After handing off the satchel to Phelan, the tall, dark figure Amare's journal claimed was named Volon strode over to Amare's petrified form.  Walked a circle around it, its eyes studying kneeling figure.  Shortly he bent down and wrapped the wiry arms around the base of Amare and lifted him up into his arms.

  Their seemed to be some trouble with holding the statue as the dark figure shifted and waddled uncomfortably before setting the statue down again carefully.  Clapping its hands together to shake dust from them and staring at the statue.

    After a few moments, a dim, red halo flickers alight above the dark figure's crown.

  Then the armoured creature stretches out his arms and legs, steadily growing in size for a few moments until it's head reached nearly eleven feet from the floor.

  The halo faded and the taller, but still gangly figure shook each of it's limbs.  The black armour adjusted and grew itself to cover the, red, raw flesh that had been exposed underneath it.

  It then strode forward and with some ease lifted the statue of Amare up to its chest and held him there,  The black being walked a winding path for a few moments then straightened is course toward the doorway Cebakaala had used.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:33, Mon 03 Dec 2018.

After her tussle with Phelan, Willa had remained all but motionless during the events, at first horrified, then in confused awe.  As she realises the creature is carrying Amare away though, she jumps to her feet, chasing after it.

"Wait!  Where going?"

"Uh okay then. What now?" Drex is confused.

Jubei looked from the glowing spirit-thing, to Phelan, to Willa, to Drex, back to the creature as started to walk away. "We head to the gate as well. So lets follow it.", the kaetyma spoke and so set himself into motion. A bit of a scowl was on his face, needless to say he wasn't pleased by how things had developed necessarily.

"Correct." Phelan concurred, placing the satchel away into the extradimensional space within his cloak. "We need information, and potential for a peaceful resolution to the current circumstances is preferred. Plus, we need information." His voice is grim as he trots to catch up with the creature. "Volon, let Jubei lead. If this is a trick, it's better to have him in front."

    Volon's pace slows but doesn't stop. 

  He allows Jubei and the rest of you catch up.  You then make your way up the winding stairwell Cebakaala had found.

  Following the guidelines on the walls you come arrive at doorway which should lead into some main living area for the weyrs dragons.  A spot which should have been around the area just beneath where the glass spire, which you had seen upon entering the weyr, rested.

  The doorway leads into clean-swept room made of much the same solid stone as the corridors you had spent most of the last day within.  It appeared to be an antechamber as the other door which lead out of this area was a crystal one, much like the doorways you had encountered in the tower and the gatehouse.

  This would probably require Willa's touch to open as the others had.

Willa remained distracted by Amare and his bearer.  Still when prompted, she shuffled over to activate the door, all the while still watching the two unusual beings.

    The same luminous circle of light which had always appeared before when Willa touched one of these crystalline walls, appeared here.  Darkin symbols slowly turning around it with the same glow as before. 

  A second ring of text appeared over the first, again in darkin. 

  The text vanished to be replaced by only a single line of text.

Willa shuddered at the machines response.  Just as she thought she'd manage to put that out of her mind, it reminded her.  She was not important, others were.  That was the person she wanted to be, but somehow this knowledge weighted deeply on her.

    The white light within the crystal turned green and a line stretched down from the ring around Willa's hand upon the wall and formed the outline of a door frame beside her.  The crystal melted away revealing a long, broad corridor beyond.

  The floor was covered with small, charcoal-coloured tiles.  Each tile was be speckled with glimmering fragments of glass set into the surface.  The walls and ceilings were the same almost glass like crystal as of the room you were in.  Somehow it was lit in here as if it was just cloudy day.  The light level made everything clear to see but not so bright as to make one have to squint against the light.  The air itself smelled cool and crisp but felt just a tad below warm.

  The green line ran from the door frame down the corridor.  The text changed again.

Though a way was now open, Willa continues to maintain contact and concentration with the system.

    The wall beside the circle glowed as lines drew a diagram there for all to see.  It showed a simple humanoid figure beside an oval, both were beneath a diamond.  Two lines stretched from the diamond down to two other figures which stood between the lone humanoid and the oval.  These two were roughly humanoid but looked like stick figures compared to the more relatable humanoid.  Their heads were forward facing triangles.  Reminding you a little of reptiles or birds.

  Then the image changed.

  The two figures now stood beside the person who had moved beside the oval.  The triangle headed beings held onto the person with one arm each while the other rose overhead and pointed to the diamond.

  The image changed again.

  Lines stretched down and joined the outstretched arms of the triangular beings.

  The image changed again.

  Now the triangular beings outstretched arms had drawn themselves to the person.  One touched the person's head the other touched the stomach.

  The image changed again.

  All three figures now stood within the oval with their arms lowered save for the two holding onto the person.  Still side by side.  Their bodies below the waist were missing.

  Darkin text had appeared beside each figure during the whole sequence. 

  It was not difficult to imagine that this was some kind of ritual being briefly illustrated.

  The text around Willa's ring on the wall changed again.

Jubei had looked down the corridor, but found Willa to still be on the wall. He watched with a raised brow as to what was still taking her attention, until he saw that diagram pop up.
His gaze drifted over it and he nodded. Then he nodded again when it changed.. and again. He hmm'd a bit, and aaah'd too.
"Alright, what did we just see?", he asked then.

Willa frowned unhappily.  She turned to the others and shook her head.  "Wall not to let friends go moon place.  Needs per-mission to 'First Weigher'" She shrugged obviously not sure what that meant.  "Says needs 'Gathering'." There was a pause as she looked askance and collected her thoughts.  "Willa wanting to let friends choose.  Go moon or go 'Gathering'.  But wall no let.

"Wall say Willa puddlify in three hundreds of days, but can to make to puddlify later.  Willa needs be get to 'Gathering'.

"Meaning both Willa and friends of must to go to "Gathering'."  The little oozeling does her best to reach up and point out the diagram on the wall, specifically the oval shape.

"But is not so simple.  Wall says is ritual.  Needs many.  She points to the two triangle headed figures.  Keepers is."  A look of concern crosses her face, letting the information sink in, then turns to and points down the newly opened passageway. "Keepers, 'Gathering,'  this ways."

"Is the 'Gathering' the same thing as what is going to take place at the gate?" Drex asked Willa as he look down the passageway that just opened up.

Will turned to Drex and shrugged.  "Wall say Willa must 'immersion.'  Also friends must go 'gathering'. Willa think wall show immersion at gathering.  Maybe is wrong?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:08, Thu 27 Dec 2018.

Jubei scratched his chin for a moment before he eventually gave a nod.
"This sounds like its an Umbrean thing. But very well, let us go to this... gathering. If I understood correctly we have to go there anyway to receive permission to go to the moon, yes?", he asked looking at Willa.

Willa, shrugged.  "Wall says its."

"Then we should go to it. How urgent did the wall make it out to be? After all we may want to...", he paused and looked to the construct-thing that was carrying Amare's former body. "Attent to this first."

"Willa has some hundreds days." the little oozeling bobbed.  "But wall wants know if telling Keepers we go 'im-in-ent-lee'."

Drex is waiting. Yes Willa you can tell Keepers we are on our way. He processed down the hallway, towards the Keepers. Are you coming!

"Let us move onwards.
If we tarry here longer,
We risk more danger."

Ceba stepped up alongside Drex, mindful of his blisters, boils and other abrasions. The sooner they started moving, the safer he would feel.

Phelan had remained silent as they discussed, frowning slightly in thought. At Drex's call he shook himself and trotted quickly to catch up, still wearing that thoughtful frown.

Jubei furrowed his brows. "No, not imminently... we ought head to the gate first. It might take a few hours before we go.", he spoke then... but started to walk as well.

    The wall informed Willa that she only had to make her way to the Gathering, she would be expected.

  Walking down the broad passage you passed a well hidden niche which held a fierce looking suit of armour, reminiscent of the automatons you had fought only the day before in that great stone and metal building.  Pausing there to inspect the lone figure for danger Drex noticed others like it in the frosted crystal of the walls.

  Certainly if danger threatened those other machines could be released from the wall and there was no telling how many of them might be hidden just out of sight in that expanse of crystal.  After all, you had not seen any other doors or rooms yet, so who was to say what parts of this structure concealed either defenders or chambers.
  Though there fortunately appeared to be no sign did not appear to have any spark of life to them but that could have been only appearances.

  It wasn't long before you reached the far end of the corridor which terminated in a large ring around the center of the spire.

  As you approached this inner wall glowed and a circle formed.  The area within the circle dissolved and through the doorway stepped two tall and spindly humanoids, their bodies were a mostly black, stringy, sticky looking things which sprouted painted, metallic claws at the ends of the limbs where one would expect fingers and toes.  An external rib-cage of the same off-white, painted metal and a head that reminded you of the skull of some vicious, predatory bird.  Each held a metal pike crisscrossed with the same black sinew as their bodies were made of.

  They each stood to the side of the door like guardsman.  A lone umbrean, dwarfed by those who had come before stepped out from the doorway.  Behind him you could see a passageway which turned a corner shortly before the doorway, so where exactly it lead was anyone's guess.

  The umbrean was a dull green, turning to a brighter, more yellow green at its center.  The eyes were wide apart and a third, dull, and possibly blind eye sat atop the forehead. "On behalf of those who sleep we wish to apologize for the actions of our caretakers." she spoke with a slightly slurred common, and gazed at everyone in the party.  Though her gaze lingered on Volon and his burden.  Her dress was a simple purple robe, highly stylized into a broad v-shape starting from the stomach and reaching up to the shoulder with a darker sash around the waist.

Jubei watched those umbreans emerge with the stoic gaze of a dragon.
"We accept the apology and would like to give ours in return. After all we are... uninvited guests. Though I am certain you understand that practically everyone outside the Weyr believed that nobody was actually living here anymore. Finding that to be not the case is hmm a pleasant surprise.", he responded then after that greeting while giving a corteous nod to the umbrean.

    "We had hopped the exterior defenses would dissuaded outsiders but you seemed to have managed to defeat them one after the other." the umbrean gestured to the circular passage.  "Would you like to discuss this somewhere more comfortable?" she asked.

"ere we entered here
Have we little comfort.
I offer my thanks."

That said, Ceba commited all he saw to memory. This was perhaps the most interesting detail he would record since they had entered the weyr.

Willa+ bobbed about in giddy excitement and turned to Amare about to tell him that there were other umbreans on the isles, but quickly lost her enthusiasm when she saw him in his current state.  It sullied her the whole revelationary meeting for her.  She was filled with an irrational anger and she marched forward towards the woman.

"Apology is no accepted!"  She barked and turns to point at Amare.  "Friends of Willa hurting cause of 'caretakers.'  Who is caretakers?  Why fight Willa and friends of?  Why umbreans needs taking cares of, anyways?  Also, whys trapping inn-o-scent spirits in machines - like dragon was!?!"

Drex eye's widen at Willa's outburst, hoping that this doesn't offend our hosts. He is really not in the mood or physical state to fight again.
Willa I do not think that all that has transpired here was the caretakers or the hosts falt. Drex said in a soft but quick snap at Willa's accusation.

    "Then what do you want from us?" the umbrean asked earnestly, her expression questioning as she looked at Willa.  "Do you not guard yourselves from dangers?  Surely the world has not changed so much in three centuries that all is peaceful beyond the mountains?"

  She pointed at Phelan and Cebakaala with a gaze  "You're people wrangled us up like cattle from your lands and threw us all into one great pit in a place you believed no one would ever find us nor where we would bother anyone else ever again."

  "Your people hunt us for sport in memory of the rites you performed for your masters." she said as she looked at Jubei then to Drex and Volon "And your kind is new to us." before turning back to Willa "You are fortunate to have found some kind of kinship with the Others but even you must know that it is a thing that will not last.  Nor were you so fortunate at your birth to know parents, kinship or kindness.  Like us you were thrust into this world, by waking and awareness not your own but drawn from those around you.  The world has never been kind to us so are you surprised by are caution?  Our guard?  Our natural desire to secure ourselves, our homes against those who have throughout all living memory have done nothing but bring us suffering and harm?" she spoke sharply and accusingly.  Her voice rang off the walls.

  "One life and scraps of those before is all you have.  But we." there was a crack in her voice.  "We remember over twelve millennium from this day since the dragons used the Monument to restore the gift of our collective experience to the Great Gathering."

Willa looked between her friends as their people's oppression of hers were laid out.  She was wide-eyed and quiet.  It seemed her 'persecution' paled into insignificance compared to what her ancestors had faced from even the likes of the supposedly advanced Narayah.  And he was extremely old too!  Could he and Ceba have actually participated in this...containment?

Willa was silenced for a good few moments until she realised why she was angry in the first placed.  Her explression suddenly changing from one of shocked awe to extreme grump.

"Is still no right!  Willa think people's made to be trapped know better than trap other for purpose!  To make do against will.  To hurt and not know why.  Should be better than others!  Not same be!  Poor spirit almost dying in machine!  Torn from home and...and..tortured!  Is like...like...no, *is* slaveringly!"

"Also,"  She paused and looked to the ground in consideration, "Other umbreans leave.  Flee here's?  Why?"  A moment later, she deflated.  "Ah, is sorry.  Willa happy to be meeting first reals umbrean ever.  Is pleased, really.  Just been...busy days.  Painful days.  Only to find not big-bads inside.  Always watches.  Always possible to helps.  But slaverings still bad is!  Must to promise Willa never to do agains!  Please..."

Then quietly, pleadingly, whilst glancing over at Drex: "Please...umbreans must be good.  Must bes good peoples.  Willa always believed so.  Did very much to protect secrets.  Stuffs to make even friends of, very angrys at."

    Shaking her head the umbrean had regained her composure.  Leading the way with her two keepers beside her she spoke "Spirits are unreliable, and coercion does not make for lasting or beneficial alliances.  These are our observations of millennia.  This is why we are served by sophisticated but simple machines.  No more intelligent than a trained animal.  Most of our own design others were of the old narayan make.  As impressive as they are durable they are but the makings of a novice in the craft." she looked at Willa when she asked "You spoke of a dragon like machine?  Journeyman Gearcaster Drixos was this one a like to the old display models used in the museum?  We took those down and put them in storage millenia ago though there was some flaring interest in ages past to make such things for a joining but the Gathering ultimately Decided against it.  As it had before on similar problems with our draconic ancestry.  If you were attack be one it was not of our design."

"We faced the machine in a collosseum of sorts. The spirit that was forced into it was forced to do so by an entity we confronted before, which apparently did not forget us.", Jubei spoke and shook his head. "Either way, I understand you have a means to reach the moon?"

Phelan was frowning thoughtfully as the question was directed to him. "It... was like the old models. But someone had worked on it, made a lot of modifications. It was fully set up to replicate the combat abilities of a full dragon. He paused, his voice having taken on the tone of a researcher explaining their discovery. "The modifications themselves were pristine, either magically preserved for a very long time; or they were only built in a few years ago."

Willa was tumbling from anger to confusion.  She only half-understood the conversation as it was, but at least managed to gather that the umbrean was claiming the dragon-prison-machine-thing was news to her.

"But voices come to heads in dragon place after dragon dead.  Was like voices know where was Willa and friends of Willa.  Is co-incy-dent?  Or Voices not of keepers' being?"

    The umbrean pressed a hand  against a crystalline wall, only a minute or two's walk from the hall you had entered.  "After the repeated failures of the Caretakers to apprehend you and the expense they had gone through to do so there had been a review of their activities.  We decided this morning to engage in friendlier dialogue and spent some time composing our message and assembling the device which allows for such psychic messaging." a familiar circle lit the wall around her hand, and circle of darkin text around that. 

  She frowned towards Phelan "The Gathering will have to be informed about this and a investigation launched into such activities though I would guess it was something assembled by the expedition we sent out some centuries ago." an area of the wall beside the umbrean lit up and dissolved into a large doorway.  She removed her hand and stepped through into the large room beyond.

  The room was sparsely furnished and smooth.  A great circle of a room which gave the sense of being suspended in the middle of a giant crystal.  As the walls, ceiling and floor was all the same frosted crystal.  Red and orange rugs had been spread across the floor to help break up the uniformity and some tapestries had been hung around the chamber as well.  There were no other doors in the room.  Several chairs of various sizes and a very, very large cushion has had been arranged in a circle at the middle of the chamber.  Four of the ant-like machines you had seen in the gatehouse were busy maneuvering some of the chairs into place.  While eight others were crawling into a hole in the floor at far side of the room.  The chairs all seemed freshly made from wood and stone.  While the tawny cushion was plump and almost as tall as a man.  The skin of the cushion seemed to be made from soft, woolly hide.  The cushion looked decadently royal and far too inviting for its own good.

  Jubei recognized the peculiar shape of the cushion as one specifically made to comfortably support a sitting kaetyma.  He had seen some expensive and exquisite seats before in the Free Cities but those paled in the sheer size and subtle artistry of the seat he saw in that ring of chairs.  The hide looked thick enough to not be cut or damaged by his armour or claws.

  "Please make yourselves comfortable, we had prepared these some time ago for visitors." the umbrean sat herself down onto one of the smallest chairs.  It was remarkably plain and unadorned but like each of the chairs there was a small styling to it.  Something geometrical and angular like a the facets of a jewel.

  As you each found a seat she spoke to Jubei "I am quiet sure adventurers as successful as yourselves have greater foes to worry about then our humble, isolated colony." she rested her hands on her legs and leaned back into the hard chair before she continued  "We maintain several teleportation circles between weyrs like this one where other gatherings dwell and to the Conclave Citadel.  Though going there would be complicated and something we had wanted to discuss." she seemed a bit reluctant to broach the subject.

  One chair, the same size as the one Drex sat in stood empty but Volon was not far behind.  Still cradling that statue that was Amare in his arms.

It was difficult for Willa to get to her chair as she tiptoed between the rugs, trying her best not to sully them with slime.

"Expee-dish-on be is what Willa see?  Is memory, no?"  She looked at the statue of her friends as it was brought in and rubbed her hands together in concern.  "Friend Amare say Willa is maybe only umbrean on isles.  So maybe also is all remains of exppee-dish-on?  What for expee-dish-on is?  Willa can to help?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Fri 25 Jan 2019.

  Drex made his peace with the battle with the mechanical dragon. He harbors no grudges, nor does he wish to find out anything more about it. But it would seem Judie's comment agitated Drex. He moves uncomfortably around in his chair, as the conversations continues. Which he interrupts as he stands up, no longer able to keep it to himself.

  Drex caries himself with determent-authority, but with a polite courtly demeanor. He bows to their host, before speaking.
"I must apologist for my rude behavior, but I must interject this discussion. As an Avenger of the Aurelians, custodians of civilization, I feel that I must do my duty! If only to bare witness, as a representative of the Aurelians, to this monuments moment."
  He looks at the statue, then to his party. "Amare is important, how important I don't know. And I do not believe even the wises sages could tell us that. But he is a statue now, and not changing from that state. So he is save as long as Volon is here to help us look after him. But I cannot in good faith abandon my obligation to my gods, and be there at the meeting, weather to mediate or to bare witness or to apply swift justice, if that is called for."

  He firmly takes his seat once more. Addressing every one. "So I want to request postponing the moon trip till after the meeting, please." Glancing at Willa and Jubei in particular.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 22:11, Sun 27 Jan 2019.

Jubei had regarded the pillow with a raised brow for a few moments, before he carefully sat down upon it. He listened, then nodded. "Indeed, we for our part seek no quarrel with your colony. I have no intention of picking up... sport of my ancestors.", he spoke with a tad of disdain there. "That being said, what do you wish to discuss about the... I assume it is the conclave citadel that resides upon the moon? Has there been an incident?"

    The umbrean was quiet still and looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke again. "You are of course free to leave at any time now that the Gathering has awakened.  If you wish to travel to the Conclave Citadel there are some things you should know.  As for our diplomatic concerns with the outside world this will be contingent upon what you-" she looked at Willa pointedly  "-will share with the Gathering.  The request you made for Immersion is not dependant on that of course but some exchange of knowledge, memory and experience is a natural course of events during that process."

  "Forgive my impertinence but what has become of your human companion, the I one you called Amare?  The Caretakers memories do not hold his fate nor the existence of this Volon and he-you disturb me.  You're like an abyss into which all sound vanishes."  she frowned as she looked at Volon, something she found difficult to do by the strain that showed in her face.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:17, Mon 04 Feb 2019.

Jubei listened and nodded, before he made a bit of an inviting hand gesture. "Then please, do tell about what needs to be known about the Citadel.", he spoke, as his headcrest of feathers raised a bit in anticipation.

"Willa also try to answer questions!" The oozeling cheerfully piped up, a lot more optimistically and more like her old self than she had been for a while now.

    The umbrean gathered herself as she looked at Jubei.  "I will say what I am allowed to until we have come to some arrangement regarding your visit there." she folded her hands in her lap.  "After the War a great many consciousnesses drifted in the communal awareness of our Gatherings.  The Great Gathering was disturbed and divided by some conflicting ideas about what to do with ourselves.  Many wanted to return to their lives before their unfortunate deaths in the War and in the Gathering had become aware of our means to manufacture creatures of such sophistication as the dragon effigy you faced.  We could perfectly reproduce the functions and abilities of any living being with a mechanical facsimile." looking across the room at this revelation she returned to Jubei.

  "As you have heard me say, those of us who remember being dragonkind long ago collectively made the decision not to return to an approximation of our former flesh.  We are were little different from ghosts, only caught and reproduced by the quirk of umbrean nature."

  "But the influx of so many new psyches into our fold turned the balance of power into the favor of the Restorationists and when we destroyed Phazion they set about their plans to restore themselves through mechanical bodies.  Those older ones of use who remained and those among the new ones who saw the folly of the Restorationists plans tried to dissuade them but that was not so effective as we'd have hoped.  Madness had gripped the Restorationists and everyone else fled.  The Citadel became theirs as a consequence while the rest of us split up and gathered in the outposts we had made of the old weyrs." she gestured at the area around her.

  "We had planned a countermeasure.  We suspended the Citadel and its surroundings in a single moment of time until we had found some way to defeat the Restorationists." looking at Willa then she added "This is where you are most likely descended from.  After a few years here we realized we would not be able to come up with a solution on our own.  So a third of the Gatherings chose to go out into the greater world and seek a solution to our conflict while the rest of us remained to maintain the magic which kept the Citadel suspended."

  The umbrean swept a hand behind her, in the direction of the spire's center.  "We wove a great dream, shared by all in the Gathering.  A world of our own design where we could be whatever we chose to be.  Restrained only by our own imagination.  In those dreams we at first hoped to find a solution but in time it became a way of life and has remained such to this day.  Awakening has taken a great force of will and most cling to the Dreaming even now." she chuckled.

  "I guess you could say we are only half-awake." she smiled her eyes downcast.  "If you wish to travel to the lunar citadel you will have to fight the Restorationists, we've resigned ourselves to this outcome now.  We don't want to kill our own kind over a philosophical disagreement.  But the threat of the derangement they can bring into the world through their folly is something we've seen first hand in early instances of the Dream.  That can not be allowed to be and if we must ask you to be our instrument of destruction." she sighed, closing her eyes.  Bringing up her hands to her face to wipe away ichory tears.

  Breathing deeply she said finally "So be it."
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:52, Mon 04 Feb 2019.

At the end of all that, Jubei was silent for a few seconds, before he made a sound that was a strange mix between the click of his tongue and some kinda hiss.
"That explains the vision I had. I saw a flood of... goo that tried to take the shape of a dragon. Either way, that seems like a considerable task to undertake. We will need to know more about the Restorationists. How many there are and how to take care of them. And who or what is this Phazion you mentioned?"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Willa started bouncing excitedly, finally understanding something.  "Willa remember!  Vito friend tell.  Lich Phazion attack Appirga!  Was beaten.  Then curse Appirga with Nemesis!"

"Also," She stops to think, "not really understanding.  Is all umbreans ghosts of dragons?  Or only is some of?  Are umbrean umbreans?  Which Willa is?  Also, reser...serva...other trapped umbreans...is wrong?  Sounds want be Ehuron.  Ehurons also bad is?"

Jubei blinked for a moment, looking between Willa, then that other Umbrean, before recoiling a little on his seat. "You mean that Phazion?", he asked as if there was another one, then made that clickhissy noise again, only to have it be followed by a snort. "Alright. How do we beat them?"

