When the ghost appeared in front of her, Ailith jumped back, ready to run away and only relaxing when it was pretty clear that it wouldn't attack her. She observed its appearance curiously then listened attentively to what it said even though she pretty much didn't understand anything. Or almost nothing. Number - higher than nine it turned out - and directions. Other than that...

When it lifted its hand, she watched it cautiously, studying its anatomy... And wondering what it was. Three digits? It didn't look like anything she'd have expected or anything she was familiar with. As far as she knew, the interlopers had the normal number of digits and fingers, so...

Shaking her head, she focused once more on what it had said. Among the bits she had understood, there was the exact series of runes she had activated that had led to its appearance. It probably wasn't a coincidence. Was the rest of it some kind of instructions? Even if it was though... She had no idea what it meant so it wasn't like she could do anything about it.

Shaking her head, she played some more with the runes, then focused back on her need to find food. Her gaze stopped on the things she had thought were medicine. It had surprised her that anyone would leave something like that in a kitchen but... Maybe it wasn't medicine? And even if it was... Well, what was the worst that could happen? She picked a yellow one then after a brief hesitation, she put it back and place a red one on her tongue, only eating it if it didn't feel or tasted bad.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 82):

You play some more with the runes...pressing

South

East

West

gets an odd reaction.  There's a loud set of chirping noises that seem to carry on throughout the ship.  The lights in the hallway flicker up and down and then a voice..different, harsher...comes up

Izenek.  Izenek quon...Sethe Mok

There's another long series of chirping noises and then...everything goes back to the way it was.  No noise.  Lights stop flickering.

The yellow pills have a tart, acidic taste to them.  Not unlike the syrup of u sawlo flowers, but a little more bright in it's taste.

The red...you feel the pill dissolve on your tongue and the taste may be the most foul thing you've ever tried.  You end up spitting it into the puddle place.  The taste, which is like nothing you have ever had before, lingers.  It's working its way into your sinuses and...it's just nasty.

When she got the weird reaction for her last try at playing with the runes and heard the harsh voice, Ailith tucked her head between her shoulder, only relaxing a good minute after everything had been calm for a good minute.

After her second try of the weird pills, half blind from tears, she reached for the cold water rune and drank, spat, sputtered for a couple of minutes to get rid of the horrid taste.

After that, she decided she was not going to try the other pills and went to the other room.

The room across the hallway is obviously some kind of dorm.  There are a series of what must be bunk type beds lining the far wall.  Four of them, from one end to the other.  An odd shaped pillow is at the end of each bunk and a thin blanket of some kind of odd looking material is stretched across each one.

Under each bunk is a small chest, about as long as your leg.  They start just under the lip of each bunk and run back to the wall.

On the front of each chest is the same set of directional runes.

If you want to mess with any of the chests, I will need to know which one.  One, Two, Three, or Four.

There is also the ladder leading down at the end of the hallway.

Thanks

Ailith considered the chests for a while, and more particularly the runes on top of each of them. She was very curious to know what was in each of them of course, but considering what had happened the previous time, she wasn't all that eager to mess with them just then. Plus, while anything nasty happening in the kitchen had been unlikely - as long as one didn't consider the pills anyway - such was not the case for these: they were protecting the contents of the chests after all, so it seemed likely that something bad woul happen if she made a mistake.

With an unwilling sight, she decided to leave them be for the time being: she could always come back later on after all, it wasn't as if the chests would vanish overnight. She briefly wondered too why the runes were always the direction ones. They seemed very important for those who had...lived? Worked? Built? The...Well whatever this was.

Before she left to explore some more though, Ailith took one of the blanket things with her: if it had been good enough to be used here, she didn't doubt she'd find it mighty useful when she finally left and had to walk back to the village. Then, she went down the ladder. Surely there wasn't much left to see right? It couldn't be that big after all.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 86):

The blanket is like the uniform you put on.  It seems to want to stretch and cling to you, but not in a confining way.  It's also surprisingly warm.

The ladder is a short descent.  As your feet touch the ground below, light suddenly floods the space.

You are staring at a long, narrow hall.  Each of the sides are lined with...well.  What isn't it lined with?

There are glass windows like the ones you saw above.  Runes that are lit and winking now in various colors and hues. Mostly blues and greens.  A few in yellow.  One in an angry, insistent orange.

