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

[somebadnews]

[ 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?

[inferus]

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.

[somebadnews]

[ 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.

[inferus]

( 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.

[somebadnews]

[ 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.