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Usir Mods ([personal profile] usirmods) wrote in [community profile] usir2019-04-29 12:48 am
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May Event Log B: Return to Einjar

๐Ÿœ™ Bottomโค› Navigation
๐Ÿœ™ 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.
๐Ÿœ™ 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.
TeamTask:Team Members
โค› SearchTrack down, identify, and capture or kill the creature terrorizing Preciposte. Daenerys Targaryen
Nike Lemercier
Lauralae
Robb Stark
Poe Dameron
Sypha Belnades
โค› 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
โค› DefenseProtect 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.

๐Ÿœ™ 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.

๐Ÿœ™ 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.

ReflectionCause & Symptoms
โค› 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.
โค› 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.
โค› 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.
๐Ÿœ™ 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.

๐Ÿœ™ 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.
๐Ÿœ™ Topโค› Navigation
cryptsleeper: (Default)

cw: dead bodies; vampirism

[personal profile] cryptsleeper 2019-04-29 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
TEAM RESCUE, cw: dead bodies
There's another down here.

[Alucard's call to alert his fellows that there is another set of remains along the mountain range is not shouted. It is only projected just enough to catch the ears of other's, and to ensure that they can figure out where it is that he is calling from.

Now he crouches besides the remains of a tiefling, the horns as clear as day, a great gash ripped through the body. It reeks of rotted entrails - all too pungent, all too fresh. This is recent. Horribly so.]


If anyone has a spare bag, I think it will be easiest to collection only their things.

First Within [Limited to Lauralae and Trevor]
[Alucard understands traveling through the shadows now. He does not like to do it in front of others, but if there was ever a time to throw aside that rule, it is now. So at the smashed doors, there is a moment where Alucard's shadow detaches from himself, and moves beyond. Beyond into the doors of Einjar, and then he himself is gone with it.

Purple. Purple and red, and the whole of the city is not what they left it a month or so ago. It is in ruins now, proper ruins, the kind of thing that would take a century to have happen, if not more. Yet things have sped up between the last expedition and this, and Alucard chokes when he sees it all.

There has been talk of a creature. Perhaps this is now it's home.

Alucard forces himself back out to the exterior of the doors. His scouting has been minimal, but it's enough to go on.]


There's extensive damage within. Where we go, we need to mark what's unsafe and what isn't, at least for the first few hundred yards.

Paranoia
[In the end, it's the ringing that gets to the vampire. The water is disturbed again and again, the song of it sounds again and again, and the horrible things that the vampire has kept at bay since being Awakened manage to flood over every gate he has built for them.

Someone has dragged my dead from the ground. I died. I died and Trevor dragged my dead corpse around and felt he failed me. Whoever has done this means me ill will, means the world ill will. There are people in this cavern who willingly protect dragons, when they know dragons will be the end of us all. My life is not my own. My father will return from the dead as well, and for that I shall be thrice destroyed. My life is not my own and I will be used and then I will be dust.

But so much else is undone with that, king among them is the dhampir's own nature. The part of him that mastered the horrible fascination with blood, because in the hunger of paranoia, the basest part of Alucard's nature emerges.

Hunger. A vampire's hunger. All blood and teeth and want.

A tiny portion of Alucard knows this is happening. Manages to get a single command, all ice.]


Stay away.

Einjar's End
Can anyone melt ice that thick?

[It's worth asking. It's worth asking as Alucard sits besides one of the stacks of papers, flipping through them as calmly as he can to try and make sense of the terrible statues that have been seen here. It's worth talking over the sound of the ringing to block it out, and to distract himself that he's probably going to die. In a shitty underground place surrounded by water. Again.]

Or create something that can blast through it on such short notice? Anything.

Wild card
You know the deal
drizzle: (Default)

[personal profile] drizzle 2019-04-29 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
1 Will Nike be able to sense any sprites of spiritual activity while she is on the airship or upon entering the doors to Einjar, or will it feel like in the last trip?