There are lines of some kind too.  Most are thin as string but a few are as thick as the branch of a sturdy tree.  All the lines run along the walls or hang from the ceilings.

The air down here has a different sort of smell to it.  It's like lantern oil mixed with musk.

There are a few pools of what seems to be reddish or black grease here and there on the floor.

Not far from the ladder is a large cabinet of some kind.  It is covered with glass windows.  Most are no bigger than your hand.  The windows are all alight.  Most just glow. But one near the top has symbols flashing on it.

East.

West

West

North

Ailith blinked when the light suddenly flooded the lower level. She turned on herself, surprised, then - wondering why she had though someone would be nearby - grumbled under her breath and explored the place a bit. She paused at the first obvious signs that something was wrong with the place. Granted, the upper level had been empty and not in pristine condition, but this was much worse: she was ready to bet that neither the smell nor the grease on the floor were supposed to be there.

For a moment she tried to identify the cause of the smell and the leaks, but refrained from touching anything: who knew what could happen if she did… She did however study attentively the cabinet thing. East, West, West, North. More directions… Glancing at the orange rune on the glass window, she wondered if maybe that meant that something was broken. Then were the directions a series of instructions, corridors to follow to the source of the problem? Or a place where she could fix the problem? Well, not her of course, but someone who had belonged? Or maybe she was supposed to activate the nearest corresponding runes?

Before she did anything though, she explored a bit: first to see if east-west-west-north meant anywhere, second to follow the lines running around the walls or the ceiling to see if any of those led to the orange rune: maybe following that one would lead her to something that mattered?

In the end though, she simply pressed the nearest runes she could find (starting with those on the glass windows) as indicated by the cabinet-thingy (possibly starting or ending with the orange one).

In reply to Ailith (msg # 88):

The smells and puddles and viney looking things all seem to originate from the same place:  somewhere behind the walls.  You find a small latch of sorts at one end of the hallway.  It looks like it slides a panel in the wall.  It seems to be rusted shut though.  Some elbow grease and grease grease should open it.

Tapping the E/W/W/N sequence on all available rune sets gets the same response:  a kind of angry sounding chirp.  It makes you think that whatever bird is chirping, they are telling you not to bug them.

If the E/W/W/N is to be put in somewhere, it is not down here.  At least that you can tell.

After her expérimentations, Ailith considered the latch for a moment. She was quite curious about it, but she suspected that not knowing much of anything about the place would make poking at it useless at best, detrimental at worst. Articulately considering that the kind of grease she had available wasn't really of a promising quality.

So instead of trying to open it, she went back up in the first "big" room she had found: there had been other windows with lots of runes: maybe those were where trying the E/W/W/N combination would work.

It didn't hurt to try anyway. Hopefully...

In reply to Ailith (msg # 90):

You head back up to the first door you tried and could not open.  There are directional runes on it.

East

West

West

North

There is a clicking noise.  Then the door slides to one side, opening on it's own.

Beyond is a small room.  There is a large window directly across from you.  Through it, you can see the murky river water outside this place.

Under the window is a long desk.  It runs the perimeter of the room.  There are more glass windows, runes, and raised bumps running along it.  Two stools with wheels on their legs are tucked up under the desk.

One of the glass windows to the left is lit.  It is the only one that is.

Flickering across it are more symbols.  But strangely, these you can understand.  They are writing in the temple tongue.

We are punched

We are punched

Sending to the mountain with the gray sky

We are punched

We are punched

Sending to the mountain with the gray sky

You are in danger

Leaving is South then South then North again

Ailith was pleasantly surprised when the door opened - very pointedly not trying to understand how - but a bit scared when she noticed the river through the windows. It was only a minute later that she started to move in the room, though glancing at the windows from time to time to make sure it wasn't about to break.

Soon however she focused on the lit panel and the blinking messages. She started by panicking anew when she understood what this was about, especially when it told her she was in danger. Soon however, she started to relax: all was calm after all, so she didn't think that message was for her but had probably been for the people who had been here when... Well, probably a long time ago?

