Mokley

Lantern

"If I'm going to be on my own," she announced louder than necessary, interrupting her own thoughts, "I'm gonna need some more supplies." She looked over her shoulder back at Oseely. "Know anyone willing to lend me some?"

A slow, white grin spread on Oseely's face. "Now you're speaking my language."

He crawled to his feet in his slow and nimble way, waved a hand to snuff the fire, and followed her out under the starry sky. No trace of the witch-made storm was now visible; all signs of battles were gone. He took a deep breath of ashen air, and he pointed over the ridge.

"That way you'll find the Brigroot Tribe -- they're a little sect of Kith that like burrowing and stockpiling shinies. Most of what they've got is old crap -- statues and coins and jewels -- a dragon's hoard of useless shit, but some of it might have some powerful runes. They stockpile most everything else, too: food, leather, clothes, weapons -- bone and wood mostly -- and masks. They harvest those damn masks from the trees every moon-cycle, there's one for every forest-power you can imagine. If it's survival yer lookin' for, personally I'd start there. But --"

He pointed in the opposite direction. "Obviously ya don't want to go back to Gryphon Roost -- they'll recognize your friend here and slaughter you quick for stealin' her. But this way, that's the pirate settlement of Oyagun Nai, down at the seaside. They're the fishers and boaters -- but they're also the source of all the gears and gadgets and newfangled pipes and boilers ya might have seen rusting in the woods. You seen those clockwork trees? The ones that held up the Lanterns. They were feeding the Lanterns' power into generators at Oyagun Nai, until the Sun Children severed them. I'd bet the whole settlement's in a state right now, with the power source gone." He grinned to himself, imagining the poor pirates running around like headless chickens in the dark, they'd got so used to having Lantern-powered streetlights. "So if it's tech you want, or luxuries for your new personal fortress, that's the way." He had a thought, and tapped his chin. "They'd probably pay well for a Lantern, if you had one to trade. They generally don't give a flyin' shit about the Dragon or the Lords and Ladies -- at least I've never heard a prayer or a peep from them."

Anise grabbed the Spirit Egg out of the air with her free hand and extended it out towards the Lady of the Pond. "Come, she missing parts of her, but even then you can still talk with her." She smiled warmly. "Don't be afraid, I promise that I won't let her go too far."

The Dragon was vast and empty in response to Anise's plea -- for awhile it seemed it had not heard her, or simply did not care. For a moment, Anise would feel the Dragon's presence withdraw even further away from her, and she was shut out of the Dragon's thoughts.

A moment later, that wall was withdrawn, the vast emptiness returned, and a slow warmth enveloped Anise's heart. The Dragon was pleased.

The Lady of the Pond stared emotionlessly at Anise. Her expression never wavered -- but she occasionally glanced to the Spirit egg; her confidence was wavering. Finally, the egg was offered to her with a chance to speak personally -- safely -- with the Dragon that had been the subject of terror for so long.

For a long moment, the Lady did nothing. She set Anise with a stone-cold glare and a porcelain face, challenging this girl's audacity to step into matters that did not concern her. Her eyes drifted to the egg again -- and she stared at it, glared it down, threw all her hate at it. The egg did nothing; the Dragon did not react. The warmth remained around Anise's heart, and the Dragon merely waited.

The Lady of the Pond raised her thin hand -- paused -- then touched her fingers to the egg's shell. Her brows furrowed curiously; she had expected a bolt of lightning, a drain of her power, something evil and life-threatening -- but there was nothing. Only emptiness.

She pressed her hand completely against the shell, and she strained with her spirit to find the Dragon within the nothingness that expanded within the egg.

Warmth flowed through her. Anise could not hear nor sense what was being said between the Dragon and its child, but slowly color returned to the Lady's skin. Her eyes were wide and glistening with tears -- though what emotion caused those tears was yet unknown. She stared, transfixed, at the egg, while the lake glowed brightly and lapped at her feet.

"I am . . ." she whispered. A small, sad smile broke the smoothness of her warming face. "I will." She took a step back, removing her touch from the egg, and she breathed normally again. She seemed a very different person, now: her posture was not so rigid, her skin not so cold. Her eyes were bright when she looked to Anise -- yet she raised her chin in an attempt to resume her status. "I will believe, for now, that the Dragon may be prepared to return. The quickest way to do that will be to speak to my sister, the Lady of the Stone. She holds the sun hostage and gives the Lord of Shadow his power. If he were to fall, the Dragon could rise again."

The Tales of Winding

I have to say, all of the posts thus far are just delightful! I'm flailing with excitement over here, hahaha.

I may post this weekend to ensure everyone has something to investigate, respond to and interact with. ;) Carry on!

