EVENT | LANDFALL | VALISHAERA | MISSIONS

[ironwood]

Characters: As listed below
Date: JULY 13-26
Location: Valishaera, various
Situation: Tu Vishan has made landfall on Siaxhi, to explore the Dreaming Watch City of Valishaera. July's missions are part of the landfall, as noted below.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

→ DREAMSCAPE (INFORMATION)
→ NIGHT'S WOOD (EXPLORATION)
→ INAN (RETRIEVAL)

OOC INFORMATION
Landfall Questions | Approved Item Requests | Pocket Dreaming Signups

CITY OF VALISHAERA
Exploring the Coast | The Arybar | A Ruined City

WITHIN THE TEMPLE
The Monks' Domain | The Labs & Library | Gathering Rooms & Garden | The Pocket Dreaming Realms

LANDFALL MISSIONS
Dreamscape | Night's Wood | Inan | OOC Organization

Comments

INAN (RETRIEVAL)

[ironwood]

Mission Duration: 5-6 days, pretty open though
Mission Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Mission Type: Retrieval
Projected Plot Impact: The characters will be asked to help retrieve two creatures that have disappeared from the temple, a pair of ‘Inan’. They are rare and very valuable… and given their unusual diet, also very dangerous.
Proposed Worldbuilding Changes: If the characters find information, the whereabouts or the animals themselves they will be rewarded.

Characters:
Jackie Ma (jinzhong)
Tazendra (fearlessherosheart)
Arnold Rimmer (ajrimmerssc)
Saint Walker (burnseternal)

It’s pretty easy to tell the few citizens left in the living realm are pretty upset and unnerved about the disappearance of the two Inan. It happened right as the foreigners came to visit-- but ah, they will say and repeat that they would never dream of blaming the foreigners for their disappearance. It was just a sad coincidence and their visit was probably merely a distraction. Still the animals have to be retrieved, at all costs: the monks had entrusted the Arybar with their care because keeping them in Dreaming had proven far too dangerous.

The characters will get drawings of two maned creatures. They're about the size of regular Earth house cats, though in the picture they have been painted with rich colors, reds and blues and golds that appear to be natural. Those familiar with Chinese mythology might liken them very much to Pixiu (or Pi Yao), though on a much smaller scale. It's also possible that images of these creatures might have been seen around Keeliai, normally in picture books, or decorative building facades or occasionally tattoos, similarly to mythical creatures on Earth. Whatever these beings are, it's clear that the Kedan didn’t think of them as something to be regularly seen, and the will confirm they are extremely rare.

Their diet: pure energy. The monks themselves came to feed them every fortnight, and everyone is worried that, if they simply escaped, they will have ran to the portals to the dreaming realm and feed on the energy… which would prove dangerous in the end. Though, at the moment the Inan had just been fed, so they couldn’t be hungry.

There’s little clues around: the cages were not forced, they were simply open. One of the Arybar farmers named Veldyzh (the characters will be welcomed to talk to and question her as she is also one of the Inan's caretakers - played by Li) saw someone who looked like a monk run away from the area soon before they found out the animals disappearance. And a literal trail: one of the animals must have been hurt, and there’s a trail of blood to one of the portals to Dreaming. However, the trail doesn’t continue on the other side.

Re: INAN (RETRIEVAL)

[fearlessherosheart]

Tazendra was already examining the bloody trail. "Is this a clue?" she wondered. "Bah, if my friends were here, they could see more."

She did try to be more observant, look for signs in the blood that both creatures had passed that way, and if any had accompanied them, and if she could see signs of a limp.

[jinzhong]

Jackie was no good at tracking animals, but he was sure good at stealing stuff. Maybe that would help bring them back...when they found them, of course.

"Man, I hope they're all right," he said, feeling kind of bad. He liked animals well enough.

[fearlessherosheart]

"They are native to this land, correct?" Tazendra said.

[jinzhong]

"Uh, yeah? I think so," Jackie said. He's not really sure, but it would logically follow, right?

[fearlessherosheart]

"Then they should be able to care for themselves in the wild," Tazendra said.

[jinzhong]

"Yeah, but...if they got into the dream realm, they could cause real problems," Jackie said. "I dunno. We should probably talk to the person in charge of looking after them, right? Maybe she'll know something."

