thebastion | Day 229 [EVENT]: Search the Skyway

Day 229 [EVENT]: Search the Skyway

Who: Nathaniel, Zahi, and everyone who wants to participate
Open: Open
When: Day 229
Where: Burstone Quarry
What: The Bastion needs a core. Badly. So what better place would there be to search than the place cores were mined from before the Calamity?
Format:any
Warnings:here be monsters

[After a few days of rest and organization, Nathaniel and Zahi finally lead a good portion of the Bastion residents to the quarry to look for a core. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to reach the quarry, thanks to the extended reach of the Skyway. Unfortunately, the quarry is very large, which means that everyone has to split up into small groups to cover more ground. But is the risk worth it for the reward?]

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OOC:

Due to the nature of this post, there will be several threads happening at once. When your group is ready for some more NPC/setting interaction, put a note in the subject line of your comment, and a mod will jump in to further the thread.

Also, several groups can be at one location within the quarry, but each group will still have their own thread in that location.

Finally, if you did not sign up for a group, you can still participate. Any group of 2-4 participants can start a thread in here. If you need to find someone to make a last-minute group with, jump in on the most recent plurk on the mod plurk, or on the OOC post here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eventually walkways give way to minecart trails, and the snaking paths of the Skyway start to head downwards. This way leads into the mine itself.

Be warned, this is where it starts to get dangerous. A new breed of monster, the Rattle-tail lives here. And since the underground paths of the quarry have been brought out to the surface, the Rattle-tails are now free to move about, shaking their rattling tails as they go.

Be careful, they summon meteors. Small meteors, mind you, but it will still hurt when they hit.]

[Things have been quiet enough as they've made their way over here, but looking at the cart path sloping downward, Roxas isn't sure how much longer that's likely to last. He pauses and glances over at his Samurai nobody and his two (probably) human companions. They both seem like they've got fighting experience, so to be honest he's more concerned about getting along than anyone getting hurt.]

Let's- all keep our eyes open, okay?

Ears might be a bit misleading, if it gets more closed in, but better to be jumpy than ignore something that could be important. [ Or a hint of something about to jump them.

And Duke's grim face is for this slope. Heading back out is going to be a pain in the ass.. ]

I've got magic, but I think I'll save it for healing, unless either of you are good at that?

[They seem amicable enough that her concerns are more focused on keeping an eye on Duke, who seems to not be at her best. The Nobody with them weirds her out a little but it seems to be under Roxas' command and therefor not worth her worry.]

I've got a little healing magic, but I can't use it on myself. My skill lies in the sword.

[She's not a fan of the situation but she's determined to seek the best outcome they can. Even if it means she has to carry Duke back up the slope.]

Do either of you know what a core looks like?

We can't heal at all, [Roxas says, speaking for himself and the silent Samurai. It might be more accurate to say that he's forgotten how, but that brings up things that don't matter right now.]

I was there when we got the last core, though. They're made of the same stuff as shards but bigger. We'll- probably spot the glow first.

[Well, anyway, down they go? The Samurai falls back, used to bringing up the rear. Hope you guys don't mind it watching your backs.]

[At the entrance of the mine, there is not much to be found. Anything useful here has been long since mined out, probably well before the Calamity.

However, because this is the main entrance and exit to the mine, the floor is littered with shards that the miners deemed too small to be of any use. So if the group stops to collect them, they will be able to get quite a few here.]

...Yeah, like these but bigger. [ Duke toes one of the bigger shards on the ground.

the knight is debating at least piling them off to the side, rather than potentially having to ... walk very quickly while leaving over them all. ]

Good to know.

[She nods, pushing a few of the shards in her path out of the way with her foot. It's tempting to snag some of the larger ones so she can offer them to Haruka for his mural. But they're just shards. She can always round up more later when things are less dire.]

At the very least we can bring some of these back if we need to. Better than going back empty handed.

There sure are a lot of them... I guess that means no one else's really been through here.

[He knows some of the so-called monsters like to hoard them, so he's taking this for a good sign that the place hasn't been scavenged very much.]

... I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing. [ Good that nothing else has been scavenging, bad that that could mean that there's something here for.. why nothing else has been scavenging... ]

... If we want to take some of these, I'd rather we bagged them up now. We could leave them off to the side rather than carry with us, but in case we need to make a quicker exit than we'd like.

I'm gonna go with "some of both".

[In her experience that's usually the right answer. She shrugs, her way of saying "but I could still be wrong". Edea spends a lot of time on the Skyway but she still feels like she knows almost nothing about this world.]

I've got no objections to that.