Mirror, Fox, Key

The city was silent -- save for the distant roar of a crowd declaring revolution upon the burning palaces. Smoke trickled along the streets, mixing with blood and demon-ash.

On the tower, another bolt was notched.

With Ronken ready and in-tow, Meryn dashed for the statue, across a narrow gap between buildings that would have been easy for anyone with two working legs and half a wit to cross -- but unfortunately, at the moment Ronken had neither.

He tripped on the roof's edge, cracked his head on the opposite wall, and tumbled and wrenched out of Meryn's grip; he dropped like a stone three stories, and landed with a sickening crack that echoed up the alley.

A bolt whizzed past Meryn's ear, cutting her hair and drawing blood. Another, a split second later, would embed itself into the roof where she had been standing. The statue -- a stylized gargoyle in the shape of a horned cat with a disturbingly human face -- offered her momentary shelter, but the archer was not the type to give up.

Above her were the open arches of a bell tower, and inside the great dark bells hung still and cold. Something small glittered among them, and came to rest on the ledge of one of the arches: a golden mechanical bird.

The tower had a view of the city: the fires that dotted the streets, the greater inferno that had once been the government office, and the explosion-pocked wasteland that extended beyond the walls. The demons were all gone, soaked up by the now-vanished portal-in-the-sky -- there was no sign of Spook, either.

Night was falling; stars glinted behind a cool violet sky to show the way -- between Meryn and the north wall was a labyrinth of unwieldy structures, whirring turbines, rattling boilers and plumes of smoke. Within the bell tower, a spiraling staircase led down into the rooms below.

A bolt whizzed by her, from the opposite direction; there were two marksmen now, both aimed for her head.

---

"You're not very good at this, are you?"

The same hooded woman who had given Ronken the sealed letter knelt in front of his still-alive form with a small smile; with a pastel pencil in her gloved hand, she drew a bright rune on his forehead. She pulled a necklace out of the collar of her cloak, and she touched the small silvery pendant against the newly drawn rune.

A surge of energy coursed through Ronken's veins and repaired his bones and his injuries; in a moment, the effects of his fall were completely gone, his ankle was completely healed, and even the lingering effects of his earlier drug habit had left him.

The woman dropped the silver bell back down her collar, and she smiled at him with humor. She had dark hair, her skin was the color of acorns, her eyes almost glowed a bright green, and she was covered in dark patches of crystalline stone. "Good morning, Sunshine. I owe you a payment. You can call me Switch. You're welcome."

A shimmer of light glowed just inside her cloak; the fairy was recovering, curled in a pocket.

A flicker of a shadow passed overhead; more people were jumping the rooftops in pursuit of Meryn. The woman glanced upward, but was confident they would not be seen.

Mirror, Fox, Key

Ok, I'll do this thing ... soon. SOON.

Moonfiend

@drewccapp Whoa awesome! Have a blast! :D

@Onjage Hey there! It's probably best to get a feel for the RP by reading the first post of the OOC and skimming through the first 4 mod posts or so (you could really just skim the IC posts that are by me, up until the one that starts with "The city had never been so quiet" to get the gist.) Essentially there's been an enormous explosive noise, lots of lightning, after which the grand majority of city-folk were immediately turned to stone. The sky is split in two: night and day, split right over the center of the city.

The OOC first post should hopefully have all you need to make a character that fits in this world, but let us know any questions! :)

Wings Askew

@Disciple Cain Hey, sure! It's only been half an hour or so since Kelari was last seen, so she could really have been just walking around exploring for awhile -- or whatever you like. :)

The Tales of Winding

THE MESSAGE TREE
Situated in the middle of the woods is the Message Tree, a towering oak with a mismatched puzzle of a building situated amongst its boughs. With its shabby red roof and confusing architecture, it's a miracle it's managed to survive storm and time. It is here that letters and packages gets sent or delivered. Always on time, no matter it be rain or shine. Such is the way of the Tree, and the many couriers who dwell in it.

---

I hope this is alright for a location.

@Fubsy

That's awesome! Will post it up now. :D

Wings Askew

@Rekaigan Yep! However much you'd like to do so, they're essentially your NPCs. :)

Wings Askew

Yay a post!

@Rekaigan Just making sure you're aware that you have the all-clear to RP that fox of yours as your own, despite the fact that I've manipulated it a bit. :)

Wings Askew

"Great job guys, synergy for the win!"

"Yo! We never really had the chance to introduce ourselves. I'm Sera, just Sera, hi!"

"Hi just Sera. I'm Blin. That thing could have killed us all, no-way I'm doing that again."

