Private/Closed Terrater - The Explorer's Guild

[JadaDoesArt]

Jada listened through Shoraza's lecture about speaking up about things, loosing interest halfway through. She wasnt a fan of constantly being berated after all and that seemed to be all this woman was doing.

Once Shoraza was hopefully out of earshot Jada let out a long sigh, running her free hand through her hair. "What have I gotten myself into?" I volunteered for this job, and have ended up in a random group of people on a potentially hostile planet and am asked to keep watch and call for backup... Not exactly what I thought this would be...

 

[Rex]

Once again, the orc's viewpoints mostly coincided with his own. She would be taking the human boy around the nearby area, taking care to stay within visual range, collecting plants as they went. He'd keep his eyes and ears open, guarding the general perimeter, while the girl hung back, to call for aid if something were to happen. Then, the orc got to work picking samples. Ark grumbled a bit under his breath, but turned and started to slowly pace the area.

His mostly bare feet stepped quietly around any nearby plants, the ferret's head slowly swiveled to take in his surroundings, his ears flicking this way and that. Every so often, he stopped and lifted his head to scent the area, before continuing on his slow patrol. He could hear the human boy talking to the orc, and shot a glance in his direction. Something about the orc and tests, though Ark didn't allow himself to be distracted by it enough to pick up more. The boy was mimicking the orc's harvesting method, so that was fine.

The girl on the other hand seemed agitated, sighing and running a hand through her hair. She was distracted, he wondered if he should say something. Of course, there was always the chance that she was annoyed at him, he had been fairly consistently showing both her and the boy up. He was clearly more knowledgeable on this subject than either of his fellow students, and he wondered why they decided that an 'exploration' guild was the right choice for them rather than something a little more domestic.

As his circuit of the camp took him closer to the girl, he again briefly broke off his routine to shoot her a glance. "Hey, focus," he said, before adding in a lighter tone: "It'll make the time go faster." That done, he turned his head away from her to continue his patrol.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Christopher looked thoughtful, clearly trying to decide what to do before he suddenly put his finger to his mouth. His group would soon hear the dissonant noise of scratching, starting from farther away and getting closer by the second. Soon enough, a small form burst out of the pile of dirt, the brown scales of the small beast camouflaging themselves well with the environs. On its chest laid a light green gem, and its startled reptilian eyes matched that color.

"Are you here to attack me too?" said the wyrmling dragon, looking scared at the rest of the group. Christopher shook his head and the dragon quickly leapt in his direction. "Then... would you help me instead? These giant bugs came out of the walls and started to chase me. They'll be here any second!"

As if on cue, more dirt was suddenly pushed aside as a large, beetle-like head peered up from the sands. Skittering up to the surface followed by several others; their carapaces glowed blue and red to more than likely show off how dangerous they were. Christopher quickly pulled the bowstring of his bow back, and an arrow made from blue energy formed at his fingertips, which he shot towards the nearest of the beetles; it exploded on impact. Hot blood sprayed over the room, but more importantly a small pocket of air seemed to rip upon the explosion, as if the bugs were tearing into reality itself.

"Pick these things off one at a time," he called out to the rest of the group. "Too many dying at once might create a big enough hole that something more threatening would come through!"

---

"Well... It's like this," Shozara replied, seeming to sigh softly before continuing. "I don't know what you're capable of. Sure, you can say that you have certain talents on a piece of paper, but how am I to know how much experience a person has unless I test it first? This is why I tell others to do things that are intentionally a bit dubious, yes. This way I can determine whether or not a person is following instructions out of inexperience, or suggesting something else like Mister English did. Now I am more aware that Mister English is a bit more experienced in these matters, whilst yourself and Miss Kulivok may need some additional training. I do apologize if my methods seem a bit unorthodox... I am willing to change how I operate if it truly bothers you."

Having already collected quite a bit of the plants, Shozara smiled to Rodney and motioned for them to stand, more than likely intending for them to switch places with another member of the group. However, a figure was moving in the darkness nearby, slowly coming closer to them. Soon, the form was more visible; a woman with purple skin and pointed ears limping towards them, wearing a ripped cloth outfit and her leg bleeding. She fell to her knees before the group, and Shozara rushed over with a metallic device, opening it up and speaking a strange language. <What happened?> was translated to the listening ears of the group, clearly meant to be the elfs language.

<A group of large wolves has come to my village,> the elf responded weakly, the translator operating efficiently. <Please... I know you are off-worlders, but my people are dying. We are not warriors, and I only barely escaped... We would be indebted to you if you came to help.> Shozara at least reached her hand to touch the elven woman's arm, the wound mending so that the bleeding stopped. The half orc then turned to the rest of her group.

