Seaside

Locales abroad of the city centers, from out of doors to the outer planes.
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bc56
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
Drakaina gets it. Jade doesn't like magic for exactly those reasons.
Jade looks at the standing stones. Her first instinct is that they must be a prank by kids, but... "Drag marks. And piles of sand. Someone dug up these stones and moved them. But why?" Perhaps unwisely, Jade approaches the standing stones in order to get a closer look.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Jade and Drakaina are definitely on the same wavelength when it comes to trying to figure magic out.

EG: not figuring it out because IT MAKES NO SENSE.

Honestly the way that Chimera flagrantly violates conservation of mass is bad enough. The 'eternal fire' that they can breath is pretty bad, too. But Drakaina is half-way certain it's some kind of catalyst that their body produces that just radically reduces the energy required to cause materials to combust. After all, it's just this stuff that spit up that causes everything else to catch fire. It doesn't spread or anything. It just sits there being white hot and they have to hoover it back up when they're done.

Anyway!

Those darn rocks.

What's up with them, anyway?

"Art project?" Tristan ventures as he likewise moves in closer for a better look. "Like that mirror-finish pillar someone set up out in the middle of the badlands a few years ago."

The so called monolith.

Even though it was made of several pieces bolted together and also wasn't a rock.

Tristan runs his fingers along the stone. "It doesn't, um... look like it's been worked. It doesn't have any chisel marks. So someone just dug it up and hauled it over here? That would be a lot of work for a bunch of standing stones. Don't the fae usually carve runey and geometric shapes into their rocks?"

That's what the ones Tristan recalls from the weald were like, anyway.

There isn't anything at the center of the standing stones. Just some moss that's been disturbed by the process of setting them up.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"I don't know," Jade answers. She steps into the center of the ring (it seems safe enough) in order to examine the disturbances in the middle.
Of course if this is some kind of fae trap, then she's probably going to set it off. But Tristan said fae normally put writing on their stones and he would know better than she would.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Of course it's a trap.

They already KNOW there's fae nonsense going on here.

Why WOULDN'T it be a trap?

As soon as Jade steps inside the trap springs and-!

Well.

Nothing obvious happens, though Jade may feel as if someone had just grabbed one of her tails in two hands and pet it backwards, frizzing all the fluff in the process. It looks like the sand has been churned up as a result of moving the boulders around. The moss and lichen that grows over the dunes is pretty fragile stuff. Not quite desert cryptobiotic crust levels fragile, but still pretty fragile.

If Jade ever wants to hear a bunch of very exciting information on soil crusts Tristan would be more than happy to share that knowledge. Sure the crusts might not be his focus of study but they're still pretty neat!

Anywho!

It looks like there might be something buried in the middle of the circle?

The sand appears pretty disturbed.

Tristan, meanwhile, is still poking at one of the limestone slabs. "OH! Hey, this is really weird. There are a few small metal slivers stuck in the rock. They look kind of like finishing nails that someone forgot to put a flat end on. Don't think this is iron, either. It looks more like silver?"
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
Jade glances over her shoulder at her tails. After the incident with the wizard and the portal, she really doesn't like unseen people touching her tails.
But science. "Huh? Silver nails? Let me take a look." Why would someone make nails without heads? And drive them into these standing stones?
Unless they're not nails... But then what are they?
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Being fair here, MOST people with tails don't like other people grabbing their tails.

Except, possibly, Drakaina. Given that she IS the tail. If someone decided to grab her she would probably nail them with a Bugs Bunny kiss in reply.

No one is seen when Jade looks. This may be concerning. Or maybe not? It isn't clear what, if anything, they're dealing with yet.

Tristan points out one of the slivers to Jade. Just a fine, silvery bit of metal. It has that very notable whitish hue to it that silver does. Definitely not a simple zinc coating like what gets applied to many nails to fight off rust. It's about as thick as a toothpick and driven into the grayish stone. Should Jade try tugging at it she'll find that it's stuck fast, either driven deep or there's some sort of anchor on the end inside the stone.

