tushanshu_logs | EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA

EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 12th - 28th
Location: Kithika, inside the bottle
Situation: The discovery of an artifact from the first war against Malicant reveals the land of Kithika within a dimension of the Death Plane... and just happens to be contained inside a bottle.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

OOC INFORMATION ♦ CITY OF KEELIAI ♦ INSIDE THE BOTTLE ♦ THE WORLD EATER
Arriving in Kithika is unpleasant for the most part. Transport through the glass vessel deposits you in the middle of a thick and murky swamp, with air so hot and humid it feels as though one is breathing through a wet towel. This is a place of perpetual night and there are no celestial bodies visible overhead through the twisted vines to break up the blackness, making the only light visible that which comes clumps of marsh fungus that emit a steady glow in a variety of muted colours: pale blue, whitish green, watery mauve. The only other light comes from those who can generate it themselves and that will reveal numerous broad-leaved trees, in some places standing too thick to move through. Below, knee-deep water laps in swirls at their legs, accompanied by the occasional slithery feel of something moving in the bracken against wet limbs, gone before it can be identified. A variety of strange noises from creatures of the swamp fill the air with buzzing and hoarse croaking, interrupted by the screech of mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds darting past and hungry for a meal.

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OOC NOTE: Characters will not be able to progress past the Temple and the Grounds for 48 IC hours after which point, the way to continue onward to find the dragon will be discovered. The second log will be posted on the 17th, to help spread out the tagging. Thank you!

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While exploring the temple and the grounds, a number of crates and chests can be found. Some are half buried in the much, some overgrown with weeds, some need to be dug out from collapsed debris. But contained inside of these chests are items from the character's homes, seemingly untouched for as long as the temple has been in disrepair. There is no trace of how they arrived, yet the packing in their respective containers seems to suggest they were purposely placed there rather than simply falling in accidentally.

Having found a storage crate with food, Korra had set out to clear out any debris to see what else she could find. A bed would be nice, but she wasn't going to hold her breath.

When she got to a dilapidated pile of temple bricks, Korra easily moved them aside with some earthbending that made them a dilapidated pile somewhere else. What she was surprised to see was a hollowed out hole underneath that had a pristine blue and white chest in the center.

Curious, Korra got on her haunches and opened it up. "My uniform?" she went to pick her Future Industries Fire Ferrets gear and was stopped because an actual fire ferret crawled out from the collar.

"Pabu!" Grabbing the animal, Korra brought him up to her face and smiled when the small animal licked her nose. "How did you get in there?" That he was there wasn't as startling as it should have been. After all, she found Naga under the sea itself at Sinbrilee.

"Who would have thought you'd be here with these." She held up the shirt and the fire ferret chittered enthusiastically as he crawled up her arms to sit on her shoulders. Then she stopped because of what caught her eye and she looked down at the chest.

Taking out the rest of her gear revealed a dark brown and red outfit. One Korra knew very well. Squinting, she pulled it out as well and stared at the green goggles.

"Hmph."

Korra folded it and stuffed the equalist uniform in her probending shirt and then rolled it up. That was the last thing she was expecting to find. "Come on, let's get you to Bolin." She scratched Pabu under the chin and went back the way she came.

Ever the adventurer, Hawke can't help himself when he sees a chest the size of the one he's looking at now. Though covered with overgrowth and vines, it doesn't deter him. Drawing a knife, he begins to to cut and saw away the vegetation covering it. Just as he's about to open the great chest, it suddenly rocks from side to side.

Hawke stops and looks at it curiously. Whatever is in there, it's moving. Some may take that as a sign to leave it alone, but it only makes Hawke more curious about what's inside. If something alive is in there he has to know what. With a heave he lifts open the chest's lid and a very familiar head pokes out, at least familiar to him. It's his mabari warhound, looking at him with a wide doggy grin.

"Notch?! How did you-" Before he even finishes speaking the massive dog barks happily and bounds out of the chest, tackling him. Hawke grunts, grabbing the hound and stumbling back into an unseen box behind him. After a few sloppy dog kisses Hawke pushes Notch away. The hound lands on all fours without a problem, bounding in a circle before wagging its stubby tail so hard its entire backside shakes.

"I suppose this is going to be another one of life's great mysteries," Hawke says with a chuckle as he wipes the slobber from his face. Notch barks happily in response.

With his face clean again, Hawke searches for the box they smashed against. "Now what did we break this time?" He finds it hidden among the underbrush of the grounds, a half-rotted crate with its lid smashed in after Notch pushed Hawke into it. "Might as well take a look since it's already open eh?" Hawke says the hound. Notch woofs before trotting to his side.