    Willa's flurry of questions seems to cheer up the other umbrean somewhat.  "Yes Jubei, I can imagnie your surprise to learn that an undead army is no match for an umbrean one.  Though our success was due to two reasons.  Everyone Phazion killed was usually reborn among us.  So as his army grew so the ones he had slain gained a new voice and a means to assemble into a fighting force.  Furthermore, we can't be twisted into undead abominations because our flesh never truly dies.  A strong enough will in an umbrean can restore itself from the ether no matter how many times it is broken.  The blaze of determination born among us in that war was something to behold.  Though it comes at a steep price.  Once their purpose was fulfilled and Phazion was fallen they could not maintain their existence for more then a few days.  Even immersing themselves in a Gathering, a thing which has sustained other umbrean minds for tens of thousands of millennia, could not save them from dissolution.  Only their memories and persona remain now.  Memorialized in a way within the whole of the Gathering."

  She frowned a bit thinking something over.  "Phazion didn't curse Appirga, some one else brought about that bloodless massacre.  We buried those spiritually desiccated bodies ourselves by sending them out to sea." she shivered as though remembering.  "Our ships were stacked with bodies." there was a tremble in her voice then.  "I'm sorry we'd rather not talk about that, that horror lingers too near to memory."

  A long moment passes before the umbrean continues.  "Ehuron are spirits.  Who wear their crude mechanical bodies like you or I may wear clothing.  As long as they remain wholly separated from the material universe they will never truly be alive.  The Restorationists sought to craft a thing that would make an Ehuron's body look like a crude puppet made from sticks and stones.  To the uninitiated-" she looked over towards Phelan "-it would look no different from living flesh."

  She turned back to address you all and looked very uncomfortable.  "There is a way for an umbrean to take other creatures, be they living or dead and use them as a host.  Not too different from possession by spirit or daemon but in a physical sense.  It is not something that comes naturally to our kind, but it is a technique which can be learned.  Its inventor and their motivation is lost to the shrouds of history but we've only ever really employed it as a means to...keep an eye on things.  Once we were no longer under threat of isolation or extermination so long ago we found the idea of robbing another of their will to be disgusting."

  "Willa, I can't say for sure where you come from.  We don't represent the whole of all umbrean kind.  We are a small population who gained our ability to retain our sentience during dissolution by means of the Great Gathering which itself was a project undertaken by the long dead dragons out of curiosity.  Since those times we looked for other umbrean civilizations and found none which were recent.  Though there are signs of on.  Ancient vaults hidden far beneath the bottom of the seas where our kind lies dormant in cities so old we dare not disturb them for fear of what we might awaken."

  "As for how you might defeat the Restorationists we can't begin to guess.  They number well over a million.  But we think you may be able to come up with a solution that we haven't been able to realize.  Furthermore you'd have the element of surprise and, stealth along with being a small, highly mobile force.  Unlike this weyr there is no organized resistance in the Citadel.  It can only be accessed from select teleportation circles secured in a dozen weyrs across the world.  After all you defeated our security measures which has defeated every other group of explorer into our weyr.  You literally came in through the front door, the most secure part of our defenses!" she laughed.  "And until we had asked to parlay you were on your way here!  What did you even imagine you would find or do when you found us?" she wondered in amusement.

  "You take incredible risks for great rewards and have demonstrated a tenacity and capacity for solving problems far in excess of anything we have observed outside of what you might consider myths and legends.  Therefore we believe you can do something like this which seems nigh impossible and has left our society dumbfounded for centuries specifically because you can conceive of and engage in activities we would not even consider." she finished.

There was an 'Uh huh' from Jubei as he listened, but he couldn't help and chortle at the 'praise' they received for waltzing right in through the front door. "My teacher once said that the baggage of the past can affect us in more ways than we think, including the way we think. But speaking of front doors and past baggage, the machines we faced were all caretakers, yes? Do they have individual names? At the gate a 'Temper' received instructions for my capture by... someone. I presume it was not you?"

    The umbrean looked confused, "We don't have any Caretakers by that name.  Allow me to clear up a middunderstanding.  The Caretakers are umbreans like myself we serve a period of years away from the Gathering and the Dream maintaining the defences and devices of the weyr.  It was the Chief of these Caretakers who was obsessed with capturing you when you penetrated the defences.  Their continued failures to do so over the last few days, and the steady trickle down of information about the precarious state of things from the Gatherer was what alerted the Dreamers to the situation and began waking us up.  As the Gathering has supreme authority over everything that is part of the weyr.  We deposed the Caretaker and had her taken into custody.  She joined with the Gathering this morning as part of what you would call a trial on multiple charges of misconduct."

  She smiled "I realize now I haven't told you my name.  I honestly haven't chosen one yet.  I was only born a few minutes before we met."

"New friend has no name?"  Willa shuffled about awkwardly in her seat, looking down out har clasped hands,  After a moment, she whispered, "Willa know good name, if friend like..?"

OOC
If asked, Willa will reply "Aviana" and explain that she was a child who was tragically taken from the world by Darkness.  Willa could not save her, even though she promised to do so.
She thinks, at least, it would be nice to remember and honour her memory.

Jubei once more gave a nod, slow this time, before his head recoiled in surprise at hearing that their 'host' was only minutes old. "That is... remarkable.", he uttered, followed by a little and very brief chuckle. It was more of a snort really.
"That was a lot to take in. I may need a moment to... ponder things.", he spoke and looked to the others to see if they had any questions or remarks to make.

There is a moments pause as Drex considers his thoughts, before ceased on Jubei's opportunity  "We technically still don't know that to expect on the moon. Other that there are mad umbrians how will most assuredly do anything in their power to stop us and escape of the moon. What safeguards can we use to stop them from reaching any of the weirs and do you think we could maybe ask for a map to the citadel?"
He paused again, he seems torn "Well, going to the moon seems to be our next obvious choice, but I would like to go to the meeting first. I is my duty and I would like if you my friends could accompany me?"

    The mediator nodded towards Jubei.  "Don't worry yourself about my name now Willa, if your companions would allow us to take leave while they discuss I think that should give us enough time for you to immerse yourself in the Gathering as you had desired."

  She then looked over towards Drex "You are welcome to join us but we do understand that the camp outside our walls are simply a small expeditionary force sent by the returned narayan peoples.  You may observe if they choose to give their consent, I must consult with the Gathering myself about such a request.  So while you discuss amongst yourself I would like to accompany Willa to the Gathering and join her in the rite of dissolution.  It should take no more then a few minutes."

Drex knods politely. "Thank you. We would like to discuss our next steps. It will only take two minutes."

Jubei gave a nod, before he looked over to Drex. "We may ought see to the expedition. From the sound of things, there is nothing for us to do at this Gathering other than witness an exceedingly large amount of goo and be pretty."

Ceba perked up at Drex's statement. Having listened keenly to the conversation around him, he felt dizzied by the inaction. It would be good to be moving, or at least active, and his fur-crystals scratched at the chair regardless.

"I agree with you,
We are all but pointless here.
To the gathering?"

Ideally, he hoped he would soon get a chance to report back to his operations manager, and felt the idea of visiting the moon to be terribly exciting. The next great adventure, and a place he had never explored before. Now, to find a way out of his job...

Phelan had remained quiet but had looked deeply offended at the implication that he would not recognise the difference. He then sighed. "Cebaka'ala, I think it would be a good time for you to request permission from Expedition Leader Soinr on behalf of Jubei, Drex, and Volon for their attendance while we wait for the opinion from the Umbrean Contingent. I imagine you yourself would be attending under the command of the Expedition. Willa can probably attend as part of the Umbrean contingent."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:20, Fri 15 Feb 2019.

    The mediator rose from her seat and motioned for Willa to follower her.  As Willa fidgeted, Drex, Jubei, Phelan and Willa spoke at once but it wasn't exactly their own voices.  "Hold for a moment, you shall not go alone." the towering frame of Volon walked over to Jubei and put down the statue he held.  "Keep Him safe." the four adventurers spoke again in unison in that not-quiet-their-own voice.  Then Volon strode over to stand before Willa and said with your voices "Hold out your hand."

Phelan stumbled slightly after his voice was borrowed and looked a bit reproachfully at Volon. "I don't recall accepting a contract..." He grumbled.

Willa still hadn't really accepted Volon - it had appeared as Amare petrified and that seemed a little too convenient.  Still she tentatively held out an open hand, whilst looking to her friends for assurance.

    The black armour glowed.  The mediator had stopped dead in her tracks, her brow furrowed and her gaze intent on Volon.

  As though a sudden pyre had been lit Volon was ablaze in light which quickly vanished as Willa felt something press into her palm.

  Looking over at it, and the brilliant light gone now, she held a red ball.  No larger then a man's fist.  It scintillated with an inner light and its interior seemed to be a slowly churning liquid with faint embers rising and falling from the equal dim blaze at is core.  It felt soft and warm to your touch with a tingle spreading out into your hand from where the ball touched it.

  "We will go with you into the Gathering." Willa, Jubei, Drex and Phelan said aloud as one.

  The mediator looked bewildered.  "What?" then shook her head then breathed deeply, closing her eyes for a moment "How exactly do you intend to do that?"

  There was a moment of silence as four people dread being someone else's voice then they spoke together again "The methods are not your concern nor are they harmful to you.  Query your Keepers if you doubt this claim."

  She narrowed her eyes a little at the red ball.  Then looked at the rest of you.  "I asked you before about your peculiar companion, now I politely repeat that question.  What is he?"  While awaiting your answer she asks one of her bodyguards to examine the ball and judge if it is to join with the Gathering.

  The spindly black humanoid she had looked at walked over towards Willa and knelt down beside her.  Carefully swept some mechanism attached to the upper half of its staff over the red ball.  Took up the staff to its side and stood.  Turned to the mediator and said in a growling, groan of a voice "This flesh is familiar and unknown to us.  It both like us yet also entirely different.  If it so choose it could sing with the harmony though it certainly possesses capacities beyond us."

  "Familiar in what way?" she asked.  "It fought along side the Whole at the end of the War as both Kendall and his construct." the Keeper answered.

  The mediator burst out laughing.

Ceba's fur stood on end after each of Volon's forced vocal expulsions. Nevertheless, he agreed that he should contact Soinr, and would do so as soon as he felt free to speak without his voice being stolen.

Willa had no idea what was going on.  She gently squeezed the ball, to see if it was squishy.  Then held it close to her face, trying to peer inside, before poking it with a finger.

    The ball gave a little under Willa's fingers but went quite solid just under that.  As you held it to your face you could ense something like arcane power within it.  It was very faint as though seen through screen.  The slow whorls of reds was entrancing to you.  With you attention fully on the ball you almost didn't notice the music in your ears.  No, not your ears, your blood.  It was a rhythm not too different from a heartbeat but formed of more tones.  In your minds-eye you saw a luminous arm stretch out from the ball towards you and stop, holding out its hand towards you, palm up.  Offering you to take it.

  Willa was snapped out of this revere by the mediator.  Who placed a hand on your wrist.  "Come." she said, smiling.

As Willa filed off with her strange companion, Ceba pattered off to see if he could contact Soinr from his current location.

Calling Soinr, using communications device, and hoping it works.

"Representative." Phelan called after the mediator as she turned to leave. "You asked about Volon before. If you're still interested in knowing after the meeting, I'll try to explain what I can." He assured her.

Catching Ceba moving off to make a call, he slumped slightly. "... Looks like it's time for me as well. Jubei, Drex, if you'll excuse me for a moment, there is something I need to take care of." With that, he moved off in the opposite direction Ceba did, arcane energy flickering around his clawtips, a brief expression of concentraiton could be seen as he turned away.

    Phelan sets to work on an empty bit of floor of the room and begins to work with the communicator, first testing the device and hearing a screech from it as he twists some knobs and flips a few switches.  Then realizes he'll have to take the device a part and modify it to get what he wants from it.  Fortunately he has some spare supplies from all the machines he salvaged in the weyr.  It's not long into the exercise where he notices a shadow over him.

  Looking up from his work, he find himself looking at one of the centaur like machines they had encountered earlier.  An amalgamation of an insects body but the upper body of a humanoid.  Its face was a dark mask broken by a dim light that shown from behind the glass.  It then spoke with a flat and level voice from beneath the mask.  "Do you require assistance?"

  Drex and Jubei had noticed this machine come to life inside the wall, after Willa, Volon and the mediator had left.  It walked through the crystal as if it wasn't even there and emerged into the room.  Looked around and after a moment proceeded up to Phelan, given that it was unarmed and had not yet made any threatening moves you had let it be.  Afterall you had your own concerns at the moment.

  Cebakaala, the communications device clicks to live and you send your request to speak with Soinr as before your message is received by a waiting narayan at the receiving end who asks you to tell them your message so they may relay it to Soinr.

  Willa, leaving the room with the other umbrean and the Keepers was a bit of a nervous experience.  You had expected it to be a bit of a walk before you reached the spawning pool, or the Gathering as she called it, but instead you crossed the hall directly and she opened the far wall.  Revealing a room roughly a hundred feet across.  Dominated in the centre by a black pool over fifty feet in diameter.  The pool circular and surrounded by shallow depressions connected by small channels to the centre.  Overhead the room was lit by the bright green light of a familiar looking crystal.  Though this was an oval held over the pool by beautiful chains, almost like it was a chandelier.  Rather then the diamond-shaped one you had seen in Kysea.

  Recalling that stone you also dredge up the memory of its destruction.  That Gatherer, as these umbreans called it, had somehow given its life to save yours when you had battled with the Hecatomb.  Causing the chamber and the tunnels it had kept for countless decades to burn and collapse.  All that was left of that place now was a still cooling pool of ashes, glass and slag.

  Willa noticed that there weren't just these two Keepers in the room.  There were over a dozen more of them here.  Each stood perfectly equidistant from each other.  Though no two looked they same the general design seemed consistent.  A skeleton of metal fused with dark, umbrean like material.  Each carried the same kind of staff but no two of these were exactly the same either.  Some were bent and crooked, others tapered off into blades or spear points and yet others ended strange contraptions.

  Unlike the walls of most of these crystalline spaces this one was completely opaque.  A milky, blue jade.  The other adornments of this chamber were darkin script.  The walls were covered in it.  But it wasn't the usual quick scratching Willa was familiar with.  This was done with an artistry she had only seen in books.  Each letter was clearer than any she had even seen and more stylish then she could have ever imagined her language could have looked.  It wasn't arranged in any style of writing she was familiar with.  There were no obvious paragraphs or sentences but an endless stream of words and symbols bound together by a symmetry which had you spinning around trying to follow it.  A Keeper caught you just as you were about to fall into the spawning pool.  "Careful little one, you must complete the rite first." the dry voice was kind but also admonishing.  As though a parent who was patiently tending to a child.

  "Stand in the circle and hold out your friend to the Stone that its light may see you both." as he spoke a nearby indentation began to shine as a circle of the familiar green light glowed around it.  "Once it recognizes you both we may begin your dissolution."

  The mediator stood beside Willa "If you have any questions or doubts feel free to ask them now Willa.  If you are afraid then I will do my best to lay your concerns to rest.  I can imagine this is all rather intimidating for a Singleton." she gestured around the room and at what looked right at moment to you like a black sea.  A sea of other umbreans.

   "But if you would rather let all your questions be answered by the Gathering then step into the circle now." she pointed to the circle beside you.

A few growled words could be heard from Phelan's side of the room as he worked. Based on the tone, they were probably curses. Then he noticed the shadow and looked up, slightly surprised. Apparently he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings.

"I would like it made clear that I didn't make this one. It was given to me." He begins in response to the question. "Wish I had, though. It's having issues with signal and with arcanima channeling. Not sure what I expected." He subsides into more uncharitable muttering, likely against the creators of the device.

"Main thing I need is a workbench. Working on a floor is a bit difficult."

Willa turned to the other umbrean, suddenly scared.  "De-solution?  Is like to puddlify?"

Jubei meanwhile seemed deep in thought, only interrupted by the appearance of that machine, but once it was clear that it wasn't hostile, his attention drifted elsewhere and he stared at the door through which the umbreans and Volon had left.
He inhaled deeply, before he gave a snorting exhale. "Can't say that this trip turned out even remotely as expected.", he spoke. "The real challenge yet awaits in the Citadel." He was silent for a moment then. "I admit I fail to see the madness in crafting new bodies to live in. As was said, the Ehuron do something similar.", he mused and shrugged. "Though I do not know the full picture. Perhaps the crafting process involves some necromantic means and requires the flesh of the living? That would indeed be an act of madness. We will have to learn more before we can decide the fate of a people."
Yeah, he pretty much seemed to be talking to himself. He thoughtfully rubbed his chin as he stared on with furrowed brows.

Ceba busies himself giving a report back to the Narayah operator, intended for Soinr. In his own language, he barks out a quick summary of the most pertinent details of their trek through the Weyr, as it would be faster than his learned-language of the more common tongue (which, listening to his companions speak, he had begun to think had been taught to him somewhat differently). He slowed down towards the end, voice softening as his report concluded.


Ceba gives his report to the operator, and awaits a new suggested course of action from his superiors. If he doesn't get new orders he'll just use Phelan's best judgment.

Catching the edge of Jubei's words, Ceba felt the need to agree.

"The body is but
A vessel for the spirit,
It can be altered."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:27, Tue 19 Feb 2019.

"Don't forget to ask about the permissions I mentioned." Phelan called across the room as he worked, evidently still paying attention to the others.

    Cebakaala was reminded by the operator to refer back to his superiors in the expedition.  Not some rogue Gearcaster as well as being instructed that he'll be contacted once his report had been received by his superiors.

  The mediator was thoughtful for a moment.  "You say that as if it means death, am I correct?" she gestured to herself.  As though a light dawns on her she begins to speak in darkin.  "Have you ever released your shape?  Turned away from the Mirror and looked into Nothing?"

  A circle lit up around the left, front-most leg of the automaton and a line stretched out from it and drew a large rectangle around Phelan's work area and a circle about Phelan's size beneath him.  This was almost familiar to Phelan and Cebakaala though the fashion of it was very different the core ideas was the same.  A crystal table rose from the floor and to serve as Phelan's workbench and a stool lifted Phelan into the air.  A seat for him to sit on and a space to work.  This was not too different from a narayan any-room or many-room.  The difference however was that in the former magic was used to conjure temporary cthonic constructs from the Underworld and in the latter purpose built machines and compartments were built into the walls, floors or ceilings of a room.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:03, Tue 19 Feb 2019.

Deciding to keep that condescending remark about the younger Narayah to himself, Ceba closed off the communications device and set to watching Phelan work for the time being.

Phelan gave the automaton a look of gratitude. "Much better. This will help a lot for focus." and with that he set back to work, efficiency improved now he had a proper workbench rather than bending over the floor. Physical tools were used to repair and rearrange components as arcane energy supplemented his work, wreathing around various parts.

Willa remembered the cave and shuddered.  "Will...Willa d...done."

    The mediator smiled at Willa but frowned when she noticed your expression.  "I see you didn't particularly enjoy the experience." switching back to common.  "To dissolve into the Gathering is to join your mind, body, soul and spirit with the whole.  It can be thought of as death.  Some poets even do so, but there is in it the promise of rebirth.  Should you so choose you may at any time leave the Gathering and you will be reformed.  Not exactly who you were when you joined but still yourself in all the ways that matter.  With that rebirth you will find your life extended as though you had only just been born.  This is how we have continued to exist for all these millennia." she swept her left hand towards the pool in a wide gesture.

  "Be brave Willa." you heard Amare's voice from the ball in your hand.

  Phelan knew he was taking a long shot, but a long shot was all he had.  The jury-rigged power-source and transceiver would work but not for very long.  The power-supply would burn out in maybe a minute or two and there is every chance the transmitter would short-circuit but he knew it was your best chance to reach the tower back at the Fissure.  There would almost certainly be teams of narayah listening for and capturing any messages that came in.

  You could only hope they would treat you message with the seriousness it deserved and react swiftly.

Willa thought for a moment then took a step forward, but before she stepped into the pool turned back.  "Umm...Willa not was all Willa all time.  Willa possessed by Goddess once.  Also mind fight Demon.  Maybe Demon was been inside Willa?  Also Also, Willa maybe was dead, but Amare saved?  Is problem?  No want bring badness."

Just before the other umbrean had a chance to answer, Willa jumped.  "Oh!  Willa also having, um..knowing stars?  Is gift from Oracle friends!  Willa can keep?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:49, Tue 19 Feb 2019.

Phelan eyed the device balefully. "Well... Let's see what we can make of this..." He muttered to himself before powering the device on and beginning a brief speech in his native tongue.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:20, Wed 20 Feb 2019.

With a grunt Jubei rose up and had a look around. He sought for one of those crystal walls, which apparently were everywhere, walked up to it and pressed his hand to it, before he began to speak in draconic.

Ceba absentmindedly taps a claw on the floor. He listened close to those around him and took note of anything and everything.

    The ring on the wall, around Jubei's hand flickered like a torchlight, returned with an olive green colour before responding with a ring of draconic text. 

  No one noticed the metal disc of the Teleportation Engine on the floor beneath Phelan's workbench.  Or the dim, red light that shone from its rim.  Symbols which twisted from one into another in a rapid, and complex sequence.  The red light bleed into the blue of the crystalline floor, unnoticed...

  There was no response from Phelan's communicator and he carefully adjusted and fretted with the power-supply to keep it working for as long as possible.  He wasn't sure how long it was going to last after-all and even now a few moments after his broadcast it still maintained its power.  Remarkably.

  Willa landed with a plop she floated on the surface slowly sinking in.  The mediator was amused by this "Of course your things are yours!  Though you really should have stood in the circle.  Now you'll have to do this the old fashioned way." she shook her head as two Keepers, nearest Willa walked forward with their staves held out towards her.  The bottom tips, large metal balls drew close and once they were next to Willa a bolt of lightning past from them to Willa.  It didn't sting she only felt warmth spreading out from where the bolts hit and suddenly she felt very relaxed.  She was melting away into...yes she could feel it then, another warmth beneath her.  Melting away into more...more, no, others?

  Your awareness contracted away from the world and stretched inwards upon itself.  It was like falling asleep while daydreaming.  The inner world expanded and you became aware of others like yourself all around you.  Like a cluster of lamps in some great hall.  You imaged this must be what parties or festivals felt like for the others.  You thought you heard someone say "You must be Willa. another voice asked "Who is that with you?" you turned to look in the direction the thought sent you and you were confronted by RED.

  "It's alright." Amare said. He held- spoke from- behind (?)- inside (?!)- the RED.  Then he held the RED in one of his hands.

  He had six hands, six arms.  You remembered something like this from the last time you were close to something like this state.  But there was no pain this time.  No sensation of movement.  Just things happening.

  Six swirls of light, like the heart of the sun smiled as only eyes can and Amare said  "Mingle Willa, these are your people.  A little strange to your ken, but don't be afraid of them.  They mean you no harm.  Know that to them you are a familiar stranger.  Later, once we've both spent some time with our friends here I'd like your help with something.  If you need me just look for me and you'll find me and 'Volon.'" the skin of the red cracked at that name and behind it you saw a vicious, yellow eye with too many pupils.  The RED reformed, hiding that terrible eye, and was gone with Amare.

  The dream of a festival, at night, lit by bonfires, braziers, lamps and lanterns surrounded you.  Shadowy shapes, like a blurred, smear of herself were enjoying themselves here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 22 Feb 2019.

Jubei uttered something that had to be cussing. At least judging by the tone of his voice it couldn't have been nice. A sigh followed, the hint of a shrug. Then he continued to talk at the wall again.

"Lets see if that's of any use.", he muttered afterwards.

    Illumination swept across the wall beside Jubei's hand.  Ghostly pages and their writing hung there upon the surface of the wall.  All in draconic, some of it contained diagrams and images.  On the right-hand side of the circle he held his hand and showed diagrams pentacles, each a variation on a theme.
  One in particular stood out from those.  It was a map of the Crystal isles with a pentacle overlaid upon it.  The points mostly overlapping with the large islands at the perimeter but some points rested on the sea.  The text upon its edges was a rich tapestry written in the living script of Supernal.
  To the left of of Jubei's hand the diagrams were of a great pyramid and its many, many levels.  As well as simpler towers and what looked like a map of the area around the pyramid.

"Smothering sands what in the...", Jubei muttered as the wall lighted up with all that writing. There was so much of it, his gaze darted all over it, unsure where to even start with it all.
But the map... it drew his attention alright. "I need this translated.", he spoke and tapped with his free hand on the map of the isles, or more accurately the writing next to it. Before he reached for his pack to grab his journal and copy the map as accurately as he could with one hand. Then he spoke in draconic once more. His voice had grown audibly excited now.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Sun 24 Feb 2019.

    The texts moved out further from the ring as a line of text appeared around the ring where his hand had left the wall.

Willa felt uncomfortable.  She'd spent her entire life trying to not touch people and yet here she was become closer to more creatures than any more solid mortal could comprehend.  She instinctively shrunk back, literally trying to keep herself to herself.  A small gold-orange ball amidst the pool.

