Click the names here or anywhere in the log to toggle filtering for that character.
----------------------------------------------
RESPITE MARKETPLACE - MID-MORNING
----------------------------------------------
Erika is near-bouncing down the marketplace, trying to cheer people as she comes across them, even as things do look a bit down there is a slight air of hope as the Guard prepares for the rescue. Erika herself has also been worried, but that's somewhat overridden by her inability to go outside the walls... the combination of which has kind of left her very antsy and trying to distract herself by making other people happier... in short, the okapi be rather twitchy lately. Well, twitchier.
Nesseth is wandering through the marketplace, purchasing whatever scant ingredients he can to continue helping Vix bake stuff for the upcoming trip once the guards are fully prepared. He sighs a bit as he looks over the somewhat more bare shelves of the various stalls, one of the more worrying signs of the whole situation's effects on the town and its residents.
Erika perks up upon seeing Nesseth, waving at the lizard with a grin: "Oh, hey!" She takes a few hasty steps closer, dodging few other residents with an apologetic smile. "How's the everything and stuff going?"
Nesseth looks over at Erika when he catches sight of her waving at him. He manages a slightly tired, but cheerful smile in turn as she approaches. "Hey there, Erika. I'm not doing too bad, all considered. A bit sleepy as of late, but holding up well enough." He tilts his head curiously, "How about you? I hope your garden's been behaving for you."
Erika giggles, waving her hand dismissively: "Oh it's fine, if still a bit weighty from the rain season. Getting better though, and plenty of fruit to go around!" She looks about the marketplace: "Which, you know, good timing. Usually I end up with more stuff than I know what to do with."
Nesseth nods. "Yeah, I remember your last harvest. Heh... didn't you set up a temporary stall with a sign that said 'free to a good home', or something like that, just to get rid of some of the extra?" He grins, "Every little bit is definitely helpful, right now. Dried fruits keep nicely as rations, even."
Erika giggles: "Yeah, I did! It was fun, if sorta tedious. Curse my trees being so fruitful." She pauses: "Well, don't actually curse them. I don't want to know what a cursed peach would do to you on a bad day."
Nesseth smirks wryly. "I mean... cursed fruits are probably just rotten fruits, right?" He chuckles, "The fruits out of your garden are too tasty to be cursed, anyway."
Erika chuckles, shaking her head: "Well, still glad that whatever the elemental - Melia, right? - did, it wasn't cursing my garden." She pauses, frowning: "Well, in that way, anyway. Was kinda embarrassing cutting away all the stuff from near my neighbours..." She's not angry at the elemental, but maybe just a bit huffed at the extra stuff caused by her.
Nesseth nods. "Yeah, I could see how it may have been more than a bit of a problem, but I do hope the guards that were helping you treated your plants with care." He hums softly, "And I hope your neighbors didn't give you any problems."
Erika waves her hand: "Nah, not really. I mean, busy with the other stuff around here and all that. It's fine."
Nesseth smiles again. "Alright, well... just let me know if anyone raises a fuss. Looked like you've got most of it cleared out by now, though, so... hopefully that's that."
Erika shrugs: "I don't wanna cause more fuss. Plenty enough of that lately." She glances aside, muttering something about 'returning rotten fruit' but is all smiles again in a second: "Besides, all the more time now for taking care of the place."
Nesseth raises an eyebrow when he catches Erika's mutterings, but his expression softens again as she hitches up a smile again. "You'll get the place looking just like before quickly enough, I'm sure. Hey, actually... if you've still got some extra fruit you need to offload, I could take it off your hands if you want. I can dry them into some pretty good snacks."
Erika smiles and nodnods: "Oh, yeah, I do! Still got some I haven't spread around." She idly scratches her neck: "Season's sorta midway, anyhow."
Nesseth tilts his head thoughtfully, then nods when he remembers that the harvest usually comes around not long after the rainy season. "Oh yeah, it wasn't that long ago that the rains came by... Feels like a lot longer, honestly, but I'll be happy to help keep your fruit stocks under control."
Erika giggles: "Not like I do anything much with them beyond what little I eat myself."
Nesseth chuckles in turn. "Then consider this my promise to help deal with the menace of a fruit overload."
Erika grins: "My saviour! Or something like that, anyway. Presuming no one has cursed my peaches while we were here."
Nesseth laughs as he gestures out of the marketplace. "We could go on a short adventure to check if your peaches are okay or not, if you like."
Erika gives Nesseth a short bow and gestures towards the same direction: "After you, my saviour. Let's go find out, who knows what has happened in the last couple of hours right?"
