OOC: From the In Yenth thread.

Here is the last mark in the trail you followed.  The chasm lies not far beyond, dark in the forest's late afternoon shadows.

Thar has kept closely to his papers and compass. Carefully dotting the caravan's steps in his map; and marking down any points of vague interest he can spot in the geography.

When the caravan stops, he strides up to the front, spotting the last mask.
"So, this it ? This is where we're going to set up ? I wasn't expecting this much vegetation."

"That's very interesting." he says, peering down toward the chasm. "That can be the first thing we look into."
"Though, we'd have to wait until next noon to get a good look inside."

Zalbane will defer to their organized one, Nalla, for any specifics, but will help unload the wagons and get people into their temporary shelters.  With simple shelters and facilities up, she'll help unload the larger building materials and whatnot.

"Well, the vegetation is sort of good," she says to Thar.  "With all the trees so close we'll have some other things to build with.  That's not bad at all.  Though I'd like to see where that machine has wandered off to.  If something that big comes through here again it could squash us.  Oh hey, did anyone see a good water source nearby?"

The caravan crossed a small stream about a quarter mile back.  For anything more, additional reconnaissance would need to be done.

"Hmm... It's not that far to water, but could we cut a channel or make a water wheel or get a pump or something of the sort to make things easier?  Listran, any notions?" Zalban asks.  Water would be crucial for the community, and a quick source of water would be better for the nonce.  She could circle the area and seek out more, but for now they had a good number of people that needed water for drinking and washing, not to mention the livestock and possible farmland irrigation.

"Once we get our first shelters and all set up, in the next few days I'll search about for anything else useful: other water sources, plants for eating or other uses, beasts for hunting or avoiding.  And watching for what comes out of the gorge, of course," she adds.

The lead carpenter, Lemuel, looks back over the path from the stream to your present location.  "We'd need a lot of pipes to make that work at all."  He shakes his head and looks back at Zalbane.  "We'll see how much water we need, how much time we waste trucking it back and forth.  In the meantime, where do you want the first shelters built?  We can't get them built today, but we can at least unload the lumber in the right spots."

"Well, it was an idea.  Perhaps will come up with something later, once we have a better chance to find materials and come up with plans.  Perhaps there's some clever device that can be built to make bringing water easier.  But these are things for another day."

Zalbane will check with Nalla when the questions are posed about where things will go, as she likely had a layout and maps all ready.  Those in hand, Zalbane will lend her aid to staking out where the shelters will go, and then aid in removing the lumber.

By nightfall, Zalbane will take first watch so she can settle her nerves after long days of being alert.

Listran and Thar move the still-sleeping form of the late-comer off the back of the last wagon and help with the unloading process.  Tent sites are identified, as well as storage locations for the building materials.

The camp is neat, orderly, and functional, although not particularly defensible at this point.  The shadows of the canopy bring night quickly to the forest floor.

Zalbane will have two of her lights available to help illuminate the perimeter of the camp for those on watch.  She will take the last watch, as she likes to watch light return to the world with the dawn.

Having scripted the unloading process in advance Nalla leaves that to effectively run itself while she scouts the area for where everything needs to end up.

The site is at one end of the narrow gorge, which opens up to the east.  The northern side rises to a low hill.  The ground slopes away a bit from the gorge opening before resuming the rolling surface of the forest itself.  With the removal of a few trees, the main construction should easily fit in this area, and the ground seems stable, at least upon first inspection.

In the deepening gloom of twilight, the gorge itself is a black maw in the forest, swallowing all light and revealing nothing of its depths.

The carpenters set up the tents and stockpiles according to Nalla's plan, along the perimeter of the open area where the main building is intended.

The night passes quietly, and those on watch note no strange noises or movements or lights.  The gorge remains a pool of deeper blackness beneath the trees.

Still, in the light of morning, one of the carpenters is found to be gone.  He and his bedroll are simply missing from his tent.

Zalbane goes to find her fellows, Nalla, Thar, and Listran, to report the missing carpenter.  "The watch reported nothing all night, but now someone is missing!  I was going to see if they could be tracked; maybe they just didn't want to be here as much as they said."

Zalbane will go to talk to those who were around the missing carpenter, seeing if anyone saw them leave, and then try to see if there are any tracks from their place of rest, and if any in what direction they go.

OOC: Taking flex skill of tracking today.
08:20, Today: Zalbane rolled 9 using 1d20.  Tracking (T).
08:20, Today: Zalbane rolled 9 using 1d20.  Perception (S).

The ground around the tent that the carpenter slept in is littered with fresh footprints from yesterday's activity.  No tracks seem to lead away from the campsite, neither human nor otherwise.

Acting on a hunch, Zalbane moves to the gorge with care.  Using one of her lights, she examines anything she can about the gorge.

OOC: Perception (S), 1 level of Effort for free (being as I have 3 Edge) -
02:44, Today: Zalbane rolled 10 using 1d20.  Perception (S).

Again there are no fresh footprints here, although the ground is much rockier, so it might be more difficult to tell.  There does seem to be a passable trail (an intentional path?) along the northern side of the gorge, that leads down well below the precipice.  The gorge itself seems to be silent at this time however there is a sense of ... energy?  Zalbane can only just notice it on the edges of perception, and is at a loss to define it, but there is ... something ... that seems to permeate the area.

