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March Event Log B: Einjar Excursion
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| 🜙 Mod Note | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The Einjar Excursion's resolution is dependent on the choice of players who are participating in it. After you have read through this post, if your character is going to be part of the Einjar Excursion, please respond to This Comment as soon as possible with the choice that best matches the one your character would choose. The resolution is not dependent solely on players choosing one side over the other, but also on the actions they choose to take. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| 🜙 Preparation March 8th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Einjar's population is small in modern times, but the people who remain in the vast cavern city to maintain and protect it are usually in constant contact with Preciposte via falcon. None of the falcons Preciposte has sent to Einjar have made it back in months. The round trip to Einjar and back will take at least 8 days in total and no one is certain what they will find there or if they will even be able to get through the massive, heavily warded doors that can only be opened from within. But if something has happened to the people of Einjar, the threat needs to be discovered before it progresses to Preciposte and Krimnos. It is sure to be a harrowing adventure for those willing to brave the treacherous cliffs to reach Einjar but the kobolds and dwarves residing there might be harboring even more secrets than anyone expected. The excursion organizers recruit a company of Knights from Krimnos, as well as a variety of volunteers to fulfill multiple roles on the journey. Supplies are gathered and divided out among the large company before the journey starts out on foot, and three densely wooled llamas are loaded up with the spare supplies. The excursion team consists of*:
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| 🜙 A Journey's Beginning March 9th-12th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The trek through treacherous mountain paths is a dangerous and difficult one. The high altitude and freezing temperatures require the company to make frequent stops to rest their lungs and the llamas. Camp is made each night in five shared tents. The Knights split up between two tents, the Preciposte citizens in a third, and the excursion team split among the fourth and fifth tents. Meals of hot stew and stuffed breads are shared around several small magical fires before everyone hits their bedrolls for a rest. Night watches are broken into four rotating shifts so no one is out in the night cold for longer than 2 hours. The night of the 11th the company makes camp atop the impressive ruins of the ancient temple of the mountain giants. The sheer scale of these ruins is humbling and daunting. Scorch marks from dragon fire still mar some of the marble and stone pillars. The descent down the mountain has brought the company to a lower altitude and the ruins themselves are devoid of snow or ice, almost warm under the midday sun. The height is still dizzying and the land is a little more open than is comfortable. The company will have to fend off and defend the camp from cliff hawks, a tribe of porcupine-like carnivorous cave spindles, and a colony of six-foot-tall venomous cave spiders that make the ruins their home, all to get past the ruins to the massive stone and metal doors that bar the entrance to Einjar. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 🜙 Friends in High Places March 12th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| During their journey through the ruins, the company is ambushed multiple times. One elvish knight is lost to a cave spindle attack, one of the Preciposte tieflings and one of the llamas are carried off by cliff hawks, a Preciposte dwarf loses his footing on some unstable rocks and disappears off the edge of a cliff with the second llama, and another elf knight is severely injured during a cave spider ambush. With only one llama and two tents left and night quickly approaching things begin to look bad for the company and only get worse once the sun sets. A pack of dire wolves appears from within the ruins, distant howls making their numbers impossible to guess but making it quickly evident the company is surrounded by predators still out of sight. As the oversized pack of dire wolves closes in to attack, a family of kobolds armed with slings and small hammer axes appears from the cliffs above. Their ruckus of calls and the metal-banging noise of their hammer axes against their shields drive back the hunting pack. The kobold family scampers down from the caverns above the ruins and joins the excursion company, inviting them back to the warmth of their cavern home, breaking bread with them and sharing a friendly conversation. One member of the family is a strange sight among the short kobolds, towering above his siblings, but the entire family seems to be cheerfully good-natured and happy to share what is theirs with the excursion company. They don't know anything about the recent silence from Einjar, but they offer to lead the company along a safer path to Einjar's doors in the morning. The knights seem uneasy in the cavern, keeping to themselves and discussing maps with one of the regularly sized kobolds. When questioned by one of the elf knights on what exactly he is, the taller kobold gives the company a confused look. "Isn't it obvious?" He asks, head turning almost vertical with a wide, toothy smile and a confused expression. He clasps a hand on his four-foot-tall brother's shoulder, towering above the smaller creature by a full three feet and thinking nothing of it. "I'm a kobold of course." And were it not for the genuine pride on his tongue it would seem a bold-faced lie even to a half-blind dwarf. