eastbound | un: a civil serpent

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un: a civil serpent | video

( 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. )

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[ He's very likely pacing while he listens and debates with himself. This isn't what they need right now, but he is used to living on the brink of disaster. It's not the apocalypse. Just keep it on that scale, and nothing seems that bad. Overreacting is how he broke the last mirror in the first place.

If they get a chance to catch up, he'd inform Wrath that the Beastmaster isn't a better option on that front. Five would be happy to be rid of him, but there's a limit to how far he'll go to do that. ]

We've got plenty of dark water, but it doesn't look like we have time to try to make another mirror. [ If trapping isn't a possibility, then what... He keeps circling back to Anurr, and he doesn't like it. ] How bad do you think it'll be if we do nothing? They practically worship the Beastmaster here, he'd theoretically want to protect them.

( His shoulders roll back as he releases a breath and then shakes his head. )

The issue is the volcano itself will be a danger to the villagers, to the village.

...as for the Beastmaster's desire to protect them, I cannot say. I have not spoken to him, and he is an old, undead creature. It's difficult to surmise his intentions. He certainly does not appear to care much about living human lives.

These villagers may simply worship what idea they have in their head about him, and so he feels no tie to them nor any reason to keep them around. ( Wrath may have experience in that department - devil worshippers are entirely frustrating. But he does sense something else in Five's voice. ) ...what are you thinking?

[ The Beastmaster is old, but not as old as Anurr, evidently. He has ties here, distant relatives. If only that meant something. ]

...That we have one other option. I'm just not thrilled about it. [ He's not going to bring up the fact that he has something that would immediately summon Anurr, but Wrath is already aware of that. ] We know someone with enough power to freeze half a city.

[ He hates this village. It cursed him and his family, and generally has been a massive distraction. But he's not actively hoping that they all die in a fire. ]

If worse comes to worse.

It isn't a terrible idea. Our group did answer his own request for a favor even if it was asked on behalf of another. ( And they would need a great deal of ice to freeze the heat below, to have any effect on the volcano itself. )

It feels like we are owed.

( And Five does already have a connection with him given what occurred in Taravast, given the finger Five has, which Wrath is obviously not mentioning on this public channel. )

[ It's one of the few cards they have up their sleeve. From Anurr's perspective, Five is owed twice over for what he did in Taravast and agreeing to hide the Huntress. That doesn't mean he'll follow through if he decides it's an easy way to get rid of two of his rivals at once. He can't think of another reason why he'd lure the Huntress here after a one-week truce. ]

And you think this is worth cashing in for?

[ Wrath is one of the rare people he'd ask the opinion of. There are a lot of variables and not a lot of time to consider them. ]

It didn't turn out great when they clashed before. We might end up with a bigger problem.

There are those with ideas of how to reduce the pressure in the volcano. It may be worth it to see if we are able to do so without cashing in the favor.

If we are unable to relieve the pressure, I see little better option, but only if he will do so without conditions. We are owed, but powerful beings will take advantage of desperate situations.

( ...spoken from experience. His brothers are especially guilty of this, but Wrath is no saint himself. Five is owed, and they're both aware of that much. If he asks for more than what he has already taken, Wrath would certainly not want Five to take the deal. )

[ In Five's experience, the worst case scenario is the one that happens nearly a hundred percent of the time. Still, he's mildly relieved that they're rallying around other solutions and that Wrath agrees. He'd rather exhaust all of them before relying on Anurr. ]

Do any of them sound promising?

[ He's following some of the chatter himself, but Wrath must have posed the threat to the masses for a reason. As few of their group as he trusts, they're generally impressive when it comes to self-preservation. ]

Wei Wuxian and I should be able to relieve the pressure via the spirits residing within the volcano. Emilia and others can add their ice magic to the mix, and I feel like returning dark water to the mirror may do something but I'm uncertain as to what.

( If anything. But there is promise within the group itself, there's no need to take a risk. )

We will leave Anurr as a backup plan for the moment. ( A pause. ) Have I missed anything else while I was in the volcano? ( aka everything good w/ you Five? )

[ He briefly lost his mind and tried to kill at least two of their group, and sealed his siblings inside a room against their will, where he's been hoarding anything he could get his hands on... ]

Nothing particularly relevant. [ The volcano eruption is obviously the thing to focus on here. ] I'd keep an eye on the Beastmaster's movements. It seems like he's able to influence more than just the animals around him.

[ No need to ask how he knows. ]

I'm looking into the sacrifices, but we're on a tighter timeframe than I thought we'd be.

