Guild Ties Role-Play

by **JerriLeah7** 10th May 2017, 7:30 pm

First topic message reminder :

Guild Ties Starter

A brief summary of current events, as well as the starting conditions for each character will be posted below when the role-play is ready to begin. Please remember, when role-playing in Guild Ties, to use time, location, and attention stamps. Although these stamps are not required, they will make the job for the RPM 100% easier to navigate through and to understand. Thank you.

Post Colors

Character Color Codes
cc3300	Yuzu, the Gunpowder Witch	@Ink
0066ff	Ryūko, the Swordeater	@Ink
cc99cc	Silk, the Child of Arachne	@Ink
cc9999	Kaimele Manistique	@xenolion
cc6600	Jacobi Rovengo	@xenolion
6633ff	Daisan Zeruko	@xenolion
ff9900	Claire Alexandra Lokhorst	@Luna
ff3366	Rocket Cerabella Linelliese	@RadioTanuki
cc0033	Juliette Napolitano	@JulietHasAGun
cc9900	Hamlet Napolitano	@JulietHasAGun
ff3333	Nymeria Sonata	@Goetia
9933ff	Edel Sonata	@Goetia
00CC66	Ryla Tarslen	@HikariKuragari
9999ff	Ryushi Hirose	@HikariKuragari
4A966F	Xiax	@MethosArchaic
3788ec	Nadleeh Thessalonica	@JerriLeah7
00ccff	Sonja	@Phirron
7272ff	Corona	@Phirron
787776	Zero	@LightningFang
ff0a02	Elizabeth Scarlet	@LightningFang

Separators:

by **JerriLeah7** 29th September 2017, 1:09 am

[ATTN: CLOSED; Rhodes Guild Hall]

The primary Guild Hall of Rhodes is nothing like those of the other Guilds. For most, there would be a small dining room with various tables and chairs that those of the Guild, as well as visitors can go to eat and dine with their fellow friends and family. These rooms usually opened up into the Guilds' kitchens, as well. However, Rhodes is built quite differently. Rather, there is a bar on the right side--this bar offers a mixture of snacks, alcohol, and Guild merchandise for sale behind the bartender, whom was not only well known within the guild, but well loved. Two words: Alcohol Mage.

Still, yet, the kitchens would need to be reached at the side entrance, because the main entrance served to enter only the bar and not a dining room--except that the bar was only the side-right wall entertainment. There, at the back of the room, was a raised platform where a throne-like chair was placed with great care and decoration, upon which a specific Guild Master generally sat. From either side of this platform, stairs wound downwards into the rest of the room, placing him several feet higher above any other that moved about within the main room.

Opposing the bar on the right wall, the left wall was a fantastically large set of pin-up boards. The first was a set of Guild Members and their Guild Ranks, but then there was another set of ranks for each member, as well, for their "inner rank" to show how they ranked in comparison to the others of their fellow Guild Mates. This encouraged the competition that Connor not only upheld, but enjoyed. Then, there were two quest boards--those that were the common, general quests and those that were earned through a good fight in the ring.

That's right--the center of this Guild Hall was not one, but four fighting rings where battle took place. These rings were simply mats upon which to stand, really, for boundary rules...but they worked well. There was almost always at least one battle mat used upon the entry way, and many from the local town came here for entertainment and booze. This was what largely kept the Guild afloat when the quests could not, and the Rhodes Guild was never wanting during Connor's little "reign."

At this very afternoon, just after lunch, Connor is seated upon his great chair as he watches three of the four mats fill up with great battles. No one cheats on his watch--but that isn't why Connor sits over them. Rather, it makes them nervous. It makes them all nervous. That's what made him smile on the inside. A group of people that not only did their best, but learned to fight under pressure and boy, was he going to continue to put them through all kinds of pressure. His people will not fold. They will not fall.

It's a normal day, just the usual day of all days. Uneventful, but beautiful and calm. The weather is nice. The fights are going great. Everything is fantastic, except that he notices the magic. It's as if everything in the air tastes...sulfuric. Acidic. The air burned at the back of his throat and several of the members of the Guild began to cough as the battles halted and those with exhaustion stalled to get a breath. He called the battles off with a motion of his arms, to which he could tell they did not really need to see. They wouldn't have been able to continue if they wanted.

The air became hot, intensely so and it wasn't long before everyone was sweating as though they had grown suddenly very close to the very sun in the sky. Gulping down his dry throat, he yearned for a drink, coughing a bit as others began to look at the door with every bit of tension and concern. Just as he could, they could feel it coming, too. They could feel the power coming nearer and nearer. The heat was almost unbearable as the doors opened and a familiar figure entered the Guild Hall without invitation.

Connor recognized the woman immediately, his eyes widening in surprise as he forced himself to remain calm, still within his big chair. He tried to look as casual as he could, but he deeply wished for water. The intruder stepped into the main hall as other members just stood there, trying to assess the situation. The fiery hot, red light that flickered within the slots of her armor made the source of the heat rather obvious, if it hadn't been already. From first glance, it was as if her very core was that of a thundering volcano's, ready to burst forth with promising embers of destruction.

Her armor is...immaculately designed, fitted to perfection. Her arsenal of weapons are at the ready. It is clear she's ready for battle as she looks to him with a small smile upon those silent lips, her white eyes and hair reflecting with the red and orange light of her inner heat of whatever magic that she claims. Still, the guild members don't move--they wouldn't unless Connor gave the command. After all, none here would recognize her and her intention to them might be unclear.

To Connor, however, her intention is more than clear. There is no doubt and he had expected a visitor, but...not this one. With a deep sigh, he beckons for a drink as one of his nearby members move quickly obtain a flask of it for him that happened to be nearby--almost fully vaporized, but just enough to get a drink, to his relief. He takes a gulp as the woman simply walks in through the entrance, moving to the very center of the four rings with such a silence throughout the entire room that only her metallic footsteps could be heard against the foundation of the Guild Hall.

Ausra Sahar:

"Ausra Sahar," Connor let the name slip off of his tongue, "What's it been...ten years?"

She grins, pleased to be recognized, "Connor. Long time, no fight."

This is more than enough. An agent of V is an enemy and it is one that must be snuffed out. Putting their history into the back of his mind, he blinks as he thinks to himself: "Transfer Kandis" as he traces a line into his palms with his middle fingers. The young girl, still rather new to the Guild, had no idea what was about to happen to her, but Kandis soon found herself seated within the Guild Master's chair with horror and surprise, afraid of the cause.

Kandis was the one closest to the woman and now, the Shield found himself there, a mere two feet away as his hands extended outwards with a barrier form a circular, crystalline, and green shield before his hands and his body leans into the force of the shield's creation as he pushes up against the woman's body as he appears. His hands had started, crossed at his chest before uncrossing and opening up to create the shield and his eyes glowed a deep, vibrant green as the shield forced against her and the massive burst of magic pushed the woman into the air instantly.

She hadn't seen it coming. Within moments, she was thrust into the bar, glasses and bottles shattering as members of the Guild soon backed away. The members knew not to interfere with the combat unless given the word, so they all quickly backed away with looks of concern and side commentary to each other, speaking over the noise with words of panic and inquiries regarding the identity of the woman now confirmed as an intruder.

Ausra is smiling as she stands up, using the damaged and scorched bar as a leaning structure to get her bearings. The polearm on her back, the sword at her side--neither are yet drawn. Nor is her own shield, but she lifts up a single finger to wipe away the blood from her lip as she glares at him with displeasure. She speaks with a deep voice, an ashy sultry tone that digs into Connor's bones.

"That's one way to say hello," Ausra says, "but lacking. That's okay, though--"

She pulls out her polearm and points it outwards in his direction, this time with a look of nostalgia in her eyes, "One last kiss will be a fitting end to what we used to be."

With that, her pupils shifted from pitch black into a brazen red-yellow, as did the cracks along her lips as her face began to fracture from the heat of the lava that threatened to pour out from her now, red-hot armor. Just one touch would significantly harm Connor--this much was obvious to anyone that was looking on at the wreck of a situation, feeling the tension and magic rising within the air.

The floor didn't burn, neither did the bar, so...at least she had chosen not to burn down the place where they once fought together. Perhaps her sentimentality would be her downfall. Connor could hope--but he also hoped that he had what it would take to murder the love of his life.

#Guild_Villain

by Ink 29th September 2017, 11:57 am

[ATTN: IE Ilyana's Group]
Mountain Trail	Morning

For the majority of the trip, Ryūko kept to herself. She managed to get a few quick bursts of sword exercises in whenever they stopped on the trail. At one point they took a pause near the crystal clear lake, shimmering in the golden daylight. Before departing, Ilyana performs some manner of rite or prayer.

Your eyes have glazed over with that longing glimmer, again. Your mind is in the past, again? Ryujin says, interrupting Ryūko's train of thought.

Ryūko simply nods with the most nostalgic of smiles. "Ee. I was just remembering the lake near my village. How I'd visit the shrine there, and pray to the spirit with mother." Her smile soon fades, and she tears her wistful gaze away from the calm waters. "But that was a long time ago. Right now there is work to be done. I can admire another time." She proceeds to follow suit, joining others as they make their way to the train.

Eventually, they came to a train station. Before boarding, Ryūko paused, staring uncomfortably at the car. Heaving a sigh of disdain, she forces herself into the metal tube, taking a solitary seat in the public space. As claustrophobic as it was already, the additional people made train rides no more enjoyable. Still, the sectioned-off rooms would only get in the way even more, should she need to be on her feet and ready. Ahead of her, Ilyana attracts the attention of the majority of passengers. Seeing the guild master speak with others so plainly gives ease to Ryūko's own mind. It was... relaxing, in a way - a good distraction from their being in a steel trap with minimal maneuverable space.

Ilyana isn't the only one to draw attention, however. A young man takes a seat beside Ryūko, though she doesn't immediately think anything of it. "Hello," he says.

"Ee? Kon'ni- eh... good evening," Ryūko responds.

"I couldn't help noticing you're obviously not from around here. Even your clothes are exotic. Are you from Nihon, by any chance."

Ryūko slowly turns her whole head to the man, eyes slowly lighting up as enthusiastically as a child about to receive a present they hadn't at all asked for. "Y-yes."

"Your home country has been fascinating me, as of late. It's been showing up in publications a lot, with the new trade agreements, and the increase in tourism. Are you visiting?"

"No. I've lived here for a few years, now, actually. I... came here with a pair of dear friends. B-but I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have."

Having had a very engaging conversation with the man on the differing cultures of her homeland, and her new home, Ryūko hadn't noticed the time slip away. Eventually, they'd reached their destination and it was time to disembark. The mounted their steeds and were off for the next stop on their journey, all feeling refreshed. Ryūko had needed to speak to that man, honestly. Composed though she was, there was always the lingering homesickness, shining even through the pain of her more recent memories of the land she once called home.

This was... a different experience, however. The mountains in Nihon were covered in green and white. They were lush habitats. These cliffs with nothing but uneven dirt and jagged rock, all the way up the winding road. Her horse was growing weary from the instant they set foot on the path. It was a relief when they came to a small community. After resting for the night, Ilyana provided them with equipment designed for scaling the cliff. "I see. Are we expected to find something at the top? Hm..." Ryūko stares up the cliff wall. "Ryujin."

In the next moment, she summons her draconic spectral blade. Jamming the tip into the face, she pulls herself up a small way by the hilt, using it as a climbing tool. She pulls the blade out and repeats to gain more altitude, beginning to ascend more rapidly.

[ATTN: Quin Group]
Star Sound guild Town	Morning

The tavern where the group would be staying had a certain charm to it. Though it still wasn't terribly much to behold. Amenities were made, and despite Ruoh's modesty, all Silk saw was a new project. Something to keep her busy in her off time. As they spent time in the town, Silk crafted beautiful window-dressing, bedding, and tablecloths, among other small wonders craftsmanship. Soon her room was well adorned with the faux-luxurious decor.

While out and about, Silk was the subject of many a side-eyed whisper and secret conversation. She made sure to keep the brim of her sunhat pulled down over the upper half of her face for the majority of their stay. No matter how accustomed Silk had grown to this brand of... attention, it did grow old after a time. Must people be so predictable? How very boring it all was. She at least couldn't be annoyed with the children. They didn't know any better. And as their stay continued, she crafted all-new play clothing for them - sturdy garbs that could handle even the roughest of games. They were, for the most part, darling kids. Though Silk was far more than a seamstress in their stay. She was tasked with supervision as well. When one child, in particular, stepped out of line, he soon found himself face first in the dirt, mysteriously tripping on air as the other children stood around and mocked him. He'd learn, in time, that one should only act tough if they could back it up. A sly smirk graced Silk's lips as the boy stormed off in a huff, his face red as an apple.

At other times, Silk turned to using her conversational skills to try getting anything she could out of people, pertaining to this key they were searching for. The search turned up no results, in the long run. Some people Silk would observe quietly as well, using her web lines to listen in on their conversations once she closed out her dialogue with them. It was all drivel, of course. Most of it was only superficial babbling about her appearance or Rockett's. Painfully uninteresting stuff, really. Though the more spiteful ones were bookmarked in Silk's mind for another time. With five eyes to observe with, it was difficult to forget a face.

Silk was even afforded other opportunities. Her webbing and strength proved useful for aiding the construction effort at the would-be Star Sound Guild Hall. She was exceptionally effective at craning heavy loads to higher levels of the superstructure. Asking the construction crew yielded nothing, and neither did prodding any of the Star Sound hopefuls.

During breakfast of the sixth day, the subject of using Silk's foresight abilities to help comes up, but she simply shakes her head. "Unfortunately, that would be ill-advised. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. Divination is no mere parlor trick. Especially where it concerns the webs of fate. When peering into a person's future, there is... a cost. I'm sorry to say that when I did it for our dear princess, it was only a very lucky guess." From there she quietly sips her morning tea.

by **Luna** 15th October 2017, 4:48 pm

IE Group at White Cross Guild Hall

Claire had been listening in to the conversation of Ham and Zedd talk. It seemed like everything was going fine until Zero crossed the line. And she meant that quite literally. She sucked her breath in as Zero came flying out of the door by a table top. She knew that she was going to feel that in the morning. She rushed over to her and bent down on one knee to check on her. “Are you alright Zero?” she asked.

She watched as Zero stood up and rushed over to the ghost and she shook her head. Zero was hard headed. She could see the people beginning to panic as the crowd watched it happen as well. Ham's voice rose up and called for her asking her to do something. “Don't worry Ham, I'm on It!” She said.

She makes her way over to the crowed and raises her voice calling for attention. As she does, she passes Xiax. He too was trying to calm the masses down. “Attention please, Attention please! I NEED for everyone to calm down and listen to me. As long as you don't cross the line you will be just fine. If you feel the need to back up please do! Please everyone, let's back up and give everyone here some space!.” She said.

Claire began backing the people up that were with the carts and horses. That way they could keep calm and establish a sense of calmness. She bought the group together and soon had several others helping her to get others to calm down as well. There were a few who were still panicking but most everyone were now beginning to calm down and even walking closer to where they had been before. “It's best if you stay back.” She told them as the went a head and moved back.

Claire stayed with rest of everyone though and made sure to keep everyone from freaking out again. She knew that wasn't what any of them needed right now. Gale looked like he had just popped in. She wondered if he had been sent to meet them. For that matter, how did he know to come here to meet them? It could always be a good thing or a bad thing with him. But for that matter it looked that way with several of her mates at this time. Poor Ham just received a bunch of ….well who knows what kind of people. They really weren't all that great. At least they had managed to do their job the first go round without getting killed. She had to take a sigh at that. She could have thrown a rock at Zero for that.

Claire makes her way over to Gale who was just standing around. "Gale, why don't you join me and the others over here while we wait for Ham and July to fix the present situation? Xiax is over here as well. I could introduce him to you. It is good to see you again. It's been a while."

by JulietHasAGun 15th October 2017, 7:40 pm

(ATTN: WHITE CROSS GUILD HALL, CLAIRE, XIAX, ZERO, GALE, RONALDI)

Zedd has simply stood still, unmoving as Zero stood and walked out of the symbol's range. She was already heading back when Hamlet moved to stop her from getting into the magical symbol again. He was so angry that he barely heard Juliette's words to him. She was trying to calm him. Still, seeing the people panic in the distance was enough to calm him slightly. Zeddicus never enjoyed to see fear in those of others, especially if it was caused by him.

Slightly mollified by Hamlet's ability to stop Zero from approaching him again, he heard her weak apology and said nothing as his face shifted from a red glow to a blue, cool glow. His temperature regulated back to what it should be and he simply levitated as the furniture returned to the inside of the White Cross Guild Hall, one piece at a time. Things were back to the way they were as the doors closed, albeit with tension in the air.

"White Cross members, as well as the White Cross Guild Master, are all in the town," Zedd repeats calmly, "You're welcome to head there, now, if you have business with our Guild. Have a good day."

