of the plan, "Yeah that could work. If we would be using the primary fire to take out the ship, then we would need to work together a lot more because I'm not really going to be able to control a cannonball with enough accuracy to hit a powder room myself. Yet I think it will work."

Our intrepid heroes had spent this little time doing what needed to be done, first among them, the students of Ersand'Enise, each of them made their claim to what they require to give their support. For the support of Desmond Cutter-Gretz Von Sausex-Eisenac and his ship, the Golden Sun, a single favor from the Uncrowned Queen of Segona. For Ingrid Penderson, the powder monkey of the Golden Sun, she too asks for a favor from the Uncrowned Queen of Segona. As for Trypano Somia, the Navigator and Doctor of the Golden Sun, she requests for the ships of her family to no longer be attacked by Captain Xavier Falzon. Finally, for Ismet'ych'lahin'dichora, the one to fill the Golden Sun with wind, she requests for her people to be allowed to live in peace within the land of Segona.

Once their requests are promised to be satisfied, they began their plans. Among the many ideas, they messed with the Lantern and upon Ingrid's use, she found out something important. After a quick prayer and inputting magic into it, the group was able to find out that the Lantern Penny found is in fact Shune-Zept's Lantern! Yet this knowledge seemed not to help much at the moment as it seemed to only light up for a moment before returning to its dormant state.

However, during this time of study, the group was able to formulate a plan, using Desmond's and Trypano's knowledge to fire cannonballs filled with phosphorous to hit the Maria Nera's Gunpowder room to hopefully sink the ship in one go, yet if to fail Desmond prepares to close the cover by destroying more of the rock ceiling. Yet no matter on whatever occurs, the intrepid crews of the Golden Sun and Flamant Royal finally fly their flags and set sail. For the Golden Sun, they raise a crimson red sail and flag with a gold sun embroidered upon the sails and flags.

Golden Sun

O R I F L A M M E

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Spider's Den

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Location: The Witch Woods

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Mentions/Interaction: Vali, Twice Born @Wolfieh, the warriors under Kol's command, and Talit'yrash'osmax @Force and Fury

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As Kol and his forces entered the Witch Woods, the Spider began to make it's move. The forest came to life, it's branches opened up like knives and struck with speed few can see and with precision that could kill men in moments. The water that pooled were like hiding vipers, as the rain came down it added to the pit of snakes that would lash out and take all that were near. Even the rain that fell was that of small hornets that flooded the entire area, puncturing everything it touched, as the water reddened, Kol felt his blood boil. As his armor broke the blades against it, even with the precise aim, it seemed to not his, like something was stopping it from even touching his skin. A silhouette seemed to form around him as his arms and head seemed to twitch. Frustration was a fuel, rage was the engine, and there was one answer…

A roar erupted from the giant as the clattering of armor from him seemed to become drowned out. The thunder itself seemed to almost hush itself in the face of this one man's fury. Kol drew in energy from everything around him, draining the energy from the leaves, the heat from the very heat from the area. Men knew what this meant as they split away, Kol was going to begin his march forward through this marsh of death. As a chill ran through the area, Kol's mind filled with raging wyverns, as heat radiated from him his mind willed against the rage of these beasts. Kol witnessed the raw power of these beasts as the infernos erupted, in front of a wyvern Kol stood as it brought it's head up before roaring flames onto Kol. As his eyes flashed back to the now burning woods, as in his current roar fire is flowing from his mouth, and like a might wyvern he reels his head up and ignites the upper trees before finally the fire disappeared from his mouth.

Kol's eyes landed back down and forward as he sensed the 'spider', as from the fire he created a Yasoi woman stepped out. She was one who stood tall even among the swamp and death, she must be the one who has been controlling this forest. This woman fought like a true mage, the forest was her weapon, so even a missing limb would not even affect her. Kol locked eyes with her for but a moment before she disappeared. It was time to fight, Kol raised both of his hands and pointed to either side of him and roared, "Charge!!". He commanded those following him to charge forward as when they did he looked to those infront of him and envisioned raging beasts charging forward. He filled each man in front of him with strength of beasts hundreds times their weight, endurance only seen of the berserkers to no longer feel pain, and fury that only those who rage against a Brother killer can find within them. He filled them with visions of transforming into monsters who have no sense of fear, no concept of death, and no understanding of defeat.

Kol thought of what was before him and wished his Brother and his group would come to his aid for this hunt, yet this was not the time to hope, this was the time to act. Kol looked to his people and began to bark orders, calling to those in his command to begin giving orders to those they are under and they come across. Burn trees, as you move, and create small infernos. The spider can't see everywhere, so as they created chaos in the forest, it would cut down on the deaths as they made their way through as she needed to look through the large sources of energy. Kol knew that they could only do so much as of now, so to at least have multiple groups cause chaos while the main group slowly pushed their way through would be important. But for Kol, he needed to find the spider and apply some pressure, so he followed his Dogs of War, the berserkers whom Kol filled with power and had now rushed headlong into death. He followed the trail, as he filled himself with Visions of the Hawk, as he felt himself leave his body. As his eyes opened he began to see like the Hawk, with such precision that he could even see the presence of people, fire, the lightning, and now he begins to hunt his target, the one-legged spider.

