The Maidensong Epilogue

    The research has been done, the objectives are understood. With Haru and Dosbox working together, aided by some Loremastery from Uta, a small opening was made. There's not much that can be seen from the outside, so if everyone really wants to know more... they have to go in.

    The overall objective is to find hints here to locate 'The Isle of Stone Teeth'. From there, Shiruba's work with the hints June discovered will kick into action. As for Wake's assistance? We has given the group a ship and a crew to pilot it. The Silver-Tongued, as they are called, are skilled at sea, untroubled in navigating these waters, and fast with a joke or a song. But they are a superstitious lot, as well, and will not step onto Maidensong Isle. Though they have nothing to add of historical importance, it is clear they view the area as generally bad luck. Save for the Captain, who thinks of it all as an old sailor mom's tale to keep fools from poking their prows where they do not belong.

Haru's typical white garbs is adorned with a new Promethian pin made of obsidian and gold. The warm toned metal makes it look like the crest is on fire from a coal. The young man kept to recording the journey in his cabin through much of the trip over. A chim to Elly periodically to report in on how the family is doing. Although the Yamato Champion's fighting days are over, his adventuring days will take much longer to sunset when there are important matters to attend to. He is serious. He is tireless. He is currently at the small opening created after much investigation into Maidensong.

"Region tier enchantments are no match for the best Enchanter in Yamato," Haru says with a ragged sense of praise for the accomplishment. A moment for him to look back at those present here. "A recap, for those that need it, is that we are looking for details to locate the Isle of Stone Teeth as the next lead in the journey." He takes a deep breath as he moves on to bossing people around. A motion to Gwen, "Lead defense," two hands that point to Uta and Asuna respectively, "Front offense and situational support," then the next two to Shiruba and Bory, "Back row offense and support." Then a tap for him. An arrow formation. 1-2-3. He turns back to the opening, "Ask your questions now, or roll with it, we have no assurances of what we may come across." o/` Into the unknowwwwnnn

"You are probably right," Shiruba would reply to the Captain when the topic came up. "But that does not mean the superstitions don't have a basis in something true. Or something secret, as you suggest. We hope, regardless of which, to find out." She smiles a little, keeping the discussion lighthearted as to not upset their means of getting home. "See if it really deserves the reputation it has." Windburn gives beak click of agreement from the railing she's perched on.

"But that's part of the allure!" she adds in response to Haru, floofy tail wagging a bit with anticipation. Makes sure she's got her mapping tools at the ready. She may be a capable ranged combatant but exploration was what really got her sparks flying.

Gone is the Nurse's uniform; today Uta's gone goth. Some people might have caught wind that she's undergoing Dark taraining, and her black attire proves she's decided to go all in.

Either that, or that Gwen struck again.

"Anyone among us has Divination?", asks Uta. Feet raised on rock, calf and thigh forming a ninety degree angle. Forearm resting horizontal on knee. Peering into the entrance. "It could help assess what dangers we are about to encounter." After a short pause of reflection, she continues, "Or we could just go in blind as we usually do. Not that that has stopped us before."

"I'm dying to find out where this will lead us. Especially about how it relates to the history of the Sirens and the Undines. It would appear that their histories are more intertwined than we suspected...", she trails off, before blinking back to atention. "Uh... er... no, no particular questions," she says, straightening up. A determined gaze. "Let's go."

    Asuna was in a convenient location for the group to recruit. And she rather likes the idea of going somewhere nobody has been for ages. Maybe there will be a new story to share with her family, too! So here she is. And she's armed and ready. If a slime should pop up she'll be ready to capture it, too.

    "I call off-tank," Asuna adds cheerfully. A look to Gwen and she adds, "Way off, hopefully! But if you want to pull in a switch move, let me know. I'm good for a few rounds against pretty much anything."

Dosbox tugs on his had to ensure that it is securely on his head, "No questions here, nope!" Since joining Prometheus, and thus, Olympus, Borywick "DosBox" Rockborer, has been more active than he has ever been in his life; there is no Macro or automated script for adventuring. He looks a little tired, but definitely better than a few days ago. Did he sneak in a nap somewhere?

He does not have any questions, but he does offer to Uta, "Maybe the Sirens and the Undine are genetic offshoots of the same species?"

Gwen had an interest in helping this matter too from having been here when they found out, to many people close to her being involved. She takes point and will move up to end up in tank spot. She takes a moment and thinks.

"Could be we may find out something more here."

She look to Asuna for a moment sizing her up and nodding once.

"All right then."

    It is a tight fit for anyone who is one of the larger races (or those who happen to be rather large or have to worry about wings, tails, or the like!) Inside, there is a large chamber. The air is stale and a layer of dust coats the floor. The floor is smooth, laid with tiles that have been preserved from the ages in this subterranean tomb. Despite its proximity to the sea, the air is dry.

