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15:11, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

[The Chronicles of Cress] 

Posted by GMFor group archive Z
GM
GM, 49 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Sat 20 Nov 2021
at 11:33
  • msg #1

[The Chronicles of Cress] 

For one moment you were in one place at the second you were somewhere else. Reality went sideways and your sanity too a break. The world kept spinning and you felt your body tingling your belly felt like someone was poking with white-hot pokers while you could feel ice cold fingers running across your spin.

Than it was all gone and you were alone, the world was spinning and you senses were muffled, fuzzy cottons in your ear, blurry sight. You glanced back and saw a large obelisk-like rock glowing from heat, for a few seconds you could see the world you came from without a warning the image changed into the infinity of space, quickly the rock cooled down and the stone changed again this time back into plain rough rock.



The sound of wave was the first thing that broke the fog on your muddled senses. Wave crashing down, over and over. Next was the smell, the strong smell of sea salt, the sun was shining warming you. The open sky above were violet... wait violet? you blinked your eyes trying to clear away to muddle but the image remain sharp. There was a small rock construct ahead of you, it was dark black with some sort of golden lichen growing on it.  Far ahead there were cliffs, most were marble white with steep climb but you could guess you could find a path across. Ahead was an open sea... or an ocean it was wide azure blue and wild. There was no sign of civilization anywhere.


This message was last edited by the GM at 11:36, Sat 20 Nov 2021.
Cress
player, 9 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Sat 20 Nov 2021
at 18:32
  • msg #2

[The Chronicles of Cress] 

[Intro Post]

She hadn't been expecting soft.  Not when the world went sideways.  Not when the air rushed completely out of her lungs, and reality got skewed.  She had expected to end.  Wink out like a candle snuffed out by the wind.  All the locks and mechanisms she'd worked through made sense.  It wasn't some elaborate riddle to prove you were worthy... it was a barrier intended to keep out fools.  And she as the offspring of the original fool had leapt through the rabbit hole after her predecessor with all the enthusiasm of the word Eureka!

No... not soft.  She opened her eyes and the glint of gold and silver was blurry and gaussian. Slowly the landscape of little grains took shape.  Cress lifted her head.  From there she lifted her shoulder and then sat up fully.  Pulling her glasses from the sand she shook off the sand and put the on her nose.

Her backpack wasn't far away, dug into the sand as if discarded by a impatient pickpocket. Crawling to it, she checked the contents.  The bag of journals was intact, the tangle of clothes, damp but there. Licking her lips she stood and took a long look at her surroundings.

The initial impulse to yell out dad!  It was strong.  Fifteen years and somehow her subconscious thought that he would be waiting on the other side of the door.  There were no footprints fifteen years old in the sand- she didn't even need to look.  At least there wasn't a door- a portal back.  Perhaps that had been her worst fear, that he'd simply not returned because.

"Dad!" she yelled it anyway, listening to her shout being swallowed by the crashing of the waves.  Cress closed her eyes and listened to the roar.  When the crash had subsided and the hiss of the water returned her shout to the sea, she picked up her backpack and headed toward the black construct.
GM
GM, 54 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Sat 20 Nov 2021
at 20:47
  • msg #3

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

The black construct was roughly shaped like a cube, it had lichen growing on it, the one on top were green but on its side they were golden. As Cress examined the construct she couldn't shake the feeling it was an altar, something of the way it was made although it looked natural... perhaps not an altar a memorial?


Cress
player, 10 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Sat 20 Nov 2021
at 23:15
  • msg #4

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Black against the violet sky with the azure sea in the background.  It was pretty especially with the green and gold.  There was a vague part of her that was relieved to see the purple sky.  She was somewhere else- that was possibility number seventeen on her list- multi-dimensional travel or number eighteen- inter-dimensional travel began the science fiction entries.  There were more specific possibilities, but right now she was comfortable with different planet- she wouldn't know for sure until the stars came out, or different reality.

