Revision as of 22:40, 17 June 2018

Participants

• Falx
• Fenris
• Flora
• Lidara

Date

17/6/481

Log

Finally, there's the camp right next to the entrance to the once-buried ruins, small but practical, with several priests already carefully categorizing the things found on first few levels of the undoubtedly large ruins. This is where any explorations start, with a briefing by the church.

How long has it been? The wasp had disappeared for a while, more than once, separating himself from the others while he went about to simply learn more about himself, more about the world, and anything he could manage. Still, he never intended to leave forever, so when he hears about the request of the from the church? Sounds like an opportunity to make his way back into the Freeswords. Last night, he had flown in under the cover of dakness, taking his time to become himself again before entering the camp.

He strides in, definitely not worse for wear, also definitely not a Griffon at the moment, as he glances about. Still quiet, still curious and always aiming to take in what he can, learn what he can as quickly as possible. Never hurts to know what you might be getting into. Or at least you who might be getting into things with. If it's the church and the Freeswords, then things could either be simple, or very interesting.

Fenris lounges near where the priests are working, occasionally piping up with an unasked-for and unwelcome opinion. "I'm willing to bet that that is for toasting bread and not a communications device, Brother Gilbert," he offers. The tiger has already been here for most of the setup, and even though he is not officially a priest of Sweetwater, and even though he can be irritatingly interested in everything about Creator ruins, he is just too useful to send away.

Fenris is wearing his unusual, Creator-style jumpsuit today in preparation for going into the ruins. Any edge is helpful, after all.

Unlike his companions, Lidara can neither fly nor is he really a friend of the church! So... he only recently ended up making the hike here with the rest of the Freeswords that were brought in, really. In any case, the feline himself had likely only recently actually woken up, and so he strides out of... whichever one of the tents might be serving as a mess hall of sorts, freshly fed and freshly finished with his morning grooming. The cat is dressed up in his armored robes and clearly has daggers at his sides, seemingly ready for the upcoming expedition as he wanders his way over to the camp closest to the ruin's entrance. Both to await orders and to try to sneak a peek at some of the relics.

"Are you the archivist, or am I? Besides, this is just a preliminary sorting, before we start moving everything back to the Church. There's about fifty different kind of creator machines with very similar appearances so far, and another good bit that look wildly different. Some of them are bound to wind up in the wrong shipment, that's what the priests at the church are going to take care of... And don't you have somewhere better to be?" the short-statured, short-tempered, and likely somewhat overworked bear-being snaps at Fenris, before getting back to his work.

Ultimately, neither Falx nor Lidara attracts all too much attention from the beings milling about, but all three of them should be able to find their way towards the briefing-tent, where a priestly hawk is already awaiting their arrival, gesturing for any able-bodied freeswords to join him and an elderly pangolin for their briefing.

As Falx carefully strides through the camp, he does notice a particular tiger. Fenris... that's someone he met a long time ago, but hasn't seen. He didn't know much about the tiger, but also didn't question him being present. At least it's a face he does recognize. He does also take note of a cat in the camp as well, one who doesn't seem to fit in with the other beings. Probably another of the Freeswords, though who they are eludes the wasp. Still, Falx makes his way to that briefing tent, the hawk, and the pangolin for the briefing. Hopefully this won't be too dangerous.

Fenris laughs warmly. "Alas!" he says theatrically, "It is true. It is with heavy heart that I year myself from your side, Brother Gilbert."

The tiger laughs again and waves his farewells and saunters over for the briefing.

Lidara is a pretty able-bodies Freesword, so he quickly makes his way on over to that tent once he spots it, and... on his way there, the cat finally gets to see who he's presumably working with! He only recognizes one of the two other Freeswords -- that one being Fenris, of course -- but the feline nonetheless offers them both a perky smile and wave once they're all gathered up in the tent. That, however, is followed by him checking his equipment one last time while they're waiting on the briefing. The feline has ditched his backpack -- after all, it'd be far too cumbersome to take it into ruins -- so, he simply has his daggers, a belt with various different pouches on it and a bow and quiver on his back. This would all... hopefully be all that he actually needs.

As soon as the four beings - Falx, Fenris, Lidara, and the hawk - are inside the tent, together with the pangolin, the cloth is closed behind them, and the pangolin offers a simple, almost encouraging smile to the trio of freeswords, and the priest. "I assume you three are either part of a team, or otherwise available on your own?" comes a simple question, before a gesture is made to a series of hastily-drawn maps on a similarly hastily-constructed table.

"Lets begin, shall we? Our main concern right now is to categorize everything inside the ruins and retrieve what we can. As such, we're sending in groups of four. Three freeswords, one priest. So far, we've explored most of the first two levels, and a good bit of the third, but without a doubt, the most valuable pieces of creator-built machines will be found at the bottom of the ruins."

The wasp just looks at the other two before his gaze returns to the hawk. "I am available alone," Falx states somewhat flatly, slowly making his way to the maps and rather hastily constructed table. He takes a quick glance at each of the maps, long enough to get a very good picture of them, before his gaze returns to the hawk, listening intently, antennae slightly bobbing as he nods. He is already thinking they'll delve as deeply into the ruins, retrieving as much as they can, before returning. "Any indication on number of levels in the ruins?"

"Why do you think that?" Fenris asks, "I mean, experience has shown that there are more valuable things hidden further from the entrance to these places, but why do you think that is?"

The tiger's question is obviously just idle banter, and he does not seem to expect an answer. He blinks a little when he realizes he spoke out loud. "Sorry," he says, "Please continue."