Ham had thankfully managed to grab Zero before she could run back over to the extremely angry ghost. Really, first she had almost let Claire die, now she'd angered and provoked an otherwise peaceful spirit- to top off how strange she'd been acting the entire mission. Was she genuinely an A rank, or was Ilyana playing some sort of prank on him? Was this a test? No matter- Zedd and his spiritual fury was a more pressing concern. His grip on Zero was firm, strong, but not aggressive, he pulled her back behind him as he faced Zedd- making sure she wouldn't run off like an idiot and bolt towards the spectre.

He watched as he....apparently either took his sisters words to heart, or had burnt out his anger. Either way, Ham was grateful he wasn't going to need to fight the spirit sentry.

He was composed, his voice unwavering, calm, collected after a brief spike of panic. "We shall be taking out leave then, Zeddicus. Hopefully we shall meet again. Our conversation was....enlightening." And maybe I offer you helpful alternatives to hitting people with furniture.

July watched as her brother spoke to Zedd, who had addressed the crowd, and thankfully let down all the intimidating, floating furniture. Had he actually listened to her, or was it a coincidence?

"Thank you kindly, Zeddy," July looked at him with a wink as she walked back towards the group, eyes still on him. His anger did little to frighten her- what could he do? Hit her with a desk? She'd been hit with worse, and broken legs could be fixed. "Hopefully we can continue our riviting conversation after I talk to your man in charge. And hey, sorry about her, again. Bit daft, that one." Insensitive, but true. Maybe the table had knocked some sense into her.

by **JerriLeah7** 15th October 2017, 8:54 pm

[ATTN: Zero, Ham, July, Xiax, Claire, Gale] White Cross Guild Hall

Ronaldi is relieved as the ghost calms and the furniture is returned from where it came. The situation de-escalated far more quickly than he ever could have imagined and the spirit seemed entirely calm within seconds. Amazed, he wonders if this was done by magic or something else. Did the girl have calming magic of some kind? Or was this something else? There's just no way to be sure.

Of course, the hostages are still freaking out. Not as badly as they were, thanks to the Claire woman--that's what the guy in charge called her, right? Claire? Clara? Something. Now that the hectic table toss was done, everyone was just standing around, talking. It was done. It wouldn't be long before they'd head to the town, then. Fantastic. Still, he was told to follow Gale, who was told to meet up with this friends. Why? What is their purpose here and what are they supposed to do when they meet with the White Cross Guild?

Ronaldi just stands there and waits. People are just talking it out and he's ready to get moving. Young folk take their time with everything, though--they are the ones that have it to waste. He certainly doesn't, but he bites his tongue. He certainly isn't in charge of whatever Quest they are on, so he'll just have to keep wasting time...

[ATTN: Sylmeria, Nymeria I & II, Ryuko] Terran Mountains

Ilyana sets up her climbing gear on each of the women. Ryuko looked happy to climb without it, but Ilyana made sure she put on safety gear beforehand, regardless of her eccentric way of climbing the mountain. It was with strange and impractical taste, but Ilyana could respect any culture when she was so uncertain of its reasons or traditions. So, she said nothing as she assisted each of the others their gear and then proceeded to speak with them before the ascent.

"Okay," Ilyana says, "Remember. I have wings. So if you fall, I can catch you. I'm going to be nearby to help each of you with each step, so don't worry. It'll be a bit scary when you're new to this or out of practice, but I'm the best safety guide to have for such a climb, I assure you."

An hour later, they are climbing a mountain and it is exhilarating. Of course, several people look uncomfortable and she can tell that the second host of Nymeria is struggling greatly--expected, but easily ignored. She will still protect her, of course--both of her. Unfortunately, she promised Rook and she's responsible for all of Nymeria. After a long descent, they do come to a nice break from their climb as they find themselves upon a small crevasse int he side of the middle part of the mountain where they can take rest in the shade.

With that all set up, Ilyana pulls out some water and drinks heavily, tired from the climb, herself. She's been using her wings as little as possible so that she will have them at full strength, should they be needed to halt a fall at any point. Overall, the climb isn't too terrible, but it is definitely slowed by a great deal thanks to Nymeria. It's unfortunate, but unavoidable and all that Ilyana can do is try to help her improve. So, she teaches her, helps her find good places to find a good foothold, shows her how to use the pitons properly, and so on. Mountain climbing is a lot of work.

[ATTN: Silk, Sonja, Rocket, Sir Coaltar] Caeroot Village

Another morning brought Ruoh closer to the days where his restlessness grew. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do about that. He rarely stayed in one place for more than a few days at a time--including the Guild Hall. Ruoh is a man of action, always on his feet, always on his way to somewhere else for something new at someone's need. Of course, he enjoyed that factor. Ruoh loves to travel. He loves to see new things and meet new people. If there's anything grand about life, it's the fact that you'll never run out of new people to meet.

Caeroot Village is so small, so eventless. Nothing happens here and it doesn't take long for Ruoh to run out of new people to meet. Yet, not one person would even appear as though they are hiding something. No one seems to have an enormous key lying around. No one speaks of a key. No mention of a magical artifact of any kind, for that matter. It's boring and it is just....terrible. How could anyone live in such an insufferably small place? All they do is farm caeroot and trade! How can anyone possibly live there?

And so, on this long, boring day, Ruoh has purchased wood--perfectly good wood to cut into. Carpentry is his trade, after all, and if he's going to be sitting around while he searches, he's going to be sitting around doing something. And so, with his kit at his side and a good block of wood to work on, Ruoh sets to work, spending his entire morning doing just that--beautiful carpentry.

It isn't until around lunch time that Coaltar and Rocket are approaching him--except that Coaltar accidentally knocks a glass of water off of the table as he jumps from her shoulder to its surface as a means to get down towards the ground. The cat turns, seeing its error as a man exclaims in surprise--his drink now spilling down his front and revealing the outline of a rather large, rod-shaped structure underneath it against his chest. The man quickly puts his arms around himself, rushing up to get away from view and clean himself up.

As the man assures the cat and the young apologetic girl that everything is okay before he takes his leave, Ruoh smiles to himself. Pleased, he looks at Coaltar and wonders just what sort of tricks that cat is really up to and he silently asks himself if Coaltar's little accident was intentional or accidental. With a quick motion of his fingers, he gestures Rocket over to him and asks her to retrieve their Guild mates and to bring them to him. He has no idea what plans they had for the day, but those plans are just going to have to change.

[ATTN: Daisan, Elizabeth] Tavran Ruins

Reiza jumps, her head turning immediately at Daisan's voice. She hadn't noticed him there before. He was probably here before them, though--he's deeper into the ruins, by his position, unless he just literally somehow worked his way around them with some kind of stealth ability. Anything is possible. She looks the man over, but he doesn't look like anything special. Generic eyes and hair, generic height for a man....pretty much basic.

Lifting up her hand, she opens up her fingers to reveal her left palm and show her Guild Mark, "Reiza of Darkness Shrouds. We're here on Quest duty. You? I mean, if you're a civilian, you shouldn't be--"

Her speech is interrupted as she hears a strange, twisting sound from above them near the top of the dome. Looking up to the rafters, she sees the sunlight's rays bleeding in to the side. It's still early morning. She looks around quietly, relieved that they all fell quiet after hearing the noise. They are all looking around alertly, looking for the cause of the strange sound, but all was quiet after that. Reiza couldn't find anything.

"Well, that was creepy," Reiza says, "Not the first time I've been here, but that's definitely the first time I've ever heard a sound quite like that. It didn't sound...natural."

[ATTN: Yuzu] Amatville

Attica and Zarkas both choose to wait as Yuzu and Gren both walk away. They both discuss the ramifications if either of them get caught--they are only a mile away from the town, sure, but the chances of them being able to get in and help them in time is still pretty low. Of course, Attica says she isn't entirely worried about either--both magi seem entirely capable and are survivors. Zarkas doesn't much care. He doesn't like to do anything without having a backup and both went out alone, which makes him nervous.

Still, they sit and wait for an hour before the two show back up at the time they had agreed to return. Zarkas looks relieved to see them come back and Attica just smiles and waves at them each separately. They had shown up at the same time, but from different directions.

Gren finally spoke when he reached them, "Powers again. Details. Especially you."

He points at Yuzu for this last phrase, but Attica sighs. She goes first, "I get colossal in size. That's about it. I smash things and stuff."

Green looks at her and ruffles her hair, "I know your power, silly one."

Zarkas nods, "I uh, make walls. Ice walls, really. I manipulate ice to make incredibly thick walls, bridges...rods, if I need to, for attacking."

Gren says, "How about tiger traps, spikes, blades? Dangerous things."

Zarkas shakes his head, "Not blades...I can do the spikes and stuff, though, but only static ones."

"Can you make a bubble?" Gren asks.

Zarkas blinks before he realizes that he's asking about whether or not he can make a barrier. "Oh. Um...never tried. Let's find out."

Zarkas folds his hands into fists, pressing his knuckles together before his chest before his eyes close and a blue glyph appears beneath his feet. His eyes open to reveal brilliant white eyes as a wave of energy rushes away from his body and an ice shell roughly forms around their small group, jagged and cold. It's thinner than what he's used to, but it does take up more space than walls. Even trade off, he would suppose.

Gren moves up and touches one of the spikes that is sticking out of the shell's edge. He inspects the sharpness of the spike, and then moves up to the wall to analyze the depth. "This the biggest you can do?"

"No," Zarkas says, shaking his head, "I used just a little mana just to test the structure. I can do thicker for sure. Or bigger in size, really."

Zarkas then separates his fists and as he does so, the ice shell around them begins to melt and crumble slowly. He sits back down, only briefly worried about any falling spikes or icicles. He is protective over Attica to make sure she doesn't get hurt, sheepishly grinning at his new feat. Then, they all look at Yuzu expectantly, waiting for her explanation.

by **xenolion** 16th October 2017, 10:12 pm

Daisan

{ATTN: Elizabeth, Reiza, Open }
Tavran Ruins	Unknown

--

Daisan watches the lady study him slightly, but relaxes slightly when Reiza introduces herself. “Daisan of Sheherazade, I am on a mission as well. I don’t know what interest Darkness Shrouds has here, but maybe we can work together while here.” He looks over at the other girl waiting for her to say something. His attention is drawn upward as there is some odd noise. “We should be careful from here on out then. Tell me Reiza what do you know of these ruins.” He looks at the other lady. “Have you been here before?”

{ATTN: Open }
Star Sound guild hall	Time skip

--

Kaimele

Kaimele receives the invite for dinner. At first she thought of rejecting it, but that would be rude. The conversation can be heard from outside the dining hall. Someone is having fun. She enters to see their visitor telling one of his tales. A smirk comes to her face as she finds a seat next to Reese. She remembers her brother telling her about Jacobi. She leans over and whispers in Reese's ear. "What do you know about our guest?"

Jacobi

Jacobi is in his element. He loves this group. They are not fighters, but they know how to have a good time. He is telling them about the battle for Infinity Edge since they were not there. “I only wish I was there to help you blow up DA. I knew they were shady, but never thought they would turn on a fellow guild. I mean we all don’t get along, but we won’t kill one another either. Oh and Lord Crye, thanks for putting me up for the night. The room is nice.”

by MethosArchaic 17th October 2017, 7:38 pm

[Attn: Ham, July, Claire, Zero, Gale, Ronaldi and Zedd; Location: White Cross Guildhall]

Xiax was busy trying to keep the villagers calm and safely back away from the Ghost. While he was busy doing that, some big brawny guy carrying a overly big hammer made to wreck someone came into the field of his view. Xiax unfortunately started mumbling and lost what he was trying to say as his brain tried to process this new guy Xiax didn't even remember seeing, was it a DA assassin?

That's when Claire came in and saved him from embarrassing himself too much by taking over calming the people. She did such a better job than he did, even he found himself being reassured and it only made sense that the other villagers listened to her so readily. Looking back towards the unknown person, he still couldn't recognize who it was but he was able to place the red & silver shields on the man's shoulders as guild tattoos.

"Rhodes, Rhodes." Xiax mumbled quietly to himself as he tried to remember what they were know for. "I'm pretty sure they are similar to us." by 'us' he meant Infinity Edge. Members of Rhodes were always decently welcomed by those in the circles that sometimes included Xiax, they were known to protect people. However he lowered his head as he turned away and walked between two carts to get back to helping Claire keep the people calm.

Dim lights, the pervasive smell of sweat copulating with hints of beer and smoke haze. The sizzling sound of tobacco burning as the end of a cheap cigar glowed a orangey-red glow. The sight of yellowed teeth appearing as The Man exhaled smoke into his eyes. "~Showtime Xiax, showtime.~"

'Once more' The Man had always said in the beginning as he had Xiax plunge himself into the breach. The world tilted inside the locker room as Xiax touched another fighter The Man had prepared, and with it came the pain.

Xiax's stumbled as he held his head while also holding onto a nearby cart for balance. The music hurt his head, his brain felt like it was splitting. His body started to break out in a sweat as the pounding in his head continued. Fighting against the pain he found himself opening his eyes. Intense fear filled him.

"When did I leave the club?" He brought his hand up shakily to his face and wiped his running nose, it came away bloody. Bright red smeared across emerald green on a clean hand? Memories returned, and he remembered where he was and wasn't. He wasn't back in Fordell's Fists, where he was was standing outside in the grass between two carts seven years down the road from that time.

Pulling out a rag he sucked up snot and blood as he wiped his face to clean it. "It's just an attack, its passed." He consoled himself as he pinched his nose for a second while his head continued to throb fiercely from the phantom memories. He straightened and stopped pinching his nose shut. "Good" he said when it appeared to have stopped. He worked up a bit of saliva in his mouth then spit on his rag before using the now wet area to clean up any lingering blood.

Leaving the relative shelter between the two carts he once again noticed the guy from Rhodes, and that Claire was now talking to the teen that he'd seen when he'd gone to get Ham earlier.

He must be in Rhodes too, I wonder how Claire knows him? he wondered for a moment before sparing a moment to look over at Ham and Zero. Both seemed unhurt, but Ham didn't look happy.

Once again returning his attention to the crowd he went back to keeping them calm. "Like Claire said: Everything will be fine. Ham and the other's are taking care of it, no need to worry."

by JulietHasAGun 17th October 2017, 10:00 pm

(Collab between Geotrix, JerriLeah7 and I)

(ATTN: WHITE CROSS GROUP, CLOSED)

July, with her attention no longer focused on Zedd, her somewhat friendly new ghost friend(?) she was finally able to acknowledge Gale. She thought she had heard someone calling her name before. With Ham preoccupied with the panicked villagers alongside Claire and Xiax, she thought she might as well take the time to greet the kid. She almost wanted to laugh, seeing Ham holding Zero like some misbehaving human hand bag. Her feet weren't even touching the ground! But luckily for July, his attention was diverted towards the group; allowing her and her silent footsteps ample oppertunity to sneak up on him.

"Heeeeey, Gaaaale," She greeted, her voice elongating itself to an almost menacing purr. Her arm stretched out around his shoulders smoothly as she pulled herself against his side. He was shorter than her, not by much, but enough that her gaze had to shift downward to look him in the eyes. Her trademark mischevious, soul snatching grin pulled across her face. "Long time no see. Heard you were playing punch buggie with some Rhodies."

Gale snapped to attention. He had panicked. He could feel the shame began to well up inside him. He didn't help. He was useless. What happened he usually jumped at such action.

Looking up to meet July's gaze helped a little. He imagined she was fond of joking with him. He noticed his hands felt wet, and focused on drying them as he forced a smile.

"Yeah, got to learn a little 'bout me dad's magic. Turns out I might be a natural," Gale half lied. It was certainly true. He was a natural at water magic, but he lacked something in everything else.

July delighted in Gale's panic- well, she delighted in people's panic generally, when it came to her startling them. But it was just a bit sweeter with Gale.

"Ah, and I did miss scaring you." She quirked an eyebrow, reaching up to ruffle his hair with her free hand. She knew she'd swept in before Claire; who, for all intents in purposes, was the glue holding the villagers together while her brother dealt with their misbehaving A rank. "But, I'm glad. Maybe you'll be as cool and easy breezy as Ham someday." She reached up, pinching his cheeks between her free hand, her long fingers squishing his youthful features. "Might have to work on that baby face, though, it's very hard to look cool and heroic when you have a baby face." She examined his features with a piercing eye and a smirk.

Gale nodded solemnly. He suddenly realized he didn't want to be there. He felt worse than collateral. His hands began to drip as a cold thought entered his mind. I'm dead weight.

"So what have you been up to?" quizzed Gale, trying to air out his hands, "More of the usual, or anything new? Maybe you found that wizard I'm looking for?" He needed to distract her.

July released his face, dragging the tips of the fingers of her free hand along his chest as she turned away from him to give a slight roll of the eyes. "Ah, Gale. The worst thing about you is your one track mind. It's endearing, but sometimes I wonder if you don't fall asleep with a picture of this wizard on your pillow." She understood the wizard was important to him, and he knew that. But Gale working himself into knots constantly over it was bad for the kids health. Her gaze ventured off from Gale and fell on-

Her devlilish smile twinged across her face again as her gaze fell onto Gale's companion. An older man, with a massive hammer. Her eyebrow quirked as she gave him the once over.