Even more interesting was the fact that she knew that language, which was different from the one she had seen before. It was still weird, and she suspected that like the water / puddle one there had been some weird changes, but it was recognisable. Which, considering what it was, made her think about that apparition she had witnessed in the temple on her first day. Maybe she should try to go back there when she had the time...


After considering the all of that for a moment, she approached the long desk to study all the runes to see if she could make sense of some of them.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 92):

The first thing you notice is that the runes are better organized here.  The compass rune sets  of North/West/East/South occur in several places, but here they seem to be at regular intervals.  As if placed so a set of them was at hand no matter where you sat along the desk.

There are also groups of runes which correspond to numbers.  Zero to nine, with the prime numbers outlined in a sort of greenish glass.  These are also in runes you recognize as temple tongue and these number sets are located next to the compass sets.

The other groupings of runes you cannot make heads or tails of.  They seem to be clustered around one of the glass windows.  But what they mean...

You have no clue at the moment.

Ailith considered the two options she had: either leave, or experiment with the runes... Which wasn't without presenting some risks. Considering that at worst she had been yelled at when she did something wrong though, she decided to experiment a bit.

First,she tired the numbers - starting with the prime ones, after all if they had been highlighted there had to be a reason - then with the direction runes (and the East / West / West / North combination first?), cluster by cluster then trying to activate each direction on each cluster at one.

Only in the last case was she going to try the runes she didn't understand.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 94):

You fiddle with the numbers.  Some combinations make some of the glass windows light up.  The pictures they display vary but remind you of sections of the night sky.  Playing with just combinations of the prime numbers makes some of the runes surrounding the screens glow.  But they wink off after a moment and nothing seems to happen.

Using the trusty E/W/W/N just makes the door you came in shut again.  It opens on the same combination.

You hit all four simultaneously.  The whole room starts to shake.  At first rather violently.  Then it sort of settles to an odd thrumming hum.  You can feel the desk tremble slightly under your hand.  You hear a loud KRRRSSSHHH, coming from somewhere in back of the structure.  Then the shaking stops.

As you turn your attention to the other runes, you notice several of the glass windows on the desk are suddenly lit up with an urgent red light.  Some runes you don't know the meaning of are flashing on them.

From somewhere, you can scent the smell of smoke.

Ailith froze when she heard the noise and the felt the vibrations, then started to relax... Until she smelled smoke: turned out there could be much worse than being yelled at by some disincarnated voice.

Swearing profusively, Ailith rushed out of the room to try and find the fire: she hadn't seen much that would burn so she hoped she'd be able to stop it, but she had to do it fast.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 96):

There's smoke arising from the lower level.

Climbing down the ladder, you can see the smoke is streaming from one of the grease puddles.  Something seems to have caught it on fire.

It isn't close to any of the other puddles.  But sparks are flying upwards.  You need to find something to use to put it out.

One the one hand, things weren't looking good - a fire wasn't really a good sign after all - on the other, it could be worse since it was pretty localized and didn't seem about to propagate elsewhere. Still, it wasn't something she could ignore…which left her racking her brain on finding a solution to put it out.

Quicly, Ailith went back up: there was some water in the kitchen thing. Quickly though she dropped that idea: not that she knew - or even suspected - that water was definitely not the way to go to put out a grease fire. No, it was simply that she couldn't take the time to look for a recipient for one, and for two - and more importantly - carrying a recipient while she went down the stairs was bound to be hazardous at best.

Instead, she picked another blanket and drenched in the sink. She really didn't want to ruin it - it was an inestimable treasure after all - but she hoped that if quickly applied to the fire, it'd allow her to suffocate it quickly and easily…while preserving the blanket itself.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 98):

The water seems to bead off the blanket.  After a while, the blanket is damp but not soaked.  This fabric doesn't absorb water well.

You get it damp enough to make it worth a try.  Rushing down the ladder, you try to smother the flames.

It works.  It works really well.  The blanket doesn't singe.  It seems to wrap itself around the fire and snuff it out without much of a fuss or worry.  When you pick it back up, it's hot to the touch.  And the fabric is blackened.  But it hasn't started to burn.

With a relieved sigh, Ailith leaned against the nearest wall, taking a few seconds to breathe. Pretty soon though, she took the blanket and brought it to the sink in kitchen: she was really glad that it hadn't burned, but she wanted to give it back its pristine condition. Or as much of it as she could.

