usir | May Event Log B: Return to Einjar

Entry tags:

🜙 Mod Note

Return to Einjar's resolution is dependent on the choices the involved players make and will affect the resolution of Song of Suffering. It is not too late to sign up There will be a comment below for plot-specific questions and exploration we encourage everyone to use to help drive the resolutions/plot of the event. After you have read through this post please respond to This Poll as soon as you feel comfortable making the choices in it. Please respond even if your character is not participating in either event as the choice made effects the game world/all players.

🜙 Trouble in Preciposte April 26th

The first stop on the excursion is Preciposte. Arrival to the Northern Outpost is greeted by near silence. Only a handful of people remain in the deserted outpost and all of them are waiting for the excursion team within the town's tavern. Stew and Hot Mead are available to anyone who needs or wants it and the outpost's designated healer has one of the larger rooms set up with beds for rest and recovery if anyone is injured during the side mission. The mountain goat satyr and her assistants, a very short kobold and a cheerful blue orc, are around to offer their help where needed but they won't leave the tavern.

Once everyone is off the airships and crammed into the building, Ser Medraut has a few of his men hand out supplies and split the group into teams with different dedicated tasks. He explains the dangers of the mountain cliffs and the creatures that live at this altitude, including the cliff hawks that do not often differentiate between an easy animal meal or a person. He says that reports from Preciposte citizens that have been relocated to Krimnos claim a large flying beast with scales has been picking people off, and that at dusk its roars and screeches can be heard throughout the outpost.

As he finishes and the teams are formed up the kobold in the tavern gets up on the bar to speak to the group. He explains that the little outpost might not look like much but for a lot of folks it's home and they'll do what they can to help the team while they search for the cause of the attacks. Whatever is hunting the mountains is big enough to take on the cliff hawks and it has already carried off a few of the Krimnos mountain horses (Clydesdales).

The excursion company is split up into three teams with the Defensive team being made up of people on both teams to allow them to rotate.

Team	Task:	Team Members
⤛ Search	Track down, identify, and capture or kill the creature terrorizing Preciposte.	Daenerys Targaryen Nike Lemercier Lauralae Robb Stark Poe Dameron Sypha Belnades
⤛ Rescue:	Find any evidence of the missing Preciposte travelers and residents and return them or their bodies to the outpost if possible	Alucard Jon Snow Trevor Kylo Ren Sansa Stark
⤛ Defense	Protect Preciposte and the airships/supplies from attack, provide backup for the other teams where needed.	Nike Lemercier Jon Snow Robb Stark Trevor Kylo Ren Sansa Stark Poe Dameron

Search team is tasked with tracking down the beast, identifying it, and making the decision to kill or capture it and put an end to the terrorizing it has been doing to the outpost. The paths through and around the mountain Preciposte rests on the precipice of and its immediate surrounding mountains are their search area. While seeking out the creature the usual mountain threats (Cliff hawks, cave spindles, frost manticores, mountain trolls, dire bears, dire wolves, dire snow leopards, avalanches, rockslides, and crumbling cliff ledges). Scorch marks cover swathes of mountain sides and deep claw marks are scored into areas of stone. Scattered weaponry, destroyed and burnt carts, and an odd assortment of crumbled stone piles line the small ravines and sloped sides of the mountains, and a series of caves to explore dot the paths and dangerous off-path areas. A portion of the team is made of trackers and beastfolk to help track down and understand how to contain or kill the creature

Rescue team's job is a grim one. Recover the bodies and any evidence of lives lost from the ravines and paths. Collect any obvious personal belongings and remains and send them back to Preciposte for the loved ones of those lost or for proper burials. The same risks exist for both Search and Rescue team, but Rescue team's instructions are to get to cover and hide immediately if the threat is spotted. A portion of the team is dedicated to stealth and illusion to help the team get through their tasks without having to directly confront the creature causing the disappearances. A tracker is on the team to help locate signs of life in the mountains and avoid following beast tracks rather than people ones.

The Defense team is made up of members of both teams and their job is to protect the ships and Preciposte from cliff hawk/creature attacks or thieves. A company of around 12 knights goes with Search team, 3 with Rescue team, and the other 15 knights and Ser Medraut remain in Preciposte to help with Defense team.

All three teams can encounter the creature, though only search team should directly try to contain or kill it. Being bitten by the creature or looking into its gaze will cause the characters to begin slowly turning to stone from their extremities or the point of the bite. The injury starts with a slow, creeping discoloration of the skin to gray and a stiffness of the limbs. It progresses to a hardening of digits and then lower extremities followed by upper extremities and eventually the entire body will turn to stone. The whole process takes about 1-2 weeks depending on the size and health of the individual.

