TURN FIFTY: STRANGE PROGESSION
Alex would chuckle a bit. One terrible thing after another. He would just attempt to sit and rest on a wall, and try to understand what was going on.
Alex RamanYour misfortune seems to be plentiful today. Without the ability to seriously fight back against anything at this point and your fatigue from pulling off an interesting move back in the medical facility, you're not going to have much luck escaping. For now, you slump back against a wall and try to catch your breath, orienting yourself at the same time. This would be a good time to review how the hell you ended up in this situation. It doesn't look like you'll be going anywhere soon, so might as well get caught up.
Day one of your shenanigans began in your village town, where the sudden invasion of the Theyin Empire threw the island of Atis - and your tribe, subsequently - into disorder. Artillery shells rained down on the island as the Theyins tried to suppress and disable the ability to retaliate. From going to the shore, you learn that you were gifted were a peculiar power: the ability to form, manipulate, and move ice at your will. You went searching for your girlfriend, who you heard calling out for help. The Theyin Empire had swept through Aecrocia and was already moving to your village. Out of anger and hatred, you took on a volatile existence called the Zero Form, where your powers were magnified a thousandfold. At the same time, there was another fellow in the sky - a demon-looking stranger who possessed similar powers. Instead, he was calling upon the volcano to spew forth lava and fire. Wanting to prevent further destruction of your island, you called upon the seas to form a dome of ice and broke parts of this dome to use to strike the enemy fleet. It was an incredible success, with the fleet being annihilated in a matter of minutes. Finally, you turned your attention to the other instigator of chaos and engaged in a duel, which you won with a creative strategy.
After that, you blacked out from exhaustion and fell into the ocean.
You ended up...
somewhere. A woman in beautiful robes approached you and explained some things about what happened. She then gave you the opportunity for revenge and sent you somewhere on the other side of the world. Outside of a fortified city, which you assumed to be in the heart of the Theyin Empire, there was only one clear way for you: Vengeance against the people who ravaged your home. You attempted to sneak into the walls of the city, but were caught by guards when your powers failed to assist you. You ended up in a jail cell and were escorted out due to an injury you attained when attempting to use a bed to escape. At a medical facility, you attempted to escape yet again by killing the guard. While you managed it, the power needed to facilitate your attack was too much. Now fatigued, you roam the streets of the city, encountering some strange sounds throughout the city.
That's where you are now, and that is how you got here.
When you pull yourself up from your slump you notice that you seem to feel a bit better. However, your fatigue and dizziness have not ceased yet. Looks like you'll have to deal with that a little while longer.
As you prepare for your next movement, you hear what sounds like fighting near you. More gunshots, closer this time, ring off of some buildings not too far from you. You hear a sickening screech this time, as something
definitely not human seems to react to pain. You hear more thumps and people yelling. You have no idea what's going on, but you're not sure if you want to risk finding out what it is or not. On one hand, this may be the perfect time to escape; on the other, you're not sure where you would go from here on out. You could possibly try sheltering up in one of the houses nearby, but you're not sure how that would go.
So many decisions to make and so little time.
Eh Ah
Approach the woman while examining her. Check if she is responsive to questions, such as:
"Excuse me, ma'am, may I bother you for some information?"
Eh AhThe closer you get to the woman, the more you feel as if she's not of sound mind right now. She doesn't appear to be moving
at all. For someone in such a desolate precinct, you'd imagine that she has better to do than to be standing around, admiring the decor - or what's left of it, anyways. Perhaps she's not of sound mind. Maybe she's on drugs or another inhibitory substance. Maybe she's lost in thought. You really don't know until you talk to her or see her face. Luckily, you're just about to meet her right now.
You ask her if she might spare some information for a poor lad like you. She does not respond at all, continuing to stare at nothing in particular. You ask her once again. No response. Finally, you circle around to her front and wave a hand in front of her. Once again, she does not react. Considering her eyes right now, you believe you understand now. Her pupils are nearly blotting out her brown irises entirely. In fact, if you didn't look so close, you would've sworn that her irises were black also. She also seems to have shadows under her eyes, as if she's been awake for forty-eight hours straight without rest. She doesn't react to you in any way, merely swaying ever-so-slightly from side to side. Her mouth is agape. You'd almost say that she looks hypnotized, in a way. You push her slightly, just enough to test if she recovers from almost falling. Indeed, she puts one foot back to steady herself, but still does not react to you in any other way.