As she walked around the... cube.  Cress licked her lips and moved her fingers on the rock trying to see if there were any glyphs or writing.  If it was an alter, usually there were symbols...
GM
GM, 60 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Sun 21 Nov 2021
at 20:36
  • msg #5

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

It took some moments until Cress found faded marking, perhaps a writing perhaps drawing perhaps both. At first she thought the altar must be very old than she thought again, the altar was set on face of a sea, the tide, salt and winds would corrode it very fast.
When exploring the the side facing the sea she saw what appeared like a drawing of waves and a person with uplifted arms, the rock above the hands was lose and she could pull it out if she wished.
Cress
player, 11 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Mon 22 Nov 2021
at 03:02
  • msg #6

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

She pushed her glasses up further on her nose as she peered a little closer at the etching.  Well this was the first of the artifacts she'd found.  Proof that there was sentient life.  She tilted her head, and culture.  Pulling out her journal she turned to a page and made a rough copy of the drawing. Returning the journal to the ziplock in her backpack, she turned her focus to the rock.

Alter, movable stone, out in the open.  She'd trap it.  Of course, it could also be shoddy workmanship, or tidal erosion, but she had been working on a giant puzzle box for the past three months.  After a little prodding and fumbling to see if there was any sort of trap, Cress reached for the stone.  Pressing her body away, to the side, remembering a certain acid scene in the Mummy, she will dislodge the stone.
GM
GM, 66 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Mon 22 Nov 2021
at 20:31
  • msg #7

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Perhaps Cress had seen the ancient Indiana Johns movies, perhaps she expected cunning traps. A gout of flame, or a poisoned dart. Instead in a rather anticlimactically moment, the loose rock fell to the sand with a wet thud.

Inside the little groove Cress found a pair of brass bracer, they were dirty and slightly on the tarnished side but once she cleaned them she could see that despite their storage conditions they were in serviceable condition.


Cress
player, 12 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Tue 23 Nov 2021
at 07:43
  • msg #8

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

It would have been cooler with a trap.  Cress smiled as she moved the stone to the side and then looked inside the cavity.  Pulling out the bracers, she let the faintest brush of a smile pass across her lips.  Nice.

Using a bit of sand and water to brush away the filth, Cress looked at the intricate detail of the bracers.  The artistry was quite remarkable.  She pushed up her glasses and tested them on her forearm.  That's where she figured they should go based upon their size and the way they were shaped.
GM
GM, 71 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Wed 24 Nov 2021
at 20:21
  • msg #9

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Cress wore the bracers, in tales the magical items the heroine finds always fit or magical shrink to size. It didn't happened with the bracers, perhaps they were not magical. What the bracers did had were leather straps, in dire need of oiling, that she managed to adjust and fixate it on her forearms.

Perhaps it was something in a reflection of light, perhaps a feeling of of a chill but Cress turned back to the pile of rocks.

Standing on top of it was a female creature, she was easily seven foot tall, her skin was composed of silvery blue scales, she had metallic silver hair and her eyes were orbs of glowing white and a pair of golden horns were spouting from her head. She had face pain or tattoos on her face, chest and arms. She was dressed in long billowing robes of dark green and even for a person from the moderate 21st century they were scandalous and overly revealing. She held one arm on her hip and the other saluting to the sky, on her forearms she had a pair of bracers pretty much like the ones Cress now wielded only in better shape. Her nails should be have called claws and were dark blue of color.



The female creature stood there motionless and without sound, holding her arm high above and the other on her hips.
Cress
player, 13 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Thu 25 Nov 2021
at 07:31
  • msg #10

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Okay... a Greek Warrior woman she wasn't.  Cress smiled, amused by her efforts of dress up.  Still it gave her insight into the culture that lived here.  First they were past the stone age into the bronze age.  They cured leathers which meant that there were animals here that could be skinned to be used as such and they had invented buckling.  They also were past the point of civilization to reach artistry.  The etchings on the bracers were proof of that.  Also clearly it was armor which meant that the civilization had either met with a conflicting civilization or that there were contests where those that wore such items needed to protect their forearms.  Forearms! she added another observation to the list- the creatures must be humanoid in order for her arms to... Uh oh.

