 BEYOND THE WALLS.You have decided to explore, despite the insistence that there is nothing to go looking for. That it's all fine, and that the trip is dangerous. You don't need to put yourself into unnecessary harm! Stay here! Have a drink!
But there has to be something more going on - Astoria wouldn't have dropped you off if that wasn't the case, right? So you decide to investigate. Decide to pack up some supplies, grab an extra coat that Astoria left in your room, and head out.
The first thing you'll find is the door itself. Tucked into an indiscreet alleyway in the center of the city and covered in a layer of ice and snow, is a doorway. Boarded up with wood, surprisingly enough, and relatively new. It doesn't take too much to get inside, and what you find is a stairwell carved from stone.
THE LABYRINTH
The stairwell goes on seemingly forever, curving around and through the rock, and shooting off in each direction. This is indeed a labyrinth of sorts, so you will want to keep close to each other for fear of getting lost. These stairs will take you the entire first day to get down, through a maze of slick stone and no light. The stairs, every 100 steps or so, do flatten out to a small landing of sorts, before taking off in at least three different directions. Like we said- be careful. ➜ There is no one way to get out from this labyrinth. As long as you move down, the stairs will all lead you out the base of the mountain on the right side towards the horizon. There is no one exit, so even if you do get separated from others you will end up along the same side of the mountain. Though your character may not know that. THE TUNDRA
This is going to be the most dangerous part of the mission. It will take 3 days to traverse the land if you don't get sidetracked, and finally make it to the strange glow that you know has to be the source of all of this. The land is just as you expect it to be - harsh, cold, icey, and rough. The winds never seem to stop, only shifting different directions whenever they seem bored. Sometimes it is a light breeze, other times reaching near-impossible gusts. Thankfully, there seem to be structures for you to take cover in. It is just as the natives described, so none of this quite seems out of place.
Though what you didn't quite expect to find, or sense, or realize, is that you don't seem to be the only ones out here. While they never seem to get very close, you get the sense you are being followed. Or maybe followed isn't the right word. Hunted. Great beasts do roam this land, giant creatures that take camouflage in the snow and ice, watching. They won't strike out at you unprompted, but each night when you settle, you can feel their eyes. Following. ➜ This section will only take 3 days, unless you decide to take it more slowly, or get distracted.
➜ The creatures will not attack you unless you attack them first. You do not get any clear sense of what they look like, but they are roughly the size of a house and move silently through the night. If you do decide to hunt them down/attack them, comment back to this post and let us know, as you'll get some fun new info! At the expense of your health, but hey. It might be worth it. THE GLOW
You will reach this on the fourth day, a widespread orange-ish glow that stands out amongst the blue and whites of the ice around you. It is coming from behind a large wall of stone, so you must make it around this wall before you can truly see the source.
And the source is a large (about the size of an olympic swimming pool) crevice in the ground. This crevice, or crack, has no bottom from what you can tell, but if you get too close the glow is too warm and too bright for you to really tell. And it is glowing, and it is letting off warmth, as this area is the most warm you've been since arriving here. But it's hard to tell from what, or why. What you can see, though, is that the snow and ice around this area is completely gone, melted away, and that the crevice seems to be...growing. Bits and pieces of the rock and stone are breaking away and falling into the glow.
You can surmise that the 'darkness' Astoria warned you about has to do with whatever this giant, growing crack in the ground. ➜ After some investigation around this glow, you will be able to find out that whatever energy is being given off, it is seeming into the ground all around it. This is the reason for the melting, the slow destruction of the stone, but also - from what you can tell - the magic being used back in Joikull. It emits the same color, and same warmth, though they have apparently found a way to transfer this energy/glow into various other ways. Anyone who makes it to the glow will know these things/be able to figure these out.
➜ The glow is coming from deep within the crevice. Deep. And the closer you get to it, the warmer it gets. Standing along the edge isn't too hot, just enough that you don't need your jackets, but if you do decide to descend into it, it will get hotter and hotter until you are unable to breathe/exist.
➜ If you have any other things you wish to look into or investigate, be sure to leave your comments here and we will let you know what else you can find, if anything! (aka, there is more information to be uncovered, depending on how you investigate!)
And as you return to the city, the trip will once again take the four days. What will you do with your new information? Also, your watches will have worked this entire trip, so if you need to let anyone know back in the city, feel free! |
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acatamods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
acatalepsy_logs2019-06-15 11:12 am
no subject
[Ruby considers the idea briefly. It makes enough sense for her.]
What if keep camp here until they lose interest in us? Then we can try and follow them from a safe distance until they get on their way again. With Crescent Roses' scope we shouldn't have to worry about them getting too far away that we can't find them again.
no subject
[Whether they actually came back is another story entirely, but he sets that aside for now as the conversation moves to the point of potentially following the creatures. At the suggestion, he glances outside, as if gauging how likely it is that they'll get away with that.]
The problem with that is that these creatures are way better adapted to survive in this kind of environment without needing to eat or move for a while than we would be. We'd have to be pretty sure we could outlast their interest, otherwise it'd be a risky waste of resources.
[They look like the kind of creatures that could survive off body fat for a while, especially with how slow they've been moving. Animals like that are more likely to keep a store than something swift and agile.]
no subject
She considers both their points.]
True. It's a little strange that NO ONE would have left the village before, but it's not like we're going to turn back now just to ask. The creatures aren't our main objective either, now that you mention it, they're interesting but clearly they are native. They wouldn't be causing a disruption and we have no way of comparing current behavior to anything that might be deemed strange or unusual for another time.
[She looks out at the herd again. She doesn't have most of her gadgets with her, so she can't really make out in much detail what they are doing.]
I think you're right. It'd be nice to follow them, but we also don't have the supplies for that sort of expedition and having the right tools is always important.