CHAPTER XXI
in which Haaszander and Glad of War fall asleep on the job...
Previously (08/06)
The group:
Got some R&R in town and restocked on needed items.
Said goodbye to Tova who left to find his people
Accepted a new mission, to scout the Equinos pillar and gather intel about what remains.
All Sales Final
The Silver Foxes start the day training with the Felspar troops as they wait for Ezra of Attria. Each finds a way to keep him or herself busy. Haas works with Ra'jira on hand to hand combat and teaches him how to ward off an opponent aiming for his distinct physical disadvantages like his height, reach, or easily grabable fur. They keep mostly to themselves as they claw and bite and roll their way around the practice field. Eventually, Ra'jira spots new targets and manages to surprise and escape some unsuspecting Felspar soldiers. Meanwhile, Glad tries out a 6 foot tall centaur bow whose string, thick and sturdy like a pole, he is incapable of physically moving much. He does, however, figure out how to draw the bow by focusing his kinetic evocation on a specific spot of the string to pull back. With this method, he's able to easily bury centaur arrows through a thick tree. Krom has an easier time using the bow since he can simply size up and make use of his increased strength. Unlike Glad, though, Krom doesn't have any skill or experience with archery and so his shots, while further reaching, don't hit their intended mark. Eieeryn gets in on the action too and gets a trial by fire in the art of the sword as she fends off two bladed hurricane attacks from Glad. He doesn't hold back much and forces her to learn how to parry and dodge on the fly. He also gives her a quick rundown of fighting strategically with her blade and maneuvering an opponent into a more favorable position...which with her curved blade would be one in which she can slice downward, diagonally or across.
After sparring, Sovelus lets the group know that it's unlikely they will meet up with and convince Ezra to join them that day, so they take off for the waiting airship they have charted for three days. Before they get there, Glad wants to restock on grenades so they stop in at Gorbie;s Gorbs. Gorbie, the shopkeeper, doesn't have an exact analogue to the metallic, pressure sensitive grenades Glad's used to using, but he does have a suitable substitute, liquid filled vials that require exposure to air to become agitated. These are also generally safer than the others if not exposed to air, but they're so powerful that they come with a legal disclaimer that they should no be brought within most business and residential areas. In fact, it's not strictly legal to handle them in a fashion other than transporting them immediately to an area in which they can be legally used, like a war zone assumedly.
Glad asks around for any other pricey and "not strictly legal" wares laying around. Gorbie, learning of the groups general love of alcohol, brings out an expensive bottle of wraith blood liqueur. He claims the drink contains actual wraith blood and the full bottle would trigger 24 hours of dreaming wherein the user is transported to a spiritual dream world. He assures the group that such a place is real and unlike dreaming in that it is a place of particular logic that can be interacted with and that the drinker's body because incorporeal while dreaming. Haas buys the bottle for 150 gold. Then the group departed the shop.
Perchance to Dream
The airship was waiting and ready to go when they found it. Obviously built for luxury travel, the group found all sorts of assumed free amenities on board which they made the most of, even if the luxuries weren't to taste or practical, i.e. Glad's caviar sandwich. Krom and Glad ate and drank their way through expensive wine and cheese as he served as bartender in one of the many on board bars. Eierryn guiltily ate a sole cracker. Haas stood on deck watching the land pass by. Seen from above, abandoned settlements scattered the land and dark clouds waited in the distance. The captain planned on navigating around but soon discovered that the clouds lay directly over their destination. These were not ordinary clouds, but clouds of the Ruined Land that emanated unease. At a certain point, the ship hit an unseen cause of turbulence and could get no closer so they lay anchor. The Silver Foxes intended to use the smaller aircrafts on board to close the rest of the distance but these too hit turbulence. So they settled on walking.
Initially they avoided the settlements in case they weren't fully abandoned, but it became impossible to avoid detection at some point. In one of the larger towns, they noticed a couple of centaur guards waiting. They approached cautiously and were challenged to remember what year it was. The guards were haunted by something and revealed their distrust of strangers as either new illusions of madness created by a corrupted Equinos or potential victims of its unchecked corruption. These handful of centaurs left, less than ten, were the last in the land. The last not to flee with the others during the long exodus, having stayed behind out of duty. None, however, were under any impression that the pillar could be salvaged from whatever plagued the area. Whatever doubts the group has about LeShrac, it's obvious that the veracity of the centaur need to resettle is beyond question.
The Silver Foxes were able to persuade the guards to let them pass as a contingent of scouts sent by various regions to access the centaurs need for aid, but only after Krom wrote a waiver of responsibility for his own actions and possible death to Brenthia. The group continued on only to find a deepening darkness as they went that was impenetrable to natural night sight, the goggles used in the Tusker tunnels, the light of explosive fire, or the illumination of lightning. Krom suggested tunneling under the earth but the darkness persisted there too. And all around them the business of beetles could be heard.
Given that Prixus and Elias were unable to use divination and Glad's divining gem cracked almost immediately upon entering the darkness, it looked like the gang might have to retreat or risk obvious and unknown doom if they proceed onward. But Haas had an idea. She tasted a quick claw dipped in her recently acquired Wraith Liqueur and fell immediately to the ground. Thankfully Ra'jira caught the bottle in the fall to prevent 150 gold pieces from going to waste. Haas was incorporeal where she lay. Glad soon joined her with a couple of drops himself as the others stood guard around the their two not-quite-there comrades.
Both entered slept for around four minutes and woke having sworn they spent far longer in the dream world. Haas dreamed she was wrapped in a web cocoon. Every break she made was patched by a bug, so she spent an infinite amount of time clawing her way out. When she finally succeeded, she found herself on the peninsula and began similarly clawing to free her pillar. Glad found himself buried to his head in sand, unable to move. Attempts to use electricity to blast through the sand produced white smoke and attempts to use kinetic quasith to loosen the sand produced red. Eventually, enough loosened for him to swim in and fall through the bottom beneath the sand to face a gigantic bug. The bug sent him to Chracio where he relived taking the tests with sand textured like bugs. Haas and Glad both exited their dreams violently. Haas clawed Ra'jira and Glad concussively pushed away Eierryn, a skill he didn't know he had.
After comparing their dreams, Haas caught one of the previously unseen beetles. They looked exactly like the ones in their dreams though neither could say what that meant. Haas collected a few for samples, of which Glad accidentally killed half by testing revocation on them. According to him, the beetles should have just been cut off from their quasith. They shouldn't have exploded. Haas tasted some of the exploded beetle essence and spit it out. It was poison. She wasn't sure how lethal it was.
Post Game Summary
The group:
Got some PT in with the Felspar troops.
Stopped by a store of questionable repute for various goods.
Took an airship as close to Equinos as the crew dared to go.
Talked to the only remaining centaurs in the area.
Attempted to reach the pillar and deduce the nature of its corruption.
Important information learned:
The exodus from the Jhora Plains has been going on for a while.
The Ruined Land has spread to Equinos as claimed and made the land inhospitable and unlivable as also claimed.
The Jhora Plains are essentially abandoned as only a handful of centaurs remain to ward off Equinos's corruption.
Equinos corruption prevents access to where the pillar should be:
Get close enough and apparently it causes madness and a lost sense of time.
Within a certain radius of the pillar, it becomes impossible to see by any known means.
Strange, not completely organic beetles cover the ground with that radius.
The skys above the pillar are covered with ominous clouds and the sky grows darker there sooner than it should given the season & geographical location.