    The area is empty, save for a few small objects. Closer inspection will reveal several broken bowls, a knife with its tip broken off, and a doll. Near the small entryway that the party forced open is a staircase that leads up to what one day must have been a much larger opening. With the effort of many weeks, one might force the entrance open once more. The entrance and this chamber are broad. A reasonable estimate would put the width of the broken entrance at eight meters.

    The chamber walls are decorated with mosaics of the night sky, the sea, and what appears to be elaborate cities.

    At the bottom of the entry stairs, the path goes on evenly for a time and then plunges downward in a long staircase.

Haru's tall body is lean. For those that have seen Haru without his cloak, vest, or shirt on they will know he is surprisingly athletic. A swimmer's build or a gymnastic one. The noodle armed bean makes his way in by stooping down, bonking his head on stray overhead rock that causes him to rub it on the way in. "Eve," he says in a somber voice, "darklight."

Two red eyes appear from the shadows and a small cat... holy crap what has Haru been feeding Eve? What was once the size of a small houscat is the size of a displacer beast, or a panther. Eve can no longer sleep on the 'Obsidian Light' moon that is summoned, instead batting it up into the air like it was a ball of yarn and maintaining it there like she was telekinetic.

The artificer stops by the mural, looking it over. "Shiruba, you fancy yourself an archeologist," he says as the Artificer looks it over, "What do you make of this?" While this may be an opportunity to say that Haru sees others for who they are, its still devoid of connection and utilitarian. The Dark training that Uta, Bory, and Haru on has only made him more gloomy and aloof. The world isnt ready for an S+ gloomy Haru. It may implode like a black hole. "None of these isles look familiar to Yamato or Palace lands. Submerged ones? Would track with the Undine relation, if we were looking to simply reinforce our existing theories and not objectively gather data and construct a complete, unbiased profile." Its the monocle, instant smart words smartly.

"There was a confrontation, it would seem," Uta comments, as she paces around the room. "Some sort of conflict. Started here. Spilled over. Unclear." She kneels over, to place a cheek against the floor, looking for items flush with the ground. "A hasty retreat."

She stands up, dusts herself off, and paces around some more. "The place was left in a hurry. One does not bother to lavish so much energy to create such an impressive mural..." her hand sweeps the air behind her, upwards, towards the art, while her staff, brandished in the other hand, points down the knife mentioned earlier, "...and then not even bother to tidy up after yourself. They just doesn't go together."

Etiquette.

"So, this leads us to three conclusions:" She raises her index finger. "One, there is something more to be found out about this." The middle finger shoots up, joining the index in a Victory Sign. "Two, my, has Eve grown." A third finger emerges from her fist. "Three, we need a third conclusion, because three is such a nice number."

Dosbox has been left to his own devices, something that isn't generally wise. Perhaps they think there is no harm he can do right now? Hopefully for them, they are not wrong...

Dosbox wanders around the room, stopping at a single doll, sitting harmlessly, minding its own business. DosBox picks it up and starts analysing it with a craftsman's diligence. "What is this made of, SEA SHELLS?" I asks, kind of perplexed. "It kind of feels like an action figure or barbie doll... And... Sometype of seaweed for the clothing... Hmm... I guess you would use whatever you have in most plentiful supply for materials..."

    As Borywick handles the doll, a pale green light appears at the entrance. The entrance that is solid stone and closed tight. The light resolves a moment later into the phantasmal form of a human child with long hair. The child races through the group (literally right through Asuna's left leg) and then vanishes into the stale air.

    A moment later, there is something like an ancient echo of a high pitched scream. It is soft, stretched out, and if the scream was a word, that detail is lost.

    "You.... all saw that, right?" murmurs Asuna. "It felt.. cold."

Windburn is not fond of indoor locations, but isn't going to stray from her Ranger either, and remains perched on Shiruba's shoulder while the group inspects the room. At first her notice is on the discarded items, as those a common find in temples and ruins, but then her attention is drawn back to the mosaics when Haru also mentions them. "Hmmm." She walks over to give a scrutinizing examination. "Mmmhmmm..." She pauses a moment, then pulls out one of the various maps she's made and unfurls it. "No, none of these corrispond to current or known settlements. Could possibly be former Undine cities, unknown because they are underwater and abandoned..."

Shiruba pauses, putting her map away, and getting out their notes for the question. After a bit of refresher she looks up and points at one of the murals. "That one. That one has a similar coastline pattern as our intended target... however these don't seem to corrispond to realistic distances or directions. But that means we're in a good location to investigate for clues, if the island was known to the previous inhabitants!"

