BOARDMASTER (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boardmaster) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
pawnstorm2017-01-10 09:59 am
boardmaster) wrote in pawnstorm2017-01-10 09:59 am
event ♚ january
Alumina Antimoine, daughter of the mayor of Menchik, is missing.
Upon her sister Gretchen’s urging, the mayor has rented a conference room at the Gearson Hotel as a venue for all Heroes to share information regarding the recent disappearances, including their daughter.
According to various reports, Alumina ran off yesterday nght and hasn’t been seen since. She was quick to rush from her home despite her timid nature, claiming she had something important to do. Her parents are beginning to grow worried. Hannes and Gretchen have done their best to look for her, but so far their efforts have been fruitless.
Upon her sister Gretchen’s urging, the mayor has rented a conference room at the Gearson Hotel as a venue for all Heroes to share information regarding the recent disappearances, including their daughter.
According to various reports, Alumina ran off yesterday nght and hasn’t been seen since. She was quick to rush from her home despite her timid nature, claiming she had something important to do. Her parents are beginning to grow worried. Hannes and Gretchen have done their best to look for her, but so far their efforts have been fruitless.
 |
Gretchen Sorry to interrupt your investigation, but I’ve enough reason to believe Alumina’s disappearance is linked to this. She’s the most invested in the missing people’s case more than anyone else, so I... |
 |
Hannes Ooh, macarons! |
|
Gretchen Hannes. [ loads gun ] |
|
Hannes [ pops a macaron in her mouth ] Relax! There are security automatons all over the city, so I’m sure we’ll find her in no time. Maybe she’s hitting it off with one right now. I mean, they’re pretty hot. |
|
Gretchen [ munches on it ] Buttercream… [ gasp, how embarrassing ] A-anyway! If you’re more useful than my brother, by all means, help us! |
| Lisbrand Gretchen. |
|
|
Gretchen F-Fleur! You’re back! |
| Lisbrand My task force and Lisbrand Technologies will take it from here. Our company’s automatons are equipped with cameras. If we can get into the system, we can locate Ledo and Alumina quickly. |
|
|
Hannes See, I knew there was more to Fleur than her huge knockers! |
| Lisbrand Hannes. [ loads gun ] |
ONE ♟ ALL-NIGHTER
Long tables and uncomfortable chairs await you in the conference room. Coffee, tea and some small snacks have been prepared for the Heroes as well as pen and paper to take notes with. This is where Heroes can share information and pool knowledge. Maybe something will add up if you all work together!
Each table has copies of the missing people reports and some might recognize the faces staring up at them from the pages as corpses found near the lake. Newspapers have been neatly stacked on a table in the corner, with many articles noting increased avian activity near the lake and within the city. Certainly odd at this time of the year. Other articles include statements from Menchikans where they found severed fingers or toes that turned into black feathers shortly after.
Hannes and Gretchen also haven’t been idle and have interviewed police officers and Commander Lisbrand’s scouts, who reported encounters with misshapen monsters with beaks. The number of casualties and injured are high. It appears that the monster is too strong for ordinary humans to deal with.
Each table has copies of the missing people reports and some might recognize the faces staring up at them from the pages as corpses found near the lake. Newspapers have been neatly stacked on a table in the corner, with many articles noting increased avian activity near the lake and within the city. Certainly odd at this time of the year. Other articles include statements from Menchikans where they found severed fingers or toes that turned into black feathers shortly after.
Hannes and Gretchen also haven’t been idle and have interviewed police officers and Commander Lisbrand’s scouts, who reported encounters with misshapen monsters with beaks. The number of casualties and injured are high. It appears that the monster is too strong for ordinary humans to deal with.
TWO ♟ Never tell me the odds
The door slams open and a messenger from Lisbrand Technologies runs into the room, breathless from his travels. He claims that Alumina has been found near Lebedche Lake!
|
Gretchen That’s great! But… |
| Lisbrand Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that lake. |
|
|
Hannes Oof, hold on. Everyone, take these. [ gives everyone a satchel of magical bread crumbs ] Use these so the others can find you. |
|
Gretchen Yeah, alright. Let’s leave glowing bird feed on the ground. That’s a great idea. |
| Lisbrand No, he has a point. This time around, the birds are out to eat us. Heroes, move! |
- Tattered pieces of Alumina’s hair ribbon rest on a dead branch of an otherwise healthy tree. When you pick the pieces up, you’re hit by a sudden chill and your vision grows dark. Something bitter seems to coat your tongue for an instant, and you immediately feel exhausted. Look at your hands and you will find that the ribbon is no longer in your possession.
- As you climb one of the large rocks near the shore, something light brushes against your head—a soft, black feather. Another falls, and another... until you are pelted by the ton.
- Empty bullet shells can be found in the pebble stones by the shore. If brought back to Gretchen, she will worriedly comment that the shells match the gun she gave Alumina for self-defense a while back. Does that mean that someone tried to hurt her?
- An envelope addressed to Alumina. It’s contents are empty and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary until you hold it up against a source of light, revealing an emblem.
- Pages of a letter are scattered across the lake’s surface. Retrieve them and the ink will suddenly begin to spill from the pages and drip down your arms, burning your skin. No spell or ointment will cure it until an hour has passed. What is left behind on the pages, however, are broken sentences: “...can’t be... “ “Promise to…” “...happier with me.”