While Jade is looking at those slivers he begins checking the other six standing stones. "There are some more in this rock, too. It looks like copper this time?"
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
No one there. With all the faeries about and vaguely threatening Tristan, Jade's nerves must just be frazzled. She tries to smooth the fur on that tail back down into a comfortable position.
"These are definitely manmade. But by who, and why? And who would dig them back up?" She looks at the center of the circle. "Something might have been buried here. Did you bring a shovel in your surveying gear?"
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Re: Seaside

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[SHRIMP BATTLE!]

POISON SPIT!

Okay the shrimp wasn't expecting that.

It gets splashed by the projectile and immediately goes ridged, toppling over sideways. At this point the shrimp is utterly helpless and free to get maced to death. While she's in the process of smashing the crustacean's head into jelly a very, very strange thing happens.

A ruddy, ruggedly handsome looking (human?) with a horse's legs steps out of the mortally wounded creature much as a spriggan might step out of a tree.

"Dude, harsh, I was just going to, like, eat you and stuff. No reason to get murdery over it," he protests. He doesn't appear injured at all.

Just a little offended that she killed his giant shrimp.

[Crab Survey]

Jade successfully pets her tail! A very important development.

"Of course I have a shovel," Tristan replies with a look of mock offense. He shrugs his pack off and pulls a folding shovel out of one of the side pockets. "What kind of hiker do you take me for? The sort that WOULDN'T bring a spade with me?"

It's one of those nice multi-use folding shovels! Vitally important if you're planning on spending a few days out in the wilderness. Or even one long day. Never know when some sort of strange artifact might be buried somewhere. Tristan will hand the steel shovel over to Jade before returning to checking out the stones. "Oh hey, this one's got gold splinters in it. Next one looks like... tin? I think? We might have some rocks here with all seven metals of antiquity going on here."

There ARE seven standing stones, so it's possible.

"Some sort of... weird magicy alchemy thing?"

Tristan is one hundred percent not familiar with that subject.

Should Jade decide to start digging-
-she'll immediately get one of her tails frizzed again.
Last edited by Rebonack on Jan 13, 2023 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Seaside

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SHRIMP BATTLE!

Well, the khaniit wasn't expecting the arrival of the classical satyr either, so I'd say it was all fair. "Would eating me have left me alive? Because somehow this one doubts it. And as this one was fighting in self-defence, survival via retreat was an option for you." She doesn't attack it, because whilst surprised it doesn't yet seem hostile. And the khajiit's still got a broken arm and limited magicka for spells.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"Thanks. Alchemy, huh?"
Indeed, Jade starts digging in the center of the circle, and...
Tail frizzed again? What? It must be because of whatever's here. It's making her hair stand on end.
Now she has to find out what it is.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Okay Tristan definitely picks up on the sudden change in Jade's demeanor here. It's pretty obvious that something is bothering her.

"What's wrong?"

What's wrong is that something frizzed one of her tails.

Again!

It was a different tail, this time around.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"Something's messing with my tails," Jade replies, striking the shovel angrily into the earth and widening the hole she's made.
Tristan should know she doesn't like that. She likes her tails left alone. Which is why she's not just walking away. By messing with her tails, whatever is buried here (if it is at fault) made this personal.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Oh that gets Tristan's attention. He immediately starts looking around, just in case some sort of awful creature is lurking around and yanking at his girlfriend's tail. He doesn't see anything lurking around. Not that... he would have an easy way to see such a thing. If there IS a creature making trouble it clearly isn't something visible.

Some kind of invisible trouble-maker?

A spirit, maybe?

"I don't think we've got any great ways to sus out invisible tail messers," Tristan admits. That isn't something he really prepared for. Prepared for crab related stuff? Sure. But impish little things yanking Jade's tail? Not so much.

Jade, meanwhile, begins digging!

She doesn't get very deep before hitting something hard. Should she clear the sand away she'll find that she's found a buried chest about the size of a shoe box made of a very hard, fairly dense blue stone. If she bends down to pick it up one of her tails is going to get frizzed again.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
Jade lifts the stone box out of the hole, glaring backwards at whatever unseen thing is touching her tails.
"I found something!" Maybe it's their culprit. Maybe something else entirely is going on.
But Jade's going to try and open that box
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Jade picks up the box and-!

Hmm.

