tushanshu_logs | EVENT | LANDFALL

EVENT | LANDFALL | VALISHAERA

Characters: ALL!
Date: JULY 13-26
Location: Valishaera
Situation: Tu Vishan has made landfall on Siaxhi, to explore the Dreaming Watch City of Valishaera.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

As Tu Vishan draws near, the heavy jungle visible even from miles out quickly identifies the landmass as Siaxhi, one of the westernmost continents in Konryu and one that has been largely untouched insofar as the kedan themselves have gone. There is a natural inlet along the southeast shore on the continent and Tu Vishan makes for that, though he fills nearly all of it.

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There is a small settlement of folk living there who, other than they are quite a bit taller than humans (heights of 7'+ are not uncommon) and have peculiar patterning on their skin vaguely reminiscent of jungle cats, seem very friendly, albeit surprised by the appearance of strangers. But they've heard of Tu Vishan, the last living Great Turtle, so they'll be welcoming and not hostile. These are the Arybar, the native people of Siaxhi. They're a mix of agricultural and foraging culture, hunting only sporadically rather than relying on it for their primary food source. They have little to no contact with the Duchy of Castis beyond they know it's there and they're mutually not interested in crossing into each other's territory.

The Arybar will tell the Foreigners that the Dan'effrei came to build the city of Valishaera eons ago and that they were a race the Arybar did not recognize at the time, but they obtained permission for the land and remained on excellent terms with the Dan'effrei for many centuries. When asked what happened to the monks and the city however, the Arybar become evasive and change the subject. Despite this odd quirk, the Foreigners will be invited to stay and explore to their heart's content and small but comfortable huts made for them to stay in if they choose to spend the night in Valishaera rather than return to Keeliai.

There is a motherly Arybar woman named Veldyzh who is especially friendly towards the Foreigners. (NPC played by Li.)

The Arybar definitely leave an impression, Gear thinks. He doesn't know if he's going to take advantage of their hospitality tonight, but for now he's just investigating and trying to find out what he can. He doesn't know what information might end up being helpful for them later on, so he'll be as friendly as possible--even if he can ramble a bit when he's trying to figure something out. He'll be looking for anyone who seems to be willing to answer his questions, putting up with the nosy Foreigner.

"It's really great of you guys to be so welcoming," he says. "Do you get a lot of visitors here?"

Veldyzh is sitting, so as not to tower over the (completely adorable, in her opinion) visitors. Her skin patterning is reminiscent of an ocelot, chocolate against tanned skin.

"None to speak of," she replies. "Though a ship did land on the coast around thirty years ago."

[It's pretty interesting and you would think he'd have dealt with more animal-Bang Babies, but not really. So it's always kind of fascinating to Gear to see someone like that. He tries not to make it to obvious.]

Thirsty years ago? Was it a turtle ship--uh, I mean, how big was it?

[ The matriarch pulls out a long-stemmed pipe, chewing thoughtfully on the end of it for a moment. ]

It wasn't a Great Turtle, no, though it was very large in comparison to regular ships. Near the size of one of these old Temples, it were.

[Now that's surprising. It sounds like one of the huge tankers they have back home.] Do you know where the ship came from? We haven't really run into anything that big out there yet.

[That he knew of.]

[ Ironically, the ship had been very tanker-like! ]

They said they were from Kerro Raris. Can't quite remember what they called themselves, Hypai-something or other. They couldn't get over the jungle and the water here.

Kerro Raris... [He repeats the name and knows Backpack is filing it away in the databanks.]

I haven't heard of them before, is that a city nearby?

[ Veldyzh shakes her head, pulling another drag of the tangy-scented smoke. ]

A continent, the way you people call this one "Siaxhi", east of here.

[Oh this is good. Gear's data on the other landmasses is limited to what he found in the old posts on his console. If these Hypai-people were surprised by jungles and water, he's guessing they are from somewhere a bit more barren. Definitely something to keep in mind.]

Did they tell you why they were here? What were they looking for?

Something specific if I had to guess, the way they always had their noses to the ground while wandering around. They kept wanting to dig in the fields though, that caused quite some commotion.

[So they were searching for something and thought digging up crops would find it? That means they either were willing to look anywhere and everywhere, or they thought it might be hidden in a less conspicuous place.]

Did they leave with anything?

After a day spent traveling the ruins of the city, Hellboy gets to talking to some of the native farmers. Their friendly nature and love of the land reminds him of a few tribesmen he'd met on his travels through Africa, and it leaves him humming with the ghosts of good memories.