Nesseth hums and nods as he slips his pack onto his shoulder and starts walking along a familiar path towards Erika's place. "Exactly! Some nefarious person might have managed to slip by the watchful eyes of the guards and cast a spell on everything." He grins as he lifts a hand and makes a pseudo-magical finger-wiggly gesture at nothing in particular, "Gotta make sure it's all safe."
Erika grins: "Indeed! Onward!" She bounces a little, happy for any distraction from... everything, really.
----------------------------------------------
RESPITE MARKETPLACE - AFTERNOON
----------------------------------------------
Froge arrived early in the morning, by the South Gate rather than the West as he usually does. This had caused the amphibious trader a bit of turmoil in making it to the marketplace, which seems to have an abundance of unoccupied stalls for a change. It would figure, but not bother him much, as he has only deliveries to make on this trip. Passing by the Southmost stalls, he enters an alley with his little cart full of merchandise, humming a bit of frogsong to himself as he searches around for a certain door.
Jennica is peeking around the corner to the other direction, not noticing Froge enter the alley behind her. The cow-turned-kobold is not that tall, and she looks every bit as timid as she did before. Her tail stiffly twitches as she attempts to map a way to her stall without being seen... she has been here planning last twenty minutes, but that has not deterred her. Yet.
Froge blinks as he wanders down the alley, noticing a somewhat familiar silhouette. He calls out, waving a hand over his head, without thinking about it much. "Ohay, Strix! This isn't your alley too, is it?" His little cart catches a bump, the wrapped bottles clunking dully together before he lets it roll to a stop behind him.
Jennica squeaks and jumps a good foot in the air, spinning around and narrowly avoiding falling on her face in the process. Her heart racing, she gathers herself: "I-I-I'm n-not... o-oh, h-hi. It's y-you."
Froge doesn't recognize the voice, but he does jump a bit in response to Jennica's own jump. "Ah! It is me! But you're not you... Or you're not Strix!" He chuckles, a quick snippet of frogsong coming from his throat. "Sorry, I didn't know there were more Strixes in Respite."
Jennica shakes her head, leaning against the wall as she steadies herself and trying to ignore how close to the ground she is. "N-no, I mean, yes. I mean, yes, I'm not Strix. Just um..." She looks at herself, trying to come up with words or explanations. "I'm Jennica. I think."
Froge tilts his head a little, blinking. "Jennica..? Ah, you have the same name as that nice lady from the market, yes! She has many little trinkets! You should meet her, very good people." He nods a few times to affirm this, relaxing a bit by his little cart.
Jennica blinks, blanching a bit before standing up for herself... being herself. "N-no! I'm Jennica. I mean, I'm her. That nice lady." She pauses, frowning: "Or I was. Now I'm not so sure. But I am!"
Froge blinks again, humming a bit. "You... Are? Are you sure? Well if you are, hello, it's nice to see you again! Sorry, I thought you were.... Well... Bigger? Maybe i am not remembering right. It's been a little bit, yes?" He chuckles nervously to himself. "Ah... How have you been?"
Jennica looks aside, wringing her arm with her other hand: "N-not entirely myself lately."
Froge nods, though he's internally trying to straighten this out. "Oh well, the ones on the mountain have caused a lot of trouble, I guess. Such a shame." He shakes his head.
Jennica tilts her head as she looks up: "The ones on the mountain? Who do you mean? The, uh... Saurs or whoever the raiders have been?"
Froge nod-nods, frowning a little. "A little difficult neighbors, they are. Sometimes want trade, sometimes want not. They don't bother us in the Vella, though. Live and let live, maybe?" He chuckles again, looking at Jennica.
Jennica sighs, leaning on the wall again: "Not just... live and let live. They took Em." She shudders a bit before looking back up: "A-and now I'm like this. Even more helpless..."
Froge frowns further, standing a bit more upright. "They took the other nice cow la- You're not a Strix! Sorry I didn't realize!" His eyes open wide when he catches his earlier mistake, blanching a bit. "Sorry sorry oh sorry!"
Jennica blinks at the outburst: "Ack! I-it's o-okay! I mean, it's not okay but it's okay that you don't need to be sorry you didn't do anything I'm just this now and I gotta deal and I'm not dealing and..." She takes breath, attempting to balance herself: "A-and sorry?"
Froge shakes his head, gesturing along with his speech as he mirrors Jennica's reaction, "You don't have to be sorry I forgot which is rude, but also not as important as Em being taken you are right to be worried!" He shudders, sitting next to his cart. "Ah I am still bad at chatting... What do they want with her?"