Gwen is watching as everyone else is looking around and fingind thing she stays on guard for the moment knowing there could be something erlse waitng in the wings but she does not want to just be the meat. Lets be honest she does take note of the fabic and will look into that later for now. She's looking for signs of this place and given what happned here maybe it's left traces and she tries to reach out, after all there have been times she's sensed the law being broken...myabe some trace was left.

Haru looks back to Uta and to Eve. Large Catte. "As my descent into the Dark grows, as do my elementals. Terra is the size of a house. Rachel is fortified by the legendary Phoenix and Divine Beast of Fire. Eve," he stares at her for a moment, "is extremely jealous of both facts and has been pouting lately." Notably summons do not have their own personalities. They have their will imposed on them by the summoner. So, in effect, Haru is explaining psychological impressions on various parts of his will through his summons. Pride, Envy, Determination.

Haru puts his hand under his chin and rubs it in a scholarly fashion. "Indeed," he says to Shiruba while keeping eye on the mural. Eyes if there is one behind the monocle, no know knows whats behind that thing! Darkness. Darkness, probably. "Confirmation we are in the right place is fortunate. We could spend days looking the right way at the wrong spot. Our efforts here will not be wasted if done with rigor and diligence." And so on, and so forth. Please see chapter 4 on your textbook and report back to Professor Haru in the morning on the meaning of this mural.

There is a brief pause from Haru as the ghostly visage makes its way. He does notice it, but is less easily distracted. So long as someone else is following that lead, he ensures that not all are pulled away from it. When no immediate danger takes advantage of the state, he looks to Bory, "Dolls and Action Figures often are built to emulate things idolized. Or concepts. Such as those at the Crownless Cup." That he won. Nice drop, Haru. His purple lens monocle comes to life with a light 'humm' to it. White text scrolls along the lens as he stares at it. "The denizens of this locale were wealthy. See there, the faded lines? A tiara once was painted there." The Artificer pauses as if he was getting a chim from someone and had to stop and listen to it. "Mm. They held a position of leadership. There is lament there, in the words and the response from those haunted by them. Young and Foolish, she believes she is," he says as he stands regally in the room, "now they are gone. The guilt of a leader that has led their people into ruin." Something he knows well about, and the whole world knows about after his proclaimation at the tournament.

"Are there other points of interst that have caught our eye before we move on?" Haru says as he stands back by the mural, gauging the agency of the party members without rushing them onwards. This is a discovery mission, there is nothing time pressing just yet. Treasure those moments.

Dosbox looks up from the doll at Asuna's query, "See what? Did I miss something I was just, you know. Looking at the doll."

He listens to Haru's long explanation and nods a couple times, ".......Maybe the tiara just came off and they lost it, though?"

Haru nods to Bory and says, "Possibly. Doll accessories speak a lot to the person who owns the doll." Spoken from a man who played Angelic Layer. Which are dolls. That fight each other. Poke-Doll. Its so truuuue, you know I'll be fighting yooouuuu o/~ "We are slowly building together a profile of those that came before and if those that came before can help lead us to a place that existed before." To center the team on the primary objective.

"...Your summons have a complex life," Uta comments, not without a bit of admiration. "Mine just bounce around all the time. Hm." She rubs her chin. "Maybe I should try summoning something that is not a slime?"

She thinks long and hard about it. And then, as if an inner light suddenly shone, she beams.

And promptly returns to an uninterested expression. "...Nah."

When the child appears, Uta spins in place. Uta pulls her hand away from her side, and swipes her menu open, like a gunslinger's quick-draw in a spaghetti Western. And no, that isn't about noodle arms in FM world. Although that would be cool.

"It is not a Monster," Uta is quick to declare to the group. "Just... some sort of effect."

"I wonder if that might have been Aurora," Uta comments to Haru. "The young woman we thawed." Uta scratches her head. "There seems to be a lot of guilt going on in this story. The Captain. This Leader." The student who didn't keep a paper trail of academic accomplishments. "Except that Aurora isn't really... -gone-. She is still around, right?" After a short pause, she continues, "Of course, it depends on what one means by 'gone'..." Uta taps her chin. "We might want to ask her about this..."

"Do you think it is worth giving our Loremastering powers a shot?", Uta asks around, uncertain. "Shiruba could learn whom, exactly, the doll is supposed to represent. I could try and figure out what, exactly, transpired here. There always is the risk of strain for me, given how far in the past these events might have occurred..." She turns to look at the murals, and rubs her chin. "I'm also wondering if we could appraise these. Perhaps-" She turns to Shiruba. "Perhaps you can copy this mural? I've heard you're studying to become an artist. Could be good exercise, and it can help us cross-referencing things."