When they invite him to stay the night in their village, he gladly accepts. A night spent away from the city, out in the wilderness surrounded by good, salt-of-the earth people, sounded just like the good old days.

Dinner's held at the house of the farmers--brothers, who feed him from the latest harvest of their crop. It's simple fare, but Hellboy likes simple.

When he steps out for an after dinner smoke, there's a kindly-looking woman sitting outside the hut next door. Hellboy offers her a friendly nod as he strikes his match against his stone hand, then lights his cigarette with the other.

"Nice night," he offers, blowing smoke.

Veldyzh herself is smoking on a long pipe, the scent of the pale smoke emanating from its bowl spicy, like cardamom. "That it is," she replied, smiling at Hellboy serenely. "You know, I think it's good that you people have come. There are young ones here who've never seen any but our people before. This will be quite a learning experience for them."

The smoke curling through the air smells like the heady, warmly-spiced cigarettes they like to smoke in Indonesia, and the memory is enough to make his mouth water, suddenly dissatisfied with his own crappy hand-rolled cigs.

He'll remember to try to grab some of that before he heads back to the mainland if he can.

"You guys are pretty isolated out here," he says, squinting up at the sky blazing with stars. That's the best thing about being away from civilization. Sometimes you forget just how small you really are. "How long's it been since the last guys came through?"

The Arybar matriarch will be glad to give him some, if he asks. She has quite a stash of the stuff and this is the season where it's plentiful anyway.

"Around thirty years," Veldyzh answered with hardly a moment's thought; either this had already come up or she just had a good memory... possibly both. "A big ship came, bigger than any I've seen. Odd folk. They stayed a few months in the bay."

"Odder than us?" He asks wryly. "I find that hard to believe."

Half their population flies around in spandex. They're in pretty strange company if you ask him.

"Very much so," Veldyzh laughed lightly. "You'd think they'd never seen a growing plant or drop of clear water in their lives, with how they acted!"

"Yeah, I guess that is pretty odd. There's a hell of a lot of desert out there, though. I'm guessing they probably came from somewhere out there."

He takes another slow drag from his cigarette, smoke curling from his mouth and nose as he talks. "I've been off the turtle a good handful of times, but this is only the second time it hasn't been a goddamn desert."

"I've never seen a desert," Veldyzh said thoughtfully. "I spent many years being a treewalker, but that was when I was younger." She gestured over her shoulder with her pipe, at the vast jungle. "That's when you go searching for new things, in there. The whole continent is like this, you know. But treewalking is a young Arybar's job, not one for me. But oh, some of the things you would find."

"I wouldn't mind going out there to have a look myself."

Even at night, the jungle is huge and ominous, massive trees echoing with the sound of nightbirds. Animals moving through the underbrush. The glow of eyes catching the light pouring from hut windows.

All of it is alive, unexplored, and makes his sense of wanderlust itch. But knowing that he can't risk venturing too far from the turtle kind of pisses him off.

"Though I doubt the people on the turtle would let me go out that far," he rumbles. "They like to keep us on a pretty tight leash."

The leash being the lanterns, and the notion that he'd probably die out there if he went too far.

Veldyzh looks curious at the remark about the tight leash, glancing in the direction of Tu Vishan in the distance as though trying to see an actual tether between it and the red male. "Why would they want to do that?"

"Don't think it's really about what they want," he admits. It's easy to get bitter about the Foreigners' situation. Start blaming people like Evandau and the late Emperor. But that part of everything--the lanterns, Tu Vishan's magic keeping them alive--that's probably not entirely their fault. It's just a crappy consequence of people messing around with things that they shouldn't be messing with.

Hellboy takes a slow drag from his cigarette, then exhales with a sigh.

"Most of us aren't from this world. We were brought here by magic, and the people responsible have our souls tied up in lanterns back in the city. Stray too far for too long and bad things tend to happen."

Overall, he could be a lot more pissed about the situation than he is. But all of this is far from the weirdest thing he's had to put up with, and he's had some time to get used to it. At this point, they're just facts.

"I heard a rumor once that no one's actually from this world," the Arybar woman speculated. "Isn't it true of the kedan? Another odd people, if you ask me. Maybe the world was empty and someone decided to fill it."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Now they're getting a little too philosophical for his taste, so he changes the subject.

"You seem to know a lot about what goes on around here. Do you know anything about what happened to all those monks that used to live in the abandoned city? The people I've asked haven't been all that eager to talk about it."

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EVENT | LANDFALL | VALISHAERA

The Arybar

For Veldyzh?

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I'M SORRY I DELETED THIS NOTIF

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Closed to Veldyzh

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