2 Are the dire wolves linked to the feral spirits she spoke to back at the temple?

3 How large are the dire wolves? How many will appear?

4 Will Monty know any information about the runes at the entrance of the circular stone slab?

5 What information can Nike find out about the draugs, curses, and long night? Those would be the information she'd be most keen on.

6. What would happen if Nike uses precipitation from changing snow into mist and surrounding herself with it? Can it be used as a barrier against the fury and desperation effects? What about her own singing (with charm/mind control)? Can she use it to lower the effect of the ringing for the paranoia effects if she attempts to sing with it?
miraclewhip: 'I don't like it, I don't like it at all' (Wallachia man has feeling)

first within

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-04-30 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Stay close. [ He keeps his voice low as he steps out, climbing up onto the pile of rubble and offering hands to any of his companions who find themselves needing the aid. ] Worst comes to worst-

[ -in the case of a cave-in, which doesn't seem out of the question, it's best that they're close. He makes a half-decent makeshift shelter. But he cuts himself off. It probably doesn't need to be stated in so many words anyway. ]
cryptsleeper: (plz say again?)

[personal profile] cryptsleeper 2019-04-30 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Alucard nearly snaps that he'll be fine, but no. No, that isn't a truth is it? They can't know that either one of them will be fine, and to say it would be to beg for the Pit to happen again.]

Tell us if something underfoot is clearly unsteady. If something can support your weight, then we know it can manage the rest of us with ease.

[There. That makes sense, doesn't it? Follow the goliath, because what can withstand him can withstand anything.]

We can move fast.
fuga: (to love your rage instead)

[personal profile] fuga 2019-04-30 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Is there any way Lauralae can communicate with the Direwolves/become part of their pack in any way (in her wolf form) or. Adopt one. Asking for a friend.

2. Would Monty be willing to answer any questions about what he knows about dragons / dragon children? Hers is currently in disguise, but she'd ask him very quietly if she could get him alone.

3. Would Lauralae be able to heal any of the kobolds?

4. Can she read the documents? She'd mostly look for anything on the dragons, curses and the long night.
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-05-01 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
When someone is submerged in the water, they see/feel the red water sinking into their skin. Do other characters see this as well, or is it something that only they notice?

EDIT: another question: do similar effects occur if a character's animas contacts/consumes the water?
Edited 2019-05-02 15:35 (UTC)
dorzalta: (Default)

[personal profile] dorzalta 2019-05-01 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
1a) During the search: any teeth, claws, scales, (fur??), or some other evidence aside from scorch marks and claw marks that might be discovered?
1b) Would there be any close encounters with the dragon/not-dragon, or is everything pretty quiet and uneventful?
1c) The scorch marks and claws: how large would you say they are? They know they're looking for a fairly big creature, but would those two things give any hints to just how large?

2) 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. Will there be any kobolds around, or are the remnants of their group in the tower everyone hides in? Anything specific the group would find while looking for the kobolds re: their surroundings?

3a) If Dany brings Balerion on this excursion, he would be under the illusion Poe created. Would he sense anything being off before the entrance to Einjar is barricaded?
3b) How would he react to the status effects, like the paranoia?
3c) Would he have any reaction to Monty or vice versa?

4) Are the kobolds in the tower ones who would recognize Dany/would she recognize them? She'd want to go over and try to comfort them and try to get a firsthand account of what happened since they left Einjar the first time.

5) Dia brought up a good point about the ice door: Dany can use fire, and she also once summoned that uncontrollable fire in her old life to make herself Unburnt. Would her magic have any effect on the walled icy door? (EDIT: would the fire "desTROY ICE DOOR" - Dia)
Edited 2019-05-01 22:26 (UTC)
fuga: (fangs from the world)

[personal profile] fuga 2019-05-02 06:43 am (UTC)(link)
[ She does not like this. There is a knot of anxiety in her, a twist in her gut, a frown on her face. Lauralae does not even dare send her raven forward as a scout, fearful of what might happen to him - her precious creature, made to enter such danger.

