Esuml steps forward, her hands behind her back, bopping up and down on the balls of her feet, causing her anklet to jingle. "I'm Esuml. Esuml Starshine. You may've heard of the Starshine Carnival and Circus? Uhm... This isn't them, but I'm -part- of them. Who are you?"

Roam smiled at Esuml.  Her innocent outlook was sweet.  He kept close to the gate, hoping those inside wouldn't look over.

Roam took deep breathes.  He hoped this wouldn't come to a fight.  They took Mira's brother, but would they give him up easily?  There must have been a reason.  It wouldn't be to just heal him up and send him on his way.  How to do this without relying on havoc....

There's a pause, and then the head raises above the ramparts.  The woman in the helmet is older, with lots of gray hair showing, and her weathered face lined and wrinkled.  Her green eyes stand out as she smiles down at the party.

"I've heard of the Starshine Circus, yes I have.  I'm Helen, and this place is Haven.  Jolly lot of you if this isn't the Circus itself.  Who are all of you and what are you doing out here?  We're well off the beaten path," she says, standing up.  She's carrying what looks like a good spear with a bone tip, but there's also a hollow tube, likely a blowgun, hanging around her neck from a leather strap.

“I’m called Roam. A tracker. This woman over here set her Ceratops off to find help. Her and her brother had been caught in a terror. We found her and gave aid. We followed the tracks here to find the boy.”
Roam staged everything matter-of-factly.
He smiled over the rampart at Helen, trying to be open and honest.

"Caught in a terror?!"  Helen sounds both alarmed and surprised, perfectly normal reaction to the possibility of someone being caught in the deadly phenomenon.  "And the boy walked away?  He must be tough as an anklysaur!  I haven't seen a boy around here, but we'll do what we can to help"

Her head disappears, and you hear some grunting, a few thuds, and then the gate open slowly.  Helen appears in the gateway and waves you inside.  "We'll do what we can for you, and see if your brother can be found.  Come in, come in!"

Inside, Haven is a small village.  The roads are dirt, with occasional attempts at graveling and cobblestones to keep them from turning into a morass in the rainstorms.  The houses and buildings are a combination of trees and the sides of SATI cargo containers, strapped together with vines and packing film.  Living trees are used as supports and shade both.  Like most Grevakc communities, the roads are wide enough for largo dinos to pass.

Helen will wave you in to the village square.  Larger buildings make each of the four sides, while a wellhouse holds pride of place in the center.  There looks to be a dino stables, a town hall, a garage of some sort (there are a lot of vehicle tracks going into and out of the doorway, and vehicles visible inside), and a tavern called the Downed Dragonfly.  Some of the enormous dragonflies, with wingspans of six feet, buzz by in the hot noon sunshine.  A few people are getting water from the well, in the garage a small man is tinkering with a wheel on a vehicle that's up on bone supports, and several more people visible in the large opening of the tavern, sipping drinks in the dim coolness inside.

"Well now, what are the rest of your names, and who are we looking for?  What's the boy's name?  What's he look like?" Helen asks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:50, Tue 10 Apr 2018.

Cascade looked over the sight of the village now that the gate was open. Nodding to the woman as he stepped through the gate, "Ah, Cascade Ming and this is Nosy." as he rubbed the alphadons chin. He then stepped aside so the others could enter.

"What a little fuzzy thing!" Helen says, reaching out slowly for Nosy to smell her hand, going for a scratch if he seemed amenable. "Well then, Cascade, Esumal, Roam, and-."

"I'm Mira, this is Gaytha," Mira adds shyly.  "My brother's name is Quill..."

"Right.  Well, we had some hunters out earlier in the day in that direction, so maybe they saw something.  Most of them are in the Downed Dragonfly, but I think Vell and Gus are in the garage," Helen says.  The blue-and-green piski you saw earlier swoops down and lands on Helen's shoulder, preening her hair a bit before settling down.

The older man gives a friendly nod as he steers his companion by her, stretching out his empathic senses toward her as he does so.

"I am Oiktirmon, and this is Peteinos.  'Peace be unto you.'"

Sliding off of his mount, Rain speaks, “Rain.” He makes a gesture approaching a wave with his right hand.

He pats his Anchiceratops on the flank before walking with the group, “Garage you say?  What kind of vehicles do you run?”

"Well, that's very nice of you Oiktirmon," Helen says, and pats Peteinos. 



"Oh, solar-cell four-wheeler, bio-fuel cell scooter, big old methane-cell dirt-growler if the mud gets bad," Helen says, nodding at the easily-seen vehicles.  The four-wheeler is a jeep-type vehicle (the one up on blocks), the scooter a three-wheel used for quick forays, and the mud-growler a heavy armored truck used for transport through all terrains.  The last is a bit unusual to still be working after all this time.  Most people just use dinos.

