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The female dragon has to ponder for a moment. "Do you really think," She puts to Nath. "That pushing a bolder up a hill for all your years is the best use of your time?" It seemed a rather pertinent question to ask, considering the force to free Wonderland and right the wrongs numbered less than a dozen. "When, if you defeat this hidden foe, there will be no hill stopping you from pushing the bolder?" The dragon shakes her horned head. "You're clever. You reformed the Hedge by using your wits, not overpowering it. Do not commit yourself to trying to overpower the bolder. You are not strong enough." She rather bluntly assesses. "Let our enemy try to tangle with the Hedge. And while they are distracted and caught in thorns, we can make our move." She advises in all her wisdom. The war-torn dragon now makes his voice heard from the mouth of the cave. "You said you talked with the Rainbow Serpent." He directs Iris' way. "Did you get any insight into our fight? Who to strike out against? What your next course of action should be?" He vaguely interrogates the dryad on her encounter. "While we have this upper hand, we have to find out who is our foe and move against them."
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Apr 21, 2016 17:17
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Carol Carol's lamplight eyes scan the barren cavern, casting beams of searching illumination around the rocks, stalactites, and mites. Her mother is right. She doesn't remember much of any of this, outside of what she remembers from storybook dragon tales, and certainly not a bassinet. And yet... and yet, something in the remote corners of her psyche, fragmentary images and tactility conjures... a soft, fuzzy, stuffed, porcine plush. With fuzz the green of the palest part of a watermelon, and a mop of yarn-hair the green of the darkest part of a watermelon, the doll had black button eyes, a broad piggy snout, and a top-hat, cane, and tailed coat. A very dapper hog, was Tofty the Borogrove. One wouldn't expect a stuffed toy to survive this long in a dragon's lair, but a toy for a baby dragon must needs be durable. Hatchlings are rough when they go through their chewing phase. Almost absently, she replies to her friends and dragon kin, "Everything in life is Sisyphean if you look at the wrong way. Eating. Cleaning. Working. Ancient rituals to keep the Great Old Ones from noticing the Earth. Everything needs maintenance." She pauses and shakes her head, as if to bring herself back into focus on the conversation at hand instead of searching for memories in cobwebs, "But no, if we have a direction to strike... or more likely, to quest... it would be best to move while our fortifications hold." She looks at the other dragons, in their human-like forms, and scowls, trying to pull her mind aright and wrap it around the sensations of her own human shape. She tries, whether or not in vain, to condense herself down to the same, dark-haired, quasi-illusionary human with... a monstrous shadow she presented to the mortal world. Whether or not she succeeds, she speaks, "I'm sorry, mother. I'm no good at this either. Being a daughter, that is."
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Apr 23, 2016 07:24
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Iris Iris turns toward the mouth of the cave and tilts her head respectfully. She considers a curtsey, but decides that the gesture would likely be lost, and that she'd rather not disturb Skittles any more than needs. "I did speak with her, but the Snake could offer nothing to causes, only effects. She observed that the stories that underpin Wonderland were being disrupted by those of the other world, but couldn't be sure if that... interference was caused intentionally, or being exploited opportunistically. Kalabria's woes echoed memories nearing a century's age on the other side, for example. I thought that the weakening Hedge might be at the root of things, like a wall thinning between two conversations, allowing the louder to drown out the subtler." Frustrated, Iris frowns and shakes her head. "If she had names, or even archetypes to attach to the perpetrators, she said nothing. There was a brief nod to 'so-called' gods, and... and an equally brief question about my relationship to Artemis. Perhaps there are clues in the beginning of the diaspora, or... the firestorm that was set to destroy us as well as the Great Wood."