Jennica is on the verge of crying as she swallows: "T-they took her when she was a-away, o-or at least I t-think they took here since she did not come back and it's been weeks and I don't know what to do..." She sniffs: "S-she's alive. She has to be alive."
Froge nods, watching Jennica. "I think so, maybe? I have only met a few. Lots of stories about them, yes. Not so many as bad as that... But maybe we just don't know?" He shakes his head a bit again, croaking as he thinks. "They... Do like gems. We didn't have much, but they wanted what we had. Traded them, no use to us, compared to a happy neighbor."
Jennica gathers herself, taking a couple of deep breaths. After a few, she looks back up to Froge: "I g-guess I can see that... from what I have heard, d-don't want to attract the ire of those guys."
Froge croaks a hum again, shaking his head slightly. "Didn't hear of that, though. Taking folks, killing... I... Am sorry to hear. Will ask elders, maybe they know more?"
Jennica feels her heart jump in hope: "T-they would? Or could?" She swallows: "A-anything. I need to know she's at least okay."
Froge shrugs a little, though nodding. "I can try, yes. But ah... We trade but ah... Well. We're lonesome, but on purpose. In the Vella. Might not know much." He sighs a little, glancing away for a few moments before looking back to Jennica. "Why are you a Strix, though? You were not before, right? I think I remember now..."
Jennica tries to not let her disappointment show but she doesn't really succeed in it. She frowns as she scratches her side, not used to the feeling of actual claws on scales whatsoever but it manages to distract her from the disappointment momentarily. "I uh... Strix, the real Strix, friend of mine. Made a potion. Supposed to make you healthy and I was feeling down." She looks towards the marketplace as she thinks: "...I just probably used it wrong and this happened." She shrugs, having done the panicky yelling and screaming over the change in the (relative) privacy of her and Em's place earlier.
Froge tilts his head a bit, then shakes it. "Well... would not give a frog tincture to anyone but a frog... Maybe the same? Never know what might make someone else sick." He chuckles quietly, "Not even a doctor but well... A lot of very bad stories on sharing food and drink with visitors in the Vella..." He side-eyes Jennica for a moment, considering those stories, "Many of people vanishing forever into the night, and many with villagers being attacked some time later by the ancient spirit of those visitors."
Jennica blinks several times, then looks down at herself: "W-well, I d-don't feel like a spirit, ancient or otherwise... and like, besides feeling sick like not being right, I've... huh." She blinks again, considering: "...I've actually felt fine."
Froge looks at her properly, nodding. "Then maybe it's not so bad? Might want to talk to Strix... Heh. Ah, I don't mean to make fun. You ah... Have a lot to worry about though, yes? I am sorry for that."
Jennica nods slowly: "It's... i-it's okay. T-there must be a reason, and if there is a reason there is a solution." She hums, then gives Froge the smallest of smiles: "I t-think I will get through."
Froge smiles as Jennica does, nodding his encouragement as he stands back up. "Only way is forward, of course!" He looks past Jennica down the alley, taking up the rope of his little cart again. "Ah... I might end up late for deliveries if this frog doesn't move forward, too!"
Jennica steps back - not that she really needs to - and smiles: "O-oh! Of course, d-don't let me keep you."
Froge chuckles his quiet frogsong as he tugs his cart into moving, though he pauses when he comes up even with Jennica. "Take care, yes? Need you to be here and healthy when Em comes back! Even if it's just as a healthy Strix."
Jennica blinks, not having considered that particular way of re-meeting: "Eh uh... l-let's hope not. But y-yeah. See you around?"
Froge nods happily, "Around, yep!" He continues on down the alley, finding the door he needed a few buildings down, invited into the building without knocking as a sturdy looking young wolf steps out to take up one of the wrapped bottles. Froge waves to Jennica before stepping through the doorway.
Jennica absently waves back to Froge, her mind temporarily frozen at the idea of Emmeline seeing her like this. She then rediscovers her resolve to try and find a solution to this, turning back towards the marketplace.
----------------------------------------------
DORRI'S OBSERVATORY - AFTERNOON
----------------------------------------------
Dorri has been working with the information from Baldwin and Louma for days, painstakingly working her way around the mountains to the southwest, searching for signs of this 'Abyss'. It's been mostly fruitless work, but yesterday, she spotted one of the pterasaurs near the area, so she's hopeful that she's at least on the right track. After a short break, she returns to her stool by the large telescope and puts her eye to the eyepiece once more. "All right, Garwin. Which sector are we searching next? N5 was it?"