Out of all the strange things you've seen so far, this one unnerves you the most. Perhaps it is the way she's simply staring at nothingness. Maybe it is the ways her eyes seem to be endless, pitch-black portals. Or maybe it is her brainlessness - the way she acts almost like a zombie. In fact, you'd think she's a zombie, if only she had rotting skin and a penchant for eating human flesh, too. But no, you're not lucky enough to have discovered Patient Zero of the nonexistent zombie apocalypse. Still, you're extremely curious as to
why she looks this way. You're best guess is that she's inhibited by some sort of drug. If that's the case, this might make more sense. However, with what's been happening lately, you're having your doubts.
In terms of the time of day, the sun is about 3/4 of the way to the horizon. You've still got several hours left before sundown, so you should be fine to do some additional exploring.
Warren Drake
The world shall burn. I shall sip. And I shall keep walking to my destination, not thinking about anything in particular.
Warren DrakeWith what's been occurring in the past few days, you've would've expected some sort of specter to jump out of the trees and spook you, or for the world to spontaneously combust around you. However, you find your short trip to be relatively peaceful and calm. In fact, this is the calmest you've been during the whole trip. It feels a bit unnatural now, but you're not complaining. Well, you
did mention that you wanted the world to burn. If so, I guess this would be a disappointment to you.
It's not long before you arrive again to the same area where the girl was before. You take the same route through the lumberjack camp that you came from, though you don't really talk to any of them, considering that this is not your destination. As you approach the clearing, you don't see the girl at her usual spot near the tree. Oddly enough, you can't find the the small nest of vines that she summoned, nor the unfortunate creature that was ensnared in its trap. As you circle around the tree, however, you hear her humming not too far from where you are.
You continue on in the direction of the humming. Not too far along, you find her in her usual attire, stringing up laundry on a line and setting it to dry. There's no mistaking her, seeing as she still has her blaze-orange hair that she had before. She doesn't appear to hear you coming, her back to turned to you as she focuses on her work.
Well, now's the time to talk to her about whatever you wanted to talk about, seeing as she's not too busy. Your slight inebriation might hamper your ability to focus too much, but you haven't gotten blackout drunk yet.
Of all the possibilities, Eleri connected the pieces from what she could see. Apparently, the island had its fair share of...lethal fauna. Or it was probably related to whatever got Flynn so uppity.
She picked up the water bottle as a future container, promising herself to clean it out later before re-reading the note, getting it from Flynn and reaching for the pencil in turn, tapping it to check if the graphite still had luster to it.
"Its a faded, crumbly, and yellowing note. But I can read it. This place had occupants. A long time ago and- well. Do you know any animal which has the habit or capability of landing around ten meters in height from an elevated location along with carrying its prey? Just hypothetical musing. Had a lot of time to think about silly things. Unsure if its an animal, but this note did depict such."
Eleri did not want to add confirmation to such musings--just enough to acknowledge the past. She noted Flynn's sight issues and decided to get on with the idea.
"The animal in this note seems to have been the same one which...took away the owner of the knife. Said owner writes of a stash for who I guess is a younger family member. His child or so. 'The box is hidden in the compartment in the wall. You know which one.'"
She promised to both look for the compartment, and if ever it was left unrecovered, would add onto the note. She assumed that it had been far too long a time since the recipient in question would return to this place, judging by its...derelict state.
"Anyway, Flynn, I'll be checking the surroundings for a road so we can easily get our bearings in the morning. There's a chair you could use. I think this second floor will be a nice place to rest, given the fireplace and other uses. I'll be back soon. You take care."
Eleri's thoughts drifted to hope the safety of the family, as well as all others she had thought about and remembered in the days prior. As well as all others.
Venture out to do so! Refill water, check for landmark...but first check the area where the animal supposedly landed...and its surrounding trail, if any.
