[ the corpse seems ready to break through its middle; he pauses while dragging it, stopping abruptly even if guy tries to keep moving, breaking the momentum suddenly as he studies the woman and looks at her mauled face for answers. ]
...What is a monster hunter doing out here?
[ but his attention is pulled away to owner, and he nods. ]
Let's go then.
[ together!! friendship hours... assuming they head off that way immediately, he'll help clear off anything that's obstructing them. stop rocks from hitting their heads. that sort of thing. ]
Margaret can rifle through this poor dead lady’s pockets, sure. In her coat, she’ll find a few things - the first is a decorative pin, etched into the back of it it says Oakbender. The second is what appears to be a Promissory Note made out to a Lucien Tavelle of the Tombtakers for approximately a fuck load of money and signed by a Vess DeRogna - you’re intelligent and charming, you’ve networked. You probably haven’t met her directly but you know the name. It’s famous in the right circles. The Archmage of Antiquities in the Cerebus Assembly. A very powerful woman, and one with apparently deep pockets. She is also wearing a friendship bracelet, but hers has cats on it. Seems she might have been out here for similar reasons to yourselves. If this woman died seeking what’s beyond here, though, maybe … that could be leveraged? Perhaps this DeRogna might still want what was here. Even without that, this note is worth something. Do you pocket any of this?
It’s a longer walk than you would have thought, actually. Navigating this place is difficult, sweaty work - the blue gleam had seemed a lot closer than it really was, parts of the road are totally collapsed and you have to carefully navigate over it and it probably takes … hell, hours to reach it. It wasn’t that far, but the going is rough in this place. As you approach the blubble (blue bubble) though, things become clearer.
This seems to be a pretty large boulevard - chunks of building are slammed into it and dust and dirt rattles loose from the cave ceiling above you as you walk, and you reach what seems to be something of a waystation where the bubble is covering. You don’t see ancient remains everywhere in these ruins, but along this pathway it seems as if there’s a lot of bones. Curled up next to crevices and huddled into corners. The bubble itself is large and glows in the dim light and as you get close you can see that it’s translucent.
Inside, there’s … a scene. First, closest to you there’s a elven woman. She’s frozen in the space, mid-scream, even her hair hovering in the air as if she were in the middle of turning around - hands stopped halfway to swinging down to hit the side of the bubble and eyes wide in terror. Behind her, a man in a uniform is holding something in his hand tightly, two more people crouched in fear near him and clinging tightly to one another.
Beyond, even further away is an enormous archway. I won’t make you specify that you read the sign that says CREST HUB above it. I also won’t play coy that there’s a huge set of locked doors in the archway. ]
[she absolutely pockets that note. sounds like this derogna will pay good money for aeor artifacts, and more than that, it's a great connection to have in the future. if they can break into the assembly, they'll be made. she'll leave her the friendship bracelet, though.]
Interesting, but a good reminder to be very careful out here.
[she gives guy a worried glance, noticing how rattled he is. but she'll go along with all of them, sticking close to the others but staying towards the back of the party, making sure the stronger party members like sidon and guy are towards the front. it's just good tactics.]
...God, what happened here?
[she will try to intelligence out what the fuck actually happened here. can she find some sort of indication of what happened to these people and how long they've been there? do they need to be worried about getting bubbled?]
the voice owner had heard earlier-- was it feminine sounding or not? any indication who he heard in the vision between everyone in the bubble, if it was actually any of the ones here. also like... what are vibes here... are they rancid or worrisome or does everything feel normal under than horrific scene in front of them? ]
Stay close. They were holding onto each other and still separated.
[ he doesn't know if it was these people he heard or not but this is true of SOMEONE at least ]
[ he will dutifully walk ahead because it IS just good tactics.
he's going to be careful to try and not step on any of these bones though, even if they did politely tuck away into cracks and whatnot. what, is it like these people died, cowering themselves into little balls in corners? this is awful. this bubble is awful. ]
Did you hear something, Owner...?
[ he's going to take a look at this door. does it look like something that can be broken into, or would it take a more delicate attempt at the locks? ]
[ guy seems to shake himself out of whatever was rattling him, watching the scene play out with narrowed eyed ]
Whatever that person is holding.... it must be incredibly dangerous.