Reaching inside, Hawke retrieves a pair of strange devices. One looks slightly similar to the console in his suite only much, much smaller. The other he can't made heads or tails of. "Mysteries to solve at another time I think," he says and stuffs both items into a pouch on his belt. All in all, this is proving to be a bountiful trip.

With a conjured Charter light for illumination, Sabriel had taken to exploring the temple grounds, where she'd noticed the chest, half-hidden underneath weeds. Already curious, Sabriel drew her dirk and cut away some of the plants, half wondering if anything could have been preserved in this place without decaying or crumbling away- though the chest itself seemed remarkably intact.

When she finally pried the chest open, she wondered no longer. There was a large spool of silver wire carefully wrapped in cloth than shone untarnished when Sabriel removed its covering. She carefully set it aside- she could think of several uses for it back in Keeliai, but those would have to wait.

It was the books that caught her eye. Three of them, thick and sturdily bound, with Charter Marks embossed on the covers. Sabriel realized they were spellbooks, and she eagerly lifted the first book out and opened it on her lap.

The temple is familiar in a subtle way. Atlanteans are no strangers to old architecture or dilapidated sacred grounds. The swamp didn't prove to be any real hardship for the trio of Atlanteans, between their ease in the water and the fact that they have more than enough ways to defend against giant mosquitoes and sentient vines.

In the temple, Arthur wanted them to stick together as much as possible, and he's been wary of touching anything - old magical relics often times aren't the most obvious, and he isn't sure he would trust the effects in this place mired in corruption.

He frowns slightly as they start to come upon some crates and chests, though, buried or overgrown or covered in debris. "What do you think might be in all these?"

There is much about their travels to locations that remind Kaldur of home in different ways. Particularly when looking at the more ancient architecture and constructions still around in Keeliai or in some of the various cities they have stopped in. The older the city, the more similar they are. He does not know if that has a significant meaning to the possible ancestry of the people the kedan were before they had been brought to this world, but it is an interesting coincidence to note nonetheless.

He walks with Mera and Arthur through the halls of the temple, cautious, but curious. It is hard not to want to learn what he can of such ancient places, knowing all the history that is here, left abandoned and forgotten by so many.

"These do not appear to have been opened in many years," Kaldur remarks. "They could hold anything, from gifts to robes. We do not know what was worshipped here."

Many of the places they go to are very similar to Atlantis, Mera has noted. She hasn't taken many trips, especially due to her absence, but all of them seem to have this one thing in common. Her favorite one was still the sunken city. It was like swimming through Atlantis again. A very quiet, somewhat eerie version of Atlantis but still.

She follows behind Arthur and Kaldur, walking at a slightly slower pace than them, looking around at everything. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious about this temple. She's being cautious too, though. Everything about this place seems a little unsafe.

"That's true, it could be anything. Something innocent or something...not so much." She's thinking human sacrifices. She doesn't know why, she just is. It's sort of morbid. "I'm trying to keep in mind the mentions of a "corruption". That could effect everything around us, even a seemingly harmless temple."

"It could," he agrees quietly, using the prongs of his trident to pull away some of the growth on one of the chests and prod at the rusted-away lock. "These look like they've been here about as long as the temple itself. The question is, I guess, did these end up here on accident or on purpose?" And do they dare to open some, to see what's inside them? He'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious.

"The corruption could have taken root in whatever's inside, or maybe something in them could help fight it. That fruit tree we saw earlier, there were weapons forming out of the pits of the fruits. Nita didn't seem to suffer any ill effects," Arthur muses, foot propped up on one chest, wondering if he should try to kick it open. He probably could, but...

It is fairly obvious Arthur is intent on opening the chests, which Kaldur thinks could be beneficial to them if they contain weapons or secrets that could fight whatever shadow had tainted this place and begun to affect Keeliai itself. He pulls his water bearers from his back and holds them easily as Arthur looks over the one chest.

"Then we should be prepared for whatever we might find inside," he says. "With the possibility it could be a help to us there, I do not know if we should overlook it, but it has equal possibility that it will do more harm than good. I shall respect whatever choice you make." He will go along with their wisdom and experience in this case.

She can tell Arthur is curious about the chest. And she is too, if she's honest. But she also can't help but feel slightly wary about them. They know nothing about this area so really there could be anything in them. Still, if it turns out to be something bad she's confident that the three of them can handle it.

"As Kaldur says, dear. If you want to see what's inside, then we should."

Arthur glances over at Kaldur and Mera as they put their two cents in, largely seeming to leave the decision up to him. He pauses with his foot on the chest. "I want your opinions as well. There is some risk involved here, we don't have any idea what could be in these." And if they don't think the risk is worth it, then he won't do anything to possibly endanger them.