Zalbane backs away and quickly reports to the others.  "I know we haven't had time to explore much, but considering what we know, I thought it prudent to check the gorge.  There is a trail on the north side, and there's a energy within it I believe.  I can't get more specific than that, but I do believe something is there.  I'd like to examine it further, but I don't want to leave the camp undefended."

She looks to Nalla and the others for their ideas and opinions.

Fallen ill during the journey, it was only now that Tacita awoke from what seemed like a coma. Having been put into one of the carpenters tents she quickly awoke from her 'coma'. Now, after another day, the delve was finally feeling better. Very good actually, far better than she would have thought. Curious how that worked.

Now she was standing in front of the tent with the people nurturing her.

She created a rose in her hand, small and bright rose. Then she let go, letting it float in the air, and let it grow. Larger and larger the rose grew, now with mists of colours swirling around it. Then at the height of it's growth, it burst open into hundreds of butterflies of all colours. As a stream of them fluttered low around her, she did a backflip right over them. The swarm surrounded the carpenters swirling in an intricate dance around them.

Suddenly it was all over. The young woman bowed in gratitude, the carpenters applauded with joy and they all took their leave. It was the least and the most she could do, having little resources left after delve Airk let her go to join the expedition. Then she left to approach the arriving mutant and the awaiting group.

As she walked, her clothing changed from the bright but practical clothing that was her adventure gear to a bright yellow wide tunic of an very light fabric. The fabric flowing as she moved, yet not always obeying known laws physics.

Now that she was finally joining the group Prelate Mez had organised, her mist swirling in exciting colours, blue, purple and red.

As an answer a translucent cube of mist appeared in Tacita's hand. Then an scene appears, with a small camp and a gorge not far from it. Silhouettes formed, dark and unrecognizable with four near the gorge, a couple more around the encampment. Then two of those silhouettes near the gorge changed; one changed into a young woman with swirling colours around her and a spear in hand. The other changed into a mutant woman with deep rose skin.

It appeared the young woman was proposing that a small scouting party went ahead and the rest defend the encampment. With an exciting look she turned towards the mutant woman, looking for her approval. Then she turned to the rest of the group to look for suggestions.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
I am taking over Celeste's spot on the expedition, please don't mind any continuity errors.

---

Momentarily distracted by Tacita's show, the carpenters return to their inspection of the camp, looking for signs of their missing comrade.  Soon, one of them turns with a curious expression on his face and walks toward Tacita.  He taps her solidly on the shoulder with a sausage-sized finger on a hand that dwarfs her own.

"You can do fancy tricks, girl.  Did you make Mustane disappear?  He got a family back in Yenth.  A wife 'n kids.  He ain't leavin' them, not for nothin'.  But he ain't here.  No sign he went anywhere.  So where is he?  Did you have something to do with it?"

The other carpenter pipes up from across the camp.  "Did she fake her napping so she could make him disappear in the night?"

Zalbane had been talking when Tacita finally woke up, and became alarmed as the workers turned hostile.  One of their own was missing, someone with particularly unusual powers had suddenly awakened, they were scared.

"Tacita!  You're better!  I found tracks near the gorge, and a path.  I think there's something worth investigating down there, maybe some more clues about Mustane's disappearance.  Gentlebeings, please, Tacita is not a kidnapper, she's just a show-off.  She didn't know Mustane was missing," Zalbane says.

Completely taken off-guard by the suspicion. With widening eyes Tacita holds up her hands and waves them front of her while shaking her head in an attempt signal that she has nothing to do with this.

She then moves closer to Zalbane, pointing at her while fiercely nodding in agreement. Eyeing the mutant, she sought eye contact and nudged her head in the direction of the gorge, probably signalling to go and investigate.

Or to get away from the suspicious workers...
This message was last edited by the player at 11:02, Fri 17 Jan 2020.

The craftsman raised one thick eyebrow.  "We're watchin'.  And we're lookin' for Mustane.  And we ain't building nothin' 'til we knows what happened to 'im.  So you best be looking for him, too."

He scowled at Tacita and Zalbane for a few moments more before heading back to his examinations of the camp for clues.  "You think the trees, maybe?" you hear him ask his peer.

The young delve stuck out her tongue the moment the craftsmen turned around and went about their business. She understood their apprehension because of their missing comrade, but she could fault them for their suspicious treatment of her. Especially since she was obviously sick throughout the night.

She turned towards Zalbane, shrug her shoulders and held up her arms in a 'what can you do' gesture. Another illusion appeared in her hand, a curved line with a question mark at the end.

Tacita seemed to be ready and eager to follow the other woman.

Zalbane heaves a small sigh of relief and turns to Tacita.  "We better work fast.  I didn't quite see any tracks, but I want to follow the path into the gorge at least a little way and see if there's any recent disturbances.  If not, we can backtrack.  There was a strange path through part of the trees like some great machine passed by somewhat recently, so we could see if that has any signs of Mustane's passage either.  Come on, let's go check the path first!"

If Tacita is agreeable, Zalbane will return to the path of the gorge and begin to slowly make her way along it, a light gleaming on the collar of her tunic for light, eyeing the path and the surroundings for signs of Mustane's passage... or the recent passage of anything or anyone else.