[Year 1, Water] No Dragonblooded Left Behind [Lighting A Fire]

Tepet Arna


Having asked the only question that came to mind, Arna instead started to spend the time looking at her fellow students. The wide variety Dynasts could come in was still an amusing sight to Arna. I wonder how many I'll be sharing a class with. Probably the others in my hall, at least- actually, wait.


Raising her hand again, Arna asked the only other question that came to mind. "Is there any specific meaning behind our breakup in specific halls? Will we be studying with the other students in our halls, or is it simply a shared workspace with all students pursuing their own goals?"
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen grinned at the mention of the Historia Inimicable; her grandmother had warned her about just such a thing, but Coreen tended to take "Don't do that" as an invitation. Not that I'll be stupid about it! But probably it just has some sort of curse on it and I'm going to have to get good at curses and breaking them anyway and so maybe I'll be the first person to read it. That would be great, I bet it has all kinds of hidden knowledge that nobody has learned in ten thousand years!


The rest of the questions rather bored her; surely they could all be answered in some sort of handbook rather than this slow and irritating process. Carefully tearing and balling up a small strip of parchment, she flicked it at the scrawny, redheaded Syme before sitting back innocently to wait for a reaction.
 
Ledaal Syme


The little bit of paper hits syme's auburn hair and stays there. The little air aspect bats at the stubborn little piece of detrious until it falls out. He doesn't react to Coreen's provocation, at least not now. Now, he just wanted to listen to the professor. Then, he would get to the serious business of figuring out how to access the texts he wasn't supposed to be looking at.
 
Hei Feng


He stood and presented himself and looked directly to the professor with a disarming smile and spoke, "Thank you Professor for getting us so motivated to tackle our upcoming years." He paused to motion towards the audience as he next spoke, "As you can see we are great balls of energy ready to move forth towards the learning ahead of us, even more so after such details you have given."


With that he looked to the rest of the audience, "What do you say everyone, let's give a rousing applause to our Professor for that rousing speech, and the motivation to leave here with such excitement and goals to reach for." And with that he started applaud wholeheartedly.


His tone, his actions, his words, giving respect where due while also deflating the hot air that might be possibly be buildings so that they could, as his House would say Let's get to the serious business of partying!. He learned to how to redirect conversations and speeches aside to give all respect where it was due, while not being rude. Oh sure, his Elders could be blunt, but he was still too young to get away with all of that. And truth be told, he actually meant well, were the rest of his House could care less.
 
The Classroom


A faint glower of irritation passes across Vigara's face, almost too fast to be noticed, before he smiled in wry amusement at the Cynis boy and the faint smattering of applause. "Ah, well, I suppose I did say we'd be moving along quickly today! Well, then, to the meat of your work for this week."


Vigara nodded to a low table set up against the wall, piled high with wrapped scrolls. "This week will be a sort of self-guided introductory tour of the campus for you all! On the scrolls are directions, but I hope you will forgive me, young Hei Feng, if I summarize them nonetheless?" Without stopping for an answer he moved happily onwards. "You are to work in groups, your suites specifically, to look for a number of objects across the campus, as listed on the scrolls. Your clues are limited to what, specifically, you're looking for, and your room-servants will not tell you what specifically to look for. They've been forbidden; please don't try to ask anyway."


The portly Air Aspect pulled six scrolls out and handed them to Hei Feng. "For you and your suite-mates, young Cynis," he said, smiling. "Everyone, get your scrolls and get going - your scrolls will be due before classes begin on Mercurysday, just leave them with your room-servants."


When opened, the scrolls reveal similarly-phrased directions. There are five symbols painted, engraved, inscribed, or what-have-you, all across the campus that the first-years could reach. The only hint given was that there was one single symbol per element, and each symbol would be placed in an area that is associated with that same element. To complete the scavenger hunt, each of the symbols needs to be copied onto the scroll.
 
Hai Feng


He bowed with deep respect to his elder. "I thank you graciously. This shall be fun and challenging I think." He said to the older DB before bowing again and rushing back to his suite mates.


"Alright, now we get to the good stuff.", He smiled and handed each of them one of the scrolls.
 
Tepet Arna


"So what is thi-" Taking the proferred scroll, Arna starts to ask, then stops as she sees the scroll contains her answer. After a moment to consider, she rolls the scroll back up and taps it on her cheek, her eyebrows furrowed as she considers the test put before them.


"Well, I suppose the first step would be to get a map, and figure out all the places we can't go. That'll eliminate some possibilities. I imagine we can ask the room-servant for that; it's not really a clue so much as it is a basic facility." Glancing at her other room-mates, she shoots each of them a brief, inquisitive look. "What do you guys think?"
 
Ledaal Larissa


Larissa peers at her copy of the scroll. "An area that is associated with the element...?"
 
Ledaal Syme


"Well, Fire should be easy to narrow down. We could try the kitchens, or maybe where they burn the trash."


"Unless there's a volcano here I don't know about."
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen frowned, creasing her forehead in a way that would probably create a permanent crease over the next hundred years or so. If I live that long, she thought cheerfully, running over the list of hazards that her grandmother had warned her about, some blatant and some more subtle.