Clutch orb, say prayer over the man and his family.
EleriFlynn sits with his back against the wall, sighing. When you ask him if he knows about a specific type of animal, he responds,
"Mm, I don't think so. I mean, I guess if a feline like a cougar or a jaguar threw the prey down first and then jumped down. But I don't know why an animal would come up here. Why? Did something happen?" You respond to him by mentioning that the animal in the note "took away" the note-writer, and that he had a stash hidden away.
"Oh.. you mean that he was.. killed? Does the note mention anything about what the animal looked like, or how it sounded?" Flynn takes a deep breath in and adds,
"If he was attacked like you said, I wonder if his attackers were related to the the things that attacked me. But.. you said the note was faded, yes? If so, that doesn't make too much sense. I've been on the island for a good while and haven't encountered these creatures before I ran to the woods that night. Then again... they might only be on a certain part of the island." He looks up to the window above him and remarks,
"Or maybe I'm thinking too much over this."With that out of the way (at least for now), you tell Flynn that you'll be heading out to explore and find a road to follow, which should hopefully expedite your journey. Flynn nods, saying,
"Alright. Be careful, please." With the number of hours in the day still dwindling ever more, you exit the building and head out to perform your tasks.
The first thing you do is move around to the back of the house to take a closer look at the approximate landing area of the animal - if the animal actually jumped out with the victim, anyway. You examine the grass and the ground right below the window, looking for anything that would mark a trail from the attack. As far as you can tell, however, the grass and the ground looks fairly normal and undisturbed. This strikes you as odd, though there is the possibility that any remaining evidence was washed away by the elements, depending on how long ago this house was attacked. Additionally, it could depend on how clean the predator was with taking the victim away. You would've imagined that, considering the blood on the second floor, there would be at least
some of a trail here. The only thing you find is a small spattering of faded blood on the window above from the outside, telling you that he could have been dragged out.
Before you head out, you take your orb out of one of your pockets and stare at it, brushing over its surface with one of your fingers. You remember that the man asked for prayers. Whether his family survived or not, you decide that you'll take up that request for him. You close your hand over the orb and quietly pray for him, hoping that him and his family have survived on. You have a strange feeling that not only they are not the only ones who will need that prayer to survive on.
Finally moving out, you decide that the best option would be to follow the side of the hill at this point. The objective here would be to both find a source of water - preferably a river or another spring - and a road or another identifiable path that would lead you to a more inhabited area. Walking without having to carry another human body is definitely easier for you, which is certainly a bonus on an uncertain adventure. You keep a lookout for any animals or humans crossing your way, but your walk seems to be quite peaceful. Other than the occasional chipmunk or the birds flying between the trees, there are no animals around that could pose a threat to you.
After a few more minutes of walking, you finally encountering a water source. Unfortunately, it's not exactly what you would like. It's a little ways down the slope of the hill. There, a small depression in the earth forms the perfect bowl for water - a small pond surrounded by vegetation and busy with dragonflies and mayflies. While it
is a source of water, the difficulty comes in determining how long the water's been standing here, and if it is safe to drink. The water looks clean enough, but you can't be too sure. You could always boil the water if you needed to, but it'll be risky to drink the water in its current state. You make a mental note of its location and continue onward.
You spend about half an hour searching the area around the pond, moving up and down the hill to try and find some sign of a road or path. Luck does not seem to be in your favor, however. This part of the hill still seems to be relatively untouched by the hand of civilization, barring the solitary house that you and Flynn found. Still, the trees ahead appear to be thinning out. Perhaps you'll be able to get a better look later and find a direction that will take you to roads which Flynn might be able to use to guide you farther. Due to the time of day, however, it might be advisable to start heading back to the house.
jack weasly carefully opens the door and slowly tiptoes to the end of the blue corridor.he then proceed to peek around the corner looking for any members of the staff he then verry sofly knocks on olias's door to begin thier dashing escape.