The lid appears to be sealed on. It looks like whoever made it used melted pewter to sort of weld the lid on. It'll take some real strength to get it open. Maybe shove the head of the spade into the thing and pry it open? That'll probably do it. Or possibly just SMASH the thing. But then, if there's anything fragile in there that would probably destroy it.

As Jade is messing with the box the fizzing of her tail is growing steadily more frantic. As soon as one tail is floofed the unseen force moves on to another one.

By now Tristan is noticing the fur getting frizzled. He tries waving his arms around in the general area of whatever is messing with them to ward it off.

This proves to be one hundred percent ineffectual.

"I'm not sure if something's mad you're in the circle or glad you're in the circle."



[SHRIMP BATTLE!]

"Uh..." the satyr pauses to consider that.

He holds up one hand and counts off on his fingers.

"...maybe?" he eventually concludes. "I dunno, brah, don't mortals normally live when something eats them?"

From the perspective of the adventurer this appears to be a very dense daedra of some kind.

Or possibly a VERY clever one that's just trying to get her to lower her guard.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
Jade turns the box over in her hands. "It's sealed. Pewter was melted over the opening." But she can feel that increasingly frantic attack on her tails. She whirls around and throws a punch at the emptiness where she feels like something is messing with her, probably to no effect. "If it's trying to keep me away from the box, it's not very effective. If it's trying to encourage me to open the box, it's not very effective." The real question is, how does she open the box without damaging the contents? She's not skilled enough in using foxfire to melt the seal. A shovel is a good tool, but what she needs is a chisel. "What do you think? Should I try to break it open?" She holds the shovel over the box, ready to strike.

Let's be honest, she can't let a mystery lie. She's going to break it open no matter what Tristan says.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

"Pewter has a pretty low melting point. I could probably soften it up enough to pry it off pretty easily?" Tristan suggests. He's got pretty good control of his fire breath, after all. He's had quite a bit more time to get use to the whole Chimera thing.

Then he leans back a bit when Jade throws a punch into thin air.

Nothing!

Just.

Punching the wind.

"Whatever we're dealing with here is probably noncoporeal-"
another tail gets frizzed.
"-but corporeal enough to mess with your tails?"

Granted, Jade's tails ARE pretty weird and magical.

"The rock DOES look pretty tough. I think that's some sort of schist? The pewter would probably crack before it does. I guess it depends on whether you're worried about breaking whatever's inside?"
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"Sure, go ahead," Jade hands the box over. She really just wants to know what's going on here. If there is a creature messing with her tails, why? Almost all of them are all frizzed up at the moment. Why isn't it touching the hair on her head? Or Tristan at all?
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

And so when Tristan steps into the circle to take the box from Jade he almost immediately reacts with-

"What the hell?" and glances behind himself.

It.

That's...

Okay that shouldn't be possible.

"It felt like someone just poked Drakaina in the nose," he says, eyeing the empty air suspiciously. "Not that I'm one hundred percent opposed to snoot boops but feeling that when I don't actually have a tail is pretty weird."

Hmm.

Well.

The weird stuff only started when Jade stepped into the circle of stones. And this seems like a second data point in favor of that.

Either way!

Tristan blows gently on the box, flames flowing smoothly from his mouth and licking at the pewter seal. He doesn't do it long enough to melt the thing, just enough that it softens up enough for him to cram his finger-nails in there and pry it open. The lid of the box comes off revealing-!

"...it looks... kind of like a mummified animal?"

Baby mummified animal?

It's a mammal for sure.

But it's so shriveled it isn't clear exactly what it is. Something with black fur.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"That..." Should be impossible. "You think there's some prankster ghost trapped in here? That is interested in tails?" It sounds ridiculous. "Aw, poor little thing. What was it? And why was it buried here?"
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

If we've learned anything about fae it is...

What?

That the impossible, that dream logic, is exactly their cup of tea. Why, if they haven't done four impossible things by breakfast then it's a slow day indeed!

"A ghost. A spirit? I don't really know the nomenclature. I study crabs, not spooks," Tristan admits right before he glares at...

Whatever's messing with his tail.

Which he doesn't have right now.

"But someone obviously went to a huge amount of trouble to stand these stones up and bury whatever this in right in the middle of them. Do you think it might have been meant to keep something in pl-OW!"

