The House of the Night - Part I - RPLOG
Participants
Date
29/5/478
Log
Fenris is waiting beside a fissure down in the deep quarry, petting what seems to be a huge, purple buffalo with six legs. The fissure itself glows from deep within with a bluish light. Not an uncommon sight amongst the crystals and mushrooms down here.
As her work for Flora had found itself winding down to an end Sara had passed through the city with her few greetings to the guards and civilians on her way back to the inn and had lady luck smiled, another far more interesting job to wind down with. After scanning the board and its list of somewhat interesting jobs Sara had grown skeptical at the possibility of anything worth while.. until she had found a job that almost jumped off the board at her. "Fenris.. huh.. name sounds familiar. Cave-diving? Always fun.. sure, I'll take it." she had mumbled to herself as she skimmed over the basics.
After signing on with the guild representative Sara had left the inn behind and had quickly flared her wings wide open before swiftly taking to the skies and finding herself speeding on her way to the cave she was to meet Fenris. It had taken only a few minutes before she set down just a few scant feet away from Fenris and looked around expectantly before waving to the Tiger in question, "Hello! I'm guessing you're the one that posted the job? Name's Sara, I'd like to help you."
Kazel is the next one to arrive by air, landing elegantly a few feet away from Sara and Fenris. The avian seems largely unarmed and unarmored, only wearing some simple linen clothing. She stretches her arms and wings before neatly folding the later behind her. She quickly strides over to the couple and gives them a slight nod. "I heard something interesting and potentially dangerous might be about to happen? I am Kazel." She smirks. "So what is this about exactly?"
The young canine known as Iorek is walking over, picking up pace when he spots Fenris, smiling with his tail swinging gleefully "Hey Fenris, I made it, how are-" he stops when he realising the glow coming from the fissure "Aw sweet!" he bounds over with excitement, passing the other two with a quick "Hi!" before looking down the fissure. The young lab is wearing armour, well with the size of it and his small frame, it's more wearing him. He is also carrying a long sword and a metal buckler. His unusual red eyes lighting up with curiosity as he looks into the depths.
Zuri dashes up to Fenris as soon as he sees the friendly tiger being. The small salamander has dressed for the occasion, and is garbed in a light brown vest worn over a loose-fitting cotton shirt, and matching brown canvas shorts and hiking boots. Strapped to his back is a canvas pack, no doubt carrying various supplies that the salamander thought would be appropriate for the occasion. His right arm is bandaged from shoulder to elbow, and smells faintly of curative herbs.
He stops in front of the tiger with his signature bright smile. "Hi Mister Fenris! I'm ready to go too!" The excitable salamander looks around at the slowly gathering group, greeting each in turn with a wave. He pauses as he sees Iorek and skips over to him happily. "Iorek! I made it!" He joins the equally excitable labrador in peering down the fissure, already leetting his imagination run wild as to what might be down there.
A number of minutes after the excitable salamander arrives to the scene a really young looking plant clad in a body covering heavy cloak arrives at the scene. The nonchalant looking youth strides briskly towards the group of gathered beings, his jasmine smell wafting from his double blossom of a hair. Rokarion leans closer to the shorter salamander, whispering something before adjusting himself and waiting for the tiger to speak.
Shizuko picks her way through the quarry, the elderly feline moving with sure steps and a hand near the hilt of her sword in case of trouble. The leopardess' stripes seem particularly bright today, although that could be bcause of the deeper, dark shadows caused by being this far down in the quarry. Something subtle in Shizuko's posture relaxes as she approaches the group of people, and when she reaches Fenris she bows her head to the tiger and gives him a smile. "Hello, Fenris. It is good to see you again."
Millicent makes her way along at a leisurely gait, ensuring she'd arrive neither first, nor last, but somewhere squarely in the middle. A hand propped lazily on the pommel of her sword, and the hood of her coat tugged up. "Yes, nice seeing you," she agress with the leopard, tail flicking behind her.
