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vander's rescue
Who: Vander, his lovely and brave rescuers, and a whole lotta trouble
What: Vander was kidnapped by Aetós, so the people come to save him! OOC information and plotting can be found here.
Where: “The Zoo” in the Below
When: Sometime in between the TDM and March 17th OOC
Warnings: Violence, references to human experimentation/torture
It’s a long, winding way down into the Below, and you’re being led there by what seems like a girl, though at this point you’re also confident that she’s anything but. She’s fought with Shard-Bearers and held her own but was also captured by them to be questioned. And, in that, she eventually gave a piece of information in return. Her master, Aetós, had kidnapped Vander. If you don’t kill her, she can take you to where he’s being hidden. You can save him before her master makes him wrong.
So, a rescue effort was mounted. With many Shard-Bearers across factions here either to save Vander or simple for the allure of learning more about this mysterious figure, it at least gives you confidence that it can be handled. It’s disorienting down here so far below Springstar, but eventually, she comes to what looks like a sealed-up tunnel. She holds her hands against two particular bricks, and after a moment, they glow with teal light before all the bricks seem to shimmer. Like they all suddenly break, they become floating little motes of light, and a doorway lays before you.
It's a long corridor, but it doesn’t take long before you smell it before you see anything. There’s a largely animal smell here like a zoo, but it’s tinged more heavily with the smells of blood and rot. It’s enough to make a weak stomach heave a bit or at least get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. But still, the girl continues on until you can see the hallway spill out to a large room.
Laying on a dissecting table is some kind of strange animal, but standing over it is a similarly strange masked figure. Some of you know, it’s Aetós.
“Right on time, Adelfoúla,” is all they say as they stand and hold up a silver hand. A complex orb of light appears, and they crush it. In front of you, Adelfoúla only gives a dispassionate ah— that’s followed by the sound of shattering porcelain, and she simply crumbles at the waist. You can rush forward, try to meet Aetós, but calmly, they just say—
“This will be good data. Hopefully you’ll find Vander before he gets eaten.”
And with a tick like the movement of a watch’s hand, they’re simply… Gone. Those sensitive to such things will feel it, the pulse of intense, strong magic, but before you can fully process, you can hear it: the creaking of cage doors opening down the myriad of hallways that line this one large room, the rumble of growls and claws against stone. Vander is somewhere in this maze of a facility, and you have to find him. Or maybe you just have to find what Aetós left behind.
OOC Notes : This log is a catch-all for all efforts related to the Save Vander plot! Including Vander's no fun, very bad time itself! If you'd like to participate in this plot, please see the OOC post. While the text above describes the initial arrival, this log can also be used for pre/post plot Communion, planning beforehand, etc. along with the expected threads in the facility!
What: Vander was kidnapped by Aetós, so the people come to save him! OOC information and plotting can be found here.
Where: “The Zoo” in the Below
When: Sometime in between the TDM and March 17th OOC
Warnings: Violence, references to human experimentation/torture
It’s a long, winding way down into the Below, and you’re being led there by what seems like a girl, though at this point you’re also confident that she’s anything but. She’s fought with Shard-Bearers and held her own but was also captured by them to be questioned. And, in that, she eventually gave a piece of information in return. Her master, Aetós, had kidnapped Vander. If you don’t kill her, she can take you to where he’s being hidden. You can save him before her master makes him wrong.
So, a rescue effort was mounted. With many Shard-Bearers across factions here either to save Vander or simple for the allure of learning more about this mysterious figure, it at least gives you confidence that it can be handled. It’s disorienting down here so far below Springstar, but eventually, she comes to what looks like a sealed-up tunnel. She holds her hands against two particular bricks, and after a moment, they glow with teal light before all the bricks seem to shimmer. Like they all suddenly break, they become floating little motes of light, and a doorway lays before you.
It's a long corridor, but it doesn’t take long before you smell it before you see anything. There’s a largely animal smell here like a zoo, but it’s tinged more heavily with the smells of blood and rot. It’s enough to make a weak stomach heave a bit or at least get the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end. But still, the girl continues on until you can see the hallway spill out to a large room.
Laying on a dissecting table is some kind of strange animal, but standing over it is a similarly strange masked figure. Some of you know, it’s Aetós.
“Right on time, Adelfoúla,” is all they say as they stand and hold up a silver hand. A complex orb of light appears, and they crush it. In front of you, Adelfoúla only gives a dispassionate ah— that’s followed by the sound of shattering porcelain, and she simply crumbles at the waist. You can rush forward, try to meet Aetós, but calmly, they just say—
“This will be good data. Hopefully you’ll find Vander before he gets eaten.”