Cress' eyes lifted to the alter, first noting the foot and then traveling higher and higher until she reached the woman's face.  Okay- that deserved a wow.  Carefully, Cress stood and turned fully to observe the woman.  A glance around the sand told her that the woman hadn't simply approached while her back was turned.  There was only one set of tracks approaching the alter.  So the woman had... appeared.  For a moment, Cress let her gaze drift toward the ocean where the woman was looking.  She licked her lips, ready in case the alien...er... resident (Cress was the true alien after all) decided to attack.

"Hello?"

If the woman does respond- Cress will greet her.

If the woman does not respond- Cress will tentatively approach, checking to see if the woman is visceral or not.
GM
GM, 76 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Fri 26 Nov 2021
at 21:34
  • msg #11

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

It didn't take long to figure out the woman wasn't real but a hologram, an illusion. It was a very crafty one because try as she might Cress couldn't find any machinery in the rock pillar that would result in the hologram. There was no light source and when she passed her hands through the thing it just reformed.

After something like ten minutes the woman faded and was gone. When considering it Cress thought that when the woman appeared her bracer got hotter, it was a spike of heat, nothing to hurt her but at the time she wasn't even aware of it. As long as the woman hologram was visible her bracer stayed slightly warmer, she didn't noticed it until the hologram was gone and the bracer returned to ambient temperature.
Cress
player, 14 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Sat 27 Nov 2021
at 14:35
  • msg #12

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Her fingers played through the light and illusion watching the colors swirl only to find their way back to form.  The lack of technology in the rock had her pulling at her lip.  So what was she looking at?  A refraction of the light, using mirrors required- well mirrors.  They were absent.  She supposed there might be enough water vapor in the air to create a projected hologram, but she almost laughed at herself for contemplating the idea.  Where would be the projection units.  This was hardly Disneyland.  No, this was something else, probably more akin to the portal than to some alien technology.  She didn't like the word magic.  It implied a lack of understanding and superstition.  A word for the illiterate or borderline crazy.

But...

What was it?  Cress twirled a tendril of red hair at the base of her jaw tugging it gently.  This was something, and it was tied to the bracers.  As the image faded and the heat crept out of the metal, she climbed up and sat on the edge of the rock. Her fingers slid over the metal, feeling the textures under her fingers.  She inspected them.  No cameras- that would have been ridiculous anyway. While she was inspecting the hologram... wrong word... hmmm... illusion... better... she was putting her hands and the bracers through the image.  That in itself should have caused some sort of disruption or distortion, but it hadn't.

The heat signified that the bracers were activated though... Some sort of thermal reaction to being used.  Cress chewed on her lip and moved to stand on the rock as the woman in the illusion had been doing.  The stance the woman had made was etched into the rock and repeated by the illusion.  Not actually copying the stance would be a forehead slapping, duh thing to do.  Besides... who was around to see?  It wasn't like she was standing in Times Square or anything.  Even then, people would only think that it was street art.

Cress smiled as she stood on the top of the alter.  It took her a moment to plant her feet right and then match her arms.  One at her hip, the second saluting the sky.  She twisted her hand held in the air first with the palm up and then with the palm down, trying to remember.  At last she looked out to the ocean and the violet sky.

If nothing happens, she will laugh at herself and return to the sand to pull out her journal and make notes.

If something happens... well she'll probably fall off the rock out of surprise.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Sat 27 Nov 2021.
GM
GM, 81 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Sat 27 Nov 2021
at 20:21
  • msg #13

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Cress climbed carefully climbed on the rock alter. She took her position and lifted her hand in salute. For a few second nothing happened and she was about to make some snide comment about gullibility of tourists or something of the like.

Suddenly something caught her attention on the top of the rock altar she was standing on was a circle of glowing runes. They weren't glowing before but now they were bright golden.

Once more she felt a wave of heat from the bracers.

Suddenly the beach changed, shifted like someone ran a brush on it. The sky turned overcast and changed hue to yellowish orange, the sea was foaming and the dark green waves were cruel and high. At the distance she could see a ship, it was a sailing ship and it looked ancient. It even had a pirate flag, black with a white skull.