[ he does stay close as instructed, but is also looking around for any alternative entrances or something to pick the lock with if the doors can't just be opened ]
[ Margaret. Well, you’re intelligent, but you don’t have arcana so you don’t know the specifics of this bubble. You don’t really know if you could be bubbled at any moment - it’s certainly a possibility. Inside however, you can see the style of clothes, the types of people they are: fine robes, woven with light and gold, the woman wears heavy gems in her ears and her robe in particular seems to be that of a distinguished person. They are all Elven. Most citizens of Aeor were, especially the upper class. They have been here a very long time.
Owner, you can definitely tell the voice was feminine. It seems like a pretty good guess maybe the person you heard was her. As you lean in closer, you swear you see your own reflection flash across the surface. The vibes are … horrible. Fear and panic and terror and wailing, the sound of an echoing alarm that keens across the entire city as the arcane lights flicker out one by one `EMERGENCY ALERT! ALL CITIZENS PLEASE REPORT TO CRE—`
Sidon, you walk along to the larger archway - looking at the remains along the roadway. Yeah. That seems a pretty accurate assessment, that these people perhaps tried to follow a large thoroughfare and then hid and died cowering. They are wide and varied, adults and … quite a bit smaller than adults. Someone with a crutch is wedged into an alley, trying to protect their head. There’s a lot of people here who tried to run and it seems like someone failed them. As you approach the door - it seems solid. Metal, and thick. You could try and break it? The area around here is … unstable to say the least, and it would be an endeavor, but probably not impossible.
Guy, you can take a look around! You’re pretty dextrous so it’s easy enough to pick your way across the rubble - the waystation is pretty destroyed except for what’s inside the bubble which is entirely pristine. But near the back of the building there’s what appears to be something … arcane in nature. It glows with a faded, yellowing light, though you aren’t very familiar with magic. It could be dangerous to mess with things you don’t understand very well. As for the door in the archway, it does appear to have a keyhole, but you don’t seem to turn up anything that could be used as a lock pick unfortunately. ]
[she examines the bubble, and then glances at where sidon is inspecting the door, a frown on her face for a moment.]
...We need to get into that bubble. We can't get through the archway without deactivating it, it's too dangerous.
[well. intelligence check. how bad of an idea is it to just shoot the bubble with this plasma gun? because that's what she's inclined to do, but if she can somehow figure out the best place to do that?]
owner looks at margaret and sidon, not bothering to look over at guy, who is once again slowing them down. typical. ]
They were supposed to evacuated to the Hub, whenever... this happened. I suppose they did not make it, but we should definitely head there as soon as we can.
[ the piles of bones—of adult and not so adult variety—tell a story. not a good one. and the way ahead looks barred for now, since he isn't ready to risk a cave-in after finding someone crushed to death. it's all very much a downer.
which is part of why, when margaret speaks, he pulls away from the door to cast her a sad look. maybe she thinks he doesn't realize. ]
There's so many of them. Just what were they running from?
[ he'll head back to the group to see if there's anything to be done about this bubble. is there any structural weakness to it, that might help guide margaret's shot? ]
[ guy returns to the part after his little lookabout, also checking out the bubble with his very charming dexterity!! he's also checking if anything nearby can be used as a lockpick or if he can make one from the items left over by the corpses.... yeesh, morbid. ]
There's some kind of arcane magic item near the back of the building. I don't know if it's related to the bubble. Maybe there's something in the book about it?
[ Owner, since you’re asking fun lil hypotheticals I’ll put you first … that’s an idea. You don’t know the history that well, but with Whispers, you can look out into the distance and far off across the ruins you can spot more of those glowing, blue bubbles. This is hardly the only one.
Margaret it seems like … an idea to shoot the bubble directly with your plasma gun. That could go a lot of different ways, you think, with your big huge brain. But you’ve got a couple of helpers here, between Sidon and Guy. Sidon you’re a strength guy, you also don’t know arcana that well, but I think it’s reasonable to say he can tell things about … architecture. Maybe if Margaret aims for the floor she can shake something loose inside the Stasis Bubble that might cause a chain reaction. Margaret has also now heard about the magic box at the back of the waystation, which is also an option. If you choose to shoot it, you’ll need to roll but you can do it with advantage.