The creature is small, only around nine feet tall with an eighteen foot wingspan. It breathes fire and unusual metal fixtures on its chest, wings, legs, and tail appear to be armor and spikes made of a golden alloy of some kind. It is highly aggressive but will attempt to flee back to the caves if wounded.

When the creature is killed, or contained in the airship hold if captured, the excursion company boards the airships once more, sends word to Krimnos of their progress, and continues on to Einjar.

🜙 Eroding Memories April 28th

The flight from Preciposte to Einjar is tense. The ship crews have to call out to one another as the airships drift through dense, freezing cloud cover. Silence hangs heavy over the whole excursion team other than the echoed call outs for jutting rocks or turns. Progress is a slow drift in the blinding white and gray, and freezing condensation clings and freezes to the ships and everything on board. The air clears as they approach Einjar without hindrance, and the ships grind to a rest on stone dwarf reliefs carved out of the cliff edges.

Before the excursion company, in the clearing air, is an unsettling sight. The doors to Einjar lay in crumbled ruins at their base, blocking up the rivers that flowed down Einjar's steep staircases. An overflow tunnel beneath the great landing pours forth torrents of clear water and at the base of the waterfall the lake that rests in the valley before Einjar and the river that flows from it are now visible below the clouds. The lake is a deep blackish-red, and the river sluggishly flowing from it runs red like blood.

Ser Medraut calls his knights and volunteers together, the company of knights and a few hands worth of volunteers is small, but the vast landing and doors of Einjar make the team feel impossibly small. Scorch marks in arcing lightning bolt patterns and hardened ice cover the open entrance and crumbled doors to Einjar, the 3 foot deep stone doors have been smashed like clay and lie in a rubble heap blocking the lower half of the entrance in.

Ser Medraut gathers Alucard, Trevor, Lauralae and two of his knights and asks them to go over the rubble and quietly, carefully, check ahead into the entrance. They will be the first group back inside of Einjar. He sends Daenerys, Sansa, Poe and Robb to seek out the kobolds the last excursion team met in the hopes of getting information from them. Medraut says Daenerys should be able to lead the group back to the kobold's home a little ways back along the mountain. Nike, Jon, Kylo, and Sypha are tasked with guard duty while the rest of the knights work to clear the rubble, and will quickly have their work cut out for them, as large dire wolves begin to appear on the cliffs to the left and right of the landing, their lips curled back in threatening snarls.

🜙 The Enemy Within April 28th-May ??

Once the team enters Einjar they find the city bathed in an eerie reddish-purple light. The dome above the city's mountain spring fed lake is cracked and stained red, a slow and steady drip sounding from the back of the city. Many of the buildings inside Einjar have been damaged, some cracked and others now housing crumbling holes where something caved part of them in. The waterfalls barely trickle down into the river, the water pinkish-red. The river, partially drained, is at half its level leaving the heads and helms of stone kobolds and dwarves visible in the canals. Deep claw marks scour the stone floors and some of the buildings and bridges are coated in a thick, beautiful white-blue ice.

Each time a drop falls from the dome and hits the lake a ripple of ringing sound echoes through the city, sending a shiver of Paranoia Reflection through anyone who hears it. Touching the water or disturbing it in any way causes the Song of Suffering to ring out, while direct contact and prolonged contact cause the excursion team members who touch or drink the water to be overtaken by Fury or Desperation.

Reflection	Cause & Symptoms
⤛ Paranoia	Caused by exposure to the ringing song of suffering. The sound of the ringing roots out and pulls to the surface every negative, lingering, violent, uncertain, or angry thought the person has had toward or about others and amplifies it, transforming emotions over a simple comment or fleeting thought into defined certainty and righteous fury. Twisting even the clear-minded or pacifistic until they are willing to kill others to protect themselves or those they are defending. While under Paranoia's influence they are beset by an unquenchable thirst and hunger, but no other physical symptoms. The only way to 'cure' someone affected is to disable their hearing or relocate them far enough from the river that the ringing can no longer be heard.
⤛ Fury	Caused by any physical exposure to the water itself. Contact with the liquid causes a surge of wild, furious power that infects those it overtakes with a fury that is not their own. This fury is undirected and will cause the affected to lash out at anything near them, living or non-living. Once a target has been found they will not stop until that target is dead or completely destroyed. While under Fury's influence their skin begins to harden and grey starting at the hands and their strength, physically and magically, doubles. Fury can only be cleansed by fresh water or light magic.
⤛ Desperation	Caused by ingesting the water or prolonged exposure to the water. If submerged, the person will find their vision quickly adjusting to the water and if they open their eyes they will feel as if something is looking back at them from the depths, reaching out to them. Once they emerge from the water or cease drinking the water they will either see or feel the thick coating of red liquid that does not drip or move, clinging heavily to their skin or muscles. The liquid seeps into their skin or muscles and their eyes turn bloodshot and then solid red. While under Desperation's influence their eyes remain solid red and their movements become sluggish with erratic bursts of speed and wild strength. Until they are doused with fresh water or light magic they will be consumed by desperation and singularly focused on their last goal or thought as if letting go of it would kill them. Without direction or a goal to latch onto the desperation becomes a consuming need to stop the noise and fighting around them through any means possible.