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 🜙 The Doors to Einjar March 13th/14th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The next morning the kobolds press on through the mountain path leading the company of strangers after them with cheerful conversation and horribly off-key dwarvish mining songs. Several of the knights fall behind exchanging hushed whispers between them. Conversation around the campfire that night is tense and muted by all but the cheerful family of kobolds passing around mushroom and egg drop soup and a savory mushroom grog with a powerful, fiery kick. Distant animal sounds are heard throughout the night, along with occasional roars of a larger beast, but nothing attacks the company. The taller Kobold's name is learned to be Monty, and he explains that their family hasn't lived in or even been to Einjar since shortly before the war due to a distaste for the rising demand for crafting armor and weapons and a disagreement with the dwarves that ruled over the city. They consider themselves artisans and jewelcrafters rather than smithies and call themselves 'people of the wild mountains'. At dawn, the company realizes the doors to Einjar are within sight, and less than an hour's distance away. However, It is discovered that sometime during the night the remaining dwarves from both Krimnos and Preciposte have disappeared. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 🜙 Open Sesame March 14th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The doors to Einjar are behemoths of metal and stone, built to keep dragons out of the massive mountain cavern city. A river runs at a high force out from beneath the stone doors in two channels, roaring over the cliff in a waterfall not far from there. Stone bridges cross the rushing rivers on either side of the path to the doors, eroded but sturdy. The doors can't be open by force and are covered in ancient dwarvish runes. The dwarves who built Einjar preferred working with their hands and tools over magic, and the Gates to Einjar were no exception. Usually opened from within, they remain silently shut to the excursion company. A large circular depression in the door matches up to a pieced together symbol on the ground before it. Heavy pieces of a solid iron shield broken into seven segments sit in a depression on the path before it. Each is the same size and shape and can be slotted into any of the seven slots on the door.  The segments are labelled with the dwarvish runes for Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Birth, Sanctuary, and Death. To either side of the large door are two armored dwarf statues. The one on the left is a female dwarf standing on a carved rocky platform, wearing a winged helm and carrying a shield in her right hand. The statue on the right is a male dwarf holding a blacksmith's hammer and an axe in either hand, the platform beneath him is worn away by the rushing river. The runes around the depression in the doors reads down from top to bottom: Within Cycle Horizon Beneath Below the depression is the symbol for "Pair". | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 🜙 Einjar's Halls March 14th/15th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Once the puzzle is solved the doors open to reveal the empty, silent city of Einjar. The great bellows and roaring furnaces are silent and cold and the halls are empty. No bodies, no sound, and no living souls. Food is left untouched and cold on tables, weapons half forged remain on anvils or partially melted into cold furnaces. Everything is left as if abandoned in the midst of a day of work. Deeper in the caverns beyond Einjar's main city buildings, kobold mining tools are scattered about and carts partially filled with raw minerals and gems are overturned, footsteps disappearing unexplainably mid path. An open cavern recently blasted open sits in the deepest point of the mine and within it is a bizarre scene. Dust and lime covered life-sized statues depict a battle between much smaller dragons and very short dwarves with many of the faces carved into expressions of deep rage. At the center is a deep, black pool of water, devoid of reflection or ripples. Around it are the bodies of the missing dwarves that had disappeared from the excursion company earlier in the trip. The depth of the pool can't be measured with sword or stick, and an uneasy sensation overcomes everyone within the excavated room. The beastwoman knight touches the liquid, attempting to examine it, and in that moment a low, ringing sound builds in the room. Chaos breaks out as the elves and the kobold family that unwillingly escorted the company into Einjar burst into a full-scale violent assault on one another, the origin of the sudden fight impossible to determine. The water stills from the rippling touch several minutes later and the fight is broken up, but with both parties convinced the other side started the fight. The elves claim the kobolds know more than they are saying, and the kobold family insists they have never set foot inside of Einjar. The arguments escalate until one of the knights accuses them of harboring a dragonborn, pointing to Monty. They say that Monty needs to be taken back to Krimnos for questioning, to which the kobolds bare their teeth and threaten that Monty will only be leaving with them over the entire family's dead bodies. Whatever decision is made, the overall agreement is that they need to leave Einjar and return to Krimnos with their findings before anything else happens. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 🜙 Journey Back March 16th-19th/20th | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Following the discoveries within Einjar's halls and some free exploration by the excursion company, everything is divvied up between the survivors and the trek back to preciposte begins. The trip back is tense and uneasy with larger night watch groups and tighter rations. Hunting is necessary to feed the company, and new tents are made from fabrics taken from within Einjar. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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no subject
[ Then again, that also was an abbreviated reason for why they followed her. There was gold, and then there was an unavoidable war.
His question pulls her gaze up from the pages to meet his. She doesn't answer him right away, just fingers the corners. ]
History. What do you think of Monty?
no subject
[Skill in leading is not something won lightly. Alucard always has been and always will be a solitary creature, save for a few important people in his life. But he is a student of objects and their history, and in that he has learned much about what it takes to lead. It is something to respect, as the ability to manage is far too demanding.]
