un: a civil serpent | video

[inferus]

( Emilia di Carlo's hair has seen better days.

It looks suspiciously nest-like, and one of her sleeves singed and torn. The further she and Wrath walk back into the village, the more she feels it: the mark of hollowed things. The withered trees and the dying river beds. ... To say they have missed out on recent developments is an understatement.

But they do not come without news of their own. )

We were able to go very deep into the volcano and discovered something in the process.

( For this rare moment, Wrath appears to be somewhat disheveled as well. His hair is out of place. There's light scratch marks upon his cheek. His suit is singed. His sleeve on the right sight has been entirely burned away, revealing a muscular arm. In his pocket, he carries with him a piece of what they found though he has little interest in mentioning that out loud just yet. He wants to understand what it is first, and so he glances at Emilia with a grim nod and then supplies further: )

At the center of the volcano, an apparent naturally made mirror is being used as a cork to hold back a mounting level of lava, a potent flow of magic, and an unimaginable number of spirits. The pressure appears to be mounting.

( ooc: vi and i had a hiatus in april, and this help explains the absence of emilia and wrath during that time. EDITED the following day when i realized i missed a detail about the volcano. it was naturally made from a large pool of dark water. )

Comments

[inferus]

( ooc: missed a detail ruxi gave in the initial set up of all this where the mirror is naturally made so just /handwaving away that i remembered that from the start. MY BAD. )

It is quite possible the two are related. I should mention the mirror appears to be naturally made - crystallized from a pool of dark water, but a mirror nonetheless. That much cannot be ignored.

[blackscales]

Well the dark water does have connections to the White Wanderer, so that doesn't rule it out entirely.

[inferus]

It doesn't. It's possible this White Wanderer had the ability to crystallize the pool especially if they realized the power which lied within it, and they wished to keep it out of the wrong hands.

[blackscales]

The White Wanderer is connected to the dark waters, and the Beastmaster is connected to the change in sacrifice style -- I'm sure they work together on this. You said there is a build up of spirits?

[inferus]

Correct. These are spirits which have been sacrificed before. They were not burnt in the lava as previously believed but instead they were overcome by the magic of the volcano itself. In doing so, they relieved the pressure building inside, but eventually this pressure destroyed them - their souls and the magic returned to the volcano.

[blackscales]

So the build up of magic is the problem, and the goal of people entering is to absorb some magic and leave it?

I wonder if absorbing magic from the volcano is something anyone has ever walked away from. If perhaps that is what caused, for example, the Beastmaster to have his specific skillset.

[inferus]

I believe it would need to be someone who was already powerful in some way in order to survive absorption.

However, it is a possibility. Or it is possible he did not survive and has returned from the dead to be what we know now as you have surmised. However, I would imagine the volcano would grant powers related to fire and not to control over beasts.

[blackscales]

Quite obviously, or shared between several people of more moderate power perhaps if that were possible.

Fire would make sense, it's just a missing piece to me: somewhere in all this, the Beastmaster and Huntress went from regular hunters to what they've become.

[inferus]

We know those in Ellethia were looking for a way to cheat death, weren't they? I can imagine the attempt backfired if we assume the Wanderer had something to do with this. The Beastmaster and the Huntress are undead, unnatural, an abomination against life itself, but what reason would the Wanderer have to turn the Beastmaster or the Huntress or the others into what they are? ( what benefit would there be in that? )

[blackscales]

That is a question I do not have an answer to. Perhaps in turning they are put under some compulsion, in some way. Perhaps they are gifted a power for revenge, but must agree to answer when called. Perhaps this Wanderer genuinely considers this gift a kindness. Perhaps his dislike of the House of Ravens means he is happy to turn them to continue disturbing the peace here. All conjecture only, questions that could only be answered by further investigation.

[inferus]

We have many questions and certainly not the time to get them answered with the volcano's eruption so imminent. However, they are important lines of investigation when there is the time. I do not believe what was done to the Beastmaster and the Huntress could be undone - they are undead. They have died. Defying death itself is incredibly difficult, and I believe it is even more difficult in a world like this one where spirits do not have a particular place to go to.

[blackscales]

My preference is that we find this beacon within the last village we have yet to explore and that answers to our questions become irrelevant once we are safely sent home.

However, given our previous experiences that is not guaranteed. I fear we may end up carried on to yet more locations, answering some questions and forming new ones.