🜙 Einjar's End

As the last member of the team enters Einjar a thunderous roar sounds from outside the city, and the screech of a dragon sounds, deafeningly loud through the cavern. A blast of blue and white light blinds anyone who looks back at the entrance, the sound of crystals shattering and bumping against one another accompanying it. With the muffled sound of wing beats the excursion team looks up to see the entrance barricaded by a thick wall of blue-white ice at least ten feet thick. The team is temporarily trapped within Einjar and the heavy beat of wings and further screeches and shattering sounds can just barely be heard outside the thick stone and ice walls.

With the effects of Paranoia gradually increasing, affecting more and more of the excursion team more strongly with the passage of time and the trapped waters of the Einjar river gradually rising the clock is ticking. Behind the team comes the sound of cracking stone and shifting earth. From out of the broken ravine a creature crawls, leather skin pulled tight over dense bones, ancient armor hanging loosely off its thin form. It slams its axe into the stone and pulls itself up out of the ravine, glowing blue eyes fixating on the nearest knight. It pulls itself up and charges with its axe raised, taking four arrows to the head and chest without slowing before bursting into flames with a horrifying shriek.

Behind the draug the familiar tall form of Monty stands, his hands glowing with yellowish-orange light.

"Come on, quickly." Monty forms a ball of light in his hand, throwing it down into the ravine to the shrieks of the draugs below and waves his other hand with urgency, breaking into a sprint for one of the towers that had previously appeared to be made of solid stone in an earlier visit. He leads the excursion team along and over the river, the sounds of the emerging draugs echoing behind them until they reach the building. Monty shoves his shoulder into a large circular stone slab covered in runes at the entrance, encouraging others to help him push it. It takes the force of four of them to roll it over in time and they just barely make it, the stone slab dropping down slightly and sliding forward with a thin flash of light until it forms what looks like a solid wall between them and the draugs.

A pack of frightened young kobolds are huddled in the back of the main tower room and a large table rests at its center, a single dwarf sitting at its head. Closer inspection reveals the dwarf to be entirely made of stone, a grim expression on her face, her eyes locked on the now solid former doorway and her hand clasped tight around something. Monty pulls off his hood and warily greets the knights before going to check on his siblings, looking them over for injuries and asking them questions with reassuring head pats or back rubs as he goes.

A series of five doors cover one circular back wall of the cavern room and stacks of papers and books cover the table, covering dwarf history, dragons, draugs, curses, the long night, and various other events. Ser Medraut sets the volunteers to work on the documents and the kobolds to try and find some answers about what is going on. The knights and their leader climb up the tower to the upper levels, watching the draugs through the barely visible arrow slits, keeping an eye out for trouble, ready for another fight. Ser Medraut descends to give the team the good and the bad news not long after. They can't count how many draugs are out there, but the draugs don't seem to know where they are. The bad news? The river is starting to flood the city, and the ringing sound from everything the water hits is gradually growing louder.

🜙 Escape From Einjar

After the fifth of May the dragon's roars can no longer be heard outside the city. The water's levels have risen, covering the ground in four inches of red water. The draug's numbers have been considerably cut down, and the creatures themselves seem to mill about, sloshing through water and adding to the constant ringing echoing throughout the cavern. Their weapons drag in the water and the blue glow to their eyes has lessened. They appear to have grown sluggish, but their speed will return if they realize there are still living among them.

With the dragon gone, at least one way out is available to the excursion team: Through the ice wall at the city's entrance.

Once out of Einjar the team will discover the wreckage of two smoldering airships, covered in ashes and ice and shattered against the stones far below the cliff. The ship whose hold contained the creature from Preciposte remains intact, listing slightly where it is anchored to the cliff.

The knights immediately go to check on the ship and grow concerned when there is no sign of the creature that was captured in the ship's hold. They begin to open up the side of the vessel to search for damage and fire blasts outward from the hold, catching several of the knights in its path. The basilisk emerges from the hold, its scales shimmering back into their normal coloration. Its tail slams into part of the team, trying to sweep them off the cliff, and it makes a horrible crowing hiss as it charges out of the ship.

