Ghosthands

Managed to get a quick post written for Mangai Quest people. I'll see if I can squeeze some time together for other interactions later today.

IC Again the shuddering hiss of 'laughter' emanated from the creature. "YOU KNOW HIM. ALL KNOW HIM. WE SEE IN THE THRALLS' MINDS: FEAR, YES, YOU FEAR HIM, THINK HIM TERRIBLE...BUT ALSO THINK HIM DEAD..." It paused, and made a guttural noise that sounded pensive. "WE DID NOT THINK HE WOULD DIE...DID NOT THINK HE COULD. MAYBE YOUR MINDS LIE." "THEN," the creature replied, "WE GROW. REACH OUT UNDERNEATH, THROUGH EARTH AND STONE, AS HE DESIRED! WE WILL DO WHAT WE WERE MADE TO DO, AND SHOW HIM WHO MADE US THAT HE WAS WRONG!" The tendrils and tentacles writhed with unconcealed glee. Loraan turned her head slightly as Venemi sidled up to her and Lucira. While the creature was busy talking in its bizarre voice, she spoke a few quiet words just loud enough for those near her to hear. "We have to free these people," she muttered. "And...I don't think we can leave this thing alive."

I haven't 'gone' anywhere, I'm just unlikely to write any IC posts for another day or two. Those last few posts were a bit on the spammy side, guys.

Spoke a little too soon: some more stuff's come up so posts will be on the backburner for a while longer. Life has a way of throwing things at you.

Hi all. Sorry about the lack of posts: this week was far more taxing than expected. All's done for now, though, so I'll get caught up soon.

If he goes charging into Ko-Koro, he will be killing civilians (albeit indirectly). As noted in the post KoK linked above, the Legacy is currently holding a number of civilians captive as hostages against the other five Koro. At the first sign of any outside attempt to attack or infiltrate Ko-Koro, they will be killed. The good guys don't really feel like letting that happen, so you can expect them to want to stop you triggering it.

I can tell you the Legacy isn't occupying it. Past that, I have no idea what's going on there.

IC "WE TOOK WHAT WAS NEEDED," it replied. "THEY DO NOT NEED US, THEY DO NOT WANT US, BUT WE NEED THEM. WE ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH, CANNOT BREAK THE ROCK, CANNOT MOVE IN THE UNDER-STONE BENEATH YOUR LANDS. WE NEED THEM TO MAKE US STRONG!" The creature hissed as it was addressed by yet another of these beings: these things that were so small but stung so sharply. "FIRST WE SOUGHT THE HEAT," it said. "THE ROCK THAT FLOWS. IT NOURISHED US...KEPT US LIVING...BUT IT DID NOT MAKE US STRONG. THEN WE FELT THE BLACK BLOOD NEAR US, AND NOW WE SEEK IT!" It shivered again, but this time with an air of anticipation. "BLACK BLOOD, BLOOD OF HE WHO MADE US, WILL MAKE US STRONG! HE CAST US OUT FOR OUR WEAKNESS, BUT BLACK BLOOD WILL MAKE US STRONG! WE WILL BE STRONG!" The creature let out a long, low, stuttering hiss that might have been its idea of laughter. "THESE LIVES, THIS SAFETY, HE CARED NOT FOR THEM. SO HE TOLD US. WE WERE NOT MADE FOR THEM! WE WERE MADE TO BE STRONG!" The tentacles writhed with each repetition of 'STRONG', in equal parts anguish at its inadequacy and ecstasy at the thought of the 'strength' it hoped soon to gain.

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] I was thinking much the same thing. I've always said that assassins were crude and messy, but this is amateur. No wonder the Dark Brotherhood's going down the plughole. "I'll get on it," I reply in equally hushed tones, and slip quietly between the tables and around towards the door. Once I'm outside I make a beeline for the nearest guard patrol. "'Scuse me, officer," I address their leader, hoping these ones speak Tamrielic. "There's an...altercation going on in the Lucky Guar. A hitman attacking somebody—Dark Brotherhood apparently, not that you'd know it from his total lack of subtlety."