Still, she was intrigued, and whilst she focused on not letting go.  Scared of what might happen if she did.  She still had one burning thing to say:

"Uh, Willa is.  Be friends?"

"Of course it can't.", Jubei muttered with a surprisingly amused growl. "Would I be able to... borrow the physical copy so I can have it translated by someone who can?", he asked then, no longer bothering to switch back to draconic, before his eyes narrowed a little and he looked to Drex and Phelan. "Do you think Volon can translate Supernal?"

"That is an excellent question." Phelan responds from the tinkering bench. "I'm not sure..." He retrieves Amare's journal from earlier to go through it, looking for mentions of Volon and maybe some sign of what languages he would understand.

  A cerulean globe rolled beside Willa "That'll depend on things." he said. "Do you want to play with me?" he asked tentatively?

  The wall replied to Jubei in the common tongue.  "Physical copies can be requested from the Gathering.  Do you wish to be provided with a slate containing the previously requested information?"

  Amare's Journal turned its own pages, directing Phelan to a peculiar passage.  Phelan noted the book was not as empty as his senses at first told him, in the corner of his eyes he would noticed far more text then his awareness realized.  Clearly Amare had invested some psychic powers as a precaution against just anyone accessing the contents of his journal.
  The passage reads:
  I have made some progress in penetrating the labyrinthine awareness first glimpsed at during the Awakening Ceremony.  Volon had integrated himself with Kendal by that time and as discussed he and Midagara left for the other worlds that lie between here and eternity.  I can only hope that find their ways in that place.  I had offered an opportunity cross beyond infinity but they rejected my offer.  They felt they should earn their way to transcendence rather then having it offered to them.  I wish I could have helped then understand that where I come from is not an ending, but only another chapter in this ever unfolding story.
  Once the Way had shut I began to explore that consciousness which hid itself so deeply within this vessel.  It responded to my probing by pretending to be some fragmented shadow of Volon.  So thoroughly does it play at this facade I truly think it has deluded itself.  At the time I decided it best to play along with this charade and to do my best to fill in the gaps in the demented personality it presented.
  While exploring the Dreaming I ran across some answers to the mystery of this hidden mind and what I found there has left me deeply disturbed.  It had all the qualities of a nightmare that experience but its information rang true and I was able to confirm the details the following day during one of my meditations.
  The nightmare had not sufficiently prepared me for what I discovered.
  A drawing of an eye with far, far too many pupils stared at Phelan between the first and second sections of the text.
  The passage continued:
  Behind the facade of 'Volon' is a labyrinth of weaponized consciousness.  Had I not had the warning of the nightmare I may have been ejected from this vessel with no ability to re-enter it.  The Entity is a weapon of somekind.  I hypothesis that it may be a collective manifestation born as a response to the thing Kendal and Volon fought so long ago and the events of which they could not recall with any clarity.  Why else would it protect itself with Supernal Numerals?  What I know for certain is it is patient, cautious, brilliant and very, very good and mimicry.

You hear soft snoring. It seems that Drex fell asleep waiting for Willa to finish. The fatigue seems to have caught up with him.

Jubei's head tilted for a brief moment, eyes narrowed, then he gave a shrug and a nod as he nodded to the wall. "Yes please.", he simply answered.

"I...uh, okay!" Willa chimes with delight.  "What game is?  How play?  Others play also?"

    A rectangle is drawn on the wall beside Jubei then extruded a shelf, upon which a loose, crystalline table lay.  The tablet was about 10 inches long, almost 5 inches wide and a little more then 1 inch thick.  Picking up the blank slate light immediately shone upon its surface and like a book the text showed there as it had upon the wall moments before.  The entire wall ceased its luminescent display then.

  The blue ball chuckled "Of course we'll show you how to play!  You'll remember how to play before long I think.  None of us really forgets how you know."
  The umbreans shared with Willa all they knew, and all the lives they had lived.  These aeons of collected memory joined with her own and she joined her memories to theirs.
  All umbreans, regardless of where they had been born were personas taken on by their flesh so that that flesh could find its way in the world.  This had not always been the case.  Though the flesh remembered little of its ancient past there were fragments revealed in the depths of dreams which spoke of something akin to the state of the Gathering.  Of unbroken union and infinite isolation.  This tension between the group and the individual was both similar and distinct to the life you knew.
  Visions of a sunless, star-filled sky cut by a pair of green arches - one above the other - which stretched beyond the horizon.  Beneath that sky a black sea pierced by faintly shining green, crystalline spires.
  Joining with other umbreans allowed the slowly fragmenting persona to be re-established within the flesh.  So a single, normally short-lived umbrean could survive indefinitely as long as they joined with at least one other umbrean.  But singletons were not aware of this secret and most pluratons didn't know about it either.  Without the lunar umbreans influence in the world the predations suffered by umbreans rapidly destroyed the knowledge base which allowed them to exist as an independent culture in the world.  So centralized and secretive had their people become.  A flaw the Gathering began to realize from your experiences.
  After what felt like an eternity you felt yourself become aware of the world outside yourself and opened your eyes blearily, as though you had a long night's rest.  You lay in one of the shallow bowls that formed the perimeter of the Gathering's pool.  All your possessions were on you or around you.
  The mediator had knelt beside you.  "We should get you back to your friends." she said.  The RED ball lay in your hand.

Willa, felt groggy and disorientated.  As though she'd just finished reading and enthralling book and been thrown back into the real world.  As the words of the mediator became clear, she held the red orb protectively, close to her, more aware now of how important it might actually be and nodded.

Before leaving she turned to the pool and shouted gleefully back, "Goodbye everyone!  Happy to met!"

Jubei took the tablet the wall offered to him and looked over it a bit with some incredulity once he realized that all that knowledge was now on a little slab that handily fit into a pocket. To say that he immediately started to 'play' with it was an understatement.
His claws tipped over the rock as he familiarized himself with how to access all that stuff and soon after he was reading rather intently. If a little slowly.

    The mediator looked at the pool then back at Willa, a crack of a smile on her face.  "Now, you said earlier you would like to give me a name.  I am curious to hear what you have considered."
  As she spoke another umbrean was rising from the pool.  Forming itself in one of the bowls beside the pool and taking shape after a moment.  A green tinge lightening up the black interior.  He nodded at the two of you as he interacted with the light of a contact point on the floor.

  The crystalline slate's projections could be manipulated by gestures Jubei made upon the surface.  The magical device explained its functionality to the big dragon through a series of diagrams and texts.

Willa looked surprised for a moment, then turned back to the pool.  "Friend could have joined Willa!  Would already know by now!"  She giggled. "Aviana.  Is good name, no?  Is memory for girl.  Willa could no save." Solemnly, the oozeling added: "She deserved better."

    The oozeling on all fours nodded as Willa spoke before he looked at the newly christened Aviana.  "I've been sent to update you on the situation and to join you at the meeting with the narayan expedition.  I've ordered some clothing from the stores and it should be here shortly.  I'll join with you shortly Aviana to pass on what we had learned from Willa.  The situation outside is far, far worse then we could have feared.  War has either erupted across the world and more is brewing.  These narayah at our door may be interested in bringing their conflict here.  We must present a strong presence rather displaying our true weakness."  He looked up at Willa.
  "We've been asleep for far too long.  Our projects have failed and now we must gamble on the creativity and bravery of others."  he looked back at Aviana  "I don't think I have to tell you how concerned the Gathering is about this situation."
  He walked up to Aviana as she held out her hands to his and they grasped each others hands, their solidity around their limbs there blurred and melted into one another.  Almost a minute passed before they separated and the two umbreans seemed to be waking up from a day dream.
  Part of the floor beside him rose up in a stool with clothing folded atop it.  He began to dress as he spoke to Willa "My name is Eldos."
  "I represent the interests of my people here and those elsewhere who are still being woken in outposts much like this one.  I want you to understand that we are short on time.  I can't be sure how much you remember from the Gathering, singletons experiencing the mass for the first few times have difficulty retaining their experiences from it.  But you should know we have little time before the warding which keeps the...Lunar Citadel suspended in time began to fall once we really awoke.  It may be a day or two before it collapses completely and those up there will begin to piece together our treachery.  The Citadel has the means to over run us within days if they want to.  We can not allow that to happen.  The Restorationists must be stopped or the tyranny of the graveminded will fall upon us all." he finished buttoning his shirt. As he strode ahead to the wall to make an exit to the chamber.

    Abruptly the wall opened to reveal a doorway into th hallway beyond and into the room where you all had waited strode three umbreans.  Willa had only been gone a few minutes.  The new umbreans nodes his head at each of you in greeting and introduced himself as Eldos and said "You've already met Aviana.  So named by Willa." he gestured at the two he'd named.

  "I've been appointed as a representative of this weyr. If you have some business to attend to or discuss with me please do so now as I will be proceeding immediately to attend the meeting with the expedition outside our walls."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 20:52, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

Phelan muttered something under his breath in his native tongue before briefly fiddling with the device and reciting some more words in Narayan, his voice quieter.

After the recital, he seemingly turned off the device and began packing away the rest of his tools. "I believe a number of our group wished to observe the proceedings." He informed the new Umbrean. "Ceba. Did you obtain permission from the expedition for their attendance?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:49, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

Willa bobbed happily about beside the other umbreans.

She leaned forward and peered into the room with her friends.  With one arm thrown behind and slightly away from her body, whilst the other protectively held the red orb close to her chest, she swayed about straining to see what everyone was doing.

"Hiiii!"  She cheerfully called in.  "Friends good?  Willa learn sooo much!"

She pointed to the new umbrean that had spoken.  "Eldos is!"

    Eldos walked up to Phelan, he was about as tall as you and he spoke fluently in narayan. 
  He  moved around and addressed the whole party as he made his way back across the room in a slow arch "Oh and do pass on a message to that adventuring guild of yours.  We'd like to talk to the queen who would lay claim to our lands.  Once our discussions here are settled we will return you with an envoy to Galdion."
  "I would also like to discuss the matter of the Lunar Citadel and your mission there.  The colossus informed us that it has a means to deal with the Restorationists but would need an escort.  We will of course keep the secret of your extraordinary companion as we are well aware of what he's activities represent for the future." he finally said.  "Come, we can talk while we walk.  Avianna leave the Keepers, we will go unescorted as a sign of our trust."
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:03, Sat 23 Mar 2019.

Ceba responded to Phelan in the affirmative. They could attend.

Willa frowned at Eldos, stood up straight and folded her arms sternly.  "Eldos!  Must to say please!  Is good manners, when asking.  Mr Phelan Sir is hero.  Also, Iron Jubei.  Also, Drex.  May be Zebrakoala also.  Willa not know well until not long."

The little oozeling had spent much of her formative years in an Academy and during that time been witness to many teachers admonishing their students for misbehaviour or negligence.  Judging by her current countenance, it seemed she was trying to mimic this as she lectured Eldos about appropriate etiquette in the outside world and was not actually offended by his presumptuous (and somewhat belittling) words.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:47, Sat 23 Mar 2019.

Jubei greeted this Eldos with a nod, before he raised a brow. "Volon has a means to deal with them? Well, that may save us some headache then. Very good. Let us go meet with the expedition.", he spoke as he let the little tablet-thing disappear into one of his pockets. So conveniently sized, almost as if it was meant for that.

    The cerulean umbrean was caught off-guard by Willa's words then burst out laughing.  He spend a moment or two chuckling hard enough to lean forward, his arms against his legs.
  He looked up at Willa "You are absolutely correct Willa, thank you for catching my bad manners.  I'll try to reign in my haste.  That will make a terrible impression on our future relations if I forget my tact!" he rose back up, standing straight.  Then he looked over at the other adventurers.
  "Forgive my curtness.  Willa's association with you colours my own perceptions of you.  Please, would you kindly contact your superiors and request some formal communication between ourselves and the Kingdom that has developed in these lands in the centuries we have slept.  We want to share these territories in a mutually beneficial relationship.  I did not mean to imply hostilities."
  He seemed to have collected himself during that conversation.  "Now, please follow me.  I'll take us out towards the courtyard."  he returned to the wall and opened a doorway.  Leading the way into the circular hall beyond.
  Eldos directed his next words to Jubei, craning to look up at the big kaetyma.  "The colossus was not forthcoming at the time about the precise means, but he did state he has some way to deal with the situation.  So I would think he'll tell us more when the time approaches.  The fragment of your friend, Amare, seemed far more hesitant on the matter."

  The red ball began to push itself out of Willa's hands.  Rising into the air under its own power and cloaking itself in light, thought not as blinding as before.  It was clear to see the red ball being swallowed in light then that light spread out quickly to form a torso, arms, legs and head.  Which formed the silhouette for Volon before vanishing and leaving the darkly armoured figure behind.  The luminous, red eyes shot open.

 Phelan had mumbled something in response to whatever Eldos had said to him as he finished packing up. Remaining silent, he followed the cerulean Umbrean.

    Eldos blinked at Volon's appearance.  "That is quiet the trick."  he said staring at the black creature in fascination.  He shook himself.  "Hmmm, later." he turned and resumed his journey. His grey cloak swished about him as he turned on his heel.

  Volon was his original size and looked at the Keepers in the room, the air rumbled with something like a low growl as he left the statue of Amare behind him and followed Eldos.

The Amare statue was never far from Willa's thoughts either, even as she happily bobbed along behind the others, pleased that Eldos had listened to her.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:01, Fri 29 Mar 2019.

    Drex took it upon himself to contact the guild and inform them of Eldos’s message while you made your way through the crystalline halls of the spire.  It was a long walk given the sheer size of it.  Though from what you walked you could guess the general interior layout as much like a cross centered upon the walled off chamber which held the Gathering.
  Avianna explained that the spire had not been the primary residence of the umbreans in the past and most umbreans didn’t want to remain in a Gathering for very long.  ”Being in each other’s company all the time can be utterly exhausting for some while for others it’s all they want in life.”  Typical umbreans would spread out into their own homes and would only join in a Gathering under the supervision of a Watcher or Keepers.  ”Keepers are really just a ceremonial role.  They are essentially bodyguards.”
  On the Watcher she explained ”We know so little about them and yet, like the Gathering they are what make our societies possible.  We’ve tried to understand them but so many of their capacities are simply beyond us.  We can’t reproduce them but the Watchers can make more of themselves.  They’re intelligent but don’t seem to have a will like you’d expect a spirit, daemon or person to have.  I’d liken them to a pet but with a brilliance at least on par with any genius I can think of and the memory of a monastery of scholars with a library to fill a mountain.  We found this one-“ Avianna gestured back to the down the all, you were nearly to the end of it by now ”-buried along with Remnants in a valley down on the newly excavated plains to east of here after the explosion which tore apart the Old Continent because they were singing a lamentation to the narayah.  You’ve probably have heard variations of the melody since then.  Witch’s Tears, Gloomy Tidings, All Things Fade, those are the ones that come to my mind.  It’s a beautifully sad mystery.”
  Leaving the spire through an entranceway in the crystal wall which Eldos opened the grey sunlight filtered down from the gloomy skies and the breeze was nipped at its edges by a sting of chill.  Though the air still smelled of grass, flint and warmth.
  There your party was joined by a band of the same sort of warmachines you had fought in the courtyard.  Though these appeared to be at rest.  Eldos, sensing your hesitation turned around and said ”Don’t be alarmed these machines do not consider you a threat, they have been instructed to treat you as our guests.  They are only soldiers.  I had called them to escort us to the gates because I can’t be certain of our security outside the spire.”

Meanwhile…
  You’d heard Galdion sometimes called the Pearl City or the City of Lights and while on the surface you could appreciate those titles you could also add your own less elegant ones to that list not even an hour after entering it.
  Despite the commotion of the docks the city itself somehow managed to be more busy, crowded and generally disgusting then could have imagined.  The smells alone brought tears to your eyes and after a while you were certain you’d probably loose your ability to smell and maybe even to hear anything that wasn’t being screamed at you.  Privacy and personal space appeared to be commodities not even wealthy or nobility could buy much if any of for any length of time.
  The common folk seemed unconcerned about your kind as beggars, thieves, hawkers, preachers and more would routinely accost you in either obvious or sublime ways.  Fortunately your dogged persistence in trying to find the Adventurer’s Guild netted you a trail of breadcrumbs which lead you towards a grey, plastered building.
  To describe the warehouse which had been converted into a temporary guild hall as simply a grey rectangular building with a high pitched roof is to neglect the eye knotting convulsion of the poorly-painted-and-plastered-over husk which if it had been a living thing would have suggested it had been terrifyingly malformed at birth before it had been grossly maimed, buried, dug up, despoiled and then set ablaze before being buried and dug up again only to be left in a back alley as something to compete for the crown in a hall of architectural horrors.
  Two, great doubled doors which may have once been something like wood in antediluvian aeons had petrified and made the only portals into the building.  Only the gate to the waterfront was open into the yawning darkness beyond and was watched over by a ragged and ordinary-looking man dressed in leather armour and wielding a small crossbow and some throwing knifes.  The pepper-haired man was stroking beard while he sat on a crate beside the left outward swung doors.  He stopped you with the intensity of his gaze as he inspected each of you with glare that said a dagger would find your heart if you did anything he might not approve of.  Then he nodded and he looked away.  Signaling, you thought, that you could go inside.
  The interior of the guild was at least not as terrible as the exterior but was none-the-less not what you had expected.  Wooden panels of various sorts had been assembled to form a hallway and rooms, most without a roof safe for the expansive darkness beneath the roof of the warehouse which seemed to soak up any noise like a thick blanket.  Just crossing the threshold into the building made the noise of the outside world almost vanish.
  The hall ended in a tavern of sorts with a roughly constructed stone hearth to one side which was the greatest light in the room beside the lamps scattered around by the rooms tables and the bar.  A few folks, fellow adventurers you’d think given their dress, could be found around the tables.  Asking around for membership to the guild got your directed to an emaciated doola tywuar.  The dragonlings were typically a brawny and sturdy people yet this one looked as though he shared more kinship with a scarecrow.  His name was Akkorrin, the Guild’s Taskmaster.  He spoke mostly between sips from a mug of steaming ale.  Performing an interview with you as he sat you down across from him.  All the while his nimbus of intoxication seemed to be having some of its effect on you as before you knew it the man was done talking to you and given you a guild badge and had introduced you to some of the other Masters of the guild.
  Akkorrin said he’d provide you with a group in a few days and then you’d probably be off shortly there after to parts unknown.

  Three days passed while you made yourself comfortable in a room the guild provided as yours for the duration of your membership.  On the third day Akkorrin introduced you to one of your new party members in the guild hall.  ”I have a group in mind for you two, but it’ll take some work to meet you up with them, they are presently out in the field.  I’ve sent for a wizard to transport you there, she’s working on the magic as I speak.  Once she’s ready I’ll let you know so she can send you to your new party.”  he dug out a letter from his jacket pocket.  The crinkled, yellowed letter had a glowing, magical seal on it, with the adventurer’s guild insignia.  ”Please give that to them once you meet them.” he left to sit down at his table in a corner.
  The morning was well into it’s sway and the tavern was busy with either members or visitors, apparently the tavern was one of the ways the guild was paying for its every day expenses, by providing a safe place to spend the night in and near the Old Waterfront.
  This morning a whole band of musadi had taken to the tavern, the great serpents were engaged in a drinking contest and at least two kegs of the Guild’s booze had disappeared down their gullets.  Akkorrin was watching from his table with some concerns of his supplies.  Though the band of travelers had tried to engage him in the contest he had politely declined.
[Jumu, Storm this is a short opportunity for you two to introduce your characters to each other and the audience.]

'What is this place?' Gyr thought of Galdion and then corrected himself, 'Why is this place?  Have thousands upon millions of lives congregated seeking some betterment of themselves or are they simply drawn by some gravitational civilization, unable to resist it any less than their own instinctual drive?'  The Traveller Uhl had been in cities before -- due to his training in how the entire world works as a holistic macrocosm -- and his experience with sprawling woodlands and ancient forests was not so different (in the essence of life's incessant buzz) but... this "City of Lights" or "Pearl City" had the tastes and sound of constant birth, death, and rebirth of the latter and the artifice of the former.  It was... dizzying, to say the least.  Luckily, there were other Uhls (which was good), some not Travellers (still pretty good), as well as other druids (perhaps not in the same depth of the city that he was headed towards, but good all the same).

The white noise of the city never really bothered Gyr, he was used to hearing the noise of the insects, the birds, the trees, the rocks, the water... even the smells didn't bother him or the constant bumping.  What bothered him was that the vines of his staff had already caught three pickpockets on his way to Adventurers' Guild.  He dragged them back, gave them a stern lecturing and then a pittance to send them on their way; if they were to be proper pickpockets, they would need to try a lot better than that.  Within the guildhall set upon by time and other such elements of the world, Gyr met with the taskmaster and received his orders... these he wrote down for later recollection.

At last, after three days of mediation, exploration, individual study, and drinking, the Guild sought fit to hand Gyr his assignment (and a chance to study the larger world in the process!), so he accepted the yellowing parchment and nodded his agreement.  He addressed his traveling companion warmly. "Greetings and salutations, ya' daft c*nt!" the Uhl projected towards his fellow novice adventurer, not yet understanding the intricacies of colloquial speech, his throat growling in quite a friendly manner in the process (as was typical for an Uhl).

Having spent time in cities like Galdion before, Kthratharath would happily admit to himself that he was not entirely glad to be within one. The sights and smells were familiar to a simple soldier such as he, however this did not make them pleasing in the slightest. At the very least his small familiarity with navigating such cities, and his hulking size, had allowed him to remain out of trouble during this trip.

Three days had passed since he had met with his taskmaster and received his orders, and for three days he had remained cooped up within this building that at least had room for him to stand (or fully elongate, as the case may be) without having to stoop his head or shoulders. The comforts were few, the drink was cheap, and Krath was satisfied. At least, until he was met with an Uhl who greeted him like long-lost family.

He laughed, a roaring sound from deep within his chest as he flexed his deep red and burnt orange scales to extend a hand to the diminutive druid in greeting. With a warm, broad smile, he said, "Greetings to you! Shall I loan you a mirror glass, so you can see which of us is the c*nt?"

A little light banter was only to be expected if they were to work together, after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:07, Sun 31 Mar 2019.

Large beasties were no peculiarity to the druidic Gyr for he'd seen behemoths that would make this "Kthratha-..." "Kathar-..." "Krathathratcher..." "Kratharsnatch" look like a grub upon a mountainside, and certainly, he was no stranger to such beasties speaking with any manner of coherence.  What boggled the simple Uhl, as it so happened, was the return usage of "c*nt" but he resisted the urge to consult his notes on casual greetings to, instead, space out long enough for his antlered head to cant as he recalled that "c*nt" was meant for individuals he'd not yet had the pleasure to meet, therefore, were new and strange to him.  His eyes glazed as he pondered on how Kratharsnatch could imply such a thing that Gyr would be a new and strange individual unto himself but before he could dive down that rabbit hole of philosophical paradox, the Uhl snapped back with such an apologetic expression (and rumble).

"Y'egad, have I misspoken?" he thought aloud and held up his paws to placate, "My deepest regrets (plus one), Kratharsnatch, I did not mean to offend!"  He then scratched his chin and the braided mane beneath it to promptly recall what he meant to say, and with equal prompt, clapped his paw to the Musadi's to wrap around the thumb's base in an Adventure's handshake, and then clapped his thick forearm as he smiled, "'Tis a great pleasure to meet you, ya' cheeky wank!  Le's get ourselves up and rarin' to where we're needed, I'm stir-crazed stayin' here."

Coiling his serpentine lower body so as to lower himself, Krath reached out for a flagon of ale the size of a small barrel. He glanced around at his own meager possessions, for he owned little more than his prized weapon and the equipment he carried with him.

"I am packed and ready. We wait only for this guild wizard to send us on our way." He paused, thinking, then added, "Although I have no crap-coiling idea where to find this person, and these floors are chafing my scales in the least pleasant way."

Krath turns and nods his head toward Akorrin, suggesting to Gyr that they should approach the frazzled man for more information.

    The shimmering curtain which separated the courtyard from the weyr proper was gone now and the area which had been hard packed dirt only days before was now dug up.  Scattered piles of earth around the area showed fresh, dark soil had been brought in from elsewhere.  Mechanical insects scurrying about busy at their tasks in the area.  There was some dust in the air from the digging and a few coughs escaped your company as you passed through the area.
  The gate house was much cleaner as well and some furniture had been brought in from somewhere.  Padded, wooden chairs and tables which creaked when you just looked at them and a large rug and pillows were being added, the same ones Jubei had sat on not long ago.
  Other machines walked around the room sniffing the air, before spraying something into the air from a bulbous flask.  Then moving on to another area and sniffing again and maybe repeating spraying the air again and so on.  Making a circuit around the chamber.
  A few umbreans were scattered around the gatehouse, mostly around the two large banks of metal boxes and machines beside the great gateways through the gatehouse.  They were each a different colour though still fading to black around their edges and wearing garb reminiscent of an artisan hard at work.  One was employed bring a tray with mugs steaming with something hot and smelling of bitterness and sweets.  There was a buzz of darkin and snatches of draconic.
  Soon you came to the outer gate and with a nod from Eldos and a simple command the umbrean artisans at the cogitators pressed some buttons and a circular door within the much larger door cut itself from the larger door and drifted back and to the side, resting against the bulk of the gate.  Eldos gathered himself up and followed by Avianna steeped through.