"And who is this?" Her arm slid off Gale as she paced around the older gentleman. "I'm surprised Rhodes sent someone along with Gale." She stopped in front of him after her slow, calculating round. "Tell me," She started, her voice dropping to a low, flirtacious purr. "Is that hammer of yours compensation or counter weight?"

"Ronaldi," The man replies with a smile, "and why not both?"

Gale seized the opportunity and went off to speak with Claire, shaking his hands vigorously to try and dry them from the condensation.

With a raised eyebrow, he looks after Gale with a shake of his head. Rude. That guy knows this girl more than he does and he's just--out. Just like that. Talk about weird. "To clarify, I was assigned to Gale because he requested me. Our Guild Master is pretty generous to Gale--due to his family ties to our guild and what not."

"Ronaldi," July's grin gives a slight quirk as she offers out her hand. "I'm July; and I must say, you're worse at giving straight answers than Gale is." She turns slightly to watch the boy putter off back towards Claire. "Don't fault him for it, I've been known to make men," She took a light pause. "uncomfortable. I enjoy the effect." Her flirtacious tone abates for a moment as she almost laughs. "Ah, 'The Shield' has a soft spot for our little Gale? Who wouldn't? I'm sure you got very well acquainted with his ravishing personality on your trip over here." She was poking fun, of course, but all in good nature.

Ronaldi just continues to smirk as he shakes his head, crossing his hands over his chest after he taking her hand and leaning back one leg. He speaks at first with sarcasm, "Oh, yeah. He's a real...treat. So tell me, July, what in the world are we doing here? I haven't been told a thing about what kind of Quest we are on or anything."

July gave a light shrug. "Your modus opperandi has changed quite a few times in the past few hours. First, it was 'get the helpless villagers we just rescued to White Cross', now it's 'figure out what the hell happened to White Cross'; originally it was 'retrieve a lost item for our Guild Master'. I'm convinced Ily left her diary keys somewhere. Probably not the correct answer. But it's the fun one." She idly tapped her fingers on her hip as they rested on her sides. "Personally I'm a bit iffy on going to the good ole' WC. No beef with spirits, per say. But I have been a purveyor of activities most churches and holy institutions find...distasteful." There was her flirtacious tinge again. Marking that she was moreso talking about premarital sex and orgies under the full moon rather than murder and arson. She knew White Cross wasn't a church per se- but spirits and the afterlife attracted religions, clergymen, the like, at least in her experience.

Ronaldi laughs, "July, I like you. You're hot, you're forward. Don't worry, though--most of Cross is just a bunch of hooligans. Especially Valentine--he's just a big ass flirt. We should probably head to 'em, then. Who's in charge, here? I don't even know who to defer to. Oh, heavens. Please, July...tell me you're in charge. I would be so unfortunate to have the hots for the boss."

July gives a slight, casual flourish of her hand. "I aim to please." She scoffed slightly. "Yeah, no, if I was in charge this group would be way more fun. For starters, there'd be blackjack, and way more shots. Unfortunately, the stick in the mid that's currently in charge is-"

"July, we can have introductions on the road!" Ham's voice was loud, but not aggressive, trying and desperately succeeding at remaining calm. "You're driving, once we-" He looked back down as he was addressed by a villager, a placating smile coming to his face as his voice quieted again.

"...My brother. Ham." Her face twitched slightly, though her demeanor remained unfazed. "Don't you worry though, I assure you, despite my lack of a leadership position; I am very good at giving orders." She traced a finger lightly over his chest as she turned to rejoin the group with a wink. "And maybe later you can show me how you are with that hammer of yours."

Ronaldi looks after July, happy to see the group moving as he follows behind the others. The crowd seems mostly mollified and he's all but forgotten the creepy ass ghost that was tossing shit around. Now, he's just imagining very, very dirty things with a woman that he just met that is way too young for him. Welp, he's glad he put up with Gale, after all...

by **Luna** 18th October 2017, 9:23 pm

ATTN. Zero, Ham, July, Xiax, Ronaldi, Gale] White Cross Guild Hall

Gale walked briskly towards Claire. He hadn't socialized with her often, but he at least felt least she wouldn't notice his predicament to badly. His hands still dripping water. "Hey, Claire, long time no see," he called bearing a false grin.

”It's not often we cross paths when we are out.” Claire said with a smile. She noticed that his hands were dripping water. “Are you alright Gale? Do you need anything? I can get you something to dry your hands off if you need it? I'm sure I have a towel or something in my bag. Also there are others you haven't met in our party.”

"Oh yeah, I was washing my hands, they were filthy." Gale lied.

”Come then, we can head over and you can meet Xiax. My bag is over there where he is at.” Claire pointed. They walked towards the carts and Claire called out to Xiax. “Xiax, is my bag over there by you? If it is, could you hand it here please? I need a towel to let Gale here wipe his hands on.” She said.

Xiax stopped talking to one of the people next to the cart when he heard his name. Blinking he turned as he listened to what Claire was asking. "Ummm, sure?" Looking into the cart he tried to locate her bag so he could grab her a towel. It would probably be easier to grab a towel from his wickerpack but Claire had specifically asked for hers. Girls can be a bit picky about their things, but I can understand not wanting to share with me either. he reasoned that it made sense that no one wanted to share towels with a dirty hobo.

"Found it!" Xiax said stretching over the railing to grab it with a bit of a jump to reach it. Coming up to her he stretched out his arm letting the bag hang by the straps. "I didn't want to go digging around, sorry." There was a casual glance over at Gale while apologizing to Claire, followed by looking down to his hands which were dripping. "Was there anything else? I think I heard Ham say something about getting ready to leave."

Claire took her bag and smiled. “Thanks Xiax. Gale, meet Xiax. He is one of our teem members on this mission. Xiax this is Gale.” She said. She rummaged through her bag and found the towel. “Here Gale, use my towel to wipe your hands on. Don't worry about it Xiax, I can understand. Ham is busy doing something at the moment. We should probably be ready to move out by the time he is done.”

"Charmed. I'm sorry I couldn't introduce myself at the guildhall, I've been preoccupied." Gale surveyed Xiax, meeting knew people in the guild was hard, because unlike Ronaldi and others he'd had to make a consistent effort to be amicable. Lest Hamlet lecture him on his behavior.

"No that's fine, I am pretty sure I just haven't seen you around since I joined two months ago." Xiax said waving his hands in a molifying gesture while trying to watch out if this Gale tried to go for a handshake or something. Thank Gods I noticed his Guild tatoo. I almost lumped him in with the brutish guy from Rhodes. Speaking of that. "Hey Claire, you guys got me wondering: Who's that guy?" Xiax said pointing at Ronaldi, and making sure to omit that fact that he had first thought the guy was a DA assassin.

"Oh, that's Ronaldi," Gale interjected still drying his hands, "He's here to, uh, help me as a favor from Connor."

Xiax made a sound that he heard Gale. "He looks awful bored." He commented seeing the man waiting on everyone else to get ready.

"I think he's annoyed," Gale said finally drying his hands, "I'm not the best traveling companion. At least not without more company."

“Why do you say that for? We have a crowed going here so you should be fine here.” Claire said. “Why don't you go get Ronaldi and have him join us?”

"Because I know better than to hang around July's marks," Gale mused, "But I can introduce you."

Xiax's gaze drifted back towards the carts away from the two he was talking to or Ronaldi. Directing his attention back towards Gale and Claire, he responded to the offer. "Maybe later?"

"I think I should get back to helping Ham and the others finish getting ready." Xiax didn't know if he could handle so many new people just after having an attack. "We can pick back up later, excuse me." He said trying to retreat to somewhere safer as he extracted himself from Claire and Gale. With a wave at Gale he managed a smile, "It was nice meeting you, Gale."

"Ditto," remarked Gale, " So off to help people eh?"

Claire nodded her head. “Yes, Ham will want to leave as soon as everyone is packed up and ready. Some I can see are already packing their things up.” She said as she took her towel back from Gale when he was finished with it. She left it handing on the side of the cart to dry and then walked with Gale so they could get the people ready to go.

“Most of the ones that need help are elderly. They had been imprisoned for so long. We freed them. They are much happier now.” She said.

"That's nice," Gale responded with a hint of jealousy.

Claire was helping an older female get into the cart so she could ride instead of walk. “Most everyone is able to fit into the carts so we don't have to worry about anyone walking. Hopefully we can get them to the guild.”

Gale set to work helping everyone into the carts. He hated working with people, but it was his job. Not because he hated people. He cared nothing about that. He just hated seeing them so happy.

Between the two of them, they had a few carts ready to go. Xiax had already started getting people ready. This made things easier. Packing was always harder then unloading but seeing as Ham was already getting people loaded as well, it didn't take long to get everyone ready.

Claire walked over to Ham when they were finished. “We are ready to leave when you are.”

by LightningFang 18th October 2017, 9:38 pm

(Collab between me, xeno, and Jerri) {ATTN: Tavran Ruins}

Elizabeth looks towards the man. He was tall, but not as tall as her dad. With hair longer than most men she knew, whose eyes were light brown. Not a color she has seen to often. A crossbow, would be interesting if they were to get into a fight. All thoughts aside he did ask her something. "Can't say I have, I'm more into reading about places than actual visiting them. Not to say visiting them isn't fun. I'm just not one for travel." She looks towards where the noise came from, having not been here. Then Elizabeth looks back towards Reiza. "I'm guessing that isn't a normal noise for a place like this."

Reiza frowns, "Naw, that sound isn't natural. I've been here a few times--the Tavran used to live here. They were one of the first early civilizations to farm and hunt as well as they did. They wrote the book on farming--hell, we didn't even know what Faofruit were until they came along. The mystery is what happened to them--by all signs we've ever found, they just...vanished."

Reiza moves up to the big chair--the throne-like simplicity seemed all too lonely in t his overly-sized, open space. She wipes the dust from it before sits on its left arm, looking around her and trying to see if there's anything different here from the last time she visited. So far, nothing has changed, from what she can recall.

Daisan watches Reiza as she casually sits on the arm of the chair. “Interesting, I have not made it here before on my digs. It will be interesting to see what we uncover. Maybe I can convince Rex…ugh Isarite…to get more people out here. So what kind of guild quest are you on.” He has to wonder why Darkness Shrouds is interested in a ruin.

"If I may ask, what is your business here?" Elizabeth asks, not one to trust people immediately. She walks towards Reiza getting close to the throne before turning around and sitting down on the steps in front of it. "I know you did ask what ours is, but I would like to hear your reason for being here first." Elizabeth says in a neutral tone, not wanting to upset Daisan and start a fight.

“I apologize, you must not know about the guilds. As I stated, I am from Sheherazade. We are an archeology guild and this is a ruin.” Daisan answers her. He is not going to reveal his personal mission. He is not even sure what he will find out. “I was sent here by our leader to explore the ruin. I was supposed to have others, but alas our guild is going through a tough time right now.”

Reiza nods her head, "Ah, yes. I didn't realize that Shez was interested in the Tavran people--last I had heard, there wasn't much left to learn about them. Now, the Shazeer are still exploratory, but there's not much to learn from what the Tavran left behind..."

Suddenly, she realizes she's rambling, "Anyway. Sorry. We're here because passerby noted "strange happenings" from within the Ruins. Sounds and the like. So we've been sent to investigate. If it's ghosts or some shit, I swear, I'm handing this over to White Cross. I don't do spirits."

Elizabeth looks around taking in the scenery of the place they are at. It was quite interesting with how open the place is. She looks back towards Daisan. "I'm familiar with some of the guilds, but not all of them. I... still have a bit to learn from my dad about them. Like I said I like to read more than anything else." Elizabeth looks towards Reiza "I'm not seeing much about what the noise could be, or what these happenings are."

Daisan raises his eyebrows. Interesting, strange noises. He highly doubts it is ghosts. “Yes the Shazeer ruins have kept us busy, which is why I am here alone. I am grateful to have both of you here with me. Especially one who has been here before. Was there a particular place the noises were coming from?” Daisan gets a smile on his face. He truly loves exploring new places.

Reiza agrees to Elizabeth's statement with a soft "mm" and a nod of her head before listening to Daisan talk. She then shrugs, "Hell if I know. They were vague as all hell. 'Strange happenings' was as specific as they got. The one we just heard was above us, I though...I don't know. The accoustics of this place....anything is possible, really. I think I'm gonna have a good look around."

Elizabeth looks towards Reiza. She gets up and looks up towards the ceiling looking to see if their is anything to stand on. "I could get us up on those beams, probably not the safest thing to stand on though." Elizabeth said as she started to follow Reiza towards where she was heading.

"Yeah," Reiza says, "...wait, do you think those beams could handle our weight?"

Daisan waits for the ladies to stand up. “I will check out the throne. A lot of things can be discovered about a people by their seat of power. If you guys find anything, please let me know. I have a tendency to get into a zone when I am exploring. I’d advise caution with climbing on things. Who knows if it can support weight.” He kneels down and digs out his notebook and a brush to help him dust off the throne. He would love to touch the throne, but does not want to expose his ability just yet.

"It might, can't say for sure from down here. With it being up so high. I can try if by myself if you want me to." Elizabeth says trying to figure out if it would work or not. "If they don't support one of us, then it won't support both, but that might end bad."

"Okay," Reza says, "You first. Stay above me and I'll catch you if you fall. Look around and tell me if you see anything... Odd."

Elizabeth opens up a portal, one next to her and another up on the rafters above where Reiza is. She slowly puts one foot through making sure the beam she picked will hold her weight. Once she sets it down on the beam and sees that it supports her, she steps through completely. She looks around to see what she can find, other than dust and webs. Making space for Reiza to go through.

Reiza was about to walk through when she decides not to. She shakes her head, changing her mind at the last minute as she looks up at Elizabeth, "Naw, I'll wait--I wanna catch you if you fall, just in case. Tell me if you see anything, will ya?"

Daisan gets right to work on the throne. He uses his softer brush to remove some of the dust that is on there. He glances up to see the other woman, whose name he never got, opening portals. “Interesting magic.” He says to himself before returning to work on the throne.

Elizabeth stands at the top of the dome, searching for something. Anything that could be of use. When suddenly something moves across the edge of her vision, when suddenly it moves again staying outside of her range. A feeling of unease comes across her. This feeling is only ampt up by the fact that she can't find this thing at the edge of her vision. She stops moving hoping to find something else, trying to prepare for attack that might come from. She quickly looks down at Reiza and shouts, "There is this weird thing up here, it keeps moving whenever I try to look at it. It stays at the edge of my vision, not letting me get a good look at it."

Reiza squints her eyes with suspicion, mumbling under her breath with a displeased voice. With a sigh she calls up to Elizabeth, "Damn. Okay, let's....let's just hit each dome, check 'em out...then come back to the archaeologist and go from there. Come on down."

Turning around, Elizabeth heads through her portal. Appearing on the otherside. Closing her portal she turns around looking around again. Seeing nothing of value that she wants. She looks back to Reiza. "Ok, let's go to the next one then."

Reiza patiently walks from dome to dome with Elizabeth, careful to search each one for something--anything. They search. And search. For hours. It's long, boring, and annoying. She can't help but fight back the urges of impatience and she almost snaps at Elizabeth a couple of times, but she manages not to. Finally, they return to the center of the room where Daisan is working when it suddenly just....clicks.

Eyes widening with realization, she facepalms, "Stupid! Stupid, stupid! I'm a cretin!"

She then grins at Daisan and Elizabeth, "I just realized what's different, you two. There's an extra dome outside. In the circle--there's an entirely new dome that wasn't there before, I'm sure of it! So it's got to be there, whatever this is! Let's go, Elizabeth."

Without hesitation, she rushes towards the exit of the larger dome and hopes that there, upon closer inspection, she will find something--anything--that will open up this mystery for them. They've already looked for too long and it's been wasting their time.

Elizabeth contiues to follow Reiza, unsure of what it is they are looking for. As the time passed her greed went away. Elizabeth was tired of walking, standing, looking. The unease from being on the buildings didn't help either. She looked around as they got closer. Wondering what could be inside. She just wanted to get this overwith and get out and head back home. At least if this didn't take to long.

“An extra dome are you sure?” Daisan asks. He finishes up packing his tools. He is disappointed with not finding anything on the throne. He chases after Reiza and Elizabeth. He has never heard of new things cropping up in a ruin before. Sure they discover hidden items, but nothing new.

by Ink 18th October 2017, 10:22 pm

[ATTN: Attica's Party]
Amatville	11:30am

Yuzu returns to Attica and Zarkas with her hands in her pockets. Conveniently enough, the old man returns at the very same moment. Before she can report, e barks out a command for information, giving her a particular look. She returns the gaze until the kid speaks up. Seemed simple enough. Getting huge could come in handy, but Yuzu winces. Growing would make the kid an easy target, for one, and would make it a whole lot harder to not hit her with her own abilities. Not to mention she'd said nothing of her body's compensation for that size. So it was entirely likely the increase in stature came with a decrease in speed and mobility. The opposite of what Yuzu had wanted.