Free of the ship the feathers around its head extend out like a mane and shake threateningly. After that display it ignores the team, running straight for Einjar's entrance and launches an attack on the stone statues that stand guard outside the city.

Any dragonets present when the basilisk crows will become temporarily paralysed by fear.

🜙 Top

⤛ Navigation

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Near the back of the tower, Monty crouches near his smaller siblings, reassuring the young kobolds with soft words. Evidence of several fresh scars shows over his scaled arms. He uses a soft glow of light magic to partially heal some of the kobolds' wounds. One of the kobolds moves sluggishly, his left arm and the left side of his face a silvery-gray that contrasts the rest of his reddish-copper scales.

Monty unclips a canteen from his belt and tells them to pass it around sparingly. When they have all had a drink he heads for the table near the center of the room.

"Drink." He holds out the canteen, casting the knights accompanying the excursion team a wary glance before turning his attention to the volunteer closest to him. "It's melted snow from North of here."

Gaze on the younger kobolds, Dany's brows are slightly pinched together. Of all the thoughts that crossed her mind when her group discovered the kobolds' home, not once had she imagined they would find one another like this. Surely they'd escaped, seeing as the cave had been abandoned... mostly.

The younger kobolds look tired; one in particular with his silvery skin, holds her attention for a beat too long. None of them looked that way when last they met.

"A group of us tried to find you earlier. I'm glad you're safe." If a little worse for wear. Balerion sits on her shoulder, not as a dragon, but a winged cat. Once Monty approaches, he sits up, sudden in his attentiveness. When she reaches for the canteen, he goes to move with her, leaning closer, trying to--she's not sure. Taste the air? There's a light snuffing sound coming from him. "What attacked you?"

Edited 2019-05-04 01:24 (UTC)

"Safe." Monty parrots softly, his gaze drifting toward the stone wall between them, the river and the draugs. He drops his arm slowly, the canteen still grasped in his scarred hand, but he doesn't openly refute her claim so close to his younger siblings. He drops his hood back and rubs his fingers over the jagged scar across the bridge of his face, the only one that used to be there before the events of the last month.

His blue-eyed gaze drifts to Balerion, lingering, carefully lifting his other hand without touching the apparent feline, just curiously observing as if he has never seen such a creature.

"It has not been a good month for our family." There is a thickness to his softspoken voice, his bright grin gone and replaced with a distant look in eyes that have seen too much in a month for one person.

"There were strangers in the mountains. They said they were here to help the mountain, that it was sick and they could fix it." He trails off and sets the canteen on the table, idly shuffling books and papers around without really looking at them.

"They weren't good people."

The 'feline' makes another huffing sound, then moves to bump his snout against Monty's hand. Though the illusion remains intact, there is no cat nose or furry snout, but something scaly. Dany's jaw tightens, eyes bright but steady as she watches Monty. And then carefully, she'll spare the knights as casual a glance as she can. They're paying the two no mind.

Good enough, for when Monty moves, so does Balerion. He stumbles from her shoulder to the table, scamping after the other.

"There were statues." Of kobolds. Could those have been like the dwarves and dragons in-- "What did the strangers look like? There was word of a creature attacking the nearby outpost. It's why we came back."

Monty's eyes focus on Balerion at the touch of cool scales against his own, an almost tangible ripple of magic passing between the two and ebbing out near Dany. He doesn't say anything, but gently reaches out to stroke a couple scaled fingers over the top of Balerion's head the way he would to soothe his siblings during a storm. It takes him a moment to focus back on her words, partially due to the distraction of the dragonet and partially due to his own reluctance.

"They were trying to buy us time to get away." He murmurs, his voice lower now. "The strangers wore black robes and masks over their faces. We didn't trust them immediately but one of them was different. He had a wooden mask but a kind voice and it was hard not to listen to him." He shakes his head, like he's still trying to push that voice out, and tries to focus on the creature.

"They had a..." He hesitates, leaning in closer to her and lowering his voice to a whisper. "They had a dragon with them." His volume returns to normal after he whispers the word.

"After we helped them into Einjar they used it to fight something they called the City Ender. They fought all through the mountain and then the dragon killed it and the man took its eyes and pushed its body into the spring lake. The water started to turn red and another, smaller one of the creatures appeared from the mines and attacked us. It bit one of my brothers."

It's a lot for Monty to talk about right now, and he takes a moment just to stroke Balerion, seeming to take comfort in the small creature's presence.

"The one with the wooden mask said some words I didn't recognize and those things, the draugs, started coming from everywhere and attacking the creature. We thought he was helping us, but then they left. They were gone as if they had never been here. The dragon smashed the doors apart from the inside and left, and the creature followed after it. We fled back home but the man with the wooden mask was there. He wanted me to come with him and..." Monty pauses, shaking his head with a grimace.