After that, Ailith considered what she wanted to do then: she was sure there was a lot left to be seen and learned from the place, but that incident had made it really clear that stumbling around trying to randomly activate things was just calling for a disaster. She didn't want to leave things as they were - she was far too curious for that - but doing anything else would be too dangerous.

No, her only option at the moment she thought was to learn as much as she could of the Temple's language: while it didn't seem to be an exact match to the one used in this place, it might still help quite a bit. Or at least she hoped so, she really wasn't an expert on the subject. As for how she was going to learn it… Well, she could start by going back to the tomb she supposed… It wasn't like she was expecting much of it, but if she didn't she was going to wonder, so she might as well do so. After that… Surely there were people in the village who could teach her.

That posed a real problem though: how was she going to justify it… and what should she say about what she had found… and to whom. In "normal" circumstances, she wouldn't have hesitated much. Oh, granted, she'd have been afraid of being kept away from the place while adults took control of everything. While it was still a true concern, it paled compared to the other problem: the presence of the Interlopers made things more complicated. While she hadn't ever seen any of them, from what she had heard they didn't look like anything she had seen here. Which meant that, whatever this place was, it wasn't directly related to them.

And considering the rumors about a village in contact with them being wiped out… She was pretty sure she couldn't risk the Interlopers learning about this place. On the other hand… Could she keep quiet about it? Could she tell Master Yovo? Though now that she thought about it… She didn't really need to decide anything right at that moment now, did she? She could just go to the tomb, and see where it went from there.

Her decision taken, Ailith gathered her clothes - she'd have to change into them before she reached the village after all - as well as the blanket, she went back to the entrance-thing. She needed to leave the place, and if at all possible, to catch up to Ozcow before he told anyone anything.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 100):

You plug in the combination and the door that sealed you in this place comes open.

There's a buzzing noise as you climb back into that first small alcove.  The door slides shut behind you and soon, that outer hatch comes open.  The river rushes in.

Even though you prepared yourself, the chill of the water is like a hammer falling against your skin.  The robe you put on from the cabinet suddenly feels warmer.  As you swim towards the surface, you feel the chill being kept at bay, at least wherever the clothing touches you.

You haul yourself onto shore.  Ozcow is nowhere around.  How long has it been?

Your own clothes got soaked.  Changing into them now will chill you.  Though you should be able to put them on over the cabinet robe and hide the fact you are wearing it.  The warmth and snugness are comforting.

As you stumble outside, you can see the sun has set.  The camping site is empty.  Ozcow must have packed up and headed for the village.  He couldn't have much of a headstart.  If you hurry, you should be able to find his camp site.

But what will you tell him?

---

You spy Ozcow's campsite two hours later.  He must have left later than you thought he did.  Perhaps he spent time looking for you.

You see him huddled by a small fire, scratching his head and sighing.

I'll let you handle the approach to good ol' Ozcow.

Let me know if the game is working out alright for you thus far.  Anything you'd like to see more/less of?  Things still on track with your expectations?

Thanks

Ailith was mightily relieved to have found Ozcow before he reached the village. She didn't go to him straight away though, once again considering her options.

The first one was to simply say nothing of what she had found and invent some story about her finding a cavern and having been dragged away by the current or something. The advantage was obvious: he wouldn't know anything. The inconvenient was of course that she couldn't ask for his opinion for one, and that he probably was going to talk to anyone and everyone about her "adventure". Which… well…

The second option was to tell him what she had found, and the advantages and drawbacks were pretty much the mirrors of the first option: she would be able to ask for his opinion, but she had no doubt that he'd be really tempted to talk. And considering how sensitive the subject was…

But maybe there would be a third option: not tell him what she had found, but admit that she had found something. It wouldn't be perfect since she wouldn't really be able to ask for his opinion about…well anything really. On the other hand, she might be able to ask him to be discreet and hope he would. Yes, Ozcow was chatty - and truth be told, she rather liked that about him - but as far as she had heard it had never been malicious.

Another consideration was that if she planned - somehow - to go back there semi-regularly, it would help immensely if she had someone to go there with her, someone she could trust. Which… pretty much excluded option one. Option two seemed a bit risky too, at least for the time being: when she knew more, maybe she'd tell him everything, but for now… No, for now, she'd go with option three.