On the beach there were four people standing back to back. The lady from before, she was wearing the bracer and a black leather armor. Next to her was a broad shouldered man, dressed like a pirate with the posture of command, his skin was yellowish green and instead of hair he had tentacles, long one for a beard and mustache. He was holding a wicked blade in one hand and a flintlock in the other. To their side was another female form, this one had golden fur and long black hair. She was dressed in a swashbuckler outfit and had the sword, hat and pistole to back it up her facial feature resembled that of a fox or a rat and she had a matching tail. The last member of the group was tall skin like steal with inhuman face, instead of hair he had multiple horns and he was build like a warrior, he held a large spear.

The four were standing back to back with weapon drawn, ready for combat.







Surrounding them were a dozen "people" most had red scale skin with long flappy ears and large orb eyes, some were pale white and pink bald with head like a star fish and large pale green oblong eyes. They wore blue and yellow colors and were dressed with dark leather, armed with swords, tridents and clubs.





The scene quickly erupted into combat, from the start the four were far better warriors than their dozen opponents. The large steel colored man used his spear to slam enemies away like they were dolls, the lithe fox swashbuckler appeared to be dancing between enemy thrusts sending lighting fast quick lethal jabs. The captain was commanding his crew, there was no sound just image so Cress couldn't tell what he was saying but he was fighting as well as commanding. The woman whom Cress wore her bracer was pointing her hands and a gout of flame erupted toward some assailant. She pressed the two bracer together and suddenly there were six of her.

The fighting while intense took only a minute or so, the next Cress saw the companions were gathered around the prone figure of the bracer lady. The captain was holding her in his arms, her clothing were soaked with blue purple blood that was staining the sand. She touched his tentacle cheek one last time staining them purple and than she was gone.

Above the group a message in blue fire appeared, it was a long text in a language Cress didn't know and couldn't even recognize the symbols.

A few moment later the whole scene faded and Cress found herself alone on the shore.
Cress
player, 16 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Sun 28 Nov 2021
at 06:16
  • msg #14

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

The breeze tangled little tendrils of hair against her cheeks as she held her hand high the other firmly planted on her hip.  She looked down noting the glowing runes under her feet.  Almost immediately she looked up at the bracers as they began to heat up.

Interesting.

She first noticed the change of the sky.  It was as if a stone had been cast into the violet and the yellow cascaded until the amber hues painted the sky.  Her eyes drifted down to the rolling green ocean and the ship.  "Ohhhhhh..." she said looking at the jolly roger flying against the sunset sky.

The movement on the beach made her turn to watch the battle.  The four that were backed together caught her eye and Cress couldn't help but stop the pose to look Her eyes fell on the woman with the bracers and she honed in on what she was doing.  It was clear that they were incredibly outnumbered.

The battle was impressive.  Cress lifted her hands to her lips as she watched the opening moves and the prowess of the four fighting in the center.  When the flame burst from the woman's hands Cress almost fell off the rock.  She watched the multiples appear, and she looked down at the bracers.  Her death made Cress kneel on the rock.  The actions of the captain was tender.

She looked up as the message appeared in the air, her eyes following the symbols.  When it all faded, Cress stood speechless on the rock.  For several minutes she simply stared at the site of the battle and then back to the ocean.  The sky was violet again.

As if being struck by lightening, she swore.  "Shit!" and jumped to the beach to grab her pack.  Pulling out her journal she began writing, trying to remember the runes she'd seen and their order.  At last she climbed upon the rock and copied down the glyphs in the top.  Breathing out she looked at them.  They weren't the same as the ones from the door.  Though that wasn't particularly surprising.

Climbing back down to the beach Cress walked to the sand where the battle had taken place.  For a moment she wandered the sand remembering the battle, walking where the woman with the bracers had been.  A bit tentatively she brought her hands around copying the movements of the woman when she had created fire.
GM
GM, 88 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Sun 28 Nov 2021
at 20:36
  • msg #15

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Cress was standing in the morning sun, the wind was blowing hard. It was a sea wind full of fragments of salty secrets.