Jack WeaslyNow is as good as ever to plot your escape. The difficult part about going about your escape is that you're not exactly sure how you're going to get out, past the staff, and out into the city without being noticed by someone who knows you. Knowing the people who run the orphanage and your state of affairs at the mines, someone would come after you. You might be able to lie low somewhere in the town, but you'll have to be careful about how you go about it.
You proceed with the first step of your plan by making sure that there are no members of the staff around. Seeing as they are preoccupied in other areas of the building for now, you seem to be safe. You move with light feet down the hallway, intending to contact Olias and get him to join you. Perhaps Aneita Metter would be willing to join you too, though considering her apprehensiveness with your past forays into escape, maybe you're in a bit over your head right now.
No matter. Right now, you just need to focus on Olias. Moving to the end of the corridor, you once again check to your left and to your right; no staff members are in sight so far. However, you hear what sound like adult voices at the other end of the corridor that you're about to move into. You may want to consider being cautious. However, you'll probably be able to get to Olias without a problem.
You move to Olias' room, which is not too far down the Gold corridor. Knocking on his door, you don't get a response at first. You knock once again and, this time, he responds by opening the door. He's dressed in a simple t-shirt and light shorts for his nightwear.
"Yes- wait, Weasly? What are you doing here? We're on lockdown, you can't be out here right now!" He sounds a little bit worried, though he also seems to wear an expression of relief upon his face.
More gunshots are heard. This time, a soft screech echoes off of the walls of the building as the mysterious cause of the lockdown continues on.
((I'll call the golem a Drone Class in honor of the ants which inspired it.))
Intruders! Amass my golem army, then climb atop my protector golem, and move the entire army towards the voices. Do not attack. It would be best to negotiate first.
RuneIt's time to test what your golems can do against potential threats. If they are armed and retaliate, you'll be able to see how your golems perform against ballistic or melee weapons. If they are unarmed, you will certainly have an upper hand in the form of security. Mentally calling up all of the golems, you bring the Protector golem to you and have him put you on his shoulder. Without further ado, you order your golems to move up the tunnel and present themselves to the intruders. Complying silently, they move in a defensive formation up the relatively small tunnel as best as they can. It doesn't help that they are quite noisy, though you would wager that the element of stealth is long gone by now.
With you in the center of the formation, you reach near the top of the tunnel and stop short. You set up some of your less expensive golems on the front and march them forward. Your Protector golem follows the front line and allows you to see the entrance of the tunnel. There, you find three teenagers standing around, frightened.
...Well, that was certainly underwhelming. Though, in a way, you are grateful that nobody from any sort of organized group found your golems yet. That would make your plans more difficult than they already were. You look down upon the teenagers as they begin to take small steps back, obviously scared by the appearance of autonomous clay statues. From their clothes and their skin tones, you can tell that they are Atisi, or at least affiliated with them somehow. Therefore, you don't believe that they would pose much of a threat to you.
Still, there is the chance that they might go blabbering around about giant, moving statues. On the off-chance that said action does occur, it is likely that they will be seen as crazy or as liars, considering that it's pretty hard to believe that somebody is living under the surface of the earth, leading a golem army. Yet, there you are, doing exactly that.
It's up to you to consider what you want to do with the teenagers. They don't really pose anything of a threat, so the best course of action would probably be turning them away. But your will shall be imposed as you like. After all, you're the one in the saddle here.
"Right now my next priority is a decent long blade. My knives are fine for most problems but they just aren't long enough to penetrate to the vitals of larger shadows. Problem is I don't have funding and a good sword is expensive."
LirianDr. Kito scratches his head as he contemplates your response.
"Well, to be honest, I don't know where you could get a good weapon in this town. I've never had a use for one. I'm just a botanist, like I said." He laughs as he says this, entertained by the idea that a botanist could have use for something like a longsword.
"Perhaps if a plant mutated to try and kill me, sure, I would need something like a sword. But that hasn't happened yet to me. Anyways, you might want to check with Deon about that. He ventures around the shops of the town sometimes. He'll definitely know more than I do about where to find a sword like that. He's usually somewhere around the food market at this time of the day. If he's not there, you might be able to find him on the outskirts of town to the south."He also listens when you mention that you don't have funding.