Zarkas chimes in and her agitated gaze falls on him. Right. He'd mentioned ice manipulation before. Gray must have been paying attention. She had asked for someone with some defensive capabilities. The utility was good too. Bridges could be useful, among other things. When he went on to demonstrate the idea that the old man had posed to him, she crosses her arms. "Nice," she says. "Yeah. That'll definitely be helpful."

When pops returns his attention to her, Yuzu places her hands back in her pockets, looking to him through the corner of her eye. "Short version? I make things go boom." She's met with an awkward dead silence, and his continued gaze. Sighing, she holds out a hand, projecting a small crackle of sparks at the tip of her index finger. "Fine. Long version: my skin secretes gunpowder and my body generates excessive amounts of heat, both of which I can control. Mix 'em and bang. The powder's empathic. I can sense it if I spread it out around me. Lets me read my surroundings, track people, whatever. And it's stronger stuff than ordinary gunpowder, so it has a lot more kick. A lot more." For a moment her mind trails off, remembered that explosion at the Dark Ascension Guild Hall. Her eyes return to the kid before she snaps out of her daze. "That answer your question, Pops?"

by JulietHasAGun 21st October 2017, 9:00 pm

Collab With LightningFang

Zero was grabbed by Ham and was slung under his arm. She went to wriggle trying to get free from his grasp. Trying to squeeze between his arm and waist, saying only one word. "Down."

Ham had made sure to keep a firm grip on Zero without crushing her. His intention was not physical harm, but she'd made it clear she had limited situational awareness- and restraining her seemed to placate Zeddicus. He felt her wiggle under his arm as he quickly directed villagers to their respective carts, trying to make it clear that the situation was fine.

When Ham spoke, his voice was low, not loud enough for the villagers to hear. "Can I trust you won't trespass into the guild hall or run at Zeddicus again?" His voice was flat, cool, professional, belying no emotion. Normally he would have just let her go- but this situation wasn't exactly normal, and he needed to make sure it remained deescalated.

Zero stopped wriggling and moving long enough to nod her head yes. She mostly wanted to be let go, and not be held. She also wanted her stuff. She didn't want to leave it behind somewhere.

Ham, though not entirely trusting her, let Zero down, placing her gently back on the ground.

"Stay by me." He said quietly, firmly, with no tinge of anger. He didn't need her wandering off; and she wouldn't need to. They would be leaving soon anyway, and her belongings were still in the cart. He assissted the older healer woman into her respective cart, nodding as she patted him on the shoulder in thanks.

Zero stayed by Ham, only moving to look around or help people into the cart. She did fidget with her fingers, thinking about how to make things better. Not much she can do at this moment in time.

Ham knew no mattter how upset he was at Zero; he needed to keep a level head for the people they were currently looking after. They had just seen one of them attacked by a ghost, they didn't need to see any evidence of dissent in the ranks. He'd hold off on scolding Zero, for now. Until he had a chance to speak to her privately, to give the issue the respect it demanded.

"For now, Zero," He started, choosing his words carefully, painfully aware of all the watchful eyes looking to them for some sense of stability. "I need you to stay towards the back, with the villagers. Remain by them, or by me. Do not stray." His voice, face, and motion was calm- but he did not look directly at her. He knew the eyes belied emotion- and any glare might be blown wildly out of proportion. "Understood?"

Zero again, nodded her head. She wanted to get on the road and head to their next destinantion. She knew that she would get scolded or yelled at. She just wasn't sure when.

-

(ATTN: WHITECKER, GROUP B)

And so their merry band departed- off to Whitecker, to meet with White Cross and figure out exactly what had happened to their guild hall.

Ham spent most of the journey 'calm'. 'Calm' for Ham was a state of tranquil professionalism. If any of his guild mates approached him, or asked him a question- he would, of course, answer and assist them without fail; and if any of the villagers were to approach him, he'd greet them with a smile. He introduced himself to Ronaldi, putting aside his sisters flirtations with the concerningly old man. However, Ham's stress at the current state of the mission prevented him from indulging much in others company.

July, on the other hand, allowed herself to be the center of the party in her brothers 'calm'. Cheerfully tapping her feet along the wooden base of the cart, clicking heels with her brother in an effort to perk him up. Miraculously, it worked, mildly.

She sang sea shanties, and, despite the old fisherman insisting she was getting the words wrong- she silenced him with a jovial and sing song shut up old maaaaaan~. He chuckled, and left her to her own devices.

Thankfully, the ride was rather short. About forty minutes, with all the people they had.

The guild seemed to be spread out throughout the town, White Cross guildies left and right. July and Ham both keenly observed the goings on, the people- the tents and buildings. It seemed as though they were rebuilding.

Ham, dismounting the cart, and after assisting others in doing the same; made his way to what appeared to be a White Cross guild member- a young woman, with brown hair. He smiled at her, greeting her politely, and outstretching his hand.

"Greetings, I'm Hamlet Napolitano, of Infinity Edge. Do you know the whereabouts of your guild master?" His tone was pert, friendly, with an inquisitive edge to it. He was trying to get an introduction in, but also overwhelmed with a desperate urge to know what had happened to their former guild hall.

July stayed back towards the rest of the group, quietly observing her brother. Wherever he'd go, she'd follow, but for now she was keen to observe.

She knew her brother really loved that whole 'polite introduction' thing he had going on. But fuck the curiosity was killing her. And she needed that dragon book from the guild master. So she could see if she actually had a reason to be excited, or if Zedd was just pranking her- he seemed like the playful type.

by **Luna** 22nd October 2017, 3:23 pm

Attn Group B.

Claire had talked with some of the people while on their way. She knew they would get to where they were going soon enough. She rode her horse and kept up with the others.

After about forty minutes or so, they found their way into town where the White Cross guild members seemed to be. They were everywhere. She sucked her breath inwardly and shook her head. This was crazy. They really needed to see about their guild and see what they could do about going home. She watched as Ham dismounted. She stayed where she was towards the middle of the group so she could keep an eye on everyone.

Claire was quite as she listened in. She wanted to know just as much as the next person about where they would be going next in the town.

by MethosArchaic 23rd October 2017, 10:17 pm

[Attn: Claire, Gale, Ham, July, Ronaldi, and Zero. Location: Whitecker]

The sun had finally made some progress away from it's zenith in the sky as come into Whitecker on the road leading back to the Whitecross guildhall. He had wanted to join in a bit on some of the old sea shanties but July had messed up the words enough that by the time he did recognize which ones they were it was already too late. She didn't seem to mind, but it did make him oddly melancholy. It took sometime at first for the town to come into focus where he could see it. When it did, it only confirmed what he had been hearing: The town of Whitecker was rebuilding. It was only because Xiax had seen their Guildhall that he could make out the Whitecross guild symbols on people here and there.

Xiax hugged his wickerpack to his stomach as he slouched against it in despair. Another place chuck full of people to bump into and Infuse. He couldn't help but sigh. Less than an hour ago he'd had to deal with Ghosts, unsettling new information, bad memories and afraid refugees. It'd taken its toll and he was already exhausted. Part of that was likely due to the short rationing of food that he'd and everyone else had been dealing with the last few days. While he had been used to it before, the last two months or so being put up by Ilyana had made going back to it much more difficult that he would have figured. Scrounging up extra grass, roots and bugs when they had been camping had helped but it wasn't the same as to how spoiled he'd been back at the Guildhall.

Thinking of food made his stomach growl it's desires, but there wasn't much to do about that right now. Given the fact that he could see an occasional extra tent or two scattered around town and how much of the town appeared to be either recently repaired or undergoing repair he had concerns . Making sure to grab his pack to avoid losing it, he hopped out of the cart now that it had stopped. Ham seemed to be going over to ask a young woman some questions but July was still back with the carts. That gave Xiax a perfect opportunity to talk to July before she got distracted.

"July.. Is now an ok time?" Xiax asked as he can to a stop next to her after a short sprint from his cart.

July perked up slightly when she heard her name, turning to see Xiax. "Always is. What's up?" She smiles, and pushes herself up from her prior position of leaning against one of the wooden carts, arms moving from their crossed position to resting against her hips.

Xiax watched as July relaxed and he blinked dumbly for a few seconds as he tried to order his thoughts so he could make himself clear. "Will they be able to put us up?" he asked concerned, "I keep seeing tents and some of the buildings look busted up, and we've got the extra people from the fort." Xiax rambled off his concerns as he absentmindedly chewed on his thumbnail.

July turned away briefly as Xiax spoke of his concerns. "Should be able to. See enough tents. If not, we've got our own camping supplies to make due for another night; provided we're able to fix whatever the hell's up with White Cross's guild hall." She shrugged, turning back to face the man. "If not, I was never averse to sleeping out under the open sky. They should at least be able to take the villagers in."

Stopping his nervous habit of chewing his fingernails, he looked over to where Ham was talking to the WhiteCross girl. "Its just that they might already be strained with everyone from White Cross." He spotted another person working on a house nearby, then another across the street. "I know we don't have much left ourselves and although I'm happy camping I'm not sure about the others." After another lingering second of watching various WhiteCross members he was able to look back towards his friend. "Did the Ghost say how long they've been driven away or what happened?"

"Way Zedd talked about it, it happened fairly recently. But, how I see it, Guilds look out for the people; they'd be willing to set up the villagers, and I'm sure White Cross will be compensating them for the time they're here." July hoped they would, kicking in peoples doors and eating their food with no compensation? Kinda shit. "Besides, even if that weren't the case, we're seven strapping guild members ready to assist them with their plight. Something tells me they're grateful for any help they can get, right now. A guild getting booted from their hall is some serious shit. Whatever drove them out, they're gonna need help taking down, more likely than not."

Ohh yeah, the Ghost's name was Zeddicus. Xiax said as he remembered as July brought up his name. He had his doubts about the availability of food, and eating money was out of the question. "Wait.... seven? There's only five of us."

July raised an eyebrow, holding up her hands to count off her fingers. "You, me, Ham, Zero, Claire, Gale, and Ronaldi. Seven." She put her hands back on her hips after showing her tally to him. "Speaking of, I'm sure Claire could wrestle us up some game. She's a survivalist. Damn good one, too. Though I hope you don't mind the taste of deer."

July ticked them off, and even though he'd forgotten that Gale was part of Infinity Edge that only brought it up to Six but Xiax thought it better to just forget about bringing it up. "No that should be fine." He said even though he'd never had deer, but he doubted that they'd want anything he managed to catch or kill with his bola, people got very touchy about certain animals. It seemed like they might be staying for quite sometime if Claire might go hunting. "Are we going to be leaving them here or are we taking them with us when we leave?" Xiax said looking back to the rescued slaves from the Fort.

July shrugged. "Up to them. If they want to go their separate ways, we wanted to make sure they got somewhere safe. Then again, if Ham's planning on personally ferrying them back to their villages, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Would he do that?" Xiax said looking towards them as he thought about how much trouble that would be. "I sympathize, but wouldn't that be too much even for him?" He felt some sympathy for them, given that if they left them anywhere they might become homeless like he had been. It wasn't always easy to adjust and make a living in a new place, he knew a lot about how hard it could be.

July raised her hands in a 'don't ask me' position. "I'm embellishing. But most of them have mentioned their villages. Dunno Ham's exact plan but I'm sure part of the reason why he wanted to stop at White Cross would be to see if someone could help these people get home. And what I've learned is, if it helps someone, if someone asks him, it's never too much for Ham. He's nuts."

If Ham really was like that it made him even more impressive. There might be a few more fan-girls if he did somehow manage it, he already had at least one among the people he had rescued, likely more.

by **RadioTanuki** 24th October 2017, 3:16 pm

{[ATTN: Silk, Sonja, Ruoh]}
Caeroot Village	Day

--

"Sir Coaltar! I can't believe you knocked that water over in that poor man! He was just trying to eat his lunch or something! Couldn't you have used some different way to jump off my shoulder? I know you didn't mean to do it, but you're usually so much more graceful, plus you don't usually have to get down like that...."

"Meow meow meow meow meow!"

"NO, *gasp* Coaltar! YOU.... WAIT... Don't tell me... you did that ON PURPOSE possibly??? But why? You can't just be being mean! You must have a good reason, right? We had barely even talked to that man... well, not today anyway.... Didn't we talk to him the other day a bit about something though? Hmmmm.. Oh yeah! I think he was talking about the guild hall construction which may be why he was hanging out near Mr. Ruoh! Mr. Ruoh has been crafting something cool out of wood... I bet that guy is a fan.... of... CONSTRUCTION! Wow... I never knew those existed! But then there are all kinds of people in this world, and either way the stuff that Mr. Ruoh makes seems really cool! He's like an ARTIST... Oh goshness! Who WOULDN'T BE AMAZED, I MEAN? But then... what if that guy was a construction worker before and just appreciates the craft? Maybe he knows something about doors and doors have keys and we're LOOKING for KEYS so maybe he knows something and GOSHNESS we should have talked to that guy...."

"Meeeeoooooowww" Sir Coaltar interjected.

"....
WOAHH.... Shocked

Sir Coaltar... I know what you mean now....
I think...
Are we going the right direction again? I know that Lady Sonja shouldn't be too far but I dunno where Miss Silk is today but you did, ri-"

"Meow meow!" Angry

"OH! RIGHT! The water! Something about it on his shirt maybe?.... WAIT... there was... THAT SHAPE... Yeah! I saw that! And when that happened... Mr. Ruoh sent us.. but he seemed excited... which was weird... Did Mr. Ruoh ever get excited about water spilling before? Maybe there's some weird thing to that... or no.... MAYBE it's just it's the most exciting thing because this town is boring to him? It is pretty small... I guess... hmm.. NAHH! This place has been really exciting to me and he's a really nice understanding guy so he wouldn't be like THAAAT I don't think, but it is weird that..."

Coaltar facepaws.... "Mee... oww..." Frown

"Yeah.. the thing.. the guys shirt had a shape when the water in it, so if I connect all these dots... IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! That guy! He must be a..."

Coaltar's ears perk as he meows with excitement, seemingly. Admiration

"LOCKSMITH! of course! So he might know where the key we need is!! AHAHAHA! Yes!" Rockett said punching her hand with her own fist as the revelation came upon her and then putting her hands on her hips as she rared back to laugh.

Coaltar's head just drooped quickly. At least Rockett realized that this was about the key, anyway.

Rockett advanced forward with heroic stride, not exactly knowing where she was going until Coaltar took the lead and led her to get both Lady Sonja and Silk, to which she broke the urgent news of meeting to. It looked like things were finally starting to get on track.

by HikariKuragari 25th October 2017, 7:40 pm

Whitecker Town/Temporary White Cross guild base - 8AM~12PM

(ATTN : At the beginning, all of group b, after that closed to July and Ham)

**This is a collab between me and Juliet!**

Amelia was working with several guild members to sort out books they just had brought in to look into more information. ''Alright bring those to group a, these here to group b. I'll be taking care of these three books. '' It's then that a tall man with black hair approached her to ask about her guildmaster. ''Oh ! Yes of course, I'm Amelia, one of the guild's trustee. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this mess must be causing to you and your companions. '' She couldn't help, but notice there seemed to be quite a few people. ''We'll see what we can do to accommodate everyone, but I'll show you to my guild master.'' She said with a smile before turning toward one of the guildmembers. ''Justin, stand watch here while I'm gone please. I'll be back in a few minutes.''

''Yes ma'am !'' The guy said as he stopped what he was doing to be more attentive to his surroundings.

''Are you the only one coming to meet my guildmaster or ? Just want to make sure before I start guiding you there.... Ham was it ?'' She asked politely with a smile.

Ham smiled at the woman, nodding courteously as he shook her hand. "Indeed, it is a pleasure, Amelia. I believe my sister might be joining me," He looked back at the woman in question, who was speaking to Xiax. "She spoke to your friend, Zeddicus; and he pointed her towards him. I hope that is acceptable. "

Amelia nods and says ''Of course ! I hope he's doing okay, although he's technically a ghost.... but we're all pretty attached to him. I can't help, but worry about him being alone out there. But yes your sister can join us gladly.''

"He is rather...endearing, yes. July!" He called back for his sister, who perked up, giving a little two fingered salute to Xiax before going to follow her brother. "But yes, he is doing quite alright. He directed us here."

July sauntered up, leaning her arm on her brothers shoulder. "You takin us to see the boss man?" She smiled at the woman, giving a friendly wink.

Again, Ham gave his polite smile., awaiting her to usher them onward.

''It's good to hear that our Zedd is doing good then !'' She then saw the lady join them and giggled a little at the contrast in between the two. ''Yes I will.'' She said as she started walking. ''He's not too far off, follow me. '' She guided them there and it took them about 10 minutes walk to get to. They arrived in front of a small building, it seemed like a few of the buildings around this one had more guildmembers then town people. ''We're here !'' She entered and invited them to do so as well. Ryushi was sitting there at a small kitchen table, scrolling through a book. ''Ryushi ! I brought visitors, they wanted to speak with you. I'll go back to the entrance to watch over things there. ''

A little white fennec fox twitched his ear and raised his head up out of curiosity while still laying down. He remained silent for the time being however.