"Part of me wanted to but I told him my place was here, with my family. I made him angry." He doesn't finish the story, crouching down by the table and scratching under Balerion's chin gently with a claw.

"We're all that's left." Monty, and just over a dozen of his youngest siblings.

Whatever the two share, she doesn't understand it. Not really. There's the ebb of magic, though, the tinge of it tickling her periphery. If there was any doubt of Monty's blood, the way he acts with Balerion and the way her dragonet responds wipes that away. It's like recognizing like.

Also why she doesn't stop Balerion from following him on the table. Though, part of that reason also has to do with the people and situation he describes. Masked strangers in black robes with a dragon. The City Ender is another line of thought she'll pursue after she addresses the immediate:

"The one with the wooden mask--was it shaped like a skull?"

She already knows the answer. It has to be. And with that realization comes a sick twisting in her stomach, a phantom ache in her chest as she recalls the pit and her death.

"He did something to it with some sort of ritual in the pit. They were torturing it when they brought us down to the cavern it was chained in." She's leaning closer to Monty as she speaks, her voice as quiet as his was when he mentioned the dragon. Carefully, she drags her fingers along her dragonet's spine. "It's where I found his egg. They kidnapped so many people, but left a group of us behind when the ritual was done. The one in the wooden mask said we were tainted."

And then, later, after she'd found Balerion's egg, she'd fallen to her death. This place seems to want to resurface memories she's tried pushing behind her, forcing her to face them when they're best left forgotten. Though perhaps they're not--she'd wanted to find the one who did this to them, and in a way, she had. It didn't require the black market after all.

"His name's Balerion," she says softly. Just as carefully, she'll press her palm to Monty's forearm. A light touch, easily gone if he shows even the slightest aversion to being touched. "We're going to find him... and we're going to bring him fire and blood. He'll die screaming for what he did to your family."

Monty nods in response to her question before adding his own observation.

"With a crown." The red jewel at its center had been almost mesmerizing. Monty listens, his brows pinching together above his eyes as she talks about a pit and the dragon in it. His focus is on her, but his hands stay on the table, near the dragonet in disguise. When she mentions the comment the masked individual had made Monty looks down at his own hands, lifting them off the table and rubbing over the leathery soft scales over his palm.

"I don't think they bothered to chase us, but the dragon did. It looked at me like it wanted nothing else but my life." He looks over his shoulder briefly toward his siblings and back to her. "I left them here. I didn't think they would be safe with it after me, but they were attacked by another one of those creatures, a smaller one. It bit my brother and now..." Monty trails off and shakes his head.

"I know what happened to the rest of our family. I don't want him to end up like them. Those creatures belonged to the dwarves they must have something here on how to cure him." Later he might focus more on Balerion, who keeps drawing his focus, or the masked people who broke his family, but right now Monty's primary focus is on protecting what is left of them.

"I had never seen one before in anything but drawings." He adds as an afterthought. "This isn't what I imagined they would be like." He does not specify if he is referring to the one outside, Balerion, or both of them.

"Do you think they're related?"

"It wasn't violent before, not really--it was tired and in pain." Though that's no reason to forgive what the creature had become, or what this group planned to do with the dragon. She'd still want to find a way to save it, but if it attacked Monty, his family, perhaps it was beyond saving? "Whatever that ritual was, the man in the mask used the light from those he didn't believe were tainted. It took from some of his followers, as well."

Her gaze trails back to the younger kobolds. They'd called her Diamondscale as she'd told them stories of the outside world. Why would they ever wish to explore it now, if this is what's become of their families?

"The City Ender, you called it. What did that one look like?" As she asks him this, she's making to remove her staff, which had been hooked around her shoulder during the trip. It's still blooming and alive. She gestures to Monty's brother. "May I?"

Before he can answer, she's already stepping away from the table, smiling down at the younger kobolds. Balerion makes a noise, making to jump upon Monty's arm and scurry up his shoulder with Dany further away.

"They could be related," she says, glancing back to the two. The sight's enough to have her lips twisting in faint amusement. Then she's kneeling. "Or perhaps they're not, with all the nests that were down there. The colorings are different. What do you think?"

Monty reaches up a hand to rub along the back of Balerion's neck, following after Daenerys once she starts moving. He feels the claws and the scales, well aware that there isn't a cat or a furred creature on his shoulder, but just seeks to both offer and take comfort from the small creature. His touch on the dragonet is light and gentle, careful not to catch his claws on the scales.