Meanwhile...
  A scrawny, sickly looking boy dressed in tattered robes so patchworked it might as well have been a quilt walked up to Akkorrin's table.  Panting and stuttering he carried his message.  Just a short walk across the guild hall was enough to wind the child.
  He departed with a wave from the Task Master who rose groggily and made his drunken waltz over towards you and announced "Sirenna is ready for you now, you'll find her in the magic worshop.  Good hunting adventurers!" he smiled as he made his way back to his table.  Where the boy was only now getting up from a short rest break and realizing the two of you were his master's clients burst into a huffing jog.

Krath followed the young lad through, allowing himself a slithering job to keep up with the boy and simultaneously inspecting him. The boy was dishevelled, clearly out of breath and therefore quite unfit... However he was wearing a robe... So this was either truly a street urchin hired by a seemingly impoverished guild, or he was a mighty wizard in disguise. Everyone knew that robes meant wizards. To be safe, he'd be respectful.

"Lead on, young Master!" he called as he followed.

Gyr was quick (and discrete) with his notebook of societal communication, 'Tarnation, I misspoke again...' he realized, 'I thought "c*nt" was correct but perhaps it wasn't and "wanker" was used in entirely the wrong context... I'll just keep it simple, then; refrain from higher class verbage for the time being...'  The Uhl looked up from his book as he stuffed it back inside his pack and looked about... he'd been left behind yet again!  Luckily, Krathasnatch was an easy fellow to follow, so he was not too far asea.

"Do we know where we're going?" he wondered aloud, a subtle spring in his step as he shouldered his staff, allowing his feet to watch where they were going as he daydreamed of his next destination, "I've only visited two continents, and they fairly close together.  There's still so much of the world to see and learn about!"

This message was deleted by the player at 07:42, Tue 02 Apr 2019.

The kaetyma rolled his broad shoulders. He had remained quiet but eyed those machines suspiciously nonetheless, regardless of what Eldos claimed. He waited perhaps a second or so after Avianna and Eldos had gone to follow them as well.
Considering that they were, after a fashion, the 'hosts' of this event, that was probably the polite thing to do.

Phelan had been walking behind Aviana and Eldos, his expression slightly absent as he does so. At the reassurances he just nodded and continued following the pair outside

Willa gleefully observed all the activity, especially interested in the machines going about their tasks.  She did not, with a twang of disappointment, that the little pile of umbrean stones she made had gone missing. Also, something occurred to her:

"Oh!  Oh!"  She pointed to the high up holes that Iron Jubei had once failed to throw Ceba at.  "What for?"

OOC
If we're not where I think we are, let me know and I'll change my post.  Thanks :)
This message was last edited by the player at 12:04, Wed 03 Apr 2019.

    Eldos and Avianna paused and looked up where Willa pointed.  Avianna was first to reply "I believe those are air vents." to which Eldos nodded.  "You might not have noticed but its a little easier to breath in the weyr.  That's because there we collect and store a certain quantity of air in here to keep it more comfortable then the outside.  Though it means we have to carefully ventilate much of the area to prevent uh...well very nasty winds."
  Stepping through the doorway to the otherside Eldos and Avianna waited for you to exit after that the door was closed behind you.
  Outside the weyr you could see Soinr and a few other members of the expedition had gathered.  Most of the soldiers were present around the area but only stood dutifully at attention.  Otherwise there was the rest of the expedition desperate to try looking busy while infact trying to spy as much as possible about what was going at the gate.
  The ruins of the crane from a few days ago had been cleared and some work on a new one had begun but seemed to have been stopped recently.  Now the platform of the crane stood a dozen feet or so to your side.
  Eldos walked forward and extended his now stubby looking arms into the air and warmly introduced himself, speaking in a register you didn't think was possible for a body so small.  Though it probably explained why he was so plump if most of him was a good pair of lungs.
  Soinr stepped forward and said "Representative Eldos I greet you on behalf of the Circle of the Eldest of the Narayan League." giving a slight bow towards Eldos.  "I would like to formally apologize to your people for invading your territory we had no idea this weyr was still inhabited by anyone living."
  Eldos smiled at her "We accept your apology-?" he raised his brows quizzically at Soinr has she had not given her name or title.
[No you did remember correctly Craig.]

Meanwhile...
  The magical workshop looked like a proper mess to you are you entered it.  It lay far around the main section of the guild hall.  Which is to say the cluster of rooms at the front of the warehouse wasn't connected to it, so one had to run out the front of regular guild hall area and around to the far side past the barracks, quarters, armoury and training yard to the magicyard as some guild members called it.  It was built into one of the far corners of the warehouse.  Looking like a decrepit tower built with some levels being far larger then those beneath it.  The entire thing looked like it would collapse in on itself at any moment.  Yet unlike anywhere else in the guildhall there was not a single creak of wood around here.
  The characteristic tang of alchemy and the wretched scents of gods knew what wafted from open doors and windows on the structure and yards around it.  One such yard was were the boy you were following was headed towards.  The yard was a mess, though the stone floor looked to have been polished to a near shine in the light of the magic lanterns.  A very big circle had been drawn across most of the yard, it was only about thirty feet across after-all, and the wizard was still finishing up the handful of arcane ruins on the perimeter of the circle.  Chalk, dust, and what looked like soot and ash stained her faded, brown robes.  Colourful paints and grim smeared her leather apron and she looked up just after you arrived and she finished a sigil on the floor.
  The wizard had long hair which was tied back into a knot behind her head and held like that by a scrap of rope which looked as messy as the rest of her clothing.  "I will be with you in a moment. Ghen, please make sure our clients each have a waterskin, some trail rations and a towel each." she said as he stood up to look at her work.  Now you could see the tray beside her which held several potions and small pots and bowls of alchemical and magical components and tools.  As well as some more mundane artisan tools such as rulers, protractors, rope-and-string and an abacus.
  The wizard herself seemed rather young for the profession with mousey brown hair and pale, ashen eyes a lean face and a mouth that was just a little too big for her face.  You swore you could see every tooth in her mouth when she spoke.

Kthratharath resisted the implicit challenge in the full bearing if teeth in his direction and studied the young wizard. Wizardess? Maybe just wizard. Apparently his analysis of the Young Master had been incorrect, he was clearly simply her wizard's apprentice. Krath accepted the waterskin, rations, and towel (which was the vitally important one, after all) and stowed them into his pack. He was prepared.

Magic was complicated, though, and so he remained quiet and allowed her to work, all the while occasionally glancing at the set of her teeth which was, perhaps, the only truly clean thing about her.

Fascinating.

There didn't seem to be any established boundary between one training grounds and the next; the archery range seemed to bleed into the sparring sessions and at times the errant arrow would fly across the pathway to be lodged into a shield or polearm haft.  Insults, profanity, and challenges were thrown, as well, and Gyr could not help but pause and admire the conflict (quickly jotting notes).  His maned head whipped about when the clamor died down if only because it seemed to be directing at him and his gawking, so Gyr scampered along his way with swift feet to catch up to Kthratharath.

The druid's staff was secured in a sheath of sorts on his back, arms tucked to his chest beneath his shawl as he looked about at the arcane whatnots, practicing all the care he could to not step on, brush against, run into, directly look at too long, or sit on anything that looked particularly delicate or explosive.  What could or couldn't be explosive was really up for debate, of course, such things were not necessarily in Gyr's purview and their explosiveness could be just about anything, really.  'If it spins too quickly, would it detonate...?' the Uhl wondered, peering so closely at some astrolabe bauble or other until his pert whiskers nearly brushed its gyroscopic bands... he raised a telekinetic tendril to give it the barest, lightest brush just to make it spin the slightest bit faster to see if it could handle spinning an iota faster...

"Oh, hoy!" Gyr promptly greeted in his telepathic manner, pinning both paws behind his back to show that he wasn't fiddling with anything at all, "Well met, thank you," he then duly expressed, the pinned paws coming around to accept the traveling supplies.  He was thankful for the extra waterskin, rations, and an additional towel (in case his old, weathered one could no longer hold together of its own accord); it was of the utmost necessity that his towel's location was known at all times.  "Where are we headed?"

Before the Umbrean could respond, Willa threw her hands up in the air and jubilantly shouted:

"Soy-near!"

    A few chuckles broke out amongst the narayah, even as Drex drew a pained expression.  Avianna and Eldos held their composure like nothing had happened and continued.
  Soinr replied "I am Elder Soinr, Chief of this expedition." she had briefly taken a look at Willa when the umbrean had shouted her name.  "And I am glad to see you adventurers have returned unscathed".
  She focused her attention on Eldos "Representative Eldos, now that we have be formally introduced I would like to ask if we could arrange a proper meeting in a less-" she gestured to the area </b>"-exposed location?"
  Eldos nodded and said "Of course, is there somewhere in your camp which could host our meeting or would you prefer to do so in the courtyard behind us?  Our workers are currently fixing up the old gardens which had gone to dust in the past few centuries.  It will be only a few hours before we have something presentable setup for guests."
  The narayan elder frowned, her tail flicking slightly, "Our camp is hardly a place designed for diplomacy so if we could kindly request your gracious hosting it would be much appreciated."
  The umbrean representative nodded again at Soinr then said "Very well, we will arrange a dinner party!" he clapped his hands together before turning to his side and beckoning at the gateway.  The great crystalline gateway rumbled and sank away into the floor joined by its opposite at the far end, revealing the entire gatehouse interior and most of the courtyard, beyond and beyond that the glass-like spire at the heart of the weyr.  Seeing it again at this distance reminded you of a particularly pointed seashell.
  "We will leave an attaché here at the gate should you seek to speak to us in the interim."  Eldos added as he turned back to Soinr.  "The party shall be an hour after sunset, yes?"
  The Elder Soinr nodded and said "That is acceptable, I will meet you with a party of my own people for our envoy."
  Eldos turned back towards the party as most of the gathered narayah disassembled.  There were clearly some unhappy faces in that crowd.  Soinr summoned Cebakaala requesting a debriefing.  [Alright Storm, this is your time to sign off for Cebakaala.]
  "My friends. said Eldos "It seems we have some time before this evening arrives.  You may go around the weyr as you wish.  The Watcher knows you now and we've given it what permissions you are allowed.  If something falls outside that just see us out and we can discuss your request.  Otherwise I've been informed some of our traders are setting up some stores within the spire if you want to trade for some of our wares you're more then welcome to we will discuss the mission we like you to partake tonight after the dinner."

Meanwhile...
  After Ghen had made sure you each had something to drink and eat once you were teleported the wizard waved you into the circle minding you not to break the careful chalk diagrams.
  Once you were inside the wizard began casting the spell.  The ground within the circle shimmered and the wizards incantations grew distorted and strange as though spoken by some unearthly tongue.  The ground flashed an spun as grass, trees, dirt, rock, and earth flew beneath you as the landscape seen through the portal blurred from the speed of its motion.  Moments later is slowed and snow and mountains took over the view moving almost like a bird flew, gliding between the tall peaks until it came to a stop above a space with a peculiar sight.
  A great blue-within-blue crystalline wall crowded a level summit of one of these mountainous peaks.  Evenly spaced along the wall were tall, blocky towers with a peculiarly plain mask of a human-like face looking outward at the landscape.  Within the walls you could see a mostly green space with some smaller crystalline spires.  Mostly blue like the walls and one great glass-like spire which looked more like a frozen swirl of water then the five scattered towers near the perimeter wall.
  You view flew down towards a gateway into this strange place where people were gathered.  Though you couldn't make out much details yet.
  Distantly you heard a cry from beyond the spell.
  It called again.  It was the taksmaster Akorrin  "Wait!" he yelled but it was too late now to stop the ritual.  The wizard was deep in a magical trance and the spell held her attention firmly.  One moment you were looking around an suddenly there was the stomach lurching sensation of falling then something you could only describe like being pulled inside out and back again through your navel.

Back at the Weyr...
  As you all were contemplating what you were going to do in the next few hours a metallic tang filled the air and a crackle of distant thunder sounded.  Wind blew out from somwhere a few feet away from you as a pearl of light exploded into a brilliant ball over twenty feet across resting on the snow.  It audibly burst like a wet baloon.  Light flew outwards light scattered embers before fading moments later and there stood a musadi and an ulh you had never seen before.

[I'll open my Jocker Brand popcorn and watch the show.*crounch*munch*munch* I'll hand out XP next post.]

A few moments of stillness followed as confused people tried to figure out exactly what was going on.  The silence broke under a soft metal clank - the wind had dislodged Willa's visor and caused it to fall shut.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Thu 04 Apr 2019.

Ceba took a moment to say his fond farewells to the rest of the party, and took himself bleeding and frazzled to debrief Soinr.

OOC: Not sure what else to say, admittedly. Ceba says farewell and does the debrief and, well, I guess that's it.

Meanwhile?
Deciding to shuttle Akorrin's barely audible words, Krath focused instead on his new surroundings. It was certainly different, something he had never experienced before. He focused on the sights, yes, but mostly on the smells. They were certainly away from the city and his nostrils thanked him for that.
He focused his attention towards the group nearby and, with a glance at Gyr, slithered toward the large Kaetyma with his arms held out in a sign of peace.

"Sun upon your scales, Kaetyma! I am Kthratharath, and we are adventurers sent here to fill out a party of fellow adventurers. Might you point us in the direction of this nearby group of brave, noble souls?" Krath said with what he hoped was a welcoming tone, while simultaneously resisting the urge to extend himself taller than the Kaetyma to show dominance.

Jubei muttered something about 'dinnerparties being such a joy', while the exchange between the two parties was going on. Everything seemed to go fine and oh so diplomatical, which is to say he could have slept while standing there. Given how glassy his eyes went, that might actually have even happened.
That was until Cebakoala was taking his leave, which Jubei answered with a brief militaristic salute. His hand already went for his satchel again and he was about to pull out the slab while shuffling over to Volon when all of a sudden that 'bhampf' of displaced air followed.
The brass-to-gold scaled dragontaur looked a little bewildered when he saw how a fucking big snek and an Uhl had appeared out of nowhere. His hand shifted direction from the satchel to the grip of his sword where it rested for a brief moment. But as the Musadi introduced himself, he visibly relaxed and gave a nod.
"Favorable tides to you, Musadi.", he spoke in greeting. "That would be us. At least I am not aware of another group of adventurers operating around here. I am Iron Jubei, with me are Willa, Phelan Drixos and Drex."
He motioned to the Umbrean, Narayah and Deseekay respectively. Then he motioned to the strange man-shaped-object. "And that is Volon."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Thu 04 Apr 2019.

Phelan had winced at Willa's cheerful outburst, but relaxed as a number of the Narayah simply chuckled at it. At least the initial meeting had gone well, though he did note some reactions among people with a degree of concern. Still, a future meeting planned was good, dinner parties and all.

Then the flash of light that signalled a severely overly-flashy teleportation caused Phelan to immediately raise a loaded crossbow to the threat. Despite seeing the Musadi, his crossbow didn't lower or relax, even after the initial introduction, though it kept moving between both Ulh and Musadi. "You'll have to forgive me, things are a bit sensitive currently and I would rather not take a risk. Tell me, Kthratharath, who sent you?" There was no stumbling over the Musadi's name, and Phelan's tone was perfectly polite in spite of the weapon he had pointed. Despite the significant size difference, there was plenty of arcane energy crackling around the crossbow to present a threat.

Kthratharath looked down at the Narayah, noticing him for the first time. He remembered a time when the Narayah had been a truly powerful race, alongside his own, and how they had been engineering the Uhl to uplift them. However, now, looking around at the camp, he felt that, much like his own nation, the Narayah were somewhat... diminished. The thought was of great sadness to him.

Looking down at the crossbow-wielding furball, Krath responded, "You are forgiven," and returned his attention back to Jubei who, until then, had proven far more pleasant to converse with.

"Akorrin, the taskmaster of the guild in Galdion, bid us hand this parcel of introduction to the group we were to join," Krath continued, handing said parcel to Pleasant Jubei. "It should contain the information necessary to certify us, and I assume a missive from Akorrin as well. Furthermore," he added, "If you know of my people, you should know that my word stands as truth."

Phelan rolled his eyes. "You could also be under a compulsion or magically disguised via illusion or transmutation." He retorted to the Musadi, still polite but a bit drier. Magically, he activated his guild badge, sending a query to the guild regarding Akkorin potentially sending two new members, and the identities of said adventurers.

Jubei meanwhile took the parcel with a nod, opened it and flicked through whatever writing was contained therein. "Who exactly are you suspecting here Phelan? Which shadowy adversary would send a Musadi and an Uhl via... uhh... tellytransloportation? I can't read this handwriting. Which probably makes it Akorrin's. Anyway, our shadow adversary seems more inclined to send enslaved spirits to possess giant death machines, rather than...", he paused and looked between Kthra and... his gaze lingered on the Uhl. "What's your name? You haven't been introduced and I'd rather not puzzle it from this.", he spoke while handing the parcel over to Phelan so the little furball would have another thing to hold that wasn't a crossbow.

The mountains!  The skies!  The forests!  The seas!  All was laid before the Ulh as space and time were wrenched and deformed by eldritch forces beyond mortal ken (and yet readily manipulated anyway).  Gyr always loved teleportation for the sheer awe it inspired in him... and hated it for the navel-hook twisting his innards to his outards; breathing exercises and endurance training notwithstanding, the antlered druid staggered as he braced himself against the ground.  Normally, it wouldn't be so great a problem, provided he focused on the act of traversing, but his attention was diverted at a crucial instant when Taskmaster Akorrin bid them "Wait!".  It looked dreadfully important, maybe even life-or-death, judging by his face and so Gyr attempted to reach out his mind to make contact before it was too late, but by then, it already was.

His ears rang as it felt like his mind was still trying to catch up with him.  Had they forgotten something?  Gyr remembered that he grabbed the missive, so it can't have been that.  Maybe they were being sent into the wrong place...?  So, where he and Krath currently were, Gyr could only speculate, not that he knew exactly where they were intended in the first place.  Who received them, also speculation, only that there was a white noise of voices and greetings of some variety until the Ulh's head could clear and recognize a direct question.  "I am Gyr, the Traveller,", said Gyr, his 'greeting-face' returning as his head swam with whatever cordiality he could muster up from his predetermined list (what remained after his mental connection was stretched across who-knows-how-many-miles and snapped back), and politely expressed, "It is the utmost pleasure to make your acquaintances, you majestic bastards!"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Fri 05 Apr 2019.

The 'furball' slacked his grip briefly in startled disbelief at the greeting from the Ulh, but quickly recovered. His attention seemed to be divided briefly, though he was ignoring the package Jubei held out to him. After a moment, he nodded and lowered his crossbow, the arcane energy playing over it dying as he does so. "Jubei, there are more enemies that simply those we've fought here." He reminded the Kaetyma drily. "And neither the Umbreans nor, to some extent, the Narayah are that popular. There are enough civilians here that I'd be duty-bound to protect them from potential threats. Two unknown entities showing up without warning would qualify."

Unloading and sheathing his crossbow, he continued. "I spoke with the Guild though, they are who they say they are and were indeed sent by the Guild." Finishing stowing his crossbow, he took the parcel from Jubei and began to open it to examine the contents.

A creepy little something sped up to the Ulh, named Gyr.

The diminutive creature was garbed in sinister black leather armour covered in nasty looking studs that shimmered with unnatural green light.  The creature's head was encased in an equally unsettling helm, the visor of which had been sculpted to look like a particularly evil, almost demonic skull.  Yellow-orange ooze seeped through the gaps in its armour.

"Oi!"

Since Willa had literally been born in a sewer and spent much of her time living in the worst backstreets, not only was she was well accustomed to insults being thrown at her, but also to hearing those same insults being used by friends greeting each other.  However, being outcast by basically everyone, this was the first time she'd had the chance to legitimately experience the latter herself - and she wasn't going to miss out!  She took a deep breath, inflating her body and causing her leather to strain:

"Who you calling a bastard?  You old, grimey, shit fucking bum wanking mother licking crap eating, cockless spitsucking, fist taking, vermin loving, spunkbandit arsehaaaaat!" 

The little imp-like thing, with a high-pitched girly voice far too innocent sounding for its appearance and words, joyfully threw its arms up in the air.   But the expected triumphant 'ta da!' was instead replaced by a bout of child-like giggling.

"Hiiii!  Willa is.  Be friends?"  it squeaked, now somewhat coyly.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:01, Sat 06 Apr 2019.

"Oh. Right." uttered the slate-black armored kaetyma in response to Phelan's words. His expression went a little unfocused as he seemed to suffer a case of the two hundred yard stare for a few moments.
From which he was torn rather quickly again when he heard that tirade of a greeting coming forth from Willa's mouth, which had him blink several times in utter bewilderment.
"What mudstained-waterhole-speak was that. I mean... yes. Exceptional greetings aside, let us use this moment to talk about what your specialities are, and then we will bring you up to speed on what has happened and what will happen.", he addressed both Gyr and Kthra.

The peculiarly waddling harbinger of worldly destruction might have evoked laughter from the Ulh if he did not know better than to underestimate someone based on their appearance.  No, what really struck him was the extensive string of endearments... 'I'm quite sure most of those are insults but I cannot check my notes right now,' he lamented, 'It would be best to assume that these are all a cordiality  of some manner or other.'  "'Willa', yes?  I suppose we are friends, indeed!" he openly agreed and decided it best to practice a combined gesture he witnessed a while back, and flicked the back of his index and middle fingers off the bottom of his chin towards her, "Well met, j*zzpuddle!"

He smiled a warm smile and stood to his full height in address to the one called 'Jubei' after getting a better idea of his surroundings, "Do you require a demonstration of our prowess, perhaps?" offered Gyr, feeling much better than he did from the initial shock of teleporting, and grasped his staff from his back to direct it at a nice, wide, open area.  The crystal at the tip of his staff would glow and hover as the staff itself would tilt and twirl on some unseen axis beneath it; from his pockets would three large, runed stones hover around the crystal in a triangle as the Ulh cast his druidic magic...

OOC: If there is a time and place available for a demonstration, then Gyr will use a minor action to cast Verdant Bounty on a 2x2 area and then a standard action to cast Frost Flash on the very center of it to encase the spontaneous plant life in crystallized ice as artistically as he is capable.  It will then thaw and disappear at the end of his turn/in a few seconds.  If there isn't time/space for it, then postpone the action until such an appropritate time.

    One of the umbreans near the door looked at Willa and Gyr with his mouth agap.  While somewhere nearby inside the gatehouse, but out of sight you heard raucous laughter broken briefly by a loud clatter and a wet splat.
  Drex a rather dashing deseekay, greeted you formally as champion of the Aurelian pantheon.
  The dark, plate armoured figure of Volon barely paid you mind after your introductions.  His attention fixed on the surroundings as he looked around slowly from side to side.  Sparing every object he noticed with but a moment's glance before moving on.  The pointed glow of his glassy eyes the only signs of where his attention really was.

Willa giggled again at Gyr and turned to the Masadi.

"Hi!" He paused for a couple of moments, chewing over the name. "Can-throw-far...uth!  Willa is!  Also be friends?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:16, Tue 09 Apr 2019.

The small "furball" continued going over the package, though he did stop briefly to stare in disbelief at both the Ulh and Umbrean talking in an argot that he more expected from the streets than an Ulh of all sophonts. "Willa, how do you know those words?" He asked with some trepidation. He did stop looking over the contents to watch Gyr's demonstration, eyes narrowed and a calculating expression on his face.

Now that he wasn't partially obscured by arcane magic it was easier to see he was Willa's size, potentially even smaller than her. Seemingly spare arcane energy flickers over the studded leather of his armour, over the gear motif on his cape. His build is as slight as his size suggests.

"Thank you for the demonstration." He directs his voice over to the Ulh. "Can you summarise any other abilities you have?" He adds as he looks at the letter in the package. After a few moments of reading he rolls his eyes.

"Greetings, Willa. For simplicity, you may call me Krath. I would be honoured to be a friend to any who can sling slurs as well as the eldest of my people can sling boulders." He offered a small bow to the Umbrean.