''Thanks for bringing them to me Amelia.'' He said raising his head from the book and closing it with a bookmarker. Giving his full attention to the two visitors. He waved back to Amelia as she left and waved to the group. ''It's not a super big table, but you can have a seat. Would you both like some green tea? I just finished preparing some for myself, but there is certainly enough for three.''

Eaden stood up from the table and did a small cute noise. Of course Eaden was trying to act more like an animal for now to not freak them out... well yet anyways.

''Okay make that four then.'' He said with a small giggle.

"Claire, keep an eye on Zero." Ham nodded at the women before departing, is sister in tow. He thanked Amelia before she left; and was pleasantly surprised at the rather low key setting. He'd heard of Ryushi, though his travels never allowed the two to become acquainted as he had been with some of the other guild masters. He nodded pleasantly at the man; rather slight compared to Ham- but bearing an image that certainly befit his guilds reputation.

Ham's gaze shifted away from the man as he heard a small noise from the table. His composure did not falter; though he was now overwhelmed with a desire to pet the small animal. A fennec, from the looks of it.

"I, myself, would appreciate a cup. I'm Hamlet Napolitano, with Infinity Edge, this is-"

July had immediately fixated on the fox upon entering. Holy shit that was the cutest thing she'd seen in weeks! She doubted anything could really compare. She was sure her eyes almost started to glisten as, from behind her brother, her mouth curled up into a smile. It was only when she was jolted back to reality by her brother noting her presence did her demeanor return to it's usual mischievous expression.

"Name's July. I'm his sister. Also, with Infinity Edge. And while I'm usually more of a vodka woman myself, I'd love a cup."

Ham noted his sisters fixation with the fox as he looked back, a small, soft, smile tracing his lips. "And, we know you are Ryushi, of White Cross. Your reputation proceeds you; in a good way, I assure you." He nudged his head gently in the direction of the fox as they both approached the kitchen table to take a seat. "And I suppose this fine gentleman or lady requires little introduction?"

Ryushi smiles as they introduce themselves and mention that they would gladly take some tea. He stands up to grab three extra cups as he already had his own and start pouring tea into each one of them while listening to them. ''It is a pleasure to meet both of you and I thank you for your good comments. '' He said toward the good comment in his favor, however it was often making him slightly blush. He came back with the cups of Ham and July first as they took a seat and saw how Ham pointed out Eaden. ''Oh. He is my good friend, Eaden. However he is not a simple fennec fox, he is a powerful spirit. Powerful enough to make himself visible to humans without needing some kind of equipment like Zedd does. ''

Eaden shook his head and said ''Why did you tell them ? I wanted to spook them.'' His words echoed slightly and could be clearly heard. Although his mouth never really moved to speak in the first place.

''Annnd he also speaks, sorry for the little surprised there. Don't worry he's friendly. '' Ryushi said with a smile as he took a seat and left Eaden his own cut of tea, this one started to drink it like a cat would. ''So what brings you here today ?'' He said casually.

Ham nods and thanks Ryushi as he is given his cup, and his sister did the same, in turn; gingerly taking it from his hand. While he was unsurprised that the fennec was a spirit, it was a bit odd to hear him speak. He didn't show his surprise, opting to take a whiff of the tea offered to him.

"Well, my guildmates and I were sent on a mission, initially- Sparing you the details, we ended up with a caravan of over a dozen freedmen. Your guild hall was nearby, and I thought White Cross might be able to offer the aid to these people we couldn't. However, when we came to your guild hall, we found it covered in strange scorch marks and-"

July interjected. "We met Zeddy!" She grinned, reclining in her chair. "Who's cool as hell by the way. Hit my asshole guildmate with a table. It was great." She saw 'the look' her brother was giving her; a look that was part 'July why' and 'July don't'. She resisted rolling her eyes at her brother, opting to take a sip of her tea.

"Pbbft, hot!" She recoiled back, settling for gently blowing in the surface.

"Yes, we met Zeddicus, and he informed us, albeit vaguely, of the plight that has come upon your guild. We would like to offer aid, if we could be of any assistance."

"Also yeah, hey, footnote- Eaden, powerful spirit, what's your opinion on pets? Are you all fox or is it more 'human trapped in an animals body' type deal?" She felt her brother shooting her a 'look' that straddled the line between glaring and disappointment. "What? If I never ask, I'll never know."

Ryushi laughed a little bit at the excitement from July. ''Yes, Zedd is really swee- wait he what ? Then again he never actually gets angry without reason, but.... being an asshole or not... is this guildmate of yours okay ?'' He said looking slightly worried.

''My name is Eaden, but sorry to disappoint you young mortal, I sadly cannot turn into a human form. I do have a bigger more bestial form however. '' Eaden said raising his head from the tea while he spoke and returning to drinking more afterwards.

Ryushi nods at his explanation and said ''Yes he does transform big enough to carry at least two people on his back. But yes I hope your guildmate wasn't hurt too badly. As for the assistance, I can see what I can do for accommodation after speaking with the mayor to get confirmation of where would be best for him to give space for more refugees. And as for our guildhall, I mainly did this as a precaution. If you know of someone that might know of this giant symbol under the guild hall, it would be nice. We are currently researching about it to try and see where it comes from and what it does. But I won't put my guildmembers into danger we could avoid. So as long I don't know for sure it is safe, we won't return to the guildhall. This is why I evacuated the place. As for this town, we saved it from demons and spirits the day before the symbol appeared.''

When the twins responded, they spoke at once.

"Yes."

"Unfortunately."

Ham gave his sister yet another look as she sipped her tea. "Unfortunately, areas concerning spirits are a bit out of my expertise. If you have any libraries or scholars on the matter, I would be more than happy to help with research. Or anything you need done." Ham was keenly aware of their actual mission, but he had never been one to abandon people in need.

"And if you need a sneaky knifey shiv-dark for anything- Consider me at your disposal." July had been observing the man- Ryushi. He was rather....different than most other guild masters she had met. He blushed easily, and actually bothered to laugh. She liked him; and his fennec spirit friend, even though the latter hadn't answered whether it would be okay for her to pet him. Bummer.

"Also; veering off that topic for a hot second," Ham was unable to pipe up, as his mouth was full of tea, but he looked at her warily over his cup. "Zeddy told me you have a book- dragon book. He told me to get it. Knowing my luck I'm sure it's back in your scorched earth guild hall?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

Ryushi smiled at both of them and said ''I appreciate all the help I can get. And we're not fully sure it is a magic from a spirit or anything of the sort, we're not even sure what that specific magic is. However, one thing I know is that the magic of that circle is connected to all three realms. '' He tend let july stop him to talk about some dragon book. ''Yes I do have it with me, hold on I can show you the book. '' He said going into the room in the back and coming back with a fancy looking old book.''Here it is, however what would you need this book for if I may ask out of simple curiosity ? ''

Eaden finished his tea and looked sad, he then looked at Ryushi and back at the cup.

''Don't worry I'll make some more a bit later Eaden.'' He set petting the fennec fox on his head.

Eaden did a cute noise of satisfaction from the fingers that were softly rubbing the top of his head.

Ham nodded as his sisters eyes lit up after the brief furrow. "Well, Zeddy informed me and Ham here that he might have come into the possession of a...dragons egg. Yeah, don't look at me like that, I know. But he said he'd give it to me, provided I ask for and read this book." She leaned up in her seat, setting her mug down. "So why do you have a book on dragons? Childhood fixation? A fan of nerdy history?" She wagged her eyebrows.

Her brother rolled his eyes.

''I see, then I will gladly pass it over to you. I hope it will be useful information. '' He said with a smile while passing over the book that soon turned into a small laugh. ''No, not exactly.... though nerdy history could be close from it, but being someone that see spirits, I can't help it. I get awfully curious of all the knowledge I can know about spirits and mythical creatures. You never know in this world anything could very well come your way.'' The book was pretty big in size, not quite looking like a dictionary however and more so like an old sorcerer book almost.

Eaden got curious for a moment and said ''A dragon egg ? '' He seemed a little surprised, but mostly curious.

''It is indeed interesting, however going back to the main topic at hand....The magic circle is like I said connected to all three realms which are physical, spiritual and the transfer realm. We know it is also currently dormant, but have no idea of what it will do once it does activate, if it does. But I know it is the first time I see a magic connected to all three realms at once. I don't know how it is possible, but I'm trying to see if I can find knowledge of such magic existing in the past to help ourselves figure this out.''

July smiled, taking the book, plopping it carefully down on the table before her. "Thanks, chief." She gave Ryushi a friendly wink as her brother resumed speaking.

"I remember learning about the transfer realm, and Zeddicus mentioned it again. Is there any way to deactivate it, could we break the symbol perhaps? Maybe override it with a strong concentration of magic? But that may risk activating it." Ham tapped his chin, furrowing his brow. "I'd suggest a cursebreaker, but I'm sure you already considered that. It also would probably not be strong enough."

Eaden walked over to July and sat down in front of the book looking at it with curiosity .

''Yes I did consider this, however I'm not even sure if it is a curse or something else. That is why for now we are trying to gather more intel before we do a move. '' He said with a small sigh. ''Hopefully we'll stumble upon something or someone that has the knowledge we are looking for.'' He drank a bit of his tea and then continued. ''Well for now I should address your issue first as I assume people are waiting upon your return. Would you have perhaps an estimate of the number of people you need accommodation for ? Also is anyone hurt or is in need of medical assistance ? It would help me make proper preparations. '' Ryushi states, waiting for the information.

July's attention quickly pivoted from the book to Eaden. "You ever read this bad boy? Or you wanna take a gander?"

"As I said, if you need anything, my sister and I are skilled at stealth, gathering intel. We could also research the premises themselves- if you'd rather not risk anyone in your guild." Ham paused. "That....sounded grim. I mean we could examine and stake out if any forces are visiting or keeping up the sigil. Not just throwing our bodies at it." He shook his head. "Physically, we're all fine- a bit hungry from the road-"

"And in want of a hot shower if you all ain't short on things."

"If space is tight, my sister and I have already volunteered to sleep outside; and one of my guildmates possesses her own tent. If this helps you in any way."

Eaden spoke for a bit ''I saw Ryushi read this sometimes, but never saw the whole content. Merely curiosity if you were to read it. It would seem that there might be more pressing matter at hand currently however.''

Hearing from Ham and July, he replies. ''Well if you do find any clues, let me know, so far I'm mostly researching multiple libraries with the help of my guildmates. And alright I'll see that we get you guys food supplies and I'll raise a bit the manpower on the food supplies to manage the new demand in food. As for hot showers, the best we got is a place with public showers and baths, though showers are all singular cabins, the cabins are connected to the same hallway. It is of course separated into two different sides for the genders. There's a bathroom in this tiny place but the hot water is not working. And the extra tent would be welcome to cover a part of your group as depending on the number, may not fit all into one place. ''

For such a cute little fox, he sure was all business. "Doubt the world's gonna end if I peruse some light reading." She leafed through a few pages; still keenly aware and listening to the conversation between the two men.

Ham nodded. "We have plenty of farmers who I'm sure would be happy to lend a hand. And my guildmates aren't averse to hard labor, if that is what's needed. As for showers, I'm sure anything would do at this point- we sincerely appreciate it." He made a small gesture with his hand. "I'm sure the villagers would be fine anywhere- doubt they have much of a care as long as the bed is warm. And know you can call on me if you need anything."

Eaden as a reflex of what he does with Ryushi often jumped on July's shoulder and placed himself in a way he could see the pages of the book well too.

''Alright that sounds good. I will let you return to them and in the meanwhile I will go get the Mayor to speak with him and prepare a place. I feel a little bit incomfortable to ask for this, but if you could wait maybe up to 40 minutes outside, I'll make sure that all preparations for the location is more or less go. Then we can set up your tent or other things we need together to install people properly.... and I'll have my guild start bringing food and water while we do that. Sounds good ?'' He said with a small smile and then turned to July. ''Seems like Eaden adopted you now.''

''If you are leaving Ryushi I'll come with you. '' Eaden said, now starring at Ryushi.

July's smile, smirk hybrid widened into a crooked, closed mouth grin of joy as the small fluffy spirit perched on her shoulder; her gaze flickering between the page and the conversation. She absentmindedly caught herself reaching up to pet Eaden, but caught herself. She perked as Ryushi addressed her.

"Aw, I feel so touched. Shouldn't have any problems with me though; I'm house trained, have all my shots- and I stopped biting the mailman months ago. Just ask Ham."

Ham laughed a bit at his sister. "Yes, thank you, Ryushi. I appreciate it. There's no reason to be uncomfortable, I understand completely. I'll tell my guild mates the situation, then." He got to his feet, offering his hand out for Ryushi to shake, as a gesture of goodwill. "I appreciate your willingness to assist us, even in your time of need."

Eaden did a bunch of cute noises when July started to pet him. He just couldn't help it.

Ryushi couldn't help but laugh slightly at July's comment as he stood up and then replied to both of them. ''It's settled then.'' He gladly shook back Ham's hand and said. ''Don't worry about it, I'll do everything that I can for people in need regardless of the situation. Anyhow I'll see you guys in about 40 minutes or so. Eaden, are you coming with me ?'' He said to him smiling.

Eaden nods and says to July ''I'll come back to see you later young lady.'' He then jumped off her and back to Ryushi, this one offered an arm for him to climb on and he went up to his shoulders.

Ryushi left first heading in the opposite direction of where entrance was to go see the mayor right away.

*************

1h40 PM

Ryushi had walked for ten minutes already, getting to the Mayor who was still at the same spot he saw him at this morning. The mayor had been working close with the villagers and his guild to restore the little that was left to do on the church. Approaching him, he starts to speak. ''I'm sorry to bother you Frank, I need to talk about something, it's rather urgent. ''

The man was well built with short blonde hair, looked about in his thirties. This one turned with a small sigh coming out of discouragement of the whole situation and the work they had left to do, but was quick to give Ryushi a smile. ''I'm sorry for my long sigh. I can't help, but feel slightly discouraged. What is it good friend ?''

Gladly returning the smile he replied ''Don't worry about it and yes... it appears that the guild infinity edge rescued a few dozens of refugees and came to bring them to my guild, but... we might need to make the extra space for them and prepare some extra food. I'll make adjustment on the dispatching and take into account who can help within the new batch. I'm sorry if this may cause a bit more issues, but I can't say no to them. '' He said looking worried.

Frank started to laugh and said ''Don't worry about it Ryushi, in fact... although repairs are not a hundred pourcent, the church is 95% patched up. If anything we could bring the group over here since there is space both inside and outside and see how we split them up from there.

''Sounds good, thank you for your kindness. '' Ryushi said as he bows his head forward slightly. ''Let's start bringing supplies and mat right away. I want them to be comfortable as soon as possible.

''Sounds good. I'll speak up since I have a voice that projects more. '' He turned toward the hardworkers and then started to speak loudly. ''Alright boys and girls listen up ! We have incoming refugees and the church would be the perfect spot for them to establish !!! We will need food, mats, blankets, first aid kits and placed at this very spot prompto. If one of you guys can go get the medic team from white cross in case it would be cool thank you all.'' He watched the crowd as none of them seemed to be moving right away, but all of them quickly started to leave all of their task aside and started to run left and right to go get what was needed.

Ryushi nods toward Frank and says ''Thank you so much. I'll watch over things here for the time being, if you need to be elsewhere you can go, I'll be okay. ''

''I'll go get mats actually, I'll be back. '' Frank said as he left to go get some. Everyone worked together to set up the site quickly. It would be ready in no time with this amount of people helping out.

by LightningFang 25th October 2017, 11:24 pm

(Collab between: Me, Xeno, and Jerri)

{ATTN: Tavran ruins}

Reiza walked briskly over to the dome that shouldn't be there. She placed her arm on the stone walls at the base and it was normal. Real. Then, she stepped in through the doorway and looked around. So far, no changes. The sunlight shining through splotted upon the ground through the beams and dust particles danced through them visibly.

All was still, yet not still. Something seemed...off. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she looked around, listening carefully. More sounds came and went--more loudly from here, this time. However, she couldn't find the source. She couldn't understand why things felt wrong....or strange.

"Do you guys feel that?" Reiza asks.

“The noises are odd. I was not expecting to hear that. Most ruins are quiet except for the noise we make. We should investigate this quickly.” Daisan wonders if this is why Isarite wanted him to have someone come with him.

Elizabeth followed after Reiza tired and exhausted. The strange feeling filling the air. She looked up "Do you want me to go up top?"

Reiza hesitates, "It....it sounds like it's coming from below. Somehow."

“You are right it is coming from below. We need to investigate. I will go first, unless you have an issue with that.” Daisan offers adjusting his crossbow. There is a slight smile on his face. He loves exploring ruins.

