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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
Despite having joined up with this caravan, Robin has very rarely ever fought with a partner and is far used to acting on her own. She knows Alucard is there, watching and waiting, but little thought is going into how they could act as a team.
So she just stares at the creature as it comes rushing towards her, waiting until she can dart in even closer past the reach of its arms, then to the side to make use of both her momentum and the creatures. She's aiming to gouge her dagger across it's thigh, hoping to greatly hobble it, if not drop it entirely to the ground.
no subject
Alucard takes that as his cue. He runs forward, eyes narrowed and sword drawn, and as the cave spindle lunges for Robin again, Alucard's own sword finds purchase in one of it's arms.
"In your own time."
He's calm as he says it, as the sword is stuck deep into the spindle's flesh. It means the thing is distracted, trying to pull the blade out as quickly as it is able.
no subject
Waving the torch in it's face and bonking it right on the nose with the fire, she tries to keep it distracted by staying within it's line of sight, or darting in close to go at it with fast, stabs and swipes.
Her instinct is to keep it away from Alucard, protecting him with the possibly unintended circumstance of giving him an opening or two.
no subject
The arm that his own sword found purchase in is bleeding, it's profuse, and Robin's approach keeps the cave spindle gloriously unbalanced and on the defensive. When to strike, that's impossible to say, until Alucard sees an opening right in the spindle's back and he lunges.
There's a horrible noise. The sword goes through and out the other side, having slid between ribs.
"Stand down," he says with too much calm as the thing thrashes. "The rest of this needs only one person."
no subject
When the sword erupts through the creatures chest, she leaps back out of the way. "But..?" She starts, but lets it drop. Robin doesn't stand down exactly, keeping her blade up and at the ready just in case, but is otherwise compliant to his order.
Her arm stings where it was clawed, but it doesn't feel too deep. It probably looks worse than it is in the flickering torchlight, but she's not letting it distract her.
no subject
Alucard withdraws his sword, and the cave spindle falls to the ground, flailing in agony. There's blood coming from the wound, so much blood, and Alucard has to roll the thing over with one foot first. Once the cursed thing is lying on it's back, claws digging into the earth, there's the simple act of slitting the thing's throat.
It goes still. Alucard does not sigh with relief. Instead his eyes go back to his companion, frowning.
"You're bleeding?"
no subject
"Oh, ahhh... yes." Her eyes dart to her arm, where blood is seeping into her shirt sleeve, then shrugs. "It's not that bad. I can take care of it when we get back to camp."
no subject
Alucard is sure that there are a number of those in this traveling party who give violence no particular pause. Not when it comes to wilderness survival at the very least, and that seems to be a skill so many of them have. Even if years are tender, there is no reason to assume anything.
"It needs to be wrapped up at least, to avoid leaving a blood trail that would entice unwanted visitors back to the camp."
no subject
She holds the torch out to him, so she can use her dagger to start cutting at the shirt, quick and efficient. She turns away from him as she does it, mostly because her wound isn't really bleeding all that much anymore. It may not seem odd, but just in case she'd rather not draw attention to it.
"I'm sorry for being a hold up! I'll be done in a moment.
no subject
Alucard isn't in a position to stop someone from destroying their clothes, but the shirt didn't seem that damaged in the glow of the torch light. All the same, he accepts the torch and holds it, making sure that there's more than enough light for Robin to do the work of patching herself up. She's private about the injury. He can understand that much.
"Take what time you need."
no subject
It's awkward trying to bind ones bicep by themselves, but she manages. It's a bit sloppy, but she manages well enough.
"Alright. Thank you, sir!"
no subject
...he blinks. The speed is far quicker than expected.
"Please, don't call me sir," he says instead.
no subject
"I'm sorry. It's how I was taught to be polite." She bites her lip, unable to come up with a reason someone may take offense to that. "Would you like me to call you something else?"
no subject
He doesn't comment on the polite part. There's only a nod of acknowledgement, and with that he offers Robin the torch back. He doesn't need it, not really.
"I think we can place that back in the camp. We've only an hour left, and hopefully we won't need it again."
no subject
She gives a sheepish smile as she takes back the torch. It's habit. She's sorry. Already she's reminding herself to make sure to keep up appearances and change bandages every so often for the next few days at least.
"And you're right. I don't think we have to worry much more tonight. Let's head back."
I think we can call it there