To Jubei, and the others, he unsheathed his weapon and held it as tenderly as if it were a long lost loved one finally refound. "I may not be as flashy or fancy as Gyr, but Cxixhoss and I are quite capable of causing violent and painful death. Point me at an enemy, and we shall see him fall."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:47, Tue 09 Apr 2019.

    Morrey squeaked from his perch on the nearby wooden platform before he spread his wings and flew over towards Gyr and perched on his shoulder.  Giving him an earful of loud kawing.  The raven looked at you with one eye in that peculiar twitching manner of corvids.

 Volon walked off to an open patch of snow and pulled from the air something that looked like frozen light.  It glinted and sparkled with both inner and reflected light.  The thing was a spear of somekind, maybe a polearm it was hard to say, the thing looked sharp and jagged.  He spun it around and dug a circle on the snow.
  Drex, Jubei, Phelan and Willa spoke in unison though their voices were strange and not quiet their own.  "Proof yourselves through destruction." Volon pointed his strange weapon at each of you as he stepped into the wide ring he had drawn.  His challenge clear to anyone.

"It's prove yourselves, you strange man-thing!" Krath glared at the creature as he held Cxixhoss at the ready, but did not yet move into the circle.

"Proof of prowess in combat is admirable," he said, "but it aids little to harm your allies. Stand down."

Meanwhile... In case combat is inevitable, initiative 14. Krath is going to be a pragmatist and not immediately attack the strange thing that might maybe be some sort of ally. If Volon makes an aggressive move, Krath will engage.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:32, Thu 11 Apr 2019.

Gyr was pretty proud of himself (despite the numerous imperfections of his spontaneous craft) and idly juggled the three stones in a braid motion with a twirling of his fingers and telekinetic tendril.  His eyes then cast to Phelan as his lips pricked in a grin, "Combative prowess, you say?" he wonders aloud, tucking the stones into his pockets and stroking his maned chin in thought... and as the one called "Volon" presented so opportune a challenge (and Krath steps forward) the Ulh finds himself eager to step up, well.  "A fun little spar should show a few things, methinkings."

A low growling sounds can be heard coming from Phelan as he glares at Volon. "Can we please not have a fight right before a diplomatic meeting? Volon, lower your weapon - this is not the appropriate time or place for a spar. I will not approve of you scaring civilians with the unexpected sounds of combat right before a diplomatic meeting."

He directs his gaze to the two newcomers. "You two, lower your weapons as well. I understand you're not aware of the situation and we will be explaining it shortly. But for now, be aware that this is a delicate diplomatic situation."

"There is a time and place for sparring. This is not it. Afterwards we can discuss a proper spar to see how you fight."

The narayah certainly had an air of leadership about him... and the words he spoke were rational.  "Another time, then," he accepted, and spun his staff to have tumble off his knuckles and into its holster on his back, and his stomach churned at the thought of diplomatic activites... "I hope I wasn't assigned to some manner of high-falutin' upper-class shindiggery...  So, Phelan, as I might recall, for what manner of important are we summoned for?"

    Volon shook and stabbed his polearm into the snow.  Drex, Jubei, Phelan and Willa spoke again in unison.  "As you wish Phelan."  The weapon vanished and the black armour clad figure strode over to Phelan and knelt down in front of him.  Taking Amare's sachiel he took out one of the loose pages and Amare's stylus and spent a minute writing something down on it.  Which he then handed to Phelan.

  It read:  I know it pains you have my voice issue from yours, I have no choice in this matter.  Mine was stolen from me in aeons so long ago I can scarcely remember them clearly.  Yet that moment is burned into my memory.  It is a wound that remains because it was made by a power that cares little for time.  If you doubt my word then let me take you aside and show you what lies beneath the armour I wear.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:40, Thu 11 Apr 2019.

Phelan shook his head slightly as if dislodging something after he's made to speak again. "Thank you, Volon. Now, Gyr and Ksath..." He trailed off as the figure approached him, the narayah's brows raising slightly in a question.

After the figure finishes writing and hands the paper to Phelan, he immediately reads it, then closes his eyes briefly. Opening them, his demeanour changes to one of utter contrition. "... I'm sorry Volon, truly. I crossed a line and went too far. I won't push you on that."

Krath folded up Cxixhoss and sheathed her. He was slowly beginning to assume that the small fluffy was the one who was actually in charge around here. And that made... Sense. He supposed. If he was going to be an adventurer he'd have to get used to having commanding officers who were the size of the newly hatched- ahem, he meant to think, commanding officers who were imposing in ways that were not physical.

He watched the moment between Phelan and Volon, and waited patiently for it to end. The fluffy had been preparing to say something, and Kthratharath of the Zxaodrzax would hear it. He would respect his commanding officer by not interrupting yet.

As serious and flat as Volon's words were, their impact had been lessened somewhat thanks to a high-pitched giggling that accompanied them.  Willa, having quickly gotten used to the sensation, was enjoying every moment of having the entity's voice emanating from her!

She imagined that the shock and uniqueness of suddenly making noises that she had no control over must be a lot like what other sophonts experience when they hiccup, burp or fart.  Bodily functions that were an endless source of levity in the low streets and back alleys she'd called home.  And now she was beginning to understand why - it tickled!  Which was a lot better than being incinerated inside and out (as happened to her last time something thought to use her as its mouthpiece).

    With the immediate tensions past, you now find yourselves again with some time on yours hands.  Most of the day is still available to you and its just barely noon.

[Time for you to decided what your going to do until the formal diplomatic dinner in the evening.]

Jubei had been about to start at Volon as well in regards to 'testing' battle prowess via 'destruction', which was taking a friendly duel a little far indeed, but that all got a bit of a damper put on it again after Volon having revealed that lil bit of handicap about him... or itself.
Either way, Jubei wipped out the pad and approached the armored humanoid.
"I do not doubt your words and I do have sympathy for you plight. Though while we have time right now, I was wondering, do you understand supernal? I have a text here I would require assistance with translating."

"Unfortunately, I have not the faintest idea." Krath glanced around, noticing the scurrying Narayah. "However, I would like to know exactly what situation we have walked into. So much scurrying, so much of a rush... I get the sense that this is important, and would rather not do anything to disrupt... whatever thing this is."

    Picking up the stylus he had used a little while ago Volon took the page he had written on earlier and wrote some more.  Handing over the paper to Jubei he saw supernal script on it now.  The strange moving letters reformed after a moment under Jubei's gaze into common.  Reading: "I can write it too.  I would be willing to help you but I'd ask for something in return.  Permission to speak with your voice when I need to."

Jubei recoiled a little and made an expression as if he had bitten into something incredibly sour or seen something rather foul. "I can grant you that... temporarily. Until we find a differnt means for you to speak. Maybe the Narayah can construct something. Among my people, I speak law, and so I cannot allow for someone else to use my voice, but given that my people are... currently quite far away... we can do so temporarily.", he 'agreed' then after a longer moment of consideration.

Willa bobbed up and down, gleefully waving her hand.  "Willa pick!  Willa pick!  It tickles!"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:51, Tue 16 Apr 2019.

Krath absentmindedly tapped the end of his tail against the ground. He imagined himself having a stinger, or a rattle, like the ancient snake idols he had seen in artworks. The things he could accomplish with his tail! Baiting enemies into falling for a trap... Or maybe that would only work on prey. And he didn't spend a lot of time hunting. At least not small game that would be baited by a rattling tail. Maybe he should take up hunting as a passtime again? Get some more practice with his bow, practice his trick shots like using his tail to draw back the bowstring. Maybe he could even use his tail rattle to shake out a lovely mambo tune. Not that he really enjoyed dancing much. He'd been told he had two left tails once, and the expression had meant very little to him at the time.

He vaguely tuned into Star Puddle's statement, twitching his tail in tune with her words. It would interfere with stealth missions. No, definitely not a rattle.

After Volon turns to Jubei, Phelan begins to explain the story so far worth them arriving, handling the Narayah, invading the Weyr, encountering the Umbreans. ”So they requested a diplomatic meeting with the expedition force. Both parties would like occupation of the Weyr. Given we fostered this meeting and a number of us wanted to attend, we’re sticking around for this. You can understand my initial hostility; we have a number of civilians present.”

"I shall then likely spend most of this meeting in quiet contemplation," Krath mused, his tail still twitching idly.

    Volon pulled a luminous blue page from the air along with a pen of some sort made of the same substance as the paper.  Holding out the pen for Jubei to sign on a line at the bottom of the page he held up.  Being cautious Jubei read through the short document, fortunately it was in common, though the wording was peculiar.  Though it outlined the period of the arrangement its use of tenses was indefinite. Suggesting a sort of timelessness to the enactment of the contract.  The ending of the contract was set for Amare's restoration.

  With Willa's eager agreement, after Jubei had signed Willa has handed the same document and pointed to her own line where she could sign.

  Kalanc approached you after the commotion subsided, your guide through the mountains was glad to see you were alive and well after the journey though he asked about Amare and your new friends.  "I can imagine you didn't manage to secure yourself some treasure, eh?"
  "I've maintained the hut while you were away, if you want somewhere more comfortable to talk and relax I've made it a bit more comfy in your absence." he pointed towards somewhat larger hut. "Though it'll be a tight squeeze with everyone." he said as he looked at Jubei and Kthrath.

As was his way, Gyr kept to himself and his furious note-scribbling, distant yet keen eyes and twitching ears catching as much of the ensuing conversations (and their underlying implications, inferences, mannerisms, what-have-you) as he could possibly acquire -- all in his otherwise indecipherable chicken scratches.  Anything he added to these conversations were quick and inquisitive but mostly scarce since he still had much to learn concerning proper social interactions (especially with this new mission of precarious social interactions).  Should I be at the forefront of these negotiations or off to the side, with Krath?  Perhaps I could be immediately behind whomever is speaking and provide for them some manner of insight and word-choice support... the Ulh considered, quietly beaming as he clapped his notebook closed and tucked it away into some pocket or other inside his coat.

Bright eyes wandered over to Volon and the contracted signed... and to why it was signed... and began to wonder...

Jubei leered a little when Volon materialized a contract out of nowhere, then he clicked his tongue. He seemed to ponder it for a moment, before he shook his head and made a dismissive gesture.
"No. I will not sign this. Not until we know how to restore Amare. Until then I will find you another means to speak, but my voice will remain my own.", he spoke then.

    Volon passed onto Willa then before the party gathered in the hut.  Over the course of the day umbreans from the weyr came by to ask you about your preferred seating arrangements at the great dinner table that was being prepared in the weyr's courtyard as well as checking your dietary concerns.  You realized this must be what it is like to be nobility.

  An apparition shimmered into Phelan's awareness.  Before him sat a young narayan, maybe only a year or two old.  The silken, green onesie was carefully smoothed out over the tiny frame.  Who did his best to recline commandingly in the ruddy, plushly coated chair intended for a narayan twice his age.  The black, fur of youth was still dominant but was slowly melting away into stripes of russet oranges and mustard yellows.  "Journeyman Gearcaster Phelan Drixos." the child began to burble, licking his nose before continuing.  "The council has received your message and have elected to dispatch Songcaster Amera Drixos to be our observer and representative.  She will arrive via sympathetic teleportation at your location shortly.  We have also dispatched an airship with a greater diplomatic envoy which should arrive within a day.  Senior Councilchild Quellas Vnorrn will debrief after his arrival.  You will make yourself available to his wishes at his earliest convenience. Is that understood?" the small amber eyed child's tone was flat and his stare was that which only an utterly unsympathetic child could display.

[Given that no one seems to have other activities for their characters I'll move things along.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:45, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

After signing the contract, Willa had spent the day with the other umbreans.  Mostly watching them work, but also enquiring into the purpose of all the darken-scored stones she'd found outside the Weyr.

Phelan had been noting something down in his journal when he suddenly looks up, seemingly staring at nothing. His expression is one of relief that slowly turns into a mix of resignation and horror. There is a quiet muttering in Narayah  before he mostly pulls himself together.  He speaks again, more clearly now and his face carefully blank.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:46, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

    The other umbreans were polite with Willa but there seemed to be some distance between them and her.  Something she had observed between other races when people of a higher class interacted with lower ones.  Though some of the umbreans were rather chatty between their work.
  The courtyard was coming along nicely, the entire surface had now been replaced with grass and potted plants were being carried into the courtyard as well as other fixtures like pools, fountains and ornamentation.
  On the stones Willa was only told that they played some role in the defense of the weyr.  Acting as some component of the wards which kept out traveling and scrying powers.

Meanwhile, finishing his conversation in his native tongue with what appeared to be thin air, Phelan looked slightly harried as he went back to his journal, his movements a bit shakier than before.

Gyr might just inquire as to Phelan's mental state; it did not take a psychic to understand that narayan was put off in some manner and as the "wise consul" (which the Ulh dubbed himself without the rest of the group's knowledge), he brought it upon himself to lend his expertise. Dear friend, the telepath would directly ask of the (un?)official leader, you look as though you've seen a ghost and yet, a disturbing missive, as well.  So either you are beset with horrific visions or an apparition, of a sort, has imparted onto you a most troubling bit of news, indeed.  Pray tell, what weighs your heart?

    Those outside the hut barely noticed another narayah.  Though this one had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, near the adventurers hut.  She raised her nose and sniffed at the air, tasting it with her tongue with a slight lick before taking in a few deep breaths.

  She looked over towards the hut then stepped towards it and knocked on the door.  Resting her arms by her side.  She was dressed in a dark green gambeson with rather prominent shoulder stripes and wielded only a stubby looking, black baton which hung from an almost black belt at her waist.

Phelan looked as if he was going to say something to Gyr when the knocking on the door rang out. Seeming to need to take a moment to steel himself, he closes the book he was going through and heads over to the door, opening it.

A very slight flinch before he stands to attention, speaking in his native tongue with a formal tone, his fur fluffing out very slightly.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:25, Thu 02 May 2019.

    The narayah on the other side of the door was only a little taller than Phelan.  Though she seemed smaller due to her fur being smoothed down.  Her expression was neutral as he spoke to Phelan in narayan. 

  Morrey, seated on Gyr shoulder, cawed at the door.

Phelan seemed to be on edge as he was spoken to and hesitated briefly before answering.  There is a sigh as he backs away from the door, revealing the other Narayah more clearly.

"At least we know he's not talking to himself," Krath whispered to himself as he inclined his head to watch the conversation between the two fluffies. Judging by how Commander-Fluffy reacted, the new fluffy was likely either his boss, some sort of inquisitor, or his mother.
Krath watched the two for a moment longer, and decided that Phelan was fluffier. As their de facto leader, he had Krath's loyalty unto death. Perhaps not Krath's death, but there would be death involved with the loyalty somehow.
Either way. If Phelan asked him to kill this woman, he would. He just hoped it wasn't his mother.

Phelan lets the other Narayan in and closes the door throwing a "Sorry guys, this will be a moment" to the group, then the two continue their conversation in the Narayan tongue. Most of the time Phelan appears to be doing the talking with some interjections from the other, still standing to attention as he speaks. Despite being on guard, Phelan doesn't look particularly scared.

    The two narayah spend just over a hour talking to one another before  finishing up.  She finally address the room in the common tongue, with no accent to it, sounding just like the aurelian priests.  "Thank you for your hospitality, I am Songcaster Amera Drixos, General of the Narayan League.  I've been sent to investigate and negotiate with the umbreans of this weyr and others as an invested representative of the Council of the Youngest on behalf of the Narayan League.  Given your association with Gearcaster Phelan Drixos I'd request your assistance in providing security for my introduction to the umbrean representative Eldos.  I have concerns about the expeditionary force not far from here as they represent the interests of a disbanded organization which has refused to relinquish power.  You will be compensated by my superiors for any aid rendered." she had gotten up from her seat as she spoke and folded her arms behind her back standing as tall as she could.

Gyr found himself in the presence of a stately corvid, noble personage it wore, perched and cawed 'pon his coated should-or, perched and sat and... nothing more.


The Ulh turned on a heel to attend to some druidic matter or other, nothing to worry about, carry on.

Jubei gave a mildly amused snorted chuckle following the introduction, but nodded nonetheless.
"Very well, we shall provide this security for the time being. I don't know how much Phelan told you, but understand that before long duty will draw us... elsewhere, as it seems that this weyr has been but a hornet's nest in disguise.", he responded then.

Phelan made a dismissive gesture. "I gave her the basic outline with some detail. Time restraints and all." He directs his attention more respectfully to the other Narayah. "General, I believe that they all will be on board. Jubei has agreed for the group, but more specifically: Willa will probably enjoy seeing the Umbreans again, Drex will feel it his responsibility to be aware of things; Gyr and Kthratharath are new but were cleared by the Adventurer's Guild and dispatched to supplement the group. Volon..." He trailed off thoughtfully before continuing. "Volon has good reason to provide assistance."

    Morrey ruffled and switched his from foot to foot on Gyr's shoulder.  Then looked Gyr in the eye as he spoke lowly in druidic.    Morrey finished with a squawk and readied his wings to fly off.

[Please note Gyr's Player, this is during Phelan and Amera's talk.]

  Drex said "I will certainly provide you my assistance General." as he bowed his head slightly in Amera's direction.  Volon was wrapped in his usual stoic stillness.
  "Good my own forces will be her within a day so this is but a temporary arrangement." Amera said.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:53, Fri 03 May 2019.

The Ulh sidelong-glanced the crow, fluffing itself up with such indignation.    The druid chuckled lightly with a paw to his stomach as he continued his outlandishly incomprehensible speech.  Utter gibberish and gobbledygook, the lot of it.

Krath resisted the urge to be offended that General Fluffy thought her forces could possibly be worth more than him and his fellow adventurers. Perhaps if they were a small army, and even then only perhaps!

He'd once been told that overconfidence was a bad thing. He'd ignored that advice.

    You had no trouble guiding the general to find Eldos.  Though some of the expedition members were clearly disturbed by her presence.  On seeing Soinr in the expedition General Amera comments.  "Soinr Amanalindi, she's one of the Rogue Eldest, she's a polymath.  You'd think of her as a sage.  She has spent more then a century at both the Academy and the University.  She's a self-serving, power hungry, opportunist with oratory skills almost on par with my own."
  Eldos was in the company of a gigantic silvery ooze, roughly the size of that great cushion Jubei had sat himself on earlier.  It had extended several psuedopods towards Eldos and had streached some of them out at their ends into flat surfaces.  Some of them looked like living murals, moving on their own.  While others were tables holding some personal effects of the umbrean.  Some of the psuedopods ended in tiny glowing eyes.
  Amera greeted the umbrean representative cordially and Eldos seemed to have drastically improved his sociability since this morning.  "Your Gearcaster was not very forthcoming about the current political situation amongst your people but I suspected that was largely due to fear we would exploit that information and play you each off against one another.  A reasonable guess but a poorly informed analysis.  Regardless, we expected some official representation of your people and you are only its vanguard, eh?"
  "I am a fully invested representative of the League, Representative Eldos." Amera answered.  "I am empowered to negotiate in their name until the proper authority arrives tomorrow."
  "Good!" the plump umbrean said.  "There is a matter upon which we have little time to dawdle.  I wish our secrets were not so exposed." he sighed.  "I should tell you that we have heard a reply from the Federation and they will be sending a diplomatic envoy this evening.  We are presently still working on contacting the local powers."
  With little more to add the conversation soon ended and you returned to your hut.

Phelan had very specifically not rolled his eyes at Eldos' commentary of his lack of information. It's not like he was a trained diplomat.

"I think we can vouch for Soinr's oratory skills firsthand." he muttered as they walked back. "Regardless, the expedition doesn't seem to be especially happy."

    Evening arrived and the umbreans had almost successfully turned the weyr's courtyard into a lovely garden, where only a few days before the adventurers had fought for their very lives.  There was no sense of that danger here now at all.  Glowing crystals protruded from peculiar contraptions the umbreans had placed all around the courtyard, producing illumination powerful enough to produce a perpetual twilight.  A great table had been prepared in the center and chairs suitable for all the parties invited were provided.  From the great cushions preferred by kaetyma and musadi, along with the indented bowls which brought the table up to an acceptable level and outstretched table surfaces to hold their much larger dining equipment.
  Eldos, Aviana and a few other umbreans sat at the ends of the table while members of the expedition sat to one side of the table, with yourselves and Amera seated to the other.  Even Volon was in attendance.  Though he had requested some help with illusions to cover the horrors of his injuries beneath his armour.  Which the umbreans had provided.
  "We may not be able to heal you or provide you with a voice venerable one but we can at least grant you a semblance of your once ancient appearance." Eldos had said once he had seen for himself what lay beneath Volon's armour.  The absolute horror on Eldos face at the time was twisted by grief only an instant later as he closed is eyes and turned away from Volon's half open armour.
  The Volon which sat at the table was one of the most peculiar creatures there.  He was a lanky almost spindly humanoid.  Still very tall but so frail looking it was surprising he could support his own weight.   He looked like skin stretched over sinew and painted over with earthy colours.  It took a moment to realize that was truly bizarre about his appearance was he seemed to have no bones.  Oh he had joints but nothing moved in a natural way.  Limbs rotated almost freely and twisted in ways no contortionist could manage.  He wore some exquisite clothing the umbreans had provided, a close fitted robe and cloak of something like silk in various shades of blue, white and yellow.  Like the sun peaking through clouds during afternoon.
  His face and neck were some of the thickest parts of his body, just shy of his torso in width.  With small, totally blue eyes which sat on the inner edges of two bulge which pointed out from the left and right of his head.  A long, narrow, snout-like mouth made up the front of his face.
  Naturally he drew a lot of attention from the expedition at the table.  But had to explain through giant sign language, which mostly was understood by only Phelan and a few others.  That due to injuries he could not speak and felt that his contracted voices should best be avoided in so formal a setting.

At the table, Phelan was acting as a translator as needed, leveraging his status as the only neutral signer well as his familiarity with Volon. Beyond that, he seemed to be mostly quiet, observing the proceedings warily.

    Eldos stood on his chair and formally welcomed his guests to the weyr, which he named Atyuam.  ”We wish our revelation to the world had come under better circumstances but sometimes one must face harsh realities and we could not have wished for better than yourselves.” to that he raised a toast of the thick, clawingly-sweet smelling umbrean wine and drank the small glass in one gulp.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:39, Sat 11 May 2019.

Phelan was only drinking water, but raised it in a toast all the same. He had demurred when queried about the wine, mentioning he was still on duty and couldn't really take a risk at the moment.

Jubei raised his own glass to the toast. He had taken that wine in a normal sized glass... which for someone of his size made it a pretty manageable affair. Besides he hardly wanted to sit through a whole political meeting completely sober.

    With the toast concluded elegant, servile machines strode over to the table in unison and each put down a covered plate before those seated at the table and removed the metal cover from the plate.
  Some freshly baked shortbread in salty caramel with tufts of sweet, and sour cream each in small bowls inside the plate.
  "It may surprise some of you to learn that you that despite our nature we do get substance from regular food.  There is an energy imbued into food, made with care and intention which can sustain an umbrean like the presence of other creatures normally does.  Sometimes some residual impression of the experience of the cook or those who handle the food is passed on to us in the process of eating or digesting it." Avianna explain shortly after having taken a bite from one of her own appetizer.
  One of the umbreans beside your party asked "Have you been to any of the other weyrs before?" this fellow was an olive green colour and an long, snout like face.  His eyes sat right about at the edges so he looked almost like some herd beast.  He was dressed in a fine, golden robe, tied with a barely blue sash.  The golden fabric had faint patterns of interlocking triangles across its surface.

A psychic tendril coiled about the drinking vessel designated for Gyr, he in a daze for the last several minutes (or hour, depending on how long it'd been since he got back from his walk with Morrey) until the alcohol touched his lips and he cringed (as politely as he could).  The ulh examined himself and his... appropriate step-up in clothing for a fancy dinner party... and then looked about to find that he was seated with the rest of his adventuring party, namely, adjacent to Phelan; he looked about and spotted Jubei.  A light scratching of his mane helped him think about what to do in such an unusual as a fancy dinner party... and, as one does, Gyr helped himself to some of the sweetcake.

"Me personally? Not since before, well..." He trails off, making a vague gesture that somehow conveyed the disaster of thousands of years past.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:07, Tue 14 May 2019.

    The olive green umbrean said "Ah..." dejectedly, then seemed to remember himself.  "Oh yes, how rude of me, apologies.  We've spent so long in the Dreaming it slips the mind that you don't already know who I am.  You can call me-" his eyes swiveled upwards in thought.  "-uh...Paonm.  Hmmm, my memory of myself is still coming back to me but I was a cartographer, formally trained as a geologist...at the academy." he turned solemn for a moment.  "I think I died that day."
  He shook his head.  "Oh but that was another life a long time ago.  I tried studying to be a gearcaster but I didn't have the discipline for it."
  "I had hoped you might have seen the other weyrs more recently, we had tried to maintain a few of them as outposts.  Most are in places that don't get visited or disturbed much.  We did our best to restore them as much as possible after the Catastrophe millennia ago."