[fearlessherosheart]

"Excellent idea!" Tazendra said. "At least, she may know where such creatures would flee to in Dreaming."

[jinzhong]

Jackie grinned. He liked being praised. He really did. It didn't happen all that often, especially not for his ideas. "Cool. Let's go find her."

[fearlessherosheart]

"Let us, then," Tazendra approached this problem methodically, by basically pulling the nearest person aside and asking either for the location of the person in charge, or someone who knew.

[ironwood]

The pair will be directed to Veldyzh, who has spoken with a number of Foreigners since their arrival but now is pacing fretfully in front of the wood and thatch hut that is her home, her long-stemmed pipe forgotten by her chair. She and Tazendra are nearly the same height and she stops, surprised for a moment to see another woman the Arybar's size. Then she speaks urgently, addressing both of them.

"You two... have you seen two small creatures?"

[jinzhong]

"Uh..." Jackie's still a little surprised by how tall the Arybar are. And...well, everything about the Arybar, actually. But they've been nice enough - nice enough that he's willing to help them with this escaped creature case, anyway. "Not exactly," he says. "We were going to see if you could tell us any more about them. The Inan, right?"

[fearlessherosheart]

"We have found their trail," Tazendra said, "but we would be best able to find them if we knew something of how they behaved."

Tazendra actually finds that the Arybar heights are... comfortable. They're nothing like Dragaerans other than height, but it's really comfortable for everything to be sized for people of her height, rather than chronically feeling like everything is too small.

[ironwood]

"The Inan, that's correct," Veldyzh confirmed. "They're a mated pair and that's why it is so vital that they be returned unharmed... there's evidence to indicate the female is pregnant. This is an event that happens only centuries at a time."

The Arybar matriarch's expression turned fleetingly angry. "If I catch whoever is responsible..."

[jinzhong]

Jackie let out a low whistle. "Shit." Not like he knew a lot about conservation, but given the circumstances? All that sounded really important. "So if they're on the loose, and they're a mated pair...is there anything you can tell us about how they'll be behaving? Where they might run to? Do they like being high up, low to the ground, in the dark, what?"

[fearlessherosheart]

"At least, if they are mated, the one would defend the other, but it would make them dangerous if they fear for their young," Tazendra said. "If they don't know those who seek to rescue them are their allies..."

[ironwood]

"The most important thing will be to keep the female fed," the Arybar woman answered promptly. "The Inan consume all forms of energy and their metabolism is high at all times. We have special stones which recharge with a natural energy that we use to feed them, however they just ate very recently... I can show you the stones, if you'd like?"

[jinzhong]

"Yeah, that'd be great," Jackie said. Maybe the Inan would be attracted to the stones, especially with a pregnant female. Unless they'd found something tastier...

[fearlessherosheart]

"It would. Perhaps they will return to their food."

[ironwood]

Veldyzh nods and leads them into a temple that seems to have been converted into a (lavish, by the standards of the rest of the village) habitat for the creatures. There are boxes of discarded items in the corner, some of them distinctly tech-like, some that are made of precious metals, but they're all bearing a strange dull grey sheen to them.

"Those are what we use to charge the stones," she supplies, going over to a large wooden chest and pulling out two strangely coloured stones and showing them to the pair.

"They chew on these, though they've yet to ever make a dent on them that I've seen. The stones lose their colour and then we charge them back up for when they're hungry again."

[jinzhong]

Ohh. It's shiny. The thief in Jackie wants it, but he knows it would be a bad idea to steal.

"So if we carry these around, we might lure them out, right? Even though they just, uh, ate not that long ago."

[fearlessherosheart]

"Then they are charged at the moment?" Tazendra inquired

[ironwood]

"They are," Veldyzh nods. "When it was suspected that the female Inan was pregnant, we anticipated her needing to feed more often so we've been immediately recharging the stones. Do you truly believe you can find the pair?"

[jinzhong]

"Yeah, of course," Jackie says, with far more confidence than he actually feels. Man, they have what the Inan eat, how could they possibly not find them now? Right? Even if he doesn't know the first thing about dealing with animals.

[fearlessherosheart]

"Certainly we can!" Tazendra agreed. She never let a little thing like having no real clue what she was doing stop her.