Fenris gently pats his new buffalo friend on the snout and stands to address the gathered Freeswords, respectfully returning greetings as they are given. "I confess," he says, "This is a rather larger turnout than I anticipated." The big tiger waves everyone over to the large fissure. It opens to roughly double the height of the average being and is wide enough that even Fenris' buffalo could fit through if necessary, and it seems to widen out just a little way down. There is no path, of course, but the steep ground looks passable enough.
"I am not totally certain what to expect down there," he confesses, "All I can tell you is that a certain benefactor, who prefers to remain anonymous has asked me, and by extension, you, to explore this cavern and retrieve anything of interest." He stops talking for a second and looks thoughtful. "You know," he says, "This will be easier to show than to explain. Come on." The tiger pulls a coil of rope from the saddle of his beast and carefully ties it off to a protrusion of rock and tosses it down the gently glowing fissure, then quickly vanishes into the cavern, using the rope for balance on the steep surface. "Come on, then!" comes his call from below.
After the introduction is made Sara turns away from Fenris briefly to look over the rest of the free swords and gives each a wave in greeting, "Well, good meeting you all!" she exclaims exhuberantly before looking to Fenris just in time for him to begin his speech on what she could expect. As the mention of 'anything of interest' comes up Sara had begun to raise her hand as if about to ask a question, though it doesn't go as far as that before she drops it back to her side as the Tiger continues and ultimately answers her question before it's even made. "Alright, sir. Lead the way, and I'll follow." the lizard woman continues as she pulls a single pistol from underneath her cloak and follows past the two free swords just at the entrance, and down into the caverns below just behind Fenris himself.
Kazel leans over to look down to see how deep the ravine actually is, after a few moments she grins widely as she jumps into the frissure, ignoring the rope. She is swift to open her wings and glide down, landing safely on the floor. She mutters to herself, "I knew it was a good idea to not bring my armor." She dusts herself off and summons a little flame to sit in her open hand, illuminating the cavern better, but only slightly, more importantly it helps the others spot her. Looking up to the opening, she yells, "Looking safe down here."
Iorek pats Zuri on the back in greeting, maybe not the best greeting given the proximity to the edge "Hey Zuri, goot to see you..." he pauses as he sniffs "Wow, your arm smells tasty what is that?" he looks at he bandages and then looks around the group that has formed "Oh hey Kazel's here too!" he says as he watches her glide down, just standing there a little to long before a sudden realisation "Oh, I should go down too, I think we're blocking the rope standing here..." he says to the salamander before tentatively trying out the rope to figure out his best grip before shuffling down with a couple of akward skids.
Zuri gets patted in the back, wobbling a little as he retains his balance. He gasps as Rokarion is suddenly there, the salamander clearly not expecting him. "Rokarion! I uh.. hi! Nice to uh.. see you, Mister Rokarion!" He offers him a weak smile and then clears his throat. "Woops, time to go explore a cave. Do keep up Mister Rokarion!" The salamander quickly escapes towards the fissure, following closely behind Iorek. He grips the rope with his left hand as he heads down, letting his right arm rest for now. He peers up at the labrador. "It's just from the sparring thing last night. I gotta keep this on until it heals fully. It doesn't hurt tho, so it's fine!" He smiles up at Sara. "Hi there! I don't think we've met. I'm Zuri!"
Rokarion shakes his head and follows after the group, eyeing the rope before looking at his cloak. The plant being would set the cloak to the side and move down the steep incline. Once on the ground he will would idly wait for the rest of the group, "So which spirit are you helping with this? " Came the nonchalant voice from the young jasmine, "And what are you getting out of it? Or are those questions not for answering? "
Shizuko raises her eyebrows, then takes up the rope and gracefully makes her way down the incline into the fissure. At the bottom, she takes a moment to check her gear while her eyes adjust - although, with the amount of steel she is wearing, her 'moment' takes more than a few. Finally satisfied, though, her attention moves to the interior of the cave.
