EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

[cherrywood]

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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OOC INFORMATION
Landfall Questions | Approved Item Requests | Player Plot - Kryptonian Rampage OOC

CITY OF KEELIAI
Emperor's Orders: Miasma Explained | Marshaling the Forces | A City Under Siege | Halting the Scourge

INSIDE THE BOTTLE
Crossing the Swamp | Decayed Grounds | The Sullied Temple | Stone Idols | Item Discovery

THE WORLD EATER
Battling the Dragon | Soul's Poison | Kryptonian Rampage | The Guarded Pool | Weighing the Options | Aftermath

Comments

[alphatar]

Hearing Sabriel made her do a double take. Why she was surprised to see the Abhorsen, Korra didn’t know. The bottle containing the realm of Death was right up her alley after all.

"I doubt it. There’s a lot of things at the bottom." She angled the knife down to point at the trinkets that caught the light next to Sabriel. "But hey, you could wish for clean water."

Cutting one of her fruits down the middle, she handed half to Sabriel.

[bindsthedead]

"Well, there are other ways to get water," Sabriel said, "Though they aren't available to everyone." She could pull water out of the air- it was certainly humid enough for it, she thought as she accepted the fruit and took a bite.

"Have you found anything related to cleansing the corruption? The swamp seemed to want to keep us out of this place- perhaps there's something here that something didn't want us to find."

[alphatar]

The mention of having access to water sounded so similar to what Katara had said while instructing Korra on waterbending, and how accessible it really was to a resourceful waterbender, that Korra stared at Sabriel for a few moments. Finally, she took a bite out of her half of the fruit and wondered if Sabriel knew more about her than she was letting on.

Or about waterbending in general.

"Nothing yet, I had to take a break after the swamp." The burns she got from the trees grabbing her earlier were healed over. "Something’s go to come up and I’m thinking about using this pond for good luck." It was simple, but every little bit helped for Korra.

[bindsthedead]

"Ah- like a wishing pond?" Sabriel pulled out a juulan and tossed it in, before something in the water caught her eye and she scooped it out. It was rather tarnished, but Sabriel could see it was a silver pendant, in the shape of a stylized skull.

"Do you think anyone will mind if we take something out?"

[alphatar]

Korra nodded and watched as she fished out a pendant, one that seemed about right for her.

"If they do, they're going to have just deal with it." Closing the knife, Korra flipped into the pond with a small splash and then reached down and closed her fingers around a small chain. Shaking off her arm, the water coming off completely thanks to bending, Korra held up a white gold pocket watch. A very old one from the look of it.

"Guess these are our good luck charms for whatever's out there." Korra actually had the talisman Eshai had given the foreigners under her shirt, that was enough luck by itself; but more wouldn't hurt.

[bindsthedead]

"I have a feeling we'll need all the luck we can get." Sabriel might not know the extent of the corruption, but everything she could glean from her senses told her it was pervasive. Still, she tried to grin, and slipped the pendant over her head.

"Hopefully clearing away the corruption will strike a blow against the Enemy- I can't believe this isn't connected to him."

[alphatar]

"You think the person who opened the bottle has something to do with him?" All she understood from Milyn had been someone started it all by doing that, but having a tie to Malicant hadn’t crossed Korra’s mind. She was too focused on stopping it from destroying Keeliai. Pooling the chain into her palm, Korra stuffed the watch into her pocket.

[bindsthedead]

"Even if opening the bottle was accidental, do you really think the corruption is unrelated to our enemy's residence in Death? We know it has a great deal of influence there," In which case clearing out the corruption might involve a confrontation with the Enemy- something Sabriel did not look forward to. She still hadn't translated that spell.

[alphatar]

Actually having Malicant be here hadn't crossed Korra's mind at all, and Sabriel made perfect sense when paired with closely Kithika was tied to Death. Not that she was fully prepared for such an encounter to begin with, but having a head's up better than nothing.

"I haven't felt anything like when he posted to the network." That raw surge of fear that came from hearing that wasn't something Korra was going to forget. Ever. And she's glad that Sabriel's been on Tu Vishan long enough to remember that.

[bindsthedead]

"Perhaps he isn't here then- or perhaps he's concealing his presence. If he were always that easy to sense, he wouldn't have been able to cause nearly as much damage," Sabriel pointed out. She hoped Korra was right, for all the good it did. If Malicant was here, she suspected most of the people who came to stop the corruption would either die or become corrupted themselves.

[alphatar]

Korra took a bite out of a pear shaped fruit and chewed slowly as she took in Sabriel’s observations. It was something Korra thought of too often and now she was regretting it, not what she was expecting when she sat down at the pond in the temple.

But it was important, especially now that they had to stop the corruption or never return home.

"You think he did this so we would all be in one place?" Now she wondered if this was all an elaborate trap and they’re going to end up facing Malicant.

[bindsthedead]

"Possibly. We know he killed the last group of Foreigners that were summoned, though he seems the sort that would be more interested in picking us off one by one- though it's stupid to try and predict him," People had tried, and people who were probably better than Sabriel at trying to predict spirits of malice and chaos.

[alphatar]

"At least we have our powers this time." Those missions Evandau sent them on during the decay wasn't something Korra was prepared to do without her bending, but she did it anyway. "We'll just have to roll with whatever comes our way." It was what she was used to doing anyway.

"I think we're safe in here though."

[bindsthedead]

"Hopefully," Sabriel said, "Although even with whatever powers they had, the last group of foreigners all died."

It was pessimistic, she knew, but with her sense of death constantly pressing on her, it was hard not to think of how things could go wrong.

[alphatar]

"You can’t rely on the past for everything." It came out so clearly that Korra actually surprised herself. Witnessing that she would lose contact with her past lives and knowing how that affected her left Korra with an appreciation to still have them now; but it also gave her a kind of strength to know that the connection wasn’t what made her the Avatar.

Her spirit alone was enough when she wasn’t anything else besides ‘just Korra’.

"Powers aren’t the only thing we’re going to win with." Optimism wasn’t ingrained in Korra, it was something she had to give herself when things took a turn for the worse. She was dead set on eliminating Malicant to save Konryu, and by proxy, all of the foreigner’s homes too. "We can do this."