Roam smiled at the lady but kept quiet.  He waved to Tarla to have her follow him in.  Once he was inside the gate and facing the others he spoke:  "The dragonfly sounds like it might be the best place to find the brother and information.  The garage though, I can verify the vehicle that was there.  That took him.  Maybe find out who was driving it."

Obviously somewhat excited by the prospect of an adventure-mystery, Esuml bounced a bit on the balls of her feet.

"Do we split up? Stay together? Garage and Dragonfly? I call going with grandpa!" She said, striding quickly over to Oiktirmon's side.

Roam peers over at the garage with interest.

Mira asks Helen if she could pay to stable Gaytha at their dino-stables for a while, "At least I need to pay to feed her.  We've been on the run all day, and she can't exactly ask the hunters what they've seen," she says, looking shy and sad.  Helen smiles and gives the girl a pat, waving them to the stables.

"Nonsense!  We can spare a bit of fodder while you look for your kin.  Now, you go talk to those fellows in the Dragonfly before they get too far into their cups, and tell them Helen said for them to talk straight!" Helen says.  Mira quickly sees Gaytha to the stables, then comes back to enter the tavern.  As she passes, she whispers something to Oiktirmon.  "There's no argoraptors in the stables."

Helen remains in the stables while Mira passes inside the dimness of the drinking establishment.  Those close can see the place is like much of Grevakc, a mixture of the old future and the new past.  Panels from shipping containers make up some walls, along with slabs of wood, stone, large bones garnered from the bends of rivers after floods, and even living trees.  The lighting is a few solar lights in the living ceiling, combined with the occasional fish-oil lamp, along with whatever sunlight dares filter inside.

Tables and chairs of bone and wood are scattered around with four lounging drinkers, the bar a mosaic of dino-bones with polished stones in them lined with bentwood bar stools which hold two more.  A dartboard with hand-made darts with feather flights has seen some heavy use on one wall, and a raised platform against another is likely where some kind of entertainment would sit.  In the sultry afternoon, no one holds center stage.  The bar holds one tap, and a wealth of bottles in a rainbow of shades.

The lounging drinkers are a mixture of men and women, most of them in their second or third decade, with weathered complexions and a few scars that testify to their profession.  They're wearing coveralls, stained but clean, in various dark shades.  One woman has her hair elaborately braided with small dinosaur feathers, one man is missing half an ear with a scar following along towards the back of his head.  The one who seems the youngest, a young man, is telling some story to the other guy seated at the bar, something that seems to require a lot of gestures.

In the garage across the way, anyone close by can see the one man working on the wheel is a powerfully-built man in his forties, with a face which had met several fists at different angles throughout his life.  A woman is further back in the garage, putting things away in a cabinet.  Her head is shaved, and she wears a well-stocked toolbelt around her sturdy middle.  She is not an attractive woman, with small eyes, upturned nose, and a mouth that seems to be set in a sneer, but she also looks very busy.

Roam walked toward the garage, kicking a rock out of his way as he meandered.  Roam made a scooting noise to Tarla suggesting she stay back a bit.

He walked up next to the jeep and looked inside.  He looks at the wheel and the large man fixing it.  Roam checked the size of the other wheels and turned back to the man.
"Hello sir.  This is an impressive vehicle.  Maintenance routine, or did something big and scary bite through that wheel?"

Roam continued circling the vehicle.  "I'm called Roam, and you?"

The man underneath the truck grunted in response, continued to tinker with something, grunted again, and came sliding out from underneath, chucking away a sturdy fragment of wood.  "Tree bit the tire.  Was about to go anyway," he says, and slides back underneath.  "Name's Gus.  What'd Helen let you in for?"

"Hey Gus, I'm Roam.  Who decides to drive over a tree?"  Roam picked up a socketwrench and hands it to the man.

Kneeling down by the truck, Roam's eyes slide out toward the Drowned Dragonfly and watch the little blue and yellow bambiraptor race off.  His eyes narrow watching it.  "Yeah, Helen was sweet.  Just looking for my friends brother."

Gus grunts again, though whether that is in reaction to your comment or to whatever maintenance he's doing is up for debate.  "You're the first new people to walk in here, so can't tell you anything about someone's brother," he says.  Then he bellows out, "Vell, you see anything?"

The woman turns from what she was doing at a workbench and looks over at Roam with a very irritated expression.  "No," she says with finality.  "Doesn't sound like anyone I know."