"Subtle, huh?" she said, forgetting that the rest of her dormmates hadn't heard her mental litany. "I bet the runes aren't in places that are, um, all about the actual elements - fire, water, whatever. They're probably in places associated with the essence of those elements, kinda like their true forms. Um, like I guess Air would be maybe learning, so the library, and maybe Earth would be something to do with making stuff?" And that way we have to run all over school and find out where everything is, hah!
 
Hai Feng


He looked to Coreen and winked playfully, "Look at the brains on this one." His smile was broad and playful, but still filled with an honest compliment nonetheless.
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen blinked, then flushed crimson at the compliment, especially since it came from the rather studly Hai Feng. "Hee. Um. Er. So where should we go first? Actually, I bet we should go to the farthest location first so the other groups aren't as likely to just follow us when they get into trouble; they can do the nearby ones and, by the time they find out it's not so easy, we'll already be back."


Chewing her lip as she thought, Coreen rocked back and forth on her heels until the memory she'd been chasing finally slowed down enough to be caught. "Hey, my grandmother said the docks actually belong to the school, so I bet they'd count as part of campus. And, um, they're thematically appropriate: water essence isn't just for sailing, it's for administrative stuff and... er, black markets too."


With that and her usual blithe confidence, she started to trace her way to the docks.
 
Everyone Who's Following Coreen


Mnemon Harati looks up at the rest of the group, then down at his scroll. "You guys go on ahead. I want to check something at the library before I start; I'll have a look around and see if there's any runes there while I'm at it, alright?" He gives the group a broad grin before he heads in a separate direction.


Coreen leads the way back down to the docks - specifically to the great, water-powered lift that carries cargo up the cliffs from the docks and then back down again. A great red-furred ape glowers at the group, but nothing in his binding prevents him from letting them board the lift and ride it to the base of the cliffs.


The docks are rather more active than they had been when the new students first arrived. A great cargo-junk, with the mon of House Ragara decorating its sails, is tied up at the docks. However, there seems to be something of a hold-up - a great mass of cargo crates are piled up at the docks as well, and the docksmaster, a tall Water-Aspect by his blue-hued hair and dark skin, looks up and glowers at the students.


"If you're looking for the damned scribble that Vigara has you looking for, you're just going to have to wait," he announces without preamble. "The thing is buried under those crates, and it's gonna stay that way for the next few days; none of those things are perishable, and I don't have the time to arrange for their being moved. You'll just have to look somewhere else, or something." The Water Aspect stumps away, moving towards one of the warehouses nestled up against the cliff-walls.


-----


Oh noes, it is a challenge! WHATEVER SHALL WE DO
 
Tepet Arna


Arna moves over to the crates, looking at them, circling around and pushing a few. "Hmm. Well, we could come back later, but I have the sneaking suspicion that these won't be moved until the week is up. In fact, I suspect if we moved them out of place, they'd be moved back for the next group. Or someone would get angry at us."


"With that said, we might be able to move them, if you guys are up for some work. Alternatively, there might be something under this, if someone feels like taking a swim under the docks; I'll pass, myself." Sitting down, Arna stares at the pile, staring thoughtfully at it.
 
Ledaal Larissa


Larissa watches everyone stand around with their mouths hanging open for a bit. Then she rolls her eyes and starts digging around in her pockets.


"I'm not going to go dive into that water and get frozen stiff unless it's the last resort, so we might as well move those boxes. He said it was under there, anyway." She pulls out a small pouch and opens it, pouring a handful of bright pebbles of varying colors and shapes into her palm.


Glancing at Syme and Coreen, she says, "Take one. We'll need muscle to shift these things, and frankly, you're both a little lacking in that area." Her tone is not unkind.
 
Ledaal Syme


Syme is abashed, and his face flushes red. Reaching for his belt, he unfastens the essence projector.


"I bet I could move the boxes with this. Moving them back, I don't know, but I've yet to meet a box that won't yield to a high-density essence discharge."
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen eyed her fellow students, absently digging through her pockets until she came up with a folded sheet of parchment. "Um, I really don't think we should blast the boxes, 'cause probably they have things in them and people would get upset." As she spoke, she began to fold the paper, carefully running her nails over the creases, until a rudimentary paper boat took shape.


"Let's just check underneath, okay? Maybe the glyph or whatever it is set into the wood and'll show through." Fishing out a small pocket mirror, she set it into the little boat at an angle and headed over to the edge of the docks.


Laying on her stomach with her head and shoulders hanging down - which was ruinous to her clothing, since dockhands don't tend to clean their shoes too often - she lowered the little boat into the water. A steady breeze began to push the boat over the ripples, and as Coreen bit the tip of her tongue in concentration, her anima began to glow brightly, illuminating the underside of the wooden docks.
 
At The Docks


The little paper boat bobbed along as Coreen's elemental aura pushed it onward. It slid under the docks easily, and the Air-Aspect's anima lit up the area well enough for her to see clearly. There wasn't any glyph she could see, but there was a faint blue-green glow, in the very middle of where the boxes would be piled on the top of the docks.