"Heya, Sera, I’m Nikki~ Oh hey, what’s that? Hey Blank, come look at this! That bony bird had a sword in it! I wonder if that’s normal for them.” Curiosity sent her over to the second pile of debris, and moments later she triumphantly held up a key. “Ooh, I wonder what it goes to? It looks like some stuff I’ve seen in the ruins....”

Blank walked from his pile of bone dust to join the others around Blin's, plucking the key from Nikki's distracted fingers as he went. "A free prize with every kill, huh? I suppose these Chimes are like any other bird, gathering anything that catches their eye. Do they have nests then I wonder? If so, they must be filled with valuable metals and gemstones. I wonder what this goes to?"

Eli's gaze moved towards Sir Shroom. "Death to the Chimes! Death to the Chimes!" Eli started chanting, Terror soon following with tiny squeaks of its own. "Although... would you mind explaining to us...The hell are those Chimes?"

Gaius looked over the scene, noticing the mushroom people scurrying about and speaking nonsense that he didn't bother to acknowledge. "Aye..." He mumbled, "Must've hit my head harder than I thought.."

A colorful quiet drifted peacefully throughout the oversized forest; in the absence of the Chimes, birds began once again to warble and argue in the boughs overhead. Bushes shifted and rustled as woodland creatures scurried by; a trio of deer emerged from under the draping leaves to chew at the sprightly grasses on a hill a short distance away.

The key in Blank's palm was very old, and appeared to have been molded by hand and crafted out of crude brass. Instead of teeth, there was a single metal panel that was punched through with tiny symbols: stars and squares and triangles. The bow of the key was an ornately carved knot of three winding lines. It was, altogether, as big as Blank's hand and unusually heavy for its size.

The little mushroom-man hopped to the ground and grinned toothlessly up at Eli. "I dunno! They just showed up last night!" He waved his little arms in confusion. "There was a flash and a boom and everything shivered and then a whole flock of them bony-birds swooped in and started grabbing people and flinging rocks around like they owned the place! I call them Chimes, but I dunno what they are really. There's more than those, I know that, but at least two down, right?"

He'd barely finished speaking when he scrambled and waddled straight at Sera, excited to get in on all this introduction business that was going on without him. "Hi Sera, I'm Kipkik, just Kip! I like your dreamwisp! Very fwooshy!"

He rushed over to Blin and hopped for attention. "Hi Blin, I'm Kip! You're very sleepy aren't you? Ask your dreamwisp not to eat me okay?"

With a waddle and a toddle of his big capped head, he tugged on Nikki's pantleg. "Hi Nikki, I'm Kip! I like your dreamwisp too! Very fluttery! Do you like shiny things?"

He didn't wait for an answer before he waddled off toward Blank -- but he got one good look at that wolf and hesitated fearfully. "Nice puppy!" He didn't move too close, and finally decided to skip over to Gaius, where he knocked on the knight's boot.

"Hi! I'm Kip! What's your name, mister tin man? Your dreamwisp is very pretty!" Kip was so enamored and excited by the prospect of making all these new friends that he didn't consider actually stopping for conversation.

He hopped and waved his little arms. "Hey! Hey Eli! Hey Sera! Hey Blin! Hey Nikki! Hey wolf-guy! Hey tin man! Are you from the island? Are you islanders? From the sky! From the village in the clouds! Huh? Yeah! You're sky-people!" He laughed joyously and ran in circles. "Sky people! Sky people! I have sky-people friends!" He stopped after a moment and sat down, huffing. "But what are sky people doing here? Did you fall?"

Rahna went after the mushroom, her curiosity flooding over. She soon reached the log that it hid in and took a peek inside. "Hello? Mister Mushroom?"

The mushroom stared at her from within the dark log -- and after a few moments, slowly crawled closer. "Hello." It was a small, almost childish voice. He slowly reached out and gripped the edge of the hole in the log, and poked his lopsided capped head out, peering up at Rahna with beetle-black eyes. "You're weird. Are you going to eat me?" His eyes lifted to the strange fox at Rahna's shoulder. "Is your dreamwisp going to eat me? I'm not very good."

He crawled out entirely, slow and miserable as if accepting his fate, certain he was about to be eaten.

The forest around them was deep and enormous; pools of light shone down between the magnificent leaves and powerful branches of the trees that towered overhead. Everything was bright green, pocked occasionally by violet blooms and red petals; and blue, white-flowered vines that wrapped trunks and upturned boulders like neat packages. The birds and wildlife had begun to sing and skitter again, now that the chaos of the crashing rocks had been silenced.

The fox at Rahna's shoulder had noticed -- but had not understood -- an aura of energy that surrounded a distant statue, half hidden behind flowered foliage. The energy didn't change, and there was nothing suspicious or dangerous about it, so the fox was inclined to relax.

The little mushroom squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting the inevitable.