"There is a risk in everything we do here," Kaldur points out. It is good that Arthur cares about their opinions--it makes him feel honored--but they also must be practical about it. There is just as much of a chance there is nothing dangerous in the chest as there being something to harm them.

"We are here to stop the darkness here, but do not know where it may come from or what tools this world will provide us. If you believe this is worth the chance, then I stand by you."

"Please, Arthur. There's three of us here. Whatever might be inside, I'm sure we can handle it." She's confident in her own abilities, as well as Arthur's and Kaldur's. Slightly apprehensive as she may be, she's sure that between the three of them, they can handle whatever might happen.

"Besides, as Kaldur says, there's risk in everything we do here. If you're curious, why not open it up and see?"

Arthur gives them both a slight smile; they're more than his family, here, they're his team in a way. They stand together as representatives of Atlantis, and it's nice to know they're behind him all the way.

"Let's take a look, then," he says, and lifts the trident, knocking off the lock with a deft jab of the end of it. The chest falls open, and Arthur frowns slightly down at the contents lying on the ground, spilling out of it. "Scrolls and books?"

The chest catches his eye, one of the fastenings glinting dully in the light. Normally Gene would consider himself too proud to scavenge; but then again, normally he wouldn't be trapped in a hellish jungley bottle world with no chance of escape short of slaying a horrendous world-eating death dragon.

So, nothing for it, really.

He gets to his knees and digs the chest out from where it's half-buried, enough to open the lid. It takes a little doing - the hinges seem rusty - but he is finally able to lever open the chest and observe the contents.

And he stares. If he hadn't been on his knees already, he would have sunk to them in shock.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to find in the chest, but it sure as hell hadn't been the photograph of his mother he'd kept by his bed. It was even stil framed, laid down gently in the center of the chest as though he'd packed it himself and had it shipped here from the room he hadn't called his own since Peru.

Gingerly he picks up the framed photograph with one hand, running a thumb over the band of the purple-gemmed ring on the other. These things were all he had left of her. These, and his memories.

He clutches the framed photograph to his chest and tries very hard not to cry.

Toro has been searching and checking out some of the chests that he's seen buried around the temple. There is always a chance they'll have weapons or money like they've found when they've ended up in other worlds before. Yeah, it's a little different being in a bottle, but they could use anything they can find to kick evil dragon butt.

That's how he walks on the scene of the guy kneeling in front of a chest holding something. He's behind him to the left so he can't see everything clearly, but the way he's sitting them makes him wonder if something is wrong.

"Hey, buddy, you okay there?"

The noise startles Gene, and he turns around once he's sure he's properly choked back his tears. He hasn't cried in front of anyone since he was six, damned if he's going to break that streak.

"I'm fine," he says, a little more angrily than he intends to. At least his glasses are slightly tinted, so if his eyes are a little brighter than they should be, he can blame it on glare. "I'm fine," he says again, putting the photograph down carefully, face-down.

Toro leans back just a bit at the tone and his eyebrows go up in surprise. "Sure, pal, you sound just fine." He's not meaning to be that sarcastic, but he was only checking on the guy so he didn't need to be like that. If he didn't want to get caught...doing whatever it was, he shouldn't have been out in the open.

"This probably isn't the best place to be sitting around. This temple has weird stuff going on in it."

Gene merely raises an eyebrow and ignores the alleged sarcasm, and tucks the photo into his bag as he stands.

"Weird stuff? You're not kidding. This whole bottle world is surreal."

One crate seems to attract the particular attention of a shadow that slithers hastily on the ground, the dark puddle rising upwards and taking the form of the boisterous mage once stopped before the container. He seems cautious, incredulous, but he can't deny the sensation radiating from this crate in particular. After hesitating for a few moments, hand hovering over the wooden box as if in anticipation, maybe even trepidation, maybe even reverence, Naugus finally can't wait any longer and tears away at the planks with his claw.

Inside would maybe seem a disappointment to others; a thick cloth cradling ancient, grey bones, mostly ribs and a few fragments of femur, skull and arm. Cracked and indistinct as to species, anyone else might consider this find useless. But Naugus senses something profound enough in them that his jaw drops and it takes him several moments of awe before he thinks to pick them up. He does so carefully, getting his hand and claw beneath the cloth to not lose any piece of his prize.

"Vale's bones," he swears softly, looking them over before his expression of awe gives way to a grin of glee. Swiftly, the delicate remains are wrapped up, given a kiss, and tucked inside a shadow of his cloak. And like before, he melts into the darkness around him to hurry back to his companions.

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EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

Item Discovery

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SORRY I TOTALLY SUCK

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