Millicent carefully edges her way down the incline, trying not to slip and make a fool of herself. "Nice to meet you, too," she returns to Sara, thankful she didn't bring her heavier suit of armour today for this kind of terrain. "So... ANything in particular we're looking for? 'Anything of interest' is pretty vague."
Cara excitedly runs through the land, legs moving faster than a blur. "Late! Late! Late!" The feline pants heavily as she dashes to the meeting point. Unfortunately, due to her rush to get here, she is in her normal attire. As she manages to make it to the fissure, she stops and takes to a moment to catch her breath by slouching down. "I'm....here." As she spies the rope, she sighs, "Well, at least I can follow them." The hasty feline grabs onto the rope and begins to make her way down the fissure, eager to catch up with everyone else.
The fissure levels out into an open, relatively flat space surrounded by luminous blue crystals. It is not especially bright, but enough to make out Fenris standing in front of what is unmistakably a door! It is a huge, stone portal inscribed with all sorts of strange sigils and pictographs that seem to catch and amplify the dim light. "Both excellent questions, Mister Rokarion," Fenris says with a smile, "The answer to the first is, my benefactor is a flesh and blood being who does not want your Uncle to get his hands on these artifacts before he does, and the answer to the second is that I get exactly the same as what each of you get." The tiger points to the door. "This is, as far as I can tell," he starts, "A sealed vault left by the civilization that preceded our own. I have figured out how to open the door, but I would really rather not go in there alone. Our employer has asked that any artifacts of the ancient civilization, be preserved for him, but any more mundane treasure is yours for the taking." The big tiger turns and mutters something while running his hands along a series of symbols on the door, then watches as it swings open to reveal only darkness beyond. "I have no idea what to expect beyond here," he says, "Are you all still in?"
As she reaches the ground safely Sara presses both of her palms againt her lower back and stretches languidly before looking around. "Mmn.. a litle darker than I'd like.." the lizard woman mumbles as she reaches her still free hand into the satchel at her side and pulls a small cloth wrapped torch from inside. After giving a few meager prayers to Lady Hephestia the torch quickly sparks to life and begins shedding a bright even glow across the ravine floor. As she looks around she had noticed she had been regarded by both the salamander, and Red Panda from before and waves to each again before walking over to Zuri and nodding, "Good to see you, Zuri. Sara.." she greets before looking to her hands and noticing neither had been free. With that she returns the pistol back where it had come from and offers the now free hand as an attempt at a handshake. The hand remains extended as she looks over her shoulder to her employer as he begins talking again, just enough to catch a few brief bits, the runes, the ancient civilization, and the later question, which she answers with an exhuberant, "You bet I'm still in! Wouldn't pass this up for anything."
Kazel shakes her hand and the now obsolete flame vanishes. She gives both the cave and the door a short examination and walks up to the later. The avian puts on her spectacles and stares at the door for a moment, then shrugs. She gaves a lax wave to Fenris, followed by a, "Of course I am still 'in'." She quickly gives the area another short survey, before returning to the group, giving a nod to Iorek and walking up to to Zuri. "I apologize again for yesterday, but do you really think it is a good idea to go adventuring with your arm like that?" The avian frowns slightly and twitches her beak.
Iorek when he gets to the bottom of the rope, starts staring in awe at thhe glowing blue crystal, he snaps himself out of his stare while Fenris is talking and looks like he's almost jumping in anticipation as the door opens, tail batting off the unfortunate person standing nearby rhythmically. He notices Sara light up the torch "Oh, I should have brought one of them... could hold it in my shield hand" he mimes the action again losing concentration "Hmmm... though I'd likely burn my fuur off id I tried to guard while I did so, that's a drawback... Oh! Maybe I should get a light on my shield, that would be... Oh right, danger.. game face." he tries to look stern, which comes off almost as bad as a puppy that growls at an onion he just realised he doesn't like the taste of. He moves up towards the door, figuring his armour would make him a good poin man, but secretly hopes noone suggests it and someone else volunteers as he tries to peer into the darkness.