Then something surged out of the water, yanking the little boat back under. A moment later, three humanoid figures appeared in front of the students. They were bald, with blue-gray skin, black eyes, and fluttering gill-slits along either side of their necks. One of the three looked to be vigorously chewing on something, while the other two smiled, exposing mouths full of triangular, razor-sharp teeth.


"Hullo!" burbled the foremost of the three figures. "Are on break to-day. What you doing?" Behind it, the figure that had been chewing suddenly made a strange face, and spat up Coreen's pocket mirror. Offering a hopefully-polite smile to the Air Aspect, it dunked the mirror in water, made a show of wiping it off and buffing the back a little, and offered it up to the girl.
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen startled, but quickly reasoned that the Heptagram would most likely make sure the dock area was more-or-less free from dangerous creatures, if only to ensure that cargo could reach shore un-molested. Still, be careful! There's still plenty of dangers around, and those teeth look sharp! But their voices are kinda cute, actually, and... Oh! My mirror!


Gingerly taking the mirror back from the creature, she ducked her head in place of a bow and smiled as unthreateningly as she could. This was much easier without a mouth full of razor-teeth, but she wasn't taking chances. "Um, thank you."


------------------


Int + Occult to figure out what they are?


5 Int + 4 Occult= 9xD10: 1 10 4 9 8 5 6 7 7 = 6 sux.
 
Five successes, huh?


The three figures in the water are undines, spiritual kin to the nymphs of song and legend. Unlike nymphs and despite their shark-like looks, undines are relatively benign beings, even according to the Immaculate Order. They are renowned for rescuing sailors lost at sea, guiding ships to shore safely, and so on. Often, they take ports, fishing villages, and other coastal gatherings of mortals under their 'protection', offering material aid in exchange for gifts and prayers. Such exchanges are used as milk runs for Immaculates being trained in the art of spirit negotiations, as most such relationships are examples of how gods and mortals should interact. Undines are implacable foes of the Fair Folk.


The best way to deal with undines is politeness and the exchange of minor gifts or favors - they prefer non-aquatic jewelry and trinkets, with iron enchanted not to rust being the most prized of all. Undines are physically powerful water elementals, and are often summoned as bodyguards at sea, as well as guides for seacraft and even fishing aides. They can stay on land for a week and a day without issue - after which they 'lose' one point of Permanent Essence per day. Once they reach zero, they melt back into seawater. If they are within one hundred miles of the ocean, they will reform there at full strength in another week and a day; if not, their essence disperses permanently.
 
Ledaal Coreen


Oh, right, undines, thought Coreen as the memory clicked into place. She'd never seen them before, land-locked as Ledaal Coriko's home was, but they'd been mentioned in several of her books.


"Pardon me for a moment, please," she said, flashing her sunniest smile and hoping such things translated over well. Not all creatures saw the baring of teeth as a friendly gesture, but the undines had smiled first, so she figured it was safe. With a quick push and a private grimace at the state of her clothing, she went back over to the little group of students by the boxes.


"There's some undines over there; they're water elementals, you know, and these said they were off work. Maybe we could talk them into helping us? They're pretty strong and they seemed friendly, and anyway undines are usually nice. They gave back my mirror and everything! But, um, we'll probably have to bargain or something with them, and I'm no good at that."
 
Larissa


"Me neither, but everybody wants something, don't they?" She juggles the polished stones, which she still holds, absent-mindedly in her hand.


"What sort of things do undines like to be offered?"
 
Ledaal Coreen


Coreen scrunched up her face in thought. "Hmm. Mnemon Jadis's Elementary Encyclopedia of Everyday Elementals describes undines as vain and fond of ornaments and trinkets, especially stuff that won't go all rusty underwater, and pretty much all elementals like being offered favors. Particularly, um, physical ones," she said, flushing bright red as she glanced at the Cynis boy.
 
Ledaal Larissa


Kneeling on the ground, Larissa empties out the rest of her pouch, disgorging a small heap of rocks. Most of them appear to be quite ordinary, but several are crystals or other semi-precious stones. She searches through these swiftly and selects a half-dozen that are still in their natural state, not tumbled smooth by a lapidary -- or by the ocean currents.


Scooping the rest back into her pouch, she says, "Well, you can try offering them these. They're from the mountains, not the beach, so they might interest a water elemental. If not..." she shrugs. "I wonder how the Heptagram feels about rockhounding?"
 
Ledaal Coreen


"M-me?" Coreen stuttered, taking a step back. "I'm really not any good at that kind of thing, besides just being polite and I bet that's not gonna be enough. Besides, um, isn't this supposed to be part of our assignment? 'Cause it's really convenient that there's undines hanging out under the dock waiting for someone to poke their head over, and if it is part of the assignment, we're probably supposed to be using water-essence-y skills like organisation and stuff and that's, um, really really really not my strong suit!"


It all came out in rather a rush, and Coreen had to take a couple of deep breaths until she got her wind back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top