"It was as big as the dragon," Larger than the creature Daenerys would have encountered. "With a head and claws like a bird and a body like..." He hesitates to compare it to the dragon, the memory of the blue and white creature that held that name still fresh in his mind. "Like a different kind of dragon. It had a big metal collar around its neck."

He kneels beside her, his mind drifting to wonder what the dragonet looked like under the illusion over it.

"I don't think so." He has nothing to base that verdict on other than the way he felt about the large dragon that had wanted to rip him apart, and the dragonet on his shoulder that he felt a growing need to protect and a strange kinship toward that he had previously only felt toward his kobold family. He has a question he wants to ask her, but not in front of his siblings, so he keeps it to himself for now.

"Do you think you can heal him?" His voice is hopeful but his eyes are dark with worry. His light magic had done nothing against whatever affliction was overtaking his brother.

(no subject)

dorzalta - 2019-05-06 23:54 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

usirnpcs - 2019-05-14 18:49 (UTC) - Expand

Robb murmured his thanks but shook his head. "You should save it for them," he nodded at the young kobolds. They seemed a bit worse for wear while Robb had only been shaken up by the ringing before. With the rising threat, they would all need their strength, and if it meant giving the kobolds more of their resources to steady them, so be it.

"How is he?" He knelt by the one with the gray scales. His affliction was strange, something Robb had never really seen before. Whatever happened, it seemed to indicate that it would take strong magic to fix. "It's good you're safe now." He smiled at the young ones. "We'll find a way out soon, you just need to keep up your strength."

He glanced towards Monty, concern lacing his expression. "What is this? The gray on his skin? It's not an ailment I recognize."

Monty puts the water away for now with a nod. His siblings are young and afraid. They weren't fighters, and they had not come here expecting trouble the way Monty suspects the group traveling with the knights are.

"I left them alone to try and draw the dragon away. He was bitten by a creature in the city while I was gone. It fled, but I can't heal the wound." Which was not for a lack of effort. Monty had light magic, healing among his skills, but nothing he had tried had helped to pull out whatever venom, poison, or curse was in his brother's veins.

"I was hoping this room would have an answer." He looks to Robb, his posture stiff but not unfriendly. The far too tall 'kobold' looks exhausted and shaken.

"Are you one of them? A knight?" He nods toward the Krimnos knights in their colors and armor. Robb isn't one of the travelers he recognizes who came to his defense last time, but he doesn't look the part of the knights, either, with their cool, suspicious glances in Monty's direction.

Edited 2019-05-06 20:26 (UTC)

The young kobolds reminded him of his brothers. They weren't similar in personalities, but the look of their fear and the way they huddled together, he couldn't help but think about the brothers he left behind to their fates. Their fear tugged at him, pushing him to smile and offer them a warm expression to encourage some hope.

"Bit?" He had seen other statues with Daenerys, but he hadn't been certain what had caused it. Looking at the grey on the kobold's scales, it almost looked like the same type of stone at Monty's house. "There were others," he turned his head and lowered his voice, hoping to spare the boy from hearing this. "Statues at your home of other kobolds. Do you think this is some type of venom that turns them into stone?"

"If there is an answer, it will be found." He wasn't much of a researcher or reader, but he trusted those with the skills to find something, some measure of hope for the kobolds. And if nothing could be found, they would make him comfortable and calm.

He looked back at the others, debating how to answer that. "I'm with them, aye." But he wasn't sure he was worthy to consider himself a knight anymore.

Monty winced slightly at the memory, his family's terrified expressions forever frozen in both time and his mind. He took a step further from his young siblings and kept his voice hushed, his head shaking.

"The masked man did that to them, not the beast." Monty hesitated after that, his words cut off abruptly. "But they were connected. He used the eyes of the larger creature to -" He paused, unable to verbalize yet exactly what he had witnessed, his teeth digging into the edge of his mouth for a moment. "To take them from us. It was instant. I couldn't do anything." It sounded more like Monty was trying to convince himself than Robb.

"I am hoping there is still time to reverse what happened to Bridd." He did not doubt there was no saving the rest of their family, but as long as Bridd still had air in his lungs and a pulse in his veins Monty would try anything to keep him from joining the rest of their family in a stony grave.

"If there is some way to cure him, I will do whatever it is the knights want of me if we get out of here. Whatever it takes to save my brother." Even if it meant going to Krimnos with them to face whatever trial it was they had demanded of him on the last excursion.

"Your face isn't familiar. You weren't here the last time." The observation was neutral as Monty studied the man's features before he offered a scarred hand to Robb in greeting.

"My name is Monty."

"Masked man?" If there was a chance the monster and man were connected, it was likely that one might be controlling the other. Or something of that sort. "It looked instantaneous." He only needed to remember the look in their eyes to know that they had been caught off guard and were changed in mere seconds.