THREE ♟ Cave Story
It’s evening by the time Lisbrand’s team discovers where Alumina is being kept. The Heroes and Lisbrand will be led to a cave near the lake. Reports say that the strange noises from further in often ward intruders away…
Inside, Heroes will find angry, screeching bats. Lisbrand is all too used to shooting them due to Verdoni’s antics, but they’re not vampiric by any means. Be mindful of the ground as well—the lake floods the cave once in a while, leaving stones slippery and covered in algae. Steady footing will come in handy when vicious rock monsters come charging towards you. Madness fills their eyes as if they have been tampered with by dark magic... There’s no other choice but to put them out of their misery.
A foul smell fills the air as you venture deeper into the cave. You soon find its source: severed body parts left to rot litter the cavern floor. The various parts have been sorted into morbidly neat piles: hands to hands and feet to feet. This isn’t the work of a mere beast. This was planned by someone meticulous.
Someone human.
Gretchen gags at the sight and Hannes exchanges a nod with Lisbrand before leading his sister back to the cavern entrance. The siblings won’t be tagging along for what’s to come. You keep moving. Water drops from the ceiling, your footsteps echo down the grimy walls. The shadows cast by your torches seem to come alive, reaching out and clawing at everything they can reach. Finally, moonlight filters in through a hole in the ceiling and in the center of it lies—
Alumina.
No calling will wake her. Approach her and heavy fog will begin to filter in the room. Lisbrand snaps, “Don’t breathe!” The fog is poison! They need to get out of here! She snatches Alumina with a grunt and escapes with the Heroes. They will be hounded by by a flock of black swans who will try to cut the Heroes off with their dark magic spells. Once out of the cave…
Inside, Heroes will find angry, screeching bats. Lisbrand is all too used to shooting them due to Verdoni’s antics, but they’re not vampiric by any means. Be mindful of the ground as well—the lake floods the cave once in a while, leaving stones slippery and covered in algae. Steady footing will come in handy when vicious rock monsters come charging towards you. Madness fills their eyes as if they have been tampered with by dark magic... There’s no other choice but to put them out of their misery.
A foul smell fills the air as you venture deeper into the cave. You soon find its source: severed body parts left to rot litter the cavern floor. The various parts have been sorted into morbidly neat piles: hands to hands and feet to feet. This isn’t the work of a mere beast. This was planned by someone meticulous.
Someone human.
Gretchen gags at the sight and Hannes exchanges a nod with Lisbrand before leading his sister back to the cavern entrance. The siblings won’t be tagging along for what’s to come. You keep moving. Water drops from the ceiling, your footsteps echo down the grimy walls. The shadows cast by your torches seem to come alive, reaching out and clawing at everything they can reach. Finally, moonlight filters in through a hole in the ceiling and in the center of it lies—
Alumina.
No calling will wake her. Approach her and heavy fog will begin to filter in the room. Lisbrand snaps, “Don’t breathe!” The fog is poison! They need to get out of here! She snatches Alumina with a grunt and escapes with the Heroes. They will be hounded by by a flock of black swans who will try to cut the Heroes off with their dark magic spells. Once out of the cave…
|
Gretchen Alumina! |
|
Hannes What happened to her!? |
| Lisbrand Get back, the cave isn’t safe! [ turns to the Heroes ] I’ll bring her to the hospital. You’re all dismissed. We’ll talk about this when I get back, but I have a feeling it doesn’t end here. |
no subject
[Janaff is slightly disturbed by casual violence against avian creatures, but far more disturbed at...whatever it was this man said about a swallow.
He was more than used to people running at him with sharp objects, but--were swallows here that vicious?]
no subject
[ That's absolutely a statement of fact, but it doesn't explain everything, does it?
Kojirou shrugs. ]
I consider myself something of an expert on the matter. I gained my greatest technique by attempting to kill a swallow after all.
[ Which is apparently more difficult than fighting demons or something. Who even knows with Kojirou? ]
no subject
What.]
...a swallow.
[Janaff is picturing him running after something dartingly fast with a sword.
...not the absolute strangest thing he'd seen a beorc do, but fairly high up there.]
no subject
[ Kojirou nods. He finds nothing odd at all about hunting swallows.
It's clearly everyone else that's odd. ]
It took me years of training to achieve it, and to think it's been lost ever since I arrived on Enprise.
[ Alongside everyone else's magic powers. ]
Sorry for the wait!
Yeah, I usually don't bother with them.
[Snatching a horse out from under a beorc soldier was much more economical!]
Does it always take you beorc so long to learn to fight?
[He didn't mean to be rude, honest. Laguz just tended to be rather straightforwards.]
no subject
[ After all, the guy lived in the Warring States era. He's plenty familiar with what many warlords demanded of their serfs. Armies need to be populated with fodder. ]
Simply fighting is easy, any fool can do that. To master the martial arts however, is another matter altogether.
[ Not everyone has magic animal powers, okay? Surely he knows a swordmaster or two. ]
no subject
Janaff bristled a bit, indignantly; laguz were born knowing how to fight, and he was quite proud of that. As he was with a number of laguz-related things.]
Is that a challenge?
[janaff no]
no subject
[ Kojirou shrugs. What he doesn't say is that he's fairly sure Janaff isn't worth putting in the effort to challenge. There's a lot to be said for animal instinct, but martial talent in the opposite of that entirely. They'd find very little in common. ]