And with a tick like the movement of a watch’s hand, they’re simply… Gone. Those sensitive to such things will feel it, the pulse of intense, strong magic, but before you can fully process, you can hear it: the creaking of cage doors opening down the myriad of hallways that line this one large room, the rumble of growls and claws against stone. Vander is somewhere in this maze of a facility, and you have to find him. Or maybe you just have to find what Aetós left behind.
OOC Notes : This log is a catch-all for all efforts related to the Save Vander plot! Including Vander's no fun, very bad time itself! If you'd like to participate in this plot, please see the OOC post. While the text above describes the initial arrival, this log can also be used for pre/post plot Communion, planning beforehand, etc. along with the expected threads in the facility!
no subject
He considers asking John the Emperor if this was a training room of sorts. Either that or a guardian set up to protect something of importance. Zhongli cannot imagine why else John would know how the room and the creature works, especially if it sounds like a construct of his own design. But that also seems less important than puzzling out the mystery of what the constructs from John's home were doing in this dreadful place. Again, something to save for later.
Which leaves Zhongli's final course of action to re-form the shield around John the Emperor once more. Perhaps it would be a useless endeavor if John knew the inner workings of the room and the beast, but certainly it could not hurt. And if John was incapacitated - well that certainly would be disastrous for John the Archivist and himself to be left dealing with the creature blindly. Practical, sure. Let's call it that. ]
Then we shall follow at your behest. Do be careful in the event that Aetos has left any other surprises.
no subject
Ah, well, if it were that simple, it'd be over with already.
[ he shoots john (the archivist) a look because he thinks he should learn to appreciate things like cool dramatic timing, but that's neither here nor there. more importantly, john (the emperor) has to go about making sense of this for people with no experience with the baseline rules of necromancy. it's fine. this is why he insists on being called Teacher with a very intentional capital 'T'. ]
The field — whatever it is — interferes with my ability to manipulate thanergy. It prevents me from walking in there and taking it apart necromantically, and you really don't want to see me in a physical fight. [ that light, self-deprecating laughter again. ] It more or less recreates something like the original conditions of the experiment, which was intended to challenge a necromancer's ability to master a specific technique.
[ even though the information is technically useless outside of his own world and he isn't actually giving anyone the theorems themselves, that deeply ingrained distrust rears its head again. john keeps his hands behind his back so he won't be tempted to fidget, but there's a tension in his shoulders now all the same as he gets more specific. ]
Necromancers are paired with Cavaliers, non-adepts trained in martial arts and weapons skills. A sufficiently skilled Cavalier would be enough, aside from the obvious problem I just told you — which is that they aren't necromancers. That thing is made of perpetual bone. It will regenerate faster than you could hope to destroy it unless it's taken apart in a specific sequence, which is a puzzle that can only be solved by — you guessed it — a necromancer.
[ reluctant or not to explain it, john still considers this a very elegant solution and sounds quite proud of it. ]
But I'll cut right to the point. [ wow, about time. ] Constructs are useless here because the field negates my theorems. They have no protection. A living soul, on the other hand, doesn't have this problem. That is, the solution of the original experiment requires the necromancer to work through the Cavalier — via their soul — and see through their eyes. In doing so, allowing the Cav also to see the sequence. Does that make sense?
[ and this is where he looks between the two of them to see if he's lost them along the way. "hey, i need to touch your living soul to share my senses so you can fight a giant bone monster" is one of those huge asks where it's good to make sure everyone is on the same page, after all. ]
no subject
even as patient as his explanation is, it still takes a moment to puzzle through. he had previously mentioned thanergy — and even without doing so, john got a sense of what he meant from the base words that comprised the term — and if manipulation of such an energy was at the heart of necromancy, it certainly seemed like a puzzle-box experiment meant to ensure the problem at hand was solved by the intended solution and not unexpected brute force.
he actually does understand the concept relatively easily. in the Institute, elias had surrounded him with a handful of individuals he had intended to function as "protectors" — it had been john's job to try to discern the threat and theirs to destroy it. this seems similar, albeit with a lot more... soul-touching...? john tenses somewhat when the emperor mentions seeing through another's eyes; he tries to cover it up by shifting his weight from one foot to another, though he ends up just coming off with a nervous energy in the effort. )
I - think so. ( but he frowns, brow heavy over darkened eyes. ) But just in case, let me get this straight: if your necromancy is useless to fight this thing due to the field covering that doorway... even if you are sharing your senses with us, does that mean we must send Zhongli in there to deal with it on his own?
( because, even if the two johns can cross the threshold, if the emperor can't create his constructs, it doesn't seem like either of them will have much to offer against such a monstrosity, let alone one made of perpetual bone. )