"It would help our relations with the locals if we go to help them," she said. "However, this was not the original reason for our mission here. I would hear what each of you has to say on the matter. Do we proceed as ordered, or do we go to help the survivors of this woman's village?"

 

[Rex]

Ark saw the elf first. Or, really, it was more accurate to say he heard her. When the telltale signs of something approaching through the undergrowth reached his ears, the polecat spun around to face them. He'd flicked the safety on his gun off, but kept the weapon aimed at the ground. When their visitor was revealed to be a non-hostile local, however, the safety came back on. He made his way across camp towards the elf, reaching them shortly after the orc.

The orc had some kind of metal device and seemingly knew healing magic, but Ark wasn't really paying attention to her. The elf, speaking through said device, was talking about her home village being attacked. She had been wounded, presumably a bite mark but he hadn't gotten a good look at it, but had gotten away. It seemed almost too convenient, and perhaps a little suspicious, but.

"Saving lives is far more important than picking weeds," the polecat stated authoritatively. He'd always had a bleeding heart. Without waiting for the others to make their decision, he set off, following the trail of blood, bent plants, and disturbed underbrush the elf had left in her wake.

 

[Mr.RMA]

"Ah, no I mean, you don't have to change up everything on my account, I just wanted to know where you were going with all this is all... Can't say I've been tested like this before, but, hey, better I learn and adapt than have you changing up everything just because I'm a greenhorn. I'll be fine," he said, though the jury was out over whether that was the truth or just delusion. On one hand her explanation at least cleared up some of the air when it came to what her current methods were, but on the other hand... was he really going to figure all this out and adapt? He supposed time would certainly tell, and judging by what transpired next, that time would be sooner rather than later.

So this elf's village had been attacked... and now there came the dilemma of staying the course or straying from the mission to help those in need. Okay, not exactly a difficult dilemma when it came to the moral choice, but, still, a decision had to be made... and Mr. English was certainly not hesitant in making his choice... Par for the course for him so far... not that Rodney could argue against his reasoning.

"Guy makes a good point... and even if we stuck to the mission, those wolves would probably present an inevitable threat to us anyway. No point in ignoring an emergency when we can do something about it," he said, biting his lip slightly as he looked off to where Ark had previously been before scurrying off. "Would've been nice if we could've infiltrated the place as a team of course, but... guess we're just gonna have to catch up..." That was certainly not something he could do in his current state. Now was the time to put his 'skills' to use. Stowing away whatever herbs he'd recently picked up, he placed his cube on the ground and swiftly slapped his hand at the top of it. A sudden crackle of lightning seemed to hit his very location at that moment, and as his body slumped unceremoniously to the ground, a small robotic humanoid in a long coat appeared where the cube had once been. As the robot's image intensification activated, Rodney looked to his human body slumped beside him and grabbed it by the back of its jacket.

"Alright, assuming the rest of you think this is a good idea, we should hurry over to that village," he said through his speaker.

 

[Dark Soul]

Osram tried not to look too startled when the wyrmling burst forth from the ground, flames of his axe reflecting in the brilliant emerald on its chest. It fled for cover behind Christopher's legs as it cried for their help, quickly followed by a flurry of burrowing red-blue scarabs chittering their mandibles murderously. Christopher had the first shot, scattering gore as the scarab imploded from the magic arrow. The ripple through spacetime that followed made the ranger call out a warning.

It was a shame he wouldn't get to go all-out, but Osram was willing to follow orders to a tee for now. First impressions, and all that. "I'll take point!" He called out, launching into a bullrush at the closest bug. It charged at him in response, but before they could collide he dodged left while swinging his axe underhanded, cleaving through three of its limbs. With the momentum of the swing, he twirled in place and drove the axe into its back- only to have it stick halfway in. He'd underestimated their natural armor.

As the creature writhed on the cave floor, Osram jumped up on its back, pulling the axe out and then swinging it straight down, cleaving the bug's face cleanly in half, blood sizzling against the heat of the blade. He remembered to jump away just before the creature's death process created another implosion.

He strafed to the sidelines, keeping an overview of the battle to see where he might be needed, but he was curious to see how the machine and the mage would fight. He'd come from a world where battles were fought with blades.

 

[Keleri]

Mint scanned the dragonling eagerly, noting the concentration of magical energy in its gem and eyes. How interesting! Dragons were powerfully magical creatures and the lifeblood of Terrater. They were disappointed to note the rude, magical interruption following the dragonling, and one of the insects not only died but exploded. Very... gruesomely organic, to be sure.