At least she is with someone she trusts; to the limit of how she trusts anyone. There is that. ]


I will follow. [ Her voice is soft, quiet. ] I can transform if we need. It may be in our favour, if... If I can smell.

[ A wolf nose is better than her own. ]
miraclewhip: would like to remind you of this at every possible opportunity (Wallachia man does not care)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-05-02 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Take whichever set of senses you trust better. [ He says, standing still for a moment as he tries to gauge a way down the far side rubble that seems likely to hold his weight. He climbs down once he does, pausing between each step so the others can see the where the footholds steady enough to hold his weight are. The possum is in his bag, which is why said bag is making an angry hissing noise. ]

Can you communicate with us, transformed?
cryptsleeper: (Doing real research)

[personal profile] cryptsleeper 2019-05-02 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
If you can't communicate with us effectively, then I personally don't believe it to be worth the risk.

[Ellis is behind the group, her deft paws barely weighing anything in comparison to be Very Big Human and the Normarlly Sized Humans. Her ability to communicate is known to Alucard, but he feels far better with her behind, and with Trevor's bag hissing because of course the possum is hissing about all of this.

Then something hits him.]


Movement of your tail. Once means go, twice means stop, three means retreat?
usirnpcs: (Monty)

Monty

[personal profile] usirnpcs 2019-05-03 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
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."
miraclewhip: no literally that's what's happening in this. (Default)

[personal profile] miraclewhip 2019-05-03 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Does this work the other way around? If the animas is affected, is their person also affected?
drizzle: (Default)

[personal profile] drizzle 2019-05-03 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Would Anami have any prior information about the contaminated water? As much as Nike wouldn't want to request for their cooperation while all at once she doesn't want anyone to die by their comrades nor kill them.

2. If Nike used her powers to summon the rain (without the help of her flask) over the contaminated water, will it have any effects or does she need to find the source of the pollution for a difference to be made?

3. And speaking about the pollution, is the source back at the pool she encountered last time or somewhere else entirely? Will she be able to ask any type of lingering spirit to help her find it if she pleads her case in wanting to help restore the balance of the area?

4. If Nike shows Monty the passage about the Long Night, would he know more about the ritual for sending the mountain back to sleep or about the "Mother of the Mountain" story? Or is the legend uncommon knowledge?
dorzalta: (pic#13085462)

[personal profile] dorzalta 2019-05-04 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
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)
usirnpcs: (Monty)

[personal profile] usirnpcs 2019-05-04 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
"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."
dorzalta: (Default)

[personal profile] dorzalta 2019-05-04 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
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."
dorzalta: (Default)

u rdy

[personal profile] dorzalta 2019-05-04 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Bad enough to be trapped in this place. Even worse to see the kobolds so frightened. The little sweetlings had been trusting, following her around during their first trip to Einjar. Now, they remain huddled in a corner, and there's little to be done to help ease them.

Until Alucard questions whether the ice can be melted. She's just finished speaking with Monty, and Balerion sits upon her shoulder again, disguised as a winged cat. Nearby, Jon, Robb, and Sansa are busy with trying to think of ways to escape, most likely. They've fallen to her periphery in lieu of Monty and Alucard. ]


I can try, [ she answers, stepping away from the nearby vicinity of the kobolds and toward Alucard. ] I summoned a wild flame, once. The khalasar called me Unburnt because of it.

[ But I'm not a dragon, and this is far different, she almost says, catches herself, then lifts her chin. Balerion's tail is curled around her neck. Though he doesn't speak, perhaps he understands--and if he understands, he should learn of bravery. ]

Do you know of a way to get us past those creatures?
usirnpcs: (Monty)

[personal profile] usirnpcs 2019-05-04 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

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