Recent or far past?
[He considers the question, then sighs.]
I think that whatever the truth of his circumstance, he's been left well and ignorant of it. Rarely do I think it's wise not to pursue truths, but had this group not showed up, this wouldn't even be a problem. It is likely that we are all better off leaving things be, and never speaking truth of his appearance to others. Safer for all.
[As much as Alucard dislikes dragons and distrusts the situation, he knows that they've come in and disturbed some precious balance. Best to do no harm.]
no subject
[ She looks back down at the book, then flips toward the back. ]
This one is more recent. Dwarves aren't a modest group. Big on drinking and boasting about feats of strength. One book covered histories mentioning their time of ousting the dragons from their mountain. [ Skimming over the last few pages before returning to her earlier place. ] This one is of more recent times. Did you know so many left Einjar after the war?
[ What's interesting is that the fall of the dragons prompted the mass exodus and integration with the outer world. More importantly, the kobolds and their lack of integration.
His answer to her question about Monty is tolerant enough, but it's all the more reason why she thinks he would've remained in hiding. The stigma against dragons is so strong that anything or anyone resembling them would ultimately suffer, despite their innocence. ]
He deserves a good life away from prejudice. [ She's always embraced being the blood of the dragon, but speaking with Alucard's only imprinted how much things have changed. ] We made our own noise when we'd been hunted, but it took the kobolds intervening to drive those creatures off. I don't think that's a coincidence.
no subject
[He doesn't grin smugly. It's a statement made with all the simplicty of observation, which is objectively correct in Alucard's onion. Either way, he pays very close attention.]
I haven't had the luxury of time to catch up on mass migrations. What did the text reveal about their motivations?
[There's genuine curiosity in Alucard's voice, even if the matter of dragons is about to rear it's head yet-a-fucking-gain.]
Isolation always has it's advantages, doesn't it? [He loved coming home after every trip, safe and tucked away from the exhausting world, able to simply be with his parents and the things they all considered important. As much as Alucard's mother commanded her husband and son to go and travel the world as men do, homecoming was the most sacred thing at all.
Hardly sacred these days.]
I don't think it's coincidence either. The question is how does it fit together, and how do we ensure that no one else pokes their nose into this place?
no subject
I haven't gotten far enough, yet, but it sounds like resources were in part to blame. [ Her focus is on the pages as she speaks to him--not out of disrespect, but because of their mutual curiosity and a desire to discover those answers. ] I imagine with the dragons gone as well, there would be less incentive to seek refuge within a mountain.
[ Yup, dragons a-fucking-gain. Sorry Alucard. ]
A boastful group prone to inventing, spreading that wealth of knowledge with the remainder of the world doesn't sound so farfetched. Seems isolation, for those who remained, failed to be advantageous.
[ Seeing as the city's silent. Empty. She actually stops reading when he poses his two questions, lips lightly pursing together as she considers both points. ]
The dwarves here disappear. What's to say they weren't kidnapped in the same manner as we were? [ Much as she dislikes speaking of the pit... or thinking about the tortured dragon, this could be important. How does a city suddenly go empty? ] As for Monty, I don't know. We can't return and say the city's in ruins. And even if we did, I imagine there would be plenty interested in exploring the remains.
no subject
[The conclusion is easy enough to understand, and Alucard concludes with an appreciative little hum. Those things that existed now could have never come to fruition so quickly with dragons in the world. That much he has always known, he saw what his father created and how he held it close to his chest.]
Mm. That is...that is possible. [His tone is soft but sour, showing that he dislikes the thought deeply.]
We'll have to tell the truth of the city's state. What we do not need to disclose is the particulars of kobolds along the way, and it would be a kindness to them to advise they stay far away from any additional travelers that come along in our wake. I think the others who aren't Monty are already aware of the problem, and won't need to be convinced.
no subject
[ She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. This, she can concede, is a great benefit to a world without war and dragons. Unless those dragons weren't so vicious and hungry. But there were always ifs, and that hadn't been their reality. ]
If that's the case, we have to consider the possibility that there are others out there. [ Other dragons their kidnappers are torturing. ] We need to understand--
[ She sighs. Shakes her head. They need to understand a great many things, but this is a sore subject for them both, for numerous reasons. So she focuses on Monty, because despite what he may or may not be, he's far easier a topic of conversation/ ]
They may be aware, but can they stop him from greeting or protecting a group like us? He seems to have a good heart and wants to help.
no subject
Not that the subject is about to fade away anytime soon. But it's so much easier to let those words hang heavy in the air, to ignore the wild what-ifs in favor of the immediate and the pressing.]