Garwin follows Dorri, the bear wearing his armor not for the protection, but for the warmth this far up into the mountains. He's been eager to help, but otherwise has kept to himself. Now, going over to the little map they've drawn the grid over, he counts out the squares for a moment, "Yes, ma'am. N5."
Dorri nods, a little smile on her face: "All right then, starting from the northeasternmost foothills..." She likes the bear, he's a quiet and gentle soul, well-mannered and good company in his own way. The two get along quite well, even if they haven't exchanged more than a few hundred or so words outside of their work together doing these sweeps. She finishes the quick sweep of the area, confirming with Garwin the point at which the sector ends. "Nothing on first look. Sweeping back..."
Garwin struggles a bit with the reading, but he knows geography pretty well, and gives Dorri fairly precise information when needed. He hums, waiting for word so he can mark off the area. "And check the sky overhead too. Might spot another one of the fliers on patrol if we're close."
Dorri nods again and nudges the telescope up a fraction of a degree, scanning above the area. "Skies clear, though is that..." She nudges the telescope down a bit and adjusts the focus, squinting a bit. "I think I see something... but it might be nothing... Can you take a look?"
Garwin carefully sets the quill back down in the inkwell and walks over, having only gotten to look through the telescope a couple times before. He's quite cautious with the whole thing, not wanting to break it. "Of course, just peek on through then?"
Dorri nods. "Yes... just.. there, it's about a hundred feet up on the rocks, but it looks like... maybe a camp or something?"
Garwin squints, glancing through the lens. "...there's an old bonfire there. And a couple torches? They're not lit right now." He states rather obviously, since it's daylight out. "...but that's not a camp." He stands up straight, then bends back down to look again. "That's a... watch tower? I mean, it's not a tower, but... you know."
Dorri walks over to where Garwin's station with the map is set. "You're sure?" She pulls out the quill and marks the area, waiting to make the explanatory note until the bear confirms. "Why there though? I mean, you'd have to be a goat... or... a flyer...?"
Garwin studies the point again, and nods. "Yeah, I guess a good climber... but if you could fly, that'd be a pretty good place to... perch?"
Dorri jots down the note and puts the quill back in the stand. "Good. It's a start." She walks back to the telescope and waits for Garwin to relinquish her spot. "We know what to look for, now. How far out are these watch points usually set?"
Garwin steps back to let Dorri retake her position. He walks towards the map and looks at the note. He thinks, tracing a circle around the area. "Well... assuming they don't have some kind of super vision... from a point that high, they'd be able to make out movement through this whole area. They'd probably be set out a few miles apart, but probably close to whatever they're watching."
Dorri looks over at the circle Garwin draws and nods. "All right... so move inwards from it..." She sits down and gets back to work. Over the next couple of hours, the pair clear several sectors and spot more watch posts at increasing frequency. "Feels like we're getting close..."
Garwin has made a series of marks on the map with each discovery, trying to think through the evidence they have as they get it and put it in a defense context. "This is a pretty interesting grouping of stuff... Actually, kinda similar to what we saw on their big city, isn't it?"
Dorri cocks her head, turning to look at the map. "Maybe. We might have missed some around the... Prominence they called it I think?" She returns to the telescope and keeps moving along, pondering things as her trained eye searches for anything not part of the normal desert and mountains.
Garwin nods, "You found it pretty fast. The Cap'n's info was pretty good, else we might've spotted more of these kind of things. You'd think callin' stuff something so grand as 'Prominence' and 'Abyss' they'd be easy to spot, hm?"
Dorri laughs. "I suppose..." The search continues for another half hour or so until Dorri gives an audible gasp. "I think... this has to be it..." She stands up so Garwin can get a look. Focused in the telescope is what at first looks like yet another sand-blown foothill of the mountains. However, closer examination shows it to actually be a pile of tailings, the useless rock left over once the gems are extracted from it. "I almost missed it..."
Garwin perks up. "K4?" He glances around the other markings. "That would make sense with these towers."
Dorri paces a bit. "All right... so..." She starts thinking, pondering the next best course of action. "I think we should just try to find the main entrance, send that information, then do a more complete survey. Does that sound good to you?"
Garwin straightens up, throwing Dorri a salute with a contagious smile breaking across his face. "I'm here to help, Ma'am. Best we make sure and send the Lieutenant as much as we can."
