(no subject)

[unabatedly]

Back into the fray again, I suppose--

[Neria's voice echoes across the network, wry. She sighs.]

Welcome, new Travelers. I trust you can hear me. Wherever you are in Liminal Space, if you should require aid, you need only speak up or call out to the other Travelers around you. Though we're all strangers, I assure you that we're here to help.

[Which is your standard welcome, by all accounts. But she has a specific reason for requesting people's attentions this time.]

You might notice the portals that are leading out of Liminal Space. I would advise you be cautious until you've listened to what I have to say.

We are in the middle of an excursion into another world, something we do here very frequently. We have been tasked with aiding the realm of Dolorosa, a kingdom fraught with trouble. There is a missing queen and knights abound, with dragons and murderous barons. [She chuckles briefly.] I know it may sound fantastical and strange, but this is a reality you will be facing very shortly. I would caution you to ask your fellow Travelers, the other Veterans, about Dolorosa and how you can prepare, what you can expect, before moving on.

Rest assured, we will do all we can to help you.

I have but one request of all of you gathered here: should you find any herbs or anything of use, please collect them and bring them to me. I am one of the few here capable of healing injuries and my stock is low, a very dangerous thing considering what has transpired recently. [Her tone sounds almost bitter, colored with bemusement.] I would be highly grateful if you could bring me whatever you can. I cannot pay you, but it will certainly come in handy should you be injured along the way.

Oh, and do try to be inconspicuous. I've found that spouting inane babble about portals and other worlds tends to lead to trouble and a possible stay in a cell.


[Veteran Lock;]

We've spent a month in this place. What have we learned, and what's our next goal?

Comments

[Veteran Lock]

[notinthecards]

The queen is still here somewhere. In a place nobody expects, bu ready to resume the throne, if we can find it and her.

And if you think the party up in Stonegard was bad, chere, it won't hold a candle to the one about to be held in Westgard.

[Veteran Lock]

[unabatedly]

Frankly, I would not want to repeat what happened. Enough have died, I suspect, to incite riots, possibly even a war.

[But Remy knows how to pique her curiosity like no one else.]

What's going on in Westgard?

[Veteran Lock]

[notinthecards]

Nature abhors a power vaccuum. If I've been eavesdopping right, Baron Stonegard is on the way here now, and Hawkeye's merry men are thinking more or less the same thing he is.

[hakodate]

Are we talking past experience about the portal thing, or is this recent?

[Alternately, "wait, did you do that here?"]


[veteran lock]

I've picked up some interesting things in Flamegard, but I'm not sure how it ties into the rest. Or if it does at all. Dragons weren't always such a problem, shit got worse about twenty years ago - so it doesn't match up to the queen's disappearance.

Perry gives Flamegard six years before the kingdom's overrun, tops. Worst case scenario is that it could happen at any time.

Not sure where to go from here, though. I don't know how to fit this into the investigation overall. Might be I should be looking into things elsewhere, but leaving something unfinished here leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[unabatedly]

In general, I suppose. Most portals we've walked into have only led to trouble. We've never had much of a choice in the matter, though.

[Unfortunately.]

[lock]

Six years are fairly good odds considering the queen had no heir. If there had been someone... Ah, but she has a cousin, doesn't she?

[But no one seems too interested in doing that, or it would have happened already. This investigation is leaving them all stumped.]

We can pursue as many leads as we can for now and see where the pieces fit together.

[hakodate]

I more meant "did you say something to someone here," and if so, should we be watching out for whoever that was.


[lock]

I'll keep digging around here, probably, unless a good reason for me to look elsewhere comes up. The population increase in dragons may not match up to when the queen went missing, but it was sudden. There's got to be some meaning to that.

[morbirdinterest]

[This voice is one of the new ones, deep and on the older side. It sounds like it would belong to a man in his mid-thirties at least, possibly a little older.]

Thank you for the summary. Other than running afoul of the aforementioned dragons and barons, are there any other dangers to be wary of?

[unabatedly]

That's not enough?

[But she's joking.]

Bandits, I've heard. I would be wary of the Illuminated as well, as cordial as they have been to some of us. Beyond that-- Well, I imagine there's the usual. Sellswords, mercenaries, average cruelty.

[morbirdinterest]

Of course. What would political turmoil be without opportunists?