"I don't have a problem with it." Elizabeth would prefer to be in the back, or the middle. She didn't care about the order though or where she was exactly in the line, it was just her preference. She looked for a way down to where the noise was. Looking for a stairs of some kind.

Reiza raised a confused eyebrow, "Go first....where? I don't see a passage or anything? The domes usually don't have a way down."

“We follow our ears. The noise must be coming from somewhere. This new construct must have come from somewhere. Follow me.” Daisan tells them as he cautiously walks away. “We must be careful who knows what we will encounter.”

Elizabeth waited to see what Reiza was going to do. She didn't particularly want to walk more. Plus it would be better to stay with the person that was a part of her guild. Trusting her more than she did Daisan.

Reiza is skeptical, but if this nutjob thought he could find some magical door in the dirt, she'd give it a shot...for a while. However, if they took all night walking in circles around a new, mysterious dome while sniffing at the dirt, she was out of here.

The ladies did not argue with him as he closes his eyes. He knows that he can hear better that way. He listens for the noises and begins walking again still with caution. He has his crossbow ready, but he doesn’t even know if it will work on whatever they may see.

Not sure as of what to do, she simply followed the other two. Waiting for something to happen. She wasn't sure what she should expect from all this.

Reiza follows Daisan boredly, looking about with alertness, at first, and then disinterest. Whatever it was that caused this dome to appear, it wouldn't be found here. Whatever caused the sounds, it was obviously not something that wished to be found. Or...it is spirits, as she initially expected. in which case, it still disinterests her, considering how much out of her specialty it would be.

However, after a few rounds around the dome-shaped ruined home, she finally realizes that she's noticed something--and has noticed something for some time....It just didn't register. There's something glowing under Daisan's shirt--very dim, but it's there. And it only appars near the northern end of the dome.

"Daisan," Reiza says, pointing, "Something's glowing. On your chest. Under your clothes. What's up with that? Is it your magic?"

Daisan looks at Reiza like she was insane. Then he notices the glowing in addition to a cool sensation. “No it is not. It is just a simple necklace. He pulls it from under his shirt. “This is interesting indeed. It has never happened before.”

Reiza looks at the stymbol upon his necklace, interested. It's glowing--but it looks metallic. Yet, not like a metal she's ever seen before. It seems almost alien. The symbol looks strange, too. And it looks old. Perhaps it is an archaeological artifact? She blinks.

"It glows every time we're on this side of the dome." Reiza says, "I think."

Elizabeth looks at the necklace interested in why it's glowing. "Where did you get that necklace?" It seemed like something important. Why did it glow in the first place though?

He looks at it closely. It has never looked this metallic before. The symbols are ones he has not seen, and he has seen lots of different symbols. “Well that is something. Hmm, I wonder...” He shakes his head. “Shall we let the necklace lead the way?” Could it be a key of some sort? But why is it in his possession? He was given this after he left the orphanage. The mistress told him it was with him when they found him.

Reiza shrugged at the man's suggestion, noting that he didn't answer any of their questions this entire time. He' squite mysterious. She keeps an eye on the glowing necklace as they walk, noticing when it dims and brightens and pointing it out immediately--however, Daisan wasn't blind and he was pretty much quick at figuring it out, himself, like anyone would be.

They continue to follow the thing until it literally started to flash on and off. That's when it happened--the ground beneath them shifted and Reiza almost fell over. She grabbed hold of Elizabeth's shoulder, using her for balance, as well as to provide balance for her at the same time. Luckily, she had happened to be close enough.

The dirt shifted to reveal dirt had sifted into cracks in the ground at the very back of the dome, just behind it outside. The cracks formed a perfect circle and it seemed to be sunken in just a few inches lower than the rest of the ground around them. Was this a....hidden door or something?

"What the....?" She had blurted as she regained her composure. She bent down and dug her fingers into the cracks, revealing that the surface they were on was in fact, not the ground. It was a plate or floor of some kind. She began to move the dirt aside across its surface with her hands, trying to reveal the top of it.

He never believed for a moment that they would listen to him, or that something like this could happen. Sure keys have been found before, but they were part of a ruin, not something like this. The necklace started flashing and the earth beneath him shifts. He stumbles, and drops to his knees. The earth is loosened in a circular area on the ground. “Careful Reiza, you don’t know what is under there. Allow me to move the dirt away.” He is giddy. He will have a lot to report back to Sheherazade.

Elizabeth stumbles as the ground moves, trying to balance and stay standing. Reiza grabbed her shoulder and helpped her stay on her feet. It was kinda awkward trying to make sure she didn't fall with Reiza. She watched as the other two moved the dirt. She got down on her feet and started to help move the dirt as well.

As they start to sweep and push the dirt aside, more of the plat became more and more visible. However, it just looked like a slab of stone more than anything else. At first, she thought it was just a random, plain plate with cracks and divots in it, but then she noticed the indentation at its center. In fact, when she brushed across it, she stubbed her finger on her left hand on its edge, pulling away with a quick "ow!"

She points at it as her stubbed finger moves to her lips in attempts to make it feel better. They sweep the dirt away as the necklace glows brilliantly from where it hands and she realizes that the indentation is shaped just in the exact shape of the symbol of the man's necklace. She looks at him expectantly.

She says, "Huh. What are the odds that you'd be out here...where your necklace matches a sudden indentation in the ground? Coincidence? I think not. Did you know about this?"

Daisan goes to where Reiza is. “I had no idea, and I had the necklace my whole life.” He takes the necklace off. “Ladies you may want to stand back.” This is stupid, but he has to do it. He sets the necklace on the symbol keeping a hold of the chain.

Elizabeth gets ready to move in case something happens and the floor starts moving. She wasn't sure what to expect, but it was best to be preared for what might happen.

As Daisan moves to place his necklace into the indentation, she immediately jumps away from the circle plate. As he places it within, the plate moves and then begins to freaking lower into the ground! With a gasp, she hesitates and then drops down onto the plate as it lowers into the vertical tunnel. There is a glow from underneath the plate, as the light is visible from around the plate's edges.

"Woah!" Reiza says, "This is....I hope we can get back up from this!"

"We should be able to get out if I teleport us. That's assuming we don't go to far down." Elizabeth states changing to a more comfortable position.

Daisan’s heart is racing as the ‘door’ descends. “There must be a way to raise it. I have to wonder what kind of magic this is? I have not seen anything like this. We must get an expedition out here. Are you ladies alright?” He picks up the necklace slightly to see if the door will stop.

Reiza was amazed at this man's calm, "Wow. You Shez folks must, uh, do this a lot. Guess you're used to all sorts of weird shit."

She moved to the inner side of the circle as it slowly lowered without any feel of resistance within the stone or earth beneath them. She wonders how long the lowering will last. Looking up as she moves away from the ground around them, she suddenly feels claustrophobic as the light circle above them gets smaller and smaller. Their immediate surroundings become dark and she nervously speaks once more within the slow silence that seems to last forever.

"Geez," she says, "This sure is taking a while. It's probably solidity magic. I've seen it used before. Though, I mean....this stuff looks like it hasn't been used in forever and magic of any kind, let alone solidity magic, doesn't generally last that long."

by **JerriLeah7** 30th October 2017, 5:12 pm

#Guild_Villain

The doors to the White Cross Guild Hall open, creaking with an audible sound that echoes throughout the empty chamber within. The music had been halted and the two invisible guests within looked up expectantly, waiting to see who would dare to grace them with another presence. The tall man with his dark suit appeared with a small smile on his face, looking pleased. He's largely built, muscled and black--though not as darkly skinned as his companion already waiting for him within the empty Guild Hall. His hair is shaved completely off and a dark mark was tattooed across the back of his head. It didn't mach any guild symbols and, in fact, looked quite different from anything most have ever seen. He stands over six feet with broad shoulders and his eyes, the only color coming from him, are a brilliant green.

"Garoff," The young boy says, surprised, "I didn't expect you back so soon."

Garoff slides over a chair for himself, "And I am surprised that you aren't singing or playing."

The little boy smiles, "I wanted a break...plus, Viera is tired. I can't make her dance all day."

Garoff laughs, "Too true." He takes the handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to the boy, "Wash your face, Little B. We are going to have a good day."

"Are the keys here, yet?" Viera asks softly.

"No, but they are close...and there are two keys already here, so--that means, my friends, we're about to claim four." He replies.

Viera gasps, a grin rising upon her face, "You're kidding! V's gonna love us!"

The young boy smiles only slightly, quiet with this news as the emerald instruments reappear. They start to play a celebratory piece as Viera lightly punches the kid in the arm. She laughs a little and Garoff's smile fades as he looks to the door, gazing towards the spirit outside. That thing creeped him out. A lot.

"What's wrong, Garoff? You should be happy." Viera asks, sounding sad.

Garoff looks to her with a small smile, saying only, "Sorry. I was lost in thought. I...V promised that if I brought him a key, he'd let me take care of my brother. So that's where I'm headed after this. I can't wait."

Viera looks at him doubtfully, "What did Xaroff do to you, anyway? Besides steal your looks when you guys popped outta your mom, that is."

Garoff's expression darkens, "That's a long story."

by LightningFang 30th October 2017, 10:50 pm

(Collab between: me, xeno, and Jerri)

{ATTN: Tavran Ruins}

Reiza sat down on the lowering, stone platform after about half an hour had passed. She was tired of standing and her feet were sore. It was pitch black, but she had a torch in her bag, so it was lit some time ago, held away from her torso so as not to burn her. As they got lower and lower, it was colder at first, but then warmer.

At first, she thought that this was due to the torch, but as the entire space on the platform became even warmer, Reiza couldn't help but wonder if it was because of how deep they were getting. She was getting hungry. And bored. How long has it been? An hour? Two? It felt like forever.

"This...is so....boring... Reiza whines. She still feels claustrophobic.

Daisan smiles at Reiza. “One needs to have a sense of adventure as an archeologist. You are discovering ancient histories. I personally cannot wait to find out what is here.” He laughs gently at Reiza’s assessment. “We are also patient. Sometimes it takes a while for ruins to uncover their secrets.”

Elizabeth sits down like Reiza, her feet are quite tired. Plus she isn't much for excersise. As time passed she looked up above them guessing as to how far down they have come. It seems like forever since they have started descending. If ruins hold secrets, then what was her dad hiding she wondered. She lost in her thoughts, wondering what things her dad had done.

Reiza didn't say anything in response to Daisan. His talk of patience and crap didn't mean anything to her--sure, he was used to all of this stuff, but she also knows that Sheherazade never talked about tunnels lowering into the ground by magic--so just what did this douchebag's Guild keep from the public, anyway?

Were the Shazeer like this, too? He's so freaking casual about this strange stuff, there's no way he hasn't experienced happenings like this before. What was Sheherazade hiding about the Shazeer? Did they know more about those ancient people than they were letting on? Did they know about the Tavran people, too?

It wasn't too much longer before the platform finally came to a halt, part of the walls on side of the cylindrical tunnel opening up to reveal a lit room. Her torch was suddenly unnecessary and so she left it on the circular platform where the stone would not disturb it. There were stairs down on side of the platform that they were on, and so Reiza took quick movements to stand and move down the stairs.

As she followed down them, the stairs wrapped around the circluar platform's edge, turning to her left and showing what was underneath the platform on which they had been lowered. Beneath it, a brilliant, blue gleam of vertical light is shining, lifting up the paltform and allowing it to levitate. There is some kind of...strange machine next to the light, with gears and cogs turning, lit up with magical runes--runes she did not recognize.

"Woah," Reiza says, the word slipping before she could even think it. What sort of magic is this? She makes her way down the stairs some more, circling further to the left as the stairs lower to the floor beneath them, which opens up into the rest of the room. Her copanions forgotten, she gasps, moving about the room with fascination and awe.

Within the room's center, two rows of cylindrical tubes made out of some kind of crystalline glass are lines up neatly, massive in size. The base of each of these transparent vessels are metallic--looking in appearance like a mixture of steel and gold, streaked with some kind of purple metal, as well. It doesn't look normal, at all. Each of those metallic bases have a strange writing upon them, written in symbols that she does not recognize.

Yet it is what is within the tubes that has her concentration--trees...vibrant, purple trees with glowing orbs at the end of each individual branch, providing the light within the room. They vary in size and shape, just any normal trees would, but they are just so...alien. Strange.

There are other things--thinsg along the walls on both sides...but Reiza is just so attracted to those trees, that she pays the strange objects no mind. They just seem like containers of some kind--but they are of the same metal substance found at the base of the containers that hold the trees. Whatever they are can wait. This. Is amazing.

Finally the platform stops and Reiza seems to be in a hurry to go. He only hopes she knows what she is doing. He follows her albeit a bit more cautiously. He gasps…actually gasps in amazement. His eyes look around at everything. Immediately he bends down to get his notebook from his bag. He begins to sketch out the room in front of him. He then goes to the tube closest to him and writes down the symbol. They will have to get a team down here. He has never seen this kind of place before. To think this has been sealed away. What kind of technology is this and why was it sealed. How did the key end up in his possession?

She sits there for a bit lost in her thoughts before realizing that stone tabelt stopped moving. Following the others, who had already left, Elizabeth heads down the stairs and looks with amazment at the room she comes into. She looks at the strange trees and heads over to look at the containers. She tries to take everything in as she walks down the room. Not sure where to look and study first.

The metallic boxes on either side of the room stood at four each on either side, tilted at an angle from the floor at eight feet in height and five feet in width and depth. There was a strange crack along the edges of each topside surface and one single line down the center, as though it was a double door to be opened. On the right side of each box, strange, glowing glyphs glowed--similar to those at the trees, but instead of purple, these were in green, save for one that was red.

At the opposite end of the room on the opposing side to the platform that they came on, past the trees and at their center, there was a doorframe that wasn't a door. The door frame was clearly there, but within the frame, the wall of metal continued, except with a strange texture added into the wall. A magical door of some kind, perhaps?

Reiza moved about the room with amazement and confusion. There were these strange machines inbetween the metallic boxes on the wall, each of which had gears on the front of them. There was a rectangular, empty frame standing on top of each one and hanging from a small loop at the box's centers were glassy-looking slides that could fit within the frame, if positioned correctly. They were covered in the same, alien symbols and texts.

Daisan is busy with his sketches of the room. He did glance at the others from time to time to make sure they were alright. Reiza seems to have discovered a puzzle of some sort. “Interesting puzzle.” He says as he comes up behind her. “Perhaps it is a lock to the door. Locks have two functions though. Too keep things out and to keep things in. Do you know anything about the history of the Tavarns?”

Elizabeth, having walked around and looked at the other things in the room, spotted the others standing at some kind of... door? She wasn't reallly sure. She went over to the others looking at what this thing could possibly be. Like Daisan said it could be some kind of door. What it's purpose was however, remained a secret.

Reiza shrugs, "I know as much as anyone does. I'm no historian. So....the Tavran people made this place, I guess. But...none of this shit looks Tavran at all. Did they build on top of it?"

Reiza jumps when she hears what sounds like a screech from the other side of the door. The strange wheels had two buttons on each of them, but this door and the pods on the walls, as well as the trees, all had the same symbol as Daisan's key, so. They couldn't open any of those without him. The sounds from the door chilled her to the bone and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was on the other side.

“You may be right, but it doesn’t explain how all this…how the hell can something be alive down here?” He looks at the door. “That did not sound friendly at all. I think it is time I see what went on down here. Maybe determine why I was sent here. As you probably guessed, I have magic. My ability is a bit hard to explain though. I am able to travel back to a time of an object. I am like a ghost though they don’t see me, but I can see them. I am unable to interact either.” He sighs. “I can take others. However my body, and those of who I take, is very vulnerable as well. If I do this, I will need at least one or both of you to protect me. I am telling you this because I want to see what happened. It may help us determine what is behind that door. Or it may not. I have no control of when I go.”

Elizabeth jumps when she hears the strange noise on the otherside of the door. Elizabeth looks at Daisan with a look of curisoity. That seems like a weird kind of magic to have. "I can stay outhere or go with you I guess. Doesn't matter to me. Though I'm not good at fighting."

Reiza crosses her arms, "I don't wanna miss whatever you see, but I'll stay back if you need me to."

Daisan sighs. “I know Reiza wants to come with. I usually don’t do this, but I will make an exception this time and let both of you come. Now you won’t be able to interact with anything, but we will be able to talk to one another. The length of time will be diminished somewhat since I am taking both. Hopefully we can learn about what is behind that door. Now to pick the object to touch. One of the tubes perhaps?”

"Like I said I can stay out. It's up to you to decide though." She wasn't picky about going. She just didn't want have to try and fight anything. "A tube might work or the door maybe." Hopefully whatever Daisan picked would work out on finding out more about this place

Daisan nods at both of them. “If you want to go you will have to touch me. I will do the tubes. It will be safer than the door.” He waits for the ladies to decide. He touches the tube and activate his abilities.