Care to elaborate? He can influence in what ways?

How strongly?

( Wrath does not need to know anything personal Five does not wish to share, but he does want to know if he should be worried about the Beastmaster attempting to control him as the Huntress nearly did. He doubts they both could have that power, but it's strange to him to think the Beastmaster can influence more than only beasts. Is his power of control as strong as his brothers? As his own? )

We're on an incredibly tight timeframe, but we did learn about the sacrifices when we went below. Those are the spirits trapped within the volcano itself. I could sense that they had been 'sacrificed' in a different sense than simply thrown to the lava. They absorbed the volcano's magic, which relieved the pressure inside. So sacrifices did actually relieve the pressure and prevent eruption.

However, it was a short term solution at best. Those sacrifices returned - their spirits as well as the magic they absorbed, which eventually killed them.

[ Five doesn't want to elaborate, and he doesn't right away as he takes in that next bit of information. It's kind of a big revelation that their superstitions actually served a purpose. Although that might be giving them too much credit. Their beliefs don't line up perfectly with what Wrath was able to find out.

They're lucky Wrath was the one to find the mirror. It probably taken the rest of them longer to piece that together. ...Never mind that Five is looking to stop the sacrifices to fix his own curse. That's only a little awkward after hearing this. ]

There was an incident while you were gone. Although we never really traced it back to the Beastmaster, the timing was suspicious to when he arrived. [ How to say this while not saying this. ] It wasn't exactly like Taravast, but some people were caught up in a hunt.

[ Definitely not Five. He hasn't apologized for that yet, so technically he's supposed to be pretending it didn't happen.

But back to this... ]

You think if they keep making sacrifices, it will buy them time?

Those people were compelled to hunt others? What exactly were they compelled to do and how well could they fight against it?

( It's important for him to know the answers to these questions. Mortals cannot fight against his brothers at all. Cannot fight against him should he choose to wield his power over one. They can tell any individual to do nearly anything, and they will without question.

It's more dangerous than compulsion to simply fight, hurt, kill. Regardless, it defies one's freewill, which makes Wrath incredibly angry. )

It buys an incredibly short amount of time, and in the end, it adds to the volcano's pressure due to the spirit joining with the original magic the body consumed, meaning an eruption is more imminent than before. Mortals would likely find the time bought worth it, but it isn't.

It's simply prolonging the inevitable.

[ He brought up the hunt because he knows Wrath's feelings on magic compulsion. It's a warning he deserves to have, but he still hesitates before he provides any more detail. ]

That was it, more or less. [ Hunt or be hunted. ] It happened for a few nights in a row, then tapered off for some reason. If anyone fought against it, I didn't hear about it.

[ At the time, Five didn't realize he was being compelled at all, and the people he ran into might not give him that excuse. It's unfortunate considering who was involved, but hopefully they're listening. He figures they're fine while they're in the middle of a crisis.

As for the sacrifices... probably for the best. ]

So that's out. [ Not that it was ever in, but the villagers have been really into that lately. ] I'd wager that the Beastmaster will interrupt whatever you do if he wants the eruption to happen. You'll need some kind of plan to deal with him.

( Wrath appreciates the heads up. He would hope the Beastmaster would not be able to affect him at all given Wrath has no particular association with beasts, and he has guards around his mind to prevent such compulsion. Only the Huntress was able to affect him, but even that he fought off. The issue is one can never tell in a world such as this one - so far away from the Hell he rules over and the throne he fought and clawed to crawl on top of so long ago. )

I will. Difficult without knowing his weaknesses.

( He has never attempted to fight one of the Undead Warlords one-on-one, but the temptation is there nonetheless. The Huntress is not an option, but the Beastmaster? Wrath would find it utterly satisfying to bring the entire volcano down on top of him. )

I will use this time before the eruption to better understand his motivation and use it against him if possible.

[ Five still remembers the great debate that was had when the first group of them arrived. How much they were stubbornly determined to not get involved with the Warlords or choose a side in a war that wasn't theirs. Now they might as well be doing Anurr's bidding to save their own hide.

Winnie had always been an advocate for pinning them against each other. If Wrath had been around back then, they'd probably have made it further in that argument.

It'd be easy to assume his motivation is gaining power, but from what he's overheard, it's probably more complicated than that. ]

That's not a bad idea. [ He almost mentions how he's heading into the House of Ravens, but he's not sure how much he wants to spread that around the network. ] ...I'll let you know if I run across anything useful.

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