"Ah, that's right, you're not from this area. Well, if you need some support, I might be able to help you with some money. Anything you need to get yourself started up, really. Food, equipment, some knowledge - please, do inform me if you need anything else." Cromwell chimes in, saying,
"Thank you, Doctor. We appreciate your hospitality. I'm not really in need of anything else right now, though that may change if we decide to explore the shops. Getting us a weapon or two would be ideal at the moment.""Like I said, whatever you need, as long as it's not too crazy. I've only so much of my own money. If you're going to be heading out to the town soon, you're welcome to stop by for dinner, and stay as long as you'd like."
"Hah-huh hah-huh... why is it climbing what the hell how the hell..."Can't run. Need to fight. Can't fight. Weapon not good enough, too injured. Need a better weapon. Need to be uninjured. Need a miracle.
Jonathan EridisA miracle would be very appreciated right now. You might be able to ward off your attacker with your knife, but due to the way it is climbing up a tree despite being a canine-looking creature, you might also not be able to rely on that to help you out. Considering your injuries, you're probably not going to have luck maneuvering around or getting down from the tree in a reasonable amount of time. Not like you'd want to get down anyway; having the high ground always turns out to be an advantage.
You clutch your knife close to you and pray that you will be able to make it out alive. The shadowy creature continues to slime its way up the tree, almost like a slug taking a canine form. It is nearing closer and closer to you, almost within a few meters of you. You inch away from it, using the branch. However, there is a definite end to the branch. You're not going to be able to get away from it forever.
Suddenly, you feel something...
different about yourself. Something strange wells up inside of you. You begin to feel very ill, as if pneumonia had suddenly struck you without reason. You open your eyes and find something very disturbing below you. In fact, it is so out of the ordinary that even the creature turns its head back to look at what is emerging from the ground.
White nubs grow out of the ground. Those nubs turn into sticks - to be more precise,
bones, Yes, there are bones of all different types growing out of the ground. Combined with that, a single stack of earth is rising from the dirt. Many of the bones suddenly snap from their places in the ground and fly around in a mini-cyclone around the dirt stack. More and more bones join the cyclone and appear to lock together. Over time, the bones form what looks like a humanoid body, with the dirt forming the "meat" of the body. Instead of there being a skull, a faceless head formed out of dirt tops the skeleton. In addition to its humanoid body, one of its hands is modified to form a sickle shape. The other is a hand with claws at the end of it, formed by sharp bone ends.
The humanoid figure stands still for a few moments before snapping its head up. It locks its view onto the slimy creature. The two of them face each other down for a few moments. Finally engaging, the skeleton pounces onto the tree and embeds its sickle-hand into the tree's trunk, right next to the shadowy creature. In response, the creature jumps off of the tree and attempts to wrestle the skeleton down. The skeleton anticipates the attack and hops off of the tree also. It feints a heavy strike from above its head. The canine creature attempts to dodge to the right, but directly falls into the skeleton's true trap. The skeleton embeds its claws deep into the creature. The creature howls out in pain and struggles for a few seconds before the skeleton runs it through with its sickle-hand also. At this time, the creature falls limp, having been separated from life.
You have no idea what that was; no idea of where that skeleton humanoid came from; no idea why that creature and the skeleton fought. However, you are at least happy that the skeleton took down your would-be predator. The skeleton, in turn, looks to you. You can't tell any emotions from its blank face, but you feel as if the skeleton doesn't mean harm to you. The skeleton, then, simply turns around and begins trudging in the opposite direction.
You try to call after the skeleton to see what it was, but all that comes out is a hoarse voice. You feel sick to your core. Failing to regain your health, the world around you goes black as you succumb to a strange sort of fatigue. The last thing you remember is the sight of the predatory creature smoking, almost as if it was evaporating. Then, only darkness as you fell off of the tree branch.
Author's Notes: Most of what I would have said here was already covered in the chapter introduction. If you check the Compendium, about half of the turn repository has been completed. The rest will be completed in the next few days. I hope you enjoy what this update has amounted to, and may this chapter be all the more interesting.
I hope you all have a wonderful week,
Artemis.