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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Being in such a confined space makes Hawke's hit-and-run strategy a tad difficult. After watching it spit fire the last thing he wants to do is fight it head on. Still, even an animal should figure out what he's trying to do. Hawke can only run it in circles for so long before it tries something else.

When it rises the first time Hawke notices something. Maybe all the adrenaline kept him from noticing it before, or maybe he really is just that thick sometimes. This thing isn't just a copy of Ixis. It is Ixis. Their conversation on the mountain comes back to Hawke, Ixis' reaction to losing his mind in particular. Had Ixis been this thing at one time? It would explain the fear.

Though the realization comes to Hawke in a second of time, a second of distraction can cost dearly in a fight. The doppelganger's claws smash into his shoulder. Pain screams up and down his arm as hot blood hits the floor. No more distractions, he has to focus. Hawke narrowly avoids the second strike of the copy's claws and he leaps back, jumping over the tail and away from the teeth. Except now Hawke finds his backed into a corner, exactly where he doesn't want to be. One second of distraction and his advantage is lost. Even a mindless beast won't let him pull the same thing twice.

"Ixis! I can't fight your demons for you. Man up! I thought you were a wizard!" His words are to rouse Ixis into action, but if he must do this alone then he will. He slew the Arishok in single combat. Hawke knows he can handle this abomination, and he still has his own tricks.

Naugus has at least stood again, back to the wall, eyes still wide in disbelief and terror. Though Hawke's words seemed to have gained purchase now, actually hearing for the first time.

He's right. He can't cower from this. No matter how ghastly a sight it is, how dreadful a reminder, he has to deal with this.

"Yes, I-...I am a wizard. I am an Ixis." He steps forward, albeit hesitantly, trying to present himself a more tempting target than the injured Hawke. His copy seems to take note of this, sniffing and then hunching down, hissing loudly and threateningly. Naugus directs his claw at the beast, intent on calling upon ice to freeze it where it stands, but all that happens is just a slight chill and fizzle.

"Wh-...The wards! Vale's bones, no!" The distraction of being unable to wield the elements gives the hobbled double the chance to pounce, wrestling its upright copy to the ground with another drooling hiss.

Alright, not quite the heroic entrance Hawke expected from the wizard but at least he wasn't cowering in the corner anymore. Baby steps were better than none at all. Even better, he just gave Hawke a wonderful distraction.

Hawke rushes forward with his weapons at the ready. He throws all his weight at the beast's side, driving the blade he received from the tree forward as he does so. Hopefully he can sink it in deeply enough to kill it outright. If not, then he'll at least bowl it over and knock it away from Ixis.

The blow lands true and does both intended outcomes; the creature is stabbed most soundly and simultaneously knocked over, rolling off of Naugus. Except the wizard follows it, rolling right along with it, landing astride its back and a spare length of chain leash in both hand and claw.

The chain is cinched criss-cross around the double's neck, and Naugus pulls it taunt. The creature sputters and rasps, fitfully hissing and clawing at the stinking soil floor, trying feebly to squirm away. The wound has weakened it considerably and it can't manage to crawl out from under Naugus. Sparks and smoke flit from its gaping mouth amidst the copious drool and hissing, trying fruitlessly to belch flame again in some aimless, last-ditch attack.

Naugus pulls the chain tighter, his teeth gritted and bared. The double under him lashes its tail, kicks its legs, eyes going bloodshot and rolling back in its head.

Then, finally, it goes limp.

The mage doesn't let it go, unable to stop himself, too angry, too disgusted, too afraid to stop. Nothing this disgraceful and pitiful should be left alive.

Hawke goes into his own roll after slamming into the doppelganger, hitting the ground and coming to his feet in a crouch. Already he has his second axe drawn, a twin to the first, since his short sword remains lodged in the thing's side. As he sees the fight all but over, Hawke lowers his weapons though he still remains wary.

"Ixis, I don't think it can get much deader than that." This is the most worked up Hawke has ever seen him. Sure he has his theatrics and his habit of maniacal laughter, but this is the first time Hawke has seen something like raw hatred on the wizard's face.

His arms are trembling with the amount of pulling he's still putting on that chain, even though, yes, it's quite clear their assailant is no longer alive. It's dead weight, its tongue lolling out of its slack mouth, eyes rolled back, blank and glassy. This feral Naugus has ceased to be.

Hawke's words don't get him to stop the continued assault of the deceased double; instead, it's the room around them going murky and indistinct, the shadows and meager light becoming watery and faded. The chain vanishes in a puff of thin, grey smoke, leaving Naugus grasping at nothing and a little confused for that matter. The walls around them crumble, eroding away rapidly, leaving them back once more in the statue plaza. Finally, the body of Naugus' double fades slowly from view.

The wizard is left kneeling, closed fists clenching at nothing. He appears breathless, panting heavily and staring at where his own lifeless face had been just moments prior.

Just when Hawke is about to approach Ixis to shake some sense back into him, when the room begins to change and warp. Instantly Hawke goes on guard again, readying himself for whatever weirdness may come at them next. Slowly he approaches Ixis to have his back should anything else be thrown at them.

Then, as the room crumbles into oblivion, Hawke stands in the plaza by the statues once more. Maybe he might show a little more confusion if he weren't so used to thing like this by now. Slowly he sheathes his weapons though his eyes continue to dart across the plaza searching for threats. "I think that it might be best that we not touch anymore statues while we're here."