Dorri smiles back and sets down at the telescope. "All right, get a piece of paper so I can just relate what I see quickly to you as we go..." It only takes another ten minutes or so to find the main camp outside the mouth of the Abyss. The scan then continues past it until the denser defences peter out. She re-centers the telescope on the Abyss's mouth again before standing up. "Take a look, Garwin. We found it."
Garwin observes through the telescope at the cave entrance, watching the guards with stoic expression. He and Dorri double check all the information, the location of the mine entrance, the guard towers around it, everything they'd discovered, and then send the message off to Nesseth. With a strange moment of relief once the message is away, the two of them turn to celebrate with a quiet toast.
----------------------------------------------
THE BARRACKS - LOUMA'S OFFICE - EARLY EVENING
----------------------------------------------
Narrator: Since leaving the training grounds with a purpose, Teis had hit up the library for a couple of books related to her goal of helping Gareth. She'd spent much of her time in her room at the estate, researching away and experimenting as needed. The parchment hung on the wall over her desk softly glows, ink starting to spread across the page as if being inscribed by an invisible quill. Dorri's handwriting appears.
Teis glances up to it briefly, paying it not much mind as it actively writes, more just mentally cataloguing it away as it goes. Only once the parchment stops glowing does she glance up at it to read it. Her expression is indifferent at first, but becomes more stern as she continues to read it. She sighs. It's exciting news, to be certain, but. . .Her mind is really set on this Gareth thing. Unfortunately, this is urgent enough to have to interrupt her work and inform Nesseth immediately. She grabs an ordinary piece of parchment, transcribing the information then resetting the magic parchment. Once complete, she stands, parchment in hand, leaving her room and the estate. After a hurried walk through town, she arrives at Nesseth's, or rather, Louma's office, hoping not to have to look too long for him. She knocks on the door, as Louma had requested her to do.
Nesseth has been working a bit late in the day today, some extra duties having come down from the higher ups that needed some doing, specifically paperwork involving the logistics of moving a large group of guards across open ground, who he'll be overseeing, and other assorted details of the sort attendant to his position as a guard lieutenant... and temporary position as an acting captain. He glances up, pausing midway through writing upon hearing the knock on the office door, and he calls back. "Come in, the door's open."
Teis enters, letting out a sigh of relief and speaking through it, "Okay, good. You're here." She immediately strides over to Nesseth, presenting him with the rolled parchment clasped in her hand, offering it to him. "Dorri just sent this. You'll want to read it immediately." She comments.
Nesseth tilts his head curiously as he sets the sheet he'd been writing on aside for the moment and accepts the rolled up parchment. Humming softly, he unfurls it and begins to read, his eyebrows slowly rising as he goes further into the document. Once he's done, he looks up at Teis again. "And you just received this?"
Teis looks slightly impatient as Nesseth reads, her mind clearly elsewhere. "Yes. Transcribed it immediately and came here as quickly as I could."
Nesseth nods at Teis. "Then I need to get this to the other captains quickly. Thank you, Teis." He makes to stand up from his seat behind the desk, "Is there anything else you need at the moment, or...?"
Teis: "No, not particularly. I actually need to get back, actually." Teis replies. "Kind of. . .Expected you to be more excited about it."
Nesseth hums and shakes his head a bit. "This is the final piece of the puzzle, but I still have to keep a calm and clear head about it. I can't let eagerness push us into rash decisions..." He pauses, then sighs, "Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely ecstatic that we know where this 'Abyss' is that Louma said the rest of the captives were taken, but after this long, it's more a relief than anything else."
Teis: "Yeah, that's fair. And I guess Louma's going to be resting rather than pulling herself back into charge. Either that or she just thinks you're doing a good job." Teis nods. "Either way, I'll bring Dorri's follow-up the exact second I get it."
Nesseth nods again. "Good, the more details we can get, the better we'll be able to fare during our approach to this... Abyss." He laughs a little as he starts to make his way to the office door, "As for Louma... she's got her orders from Plume, which includes a lot of rest, so I told her to not worry about this side of things until she's one hundred percent again."
Teis follows Nesseth to the door, overtaking him to leave once he's opened it. "Yeah, that's completely fair. Anyway, I do really need to get back, so, goodbye for now, Nesseth."
Nesseth smiles at Teis as she leaves the office, quickly stepping out behind her and shutting the door. "Then have a good evening, Teis. Thank you very much for getting this to me quickly."
Teis smiles back. "Yes. Good evening, Nesseth." She takes in a deep breath, sighing it out, walking off in a hurry. She clearly has something going on.