She was practicing the motions the woman did but nothing happened, she did that again and again until she felt like a kid mimicking some super hero. Pointing shouting, was the woman shouting she wasn't sure, to no avail.

At one point she struck the bracer to each other like she had seen the woman doing. This did bring a change, there was a gong, strong and loud like a clear song. It was ringing inside her head, she could feel the bracers heating up, charging being ready to her command.
Cress
player, 17 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Mon 29 Nov 2021
at 00:12
  • msg #16

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Okay... yeah... it was stupid.  As she danced around on the sand she was aware of how stupid it really was, but then again who was going to laugh at her?  Granted she had just watched what was a battle between two very real groups.  There had only been one ship, so the logical jump was that the other group was in fact residents of this land.  Did that make the larger group some sort of militia?

Cress moved into the next section of the battle.  While fire would have been cool, come on.  Things were starting to get shaky in her memory, but walking the battle made her think through things.

A militia indicated that there was some sort of civilization here?  That would make sense for the ship as well.  Of course, she wanted to slap herself- that completely depended on the Jolly Roger being the same symbol here.  There were people involved in the battle who were lacking mouths.

She brought her arm around striking the bracers together and was startled out of her thoughts by the tone.  Cress stopped feet deep in the golden sand as she looked at the bracers.  As the metal began to heat her eyes went a little wide.

Now what...

The connection had obviously done something.  They were growing hot like when she had seen the battle, and... the woman had brought the bracers together right before she made multiple copies of herself. So...  Soooooo....  Communication? While that was true of the recreation it wasn't true of the battle.  There was only one common denominator between the alter, the recreation, and the illusions of the woman- they were in fact all illusions.

So... Illusions?  But... how?  There were no buttons or indentations.  Had the woman said anything? She couldn't remember- she didn't think so.  Okay there was an easy way to test.  Thought and speech could be done at the same time.

Focusing she extended the bracers and said "Cat".  At the same time she pictured a yellow and gold tabby cat that had frequented the apartment building where she had rented her cubical.  It was the last living thing she had seen before coming here unless you counted rats and birds.
GM
GM, 96 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Mon 29 Nov 2021
at 20:45
  • msg #17

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Cress tried to hold to the image of a cat in her mind, it was more difficult than she expected. Especially when the thoughts of rats and birds started to invade her mind.

Floating in  the air in front of her was a cat, it was licking its paw on invisible ground six feet higher. Than the image blurred and the cat tail turned into a rats tail, the fur got darker than turned into feathers.

The image wobbled and than collapsed into pinpoints of light that dissipated. The bracer on her hands returned to the ambient temperature.
Cress
player, 18 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Tue 30 Nov 2021
at 06:52
  • msg #18

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

She really, really in her heart of hearts did not expect to see the cat and she definitely was not expecting to see the rat tail slink out of it's back or the discoloring of the fur or the feathers.  By the time the image disappeared, she was breathing in, eyes wide, and mouth agape.

Did that actually happen?

"Did that just... did they... did I?" The last word came out in a squeak.

Granted she'd just walked through a bronze door under a rollercoaster onto an alien planet with a purple sky, but apparently her mind stopped working at illusionary cats.  Taking a moment she paced in the sand running her fingers through her hair.

"Did...?"

She turned in the sand and looked back at the rock.  "I did... I mean it was them, but I... IT WAS MY CAT!"   She had no idea who she was talking to, but it needed to be said.  "Holy Shit!...Fucking Hell!"

Okay granted she hadn't been able to hold it, and it had gone wildly wrong in the end.  But that was... that was... what?  It wasn't science.  That cat was in her head and so was the rat and the bird which had turned the cat into a sort of nightmare in the end.  It was possible that it was some sort of Alien technology.  Cress could feel reality beating her over the head.  It was Magic.

Okay Magic or at least something she couldn't comprehend that could only be described as magic.  That's when she started laughing.  She'd done magic.

"Wow," she couldn't help smiling and doing a little turn on the beach.

After several minutes of just sheer glee, Cress brought her fingertips to her lips.  It was all well and good, but it was obvious she'd need practice.  Obviously the rat tail and the feathers were because her focus was all over the place.  She'd need to practice things.  It only made sense.  All good things came with practice.