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Apr 25, 2016 00:56
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Carol didn't know where Tofty the Borogrove was. But she couldn't have simply conjured the memories out of nowhere. Perhaps, if indeed her bassinet was around her mother's cave somewhere, so was that precious stuffed piggy. The male dragon nods sharply in agreement with Carol. "Perhaps for the first time our enemy is caught off-guard. Their plans have finally been disrupted. We need to press the attack. The Hedge can hold if we act swiftly enough." Carol's mother seems to be rather unfazed by it all. Including Carol's apology. "Well, you didn't know you had to be a daughter until we met at the Hedge. I shouldn't expect you to master it all in one day." She reasons with impeccable draconic logic. "And frankly, I have hardly been a mother to you, Carol. It would be selfish to demand you be a daughter to me without leading by example." She further explains. "Perhaps once our battles are over we will have enough time to reconnect." Her mother suggests on a hopeful note. While she may not be a mother to Carol quite yet, she obvious had ushered through many a generation of dragon. When Carol tries to imitate her half-brethern and change forms, her mother shakes her head. "You're trying too hard, dear. It's not like flexing an arm." She corrects, putting a hand on her arm to get her to relax. "It's like blinking and breathing. Focus on it too much and you're stuck forcing yourself to blink or breath. But forget about it and just let your body work like it was supposed to, and it all takes care of itself." An instruction of 'do nothing' might seem to be far from helpful. But one can't argue with the results. After a few moments of following her mother's instruction, of focusing on not focusing on anything, Carol let's her body be. That body now being what she had thought got left behind in London. To Iris, the angry dragon humfs. "Typical. The Rainbow Serpent detests speaking sense." He almost spits. Clearly these dragons had had some contact with the old snake over time. "If the Hedge was letting in so many dangerous ideas that Wonderland was tearing itself apart, then it sure as stone won't be any longer." If Nath was right, the Hedge wasn't going to let anything through anywhere for a long time yet. "Intentional or exploited, it does not matter. End result was the same. Intent to sieze control was the same. Doesn't change that we need to find them and stop them." This dragon seemed to trade in black and whites, clearly. The lithe, horned one takes it from here. "Gods always straddled both worlds. Paid no heed to the Hedge. Capricious in nature. Used others at their whim. It isn't surprising the Rainbow Serpent named them." She reasons, seemingly sharing the snake's view on 'so-callled' gods. "Every river has a source. Trace events back far enough, and you will find the cause. The one behind all this. Just how far back though, that may bog you down more than anything." She pours water on the otherwise fine sounding idea. "You three have your own path. Even if we knew who was behind this, we could do little more than tell you what we were aware of."
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Apr 26, 2016 02:47
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Nathalie "You're right." Nathalie concedes to the Female dragon, "I got tangled up thinking about the Hedge. Now that we've plugged the leak, it's time to hit back." At some point during the explanations of the Rainbow Snake and the God Pantheons--this stuff still goes over her head, but much less so, now-- Nathalie mutters, "Better not be Vampires causing all this... that would be really... frustrating..." xian fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Apr 26, 2016 |
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Apr 26, 2016 05:08
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Iris "She did seem to have an unusual perspective," Iris admits to the male dragon. "Far enough away to see the whole of the picture, but too far to see the individual brush strokes." Lapsing into quiet, Iris thinks while she strokes Skittles. The cat squirms as she squeezes him, lips pursed against a bad memory. Finally, Iris shakes her head. "It wasn't Kalabria. They were affected, but their rulers' concerns were turned inward. Control, paranoia, isolation. And then the... the... conflagration that was set, wasn't merely aimed at destroying us. The fey kingdoms, bastards though their courtiers might have been, were neutral. With the constant roil of intrigue and decadence, they didn't have the facility to keep up with concerns further afield." Skittles makes a soft sound and burrows in close against her. "A question would be, who could have brought that kind of awful power to bear? Natural fire can spread at the speed of tragedy, but this was far beyond even that. Another, in light of that, and the paranoia of Kalabria's tetrarch, might be... what powers remain, or have risen?"