Elizabeth follows Daisan and holds onto his shoulder hoping to follow him with his magic. Staying behind wouldn't be good. At least if she had to fight, it wouldn't be good.

As Elizabeth and Diasan are thrust backwards through time, the color fading from the room before it returns, revealing them to be in exactly the same room, but without Reiza's presence. There, the lighting is different, more dim. The particular container that Daisan was touching did not contain a tree, but rather a bag. Inside of the bag, which was sealed, a bit of dirt and a small seedling popped out. There were people moving about from container to container, all of which were opened, wearing strange suits and masks, gloves and boots, speaking to each other in a strange language.

Daisan is used to the shift, so the temporary loss of color is nothing to him. He is surprised to see only Elizabeth standing with him. He looks around and sees the containers open. It appears they have arrived at a period of time before the tubes were set up. There is a sapling in the tube before him. The people are wearing white suits that covered them from head to toe. Their voices are muffled. He has never seen a suit like this before. Muffled or not the language they were speaking is one he has never heard of before. He is unable to get a look at the beings as well. His questions about the necklace still elude him. What are they preparing for? He looks over at the door, it too is closed. No answers to that question either. If only he had a cipher to figure out their language.

Elizabeth almost lets go of Daisan when the color shift happens. She was confused and shocked when the color faded for a bit. "Was the color supposed to do that?" Elizabeth looked at what it was they were doing trying to figure out the language. She couldn't tell what it was, nor could she tell anything about the people speaking the language.

by Phirron 31st October 2017, 9:59 pm

[ATTN: Rouh, Silk, Rockett]
Caeroot Village	Time Skip-Present Day

Sonja enjoyed the carriage ride down to Caeroot Village despite how long the trip was as she was able to watch out of the window and see lots of a world she was still a stranger too. In fact pretty much the only times she wasn't looking out the windows was when there was nothing to see between towns and villages and that time was filled chatting endlessly about all the interesting things she had seen thus far. Even when looking out the window she was in deep conversation with Corona as it would be rude to talk to anyone else without looking at them.

Upon arriving at the village Sonja was a bit disappointed by how small and simple it was, and by how dirty as well. She naturally knew she lived a life of luxury, but she had yet to learn just how luxurious it truly was compared to the typical commoner. At the sight of their quarters Sonja was both appalled and flattered as she could tell the village had put work into making it as nice as they could, but there was only so much good that could be achieved when applying makeup to a donkey.

Naturally she was extremely glad and grateful that Silk was with them as the spider lady made quick work of sprucing up their accommodations. What truly helped Sonja get over the distress of the rustic living arrangements though was the food. It was anything but fancy but it was delicious and hearty none the less, and as the days progressed she was able to sample the cooking of countless households as her inquiries into the key often lead to her being invited to have meals with the villagers. Out of safety she only excepted the offers of those that agreed to have the meals picnic style outside as she didn't want to risk going into strangers homes on her own.

When not eating or asking about the key Sonja would spend her time tried to fit in the the villages kids and play with them, though she constantly had to ask about the rules as she was unfamiliar with any of the games they played. Additionally until Silk had made play clothes Sonja simply had a hard time getting into the fun for fear of ruining her wardrobe. However by the morning of the eighth day she was well accustomed to the rules of the games and was starting to enjoy herself around the other kids, though it was still clear to the universe that she simply could not come across as a normal kid.

by LightningFang 4th November 2017, 1:23 am

(Collab between: me, xeno, and Jerri)

{ATTN: Tavran Ruins}

The suited people, speaking in their alien language, walked around, speaking in their own way to each other with casual tones. There is calm, a bit of laughter...no signs of tension, stress, or altercation can be found. These people were comrades of some sort. One at a time, they unbagged each of the samples of the trees, soiling them properly with what appears to be normal dirt, and then closing the containers and sealing them.

As the containers shut, the glowing symbols at the base light up with a bright green. All seems well--everything here is the same, save for the metal boxes. The strange geared structures with the slides are present, so are the trees...but the metallic boxes are not. The door is exactly the same as it was before they visited the memory present before them.

“The slight color shift is normal, and here you can let me go. We are safe to move around too.” Daisan observes the people. “They seem relaxed, the tones of their voices are not tense. The metal boxes are not here. And the door is still closed. The technology here though is stuff I have never seen. I wonder what happened and why this was all buried.” He looks around the people committing their appearances to memory so he can sketch it out later.

Elizabeth let's go of Daisan and starts to walk around. She looks towards where Daisan is. "Maybe we didn't go to the right spot in time, or we didn't get the right object?" She looks towards the door hoping for somesort of indication that it will open soon. "Who knows what happened to bury this place, or what this technology is."

Daisan continues to search. He looks up at the area where the sliding locks are. This visit is not a waste of time even if it didn’t answer his questions. He cannot wait to get back to Shez to share his discovery. He can play the ‘key’ off as a find.

Walking around for a bit and looking around gets kinda boring to Elizabeth. She keeps looking back at the door. With no sign of it opening up soon. We might want to head back soon. "Maybe we should head back and look at another object. See what that turns up for us."

Daisan sighs disappointed yet not at the same time. “Perhaps you are correct. I will not be able to do another visit for a while though.” Next time he will have to do the pendant. He takes a deep breath and releases his ability.

Elizabeth heads back over to where Daisan is. "What do we do to go back?" Wondering how they would get out once this magic stopped.

“You don’t have to do anything, but you will be put back into your body. It may be a little disorienting, but that is only brief.” Daisan explains as they are sent back to their time. He opens his eyes again feeling a little nauseated like he usually does. He waits for Reiza to approach them.

Opening her eyes again, her stomache feels like it's trying to escape. She hunches over her lunch coming back up. She throws up not being used to this kind of disorienting and not having a strong constitution in the first place. She goes to wipe her mouth with her sleeve, but ends up throwing up again. Again she goes to wipe her mouth. This time not needing to throw up. She goes to stand back up. Looking quite upset.

“Everyone acts a little differently when they return. Vomiting is one of the common ways. I haven’t taken a lot of people though.” Daisan tells her kindly. He takes out his notebook and starts drawing what he saw. He looks around for Reiza to explain what didn’t happen.

Reiza watches the vomit spree and is now glad not to have gone. Whatever she missed out on wasn't worth it. She sighs to herself, crossing her arms and leaning back on her right leg as her eyes dart from one to the other. When nothing is said about what they saw, she says, ".... So? What did you guys run into?"

Elizabeth looks at Reiza. "Next time you can go. What happened was that their were guys in suits and they were planting the trees. The door wasn't open and the guys in suits were speaking a weird language. Other than that nothing happened. At least while we were in there."

Reiza mumbles under her breath, shaking her head and tapping her toes upon the floor with impatience as she looks from thing to thing to thing.

"Well, just use your damn key, then. If your magic isn't going to give us shit, the necklace thing will." She says with an irritable tone.

Daisan raises his eyebrows and looks up from his book. “Just to clarify, you want me to use my key on the door, because I will be unable to use my ability again for a period of time. And it isn’t that we didn’t discover anything. The people seemed to be peaceful. Their technology surpassed what we had today. They were wearing these odd suits. But I don’t know why.

by Ink 5th November 2017, 11:00 pm

[ATTN: Quin Group]
Caeroot Village	Afternoon

Allas Ruoh is a man of dignity, so as he sits at a desk with his artwork, he continues to work quietly and diligently with proper posture. He needn't keep an eye on his new suspect, as he already knew where he'd be. After having spent so much time here, Ruoh had gotten to learn where most of the residents of the town live.

He took the liberty of ordering drinks as he waited for the all of his company to show, offering them seats politely on the other side of his carpentry, so as to give them space to enjoy their beverages at a distance from his carving. He's humming a little tune as they show, allowing them to enjoy their drinks before getting down to business.

Sir Coaltar, noticing the smell of something different than the expected wood work on the table where Ruoh was, jumped into a sprint for the table now. It was something tasty. He could tell that much, and if he was gonna share with Rockett again, he wanted the first sip this time.

"Woooahh, Sir Coaltar! WHAT'S THE RUUUSH??" Rockett shouted as she noticed him running ahead. She said nothing more but quickly skipped forward after him, faster, but still as lackadaisically as possible at the same time. "Hellooooooo Mister Ruoh!" she chimed as she plopped in the seat across the table that Coaltar was now perched on top of. "I did like what you said! I think they should both be here preeeeettty sooooooon.. ish! But Lady Silk said she had to finish up like umm, well, whateeever she was doing anywaaaayyy..." She said this with a very childish ring to it, kicking her legs back and forth under the table and bobbing up and down as she did. Then her attention was diverted to Coaltar for a moment. "Ohhh, a drink! For us? Yaaaay!" she squealed enthusiastically. "Woah! Don't drink all of it Coaltar! Pleeeaaase?" her tone had shifted as she pouted at him for a moment, only to pop her head back to Ruoh as if nothing had happened. "Oh! And Lady Sonja was with Lady Silk too, so they should be here together soon I think! Lady Sonja really seems to like following her around a lot, but I did get her to come play with us the other day too! Is this a meeting, Mister Ruoh? LIke.... OFFICIAL?" A big, open-mouthed grin stretched across her face, as disturbing as that may have looked with her skeletal jaw. "And ooooohh, by the way.... What IS this thingy you're making?? It's really beautiful so far! But... I can't tell yet, hehe!" she giggles.

Coaltar delights in her wondrously short attention span in that he can take advantage of it for more drinks of her drink than she can notice. It really was just too delicious.

Silk stares absently into a reflective surface, hung in her room to act as a mirror, each of her opaque eyes glazed over as if look at space, itself. She’s pale. Paler than usual, in fact. Her door is suddenly met with a knock and reality snaps back into place. She shakes her head before turning toward the source of the sound. Still she remains silent, almost ready to drift off into another world again, until there is yet another knock. One step at a time, she makes her way to it until she can take the doorknob in her hands. With a deep inhale, she opens the door. Rockett, on the other side of it, is greeted with her charmingly impish smile, and serene demeanor, as is typical of her. “Yes? How may I help y- oh. Rockett. Good afternoon. What may I do for you, dear?”

A bit later, Silk arrives at the table with the others. She moves perhaps a bit more sluggish and rigidly the usual, nevertheless taking her seat with a smile. “My sincerest apologies regarding my tardiness. How do you do? And to what do we owe the pleasure of the esteemed Sir Ruoh’s generous invitation? As if we didn’t already know.” She glances down at the cup before her. There’s a slight tremor in her hand as she reaches for it. After managing to take a sip of the finely brewed tea, she sets the cup down. “My, this is exquisite.”

"Weeeell... umm, to actually be honest, I don't know what it's about yet for certainty and Mister Ruoh seems to want to address the matter a bit more like... when we're all here, I guess. He's just kinda been working on his wood stuff for now! Also, no worries, I don't think you were really tardy because he didn't really seem to say a time for the meeting and it just kinda came up and stuff like that! But..." she leaned in a bit... "I think we may have come across some big clue and stuff... Sir Coaltar seems to think so too..." she says in a psuedo-whisper, as if it mattered to the present company. Her expression shifted... "WOOOAH! You got TEA?? THAT REMINDS ME! GOSH I HAVEN'T TRIED M-"

Her eyes dart down to her drink as Sir Coaltar finishes it off, and jumps at first when he notices he has been caught, only to slowly lick his paw and innocently tilt his head. "Meeow..." he says softly, making his sweetest kitty face.

"Awwww.... We were supposed to share.... meanie..." She pouted.

Sonja was taking the day off from searching for the key as it was clear that asking questions wasn’t going to get them anywhere on the matter. However Corona wasn’t about to let her simply laze about so the day had become a training day for Sonja since she hadn’t done any training since they left the guild hall over a week ago. As such she was in her partial fusion form, of pale blue skin, neon green eyes, and two toned blue wings, practicing her ability to freeze water with a full water pale when a knocking sounded on her door breaking her concentration. With a sigh of frustration she felt her control of the magic fail leaving the water liquid in the center of the pale surrounded by a shell of ice an inch thick on the bottom and sides of the pale. Going to answer the door still in her fusion form she discovered that she was needed for a meeting with Ruoh.

Rather than just heading over she took a quick bath to wash away the sweat that had accumulated during her training that day and then she picked out her dress with care and gave herself a fishtail braid as she wasn’t going to go to an official meeting looking anything her but her best. In this manner she arrived fashionably late to the table where everyone else was waiting. Before taking her seat she gave a curtsy to Ruoh and took her seat feeling like she had no reason to dress her lateness given her status as well as her appearance, which would certainly speak to why she was as late as she was.

“Greeting Ruoh. I take it from your summons something has come up in regards to our mission here?” Noticing that there was a cup of tea for her on the table Sonja picked it up and took a sip as she waited to find out what the meeting was about, and hoping it wouldn’t involve Ruoh messing with time as she really didn’t care for the sensation the magic caused her to feel.

Ruoh is drinking his tea when Sonja arrives, but as soon as he finishes, he greets her politely in the same fashion as the others, directing her to some tea. He's quite finished with his newest creation--a Ranma that's already pretty prepped to be placed in a home, if desired. He's not sure what he'll do with the thing--he has no intention of selling it to such poor peoples that probably would have no interest in such artistry in their homes.

"Hmm," Ruoh says contemplatively, "Perhaps. I now know where the key is. The question is whether or not I should handle it or if I can trust any of you to obtain it. The desired results are obtaining a key without leaving this town or anyone within it unhappy. Are any of you capable of this?"

"OH OH, I THINK I KNOW A THING! I MEAN HOW, I MEAN... I CAN DO IT I THINK!" Rockett blurts out excitedly, waving her hand. "Oh, I mean, but if someone else has a plan, it's fine too, but I think I could probably get it. Um, like it depends, though. Did we find for sure that the guy had it? Or knew where it was maybe? He's a locksmith or something maybe? Anyway, if he knows, I could just... Ask him politely for it? Maybe he would be willing to trade it for stuff! I could totally do some things to help him and stuff! And Sir Coaltar would help me! I mean, it could definitely work, I think! I used to get nice people getting me stuff every once in a while when they weren't running away from me!.... but oh yeah, what about you guys?" she slowed down, looking to the others to hear what their suggestions might be.

Silk stares into her tea, having momentarily lost herself in a daze. Rockett’s ramblings are but muffled noise in her mind. Only when the girl finishes and Silk feels eyes fall upon her does she snap back to reality. She clears her throat and calmly takes another sip of her tea. “Uh… y-yes, of course, I could certainly try my hand at assisting however possible. Should charitable endeavors not bear fruit, perhaps it could turn out to simply be a case of using the right words.” She sets her teacup back down for a moment and ponders. “In the case of most people, all it takes to become completely agreeable is a little… convincing.”

Sonja listens to too everyone talk and drinks her tea quietly pondering the situation. When it was clear she should chime in she gently cleared her throat and took a sip of tea and said what was on her mind. ”I can think of a couple things I could try. First I could try using my status as leverage to get the key, but I don’t know how well that would work as they are a citizen of my nation. Another option is I could try to buy it from him but depending on how much I would have to pay for it the local economy could be negatively effected. Although I imagine an influx of gold is bound to come anyways with Lord Crye building his guild hall here so perhaps that isn’t as much of an issue as I initially thought.

Beyond those options I can only suggest someone make a plea to this individual and explain that the key is better in our hands than theirs do to the amount of danger possessing it puts him in and hope for the best. We might could even find out who they are close to and explain the situation to them and have them help us plead our case to possibly make them more likely to side in our favor. However no matter what we do we will have to tread carefully and say only what is necessary to say as like you said at the start of the mission this is dangerous waters we wade into.”

With that Sonja fell silent and looked into her cup of tea as she ponders whether there were any other options the group could take as she was loath to resort to violence or deception to get the the key. As nothing but the thought that Rouh could stop time to steal the key came to mind she stayed silent as she was sure she wasn’t the only one to have thought of such a vile method, though it was still preferable to violence.

Ruoh looks to Silk, "Very well. You take point. All of you discuss, come to an agreement, and then bring me a key."

Silk turns to Ruoh, meeting his brilliant golden eyes with her mystifying gaze of lustrous black. She addresses his remark with her usual petite grin, her fangs in clear view, poking from either corner of her mouth. “Of course, Sir Ruoh. It would be our genuine pleasure.” She dips her head politely before looking back to the girls. “I’m sure we could have a wonderful conversation on the matter. These girls are quite the bright ones, after all. Besides, we haven’t had much opportunity to speak between just the three of us, have we?”

Ruoh smiles, wishes them well, and parts ways with the ladies.

by LightningFang 5th November 2017, 11:03 pm

(Collab between: me , xeno, and Jerri)

{ATTN: Tavran Ruins}

"Whatever, dude." Reiza says.

Looking at Daisan then Reiza, then back to Daisan. "You should have warned me you were doing that." Elizabeth looks back to Reiza. "That's not a bad idea, if we knew where he should put it."

“I will do it, but I want you to be ready for whatever comes out of that door.” Daisan takes a deep breath. He puts away his book and readies his crossbow. He holds up the pendant again and walks over to the door. “Are you guys ready?”