IC The plant-creature shuddered again, hissing resentfully. "WE NEED THEM! WE ARE...NOT STRONG!" it complained. "WE CANNOT DIG. WE NEED THEM, YOUR KIN, THEY ARE OUR HANDS. THEY DIG FOR US, BECAUSE WE ARE NOT STRONG. YOU WOULD HAVE DUG FOR US, BUT YOU FIGHT! CUT US, BURN US! TOO MUCH TROUBLE. GO AWAY, LEAVE US ALONE!"

The Mangai Quest: The Heart of the Matter

IC The forward scouts, Mirin and Venemi, moved swiftly out of the tunnel and into the space beyond. Both were alert, ready to fight plant-tendrils at a moment's notice...but neither was prepared for the sight that met their eyes. The rest of the group caught up seconds later, surging out behind them, and like Mirin and Venemi before them they staggered to a halt as they took in their surroundings with a mixture of shock and awe. The space they found themselves in was another cavern, roughly hemispherical in shape and vast in size. The rock of its walls and floor looked almost blood-red, lit as it was by only the fierce yellow-orange luminance of lava (the brightest they had yet seen) that meandered in streams from crevices in the walls and welled up in pools from the churning magma of the Mangai's heart. Some even dripped from the tips of the ceiling's stalactites, hundreds of feet above their heads. The walls were pocked with tunnels. Some, smooth-walled and irregular, had been carved out over time by molten rock that no longer flowed that way; others, like the one the adventurers had emerged from, had been hewn out of the stone with pickaxes or other tools. It was not hard to discover who had done that hewing: away to the group's left there was a wider excavation, sloping down through wall and floor, and beings were walking in and out. They emerged from it carrying armfuls of small rocks which they dumped on a growing mound, before turning and marching back down again to collect the next load. The sharp repeated sound of pickaxe strokes echoed up out of the excavation. Within a few seconds of the expedition's arrival, all this work had stopped and the workers filed up out of their mine to stand in a loose group, staring at the newcomers with blank orange eyes. There was about twenty of them in total. They were of various species, shapes and sizes, mostly Matoran, but every single one had a parasite-pod attached to the back of their neck. Some looked scrawny and weak, as though they had not rested in days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9Xb8LpJG0&list=PLgBPyhFHR2Wrdpw4tJ2tCv5pG9WS319MC&index=6 But it was not the sight of these enslaved beings that stopped the questers in their tracks, nor the hugeness of the cavern. Hundreds of plant-tentacles like the ones they had already seen—but some of them several times thicker in girth—trailed along the floor and snaked into the tunnels in the walls. Others plunged into the many lava pools: on the thickest of these, vein-like channels could be seen pulsating beneath their surface as though they were pumping something out of the lava (or perhaps the lava itself) back towards their source. The thing from which all these tentacles stemmed was attached to the far wall of the cavern, directly above the largest of the magma pools. It was a monstrosity, easily over a hundred feet high: a huge, formless bulge of red-brown plant-flesh, like a humongous taproot, sprawled across the rock wall and held in place by appendages that resembled the flat 'feet' of slugs. Its surface was dotted with dozens of glowing orange orbs like those of the parasite-pods. They seemed to glitter with intelligence, like so many eyes. It shuddered, and the group felt what could only be described as its gaze on them. A low, rustling hiss emanated from it, but neither its tentacles nor its thralls made any move to attack them. Instead, a noise came from it. After a moment, they realised it was speaking. "WHY DO YOU COME HERE?" it asked. Its baleful speech was like a hundred hoarse voices crying out in discordant unison. "WHY...DO YOU HURT US?"

Beginning of the Mangai Quest finale coming this evening (if all goes as planned). Watch this space.

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] Dropping the heavily stereotyped Nord accent I'd put on, I return to my usual moderate Rift burr, letting the 'r's roll off my tongue in all their glory. "Oh, believe me, I need all sorts o' things. I could use a buyer for some of my fine Dwemer wares, or a beginner's course in Dunmeris, but right now I'll settle for an excuse not to talk to Miss Faircroft over there." Fairly sure I said that loud enough for her to hear. "So, what brings you east out o' the tundra and taiga, eh?"