Mint's sensors noted, however, the odd spatio-temporal disturbance that occurred as the beetle was destroyed. Now that was interesting! They flew in closer, cores shifting to an attack formation while keeping their scanning core active. Before they could run diagnostics, however, they were already being targeted by the very aggressive beetles. Osram and Christopher were fighting with their weapons, so Mint judged that it was appropriate to neutralize the insects so they could get back to studying the spatial anomalies.

Christopher's instructions were to kill the beetles one at a time-- Mint was tempted to kill them in groups to study the effect, but was forced to acknowledge that this might have negative consequences for the party. They powered up their laser core, weaving away from the beetles, and scythed over one's head with the beam of the laser, neatly cleaving it in two.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Well it looked like Mint got their wish. Emerging from beneath them was a small Earth Dragon, however there was no time to determine if the dragon was friend or foe as it was being pursued by an army of blue and red insects which were most definitely foe. Christopher wasted no time in shooting one with a magic arrow causing it to explode in more ways than one. It would seem that they opened mini wormholes upon death. The Ranger surmised that if too many died at once they might end up with an even bigger problem.

Osram charged into battle without a second thought hacking one of the beetles with his axe splattering the insect’s guts all over the cave floor. Meanwhile Mint had powered up their laser and was now slicing through the insects one by one with the beams. Alvin looked around grumbling in frustration. He wanted to help them fight off the beetles too but there was literally nothing useful he could against the swarm. One of the beetles must have sensed the weak link as it broke away from the hoard heading straight for the Schlyk.

“Back! Back you filthy bug!” shouted Alvin smacking at it awkwardly with his staff. The insect pressed onward chomping its mandibles seeming to take little notice to the weak attack. Growing annoyed and feeling like he was not drunk enough to be dealing with this right now, the white mage removed his left hand from his staff. “Barrier!” he yelled thrusting his open palm forward with his fingers spread. Instantly a shimmering clear wall manifested between Alvin and his would-be assailant.

He may not be a fighter, but there was one thing he could do to support his team. Alvin began channeling his mana into the tip of his staff. “Protect!” he chanted swinging it in a wide arc that would include Christopher, Osram, and Mint surrounding them in a bright yellow glow that lasted only a second.

“That’s a protection spell. It’ll reduce the damage these things will do to you for about five minutes making a bite feel like a pinch. That’s about all I can do in this fight.” the white mage informed them straightforwardly.

 

[JadaDoesArt]

Jada glance up at Ark when he commented on her fidgeting and said she should start to just focus at the task at hand. She gave him a small smile, but when his gaze was pulled away towards the underbrush near Shozara and Rodney she followed it. It took her a moment to see what was there but soon a wounded woman came into focus.

Just as quickly as she appeared the fae started speaking, the language was unfamiliar but was close enough to those she had heard in the past that Jada quickly picked up on what was being said. That was until it was suddenly being translated into common by the device Shozara produced.

Quickly standing up from her location she checked that her bag of holding and knives were still secured at her waist. Once certain, she went to respond to the fae woman but was mildly surprised to see both Ark and Rodney taking off to follow the trail that she had left on her way here.

Jada's eyes narrow slightly, and what could almost be a trick of the light they seemed to change from the normal cyan blue that they had been to a more green colour and almost appeared catlike for a split second. Quickly drawing one of her blades and tucking the cell phone like device into her bag, Jada followed after the other two.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Explosions were rampant as the party in the cave picked off the beetles one by one, bolstered against their foes from Alvin's protection magic. Eventually, the flow of insects stopped, nothing of them left behind save for the scratches and bites they had left on whomever they had attacked. Christopher breathed a sigh of relief, slinging his bow over his shoulder and motioning a thumbs up to the others.

"Thank you so much," said the small dragon, looking quite happy. "My name is Mitne. I was just having some fun burrowing under the dirt and attuning myself to it when those creepy things attacked me. I don't know what I would have done if you all weren't here..."

"We're happy to help, Mitne," said the Faehawk, with a smile. "I'm Christopher, and these are my friends Mint, Alvin and Osram. You look a bit young. Why are you out here on your own?"

"My parents flew off somewhere a long while ago," the dragon explained, the happy expression soon dropping. "They haven't come back for quite some time, so another dragon might have killed them. But I've done okay by myself, only hunting when I need to. I should thank you for your help... is there anything I can do for you in return?"

"We don't want to impose too much, but... the Draconic Pearls scattered about are pretty valuable to us," said Christopher, clearly trying to be diplomatic about it. "Could we have some?"

"Okay... but not all of them," said Mitne, still headstrong and confident despite the situation. "Since you saved my life, I'll let you choose how many you want to take each. I trust that you won't be greedy." Nonetheless, the small dragon did watch them with its light green eyes very carefully, scrutinizing them to make sure they didn't take too many.