Guy, checking the bodies (corpses seems strong, they are more bones and dust than anything) - I think guy can turn up a few bits and bobs. A piece of metal or two, a pin from clothing something. It doesn’t seem like a GREAT lock pick, but you can try it. Everything here is ancient and crumbling. The Calamity was over a thousand years ago. ]
[ hmmm there being a lot of them is bad. is there like any particular area they are like, positioned at, like if there are more bubbles one way more than others, or is it just that they are scattered randomly
but after observing this, he rubs his temple again and just watches margaret shoot the floor i guess surely it'll be fine ]
[owner: at first they seem kinda random, both in location and size, but actually when you study it, it seems like they are clustered around certain locations. You aren't sure what those locations are necessarily, but there's more than a few around your location.
next is guy he looks insanely cool making his lockpick, just so sexy. margaret is a lesbian but even she is distracted by this.
did you know in the explorer's guide to wildemount the suggestion to breaking these bubbles is to have like, powdered unicorn horn and flumph jelly, insanely rare substances, or to own one of the Arms of the Betrayers - a weapon so rare and powerful it was blessed by one of the Betrayer Gods thousands of years ago. There are like. Five of those. And I was gonna let you shoot it with a gun. Anyway I can't do that on a 5 and an 8.
The plasma shot falters and ricochets off the side of the bubble and shoots sidon directly in the chest. ]
[i think a plasma gun counts as an arms of the betrayers, though. anyway, i shot the floor you asshole stop railroading me!!!!
she shouts when the gun goes off and hits sidon and will run over to him.]
Sidon! Oh no, I'm sorry!
[that plan was so stupid, she should not have done that. how hurt is he? just because he keeps second guessing her does not mean she wants him to die.]
and it is your injury to do what you will with it, my sweet Lucky Charms. if you'd said he'd died instantly I'd have respected that too.
This bubble seems unaffected - the inside remains as perfectly and eerily still as it had before. And you can notice nothing else seems to have been set off - only some distant shift of rocks in the silence. I'll give you this with your Gun Investigation (shooting it) it doesn't seem likely that other bubbles are going to erupt. They seem to be ancient magic that has hung around this long, but the technology to create a new one ... that would be rare.
Lock picking the archway door you mean or the magic device?]
[she fusses while she watches sidon either die or not die depending on what nu decides in two tags from now.]
If you're sure. [a huff of breath that's both relieved and frustrated at once.] You idiot, just be careful, okay? [she says like she was not the one who shot him.] You're pushing yourself way too hard, you need to take it easy. Stop hovering around me and just let me handle the journal, you know?
[the bubble remains a huge priority, but she doesn't have any idea how to get in there.]
Guys, we need to get in there. That woman has something we need; it's not safe to go through the archway without it.
You do not need to remind us so often that you have the journal, Margaret. We are aware.
[ a little curtly. but we will see if sidon lives or not.
but he will leave his potion with margaret and sidon for now, and then he will just sort of... walk around their immediate area if there is like, anything else that might stand out here besides what they have already investigated. are the other bubbles in this spot too far away to go walk to reasonably? ]
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...What is a monster hunter doing out here?
[ but his attention is pulled away to owner, and he nods. ]
Let's go then.
[ together!! friendship hours... assuming they head off that way immediately, he'll help clear off anything that's obstructing them. stop rocks from hitting their heads. that sort of thing. ]
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.... Right, let's go.
<small[ just following behind ]
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Margaret can rifle through this poor dead lady’s pockets, sure. In her coat, she’ll find a few things - the first is a decorative pin, etched into the back of it it says Oakbender. The second is what appears to be a Promissory Note made out to a Lucien Tavelle of the Tombtakers for approximately a fuck load of money and signed by a Vess DeRogna - you’re intelligent and charming, you’ve networked. You probably haven’t met her directly but you know the name. It’s famous in the right circles. The Archmage of Antiquities in the Cerebus Assembly. A very powerful woman, and one with apparently deep pockets. She is also wearing a friendship bracelet, but hers has cats on it. Seems she might have been out here for similar reasons to yourselves. If this woman died seeking what’s beyond here, though, maybe … that could be leveraged? Perhaps this DeRogna might still want what was here. Even without that, this note is worth something. Do you pocket any of this?
It’s a longer walk than you would have thought, actually. Navigating this place is difficult, sweaty work - the blue gleam had seemed a lot closer than it really was, parts of the road are totally collapsed and you have to carefully navigate over it and it probably takes … hell, hours to reach it. It wasn’t that far, but the going is rough in this place. As you approach the blubble (blue bubble) though, things become clearer.