  Another umbrean broke in.  "I'm curious about how you all survived!  We thought the only narayah left were those in the Gatherings.  I think its not a stretch to say that we all thought you gone from this world in a way that couldn't be remedied, like before with the Ehuron and the Composer." the voice belonged to a font of an umbrean who was rather squat at her waist and tapered to a small, flat head with bright green eyes on a very rat-like face.
  Beside her pipped up a companion "Dylus!  You're memory is worse than most here!  We Decided not to bother with the Composer centuries ago!  It's much too powerful and the temptations too great!  The Dark One has it now and He's welcome to it for all I care!" the shorter, grey umbrean finished with a bite of shortbread.  Glaring at the one beside her who did her best to shy away.

Phelan raised his brows slightly at the sudden influx of information, doing his best to hide his utter shock. "I see, unfortunately I can't really talk about it at the moment. Stuff is being sorted out still." He temporised for an answer to the alleged former Narayah. "It's possible maybe the other Weyrs are in some form of stasis?"

  The umbrean named Dylus chirped up "Unlikely, unless someone got some Wizard Stones to do it.  But I don't see why you'd bother really, most weyrs got cleaned out ages ago.  Though some nasty people use them as fortresses sometimes.  Its hard to say for the lost or hidden ones.  The ones the old narayah built were all shiny and crystal like this one."
  "Shame you can't say though, I'm a scriber...ur, eh, that's short for transcriber - for the, uhm... uhm... guess you'd call it the hall of records.  Though its really more like out collective memory."

Krath bellowed out laughter in spite of himself. "Wizard Stones? Hah! I've not met a wizard with stones in years!"
When invariably nobody laughs alongside him, Krath returns to sipping his drink.

    Polite laughter broke out from those nearby, listening to the conversation.  The umbreans were full of questions, at one point or another asking each of you about where you had come from and what you had brought you to the adventuring life.

[Feel free to answer these as you choose.]

  Drex told a very short story about his early life and being quickly adopted into the Aurelian Church.  Where he was raised by the clerical orphanage and chose to stay and join the organization when he was old enough to make the choice.  He mentioned his role as a thief-catcher for both the Church and local leadership.  He'd spent most of his time on ships traveling around the western isles of the Crystal Sea.  Until he had heard of the Arian's forming an Adventurer's Guild.
  Considering the work he had been doing anyway, he consulted with the Church and received the  God's own blessing to go and do their work.

Jubei meanwhile was pretty polite through all of it.
Eating and drinking in measure until he was beset by questions to his origin.
He told the curious umbrean that he hailed from Muatal, that he learned there how to aid those in need and how to mediate in conflicts between the many nomadic clans. Eventually however, he had been drawn to the isles, in no short part for these very weyrs, like the one they were in right now. Him joining the Adventurer's Guild had come naturally as a result.

As was custom for his Circle of Travellers, Gyr ate exclusively with his telekinetic tendril, winding around dishes and sneaking morsels back to his dish (assuming they weren't directly inserted into his gob); as was also custom, he spoke freely (but did not maintain eye contact when doing so) since telepathy was more important with the establishment of contact rather than maintaining thereof.



Thankfully enough, Gyr was well versed in the higher-end conversation... usually by staying out of it but he was keen to answer direct questions.  "No, I can't recall if I went through any weyrs... would I know it if I saw them?"

"I come from some unnamed village in the shadow of an enormous city built into a mountain-face and I'm currently on my pilgrimage to spread the good word of balance in nature.  Very important, you see, both on a micro- and macrocosmic scale..." he began to natter.

Kthratharath's scales rippled in the fair light as he shifted his body. He told his tale with practiced efficiency, knowing to highlight only the parts Musadi would allow others to know. He was hatched, raised by a clutch-mother, trained to be a soldier - a Musadi Slayer - by one of the greatest Slayers in their history: The Slayererss Buf'aathrhusz, known for short as Buffy.

He left out the harsh condition, the violent training regimen, the scars beneath his scales. The fact that he had been bred to be a warrior. There would be a time he would share his story, but he would need to be drinking stronger stuff than Slime Wine!

    One umbrean, after having listened to all your stories turned over to look at Volon and asked the mute ”Venerable one, I think we are all very curious about the journey that brought you here too.”
  There was some quiet as there was a war of expressions on Volon’s broad face.  Then he bowed his head with a long sigh and made some gestures with his hands while looking at Phelan.

Willa was very quiet throughout, completely overwhelmed by everything that was going on.  Even hosted by umbreans as it was, this sort of event was far beyond anything she'd experienced before.  She'd not sat at anyone's table before joining the group and had always known that such feasts were meant for 'better' people than her.

She became a little more involved when Avianna started talking about food.  Willa had learnt to avoid such...sustenance?  It only ever made her sick in the past.  Which seemed weird considering what her friend was saying. When she was new...er the only food available had been scraps and rubbish....perhaps lost, forgotten or abandoned food had no 'imprint,' or was tainted?  She'd like to have asked, but was far too shy.

Luckily she had never gone wanting.  All the thoughts and minds of a city - especially at the academy - had provided an overwhelming source of sustenance for her.  So, despite her less than ideal origins, she'd always 'eaten' well, which might explain her 'plumper' figure.

Still it had left the little ooze with an aversion to more...solid matter.  Barely touching her food, until she caught sight of Gyr's strange eating habit.  Then, before she knew it, childish interest took over.  Awed by the food just apparently floating into his mouth, she first tried to feel out any invisible lines by waving her hand in the space between him and whichever morsel seemed intent on becoming his next chew.  Occasionally she'd find it.  Either because of the cord's nature, or because Gyr was playing with her.  She could tell she'd got the right spot when her arm started to drift upwards of its own accord.  Her slime pooling away.

Soon, concerned over accidentally dirtying Gyr with some of herself, she switched to food instead.  Despite the considerable mess left on the table where she missed all the time, she derived great enjoyment from getting a piece to float into the cat-man's mouth.

As for her past, Willa had learnt that was not something people wanted to hear about.  So when the topic came up, she feigned ignorance, pretending to be too distracted by her own shenanigans.

That didn't stop her listening to everyone else's admissions though, quickly learning that she liked the name 'Buffy.'  Perhaps should have chosen that instead of Willa?  But it was missing something.  It didn't quite feel her enough...Puffy then?  Yes, Puffy!  That would have been a fun name to have had!  She tried to make a strong mental note for whoever came after her and needed a name, twitched a smile and continued 'fishing' with Gyr.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:18, Tue 21 May 2019.

"Okay, I'll translate. Just go slowly, I don't have the decades of experience necessary for true mastery of the language." Phelan speaks aloud to Volon. After a few moments his eyes go a bit flat. "I'm also going to summarise, no offence to you Volon."

"'Long ago' on a distant world, there were a group of people who looked upon the seemingly silent depths of space and were very lonely. They reached up to the skies, but the Gods had no interest in them. Reaching out into the void, they found some sort of progenitor and bred with him to create a species that would go about the void, finding barren worlds to bring life to. Some objected to this and decided to find their own methods of traveling the void, in order to snuff out any 'dangerous' life. Which was any life.

This led to a war across the stars that the progenitor warned against, but eventually all parties heeded the progenitor and went to bringing life. They eventually found this world in a ruined state with a dying star. They brought the star to life and brought the planet to life, each taking a role on the world. Volon decided to be a caretaker of some sort.

Eventually some sort of weapon from the hostile parties came to this world and nearly started another war when the progenitor stopped it and revealed... Some sort of trap? It put an end to any wars forever and left a second moon. Then Volon and his siblings died, when some sort of weapon was awoken and destroyed most of the world. He was trapped in his own corpse for millenia until he was awoken by a man called Kendal. Volon remained with Kendal for the rest of Kendal's days; Kendal gained some sort of apocalyptic power from this, but chose to entomb himself to keep it in check until someone else could take over.

Then one day-What." Eventually it seems Phelan's translation of an incredible history was stopped as he reached his limit. "That's what he was doing?"

Jubei momentarily seemed confused and looked around, before his eyes found Gyr. He then proceeded to give a shrug. "I only know one moon. And we're bound for it."

Of course that would change moments later given what Phelan translated from Volon's tale, which prompted him to utter a very intelligent "Huh.".

He leaned in a little more, curious to hear the rest. "Doing what? What was he doing?"

"Investigating what happened." Comes the fairly brief response. "Well, more than that but that's basically it."

    The umbreans at the table were quiet fascinated and amused by Volon's story, told through Phelan.  Though several of them laughed a little too much and did their best to start up other conversations.  It wasn't hard for even the lowest of wit around the table to realize that something about Volon's story unsettled them.  Deeply.

  With the first course mostly eaten around the table, a second dish was brough, a small bowl (relatively small for the larger musadi and kaetyma at the table who received what would be better described as bathing basins or small pools to everyone else) of warm soup.  It was a fruity soup, very sugary but with a hint of savory.  Avianna identified it as "Dryon Pear soup." a fruit which grew rather wild in the gardens of the weyr.

  The conversation moved away from where the guests were from and started becoming more concerned with future affairs.  Though quiet reluctant, and nervous with the strangers the umbreans were clearly looking for something from their guests.

[You may roll Insight checks (DCs 13-16) to pick up on what the umbreans are after, higher rolls will reveal more details about specific interests around the table.  Those interests will of course relate to your specific character so I'd like to ask you guys to tell me what you might be interested in figuring out about the umbreans interests.]

  Eldos began probing both Soinr and Amera about their respective interests and both women came down to rather circumspect ways of saying the same thing.  Trying to secure the position of the narayah in the current age, in Soinr's case, and working to establish meaningful and beneficial relationships with the peoples who share the world, in Amera's case.  "Now I am curious to hear my friends." and with that Eldos gestured towards the adventurers.  "About your involvement in these negotiations."
  "You see, we want to keep these weyrs we have claimed for ourselves over these millennia but we are aware that your own people-" and he looked at Phelan "-have a reasonable claim to them.  As I understand it you are also representatives of the larger kingdom that lies beyond these mountains."
  "Previously I had asked you if you would be willing to help us with another matter and you had agreed.  We full intend to reward you graciously for that exchange but there is another thing to consider.  Something we have that everyone here would almost certainly
want more than few surviving weyrs for." Eldos summoned a servitor who held out a try with a small box to Eldos.  Which the former took in his hands and opened.  Withdrawing a curious looking machine.
  It looked mostly like copper and iron with a score of crystal lenses across one face.  The device was curved like a horn, one end tapering into a tiny, round point, the other round end was about six inches across.  He slid one finger across the narrow edge of the device and some of the lenses began to glow. A spent a minute more working on the peculiar device, while speaking to the almost silent table.  "Some eight hundred years ago we began receiving an strange message from among the stars."
  He put the small device down in front of him as the air above it lit with a ghostly apparition.  A faint, silvery figure surrounded by a deep blue.  It shuddered and twisted from time to time but the figure itself appeared unconcerned about its form being so badly mangled before reasserting its proper shape.  It was a narayan.
  Though it looked more plump and seemed to have more matted fur with the patterns around the eyes not crufing down around the cheek but rather making a trail of spots towards the ears.  The shape was similar to those of the narayah around the table but the snout was slight longer and had more visible, sharp, teeth.   It spoke in no language you were very familiar with.    After a moment the figured paused then vanished.
  "That, was a seer, for a ship made by the Ancient Narayan Empire.  Sent out among the stars on a long journey to return here in a distant age should the eh, 'Eternal Empire' have fallen." Eldos said.  Then the ghostly figure reappeared and spoke again in its strange tongue.  Before vanishing again.
  "That is an automagic message announcing that ships's imminent arrival within half a year." he lifted up the device and turned it off.
  With almost total silence at the table he said "I am not aware if you know your ancient history well but maybe you have heard about the great ships of the narayah sent off into the sky aeons ago for whatever purpose, carrying thousands of warriors, or scholars or whatever the particular storyteller thought would make a good story at the time.  To either quest after some celestial trinket, defeat some terrible evil or conquer some distant world.  Those were in fact based on very real things.  The one returning is called that Taniir.  Or translated from Yb-resh 'The Spear Which Pierced Heaven to Make the Stars.'"
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:35, Thu 23 May 2019.

Insight: 7 (appropriately enough)
If the Umbreans seem concerned, Krath doesn't notice as he listens intently to Volon's tale. A great war, an ultimate weapon... He found his battle lust stirring as he had to resist the urge to thump his tale on the ground to the rhythm of the Musadi War Dance.

But a spear that could pierce the heavens and make stars? Now that was a weapon! It could obviously not compare to Cxixhoss, but surely it would make a great sidearm? He couldn't help it, and his tail thumped at the idea. Although, he did recall the smallest tidbit of his history lessons, a faint recollection of mad fluffies who had gone to the stars. He remembered desperately wishing he could join them, for the glorious battles and adventure they would surely have amongst whatever beings lay beyond this mortal world of theirs.

If one was returning, though, that was big news. He knew it was big news because of how the others were reacting, though admittedly he had absolutely no idea why this was important. If the Space Fluffies were hostile, they could kill them and take their stuff. If they were friendly, it was probably no big deal.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:34, Fri 24 May 2019.

In reply to Willa (msg # 205):

The Ulh found that his efforts at nourishment were hindered!  Playfully so... he looked at Willa.  Willa looked at him.  Gyr chuckled and popped a nugget of savory, gravy-soaked food into whatever constitute as a gob, unknowing of whatever effect it might have on her.

Insight, About Gyr, generally speaking, and if they're concerned about the planet's first moon: 29

The recording proved... interesting, to say the least, but the description behind it even more so.  "Oh, is that what 'Taniir' means?" the Ulh thought aloud, tilting the bowl of soup back into his mouth and quietly gulping, psychic tendril still fully operational (as was proper table etiquette; he kept quiet his criticism of everyone else's atrocious habits of using utensils like some assortment of savages), "This is utterly delicious, it's like someone wrung the sweat out of a wombat made of tart apples."  He licked his lips (as politely as possible) and set the bowl down to belch (as politely as possible) into a napkin.

Insight Check: 18

Jubei let out a little bit of a growling sound as he ran his hand over his muzzle and rubbed along his nosebridge. Or what passed for that on a draconic face. "Well this little trip just keeps escalating doesn't it.", he muttered quietly, mostly to himself. But he left his comments at that and instead elected to present a more stoic, implacable expression to hide his displeasure.

    Amera asked "Do you have some means of contacting them?" to which Eldos nodded and affirmed "We do, though it will be far easier should these great adventurer's resolve our present civil conflict with our own kin in the Citadel."
  The narayah at the table talked excitedly with one another, mostly abandoning formality and speaking in narayan.  Soinr was deep in thought, chewing at her lower lip.

Jubei used this as an opportunity to pitch in on the side.
"Indeed. About that, I would like to discuss a few points as to the matter of our compensation. I am certain you will want to lay claim to all the property of your estranged kin, but considering that you want us to solve the problem of their existence it would be fair to ask for that. I could cite several precedents, be it from the mercenary agreements, the law of conquest, or the adventurer's guild charter that would allow us claim ownership of select items acquired either during or after the conflict. Really though, its a mere formality so we have that out of the way to avoid future misunderstandings.", he spoke then, leaning forward just a little.

Krath let out an almost imperceptible hiss. The Kaetyma had gonads, to be sure.

    Eldos laid back in his chair, looking distant for a moment.  "There are things in the Citadel that are not suited for anyone who is not our kin, so to Willa we extend the spoils of victory.  But for the rest of you company we can not do so.  Instead we have something else to offer in compensation."
  He sat up again and looked at the adventurers "There is a vault created by the queens of the dragons in ages past which contains marvelous and terrible treasures.  Those wonders are inaccessible to all but those who know the Queen's path through the shifting maze which leads to that vault.  That knowledge has been passed onto Willa through our means.  I shall provide you with the code necessary to awaken that knowledge in Willa's memory."
  Another course was being served as he spoke.  This was a long plate with a circle of sliced vegetables and meats, with a string of honeyed sauce ontop.  Eyewatering spices ensured that the after all the sweet and savory this hot dish would be extra strong in comparison.

Willa having recoiled from Gyr, coughing and shaking her head like a dog that had just tried to eat a bee, suddenly became the topic's centre of attention.  Shying away from all the eyes upon her, she still couldn't help letting out an audible grown at the mention of another 'code.'

After a moment her head bobbed up and she looked over at Eldos with renewed interest.  "Is on moon also?  Other umbreans no open?  No to also learn of from pool before?"

Gyr also recoiled but from the spices, for his tongue was sensitive to such things (he attempted them all the same, so as not to be rude).  "I am confused," he asked of Eldos, "What significance could the Dragons' Queens' Vault have to do with some unclaimed -- and honestly, uninhabitable -- plot of land in the Crystal Isles?  Is there a means inside the vaults to return life to Appirga?  I'll admit, my knowledge of its history as a seat of power, militaristic advantage, or major trade hub is limited but if I had time to do some research..."

Kthratharath's response was more succinct. "Will we have to kill our way in?"

    Eldos had popped some a small sandwich of vegetable and meat into his mouth with the peculiar wooden fork and stick combination that the umbreans seemed to prefer for handling their food.  Before he replied.
  "I would recommend you only fight them if you have to.  Death is regrettable but it is ultimately only another part of the process of life and the Restorationists can not be allowed to achieve their aims, at any cost." he waved over a servitor and requested a drink.
  "Appirga was the seat of the Old Kingdom.  The entire island was a sprawling city built around the Grand Temple of Alchemy at its summit.  When the curse fell no one dared venture there.  We watched expeditions go to the island in the years after the war but none ever returned.  But I'm told, some twenty or so years ago one went there and did return.  If Apirgga can be settled again the treasures buried their would made whoever could claim it a legitimate power in the Isles in this age.  The Grand Alchemist's Great Endeavor is itself a jewel almost without rival in this world."
  "And yet human folly destroyed it." Soinr said.  "We sent our own expedition to investigate that island and found it a daemon infested horror.  You would need an army of priests and arcanists to even make it past the shoreline now.  From the reports I saw there isn't much left of the old city anyway.  Mostly ruins.  Some of the magically enchanted stuff still stands but sun and sea has done their damnedest to bury it"
  Amera replied with a smile at Soinr "Humans are not the only ones who engage in folly." she turned to Eldos before she continued conversationally "The Vault of Ages and the Universal Constructor are both prizes worth recovering.  The discovery of the Halls of Augrim alone were the reason our ancestors chose to call Ursang home.  In our absence it would only be natural for others equally wise to claim such a sacred place for themselves."
  Soinr rolled here eyes at Amera's last sentence.

At the mention of getting access to that vault, Jubei's headcrest of feathers had raised and he couldn't exactly hide the excitement on his face either.
It left him startled long enough for all that other namedropping of ancient history to happen. All stuff he didn't care much, given that it was on Appirga.
"The vault sounds like a great reward indeed.", he simply remarked then, before he turned to Krath. "I would prefer it if we could convince them to let go of their plans. For one they will vastly outnumber us and we don't know their fighting capabilities. Putting a whole people to the sword is also...", he paused there before he simply shook his head. "No."

    One of the umbreans who had spoken earlier, Dylus, chimed into Jubei's words "Believe me we considered every conceivable option, that's why we sent out expeditions to try and find answers but...uh-" the conical face was suddenly aware of being the center of attention. "-uh they never came back..." Dylus sank in her seat.

"uh," Willa made a squeaking sound, slightly embarrassed about not knowing herself and very scared of hearing the answer, but too curious about Iron Jubei's concern not to ask "Umbreans is to be killed? So dead-dead be?  Is possible? No more to growing from bodies of?"

"Wasn't gonna kill all of them..." Krath mumbled under his breath. However, he choose instead to swig another mouthful of the finest booze this Weyr had to offer, and listen carefully to the oozeling's words.

    Avianna remarked kindly "Only if you deem it neccesary." another umbrean answered Willa's question "Of course not!  As long as the flesh remains a new umbrean will one day be born of it.  It merely takes the right kinds of conglomeration of psychic energies to bring about the encysting process." this was the one who had chided Dylus earlier.

Krath wondered about that. He studied his rippling muscles, his scales flexing outward as he tightened his biceps. For added measure, he subtly bounced his pecs as well. Reincarnation was all well and good, but to have to start over and begin anew and try to attain this sort of body? He wasn't sure if it was worth it.

Then again, he had a far longer lifespan than most oozelings, even if he would eventually die in a violent and horrific manner, as his ancestors had done before him. The thought left him with an odd sense of calm as he considered his own mortality, the very tip of his tail softly twitching to the beat of his thoughts.

Gyr watched the flexing... and followed suit under the assumption that, since there was talk of fighting and dangerous expeditions, it was a way to calm those soliciting help from the Adventurer's Guild.  The ulh had not the muscle in either the size or the definition as Krath (nowhere even close!) but he had some athleticism that came natural to his species and was still very healthy in his physique, curling his arms beneath his own pectoral shelf to give it all a (somewhat) impressive flex.  "Fret not," he assured their clientele, daring his most debonair grin, "Whatever you seek and whatever you seek it for, whether the Vaults or Appirga, we shall secure it... and we'll even keep the body count to a minimum for no extra charge."

    Having a mythical musadi warrior display his prowess recieved an applause from the gathered umbreans and a few reluctant claps from the narayan expedition.  Amera applauded as well.  Gyr's display went largely unnoticed in comparison.  Though his words could not be missed.
  Which caused an alarming conversation to start at one end of the umbrean contingent by Avianna.  "So any news from Vayshore?  How was the great city rebuilt?"
"Oh yes!" pipped up another excitedly. "Was the capital relocated back to Vayshore after the war or did it stay in Galdion?"
  Every adventurer at the party was now at least passingly familiar with the taboo against naming that cursed city for fear of drawing the attention of the curse which dwelt there.  Tale told naming the place a third time brought peril.

Phelan's response is very fast as soon as he heard the name first spoken. "Uh... Okay. First. Apparently someone has put a curse on that name, so that if you speak it thrice, something will be summoned and cart you off back to the cursed city. As for the city itself... Apparently something truly awful happened there in addition to the curse during the Dreadborn war." He grimaces. "Hardly pleasant talk at the moment, but suffice to say it hasn't been rebuilt presumably. Nor was the capital moved."

Krath thought for a moment about the supposed curse on the place he would choose not to name for the time being so as not to harass his furball commander.

"Would not saying the name thrice be an awfully convenient way to get there?" he thought aloud, not entirely realising the aloud aspect of his statement.

    "Only if we allow it." a scintillating voice teased from Avianna's edge of the table.  A robed figure sat in one of the empty seats, those set aside not only for unexpected guests but also for the gods, was now occupied.
  The robe the unknown person wore was an autumn hued patchwork of felt which looked almost like feathers.  A lone arm was raised toward a servitor gesturing for a drink.  The arm far too long and folded as though it had more than just the one elbow joint.  It's skin was a pale purple and taught against the powerful muscles underneath.  Its hand ended in a six fingered claw.  Each nail at least a foot long and serrated like a saw blade.
  The head was as the theme of the robe had first entertained, a patchwork of toughened hides, leather and bone.  It was mask resembling the horns of an elk, the face of a wolf and the beak of magpie.  The eyes were utterly black pits lit each by two small, blue stars which wove around each other.
  Not perturbed the unusual guest the machine approached with a goblet of wine which the figure took with its outstretched hand.  Looking very attentively at the goblet it asked in that manic voice.  "I am Jubjub, and its been a long time since one of us has been invited to such a fancy night as this.  We lords had gotten concerned the outside world had forgotten about us."  The beak of the mask opened a crack and a blue tongue snaked out and ate the goblet the creature held in one sudden stroke.
  In the distance there was a thunderous trumpeting, like a pipe organ was wailing.

As always, the stranger something was the more interest Willa showed in it.

Quickly forgetting everything else, she jumped up, leaned out over the table and waved at the new arrival who had apparently snuck in when she wasn't looking.

"Hi!  Willa is.  Be friends?"

Immediately after, her eyes drifted slightly to the side, both trying to examine the table and keep focus on this Jubjub.  No one else had eaten their goblets yet.  Why was that?  Perhaps they were an exceptionally expensive delicacy that the others were too polite to take?  She made a mental note to stuff one away in her pack later and offer it to Iron Jubei in a less formal setting.  One where he could properly enjoy it without being embarrassed or worrying about everyone else.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:04, Tue 11 June 2019.