I don't know. I don't think it's something possible without breaking some of the innocence that goes with a good heart and nature like that. [Alucard's words are soft, and there is regret threaded in all of them.]
It is cruel to ask, even if it is safer.
no subject
[ Take the good heart and preserve it, somehow. But by doing so, they run the risk of exposing him to the terribleness of those who walk the lands. Alucard may have some tolerance, but she's no doubt he's alone in his prejudices.
It's like slaves all over again, in some ways. The broken, mistreated, outsiders.
She catches herself staring down at the page, not really reading it. There seemed to be far more wrong with the world than right, at this rate. All that innovation, but so much intolerance as well. She looks over to the man she's currently sharing a space with. ]
May I ask you an extremely personal question, Alucard?
no subject
[Alucard is quiet for as long as the moment allows after that. He remembers every version of the story of how his parents met, how his mother dragged Vlad Tepes into the world to live among men rather than be an isolated thing of blood magic and nothing more, and how it all went to hell when she was murdered. It'd be too easy for a version of that story to play out again here.
He breathes out when the words extremely personal are said. Where those words lead, he cannot say.]
I may be vague in my response, but proceed.
no subject
[ Living life on the run as a girl, because Viserys told her of the Usurper sending assassins to kill them both. No, she wouldn't stand by and watch others suffer these sorts of insults.
But it meant instilling change, and she's not sure how ready for change the people of this time truly are. ]
Your dislike of dragons. It goes beyond what I've expected. Why?
no subject
[It's all he can manage as the topic turns. There's silence, and Alucard tries to find the right words. In the past it...has gone badly.]
As you said, it's a thing of deeply personal reasons.
[It would be so easy to pretend to focus on the notebook in front of him and try to sketch while discussing this. Or to stand up and leaf through a book. But Alucard remains where he is on the floor, eyes steady. With Strange, it's easy to pass off dislike of dragons because the man is mad and irrational. This was already identified as something personal. That demands a response of the same nature, as level headed as it can be.]
The impact of their war led to the murder of my mother, and father's death from the grief and madness that her loss brought. [Grief and madness. What a nice way of saying his father wanted to purge all life from the land and that Alucard had to kill him to stop it all from happening.] Looking at the reasons for it, things that seemed so petty even at the time, it was a senseless loss. Not only for my family, but for everyone involved. That such creatures could sunder the world as we know it on the smallest and largest scales, that's...it deserves concern.
The rest is grief.
[Long lingering. He had time to process it, but the wounds were so very raw.]
no subject
But the grief, she recognizes that, too. Not just that of a husband, but a child. If she were of a different mind, she could so easily blame all the problems of her life on the dragons, as well. Instead, she took up her brother's mantle for that short time, seeking the best way to find vengeance for her family. ]
It's never an easy thing for a child to lose a parent. I'm sorry that happened to you.
no subject
It means that Dany's response is met with a soft, non-committal noise. One that recognizes the expression of empathy, but doesn't wish to dwell on it.]
I am well aware of the irrational nature of it. [He's much older than he looks, and has enough perspective to be aware of his biases. But as it is, Alucard has no desire to change it either.]
Nothing about those days were rational.
There are other reasons I suppose, closer to intellectual, but that was not the reason you asked after.
[There's something else in the tone too. The desire to move the hell away from this discussion topic.]
no subject
Thank you for telling me.
[ So she turns her attention back to the book in her hands, drumming her fingers once against the spine. ]
You've a bright mind to you, Alucard. I hope we'll be able to work together in the future, despite our differences in opinion.
no subject
Thank you for the understanding.
[It is very easy to assume that had the matter come up with a person like strange, there'd be no empathy offered. Not really.]
I also expect there will be plenty of other topics to dwell on. Where did you have a mind to explore next, or are books to be your domain for the new few hours?
no subject
I haven't decided. There's more history to read, but I don't imagine I'll find all the answers I want with my nose buried in a book. [ She inclines her head toward him, choosing to finally, carefully, close the book and tuck it against her side. ] Nor you in artifacts.
Do you find it strange that they've treasure scattered all about--gems, runes, things any outsider would happily steal? They speak of an exodus from the city when their resources began waning after the war, but why leave all these treasures behind?
no subject
He rolls with the artifact comment, and it gets a soft little snort from him. Well played.]
That to me says the real resources they needed were in dire circumstances. Such things may not demand riches or payment, in which case there's all the reason to leave heavy items that slow down one's departure behind. The arrangement is...unusual, yes, but there's a deeper truth at hand that does not demand them, I suspect.