This seems to be a pretty large boulevard - chunks of building are slammed into it and dust and dirt rattles loose from the cave ceiling above you as you walk, and you reach what seems to be something of a waystation where the bubble is covering. You don’t see ancient remains everywhere in these ruins, but along this pathway it seems as if there’s a lot of bones. Curled up next to crevices and huddled into corners. The bubble itself is large and glows in the dim light and as you get close you can see that it’s translucent.
Inside, there’s … a scene. First, closest to you there’s a elven woman. She’s frozen in the space, mid-scream, even her hair hovering in the air as if she were in the middle of turning around - hands stopped halfway to swinging down to hit the side of the bubble and eyes wide in terror. Behind her, a man in a uniform is holding something in his hand tightly, two more people crouched in fear near him and clinging tightly to one another.
Beyond, even further away is an enormous archway. I won’t make you specify that you read the sign that says CREST HUB above it. I also won’t play coy that there’s a huge set of locked doors in the archway. ]
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Interesting, but a good reminder to be very careful out here.
[she gives guy a worried glance, noticing how rattled he is. but she'll go along with all of them, sticking close to the others but staying towards the back of the party, making sure the stronger party members like sidon and guy are towards the front. it's just good tactics.]
...God, what happened here?
[she will try to intelligence out what the fuck actually happened here. can she find some sort of indication of what happened to these people and how long they've been there? do they need to be worried about getting bubbled?]
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the voice owner had heard earlier-- was it feminine sounding or not? any indication who he heard in the vision between everyone in the bubble, if it was actually any of the ones here. also like... what are vibes here... are they rancid or worrisome or does everything feel normal under than horrific scene in front of them? ]
Stay close. They were holding onto each other and still separated.
[ he doesn't know if it was these people he heard or not but this is true of SOMEONE at least ]
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he's going to be careful to try and not step on any of these bones though, even if they did politely tuck away into cracks and whatnot. what, is it like these people died, cowering themselves into little balls in corners? this is awful. this bubble is awful. ]
Did you hear something, Owner...?
[ he's going to take a look at this door. does it look like something that can be broken into, or would it take a more delicate attempt at the locks? ]
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Whatever that person is holding.... it must be incredibly dangerous.
[ he does stay close as instructed, but is also looking around for any alternative entrances or something to pick the lock with if the doors can't just be opened ]
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Owner, you can definitely tell the voice was feminine. It seems like a pretty good guess maybe the person you heard was her. As you lean in closer, you swear you see your own reflection flash across the surface. The vibes are … horrible. Fear and panic and terror and wailing, the sound of an echoing alarm that keens across the entire city as the arcane lights flicker out one by one `EMERGENCY ALERT! ALL CITIZENS PLEASE REPORT TO CRE—`
Sidon, you walk along to the larger archway - looking at the remains along the roadway. Yeah. That seems a pretty accurate assessment, that these people perhaps tried to follow a large thoroughfare and then hid and died cowering. They are wide and varied, adults and … quite a bit smaller than adults. Someone with a crutch is wedged into an alley, trying to protect their head. There’s a lot of people here who tried to run and it seems like someone failed them. As you approach the door - it seems solid. Metal, and thick. You could try and break it? The area around here is … unstable to say the least, and it would be an endeavor, but probably not impossible.
Guy, you can take a look around! You’re pretty dextrous so it’s easy enough to pick your way across the rubble - the waystation is pretty destroyed except for what’s inside the bubble which is entirely pristine. But near the back of the building there’s what appears to be something … arcane in nature. It glows with a faded, yellowing light, though you aren’t very familiar with magic. It could be dangerous to mess with things you don’t understand very well. As for the door in the archway, it does appear to have a keyhole, but you don’t seem to turn up anything that could be used as a lock pick unfortunately. ]
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...We need to get into that bubble. We can't get through the archway without deactivating it, it's too dangerous.
[well. intelligence check. how bad of an idea is it to just shoot the bubble with this plasma gun? because that's what she's inclined to do, but if she can somehow figure out the best place to do that?]
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owner looks at margaret and sidon, not bothering to look over at guy, who is once again slowing them down. typical. ]
They were supposed to evacuated to the Hub, whenever... this happened. I suppose they did not make it, but we should definitely head there as soon as we can.