You mean like- maybe something scared everyone away?

[Roxas hasn't had the best of luck in general, but he tends to assume the odds are better for other people.]

The shards'll still help though. [No objections here to picking them up. If they don't have to feed them to the Monument, then that's a lot of ice cream. He moves to start putting them away into his bag, the Samurai standing guard for them.]

[That sure is an interesting line of thought! There's nothing currently around to confirm or deny it, though.

With some searching, sacks can be found. The sacks used to carry other things, but they are currently in a trash pile, which has other burnable things in it. Clearly they were to be burned, but with the end of the world, nobody got around to it.]

Like that. Or maybe they just didn't like this place from before. That'd be nice.

[ Sacks! Good. Duke would rather use extra ones at the moment, and starts fishing them out of the pile. And checking for holes, because they were left in a trash pile for a reason. ]

Extras, just so we don't fill what we're carrying and have no room for anything else fascinating. [ A couple will get tucked into the knight's sword belt, and then its shard gathering time. ]

That would be nice. A lot nicer than something being scary. I'm sure we've all had enough of that for a while.

[Edea fetches another of those bags and fills it near to the top before tying it up. She's being a bit overcautious about the weight but she doubts anyone will hold it against her.]

So, do we press on?

[Oh, good idea. Roxas fills up one of those sacks and then slings it over his shoulder. He might hand it off to the Samurai later, but for now he's got it.]

I don't see why not. I mean, we've got a lot of shards, but there might be something else.

[Hopefully not a bad something?]

[The fun thing is, since this is the main entrance in and out of the mine, there are lots of things to see.

Like mine carts. Mine carts that are full of useless rubble, or shards, or tools to go back into the mines.

Or in one case, a family of Rattle-Tails, who has made a nest out of shards and soft things.

That family is rattling their tails at the trio nearby, by the way. They do not like the presence of intruders. But if anyone in the group looks, they'll notice that the Rattle-Tail nest is built upon what is either an obscenely huge shard or a small core. As in, it's at the bottom of that cart, partially-buried under other things.

So. Disturb the burds to get the possible core? Or leave it be and go back for the sacks of shards?]

... More birds. [ Duke sort of recognizes these ones - Zulf has a bunch, the knight thinks.

But on the other hand, the last time Duke got close to birds, there was a plague caught from them.

.... Duke isn't looking to see if there's a corpse near by or anything, not at all. ]

... does that look like a big shard to anyone else? [ Please say that its just the knight's vision being wonky... Duke would sort of like to not have to deal with more skyway birds on the first trip out since the plague. ]

I've never seen them before. What are they?

[Edea eyes the rattle-tails with one brow hitched, unsure what to think. They haven't outright attacked the party but she's in no mood to start a fight if it can be avoided. She wonders if there's something they can do to ward the strange birds away (even if it's only temporarily).

Duke's question prompts her to peer closer at the nest.]

It does look pretty big... Think we can scare them off?

I dunno... They look more like they wanna scare us off.

[Roxas frowns. He doesn't like the idea of picking a fight either, but he's pretty sure they need that big shard more than the birds do. It's too bad they can't exactly talk it out.]

Maybe- if one of us upsets them, they might leave the nest to chase us away?

Not peckers - I think Zulf has a few of this kind tamed as pets. [ Duke grimaces, thinking. ]

Its either that, or try to convince them that many smaller shards are better than one large one. But there's an option over there for that. [ One of the filled carts-

Speaking of carts. ]

... Would making one of those carts go crashing somewhere scare them out of the nest, or further in.

Edited 2014-09-22 15:50 (UTC)

If the cart crashes elsewhere I think they'd stay put. [Feeling of safety and all that. But Duke's first suggestion is not a bad one. Edea nods in the direction of the shard-filled cart.]

I say we try convincing them to move to another cart. If that doesn't work we can move on to something more drastic.

...I guess we could try it, but- if it's their home, I don't think they'll want another place.

... Lets make a hollow in it real quick then.

[ And Duke is going to attempt to look less like a nest-thief, by putting the shards that are scooped out onto the ground about the cart they came out of. Look at how many shinies there are, odd birds. More shinies are better, right? ]

You have a point...

[But she's not quite sure what to do about it yet. In the meantime she'll be trying to help Duke move the shards around. Nest-thieves implies that they're taking the whole thing. Edea would prefer to call this "nest-swapping".]

We're still going to have to get their attention somehow. You think it'd be easier to distract them enough to take what we need and run?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 229 [EVENT]: Search the Skyway

The mine entrance (high risk)

Team Pale Knight unless someone has a better name

or Not A Field-trip

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