Cress remained with the alter until she was certain she'd discovered as much as she could about it.  At last she looked toward the cliffs.  She needed to get over the cliffs before nightfall.  Shouldering her backpack, Cress began the walk toward the cliffs.  Along the journey she'll practice with the bracers trying to keep a solid image in her mind and testing the time limits of the illusions.
GM
GM, 102 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Tue 30 Nov 2021
at 20:38
  • msg #19

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Cress was pleased to find that the cliffs were not difficult to traverse and that very quickly she found herself on a flatland at the edge of a forest. She could see marking of an ancient crossroad, one branch lead south the other led west.

Try as she might she was unable to activate the bracer again, it seemed to have ran out of juice.
Cress
player, 19 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Wed 1 Dec 2021
at 07:23
  • msg #20

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Morning Violet

Looking back from the rise at the beach, Cress tucked her hair back so it stopped blowing in her eyes.  Facing forward, she could see that the higher land was much more preferential to the beach.  It was interesting- in the illusion battle the larger group must have come down through here?  So that meant that the smaller group, saw them coming and thought that they were stronger.   Cress looked at the bracers- then again maybe they teleported or apparated in.  Anything was possible if there was an entirely new quadrant of physics out there- or maybe it should be considered metaphysics?  Yes, that word worked better.

So the bracers had a power limit- Cress pressed her lips together.  She had to wonder if this was a power that was inherent to the metal itself- a sort of storage capacity of the metal, or whether she was the energy element.  It was well known that the human brain was able to generate significant levels of power.  It would make sense if an alien technology was able to tap into that source.  It was also a good chance that an alien species may have a more highly developed generation of said energy.  It was all things to ponder.

Pressing her lips together, she removed the bracers and put them in her backpack.  She would let them be for a time and if they were usable after a period- perhaps that would give her a clue to what their power source actually was.  If they weren't working after the rest period, she would put them on and see if being in physical contact activated them immediately or whether she had to wear them for an extended period of time to charge them once more.  Of course, there was always the possibility that they simply had one charge and she was incompatible other than to activate them?

She hiked the flatland keeping an eye out for water sources or potential food.  When she came to the crossroad, Cress looked both ways.  Choosing the western path, she continued her trek.
GM
GM, 116 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Wed 1 Dec 2021
at 21:23
  • msg #21

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Day Violet

The day was warm and Cress walked with the sea at her north, she could hear it crushing on beach. She kept walking on the upper ground at the edge of a forest.

She didn't find anything of worth to eat or drink, perhaps if she invest more time into searching she would find more.

The sun was high in the sky when she saw far ahead the lake, it was a small lake but what caught her attention was the building. Curved from the inside of a rock, white marble blocks and azure blue roofs the building was large housing easily hundredths of people. There were no antennas or signs technology. There were ruins around the building, signs of aqueducts and towns across the lake all in ruins. The old road was heading toward the structure and by her guess she would reach it by evening.


Cress
player, 20 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Thu 2 Dec 2021
at 07:13
  • msg #22

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Day Violet

Cress paused on the peak looking down toward the crystalline waters of the lake. The purple sky reflected against the blue waters making the entire mirrored surface a strange iridescent shimmer.  What she saw took her breath away and it wasn't just the landscape.

There was a civilization.  It was fresh and real and glimmering and goddamn it if it didn't look like it was a fairytale.  She almost stumbled.  It took everything in her being not to try and place the architecture with some classical period.   It was just the way her brain worked, but if she had to guess, it was a civilization that was still pre-age of enlightenment back on earth.  Her eyes scanned the ruins and the village, drifting up to what she assumed was a fortress or castle.

Everything indicated some sort of governing system- possibly a caste system.  Taking off her glasses, Cress cleaned them on the edge of her shirt.  She thought perhaps to check the bracers, but discarded the thought.  There would be time enough to experiment with them.  It was getting late and if she wanted to avoid sleeping out on an alien landscape in the open- within a stones throw of a village- she should get moving.  It would be best to show her presence rather than be found.  Especially if the residents looked like the ones in the vision.