Okay that was a YANK.

And one shortly follows on Jade, too.

The message is pretty clear. Hurry up!
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"Yipe!" Jade yips when her tail is pulled.
"What do I have to do to get this thing to leave me alone?" Something about the box. Probably. She gently touches the dead animal. "If it's a ghost, do you think it wants a proper burial?"
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

Tristan wants to rub his tail until it doesn't feel sore anymore.

But he doesn't have one at the moment.

This is very confusing.

"Bury? About to feed it to the mudcrabs if it doesn't KNOCK that off,"
Tristan growls in a very Leona sort of way.

Which...

Manages to get the tail yanking to calm down.

Whatever the spirit is doing, it doesn't react to Jade touching the animal mummy.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"I don't know. We've got to try something." Jade steps away from the box, rubbing her backside. "This whole thing was set up recently, maybe to contain it? Let's get outside the circle." Hopefully outside the circle is safe, but if they just leave now, Jade's never going to get over the mystery being left unsolved.
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Re: Seaside

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SHRIMP BATTLE!

"If a mosquito, yes. If a leech, yes. If a prawn as big as that, not usually. What did you usually eat as a multicoloured prawn?" The khajiit does not know what she's dealing with, but she's been in the Nexus long enough not everything works like it did in Tamriel. Hopefully, it's not hostile, but the khajiit will remain on guard anyway.
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Re: Seaside

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[SHRIMP BATTLE!]

The satyr considers that carefully, rubbing his stubbly chin.

"That's a good question, brah," he replies. "Good question."

How could he not know?

Wasn't he... what. Possessing the shrimp? Or something?

"Mostly those big crabs."

Ah, there we go. That makes sense. A giant mantis shrimp might have some trouble keeping up with an animal like a deer. But a giant, heavily armored crab? That's a perfect target.


[Crab Survey]

Our heroes step out of the circle and something very odd happens.

Something very, very odd!

The mummified animal suddenly springs out of the box and begins... swelling? It's desiccated skin growing soft and pliable, its face taking on form other than a leering skull. Even the creature as a whole seems to be getting bigger until it's the size of a fox. All pitch black fur and luminous golden eyes. The creature looks like someone took a fox, a goat, and a rabbit and mashed them together into a single animal.

A single animal that's now leering up at our heroes with a wide crescent moon grin.

"Oh WOW I thought you lunks would never figure it out, good job! I've been stuck in that stupid binding circle for DAYS!"
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Re: Seaside

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SHRIMP BATTLE!

The khajiit is not really surprised by the surfer satyr's answer, considering how hard the shrimp hit and how slow the crabs are. "Do they survive when you eat them?" Again, the khajiit's expecting the answer to be 'no'. But maybe something weird is going on here and the answer is 'yes', it just... seems unlikely.
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
"A pooka. I should've known." It's all obvious in retrospect. At least pookas aren't usually dangerous. Just... Very annoying. "You were the one pulling our tails!?" Jade sounds upset about that. For understandable reasons.
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Re: Seaside

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[Crab Survey]

VERY annoying.

And apparently this one was annoying enough that someone killed(?) it and stuck it in some kind of binding circle.

That doesn't have great implications, considering that Jade and Tristan just freed it.

"Well OF COURSE! I couldn't yell so how else was I going to get your attention," the creature replies, leering up at Jade innocently. "But now I owe you one since you got me out of a jam! I can grant you a wish, if you like. Provided it's something that can be done by working really fast."

No reality warping going on here.

Just an offer of some free, totally non-mischievous, labor.

[Post Shrimp Battle]

The satyr considers this very carefully. Scratches his chin some more. Hems and haws and hums.

Then snaps his fingers as a look of realization dawns!

"Oh yeah! That's right! Nah, brah, they, like, totally die."

Obviously.

What else would happen to them?

"Man, now I've got to find a new ride. Not those crabs though, brah, they're totally lame."
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Re: Seaside

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Crab Survey
Jade holds out the bundle of marker flags to the pooka. "Can you mark every coconut crab burrow, and no other objects, within 300 yards of that pond over there?" She gestures towards the mudcrabs lair.

What? If they're getting free super-fast help, they might as well put it to use.
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