[There's a hint of amusement in his voice when he says this, though it fades as he continues.]

Who -- or what, I suppose -- are the Illuminated?

[Veteran Lock]

[inexecution]

I don't know that I have much to add. The mood in Westguard isn't good, the Baron was the only one holding things together around here.

I hope Stoneguard is getting what he wanted, because all he seems to have done is completely destabilized part of the country. [And if that 'sounds' rather bitter, well. He was probably going to have nightmares about people firing crossbow bolts at him for awhile.]

[Veteran Lock]

[unabatedly]

Remy says it sounds like Stonegard is headed there now with his men. I don't know what he's planning, but I doubt it's any good.

[Are they supposed to prevent a political uprising...or endorse it?]

We're missing something, some connection, somewhere.

[Veteran Lock]

[inexecution]

He just murdered Westguard's baron. I have serious doubts as to his intentions myself.

[He could be wrong, of course, but if he was, it meant that the Baron of Stoneguard was the worst diplomat to ever have existed.]

Quite possible. I'm starting to doubt we're ever going to find this queen.

[Veteran Lock]

[notinthecards]

The bandits are practicing right now to take the keep. If you're not feeling like taking a fat bribe to turn it over, mon ami, you might want to find a way to turn it over to Rivergard soon. Either that, or things get messy, and that's what we're trying to avoid, I think.

[Veteran Lock]

[inexecution]

It's not my call to make. Even if it were, I didn't carry the Baron's ring all the way back here just to hand everything over to vultures.

[It's not really his fight at all, but the Baron had trusted him, and it felt wrong to betray it.]

[moredakka]

Neria-san!

[omg she thought you were an Infiltrator she thought you'd vanished off she was kind of freaked out]

Are you okay? Are you an Investigator now? Did you d-die?!

[unabatedly]

Did I-- Oh!

[Right, she was...hiding out.]

No, no, I didn't die. I was here. I was...pretending to be an infiltrator, in a sense.

[amadine]

Damn. There goes my grand plan to tell everyone I actually wandered in here out of a confectioner's nightmare.

What would you consider "of use"?

[neverfeltthatway]

[Perhaps surprisingly, Armin's voice rather than his thoughts appear in her head. His tone is amused, of the sort that usually accompanies a quiet smile.]

Were you hoping to find yourself a nice jester's hat, or was your plan to wake up in the madhouse? I could hardly credit the idea your grand plan didn't extend that far.

[unabatedly]

Now that's just cruel.

[Amusing, but cruel.]

Anything you think could be used in poultices or healing. Even poisonous herbs and fruits I'll take. I can always make something worthwhile with them.

[tealeafs]

I don't know if there'll be anything to find here, but I'll keep an eye out. [ She does have some knowledge of herbs and stuff like that, even if it's just a little bit.. but she's picked a few things up from her father along the way. The problem is more that the area around Flamegard is.. well, pretty much scarred. Good luck finding life there, let alone herbs.

.. that part about the cell though.. ]

You didn't get into trouble, did you..?

[unabatedly]

I appreciate it, Chizuru.

[There's a brief pause and then Neria begins to laugh. It's a short sound but entirely genuine.]

No, no. But I hail from a world not unlike this one and I know what would happen to people talking nonsensical. Pray that no one among us attempts to speak of portals and a mindlink between us all.

[homemademolotov]

You don't want to give us a list of what might be helpful to you? I can identify plants, but I can't read your mind.

[unabatedly]

Many of the herbs here may have different names. I'm looking to find a tome that would help me. But anything will do, even flowers; those, too, have their purposes.

[tailforbrains]

Uh. Kinda too late for that... I'm already down here on the other side. Sorry about that.

[She doesn't sound very sorry. She sounds, really, more excitedly curious than anything else, though the "crazy" bit she shrugs off without a blink.]

But hey, dragons and queens and whatever, those're fine, I've got those back home. The part that's really weird, though? People don't even notice the tail. Because, you know, I have one. Is that supposed to happen?

[unabatedly]

[No, she certainly does not sound apologetic.]

We are, in a way, camouflaged from view. To them, we appear like any one such person in their realm, nondescript so we can easily blend in among them. They do not notice my ears, for instance.

[A bit like erasure. It's frustrating for her, who clings so tightly to who she is as both elf and mage.]

Such is the way of things, sadly.