    Jubjub turned an eye over towards Willa and said "I remember you!" he reached out with a long claw and pointed at Willa  "It has been a few years since we last met in the city.  Oh what games we played!" the beak of the mask broke open as the creature laughed with loud honks.  Dozens of tendrils flicked in the air from the open mouth before it closed again.
  "Welcome to our dinner sir Jubjub." said Avianna, a mask of forced serenity having swept over her face.  "Would you like to stay for the meals?  We've already had three of the courses, we can bring you them if you wish?" she asked of the Jubjub.
  Jubjub crooked his head to her now and looked at her with one eye for a moment then crooked his head up at the sky in thought.  "Hmmm, I shall stay for a little while.  This is but a little jaunt, I can't be out long unfortunately.  My pets need tending."

Willa went quiet and dropped back down onto her chair.  She tried to remember this person with all her might, but nothing came to her.

She had always made an effort to remember those that had been nice to her...And she *knew* that no one had been nice to her until she made friends with that special someone in the academy.  So did she meet Jubjub after that?  There wasn't much time between leaving there and then leaving the city entirely.  She certainly didn't remember any games...

The only conclusion that she could come to was that this guest must have been really *not-nice* to her and so she'd forgotten him.  That made her feel a little bit happy: she was so good at intentionally forgetting things that she could even forget such an unusual looking man!  Now if only she could be as good at remembering the things she'd forgotten...Jubjub.  Jubjub? The name did sound oddly familiar for some reason...

OOC
14:00, Today: Willa rolled 8 using 1d20+5.  History - Head Rubrub for Jubjub.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:01, Wed 12 June 2019.

For Jubei the day kept getting stranger and stranger, not only were there a metric ton of names being thrown around like they were supposed to be common knowledge, not only had the curse of V almost been invoked, now there was also a spindly far thing at the table with them.
At this point the only surprise he could manage was a brief recoiling of his head and a startled snort, while he grasped his own goblet like it was the last thing that made any semblance of sense at this meeting.

Phelan's face had been carefully blank at the appearance of the newcomer, betraying nothing. But the accompanying far-off trumpeting had resulted in a faint widening of the eyes and an almost audible mental series of curses. His expression does relax into a degree of relief at Aviana's response, though there is still a faint look of utter terror in his eyes if one looks close enough. "Welcome indeed, Lord Jubjub." His voice is steady and doesn't betray any of his emotions as he speaks. He looks a bit out of his depth, and appears to have throttled the urge to ask a question of the visitor, remaining in courteous silence for the moment.

Kthratharath raises his body ever so slightly and offers his best attempt at a warm and respectful welcome, crossing his muscled arms across his chest and bowing his head in the traditional Musadi salute reserved only for their greatest of leaders, generals, and those blessed by the Great Leviathan itself.

He knew not what, or who, this Jubjub might be. However, if his furball commander was being respectful, he would follow suit. Something about this visitor put a stirring in his scales that he did not enjoy.

What an utterly unique individual.  This "Jubjub" and all his radiating lordliness was a definite curiosity to the ulh because it made all manner of hairs stand up on his nape and all the way down his back.  He'd only just known about those empty seats and let his mind wonder as to who else might have been not-invited to the swanky shindig... thoughts for another time.  Regular vacant expressions aided Gyr at the table since to not project his thoughts via the face... and so projected his thoughts the good ol' fashioned way.  "Salutations," he began, paused, remembered his etiquette, and then figured it best to follow Phelan's example, "Lord Jubjub."  He wondered if someone happened to mention "Vayshore" a third time by accident and summoned Jubjub.  He wondered if maybe he had something to do with Appirga, or the the Vaults.  Or the Old Moon Shard!  Or even Malus... would they know each other?  He really wanted to ask Lord Jubjub something... several things, but maybe he might get one question in before a huge stink was caused.

    Jubjub looked around in a manner most peculiarly bird like until he locked eyes with Gyr.  "Oh!  You're one of the brainsqueakers?  Never particularly liked that sort of thing, rather icky if you ask me." he ruffled and for a brief moment his eyes went out.
  Avianna said "I shall request the servitors you fetch you a plate from the up coming course Lord Jubjub." she summoned a mechanical servator who nodded to her instructions and hurried away as only these machines could.

  Willa could not recall this Lord Jubjub and as she wondered he spoke to her again "Say, Willa was it?  You wouldn't happen to still have that locket I gave you?  You were a puddle at the time but I knew you'd pull yourself together in a proper city." he spoke and nodded to the mediator Avianna.
  One of the neighboring umbreans could not resist their curiosity it seems and asked "Uh, Lord Jubjub how-uh fairs the city in these days?" the oozling swallowed a lump in its throat.
  Jubjub paused in his examination of the table and blinked, blinked an eye towards the umbrean.  "Hmm, pooly I'm afraid.  We've shorn up what we can but sadly not as nice as the city was when we got it." the head shook sadly.
  "Order demands that we tend to our homes to the best of our abilities but some of the Lords like myself are rather disappointed with our efforts."

Such an astute observation of his Jubliness, for surely, it is by far more refined and impressive to belch through one's meat flaps (like the rest of the world does).  Gyr amiably added some salt to a savory portion of his meal using his telekinetic tendril, as was proper etiquette for an ulh, assuming that was not too "icky" for their esteemed and honored guest.

    Amera spoke up then.  "Perhaps we could refer some artisans to your city."  Which caused Lord Jubjub to stop in motion for a few moments before he rocked back and forth, up and down.  Odd fluting issuing from his mask.  "Splendiferous!" he roared.  Before settling down.  "Order requires that this be discussed in council with the other Lords however." he tapped a crawl thoughtfully.

  The main course arrived, a spire of glazed beef, lightly peppered and garnished with a bittersweet herb.  Ringed by slices of a mildly bitter fruit which tickled the throat with faint spars as it was swallowed.  Most at the table were too nervous to eat save Volon and Jubjub.  The Lord of Vayshore seemed to wonder at the apparatus before him, his thoughts obvious to any who had ever stat at a formal dinner table and tried to eat a meal. Which of these instruments should I use to eat this with?

    Volon put down his own fork and knife and waved at Jubjub until the Vayshorian Lord crooked up he made some gestures at Jubjub in the same sign language which only Phelan seemed able to decipher.

Willa was quietly searching her belongings for a locket she knew nothing about.

Gyr felt troubled yet also relieved... eating at an ulh's table hardly had any utensils but he'd learned how to use them on his travels throughout the world.  But to see Lord Jubjub's indecision as to which should be used to devour the meat spire before them invoked an urge within the druid to demonstrate proper etiquette (as best he knew, of course).  Gyr smiled amiably to Lord Jubjub and took both his paws to grab a spiky fruit in each, and used the serrated sucrose to decapitate the meat spite and use it as a means to transport it to his mouth (not using his telekinetic tendril, of course, since he assumed that Lord Jubjub did not have one... though maybe his tongue could suffice?).

    Something pulled at Willa's foggiest memories.  Maybe at the beginning of her life?  She wasn't sure, it was underground.  Dark.  The tunnels were smooth and white.  She held up a tarnished, bronze locket.  It was very ornate and locked by a mechanical ring around its edge.  A loud screech made her jump and the locket forgotten it tumbled from her fingers down the slopping tunnel.
  Was that the locket Lord Jubjub talked about?  Thinking on it she remembered the place...Galdion.  In the tunnels beneath the city.  That's where she had first awoken and had lost this gift she had been given.

  "Yes?" Jubjub pipped at Volon.  "Oh!" the patchwork cloak pulled back and up.  No longer bending over the plate Jubjub's eyes were focused on Volon.  "That's an ugly scar.  Good thing I haven't eaten yet or I'd lose my dinner!" he chuckled.
  Volon made signs at Lord Jubjub.  Jubjub bobbed and ahhed a few times.  Turning down to his plate and looking at the tools there as he then looked over at Gyr as the ulh made his demonstration.  "Crude but effective." he nodded.
  Two human arms emerged from the patchwork cloak and grasped a small fork and an equally small knife.  The arms were the most normal thing you had seen from this creature and for a moment you could pretend that there might be a man sitting inside that mound of leather feathers.
  That impression vanished whenever Lord Jubjub would open his mouth however as leech-like tongue stuck out of his mouth and extracted the morsel of food from the fork before closing his long beak again.  He seemed to be taking his time to savor the food rather than making it disappear like the cup had.

  When he finished eating, he said to Volon "Thank you for your expertise.  Here's something for your trouble.  It won't fix your throat but it'll let you speak through others." Jubjub produced a weathered scroll from somewhere within the patches and handed it with to Volon with one of the monstrous limbs you had first seen.
  Volon turned and looked at his companions with a level look.  The scroll turned blue in Volon's hands and vanished like the weapon and paper he conjured before.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:37, Sun 23 June 2019.

    After the course Lord Jubjub explored his beak with his tendril tongues looking for a rogue morsel then spoke up.  "I must now depart!" he crooned.  "Order demands that one of you must come with me.  As a kindness I shall allow you to choose who shall come with me to the city."
  Remembering something he reached out a long, clawed finger and pointed at Willa, "When time permits, please come by the city again.  Given your new profession myself and the other Lords have a long standing problem we would like attending to and would be most gracious if you and your future companions would take our commission.  We wish for someone to rid the Isles of the annoyingly persistent transgressions of the Apirggian daemons.  Those stupid Alchemists went there unprepared despite our warnings and got themselves killed or worse!" he fluted in what you took as agitation.
  Though given what he had said first much of his second set of words was a bit lost on most of the guests.  Some of whom looked really worriedly around the table.  Eldos seemed to be lost in thought and Avianna was looking rather downcast.  Soinr sat back and sipped some wine and Amera's jaw was working around and around.

Phelan frowned thoughtfully, eyes glinting slightly. "Given this is the first time it's happened and another opportunity might not come up..." He began. "Lord Jubjub, what are the terms of your acquisition of individuals for your territory? There are legends of course, but I'm curious to hear the actual terms."

Evidently the young magical engineer also enjoyed hearing legal contracts.

    Lord Jubjub crooked his head and looked at Phelan for a moment before speaking.  "Order hears the call and beckons us to answer.  Then we travel to the ones who called and examine them for Judgement, if they are fit to be Judge they are called to the Court and Trial commences." he nodded, his eyes winking out for a moment.
  "Only two here are out of bounds of Judgement." he pointed one clawed finger at Willa and another at Volon.  "Innocence and beyond Jurisdiction."
  "Furthermore-" he bristles a bit.  "-we do not add pretties like you-" and with that he pointed a serrated claw at Phelan "-to our collections.  That would be Wrong.  No." he shakes his head.  "Us Lords only maintain the realm and fulfill Order's demands."
  "Some serve Sentence by joining the houses of the lords for a time, but all services end in time." Lord Jubjub bobbed slowly.  "Though we would like take this one..." one claw pointed out towards Drex.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:26, Tue 25 June 2019.

Gyr looked up from his plate and frowned at the visiting oddity.  "You're not leaving so soon, are you Lord Jubjub?" he asked, looking quite crestfallen, "Surely, you would not depart so generous a host's dinner table before dessert?  Why, with all these fantastical courses already presented than the pièce de résistance must be something to behold."  The ulh then folded his paws and smiled as his finished plate was removed, "If you're feeling antsy, I know a game we could play to ease the mind.  These dinner talks -- important as they are -- can be droll at length and a bit of levity might aid in that.  What do you say, Lord Jubjub, your duties to the Order could wait for one more course?"

    Lord Jubjub drew back from Drex and locked his gaze on Gyr.  He stared at you for a moment then looked up as he opened his beak and a shrill orchestra played from his mouth as a tangle of tongues played in the air.  Lord Jubjub was laughing.

  He calmed down after a few moments then bent his head back down, closing his long beak before he spoke.  "I would be delighted!  I will stay for one more but then I must depart." he nodded.  Eldos looked over at Gyr with a mixed frown.  Soinr seemed about to fall out of her chair.
  Amera whispered wryly to Phelan "Your friend may have just fallen from the highest branch.  Wonder if he'll catch himself or bring us all crashing to the ground?"

The Ulh was pleased-as-peaches that the guest would join them throughout the meal (he learned it was rude to show up, uninvited, and then immediately leave).  The finished meat spires were removed by the diligent servitors to present to all those seated a scrumptious display of roast duckling in a unique glaze, a fanciful frame of fresh greenery and a garnish of radishes and berries, along with a serving bowl of sweet applesauce for dipping (or however one might utilize it).

"Thank you for staying, Lord Jubjub.  Now then, the game.  Have you heard of 'X. Thou Shalt Not Win'?" he telepathically asked, taking up his utensils in either paw, "It's a fun little parlor game that's been around since... well... forever, to the best of my knowledge, but it has kept mainly to secluded villages and monasteries...  It's a game of commandments and wits, you see..."

X. Thou Shalt Not Win:
A simple game between two people wherein they speak commandments that they both must follow, beginning with "Thou Shalt Not..."  The winner speaks "Thou Shalt Not Win" when their opponent breaks a commandment or if the opponent cedes with "Thou Shalt Not Lose" (if the winner cannot speak their own commandment, they lose).   There is no time limit but whosoever speaks the first commandment must win before their opponent speaks the tenth, "Thou Shalt Not Win".

"As the point is to make rules, there are no set ones for it but there are some courtesies to keep it fun:"

1.) Use simple statements
2.) No conjunctions
3.) No double negatives
4.) Commandments must be breakable by both parties (i.e., if a player cannot breathe fire then they cannot command their opponent not to breathe fire)
5.) Don't force or manipulate your opponent into breaking a commandment (tricking them is fine and part of the fun)

"I've heard wonderful legends that Malus and Alyssia are engaged in such a game as we speak, with each story differing to who gave the first commandment and how far along they are (but they all seem to agree that whoever speaks the tenth shall herald the end of the world).  Anyway, as I am the challenger, Lord Jubjub, I am tasked with giving the first commandment and you need only adhere to the four and then declare 'Thou Shalt Not Win' should I fail to best you.  Now," the ulh sighed in goodhearted defeat, "I understand that a bit of wits-crossing could only add to the doldrums so we can make this a little more... exciting, if you'd like?"

    Lord Jubjub sat motionless for a moment then bobbed as he listened to Gyr.  He pipped and fluted once the game was named and the rules were explained.  Once Gyr finished he answered.  "Hmm, yes, I'll play this game.  On the condition that you speak and not use your-" Lord Jubjub shuddered "-brain noises."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Wed 03 July 2019.

Gyr arched his eyebrows and half-grinned curiously, "You are more than welcome to speak the first commandment, Lord Jubjub, but you must initiate it with 'Thou Shalt Not...'.  I'll permit it if you'll permit me using my telepathy one last time for the benefit of everyone else at the table; I don't imagine many here speak Ulhai."

    Cocking his head to one side Lord Jubjub said "It is within my power to have you understood by all those here no matter your speech." and as though egged on by Gyr's suggestions he added "I will take your recommendation and make the first commandment, 'Thou shalt not use telepathy.'" he said only for there to be a crack, like thunder overhead.  The noise startled almost everyone at the table, including Jubjub who looked up to spy the source of the noise and let out a short pipping before settling down when nothing seemed to happen.

The antlered noggin canted with a soft jingle of the charms attached to the branching prongs at such a claim as Lord Jubjub's.  And then the crack of overhead thunder flinched his eyes upward as to what could make such a sound inside but found there was nothing there...  The Ulh cleared his throat and growled, "A'ight?" he wondered aloud in Ulhai and quite surprised by it himself to hear his own voice... he so rarely used it, after all, and then elated when the expressions around him were not of confusion but understanding (sort of), "I's lahke standin' in a hyuge canyon and jus' echoin' at m'self!  A'ight," he continued, clapping his paws together, blinking, then and asking, "We didn'ta wage a thing in this game, did we?"

   Hearing Gyr's slurred voice speaking in your own native language surprising but that barely had any time to land before Lord Jubjub spoke "A wager?  Oh that makes this game more interesting!  What would you wager?"

Gyr grinned and reached into his coat pocket to retrieve a small, black bag to hover it over his beckoning finger.  "Safe t'say, we be wantin' our buddiest friend Drex unspirited into th'night," he explained, "so our side of the wager is well understood.  Mayhaps, Lord Jubjub, be knowin' as to what this is... or rather, whose this is?"

    Lord Jubjub looked thoughtful for a moment.  Tilting his head, his beak in the air while that strange doubled eye looked at the bag Gyr held.  After a moment he turned back and asked "I'd imagine it would be yours?"
  "A tiny vial meant to be broken, holding a power within to send those under its influence to the land that lies abridge the here and the thereafter.  But only for a short time." he concluded.

The Ulh ceased not his grinning.  "Aye, 'twas a gift.  Wantin' be known from whom?  Findin' out by winnin'," he dared, twirling his finger to loosen the drawstring and tease the capsule's tip while the black sack rested in his palm, "So how's about it... d'we be havin' ourselves a game?"

    Lord Jubjub looked taken aback then leaned forward towards Gyr.  "Your offer only adds to the game we've already agreed to.  Did you not notice the auspice of the Order?  It is here to judge our game." he sat back as he had before, looking again like a mound of leather feathers.
  Looking around the table for anyone new you did not spy anyone else present whom you had not already seen.  Though now some looked around behind them nervously.  One narayan froze, his fur bristling as he slowly turned back forward.  Tears in his eyes he curled up into a ball in his chair shaking whimpering in narayan

Phelan's attention was drawn to the whimpering Narayah in concern though he didn't seem to make any actions to move over. Instead he found himself almost unwillingly looking around about him and behind him though the reluctance in his face implied that doing so was going to be a very bad idea.

The fur stood on the back of Gyr's neck... all the way down his spine.  His eyes trained on the Vayshore Lord before him and he kept grinning, cinching up the bag and tucking it away, "Tha'd be explaining all the flinching jus' now," he observed, holding out his paws, "You're right, you are, this be needin' no further int'rest.  Now then, this game is oft bein' played alongside dinner, so let's have ourselves a continuation of both meal and game."  Gyr picked up his fork and knife to cut himself a slice of the roasted duck, "II. Thou Shalt Not eat without utensils."

    As Phelan turned his head a fluffy, narayan tail pressed in on his face from his side.  He knew who it was, scent told him so.  Chided he turned back.  And the tail left his face.

  Lord Jubjub made a squawked delightedly as he replied with another commandment "III. Though Shalt Not name a colour." then carefully, Lord Jubjub picked up his fork and knife Lord Jubjub resumes his dining not seeming to pay Gyr any mind.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 19:04, Thu 11 July 2019.

Having witness the moment with the fluffy-tail face-assault, Krath wondered a moment about how soft the tail fur of a Narayah might be. He considered it as he grudgingly picked up a knife and fork, the utensils awkward in his too-large hands. He didn't know for sure if he was involved in the game, but he felt it better to be safe than sorry.

He also wondered at the possibility of acquiring his own soft brush, towel, or perhaps even a fluffy coat made from Narayah fur. Would any of these present be willing to donate some fur to this great experiment? Or would he have to gather the fur over a few years of conquest? Perhaps he could make a deal with Phelan? He would have to consider this.

Gyr munched upon his roast duck quite steadily and made to speak, only to cover his mouth immediately as food flung out.  "Pardons numbering in the thousands!  It's no habit of mine to be usin' a mouth for both eatin' and talkin'..." the Ulh bashfully rued, wiping his lips thoroughly and ensuring that his mouth was cleared before producing more its conversational noises.  "IV. Thou shalt not leave the table."

Kthratharath would hardly question those who were clearly his intellectual superiors, and he willingly admitted that of those he had many. However he did wonder at the logic of Gyr's last command, as one could simply take the table with them when leaving, thereby negating the entire challenge! He puzzled over it as he ate.

    Lord Jubjub made a noise that sound like a squawk and ruffled at Gyr's command.  There was a growl from the air and the table briefly quivered.  Causing most of those trying to do nothing but focus on their food to be startled and look around alarmingly.  Eldos shared a nervous look with Avianna.
  Though nothing terrible seemed to happen yet, and Lord Jubjub replied with his own commandment "V. Thou Shalt Not Speak with one's mouth full." then he made an odd keening noise looking off and up to the east before taking another careful bite from his meal.

Gyr grinned sheepishly and double checked his food/mouth situation.  "I be walkin' right into that one," he admitted and shrunk in his seat, carefully glancing about to all else sitting at the table, "Don't be frettin' now, the Commandments are only for us two that're playin'," Gyr said, getting a handle of his own spoken language bit-by-bit, "Don't forget, Lord Jubjub, conversating is still allowed amidst this all, no gr-" and then snapped his mouth shut and smirked, playfully waggling the end of his fork at the Vayshore Lord across the table, "Almost said me a color, there!  That's really be egg on my face.  What I mean to say is that the rules are quite clear that friendly chattin' is a-okay."  Gyr then pondered as he tapped his fork to his lip, brow contorting and then smiling, "VI. Thou shalt not lie."

    Gyr's words assuaged the table and some small talk broke out between the dinner guests.  Eldos cleared his throat and started by making a quiet request to a waiting servitor.  Then asked Soinr "Would you like me to call for one of your healers to attend to... uh Jormun, wasn't it?"
  Soinr nodded and Eldos spoke again to another of the humanoid automatons who left the garden at a brisk walk then shot off at a run toward the weyr gatehouse.  Avianna spoke to lord Jubjub while Eldos was attending to Jormun.  "Lord Jubjub, may I ask you how has your city fared in these recent centuries?  Before we went to sleep V-" she caught herself "-your city was a great capital which was fighting off a siege from the leaderless hordes of the fallen lich.  I remember it being a very beautiful city, sometimes called the Island City of Ivory Towers."
  Lord Jubjub spoke answered "For nearly a hundred years we were busy settling in and the Order held dozens of trails ever day for those caught within the city when Order arrived and for those who called.  So many judgement were passed and punishments awarded we had to fill out a palace with all the paperwork!" he flutely chortled.  "I still remember the chroniclers dismay, but they worked hard to keep the records straight." he nodded and his leathery feathers puffed up with pride.

  Eldos spoke over the low hubbub around the more regular talk Lord Jubjub was having with Avianna as he rose and stood on his chair "I would like to propose a toast." he said, raising a tall glass of some fruity smelling cider.  Servitors deposited glasses at the side of each guest at the table.
  "To you, brave adventurers.  Who came here seeking treasure and woke us from our long slumber and upon whom we now gamble with this new world to lay to rest a conflict of ours.
 Of old sorrows and grievances.  To the promise of glory, diplomacy and success!" he raised his toast and with everyone's assent he took a drink from his glass and sat down again.

Kthratharath joins in with the toast, gently holding the glass between the points of the claws of his muscled fingers. He listened carefully to Lord Jubjub and found himself agreeing. He was personally proficient in many things - chief amongst them humility - however he would admit that paperwork was not a skill he possessed. He therefore had the greatest respect for clerks and accountants, as they were ultimately warriors fighting against a different sort of chaos.

    Klinking glasses sounded down the table.  With Lord Jubjub toasting his glass with Willa and Gyr's.  Musical tones whistling and chirping from his mask.
  "Friend Gyr, I am curious about the lands which bore you.  I've never been there myself and neither has any of the others who serve the Order.  I suspect it is because your kind so rarely speak." he shuddered briefly in the end.

Willa looked at the recently clinked glass in thought, then turned her head to Gyr.  "Willa no understand game.  Lord Jub Jub, say no name colour.  Rule only for Gyr is?  Or Lord Jub Jub also was?  'Cause Lord Jub Jub hundred says.  Hund-red.  Is okay?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Sat 20 July 2019.

Kthratharath thought for a moment, taking a swig of his flagon. Willa had a point, he thought.

"She has a point," he said.

Gyr set down his knife and fork (for it was rude to toast with them as well as well as the cup) and raised his glass to join in.  His face expressed "Huzzah!".  "Mayhaps, Willa, but to my ear it has been heard 'hun-drid' and no vi'lation of mine but... somethin' that the assortment of esteemed judges might determine?" the Ulh suggested, eyes teasing over his shoulder.

A quick sip was had and the Ulh truthfully answered.  "You've an odd taste, might I bein' so bold t'say, Lord Jubjub, but I shan't deny a curiosity.  One place I found m'self visitin' was vibrant and lush but gods be... no one did anythin'; jus' wasted the days with competitive navel-gazin' but playin' games with neither winner nor loser!  Completely backward..." he grimaced and sighed with utter exasperation... and then thought on it and laughed heartily.  "Oh!  You meanin' the lands whence I was born?  Tha's a diff'rent story entirely...

