tushanshu_logs | palace infiltration is go.

Characters: Charles Xavier, Dorian Grey, Nathan Drake, Lina Inverse, Lois Lane, Morwen
Date: January 22nd
Location: The palace
Situation: Our intrepid band of heroes sneaks stealthily into the Emperor's treasure room...
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will add if necessary. Headers to follow!

[The Emperor's Palace is an unending labyrinth of white walls and silence. Both are eerie in and of themselves, but even footfalls go unnoticed here. Touching a doorway will see you transported to another area immediately, but even that is more of the same.

The white marble, the granite. There is nothing to identify the corridors, no one met along them. There is no sense of being on the first floor or the fiftieth. Time seems to slow to an imperceptible crawl, and speaking aloud produces no echoes, only the faintest of whispers.

Sometimes, you will enter into a small room. These rooms are often lavish, with small cascading waterfalls that pool in a carved-marble tub. They have beds, desks, a wardrobe, but no windows. You might find another wanderer there, or you may be yet alone.

Slowly, inexorably, you are stumbling your way towards the treasure room.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Drake's not surprised to find someone else in the room besides him, especially with this many people crowding into the palace for safety. He's left Elena in a safe place to rest from her wounds, promising to return after he had a look around. But his explorations took him deeper into the palace, what he could presume was still the palace, down a corridor, into rooms. He's making a mental map as he goes along, pulling out his journal so that once he finds where ever this leads he can return quickly.

This palace is nothing he hasn't seen before, having stumbled upon ancient lost cities in his journeys, and that something akin to them existed here drove him further out of sheer curiosity. At first he thought he might find answers, secrets about Tu Vishan and clues on how to get home. But once he reached what appeared to be a treasure room he knew it wouldn't be that simple.

However, whatever may be found in here may lead to those answers he sought, revealing history of a place no book ever told him about. With as well-hidden as this room is, certainly there was something in here worth hiding from the general public.

The woman he comes across is carrying a broom, though he's managed to get used to the different types of people that were brought into this city to not be too surprised anymore. Though still curious. His eyes catch the golden dragon above them when he hears her say something.]

... Kazul?

[Morwen stops and looks up at Drake from her impressive height of five feet in shoes. She's wearing a shapeless black robe, that, with the broom, screams "witch," but she's neither old nor hideous, and her red hair is gathered neatly in a knot atop her head.]

The King of the Dragons.

[From behind her glasses, Morwen rakes him with a stare so penetrating it seems like she could count the change in his pockets, then bows slightly from the waist.]

My name is Morwen.

[He towers over her at six-foot-one, wearing a cream coloured shirt that's seen better days, beige jeans, and boots. Pretty typical attire where he comes from. And he's in the middle of giving her a once-over when her response catches him, along with her piercing gaze.

So far he's seen some pretty impressive things here- mutants, people that can set themselves on fire, other... non-humans. This is a little new and when she bows he feels awkward about the gesture, but quickly recomposes himself.]

Dragons, huh... Ah-- Nathan Drake. Nate. [He offers her his hand before nodding at her broom.] I take you're not here for janitorial work?

[Morwen returns the handshake with a firm grip, despite her tiny frame.]

I'm a witch.

[Ordinarily, this would get someone backing down apologetically, but she has to make allowances for different worlds, and so she clarifies:]

It's for flying.

[Oh. He looks down at the grip and nods, impressed. Of course he's not one to judge based on appearance- he's certainly seen plenty of girls about her size take down people bigger than him.

Now witches... Well. He's familiar with witches in history, but they didn't ride brooms. Either way, he has no room to doubt. Not after considering where they were. Which is to say... a giant turtle. One that is currently underwater.]

That--

--that was my next guess. Didn't know witches were friends with dragons.

I am friends with a dragon. Witches in general, I can't speak for.

[And Morwen is an atypical witch. She adjusts her glasses, a not-unaffected habit that lets her buy a moment to think. By her standards, Drake's behavior is subtly off--he's too casual with new a new acquaintance--and she doesn't quite know how to handle him.]

...Though it's not the sort of thing I would expect most people to know one way or another.

[This is unusually tolerant of Morwen, which, depending on how perceptive he is, Drake might pick up from the pauses between her initial blunt replies and the softer statements she's tacking on afterward.]

[Drake tends to resort to casual, lighthearted banter to deflect any awkwardness, or from what's on his mind, exactly. Sometimes it's obvious, other times not. But right now he's more focused on the room, though is perceptive enough to catch her speech pattern.]

Can't say I'm well-versed in dragons-- actual dragons. They're ah, fairy tales and myths where I'm from.

[But he's more curious than not. He looks around the room at the stacks of gold and ornate decorations as he speaks as if he's considering something.]

So, if you're a witch does that mean you can use magic, maybe sense it?

They're quite real, I assure you. And quite fond of treasure.

[Draconic acquisitiveness is no myth.

She looks singularly unimpressed at his question. What does he think a witch does if not magic? Still, she answers him civilly enough.]

Yes and yes.

[He ignores the fact that it sounded like an idiotic question, there is a point to it and it was the best way he knew to segue into it. Also because he wanted to make certain of her abilities.]

Do you sense anything 'off' about this room? Find it hard to believe that this place is just left unguarded, even with all the panic in the palace. Maybe they tossed up a spell, traps, something.

[Ah, finally some common sense. Morwen smiles approvingly.]

That's why I was proceeding so carefully. The whole palace is lousy with magic, and treasuries are usually more heavily enchanted.

[She shakes her head.]

I haven't sensed anything that might be a trap, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything to sense.

[Without moving her head, she looks up at the dragon, trusting Drake to follow her gaze now that he's demonstrated himself to be not an idiot.]

That almost certainly has a spell on it to monitor the room.

[His head tilts back to look up at the jeweled, golden dragon again- something about it had been unsettling him. The way it looms overhead...]

Yeah, it was kinda giving me the creeps, too. Like a dragon guarding its treasure. [He says it absentmindedly, reiterating what she said earlier about dragons. That is what they were associated with in the many legends he's read as well.] Guess it's a little late to try disarming it?

palace infiltration is go.

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