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May 11, 2016 04:16
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"The best defence is a good offence, no?" The female dragon offers Nath with a coy smile. "Don't worry." The male dragon moves to reassure Nath. "Even if there are vampires behind all this, you'll be spared our wrath." Very reassuring, that. What Iris has to say about the Rainbow Serpent doesn't seem to surprise the male dragon overly. "She and her ilk are more than happy to treat the world as something to be enjoyed from a distance but never touched. Even if it wilts and dies before them." He growls. "It would not be out of sorts at all if she did already saw who had been doing all this, but simply hadn't paid attention enough to help us figure out who at all." The war-torn dragon shakes his head. "What is the point of keeping a record of time and life and not doing anything about it?" He supposed completely rhetorically. One could draw the conclusion, perhaps, that the dragons (or at least he) had a past with the Rainbow Snake. The female dragon nods once. "Eliminating possibilities is just as important as presupposing them. So it was not Kalabria." She seems to accept Iris' train of thought. "There is a fact, a terrible power was unleashed over the forest. And yet, an even greater power still drew upon themselves to stop it. Were I the one to plot and scheme, I would not send something to kill you that is so easily parried away." The female dragon, somewhat coyly, smirks as she reveals how her mind worked. "The aim of the fire was something, perhaps somebodies, else. You three were merely caught in the middle, as serendipitous as that turned out to be." Carol's mother, keeping equal attention on her daughter and the deep thoughts her friends were musing over, speaks up. "If this fire was trying to burn out the Sidhe, they may be willing to ally with you." The great dragon opines. "If you went to them begging for aid against this terrible foe before? You would have walked away empty-handed. They are, as you said, uncaring about the world outside their courts. But now, with the prospect of swift and terrible vengeance on offer? You just may be able to sway them." The female dragon seems to concur. "Evidence is beyond what most fey care about. Come to them with a believable story to sway their hearts, instead." She offers her insider knowledge. "But," She appends. "Every story needs a villain, and we still lack one." She readily notes. "The power to stoke a fire strong enough to burn that hot belongs to precious few. We dragons," She nods to herself and her fellow dragons, now without having to speak it including Carol in that motion. "The Phoenix. The Prometheus. The Solar Deities. The Forge Gods. But none of these has risen recently, or acted outside their nature." While the female dragon ponders, Carol's mother ventures forth an idea. "Hmm… while not a hulking machine spewing forth filth, this does have the marks of a modern engine at work. On London's side of the Hedge, magic is feared is it not? And those who were found to practise such dark arts were burnt alive. The parallels seem striking to these old eyes of mine." Despite the grim topic, Carol's mother still grins. "Who was behind these witch hunts over the Hedge?"
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May 14, 2016 23:00
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Nathalie Nathalie laughs haughtily, with not at, the male dragon when he mentions that he would spare her if Vampires were the cause, "If Vampires were behind all this, I'd thin the ranks of those that were complicit. Never got your name. Unless it's something that I can't comprehend and will reduce me to rubble. Figured that might be the reason you didn't give it." When there's a gap between the two female Dragons' conversation, Nath says, "Poor people were scared that people who had more talent or skill or knowledge were witches with some mystical power they couldn't explain. Rich people created the myth of witches to eliminate people that threatened them. And then... women. Throughout history, burning women alive for a variety of reasons, real and imagined, has been all too common."