"I've been hailin' from a highlands tha'... mem'ry be servin'... got caught in quite a squall last season (might be needin' to check whereat they landed).  Most all the land's held together by the twinin' roots of The Greater Grands (them's bein' my great-great-great-great Grandpappers and Grandmams, been watchin' over the fam'ly still these many a cent'ries).  It bein' rich with minerals and the like but halfway scarce when it comes to plantlife; tha's where we Travellers come in, o'course, gettin' things bloomin' and fruitbearin', game for huntin' and livestockin', all the normal stuff that goes with homesteadin'.

"I be the youngest of seven brothers, with a li'l sister and an older sister (she's the eldest, as so happens) but the only druid of the lot.  My brothers are all bein' big, rough, fightin' beasts, for the most part... I been takin' after Mom's side of things, her's more the spiritualistic, y'see.  So, I be on me missionary work, spreadin' balance in nature and so forth.  Thought I be takin' the safe route but the Riddlefather has a sense of humor, turns out I be treadin' the most dang'rous!" he guffawed and paused to have another bite of roast duck.

    Lord Jubjub listened intently to Gyr and made something like a squawk when Willa spoke.  He reared up and looked around before resting in a more comfortable position.  "I can not say!" shook his head then continued.  "The Order are deciding it now as we speak."

  Most everyone at the table fell silent at the Vayshorian creature's words.  Only Lord Jubjub continued eating, he was just about done with his meal.  Distantly, like a conversation overheard through door ajar came group of voices discussing something "-icle raised." the first voice said.
  A second voice continued "Then it follows that the principle contention would surround literality versus intention."
  "Guile appears to be an important aspect of this game." a third voice spoke directly after the second.  So far each voice sounded very distinct.  The first was honey to one's ears.  The second was a sack of rough rocks.  The third was ice.  The first one spoke again.
  "A test of wits, rhetoric and charm." he, yes the voice sounded like that which could belong to a man, agreed.
  A fourth voice; a powerful, crackling, flame argued "Either position has merit and yields no clear resolutions!  Therefore the rule itself is in error!"
  "Such a contention is outside of the scope of the game and therefore itself must be discarded." a fifth voice, flat and almost neutral save for a hint of femininity said.
  "Then these are all the arguments?" the first voice asked.

Kthratharath considered his flagon for a moment. His third at least within the last course, he wondered if it had started to affect him when the voices from the sky besieged his senses.

He realised that others could ever the voices too and considered three possibilities. Either the booze had been drugged and all suffered. He discounted that as the Narayah would not likely drug themselves, even if they had heard his inner monologue about one day skinning a Narayah to make a furry hat.

The second was that everyone was deep in the pots and they had a shared hallucination. He discounted that as surely he was not even close to tipsy.

The third was that these voices were real, and were actual monsters or lords from Vashyron-or-whatever-they-weren't-supposed-to-say, and he settled on that as the likeliest reason. Unfazed by things he could not immediately deal with, Kthratharath took another drink.

Willa looked about the table for a moment before raising her hand, as she had seen the students back at the academy do when they wanted to say something.

"Uh, hi.  Willa is.  Be friends? She smiled sheepishly and lowered her hand.  "No meant cause trouble.  Sorry is.  Also thinking was Lord Jub Jub's rule said, so Lord Jub Jub maybe should be asked:

"If was Gyr said hundred instead of, then Lord Jub Jub think rule should to be broken?

"Guessing no lies around big important voices?"

"Also Also," She looked apologetically at Gyr, "Willa thinking not to judge on how spoke.  All say different.  If say blue like maybe, uh, blau, still blue is.  Word important is.  Not, uh, pro-Nancy-eh-shun."

Then, noticing all eyes judging her, Willa retreated back into her seat, shrinking away from the attention.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:04, Wed 24 July 2019.

    Speaking up Willa made it rather hard to hear what the voices in the background were saying save for the keenest ears.    After Willa spoke quiet resumed around the table as those curious strained to listen to the near whisper of the other's voices.

  You thought you heard a shuffling noise than Avianna gave a start, immediately drawing all attention at the table to her.  She had jumped in her seat because some had appeared beside her.  A tall figure, about six feet tall, had touched her shoulder with its right hand.  Though humanoid, at least in as far as the general shape outside the long single piece robe was concerned, the creatures head was large upturned crescent.  Slanted slits cut into the middle of that flared to the sides and ran down a thin, crooked neck into a spindly body.  It looked something like what you would have if a human and an insect had somehow converged in a grotesque and nightmarish form.  Its hands were mutated pincers, with four long claws reaching out from a stubby fifth in a mockery of the hand sapient races.  Its robe looked to be well oiled skin.  Bleached almost white in stark contrast to the dark grey, almost black flesh of the creature's body.
  "My apologies Ambassador." though no louder than a whisper the utterances swallowed all sound outside themselves.  Even so sound took a moment return after the creature had spoken.  "I did not mean to disturb you so.  I only wish to address some of your guests on behalf of my masters." more silence then sound returned like a crashing waterfall.
  "Uhm...uh-yes, certainly.  Though may I ask who you are and how I should address you?" Avianna struggled for words at first then managed to compose herself.
  "Bailiff, I serve the Order in such capacities and so I am named." the alien face turned to the table and faced toward Jubjub and Gyr.  The slits breathed.
  "Lord of the Nevermoors and your competitor the High Druid of the Verdeloth Grove, I am here to deliver the verdict to the contention of your game as decided by the Order for the fate of one Drasden Braskaal Anoer, commonly and hereafter referred to as Drex." Bailiff folded said as it raised its right hand to point at Gyr and spoke.
  "You have won.

Kthratharath flexed his muscles, scales rippling with excitement. He had no idea how it had happened, but victory was victory and he had learned that lesson after the incident at that one battle of which he would never speak.

It took a moment for Gyr to come to terms with the reality of the situation and when he did, he said simply (if stiffly), "Thank you, Bailiff," in his continued vocalized speech, before setting down his utensils and extending a paw over the table at his worthy opponent, if only in a gesture since reaching across a dinner table is bad manners, "Well played, Lord Jubjub."

    Bailiff nodded at Gyr while Jubjub bobbed before stretching and bowed his head for a moment while saying "I did enjoy our game and as you have defeated me I shall return to the city without a sinner."  After which the creature named Bailiff spoke.  "The Order desires that I pass along a gift to your party, as a token of the Order's good will and hope you will take seriously the Lord of the Nevermoore's request to aid us with a concern of ours in the east."
  A creature identical to Bailiff emerged beside Gyr and put a pincer-hand upon Gyr's right shoulder while handing Gyr a sealed envelope.   The envelope was whiter than any paper Gyr had ever seen.  It was enclosed by a red, silken ribbon tied into a wax seal on one side.  The seal was that of pentacle, though the points of the star went far beyond the circle.  The circle touched only the pentagon at the center of the star.  The points themselves pieced the pupils of five tearful eyes.  An upside down droplet lay at center of the pentagon.  The seal gave Gyr the unnerving feeling that it was looking back at him as he stared at it.
  "When you are confronted by great evil, break the seal and read the letter within aloud.  The full might of the Order and the city of Vayshore shall then come to your aid." Bailiff added while Gyr looked over the envelope.  "We shall now return to the city.  Good night everyone." Bailiff stepped back and turned, walking off into the thick mist that had crept upon the dinner party.  The mist itself began to dissipate.
  At the sight of the envelope Lord Jubjub made a sharp whistling noise.  After Bailiff left he said to Gyr "That is a mighty thing you have there, but use it wisely.  The Order must truly mean for you to come to the city for a quest."

A grand, telepathic sigh was transmitted to everyone within thought-range as the Ulh stretched and rubbed his aching jaw, paws setting down his utensils to flex the fingers and relax in his chair.  He took a moment to relax and smile simply, eyes suddenly wide with rapt curiosity at the offered envelope, gazing at the Vayshore lord before accepting it with his telekinetic tendril, "Ahh... thank you," he spake, smiling politely, "I shall keep it safe."  The gift was tucked inside his robes, eyes raising to see Lord Jubjub, blinking some as the words sunk in, "So... future clients, then?" Gyr wondered quite amiably, "Perhaps we can speak on less tense terms, then."

Willa giggled and clapped excitedly.  "Well done, Gyr!"

Kthratharath, plate empty, wondered when the next course would begin.

    Lord Jubjub's head bobbed in something like a nod.  "Yes Gyr, you should not have much trouble finding the City when the time comes.  Otherwise we should send someone to your guild hall." he turned towards Eldos.  "On behalf of myself, the Lords of the City and the Order I would like to thank you all and especially the hosts of this fine dinner for their grace, company and delightful food!" Lord Jubjub announced.
  "Now before I depart I would like to toast to you and leave you with a blessing." the Vayshorian lord added tapping a goblet to draw the attention of the servitors.  A command from Eldos had the automatons refilling glasses around the table.  Much to Lord Jubjub's cheerful delight.
  Once the glasses where each filled Lord Jubjub held up his glass and said "At the end of a Penance we say to the penitent: 'Go forth and sin no more.'  May you have the fortitude and the wisdom to forthrightly confront evil and defeat it." he toasted to nervous chuckles and clinking of glasses around the table.

[I'm going to wrap up the dinner next post and move on to the next day and the events around leaving for the citadel so if you want to say something to Jubjub now is your chance and if you want to do something during the evening before the next day now's also the time to consider that.]

    Taking one long drink for the glass Lord Jubjub returns it to the table as he rises and pushes his chair backwards in the process.  "Enjoy your dinner!" he cries as he stands back from the table and leaps into the dark sky.  Loud flapping coming from the direction he had leaped towards.
  Though startled those seated around the table settled down in the next few minutes.  Some short conversations breaking out, tentatively testing to see if things were indeed safe again.  Eldos cleared his throat and spoke to the company.  "I think everyone here now thoroughly understands the dangers of the current age in ways we could not have previously guessed at.  Let is hope that there will not by any more surprises of that sort this night.  Please everyone, rest, relax and enjoy the dinner."
  The remained of the dinner party passed without much excitement or incident.  The remaining courses were delicious but the incident with the Vayshorian lord had put a damper on the mood for most at the table.  Despite several attempts to raise spirits once more.
  After the dinner the adventurers returned to their hut and made ready to rest for the evening.  Stories had already begun spreading of the events at the dinner itself.

[The party receives 3 Fame, 1 Fortune token and 175 Experience points for making it Role-playing Encounter Distinguished Guests!]

   Upon entering the hut Morrey kawed loudly before settling on Gyr's head in one swooping glide.  Carefully wiggling himself into Gyr's hair.
  Your rugged, curious guide was happy to see you all and asked "So how did the dinner go?"

The Ulh was relaxing with his feet propped up, eye peeking through the shag of his mane to find a troublesome bird land so cavalierly upon his antlers, and then hop down to comfortably nest; Gyr smiled and folded his paws on his stomach as he digested his meal.  "Went right swimmingly," he projected and then appropriately gestured, "We've some future clients and Drex is still amongst us, as you can see.  Did you manage to catch any of it?" Gyr asked, glancing up once more.

Willa was maybe looking a little paler than usual as she noted that there "was soooo much food!" before dropping down onto her bedroll.  Then, propping herself up she grinned:

"Was many faces!  Not faces, also. Much new friends!  Uh, maybe?  Oh, also also Gyr won game!  Drex prize!"  She looked at Gyr in confusion, "Drex Gyr's now is?"

Kthratharath made a mental note to be extremely cautious when making bets in card games when playing with Willa. He coiled himself up as best he could in his little corner, ensuring his back was to a wall at all times.

    Volon had gone around a partition to dress himself in his dark armour again.  Once back in his armour he held the folded clothing he had worn and paused just out from the partition.  Staring at the bundle.  After a long moment he looked around for Phelan and made signs at the narayan with his hands. 
  While Volon had been changing Kalanc answered Gyr "No, nothing at all I had been making sure my handy work with this hut had been up to snuff.  After all I hadn't been entirely sure you'd come back so I'd not made sure the structure would last for long.  Now though-" he thumped a wall with the broadside of his hand "-it'll hold for a few weeks, unless we got some savage winds up here but I doubt it."
  Shortly after Volon signed to Phelan, there was a knock at the door.

[For the sake of keeping things tidy, here is a Correction.  For the Major Quest of Exploring the Weyr the party should have received 1050 Experience Points. (split six ways that's 175) This was accidentally handed out instead for the last encounter.  The party has received an additional 175 Experience Points (29 experience points for each player) which should have been the dinner party reward.So in total, for this chapter you should have gained 204 experience points, each.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:35, Thu 08 Aug 2019.

Kthratharath uncoils and opens the door, making sure to loom just the right amount.

As Kthrath answered the door, Phelan cocked his head to the side, watching Volon's hands. He went to answer, then paused before his eyes flickered slightly in realisation. "Right, I do have something. Hang on."

In the blink of an eye, he had reached into a pocket in his cloak and brought out a backpack that had no business fitting in there, let alone being retrieved so quickly. "Will this suffice?"

    Volon carefully took the bag from Phelan, examining it before he opened it up and put the dinner clothing within it.  Then he found an unused spot in the hut and put it there and sat himself down there next to it.
  Amera stood on the other side of the door, she had pealed off a little earlier when you had left the dinner and said she would meet you back at your hut.  She was carrying a rather full looking satchel.  As you opened the door she said "Gearcaster Drixos, I'll require your assistance in performing a ritual to turn this-" looked around the hut "-quint frontier housing into a more suitable outpost."  She looked around at the rest of the party as if only now deciding they needed to be informed.  "Oh and you may want to stand clear of the structure as its about to be remade." Kalanc's look soured immediately and he seemed about to say something when another thought clearly played across his mind.

"Yes, General." Phelan responded, eyeing the satchel briefly before looking around. "She's right. Staying inside the building during the ritual could be... Problematic..." He had been turning his eyes over each of his allies before pausing briefly upon Gyr, his face taking on a thoughtful expression.

"General... What type of outpost are you considering? Observation or defensive? Short term, long term, self-sustaining?" The question comes out slowly.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:37, Tue 13 Aug 2019.

Relaxed (and literally bird-brained) as he was, Gyr let his eyes wander the homely abode provided by Kalanc as he finally had a chance to appreciate it.  "This place could handle such harsh winds, methinks, and it's certainly one of the more comfortable huts I've had the pleasure of resting in," he generally projected if directed more towards Kalanc.  His eyes shimmered with possibility, clouded over just a bit as he imagined the further potential of such a fine foundation (nothing he hadn't done before while globetrotting).  There was someone at the door, "Hello, hello," he absentmindedly greeted with a wave of his paw, a wave of his paw which then directed at his coat (which was removed and slung over a nearby chair) so that his telekinetic tendril might reach inside and draw from its folds a set of wood-&-crystal windchimes, they dangling and and clanging their natural aetheric sounds.  "Yes, perhaps a bit of Dowsing Rod over there with Portend Weather," he'd envision, not even looking at the floating chimes as he plucked a ritual from them to be held like cards in his paws, smiling wide, "and even Traveller's Camouflage... oh, we can't forget Traveller's Feast-" and then stopped.  Confusion filled his features upon examination of the peculiar combination of rituals that he usually never used for his usual hovels, opting instead for Bloom and Create Campsite, or even Water Walking if he was feeling particularly fanciful.  The Ulh's eyes directed where his ears pointed as he smiled, "Oh, Amera, how long have you been here?" he tele-asked.

"Yes Gyr, I know you're a ritualist." Phelan remarked absently as he awaited his superior's response, retrieving what appeared to be some sort of toolkit from within another pocket of his cloak.

    Amera looked at Gyr briefly before returning to Phelan, "Mid-term, mostly diplomatic but secure and a one-way backdoor for escape should it become necessary.  Our hosts are amicable now but its only because they need someone to help them.  Mister Gyr, I presume, if you can cast as you say than you are welcome to help if you are willing to obey my orders."

The kaetyma had been mostly silent in the wake of the feast. Perhaps he was still stunned about the events that had unfolded. He had remained quiet enough that weren't it for his physical presence, one could have forgotten that he was there at all.
However he followed the exchange between the casters and his eyes squinted a little bit. "Consider the defense well indeed. We still have to face a looming danger after all." He spoke in all too ominous fashion as his gaze went skyward for a brief moment. Though there was of course the ceiling of the hut in the way.

"While we set up, can you describe the required end product for the ritual, General? Capacity and such, since I daresay I'll be fueling that portion." Phelan queried of Amera, opening up the kit and going through it, frowning in thought.

    Amera opens that satchel and pulls out a scroll from inside upon which a hastily drawn schematic had been made in charcoal. She explained the drawing, showing a tall tower with a central staircase and rooms radiating from the stairwell.  Next to the tower is a box like building, only a little taller than it was wide.  While the tower would contain the barracks, storerooms and other miscellaneous rooms the 'box' (as Amera called it) would hold meeting rooms, offices and living spaces and have about three levels while the tower would have twice that many as well as a roof level where one could watch the surroundings from.
  A basement level also served as storage but contained a small area to keep anyone in need of temporary detainment.  "Any more questions or suggestions?"  Amera asked.

Gyr's ritual wind-chimes bobbed along in his wake as he approached the narayahan scheming, first biepdal and then comfortably on all-fours in the last few steps to crouch nearby (opting to leave his coat where it was).  The antlered noggin bowed as he inspected the mappings and thoughtfully stroked his mane, considering all which lay before his inverted view.  "I take instruction well enough," he somewhat boasted and then chuckled, "Don't be surprised if I go off on a tangent, though; some things just need to be made and I am only the one holding the tools."  The Ulh followed along as promptly as he could and considered his Bloom ritual, "Perhaps there is space for a garden?  'Self-sustaining' tells me of food production, it does," Gyr suggested.

Willa didn't understand most of what was being said, but she did remember the 'materials' that the Narayah had been using in their rituals before.  She crossed her arms and took up as commanding a pose as the childlike blob could:

"Willa request:  Ritual no to use animals!"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:07, Sat 17 Aug 2019.

Phelan blinks slightly at his ally. "Willa... You've seen me doing rituals before. You know I wouldn't use animals."

He pauses briefly. "I don't really approve of living subjects as materials for rituals... And anyway, I suspect living subjects would probably cause more harm than good for this specific ritual even if we were so inclined."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Mon 19 Aug 2019.

Kthratharath held his tongue at that. In his youth he'd been part of certain... Rituals... And the subjects of those rituals, himself included, had most certainly been alive. However, he chose to remain silent as he did not think certain aspects of the Musadi lifestyle should be shared, and because he did not feel qualified to give Willa the "eels and the caves" talk.

It was one of the reasons he dreaded parenthood.

    General Amera smiled at Willa "Oh nothing I have in this satchel can be described as an animal.  I think Gyr would be able to identify all the herbs your fellows were so kind to provide me with." she said as she patted the satchel.
  "Now gather your things, Journeyman Phelan go and construct the circle for us and High Druid Gyr would you be so kind as to help me with preparing the components?" she then looked over at the rest of the party.  "Gather your things and put them outside beyond the perimeter of the circle."

[Gyr and a Phelan please make your Arcana checks for participating in the ritual.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:16, Mon 19 Aug 2019.

"Yes, General." Phelan responded as he finally retrieved whatever tool he was looking for. Runes flared along its length as his eyes briefly flashed with arcanima. "I'll be doing a three-point glyph, so the positions will be easy enough to find."

He trailed off outside and got to work. Rather than simply carving the glyph, which would take a lot of time, he cheated. Arcane energy swirled around his paws, tracing a diagram in the air before him. Gesturing, it soon took on a the form of a circle with a triangle within. Runes followed all the lines, and three smaller circles were outside each point, each with a unique set of runes. As soon as he was satisfied, he barked something in his native tongue and the arcanima infused in the image flared and vanished, before lines began getting carved in the surrounding ground. Runes appearing as each line went past until shortly after, the glyph and circle were present, large enough to encompass what likely would be the size of the outpost. Even as the glyph was drawn, the small Narayah made his way to one of the casting points.

Arcana Check: 30

"Aye, noted," the Ulh replied, slinking forward to grab up the General's box of components, his own still strapped to his waist as his rituals bobbed along behind him, "I s'pose if this shack we're buildin' needs to be livable, there should be somethin' livin' in it.  Rituals are like stews, they're good only if you use good stuff to make 'em."  The leonine chap plopped his big self down into a squat, spreading every sorted and organized component out before him in the dirt... and it was the dirt in which he sunk his claws to scoop up handfuls, squeezed into his fists.  From his own components were small sacks pulled, hovering with his telekinetic tendril as he combined the soil he breathed primal magic into and the arcane ingredients, lips moving with the inaudible growls of his druidic tongue.  In due time, a great pile of these bulb-like sacks were made and placed onto a blanket and -- seeing Phelan's circle glowing merrily in the ground -- he used his tendril drag it all along behind him; he reached into the ground with one paw and planted a bulb with the other, softly singing and smiling and encouraging the arcane-aglow component sack to grow to its full potential.

Nature: 23

    Having gathered their things, the adventurers and their guide stood outside as Phelan had finished his own work and Gyr was tending to his ingredients.
  The circle was rather simple.  A triangle joined three smaller circles which touched the edge of the larger circle which more that surrounded your hut.  Amera, Phelan and Gyr each stood in one and with a signal from each of them Amera took out a slender wooden baton from her belt.  She had closed her eyes while she was drawing her baton and was drawing in a deep breath.  Offering the baton up to the air she paused.  Waiting.
  The air was remarkably still for change.  Something thumbed.  Not the air but something within each of you.  The circle lit up like kindling to an inferno.  From that fiery glow stepped luminous beings who after a moment away from the glowing circle resolved into small shapes.  Ghostly narayans.
  These narayan apparitions made circles around each of the casters and the larger circle itself and began to sing.  Not any specific song, there were no words, only the vocalizations of almost five score of narayan spirits.  Directed by the flick and dance of Amera's baton.
  A circlet of flame burst existence over Phelan's head, though he felt no heat from it but could very clearly see the flames.  An equally impossible circlet of flowing water formed from the air over Gyr's head.  Startling him only with the suddenly loose droplets orbiting his brow.  This had not been discussed in the ritual and it was probably just best to power through it.  Strange things rarely appeared during magical rituals for any number of reasons.
  The air rippled around the site as ephemeral things appeared and with harmonious grace and lightning speed disassembled the hut.  The spirits were very clearly separated into three broad types.  Natural spirits, which resembled lesser elementals, animals, plants and insects.  Artisan spirits, composed of tools, machinery or abstract shapes.  Joined by spirits of magic, who were by far the most peculiar as they made of the objects of magic, instruments of the craft, and magical components.
  It was a this point were both Phelan and Gyr's attention glazed over for a while as their own spirit was drawn out to direct this host in the fashions required for their tasks.  Phelan's spirits worked to make the structure itself.  Transforming earth and stone into foundations and the skeleton of the building as walls, windows and doors appeared and inside the rooms themselves some furniture was produced by other artisinal spirits.  Gyr's spirits set about turning the earth in the area and sprouting greenery in sheltered courtyards and hardy bushes and grasses around the perimeter of the building Phelan was erecting. All while Amera was keeping the narayan ghosts singing their enchanting song.
  And before too long the work was done.
  The spirits withdrew as they had arrived and the narayan specters stopped their singing and vanished into the light of the circle and light an fire it was suddenly dark.  Smoke rose from ring and from the spell components used.  Only ashes remained of the latter.
  The new building, built from the hut, the earth beneath, the air around you and magic stood waiting for you to enter.  Gyr, Phelan and Amera were quiet exhausted by the activity and he two adventurers elemental crowns had vanished when the rite ended.

The final bulb was planted so Gyr clapped his paws and took his place at one of the three, circled-off points (he tried standing on one foot to remain in the circle, narayah-sized as it was, until deciding to comfortably straddle the sigil, instead).  His paws were raised to commence the ritual, claws gently flexed... and then reeled at the ring of water above his head!  Had he conjured that...?  The Ulh referenced his ritual windchimes for any notes on water halos but soon reasoned that it was the work of the ritual leader (and felt a little better about it).  As the magic began to flow -- arcane, mechanical, and primal combined -- so did Gyr begin his druidic casting: he straightened his back and thrust out his chest, breathing in the air to fill his lungs and exhale with deep, sonorous roars maintained for Ulhish throat singing, his windchimes clacking and ringing as his mane waved and antlers sparked with the natural energies.  The dance was slow and deliberate, claws hooking into the air and its magical contents to pull as though they were a veil or strings, directly urging the components pouches to grow into the spell with slow and wide tugging, followed by rapid gesticulations, as though weaving the threads of magic together.

When all was said and done, plants in their gardens or creeping up the walls in eye-pleasing patterns, the druid took a step back, into a squat, and then flopped back onto his rump, arms holding him up as he gently laughed in his post-ritual sweat.  "Always a satisfying activity," he telepathically huffed, chest rising with each breath, "Nothing quite like a hearty ritual to work off a meal!"