"Ok, Gus and Vell.  Would you please let me know if you spot him?  His sister is quite worried."
Roam stands from his crouch near Gus and takes a serious look into the jeep.  He quickly stretches his arms up and pops his back.

With a "Thanks" to Vell, he gives her a wave and turns to walk back to the Downed Dragonfly.  Out of habit Roam moves immediately next to the tracks of the little bambiraptor and follows hoping for a drink.

Gus rolled out from underneath the vehicle again and gives Roam a hard look.  "Ya looking to buy this thing or what?  You're staring like you're going to have to draw it from memory later."  He looks over at Vell, and she adds:

"You think this kid was on a truck like this?"

The older man gives her a fondly amused grin, and looks at the others.

"All right, it will be the Dragonfly for us then.  Is anyone else coming?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:49, Sat 05 May 2018.

"Wasn't a kid.  Teen or older.  But a brother, picked up outside and brought in today.  I'll be at the Dragonfly.  Please let me know if you hear anything.  I appreciate it guys."

Roam wandered over to the Drowned Dragonfly, following the path Oiktirmon had taken before.  With a gentle push Roam pushed the door to the tavern open and stepped inside.

Esuml had already said she was with Oiktirmon, and Mira has already passed into the Dragonfly.

Inside, you can see Mira has gone to speak to the barkeeper, a man old enough to have been part of the Last Commute, small and neat, his very dark skin in deep wrinkles and smile-lines, his curly, close-cropped hair snow white.  She is clutching a bone cup without sipping as she relates her story.  The two people sitting the bar, the younger man who was telling some enthusiastic story to a skinny fellow with a shaved head and tattooed scalp, have seemed to dim their own conversation out of respect for a stranger.

The barkeep looks sympathetic, but shakes his head slowly, patting her hand.




The Downed Dragonfly's "door" is more of a pair of swinging slats of wood that barely touch, with huge open windows so low you could step over the sills without much of a stretch.

Inside, most of the drinkers glance up at him, Oiktirmon, and Esmul with an acknowledging glance, then go back to their own relaxation.  The woman with the feathers in her hair smiles more warmly and waves at them all to join her table.

"New people!  What washed you off the Road that brought you out here?" she asks.

Roam came across the street and looked up at the sign for the Drowned Dragonfly.  He could feel a tug at his lips and a lightness in his chest.  He liked the name.  It sounded good to him and the hope of a good place brought him hope.
Roam looked at the slatted 'door' and pushed his way in, to follow his companions.  He spotted several of his companions in the tavern already.  Esuml was pretty cute and definitely easy to pick out in this crowd.  Maybe he should ask her out...
Roam watched Mira, but the searching expression on her face indicated her brother wasn't in sight.

The woman with feathers in her hair chirped and No one else seemed interested in answering her.  "We're actually here looking for someone.  My friend back here, her brother was picked up after an encounter with a time storm earlier.  The tire tracks led right to your gate.  Easy enough for a Brachiasaurus to follow."
Roam paced as he was talking, moving about the room.  Not fast, but steady.  His sole purpose was to keep that tiny raptor in the edge of his sight.  His stomach started to knot as it dawned on him they might be trying to find the same person.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Thu 30 July 2020.

The woman looks curiously at Roam.  "I'm Mega, and I read the bones around here.  The boys went out hunting earlier, so if we had a storm, no doubt we'd have tracks...  Keesh, Thelis, you see anyone out there earlier?  Or your argos pick up anything?"

Two of the men one table over shake their heads slightly and take drinks out of their tankards, though a third one is looking at Roam walking around the room.  Staring almost.

"Guess not," she says, furrowing her brow.  Mira looks visibly upset, and Mega gestures her over.  "I'm sure he must be somewhere."  Mega gets the attention of the half-dozen men sitting at the tables.  "Boys, go see if you can find this girl's brother.  Little brother I guess, right?  You look pretty worried," she says, addressing the last to Mira.  The men at the tables get up, some reluctantly, and file out of the tavern, scattering through the streets of the village.  That leaves the two people at the bar, and the bartender.  "They'll do what they can for you.  Now, why were you out there?"

Mira hesitates, but then starts to tell a story of how she was caught in a terrible storm, and was separated from Quill.  She was hurt, and by the time she'd woken up, he had been taken and there were tracks.

She did not, the group notes, say anything about the time terror.

Mega purses her lips and nods.  "That's a sad, sad thing.  Let me send up a signal to one of the other little places around here; it's possible someone else saw something."  She waves to the man with the shaved head, and tells him to go to the signal tower.

Mega continues to speak with Mira in a low voice.  But as she does so, the young man at the bar, and the elderly barkeep, keep looking out the door or down at something behind the bar, respectively.