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May 15, 2016 04:54
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Carol Carol tries... Carol tries not to try. It takes some effort to rid one's self of... effort, or rather, it takes no effort... which is quite hard... but she finally manages to understand. Slowly, she dwindles, or condenses, or transmutes, resolving into a silhouette far more familiar to her friends. She's clad... well, rather practically, like a modern-world hiker, with sturdy boots, a jacket, and durable looking pants... all in various shades of tan with splashes of green. Not that she needs to dress for adventuring, really. Her shadow still looms behind her, winged, huge, and clawed. But she's a practical day to day girl, outside of her rather more outlandish writing projects. Like her elder compatriots, some of her draconic features seemingly inevitably peer through the guise. Her dark hair is a shade away from brunette and a shade into hunter-green, and a pair of short, stout, green horn-studs emerge from her shaggy mop at the northern edge of her forehead. Carol's face remains much the same as it always did, but now it's on a scale not normally associated with billboard portraits... and also, less green and scaly. The eyes are still intense, glowing with an inner flame that currently spills dancing orange, red, and yellow light across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. It rather looks like a bonfire. "Not to argue about the... um... underlying sociological motivations for the burnings," she replies to Nath's statement, "But weren't the fires lit under religious pretext? And, to match a theme, if those bent on immolating the Tulgy Wood are targeting the Sidhe, the church demonized the fey, small gods, and spirits of pagan culture as a general practice. Are we looking for a thiestic foe?" Drakli fucked around with this message at 09:59 on May 15, 2016 |
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May 15, 2016 09:55
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"Vampires never seem to have much compunction about slaughtering their own." Is all the fierce dragon notes on Nath willingness to see punishment handed out. "My name is perfectly comprehendible, and would not reduce you to rubble. I simply do not wish to tell you." He sighs, like a parent trying in vain to explain anything to a small child. "Names are powerful things, they're not to be handed out to anybody but the few and the trusted. Why is it, you think, that we have so much trouble fighting this foe of ours? We do not know their name." He explains, showing no sign of actually giving Nath a name at all. Carol's mother and her offsider seem far more convivial than the third dragon, however, and are happy to have Nath interrupt and voice a thought. "So the scared masses get manipulated by plutocrats into killing people who may be a threat. Sounds somewhat pertinent, wouldn't you say?" The lithe dragon offers to Nath, seemingly in agreement with the hacker's analysis. Carol's mother, though seems more interested in what her daughter had to say. "Indeed." She smirks. "There are no religions here like you have back in London. We live in a world with gods, old and new. We know they are not who created this land, for they themselves took form from humanity asking the question 'why?'. They are simply just powerful beings straddling our two worlds." She explains. "And yet, until the Hedge was fixed, it had been leaking. Stray thoughts that shouldn't be seeping in. Does it see firebrand theism pollute Wonderland as well?"
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May 16, 2016 05:11
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Nathalie Nath nods approvingly at Carol's transformation, "looking good." She tells Carol, nodding, impressed. "Religious pretext usually, not always. An inability or unwillingness to understand 'the other.'" Nath says to the Dragons, "You could say Vampires don't discriminate." She falls silent after that, listening to the rest of what they have to say, then her face twists up, she's obviously processing, trying to figure this out, and she's right on the edge of something. A few minutes later, "Who's in danger of losing their position?" She says, her voice almost hopeful, "Or, who feels like they're in danger of losing their position... to a degree that they would try and pull all this for the sake of being proactive, for the sake of preserving what they have while they still have the power to do it, because they're scared they won't have that power for ever? Before all this started happening, was someone being hurt by something else upending the given order of things?"
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May 28, 2016 07:10
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Iris "Lovely end-run about inheritance laws as well, in those places where the victim's property was split between complainant and magistrate. A canny widow might refuse suitors, but she couldn't--" Skittles squirms in the dryad's arms like a live wire, sticking paws into soft and awkward places in search of purchase. Using Iris as a platform, he launches himself toward the floor. "Vrrrrt!" the cat purrs, in the way a motor car would if it could, dashing off into the vast collection of treasures and memories with his tail held like a standard. He ducks around a corner, and the slithery sound of coins sliding down a larger pile of the same spills out in his wake. Iris tugs her sleeves and neckline back into presentability. "...But yes, this isn't really the time for anthropology. Firebrand theism tends to be more about trappings than theology. Lip-service and useful misinterpretation, holy writ claimed to be too 'dangerous' for the laity to engage with directly. It finds kindling in the dispossessed, and those who feel their world turning so quickly that they feel they might fly off, and offers to burn away the complexity of countless years' enculturation, stripping the pearl down to the coarse grain at its heart."