"We'll find a way." He shouldn't make promises that might be impossible, but he didn't intend to see them fail this boy. But Robb wasn't a man who knew how to research magic, he was a man of actions. Without anything to attack, he couldn't do much to keep his word. Unless... "Do you think there is a chance that man might hold an antidote? Or at least be aware of one?"

Not that they could get it out of him easily.

"Tell me more about this man." Any detail might be important. "Have you described him to the others?" Robb wouldn't know him by sight or description, but it was likely the others that had been here longer could.

"No, I was only recently brought back." His face was grave, not preferring to think about his death and what lead to it. He didn't hesitant to take his hand and shake it. "I'm Robb Stark."

"If anyone knows how to stop it, it would be him." Monty responded, his tone dark with anger over the memory of that man's betrayal. He shook Robb's hand firmly before releasing his hand. Monty didn't know much about the awakened and didn't know a difference between them and the rest of the travelers who had passed through the mountains beyond that they were, in Monty's eyes, good people. He would trust for now that Robb was more in line with them than with the knights that had fought with his siblings.

"I told Daenerys, but I will tell you as well. Better if everyone knows who they should avoid. His voice is dangerous." Monty rummaged through his clothing for the thing one of the man's followers had left behind and offered Robb the white mask

"His company wear those over their faces. It has magic to it. It makes them like shadows. You can see nothing else but the mask and their clothing when they wear them. The man wears a different mask made of wood. It is carved like a skull, with a crown at the top. Two points like horns and a red jewel at the center." He would never forget the glint of it or the cracks in the mask. It was easy to wonder why they had trusted the people if he tried to look back on it, but the masked man's voice, and that jewel on his crown, they had both held sway over the kobold family that had made them more trusting, more willing to do as he asked.

"It had truly felt like he wanted to help the mountain when he told us that was why they were here." There was guilt and regret in Monty's voice and eyes as he spoke and his gaze was fixed on the white mask. "He had a kind voice."

It sounded like an order from the way Monty described it. "More than one?" He didn't need confirmation about that. He turned the mask in his hands, but there didn't seem to be anything specific about it that Monty hadn't already told him. "A crown? He sees himself as a king?" That was something. It could be that this man was looking to claim the land or destroy it for his own gains.

He nodded, a sympathetic look in his eyes. "It isn't the first time that someone hid their true intentions behind a friendly face. You had no way of knowing." The man clearly exploited the kindness of others. He used that naivety, that innocence for a surprise attack. It was no different than using a baby animal as a trap for the parent. "Do you remember what he said specifically?"

That his voice was dangerous was worth noting. There was magic in the mask, but it seemed that there might be magic in his voice as well.

(no subject)

usirnpcs - 2019-05-29 00:23 (UTC) - Expand

Lauralae had avoided him the last time they had come here - she had been nervous, shy, uncomfortable, protecting the egg she had kept buried in her bag, wrapped against her stomach. Now, knowing his connection with Dany, she feels more settled, easy, able to move. It means she can go to the kobold near him and lean down, summoning her flames to her hands.

She can hurt or heal, break or repair. Today she is going to repair, and she will seek something for it. Kindness for kindness - equal trade. That is what she has always sought.

His offer makes her pause, lips pursing for a moment before she takes it.

"Are you still hurt?"

Monty shakes his head to her question, his eyes drifting to the flames and then his siblings, concern apparent as he releases the canteen. His hand gently rests on his sibling's shoulder, a reassuring touch and a protective gesture.

"I am fine, but I don't have much energy left." Not enough to fully heal all his siblings, only enough to ensure none of them were in immediate danger. There was nothing his magic had been able to do for his brother, afflicted by something far worse than a surface wound. Poison or a curse, whatever it was Monty couldn't be sure.

"Can you heal him?" The question is hesitantly hopeful. Light magic had not cleansed the kobold's wound but fire was the great cleanser. Maybe she could do something that he could not.

It's clear that, at least for now, Lauralae does not intend to hurt them. Her fingers do not move to where her daggers are, settled on her hip, and her gaze is set and careful, fingers splayed. If she wanted to harm Monty she is sure she could, as wolf or woman, but she tilts her head instead, letting her eyes flick over him before she breathes out.

"I have some. Enough." She has her fire and, should they need it, her blood. She is not sure how he might react to that, but it may be worth the offer all the same. As awkward as she is around these people she knows that there is something that must be done - and so she does it, moving closer.

"I will do what I can." Leaning forward, she inspects the wound, expression barely changing. Her fire comes to her fingertips again and she reaches, speaking as she works. "I will try something else if this fails." A pause, then - "I am Lauralae."