Finally he bends to grab his short sword, now just laying on the ground with the disappearance of the phantom room. His hand rests on Ixis' shoulder as Hawke attempts to help him back to his feet. "Don't suppose you mind sharing what just happened back there?"

The assistance in being helped up is allowed, the mage getting shakily to his feet. He's still staring down at where that dead copy had been lying, appearing well and truly rattled over that whole ordeal.

"I don't know. I-...It was a vision. The future? If I had not been saved? I-..." He glances to Hawke, eyes wide again in confusion and fear. He saw all that. What must he think of him now? What is he assuming from such a harrowing revelation?

Part of him wonders if that whole thing actually happened, but with the adrenaline dying down the throb in his shoulder becomes worse. Hawke touches the spot finding blood still there. The armor did its job though, keeping those claws from digging in too deep. Definitely not just a vision.

"So that really was you." There's that theory confirmed. Hawke looks at Ixis no differently than he has before. He's seen his dearest friends at their worst without thinking any less of them. While Ixis may not be that close, he'll have to try something truly despicable to make Hawke think less of him. "You've definitely seen better days."

"Never that badly off. Never that...squalid or mistreated. Though the chain and collar were the same." Gads, he shouldn't have admitted that. Being candid about any of that mess feels like a very trying vulnerability at this time.

Though back home, even his absolute worst enemies saw him that way. And to think on top of that, by home's calendar, that was his reality little less than a week ago...

It's that thought, along with the fresh memory of killing his pathetic lookalike with that chain he knew so well, and the unbidden recollection of what that room 'he' was kept in smelled like that there's a massive, face-blanching wave of nausea. Naugus bends double and vomits suddenly, using his claw to keep his beard flat against him. Do you know what a pain it is getting puke out of a beard like his?

When that subsides, the wizard spits and wipes a sleeve across his lips. He doesn't look at Hawke.

"Ask me about it when we're out of this hellhole. I'm not feeling up to it presently."

Hawke grimaces as Ixis suddenly vomits and looks away. Whatever that vision was it did far more than just scare him, that's plainly obvious by his reactions. It suddenly feels that Hawke just walked in on him naked, though marginally less horrifying.

"No, I wouldn't either after being reintroduced to my lunch. Maybe we should get as far away from these things as humanely possible." Hawke's gaze falls to the statues again. All of them look as he did, does, and possibly will. Something about them call to him, but after seeing other's experience he knows better than indulge that insane voice in his head.

Naugus looks to the statues as well now, swiftly, ears flattening back.

"Did you see it? The one that caused this? How it looked so-...So grotesque?" That's another concern there; he doesn't know what the story behind that one is, other than it was yet another more ghastly vision of himself. The worries of this being an inescapable fate for him makes his stomach roil again.

Hawke shakes his head as he looks at the statues.

"No, I just see me. When I was a boy, as I am now, and when I grow old." Hawke tilts his head at the last statue, appraising it. Then he smirks. "At least now I know I won't look too bad in my old age."

Still Hawke resists approaching any of them. He'll not repeat the same thing that happened to Ixis. He can't even imagine what might happen to him if he were to touch any of the figures.

"You? Wait, what?" Naugus creeps a little closer to the statues again, but keeping careful to stay out of touching range of them. The one he had touched earlier and the one of him as he is now are both crumbled to useless rubble and dust now.

"They've broken now. The one that caused this and the one of me. And boy? What boy? There's nothing there. There was only two statues all along; this one is blank!" He waves his claw at what Hawke personally sees as a statue of himself as a kid.

Hawke only shrugs at Ixis' wild gesturing. The man sees what he sees. He can no more explain any of it than Ixiz, though he wish he knew the reason why. Hawke idly wonders if Anders or Merrill could tell him anything about this.

"Lucky me then." He stays rooted where he is but continues to stare at the statues. "They're still perfectly intact to me. Somehow I doubt that's a good sign." Whatever this magic is there's no way it's anything pleasant. That much is obvious after seeing Ixis' own vision.

Naugus is pretty hands-on with magical mysteries and stalks closer to the crumbled rubble of his mutated face. Hesitating a moment, but then deciding he sure as heck isn't a wimp, he snaps up a piece of it in his pincer. He winces away from it, as if expecting another vision or assault, but nothing happens. Not a thing. Just a craggy piece of plain, grey stone. He frowns at it, and then pockets it somewhere in his cape.

"I'm quite done with this place, honestly."

Whatever Ixis grabs, Hawke can't see it. He can easily assume what his companion is up to though. It's just as easy for him to figure out that it didn't work. "No mind shattering visions this time?"

Hawke finally tears his eyes away from the statues and begins to walk away. Whatever they have to show him he's utterly certain that he doesn't want to see any of it. "Then let's see if we can find some trouble elsewhere. Preferably something that doesn't involve invading our minds."

"Thankfully not. And yes. Yes, I'm inclined to agree with you." Naugus feels a little punchdrunk, just a little off-balance. Just getting right back to business seems best after that ordeal, but knowing that it happened and it was witnessed leaves a bad aftertaste. Maybe if he's lucky, Hawke won't ask about it when they get home again. And the mage decides not to think about it until he does.

Yup. Just gonna mentally put all of this in the vault. Mental vaults make life easier.

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EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | BOTTLE

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