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Jun 10, 2016 03:14
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"If we knew who was threatened enough to do all this, we'd know who to strike against." The male, angry dragon notes to Nath's prodding. "The old powers have the most to lose by new ideas drifting across the Hedge and disrupting the world." The lithe female dragon actually ventures to assist. "The world was as peaceful as it ever is previous to these events. There was no civil war, for certain. If events were fermenting, they were doing so beneath our notice." She continues. "I doubt any gods would be this rash. Large kingdoms would only fall in chaos like this. …if there was a new power, a new god, that wished to burn the world to rule over the ashes, perhaps that would fit what you seek?" She offers as a possible solution to Nath, though not know who that would actually be. "And," Carol's mother rejoins. "If they offered up this firebrand theism, as Iris suggests, then the displaced masses would flock to them. For support and protection and something to believe in. Giving them a base from which to build from once all else has fallen." She ponders, sounding very much like she was considering this as a valid line of thought. "But, I would think, only a native of the other side of the Hedge could command all these forces so deftly." She thinks out allowed. "One who knows of all of this theoretically and can bring it to bare against even the gods and we dragons. Who left the 'real' behind to live in our fiction? And stayed here long enough to wish to burn it all?"
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Jun 13, 2016 08:31
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Iris "It would be someone relatively contemporaneous. With the exception of enchanted slumbers and fey torments, the experience of time is the same on both sides of the Hedge, and mortals remain mortal unless there is... intervention. Cotton Mather or Bowdler would make suitable candidates, were they not dust for centuries," Iris says, gazing thoughtfully into the distance. In another part of the distance, there's a clatter, and a cheery meow. "Carroll would be an irony. Lewis, not--" Iris briefly smiles, tilting her head to the young dragoness. "Rasputin? Technically Christian, mentalist, possibly immortal, and megalomaniacal by reputation. It might help to explain why he sticks in the popular consciousness like an unfortunate spot of sap..." "Perhaps someone more recent. If the kingdoms of Wonderland have been primed by years of twentieth-century anxiety, they would need only a spark to erupt." The dryad looks to her companions and asks, "Carol, Nathalie? Can you think of anyone who has vanished from the public eye in the last several years? Someone who might have had the charisma to lead a commune, or a cult, and the naivete to mistake Wonderland for a promised land?"
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Jul 10, 2016 03:23
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Nathalie "I'm trying... I'm just blanking. How recent? Rasputin makes sense, but Hitler, Jim Jones... Margaret Thatcher? Howard Hughes?," Nathalie slumps, "Saddam? O.B.L.?" Nathalie slumps against the rock the male dragon was sitting on and slides down to a seated position against it. "Dick Cheney? For all the famous names it could also be some random, but skilled functionary from the Kremlin, or something like that." She sighs, frustrated, "It could be any of those people, or it could be someone completely different, on a totally other track. Who left the 'real' behind to live in our fiction? Who left the 'real' behind to live in our fiction?" Nathalie's frustration would continue, except skittles appears on her shoulder, licking her ear, "Hey, you little bonus creature," she says, flopping the cat into her lap gently and petting it, Skittles' easing her frustration, "Maybe we should just follow this little guy..." "Wait, you guys," Nathalie is addressing Carol and Iris here, "have talked all about narrative causality and that...it's like... gotta be not worse than a coin flip that if we set out, and followed Skittles wherever he led us, or set out, period, we would come upon something narratively relevant. We'd be backing arse first into a hostile situation, but that's also worked out for us in the past..." Is there something one of us could roll for this? Nath's privacy advocacy thing? Or Carol's english Lit? Or Iris' sage? I'm just totally stumped.