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] It doesn't take me long to get bored of the conversation at hand. Dark Brotherhood blah blah blah, Morag Tong blah blah blah, Eponine gettin' silenced boo hoo. Leaning back in my chair, I cast a lazy eye over the rest of the cornerclub's patrons. Suddenly, however, in amongst the sea of grey skin and red eyes I spot something that piques my interest: a big guy, human, scarred face and fair skin. Everything about him practically screams 'Nord'. And as if that weren't enough, I could see that he'd just caught a few words of what Eponine was spouting. Perfect. I slide out of my seat and sidle up to the big fellow, and address him with a (hopefully) familiar accent and winning smile. "I couldn't help noticin' that you couldn't help overhearin' what my—" *ahem* "—friend couldn't help lettin' slip. Ah, but where are my manners? It's a pleasure to see a good Son of Skyrim in a place like this. Aspen of Valenwood (but also very much of Skyrim, if I may say so), at your service."

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] "Sorry to disappoint." With a wolfish grin and uncanny speed I spring to my feet. "Perhaps if you'd been paying attention you'd have realised that the only reason I fell off my chair..." I pick up a fork from the table and twirl it skilfully between my fingers, just to illustrate how non-inebriated I am. "...was because I was laughin' so hard. And I'll give you three guesses what I was laughin' at."

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] If it were possible to fall off the floor, I would probably do so. Still lying sprawled on the floorboards but just about managing to suppress the laughing fit that robbed me of my seat, I look up at Eponine, then down at the loose nail, then back up at Eponine, then left to the smear of blood on her hand, then back right to Eponine. "...are you sure you're a trained killer?"

Apologies, Tyler. What I meant to convey was that in language, the line between correct and incorrect is rarely cut-and-dried. Sorry I got carried away.

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] I did fall off my chair at that. "All sorts of places," comes my reply from under the table.

Being archaic doesn't make it wrong, and I will contend that it does work as a phrase. As I had Kelh allude to, it's a marked imperative: it emphasises the instruction to believe. "Don't you dare" uses the exact same piece of grammar--do you have a problem with that too? Bottom line, you don't get to decide something is incorrect because you personally dislike it. If it was good enough for Shakespeare it should be good enough for you. EDIT: Also, the examples Eponine gave are comparing apples to oranges. "I could care less" is wrong, because it says the exact opposite of what it intends to, and "thunk" is generally used ironically anyway.

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] "I resent that. Don't tar me with the same bloody brush."

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] I almost fell off my chair at that. Once my laughter has mostly subsided, I wrench my face into as sober an expression as possible (not that that's saying much) and set out to explain things to Eponine as politely as I could (also not saying much). "Miss Faircroft," I begin, then pause, stifling another giggle that comes bubbling up from my diaphragm, "if I may say so, you are quite a specimen. Are you seriously telling me you've never heard the phrase 'believe you me' before? Now, if I were one o' those fancy edumacated types you see hangin' around the Bards' College, I'd probably say something about archaic syntax an' marked imperatives an' some such nonsense, but I'm not, so I'll stick with this: it's a popular phrase and there's nothing wrong with it, so don't get your knickers in a twist."

IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] One eyebrow shoots up. Generally, when a local advises you on the particular dangers of a location, you don't dismiss their warnings out of hand because 'every one of these places i've ever been to before didn't have them so this one couldn't possibly have them'. I'm guessing they don't have Falmer in High Rock either. Therefore, by Miss Faircroft's flawless logic, there couldn't possibly be any in Skyrim. Ha. Haha. "Word is the bigwigs in the Great Houses want to blow off some steam without actually rippin' each other's throats out."

IC (Dakte) :I'm game,: came Dakte's Ideatalk response. :Meet you at the hatch?: IC (Korero) "It's bad," Korero replied, stepping into the hut. "But...the good news is that I think I'm close to finding the location of those hostages. Now tell me: I've been coordinating with Oreius, but have you heard from any of the others since we—" He paused. "—since Ta-Koro?" IC (Tazera) The lieutenant's rather sheepish response came from distinctly not the direction of the Ryuu. :I...I'm sort of...lost, Ma'am. Tried to follow behind you, but I got held up by an overly enthusiastic merchant, and then these buildings all looked the same to me. No idea where I am, no idea where you are. Ma'am.:

OOC: If you insist. IC (Kelh) [Narsis - The Lucky Guar] "Bthanual, yeah," I finish for her. "I was thinking I might head over for a looksy after the tournament."