Shouldering her backpack, she began walking toward the bit of civilization, careful about her approach.  While it looked all in ruin- there wasn't anything saying that it couldn't be inhabited.  There were plenty of places back home that proved just because something wasn't pristine it didn't mean that it wasn't housing life.
GM
GM, 125 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Thu 2 Dec 2021
at 07:53
  • msg #23

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Evening Violet

The structured seemed close but it took Cress the rest of the day to reach it. It was summer here and so despite it was late in the day the sun was still high enough to give light.

The village was empty deserted, there were signs of violence everywhere, burn marks and holes in the building, some of it resembled bullet holes and explosive damage, other building were cleanly sliced off. There was no sign of bodies, skeletons or any other remains, nor was there any possession, in a casual glance, left.

The closer she came to the structure the more it reminded her of a gothic church, in brighter colors, there were statues of monsters spread at different locations like gargoyles she had seen on earth.

At the gatehouse there was a lone figure dressed as a monk, it moved toward her speaking in a guttural tongue she didn't understand.

When she got closer, she could see this was no human. He had dark though skin four set of eyes in a ridged face. He had four fingers each ending with a talon. The monk spoke to her again lifting his left hand to his shoulder level.


Cress
player, 21 posts
The planets align so rare
I am guiding you...
Thu 2 Dec 2021
at 14:01
  • msg #24

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Evening Violet

In reply to GM (msg # 23):

Hiking into... town... if you could call it a town, Cress looked over the desolation.  In a strange way it reminded her of the amusement park.  She wondered if somehow all the violence here might have caused the chain of accidents there?  Some sort of Karmic spill over?  Was such a thing possible?

Her eyes looked over the burn marks, noted the holes in the walls, and where the buildings and other structures had been blown apart.  She made note of it- carefully filing it away.  The culture here... or at least the former culture here was a bit more advanced than she first thought.  Proto Age of Enlightenment wouldn't have had these markings- at least not on earth.  This indicated that they had projectile weapons strong enough to damage structures... That was an advancement from what she'd seen on the beach and her mind naturally separated the two events.  If the civilization who had the swordfight had been attacked by a more advanced culture- well that would explain this... and would explain the lack of population.  It would be a slaughter on a Columbian age conquest level.

When she saw the figure Cress stopped.  She had just gotten used to the idea that she was walking through a ghost town and well... the appearance of a figure well almost made her jump out of her skin.  She'd been prepared for different- alien- once again she was the alien- she reminded herself, but his appearance still made her mind just ever so slightly feel like it was sliding to the side.

After a moment of staring, she noted his clothing.  The robes indicated some sort of clergy?  When he spoke she lifted her eyebrows.  It wasn't a language she knew or close to it.  She was immediately intrigued and inwardly smiled. Hollywood could go suck a egg!  Aliens who all fluently spoke English!  Ha!...

You're the alien, she reminded herself, and you do speak fluent English.  Damn.

The first thing she noted with the raised hand was the claws... huh.  The second thing she noted that it was a raised hand.  Though out centuries it was a greeting gesture.  "Okay," she said and lifted her hand as well-  First Contact indeed.  "Hello," she said, her voice even though she was pretty prepared to sprint away if need be.  Of course, that had a higher probability of her falling on her face than it did actually escaping any sort of threat, but heck even the smallest animals new to scurry when a thing with talons swept in. Sometimes the mouse got away.

"My name is Cress," she said, and then for lack of anything better to say, "I come in peace.  Um... I'm looking for my father."
GM
GM, 130 posts
The Deep Above
The High Below
Fri 3 Dec 2021
at 00:49
  • msg #25

[The Chronicles of Cress]  Evening Violet

The monk measured Cress for a long moment and spoke again. He tried a different tongue with the same result.

He pressed one hand on his chest saying Truusqix several times until Cress was sure it was his name. Once they exchanged name Truusqix to enter the dark building.

He spoke again, alternating between the guttural language and one more fluent as he kept motioning Cress to enter.
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