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Jul 13, 2016 03:46
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The dragons allow the more mortal ones talk amongst themselves. The dragons have known each other since time immemorial, so did not feel the need to fill the air with conversation for the sake of it. And they had no doubt already said everything there was to say about the problem at hand amongst themselves, so did not have anything more to add. The new, reality hopping minds of Iris, Nath and Carol though might hold more insight than all three of the dragons combined. It didn't take creatures as wise as these to realise that listening was the right thing to do here. "Following a cat?" The male dragon scoffs, breaking the silence of the dragons with a small belch of flame firing from his nose as he does. "Is this what we have come to?" His burning eyes cast themselves around at those in the cave. "Putting all our hopes for peace and a return to normality on the whims of… that." The way he spits it out, it is clear this scarred dragon had no fondness for Skittles. The cat, content in Nath's lap, couldn't give less of a poo poo though. "There are worse options than leaving matters up to fate." The lithe female dragon opines, casting a curious gaze kittywards. "And this little one seems to embody such in his very soul." A sentiment that Skittles shared, letting forth a fierce meow in agreement with the dragon's thought. Carol's mother is a little more considered in her words. "If it were an author, Iris, I don't think all of this would have happened." She suggests. "They understand narrative causality. They can write and craft a story. They wouldn't tear pages out and write in their own like this, destroy so much." She lowers a hand, pointing out the mouth of the cave. "I think this is somebody who is deluded and does not understand the nature of reality. They do not know how London or Wonderland work, and they're just terrified because of that. They tried to escape back through the Hedge they tumbled through, could not, and then their ideas of the Hedge being an impenetrable mess poisoned it until the Hedge became what they imagined it to be." She shakes her head slowly. "So the only way out they could see was to do all this. Burn it all, destroy it all until nothing was left, finally free from this world to return home." She could only guess at what Iris and Nath were trying to puzzle out, but all the same she sighs. "I do not know a name to give you, I am sorry. But it may not matter in any case." Carol's mother says in a mild turn of events. "Knowing who exactly is here from your world is not something we necessarily need right now. If it were… Cotton Mather or Rasputin or whomever, we still don't know where they are or how to get them. We'd need to track them down all the same, and smash them into being powerless all the same. If your hunch about the fire is right, that may be our best lead. Start there. Our culprit encouraged a group to do this, so find this group. They will have to lead you back to the one we need." You can roll anything you like, but really all I'd be doing is just telling you who the bad guy is. You still have no way to get to to them and kill them unless you know where it is and want to fly/magic god portal there.
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Jul 20, 2016 11:07
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Nathalie "If that's our only lead," Nath says, "If we know where... the fire came from, where it originated, I mean, we should chase it down until we find the person who was holding the match. Right?" xian fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Aug 13, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 20:15
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Our heroes had their task laid out before them. Track down the heart of the fire. From there, the cult and the power behind it will be revealed. And then it would only be a matter of time before this evil is swept from the land and order restored to both sides of the hedge. They thank the three-headed dragon for their help, and Carol bids a fond farewell to her mother. This would not bet the first and only time they see each other, but for now their paths were to diverge. Before they leave, Carol's Mother gives her daughter a gift. Something precious to treasure, and remind her long lost daughter that she always had a home. The male dragon, full of fury, imparts something upon the vampire who would hunt her own kind. That kind of wrath, vengeful and unabashed, was worthy in the eyes of this vicious creature of a gift. And Iris, gentle and wise, is likewise approached by the female dragon. They were kindred spirits, in a way, and recognising that the dragon leaves Iris with something sure to aid on her journey. So the matter became, how to track down the heart of the fire. This was the key. Thoughts turned to what the fire was. It was not just normal fire, heated atoms. It had to be magic to burn to fast, so hot, and so quickly. Magic fire was special indeed, and few beings truely knew how to harness it. Dragons, of course, but the three were not behind this. Alchemical fire? Perhaps, but nobody could have produced enough needed to burn the forest like it did. A firebird? No, for the thunderbird answered the call to put it out. Something from the depths, perhaps? Or the power of the forge? But that did not fit either, nothing was to be gained from that or for working with whatever cult was behind it. There had to be a magical fire source, or one who knew about it, with an interest not their own. Who would not have compunctions about aiding foreigners, normal humans, over those of their own kind. There had to be… Prometheus. The theft of fire. Defying the Gods to give humanity the gift of flame, from the very braziers of Olympus itself. Magic fire. Given to humans. Finding him would be easy, for it was known to all that the King of Gods chained him up personally. For all eternity, he would be imprisoned on a rock to have his liver pecked out by an eagle. Zeus demanded it, and nobody defied Zeus lightly. All our three heroes had to do was go up to the highest, most desolate peak in all of Wonderland and Prometheus would be there. And with their own personal draconic transport in the form of Carol, that was not even an obstacle worth mentioning. The cave of the dragons was already high up in the rocky crags. So, our heroes arrive there. At the peak of the tallest mountain, a peak more desolate than any battleground. The open-air prison of Prometheus, the thief of fire. But it was not to be so simple as that, for on their approach they come across the body of one very distinctly dead eagle. Further along, they have to walk over tonnes of broken chains and shackles. And finally come across naught but rubble where a mightt stone slab once stood. Prometheus was missing. Okay! Let's get a little player interaction happening. The dragons gave you each a gift, it can be absolutely anything at all that means a lot to your character or will help them. Tell me what it is that you got! And now it is time to investigate the crime scene. Who broke Prometheus free, and where did the Titan go?