Her decision taken, Ailith approached the fire. While she briefly considered scaring him - the face he would make! - she decided to be nice… particularly considering that she was going to ask him a bit of a favour… “Hey Ozcow!” she sat near the fire and held her hands to the flames, then grimaced as her stomach loudly reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything since the morning. “Uh, do you have something I can eat? I haven't had anything since this morning…”

“Sorry if I scared you, that wasn't my plan.” She hesitated for a bit,  “Like I said before I dove I found something, and it took way longer than I thought to look into it. There was air obviously, but it took me a while to come back up.” Wryly she smiled, “As you  obviously saw.”

For a moment, Ailith paused. “What I found is… It's important. Very important. But…” She looked Ozcow straight in the eyes, “But also very dangerous if the wrong people heard about it. As in ethk serious. And I wish I were exaggerating.” But considering the likely fate of the Old Burrows village…

She hesitated, then decided to stop there for now.

It's working out great :)
I was a bit confused at times in the ship, but that wasn't really surprising. Though I'm a bit worried I missed something important :o

In reply to Ailith (msg # 102):

Ozcow brightens visibly when you come into the firelight.  He's both thumping your shoulders and shoving some lukewarm vegetable root stew into your hands, all while looking you over for injuries.

He of course fires away with the questions.  But they all amount to the same thing:  what happened?

He listens to what you say and...doesn't say anything.  He seems to be thinking.

"Well.  At the end of the day...you're the boss.  If you don't want me to say nothin' I won't.  As long as you're not injured, then everything's fine.  But..."

He glances at you. "...well. I wanna ask what you found.  But I guess I can't.  Ethk type stuff isn't something I want to mess with.  Are you going to tell Matah?"

Ailith snorted when Ozcow mentioned that she was the boss: she was after all still at an age were any adult would consider himself her boss no matter what the situation was. Still, she appreciated the gesture. As for his question, she didn't answer straight away.

“I think I will tell you at some point.” She rubbed her chin pensively, “I'll probably need some help, and if you know it might be for the best. I just want to take some time to think about it and do it right you know. As for Master Matah…” She shifted on her butt uncomfortably, grimacing a bit here and there. Finally, she shook her head, “No, I don't think so. Not right now anyway. It's not that I don't trust him of course, I'd love to know his opinion.” Though she was afraid it'd mean he'd take everything away from her. “But he is too exposed.” Who knew what the Interlopers could do after all?

“I might talk to Master Yovo about it though.” Even then she wasn't completely sure about it, but given Master Yovo's reputation, she might be the safest choice. “Before that I'll need to go to the Temple. I saw some script in that language and I want to check a few things. By the way, do you know someone who could teach me all of it? I know a few words here or there of course like everyone I suppose but…”

“Oh and we'll need to find a good excuse for why we're late, one that doesn't draw attention. And doesn't make either of us look bad if possible… Maybe the Kels got spooked by a predator and it took us a while to get them back to the cart?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 104):

Ozcow listens and then laughs at your question about 'excuse'.  "No need to come up with an excuse!  We'll get home on time."

He points at the cart.  "I'll wake you up a couple hours before dawn.  You can climb into the back and get some more rest.  I can handle the cart myself.  If we leave early we should be able to make it back only an hour or so late.  That's not enough to cause any worry."

He stops laughing.  "I'm always for hire.  And I don't wanna mix up in your Master's business.  So I won't talk.  But if someone like Master Matah asks me...I won't say anything other than what I know."

He smiles again.  "But that's only if they ask real specific questions.  I won't volunteer anything.  And I won't talk out of turn.  All I ask is you keep me in mind for any more work. Fair enough?"

“Oh. Alright then.” Ailith nodded about how they were going to handle being "late". “That works.” Not that she was overly happy of being woken up before dawn, especially for what was likely to be a long day, but that wasn't anything new.

“I'll make sure no one has any reason to ask you anything for the time being then.” She smiled then, a bit amused, and nodded “And if I have need to hire someone, I'll be sure to let you know first.” That wasn't a big concession though: she had been pretty satisfied with him so had pretty much already decided to do so anyway.

As soon as she finished her meal, she yawned, obviously quite tired. “Well... See you tomorrow then...”