Actions

-Kol began to burn some of the forest.
-He empowered multiple berserkers to charge forward where the 'Spider' was.
-He began to tell those who were following him to break up and begin setting fires as they moved to create hot spots of energy so the Spider would be confused if they did it enough.
-He extended out his sensing range to try and find the 'Spider' and begin to hunt her and distract her so she is unable to kill more of his people.

Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

Location:
Abandoned Neodymium Mine
Eunsan Mountain Range
250 Kilometers Southwest of Balya Gora
Date/Time:
March 22nd, 3030/ 0400-0730
Interactions:
Reya Wyatt @Pilatus, Marit Saarinen @Starlance, Ingrid Daschke @wikkit, Emma Ziska @Abstract Proxy
Gear:
His clothing: Boots, long-sleeved shirt, pants, gloves, holstered handgun with 20 rounds

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Tarak heard Ziska from behind yelling about not being a taxi driver, he chuckled slightly as she made her way over. Tarak was getting his mind out of this funk, at least for a time, and to see people able to smile for a bit was something like a medicine. Especially seeing Reya able to smile, Tarak knows the tell-tale signs of someone who cried, even if they hide it. As he assisted Reya down, she spoke of how they were unable to retrieve her stereo system, and almost when he made another idiotic line about them sharing his in his cockpit, yet the fun police arrived. Frau Ramrod appeared and seemed to have been the same as ever, she arrived yelling. She started with Ziska, which almost bought him enough time to sneak away, yet almost was not good enough as before he could fully get away, she called out to him. Most likely with the wrath of 1000 of her ancestral honors.

Tarak froze mid-step, making a bit of a joking stance like he was imitating a cartoon thief tip-toeing through the dark before being found. Tarak spun on his feet to face the Duchess as he stood at attention, in an almost too tall stance he stands there and says in a slightly bombastic voice, "Yes Ma'am?!" As she spoke, Tarak's chin was higher than normal, as he was trying not to let Ingrid see a slight smirk forming, yet the others could see him as he said once she finished, "Ma'am, is this about me not-pft-flirting with you?" Tarak almost couldn't get that last bit out, as he was about to laugh just thinking about saying that. As after delivering that line, he prepared to run away, knowing that she might start either yelling or fighting.

The Hourglass Order

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Location: Isla d'Amato's waters upon the Flamant Royal

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Interactions: Trypano @A Lowly Wretch, Ingrid @dragonpiece, Amelea, Penny, and Ismet'ych'lahin'dichora @Force and Fury

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When Desmond looked to Ingrid to see if she was okay. he realized that she had very little clothing. To the point he saw somethings that he did not expect. As Ingrid got up, it took just a quick moment longer than normal for Desmond to stand himself back up. Just a mere second, but to Desmond he was lost in thought, no, more that he had no thoughts. Yet Desmond flickers back to his senses as he rises from his spot as he beginnings to fix himself. His shirt and pants rode up, and his pocket seems…to hold a note. He looked to it as it seemed to have been from Onarr, he winced slightly as he read it, 'Fucking really? In the middle of this?'

Desmond sighed as he finished adjusting himself and heard Amelea land onto the ship and said the craziest thing of the day. 'Penny is a royal? Oh fuck, I fucked up hard, shit, I told her to take a risk and go to the Revidians. I thought it would have been okay because they had someone who knew the language very well and they could woo Nerio if need be. Oh fuck, I pray she doesn't hold it against me. Oh I'm fucking dead, when we're out of here I'm dead. Desomnd had this inner monolouge yet it seemed Penny paid no mind to Desmond and what he did. It was what Amelea said that sparked something, why are you here.

Desmond was pulled from his initial thoughts as almost like a trigger word resounded through his mind. 'Why am I here? I was going to Ersand'Enise to learn magic. Why did I do that? My 'Family' wanted me to. Why did I accept the escorting of Horik by the school? Because I thought it would be interesting and could gain some favor. Why did I go up the tower? I was curious of what the message held. Why did I enter the room of Paradigm? Because I was interested to see what he was calling us for. Why did I accept the quest…'

Desmond could not produce an answer, he had no clue why he was here. He was not offered anything more than the possibility of something here. Desmond breathed out slowly, he knew he couldn't answer, he had no idea what the answer could be why he is here. 'To do good? I can't really do that anymore, can't right the wrongs I've done. Have some agency? I never had such a thing, and even now I don't. Personal wealth doesn't do much for me, I have as much as I need and want. So why?'. Desmond had no clue, he had no clue on why he was here, he found himself here yet has no clue what made him even want to do this. Obviously it was a dangerous mission. 'It does not matter now. It will not matter, you are here, complete the mission, the rest can come later'. He cleared his mind before they fully started talking. Thinking like that clouds the moment that is most important, the moment you pull the trigger. And at that moment, hesitation leads to you and everyone counting on you to die.