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Aug 31, 2016 08:41
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Nathalie Before they go, the male dragon produces a tome for Nath. "For how little you know," he says, "you haven't done so badly. This will help." The book is about the size of a marble notebook, but twice or three times as thick. It's ancient looking black leather with equally faded silver embossing. But, depsite its ancient appearance, it is not falling apart. It feels new and vital in her hands. "You are the first Vampire I have met and not murdered very soon after. Some of the others were more knowledgeable than you." Nathalie opens to the first page, and it's an assault on her senses. It's sort of like hearing a foreign language that she doesn't know, but despite that, understands at the edges of her mind. Unlocking the secrets of this book will take time and study. "Thank you." She says. ~~~~~ Atop the mountain, Nathalie walks around, surveying the damage. Something killed the Eagle, broke Prometheus out, shattered the rock he was tethered to and the chains that held him there. Nathalie was hardly a classics scholar (thankfully, Iris and Carol would cover that angle), but she knew that Prometheus had been stuck in this prison for a quite a while. So, his circumstances changed. But how? Nathalie pores over the shattered rock, the chains, and the eagle, looking for signs that would point a certain way, but especially for signs of modernity that would give this away as being an action from the other side of the Hedge. All the while trying to discern if the scents of blood and conflict, though obscured by the decaying Eagle, led her in a certain direction. What should I roll to investigate here? I can't see it being Forceful or Clever, so Careful-- Security Vulnerability Consultant? <@> you rolled `+1, 0, 0, -1`+`1` for a total of `1`. xian fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Sep 13, 2016 |
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Sep 12, 2016 19:05
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Nath's first thought is modernity, which makes sense. While it wasn't a sure bet, it was a strong indicator that the people they were looking for were behind this. So what is modern and can break rocks and chains? Sledgehammer and a chisel? A jackhammer, maybe, if there were fuel. Construction equipment, certainly, but there were no caterpillar tracks or the like. Explosives, but that would leave much more of a mark than what was there. Nothing really quite fit. The eagle could have been killed any number of ways, but since it can fly Nath immediately looks for signs of ranged weapons. But there is no arrowhead lodged in the corpse, nor any bullet. The wounds seem more blunt, with bones broken on the inside. If she were to guess, maybe it was taken out of the air with a big blunt object. A hammer, or perhaps even just a rock. Then finished off with bare hands. There is a smell of blood that trails off to the edge of the top of the craig, but the strong winds have dispersed it from there. There was no way to trace it by smell from there much further. BTW write your gifts into your sheets as well, so we can all remember them and use them when it comes up!
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Sep 13, 2016 02:51
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 21:49 |
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Nathalie Nathalie continues inspecting the area, despite not finding what she expected to. "No modern equipment used here, it looks like. No explosives, not even exhaust from a jackhammer. The chains were broken by somebody with strength like me or Carol. The rock was shattered by the same. Same with the eagle. No arrows. No bullets. Just awfully beaten after being knocked out of the sky by a boulder." "We can fly, so if we came and did this, we would leave no trace. Maybe whoever did do this can't fly? The wind is properly howling, and I can't smell any blood past the edge of this mountain, but maybe Iris, you have a way to dig a deeper than I can?"
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Sep 13, 2016 21:56
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