Uta flicks her menu open, and materializes a notebook. "I'll take some notes myself."

Gwen pulls her shield out and it starts glowing gold, as does Gwen, she's up to something. There is indeed something here something old she reaches out further. Her eyes are glowing gold too for the moment as she looks out she hears something she pauses for a moment. She starts speaking the words she's hearing without thinking about it.

"Something happened here something evil made them...."

Her tone shifts now becoming lower.

"The bastards came to the feast, claiming they wished to celebrate the joining of the Lady of Pearl and the Lord of Deep Currents. In the midst of the revelry, they betrayed us! They attacked! They had more waiting below the waves. Damned water breathers! It was all I could do to bring the gates down as our people fled. So many lost."

She gasps for a moment.

"Something made them close the gate..."

Shiruba makes a few additions to her notes now that they have a more visial display of the island they're looking for, to make it easier to match up later. She also takes a few notes on how the mural displays it, that she can go over with Jazuhazu later, both for research and for her instruction in adding such artistic effort to her own mapmaking skills.

Then pauses to hold it up over her shoulder for Uta to see. "Already on it. It will help with confirming the island when we do find it."

She's working on the image part. She took notes first because she knows her artistic skill isn't that great yet, and while the practice in the field is good, she wants to be sure the information is in a presentable form as well.

Also in case she gets distracted. Like when Gwen starts spouting off something lore related. ".. Such marriages to broker peace between kingdoms was not uncommon. Still happens on occasion, though more often its merchant princes shoring up trade routes rather than actual royalty... oh, tangent." She ahems softly. "So you're saying some Undine used the wedding banquet as a cover to infiltrate and lay siege."

Dosbox stows the doll away in his Inventory for analysis at a later time, "Well, this is relevant to our interests... One of our current goals is to think of alternate materials for use that are different from the real world... Figuring out the manipulation of sea shells for a polymer might be an interesting thing to look into, yes?"

Gwen shakes her head a little bit and looks around.

"What just ... something happened something happene a very long time ago here and yes I think I was." She looks a bit sheepisha bout this but then she looks proud of herself on what she found. she takes a moment To think further on what happened here.

"We need to keep digging i think..."

Uta sits down on the floor. She touches her pen to the paper, and begins her attempts at crafting a narrative.

At first, the resistance from Sarla's Pen is familiar. She has done this before. She know the item is a bit stroppy.

But a moment later, it becomes obvious that it is different. It is not just that Sarla's Pen will resist a lie, there are other hands reaching for it. The feel of cold hands touching her makes her start for a moment. nd then a deepening, cold presence. Uta's breath generates frost, as if the temperature of the room suddenly dropped for her, and her alone.

She can notice two presences. They seem to come to an accommodation after a moment. (( "Hurry up, then. I must write as well!" )), goes one presence inside Uta's head. This is met by a silent sense of impatience. The first 'writer' strains against Uta's hands and hisses, "(( It fights me!" ))

The pen begins to move; the subdued, silky scratch of a nib against paper eventually leaves a trace. It's about a wedding. It is a brief, but romantic tale. A human and an undine. Unheard of in the time! The undine are violent, powerful monsters that take ships, that steal children, and that refuse to share the best seas for fishing.

Shaking and shivering, Uta presses on, until the last words are laid down.

A second voice goes, (( "You are done! Now it is my turn!" )) More straining. Colder yet. So cold. Uta can barely feel her fingers at all. Frost forms on her hair and eyelashes. (( "Ah yes, the day. That day." )) The first voice, (( "The last day." )) The second, (( "The end of our world." )).

Darkness, hiding below. She writes of noises above. How the other undine took away, brick by brick, all record of their existence. But this is contradicted. Uta knows it is all gone but for a few ruins. (( "The Lord of Deep Currents... so many of his people died to protect us. But there was nowhere to escape for us." ))

The cold seems now to expand at an accelerated rate -- ice crystals begin to form all over Uta's body at this point, who looks less and less like a proper Spriggan and more and more like an ice statue of one. Even her complexion is starting to veer a worrying shade of blue.

This is getting -dangerous-.

Realizing Uta is using her Loremaster abilities is enough to draw Shiruba away from the mural finally. Instead walking over to watch as Uta writes down whatever it is she is witnessing. She smiles a little to herself at the wedding being between a human and Undine, as that matches her previous comments on a marriage to make peace between two opposing kingdoms. But then other Undine attacked. Where they against one of their kind marrying a human? Or just using it as a reason to farther cause them strife? Did they fear too much 'landwalker' influence, or just the general spite that some non-Adventurer Undine have towards the surface world much like Landers can be racist about Spriggans.

It isn't made initially clear, and Uta's writing seems to be slowing down...