"You heard the young one," said the Faehawk. "I'd suggest ten, maybe twenty each. There's plenty here, but we should still respect the wishes of our gracious host." It was clear he was still wary of the dragon, but ultimately pleased that things had turned out that way.

---

Shozara's group snuck up to a large outcropping in the woods, tall wooden walls laced with barbed wire laying before them. <I cut myself on that in my escape,> said the elf. <I saw the wolves coming and thought to run for help. I'm glad I found you.> The sounds of people screaming came out of the quiet din of Astrillon's night, only matched by the sounds of ravenous wolf howls as well.

"Right then," said Shozara, looking to the three behind her. "I'll take the lead, with backup from whomever knows how to fight. If you don't know how to fight, help people trying to escape or the injured. We'll do our best to save as many people as we can. Move out." The speech was quick, as it was clear they didn't have much time to lose. Blood drenched the ground beneath their feet, some of the townsfolk dead and others dying from their wounds. Yet more were huddled into corners, scared for their lives as the large dire wolves ran rampant. That was when the druid went into a look of concentration for a moment.

In an instant, black fur sprouted from everywhere on Shozara's body, her bipedal form shifting to that of a quadrupedal bear. Now a somewhat formidable beast, Shozara raced forward into the village, tearing into the nearest wolf she could find. Unlike her calm stoicism beforehand, she was now completely ruthless as she went to work. Of course, this left her plenty open to attack, some of the wolves now concentrating their attacks on the new foe in front of them.

The others would have to help her if they wanted things to turn out alright. Otherwise, Shozara was completely outnumbered and the non-warrior townsfolk wouldn't be much help.

 

[Dark Soul]

Soon as Mitne gave the word, Osram skipped off in search of pearls. All too aware of the young dragon's watchful eye, he tempered his greed and took no more than twenty; he dropped them all into his bag of holding, which didn't seem to get heavier or bulge like it ought to. The pearls would all be going to the Guild, of course- but he couldn't help but dream of what the haul could've bought him back on Xucri. A mansion, a steamship, a veritable harem of ta'matar- hired spouses.

Minerals that, in their refined form, could be used as a focus for the natural energies the Dragonilk could draw on were exceedingly rare on their homeworld. The exodus to the new continent of Ketolux had been driven in large part by the desire to find new land to mine. Even Osram had spent months scrounging up enough Heartiron ore to smith himself an axe. The vibrant hum of magic in Draconia's air made his memories of home feel even bleaker.

He sidled up the Christoper, baring his fangs in a smile. "Seems like we got one thing we came for. Anything else on the Guild's wish-list?"

 

[Psycho Monkey]

The real warriors made quick work of all the beetles earning the group a debt of thanks from the young earth dragon. Christopher negotiated with the dragon for everyone to take at most twenty of the Draconic Pearls as their reward. Alvin groaned at the prospect of actually needing to count how many he took rather than absentmindedly gather them. He considered doing the bare minimum of ten, but they might get paid more for collecting more.

“Let it go Alvin, this is drinking money.” he mumbled to himself. The sooner they finished up here, the sooner they could visit that bar, or at least a bar. Then he’d feel so much better.

The white mage just gathered the pearls arbitrarily, not caring much for size or shape. Did it matter really? And he wasn’t counting. Great. Alvin knew that Mitne was watching them carefully to make sure they didn’t take too many. The last thing he wanted was to piss off the dragon. He pulled all the pearls from his bag of holding and recounted what he had already picked up. Fifteen. Not bad. He grabbed five more to fill his quota.

“Ready when you guys are.” he announced to his teammates. Alvin winced upon hearing Osram ask Christopher if there was anything else to collect. Just what he needed. The possibility of more work.

 

[Keleri]

"What a fascinating phenomenon," Mint piped to themself, listening to Christopher and Mitne's conversation on a lower processor level. They scanned the surroundings, tracing the magical residue left by the beetles and their apparent teleporting or gating magic. The readings were unclear; there was interference from the surrounding elemental Earth energy, the dragonling's inherent magic, and from the dragon pearls themselves that would take more computing power to deconvolute. In the meantime, they buzzed around the cave, gathering data.

At word of the permitted collection of dragon pearls, they scanned again, the pearls standing out like beacons. Mint hummed a number of songs from their library simultaneously as they snatched up exactly twenty of the pearls with the most interesting energy signatures in their nanobots, the pearls floating on fuzzy, mechanical clouds.

"Mitne, sweetling, is this permitted? Are any of these your favorite?" Mint trilled to the dragon.