lunarwhite | NOVEMBER MID-MONTH EVENT.

Entry tags:

!event

NOVEMBER MID-MONTH EVENT.

THE JAWS OF FIRE.

WHO. Everyone.
WHERE. The Badlands
WHEN. November 16th.
WHAT. Tracking and exploration.
WARNINGS. None for now.

A SEARCH.

Urgent news has been delivered: a cart carrying valuable crystals has gone missing in the Badlands. If it is not an accident, it would be something targeted not only at the Light faction but also Spring, the destination of this particular load. As always, foreigners are called upon to assist in the investigation.

You are our only hope.

For more reasons than one.

ADMIN.

This is the log for the November mid-month event! A short write-up on what the characters will find can be read here. Participation in this log will earn your character bonuses during activity check.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Stone lands at the site of the attack, setting down whichever passengers wound up getting the luck (good or bad) to be carried by him before shifting back down into groundling form. He can't carry everyone-- Bramble and one other person, at best-- so someone will have had to borrow a dragon.

"It definitely looks like an attack," he says, looking around at the charred remains of the caravan. What it looks like, really, is something large and hot hit here, or exploded from here. It's a literal crater full of debris. His lips draw back from his teeth with a growl, frustration and regret and annoyance at idiocy. "I told those idiots to leave the carrying of the crystals to us."

"Considering how few of us there are," at least if she understands this correctly, there is only the four of them who are here, and also Lottie, which... means not very many people at all, "I can understand why they would wish to have more people than just us go.

...And it's not like our ability to withstand the miasma would have helped with this." As callous as that sounds - better them than her. Who'd look after Lottie?

"All right, to be more specific, I told them to leave it to me," Stone growls. "Because I doubt they would have attacked me, carrying these things, and even if they did, I could have fought back. Bramble, is there a trail?"

"How did they even manage out here anyway?" Phillip asks, walking alongside the adults. It feels weird to be the youngest in a group again. He understands why the baby didn't come, but.

[ Mod reply that I forgot to put this tidbit in the writeup, it's my bad - they had dragon escorts. ]

No. Babies. Not if she can help it (she can't, often enough).

"They had dragon escorts. And probably some form of protective gear.

...And as much as you think you can do it by yourself, you have to take into consideration what others think," she admonishes Stone in her dentist voice, the one that says 'you need to start brushing your teeth at least once a day for at least three minutes, really', "and they'll both not want to put everything squarely on your back and also doubt that you'll be fast enough alone, even if they don't say it. Cooperate. It keeps others from going off by themselves." Hard learned lessons, though partially learned by seeing others fail for it.

"I cooperate. I'm here with you people, aren't I?" Stone protests irritably. It's just safer if he takes on the dangerous things himself, that's all. "So what happened to the dragons when this all happened, I wonder. Did they see it? Did they get taken, too?"

"I guess we'll find out when we find the rest of 'em." Phillip would assume that if the dragons had found there way back, they would have been told about it. So... probably nothing good for the dragons.

"I never said that you aren't cooperating, ever. But apparently you didn't then, and it caused... this." She gives the hole one last look, and then turns her head to look around and see if she can spot a trail the attackers left.

"If they really took the dragons with them, that should have left quite a trail, but I can't see anything."

Stone would very much like to argue about Louise's definition of "cooperating" and how what he was doing obviously still counted, but he has a feeling it would go nowhere, and he'd wind up sounding petulant. Instead, he gives the side of her head an annoyed shove-- not enough to rock her on her feet, but enough to be felt. "I can smell something heading this way."

She gives him an annoyed look at the contact and reaches up to adjust her hair, but doesn't comment - she's pretty sure this one went to her.

"Let's try that direction, then?"

Bramble had been looking on her own and had nearly missed Stone's remark. "Stone's right. There was some travel that way. Not much, but..."

In this wasteland, it didn't take much.

"It's enough to track them." Stone ruffles her hair approvingly, and motions for Bramble to lead the way. She, after all, is the one most likely to get them where they're going. "You'd think if they killed the dragons, there'd be more sign of it," he adds, following in the Arbora's wake. "And if they didn't kill the dragons, the dragons should have something to say about all this."

"Unless they were taken by surprise.

...Or blackmailed." She knows very little about the dragons here, but she'll always consider blackmail and option. There's very little that is more powerful when it comes to removing protection without a sign of a fight. "No sign of a fight and no traces might point to that, and from what I understand they are intelligent enough to use that kind of measure on them."

Phillip considers Louise's point. "...The dragons kind of stick with the Ice faction, right? Would Ice have a reason to not want this shipment to get through?"

It's probably a long shot, but as long as they're on this kind of treachery explanation...

"I don't know. I don't know enough about the other not-so-secretive factions, let alone Ice, to know for sure," Stone says, almost a growl but not quite. He's definitely got to find out some more information once they get back, after finding whatever is left of the caravan. "It may or may not be the dragons, too. It may be their riders. They bond somehow, so they feel what the other feels, that sort of thing."

"...That is a good point." Good points, really. All of what Phillip and Stone said.

"We should look into it." She frowns. "Though I don't know how."

"Start talking to people in your faction," Stone suggests. "Older people especially. Get their opinion of Ice, and the other factions while you're at it. I'll see if I can't get something out of Lavi's dragon." He pauses, then adds, "Lavi's one of us who disappeared, had been taken into Ice and given a dragon to bond with. We were friendly. There's libraries, too, in Blood and Light. Might be history written in those that could shed some more light on the situation here. I've got stories from Spring, but they could be biased."

Phillip nods, thinking it over. He isn't much keen on the idea of reading histories in a library, but talking to people he can do. ...Maybe. If he can get people to talk to him. He hasn't tried much yet, so maybe their efforts to leave him alone only counted when he wasn't trying either. "Can't hurt," he says, shrugging.

"I'll check the library in Light, then. I'm not sure if it would be safe for me to go to Blood and I wouldn't want to leave Lottie behind more than necessary, but you can do that one, right?" She looks over at Phillip. They arrived together, so she was there when he picked his faction.

That other part is worrying, though. "...Disappeared? How?"

"Have you talked to any of the groundlings in ice, Stone?" Bramble asked. She wasn't sure what she could contribute to this, given that Stone had more experience both in this place, and with others in particular. "Also, if anyone wants me to check out libraries in the other factions, I can do that."

"That's a good thought." Stone gives Bramble an approving frill-ruffle again. "Phillip seems very uninterested in libraries, so you can visit Blood's and see what you can find, and he can talk to people. He's good at talking to people." As far as Stone can tell from his attitude and curiosity, anyhow.

"I have spoken to some Ice members, but mostly they're close-mouthed, and it was mostly about them saying I couldn't come in and talk with the dragons." He snorts. "I'll just fly up and barge in this time, so they won't be able to do much about it. Maybe they'll talk more then."

"Or they will kick you out and ban you from their premises entirely." Louise shrugs her shoulders, though, clearly not minding. It's worth a try, she figures. Stone should be intelligent enough to not compromise them too much if he gets his rear kicked out of there. "Good luck."

"And it would be a good idea if you looked at the library in Blood, yes." She smiles over at Bramble. "If either of us finds something interesting, we could call the other in to go over it together? Sometimes two heads can make more sense of something than one."

...Geez, Stone, that might be true but you didn't have to call him out like that. Well, whatever, now he gets to do what he already planning on doing.

"Yeah, I'll ask around," he says, shrugging, "I guess we'll see what we find."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

NOVEMBER MID-MONTH EVENT.

ON THE WAY.

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