Elizabeth moves away from where she threw up, standing to the right of the door and 10ft away from it. "I'm ready whenever you guys are."

Reiza stands up, her eyes on the door with expectation as she looks from Elizabeth to Daisan to the door again. So far, all she knew was that Elizabeth could teleport and Daisan could see visions of the past. That means that she's the only battle mage in the room, so if something ugly is on the other side of that door...well, she's the only one who can deal with it. Fantastic.

"Ready," Reiza says, taking a battle stance without pulling out any weapons.

Daisan nods and uses his pendant to find the way to unlock the door. He moves it around slowly until it starts to glow again. He can hears mechanical noises then a swish sound.

Reiza watches as Daisan's pendant is raised to the indentation where it should be on the wall next to the frame. The indentation was easy to find, but for some reason, Daisan had waited for it to glow, first. Still, as the key glows, a light flashes as and the frame itself begins to glow. Reiza blinks. There's still a wall within the frame.... Yet, now, the frame glows.

She moves forward to inspect it, hoping to find a button or something of some kind to make further progress. She is surprised as, when she steps up to the frame, the wall begins to dissipate, folding into nothingness from the center towards the frame until there was nothing left but an open doorway into the next room.

Jerking away in surrpise, she steps away from the door frame, afraid of what might have jumped out at her from the opening void. As she did so and was no longer near the frame, the wall folded inwards again, wrapping from the frame down into its center until it was a wall once more. It's detecting my presence before it! That's how it opens!

Reiza walks towards the frame one last time, this time expecting it to open. As the walls fold away into nothing, she steps through the doorway and into the darkness. It's pitch in here, so Reiza wishes that she had her torch. She looks back at Elizabeth, pointing to the entrance platform, "Will you get that for me, please?"

Daisan is amazed about how the door works. How can it sense when people are near or not? He allows the two ladies to go first. He is grateful that nothing came out of the door. One step closer to finding out about this pendant. However he wishes he had someone from his guild with him for this discovery. Well maybe except for Ryla, she is too enthusiastic for him. She would love to see this though. Not that he dislikes his current companions, but they are not archeologists.

He wants to look around at everything, but Reiza seems to be an impatient woman. So he tries to focus on the area in front of him. His eyes do wander though, but he knows he will be down here again.

With torch in hand, Reiza stepped forward into the darkness, apprehensive and uncertain. Her eyes dart every which way and the torch, unfortunately, provides very little light. She can hear....a scratching sound. Multiple scratching sounds. The screeching had stopped some time ago, but as she gets further into the room, the screeches echo throughout the room, frightening her with their sudden, sharp shrieks.

She drops the torch, her hands moving to her ears with the effort of blocking out the painful tones and desparately trying not to be afraid. This didn't sound human, but it also didn't sound like any animal Reiza has ever seen before. It sounded more than just creepy. It sounded wrong. After the sounds stop, Reiza finally pulls her hands from her ears and finds that she is breathing loudly, heavily as her heart beats so fast, threatening to pound from her ribcage and into the cool air.

This room is obviously cold in comparison to the last rooms, which were relatively warm. This room seems so empty and although she can't see it through the fallen torchlight that now flickers upon the metallic ground, she knows she's close. She's close to...something. And now, fear has welled up within her, pressing her away, halting her progress and freezing her thoughts into things that she would rather not imagine.

Following behind Reiza, Elizabeth puts her hands to her ears. The sounds of whatever is on the otherside of the door being louder than what she had orginally thought. Fear flows over her. She steadys her breath trying to calm down while backing up. The further she gets the more the fear goes away. "Reiza, come on. You need to get out of the room, or at least away from whatever is causing this." Hopefully this will help her snap out of it

Daisan is thankful for the torchlight from Reiza. He is used to being in the ruins. He hears scratching. One that got increasingly worse as they continued. What could be causing that? It is obviously not human, not by that loudness. Could it be a machine malfunction, or something organic? The screeching starts and louder than before. It ran chills down his spine. He sees the torch fall. It is obvious that the sounds are affecting the ladies.

The atmosphere suddenly grows colder and the hairs raise on the back of his neck. He knows he must continue on. To find the secret of the pendant and how it ended up in his hands. “I know both of you are scared. If you want to stay here while I press on, feel free too. I know you are not used exploring ruins.” He is scared, but he has to know.

Reiza listened to Elizabeth and Daisan speak, her hands now shaking as she wiped them on her pants just to feel something, to rub the jitters away. She clears her throat, picking up the torch and holding it out ahead of her. There's something ahead. She presses on, against her better judgement, finding what appears to be a massively sized box.

The box is....huge. It expands past what she can see. There, just a few feet away, the box's top half appears to be made of glass and the lower half looks like the same metallic material and they meet at her waist level where another indentation exists. She leans the torch in to look at the familiar indentation of Daisan's necklace--oh, wait, there are three of them. The left and central indentations have a small symbol below them, but they do not glow--rather, they are etched into the metal on the plate. The third, right indentation, however, has a glowing symbol that is red and it flashes on and off. Strange--she didn't see this light before when she had entered the room.

The box is definiately at least ten feet tall and the width or depth is unknown. It's too dark in the room to really be able to tell, but within the box, from her torchlight alone, she can't see anything. There appears to be only emptiness, but the glass like material at thoe top is very obviously scratched everywhere. The scratches look are with a similar pattern--three, long strokes digging into the surface and clearly searching for a way out.

Elizabeth follows after Reiza, glad to see that she isn't as scared anymore. Elizabeth looks up at the box, wondering what reason they could have to keep something here. Plus why is it here in the first place. Time would tell. Elizabeth looked around, but it was too dark to see anything else. She thought about waiting in the dark, letting her eyes adjust to it. It would let her see the room better. Deciding against it she shook her head no. "Should I try and teleport up on top of the box or wait to use it for something else?

Daisan allows Reiza to lead the way. He is proud of her to be able to swallow her fear. Maybe she would make a good archeologist yet. They press onward to a box. It is a rather large one. It has a metallic bottom and a glass top. It is very tall and even longer. The length is indeterminable visually Just what can this box contain. His eyes are drawn upward to the scratches on the glass. “Not many objects can scratch glass.” This is getting stranger by the moment.

His eyes are drawn to the red blinking light. He goes to study it. It appears to be a metallic keyhole, but unlike the others there are three indentations…three… He comes all this way to find no answers only more question. In a rare show of frustration, he kicks the box. He yelps followed by a string of unintelligible curses. Why did Isarite send him here? Did he know about this place? Should he even trust this stranger?

He takes a few deep breaths to calm down. “Reiza, may you please shine your light over here more, I would like to get some rubbings of the indentations.” He digs out his book and some charcoal from his backpack. Not waiting for an answer, he begins to do his rubbings. “I think we need to send a team down here to explore this civilization. One that was more advanced than us even. I need to find the secret of this key…” He mumbles as he does the rubbings. “Until then, I think we need to keep this discovery quiet. There is so much going on now. Sheherazade is stretched thin at the moment.” He hears Elizabeth wanting to teleport to the top. He snaps his head to her. “Can you take others with you? I will like to see how big this is. I am concerned that the scratches may have affected the integrity of the glass. We will need to be careful.”

by **JerriLeah7** 5th November 2017, 11:59 pm

[ATTN: OPEN] Whitacker; 2-3PM

Nadleeh had just made it to the entrance of the Viorian Church when she was stopped by Priest Rayno. He, too, had found a book that mentioned transfer magic. This, too, had similar symbols within it like that of the one found beneath the White Cross Guild Hall. She turned back around, then, deciding to stay and find as many books as she could that had anything to do with Transfer magic.

Several hours later, Nadleeh had a pile of eight books in her arms and they were heavy. Too much to travel with--but luckily her transfer was possible. Tapping the symbol upon her bracelet, a doorway of purple and black opens up before her within the church. She steps through it and finds herself exiting through another door that leads her to Whitacker's Church.

She is at the Church's front, at the altar, surprised to see that the main room is being emptied before her. There is much movement. Another Priest here, Priest Kencharr, is standing there next to her with identical clothing and a holy book of his own. His necklace, too, glows. He looks at her with intrigue and she smiles at him.

"I am finished. You are welcome to return." Nadleeh tells him. The man nods before stepping through that black and purple doorway that vanishes behind him. The black void within the gate had made it seem as though he were stepping into nothingness, so it wasn't a surprise when a few people had come to her in alarm.

She cleared the misunderstanding with the citizens that are moving furniture around, speaking to the preacher at this church, as well, with sincere apology. She had set the books down, but they still sat upon the altar, teasing her gazes with intrigue and mysteries. She quickly learned that other refugees from Guild Hall of Infinity Edge and a few others would be staying here. Interesting.

The church building is beautiful, the architecture divine. It was not something that particularly spoke to Nadleeh, however--it is not Viorian. Still, she can appreciate a good shelter, regardless of how it appeared. Safe haven upon any sacred ground is still a blessing. Leaving the books upon the altar, Nadleeh takes it upon herself to assist with the cots and other preparations that were being placed out and moved around.

When the job is done, the front doors are opened and the people are made aware they those who need a home are now welcome. The Preacher announces this with open arms and Nadleeh smiles, standing with pleasure at his generosity. She is happy, but of course there are at least ten civilians up front, preventing anyone from entering. She can tell by their clothing that they are not White Cross--just members of the towns, most likely.

They look angry and their gazes upon her are not friendly. The Preacher of the church, Father Raist, asks them politely to move aside so that those who need shelter may obtain it. However, many of the few people here spat at his feet, most remaining quiet as one steps forward with a loud voice and an arrogant stance as he stares the Preacher and Nadleeh down.

"We don't need magi here--Aer Town had it right. They'll spread more trouble here if we keep them here, Father." The man says, "You'll bring death to every one of us."

Father Raist looks at the man with pity and sadness. His hand moves to his heart and he shakes his head, expressing his obvious disagreement. "We must shelter those in need, give food to the hungry, save the lives of the dying. That is our edict--your edict as a member of the church, Theynor."

Theynor sneers, "Our edict is our edict unless it is going to get us killed. They are going to bring misfortune to our families! Are you going to be responsible for that, Father?"

Nadleeh steps forward, a rage burning within her core. She is not a vengeful person, a spiteful person...she is not an angry person or a person that would think little of others, but at this very moment, she sees very little to admire. Her eyes darken, the cowl of her cloak covering her gritted teeth as she speaks, her knuckles tightening around the holy scripture in her hand.

"Priests and Priestesses do not go where they are wanted," Nadleeh speaks very clearly to him, "They go where they are needed. Should trouble come your way, it will be our magics that protect you and our Gods that give you strength. I truly hope that you will find it in your hearts to be warm to those around you, despite your fears."

She feels bitter towards these people, but her eyes can only express sincerity--the sincerity of her yearning hope that they will listen. Unfortunately, it did not appear that this would be so. White Cross members were approaching from behind out of curiosity, attracted to the scene and curiosity getting the better of them.

The man clearly felt uncomfortable as he and his tiny group of men became surrounded and Nadleeh realized how it looked. She was going to say something but he was already taking an aggressive stance as he looked about at the magi with a wild look in his eyes.

Theynor says, "You cannot stay here. You aren't welcome."

Nadleeh drops the book in her hand, the chain connect to its spine catching it as it fell to her side and tugging at her waist. The weight of it does not throw her off balance as a magic symbol appears beneath her feet, expanding outwards five feet in every direction in a deep, de-saturated blue. Wind picks up around her body, her hair and cloak flowing around her as the circle spins at her feet.

The magic makes no sound, but wind whistles, picking up debris at the church's entrance and spinning around Nadleeh's body with frantic power as Nadleeh speaks once more. This time, however, there are two voices that speak, one feminine voice echoing another but entirely different.

"Behold," The voices said as one, "and the people found contentment within their hearts. The memories of those they loved flooded their minds and as they reached that inner peace, the Iris of Thateus found them."

The scripture was finished and suddenly, the little group of troublemakers seemed entirely different. With expressions of pure calm, the panic and anger was gone in an instant. They backed away, moving into the crowd of magi and through them so that they could return home.

Father Raist looks to Nadleeh with concern, "I am so sorry. I'll be sure that this does not happen again. I know multiple Guilds will be here tonight and I think that scares them, that's all."

Nadleeh nods her head to the preacher, her Priest robes no longer flowing as the symbol has long disappeared. "There is no slight here. We thank you for your generosity."

by JulietHasAGun 7th November 2017, 5:03 pm

(ATTN: White Cross Guild, Group B, Nadleeh)

After giving instructions to his group to help the freedmen get set up, sending them where he believes they'd be most useful; and making sure to let Claire know that, for the time being, while he's trying to make progress with....whatever was wrong with white cross, she'd be keeping Zero on a short leash. He hated treating his guild members in such a way, but he really had no other options, and he knew he could trust Claire.

He knew with Xiax's 'condition' setting him up to work with close proximity to magi would be a concern. So while he'd set Claire, Zero and Gale up to assist the White Cross magi, he had essentially allowed Xiax to be set to his own devices with the refugees, or to follow him and his sister, if he was looking for anything specific to do. He seemed jumpy, so his sister said, since they had left the abandoned guild hall. Perhaps he was afraid of ghosts? Who knew.

He hadn't bothered to give Ronaldi orders, as he wasn't even in his guild, suggesting he aid them in setting up without any direct command. The man seemed decent enough, probably closer in age to Xiax than himself. Though, watching his sister make passes at the man was a bit uncomfortable. He tried to not listen in- but he did hear something about 'heavy lifting' from his sister that he wished he could scrub from his brain.

Still, him and his sister had made themselves useful, despite July constantly toting around that massive book that they were supposed to read. Under any other circumstances Ham would have been eager to devour it- but there were infinitely more important things to do than spend time researching a supposed 'dragon egg'.

Now, however, they were on their way to set up within the church, both of them carrying a large bundle of....something, and leading a few of the younger or less physically inclined freedmen to get as comfortable as they could within their makeshift shelter. Sifa, as she was called, the elderly woman who didn't speak, and a few other of the other refugees among them. The elderly fisherman had opted to stay back and help unload supplies despite Ham's offer.

The young girl talked a mile a minute, apparently she was from around here; and knew of Ryushi and his guild. At least, in gossip.

They were now nearing the church where most of them would be sleeping....with noooo privacy.

'So much for me scratching that itch..' July thought to herself, her expression flat despite the displeasure permeating from her. 'Eh, I've gotten rolled in the woods before I guess, just depends if I'm down to pick dirt out of my ass....and hair....and depending on positions probably several other places...'

She could tell Ham was trying to aggressively ignore her 'flirting'; he usually paid little mind to it, but maybe the rather large age difference had her concerned. Little did he know she'd been with older- probably. She hadn't asked the guys exact age.

Now they were nearing the church and saw several....concerningly peaceful looking men walking out amidst a commotion.

Her and her brother looked at each other, quirking their eyebrows in a mirror like movement before proceeding inside as a matter of curiosity.

They move their way through the crowd, Ham's larger form making way through the group behind him, him and his sister weaving through the crowd as they dispersed.

Luckily, thanks to her and her brothers height, they were both able to see what the deal was before making contact. There were a gaggle of Whit Cross guildies all surrounding...

Ham observed the...man, woman? Other? Standing at the center of the room. He assumed whatever the commotion was, it had been due to them. They were tall, raven haired, and he assumed whatever was causing the dramatic waft around them had been the dispelling of whatever magic they used. He was about to move closer, ask what was going on when he felt the aggressive, claw like, vice grip of his sisters hand digging into his arm. He looked down at her to see her...wide eyed, and staring very intently at the person at the center of the room.

Was she shaking? He looked between the mysterious figure and his sister a few times as he saw his sister perk, her mouth shut tightly.

"Ham holy shit." She whispered to him, her words straining against their silence for emphasis. Her owl eyed gaze made its way up to him.

Holy shit was right. Not to be one of those people but holy fucking hell in in a hand basket.

'Oh my god, oh my fucking god holy shit what the hell holy god damn what in the name of oh my god.' July's thoughts were a muddle. 'That's the most attractive human I've ever seen.'

Was it a man? A woman? That didn't matter to July. What mattered is if they were single, and willing to let her climb them like a tree. Or climb her like a tree.

They could do her on the pulpits, the pew, a table, a bed, whatever they wanted. She was flexible. In more ways than one, which she would clarify. Her gaze moved to her brother as she realized she was essentially vibrating.

Oh.

Oh no.

Ham knew exactly what this was.

"July, you don't even know their name or gender yet. You have seen them, for five seconds. At a distance." She'd already been flirting with Ronaldi with every second breath. Now she had another target for her...affections.

"I don't know," She started slowly, lowly, looking at her brother with intensity. "what is between their legs. But I know one thing, I want it to be me."

Ham recognized that wicked grin that came across his sisters face as he sighed, continuing to move them through the crowd. Despite his sister quite thoroughly making this first meeting weird, he at least wanted to make introductions; especially if this person had a stake in setting up the church.

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