"Monty." He responds, watching her not with distrust but with uncertainty. His afflicted brother looks to Monty for reassurance but seems trusting and tired, offering her a scared half smile, the other half of his face stiffened unnaturally.

Fire does not seem to scare either of them, and Bridd, the small kobold before her, tries to keep still as the fire nears his wounds. The bite itself is easy to heal, and when fire nears the stoney scales the gray, wherever the fire touches, turns back to its natural color. As soon as the fire is removed from contact. A few moments later the gray coloration creeps back across the scales where the bite wound had been, very slowly spreading from the bite, but does not fully return.

Monty exhales a breath he had been holding. She hasn't cured his brother, but that's a step closer than anything he had been able to manage.

"I think we might be getting somewhere." Progress is something, and he seems genuinely relieved to see that something has changed. It's a glimmer of hope during dire circumstances.

Lauralae would say that it was good to meet him, but it's clear that she is more focussed on healing than she is anything else. Her flame is still somewhat new to her - a trinket compared to blood magic, surely, but she is not so willing to draw her own blood in the company of strangers. Dany might trust this man, and she herself might be curious, but there are limits to her trust. She has to bite her own tongue.

"You were brave," she says softly instead, drawing her flames back. Her frown does not change much, her gaze set on the colouration before she leans back. A failure, it seems, which means there is more for her to do - more research, perhaps, or an offer of something forbidden. That gnaws at her like anxiety in her stomach and she has to breathe out.

Settling back on her knees, she turns to look at Monty again.

"There will be a permanent solution." That is something she is sure of. "There is more I could do, to try, but it is not an easy feat."

"I don't imagine it could be." Monty knew better than to expect a miracle to be simple. He smiles at his little brother before turning to her. For someone with such reptilian features, Monty's expressions still manage to be soft and warm, and he looks at her with the same reassuring smile he gives his siblings.

"If nothing else, you have given him more time." Monty believes that. She has reversed half a day worth of spread of the curse, and given the kobolds hope that it is reversible. For the moment, that is more than enough for Monty.

"Save your energy for now. Curing my brother won't do him, or us, any good if we all remain trapped in this place. Those things out there are weak to fire magic like yours. Light magic, too." The kind Monty had used to clear them. Knowing there's hope for his little brother sparks a fire inside Monty, and he draws energy into his hands, watching the glow return to them.

"If we can get rid of the dragon and its ice, I could clear a path to the exit."

There's a strangeness in the way he looks at her; Lauralae is not accustomed to any kind of warmth or kindness being shown her and yet here it is, from someone who knows nothing of her but fire and danger. She thinks that she wants more of it, but she does not dare trust it, not to be honest and true, and it seems more dangerous to imagine it to be believable.

Perhaps he still wishes something from her, or perhaps he seeks a trade. That is all people ever want.

"I will do it more, for any others that require it. It does me no harm to try." The fire is easy, blood magic less so. She is wary about using it, about expending herself, revealing herself, but she also cannot allow these people to suffer. They are kin to her beast, her little dragonkin, and she will not let them be harmed.

Not for long. Not unless they turn on her.

The light magic, however, makes her flinch a little, and she shakes her head.

"I cannot muster such things," she motions, a flick of her fingers. "But I have my fire, and my other skin. I would use them both to encourage the beast elsewhere."

We are very sorry to have misplaced this tag notification.

usirnpcs - 2019-06-07 21:40 (UTC) - Expand

"No." After a beat, he adds, "I have no need. Not yet."

His gaze slides to the younger kobolds, then back to Monty, and he frowns.

"What happened to you? You shouldn't be in Einjar."

If he had to guess, he'd say that they came here to be safe from the creature terrorizing Preciposte and its environs, and then, the dragon. Whatever magic Monty can do, both of them clearly must have been too powerful for him.

"Strangers in masks and black robes came and asked us for our help getting into the city. They said they were going to cure the mountain of the sickness it had. Their leader... he was difficult not to listen to." Monty doesn't go as in-depth as he would like right away, the sound of the angry draugs outside snap away his attention momentarily.

"They brought the dragon with them. When their leader didn't get everything he wanted he turned on us." Monty continues, rubbing at an electric burn scar on his arm, exhaustion evident in his posture and his eyes.

"This was the only place I could think to hide them." Monty's voice is strained. His older siblings hadn't liked Einjar, and his parents had forbidden him from ever going back to the dwarf city, but what other choice did he have with the dragon out there? The draugs he couldn't have predicted, or the smaller creature that had emerged to attack his siblings while he had tried to draw the dragon away, but at least in Einjar there were places they could hide.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only