[ maybe some people did make it?
he rubs his temple, frowning. ]
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which is part of why, when margaret speaks, he pulls away from the door to cast her a sad look. maybe she thinks he doesn't realize. ]
There's so many of them. Just what were they running from?
[ he'll head back to the group to see if there's anything to be done about this bubble. is there any structural weakness to it, that might help guide margaret's shot? ]
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There's some kind of arcane magic item near the back of the building. I don't know if it's related to the bubble. Maybe there's something in the book about it?
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Margaret it seems like … an idea to shoot the bubble directly with your plasma gun. That could go a lot of different ways, you think, with your big huge brain. But you’ve got a couple of helpers here, between Sidon and Guy. Sidon you’re a strength guy, you also don’t know arcana that well, but I think it’s reasonable to say he can tell things about … architecture. Maybe if Margaret aims for the floor she can shake something loose inside the Stasis Bubble that might cause a chain reaction. Margaret has also now heard about the magic box at the back of the waystation, which is also an option. If you choose to shoot it, you’ll need to roll but you can do it with advantage.
Guy, checking the bodies (corpses seems strong, they are more bones and dust than anything) - I think guy can turn up a few bits and bobs. A piece of metal or two, a pin from clothing something. It doesn’t seem like a GREAT lock pick, but you can try it. Everything here is ancient and crumbling. The Calamity was over a thousand years ago. ]
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but after observing this, he rubs his temple again and just watches margaret shoot the floor i guess surely it'll be fine ]
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they can try the box if this doesn't work and they don't die. continues to find ways to make this the shortest cyoa ever. ]
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next is guy he looks insanely cool making his lockpick, just so sexy. margaret is a lesbian but even she is distracted by this.
did you know in the explorer's guide to wildemount the suggestion to breaking these bubbles is to have like, powdered unicorn horn and flumph jelly, insanely rare substances, or to own one of the Arms of the Betrayers - a weapon so rare and powerful it was blessed by one of the Betrayer Gods thousands of years ago. There are like. Five of those. And I was gonna let you shoot it with a gun. Anyway I can't do that on a 5 and an 8.
The plasma shot falters and ricochets off the side of the bubble and shoots sidon directly in the chest. ]
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she shouts when the gun goes off and hits sidon and will run over to him.]
Sidon! Oh no, I'm sorry!
[that plan was so stupid, she should not have done that. how hurt is he? just because he keeps second guessing her does not mean she wants him to die.]
Who has the healing potion?
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sidon just gets fucking SHOT i guess and he just starts shuffling through his pack to grab a potion and rush over. HELLO. get healed. ]
At least it wasn't a direct hit.
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Ow... Ah, it's all right! [ surveying the damage ] We should save it for now, we don't have much left on us...
[ unless alli is like no actually he's actively dying. anyway did the bubble change at all. did upsetting this bubble set off any other bubbles. ]
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[ but oh shit sidon got shot! at least owner has the healing potion but he frowns ]
How bad is it?
[ don't be a hero if alli says you're actually dying.... ]
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and it is your injury to do what you will with it, my sweet Lucky Charms. if you'd said he'd died instantly I'd have respected that too.
This bubble seems unaffected - the inside remains as perfectly and eerily still as it had before. And you can notice nothing else seems to have been set off - only some distant shift of rocks in the silence. I'll give you this with your Gun Investigation (shooting it) it doesn't seem likely that other bubbles are going to erupt. They seem to be ancient magic that has hung around this long, but the technology to create a new one ... that would be rare.
Lock picking the archway door you mean or the magic device?]
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If you're sure. [a huff of breath that's both relieved and frustrated at once.] You idiot, just be careful, okay? [she says like she was not the one who shot him.] You're pushing yourself way too hard, you need to take it easy. Stop hovering around me and just let me handle the journal, you know?
[the bubble remains a huge priority, but she doesn't have any idea how to get in there.]
Guys, we need to get in there. That woman has something we need; it's not safe to go through the archway without it.
[so maybe lockpick the magical device.]
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[ a little curtly. but we will see if sidon lives or not.
but he will leave his potion with margaret and sidon for now, and then he will just sort of... walk around their immediate area if there is like, anything else that might stand out here besides what they have already investigated. are the other bubbles in this spot too far away to go walk to reasonably? ]
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DAY 3
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