Lidara once more glances over the cloaked, hooded figure when he speaks, the cat's gaze... rather curious, really. But thankfully that curiosity doesn't get particularly intrusive before it's turned elsewhere. The feline steps forward and intently looks over those maps, studying them a bit even while he perks his ears up and listens to that briefing.

"Maybe they hoped that no one would want to go through the trouble of travelling that far to reach the valuable stuff?" Lidara offers to Fenris with a grin and a shrug, but then his attention is back on that plan! "Are we going to need to bring anything to help us descend, or are there already paths downwards that we can use? I guess it might be a good idea to bring a bit of rope either way...."

"Because, as you said, experience teaches that the more valuable creator machines are found deeper in these ruins, typically in a concentrated fashion. Like storehouses, if you will," offers the pangolin, before looking at the map. "Who knows? We've yet to properly determine the ruin's purpose or type. Given the size of the levels, though, we'd say about ten to fifteen major levels," he offers to Falx, before pointing at the map.

"Most of the ruins are still largely intact, and there are what appears to be stairwells here, here, here, and here. Unfortunately, on any given level, there seem to have been collapses, so not all of them are easily accessible. There's a central structure here that seems similar to others, designed to bring people to different levels, however, it doesn't seem like the machine spirit will wake from its slumber right now."

"Your job will be to bring Brother William down to the sixth level and aid him with the recovery of any movable creator machines you may find... And please, avoid angering the servitors. We've had too many incidents in other ruins before."

Ten to fifteen levels, that sounds like potentially tedious down the line. A little huff from the wasp, but not much more than that. Plus collapses in the ruins as well. The wasp idly moves to rub at one of his shoulders. He shakes his head a little, and then looks to the map, seeing points to the stairwells in the area. His gaze moves about the maps once more, though returns to the Pangolin, nodding again. Hopefully the servitors won't be too easy to anger... that would complicate things.

Fenris nods and turns a grin on Brother William. "No problem!" he says affably, "Maybe we can even get that thing in the middle running!" Fenris LOVES to tinker with Creator tech!

The tiger gives a whistle, and a silvery little otter scampers into the tent to curl up at his feet. "Can't go without Kawa," he says.

"If there have been collapses, then we should definitely bring along a coil of rope. Just in case," Lidara offers as he takes note of where those stairs are, "Presumably there's somewhere in camp that we can get some from before we leave?" With that question, however, the feline takes a step back from the map and stretches a bit. "Get down to the sixth level and back. That shouldn't be too hard," he gives with another one of those cheerful grins of his. Angering the sevitors was... well. He doesn't know nearly enough about Creator tech to comment on that. Fenris's otter, on the other hand, does get a rather curious look from the cat. "Kawa? Who's that?"

"None of that," the hawk, William, interjects. "You are not touching any piece of large creator tech without my permission," the hawk adds, as he looks from being to being, though particularly towards Fenris. "Place is dangerous enough without you setting off things that might very well be death-traps, or angering the servitors not just against us, but against everyone on higher and deeper levels, too."

"Calm, brother William. You're in charge of the exploration. As for supplies, the freeswords should be able to provide a basic kit... Any other questions before you head out?"

The wasp didn't remember how Fenris behaved, that was too long ago. Just his name and his face, so he has no idea what would have changed. Still, he listens and nods. No touching anything without permission. Easy enough. Though he does have one simple question. "How wide and tall are the corridors? How stable are the ruins currently?" He could help if they aren't too narrow or small. Though his weight as a griffon could always become problematic should the area be too unstable.

"Oh, Brother Williams," Fenris laughs, "You and I shall be such friends!" He turns his smile on Lidara and waves at the shining otter. "Kawauso," he reiterates, "My golem. He is handy in a tight spot."

The tiger pats his coat, checking his pockets, then gives a lazy salute. "Ready for adventure!" he says.

Don't touch anything! That'll... probably be easy for Lidara to manage. Probably. In any case, the mention of the kit from the Freeswords pretty well satisfies what the feline himself needs to know, so he simply nods and gives his equipment one last check. "I'm ready too!" he gives with a little bounce... but that's followed by him turning his attention to Kawa once more, really. He exams the golem for a moment or two before grinning and offering, "He's so pretty! You designed him very well."

"The first two levels are largely intact, although there is the occasional rubble in the way, the freeswords've cleaned most of that up, and the servitors do seem to try and keep the place tidy. However, there's no telling what we'll find further down, and we've found at least one corridor that's collapsed on all three levels. There's a reason we're not going to be taking anything out that's too heavy, right now," offers william, as he gestures for the three beings to follow. "Get your equipment, and we'll start heading down," he offers to Lidara, as he guides Fenris and Falx to the ruins' entrance, where rocks and rubble have been pulled aside to clear the large, creator steel entrance with its damaged, but not unreadable lettering...

Luckily, the wasp has his equipment as it is. He doesn't carry much, not particularly able to given his stature. Nonetheless, he nods to them, resolving to not go griffon unless absolutely necessary. Until then, he falls in step to follow towards the ruin entrance. He glances about at the entrance, the door, the rubble. At least this will be an interesting excursion.

"Thank you," Fenris says to Lidara, while Kawauso primps and preens, "I am quite proud of him."

The big tiger follows along after William and Falx stopping at the entrance to look over the worn lettering. He has probably taken note of it before, but it is always worth taking a second look. "I always like these old places," he says, making conversation, "Maybe we'll find a working comms station. I have not updated my SpaceBook account in ages!"