The Spooky Spiketacular Extravaganza!

[+Sorana]

Lizanne continued to strip the corpses of their belongings, handing the things to Renata. She kept the dagger for herself, as well as a quarter of the chyrsts.

"The handwash could be useful."

She remarked and took a look at the pills, then pocketed them as well.

When she neared Nitinyas' body an eye appeared. It was huge, as large as small melon and it stared at her, then darted away, looked at each of them. Lizanne yelped in surprise and stumbled backwards, fell over her leg. Groaning she stared after the eye, but it vanished. Nobody else seemed to have noticed it, how could you miss such a large thing?

Hastily she searched Nitinyas, found a small book and then got back to her feet.

" I think we should take a closer look at the doorman."

She held up the pills.

"If he has an older injury, these might be pain killers."

Quote

Feel free to notice Lizanne pocket the things.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

Renata watched Lizanne deftly search each corpse, passing most of the supplies to her while pocketing a few things for herself.

Fair enough, she thought.

Lizanne’s sudden yelp and tumble brought her spinning round, makeshift lantern now brighter from the few infused spheres they’d picked up.

”What is it?” Renata hissed, panic bubbling to the surface. She still clutched her boot knife under all the supplies. 

Lizanne had said nothing, and Renata became a bit distracted when she’d pulled a journal from Nitinyas’s pocket. When the woman recommended they check the doorman for injuries, she nodded. The stairs where he’d fell were close to the firelight, and Renata had an odd feeling in between her shoulder blades. Like something was watching them.

”Did you see something back there?” Renata whispered as they walked toward the doorman’s corpse again.

@Sorana

Edited May 1, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[+Ark1002]

Hellbent waited until the others had turned around, then cut the bodies, one by one, into smaller chunks. Then he started to dig a hole, using the shardblade to cut into the stone underneath. He started stuffing pieces of corpses into the hole. Grisly work, but it needs to be done.

[+Sorana]

3 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

”Did you see something back there?” Renata whispered as they walked toward the doorman’s corpse again.

@Sorana

"An eye. As large as a small melon. It appeared out of nowwhere, looked at me, at us, and then vanished."

She shuddered. If the eye was spying on them, then her masters might know where she was. Uneasily she looked over her shoulder. They needed to change place as soon as possible. She couldn't go back to them, she had escaped the chains once, there was no way she would do it a second time. Even the thought of a chain closing around her ankles again chocked her.

She knelt down next to the doorman.

"I need your help. Four eyes see omre than two."

She started to check him for injuries.

[+Ark1002]

Hellbent approached the two women, arms coated in blood. "Do you need any help?"
@ZincAboutIt @Sorana

[+Sorana]

6 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

Hellbent approached the two women, arms coated in blood. "Do you need any help?"
@ZincAboutIt @Sorana

"We're checking him for injuries. He had pills with him, but they aren't labeled. Maybe we can find out what they do by taking a closer look at his body."

[+ZincAboutIt]

Renata froze at Lizanne's mention of the eye.

"Did you say you saw an eye?" she said, feeling the hair on the back of her neck prickle. Her arms were still full of clothes and personal effects, and she hurried back to the group around the fire to drop everything except her sphere lantern, boot knife, and the Doctor's journal. She scrambled back to Lizanne and Hellbent, reassured, for once, by his presence.

"Where was it?" she demanded, flipping open the journal and scanning the pages for any mention of this new, strange land. "The eye, where was it?"

@Sorana

Quote

What is written in this journal? Anything pertinent or eerily cryptic? 

@Fatebreaker @Voidus

Edited May 1, 2019 by ZincAboutIt

[+Sorana]

"It was flying around."

Lizanne continued to inspect the doorman.

"Lisa, maybe you should take a look at his journal as well."

She called out to Lisa. Lisa was inteligent, she and the doctor and spoken about so many things, she had had a hard time to grasp. Maybe Lisa could make sense of it.

@kenod

Quote

Are there any signs, that the doorman was already injured? A bandage around a part of his body, strange colored skin, his eyes?

Or signs, that he was taking drugs?

@Voidus

@Fatebreaker

[+Ark1002]

Hellbent shrugged. "If needs be, I could take one to see what it does."

[Voidus]

4 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

What is written in this journal? Anything pertinent or eerily cryptic? 

Quote

A lot of philosophical musings to start with, some long rambling musings on the nature of the cognitive realm, a few dates.

Then a page which seems to just be an illustration of a large, dark hole, the paper on that page is damaged and almost torn, the force used seems to have been close to ripping the paper.

After that there are a number of pages speculating on what this 'rift' is, and then a number of simplified diagrams, seeming almost like circuit diagrams but less clear.

Finally there is a page with a list of numbers, a number of loose slips of paper which contain very poorly written personal letters. The letters are riddled with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. On the final page is a depiction of an eye with the word 'watching?' Underneath it, this word has been underlined multiple times with a lot of force.

 

4 hours ago, Sorana said:

Are there any signs, that the doorman was already injured? A bandage around a part of his body, strange colored skin, his eyes?

Or signs, that he was taking drugs?

Quote

Nothing obvious to the experience of those present.

 

[+ZincAboutIt]

Renata continued turning the pages of Nitinyas's journal - it all seemed vaguely interesting, though nothing jumped out at her. She turned another page, then stopped. Someone - presumably the Doctor - had drawn a large, dark circle on this page, pressing into the paper with enough force to nearly tear the sheet. Renata ran a finger across the page; it came up black with charcoal. She frowned and continued turning pages,scanning the lines of text, careful not to let any of the smaller, loose sheets fall out.

Then she came to the last page, and froze. The majority of the page was dominated by a large, round eye. Below it, scrawled forcefully and underscored many times, was the word "watching?"

Renata could feel the blood drain from her face. "This!" she said, flipping the book around and holding it before Lizanne. "Is this what you saw?"

Say no, she prayed silently. Almighty, let her say no. She turned to Hellbent, showing him the image.

"Have you seen anything like this out there?"

@Ark1002 @Sorana

[+Ark1002]

Hellbent looked at it. "I don't think so." He paused. "Unless, maybe, under the heavy influence of firemoss or lager."

[+ZincAboutIt]

9 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

Hellbent looked at it. "I don't think so." He paused. "Unless, maybe, under the heavy influence of firemoss or lager."

Renata stared at him for a moment, then let out a tiny, panicked laugh. "I only wish I could say the same for him," she said, shaking the journal. "I'm going back to the fire - I need to read this. We should all read this. Maybe we can find out where in damnation we are."

And what is watching us, out there in the night... She kept this thought to herself as she settled down next to the fire and opened the journal again. Lizanne had been right to suggest Lisa take a look at this thing. Renata could only read so much of this script. She'd have been fascinated and not a little scandalized at the idea of a man writing his own journal if the events of the last day hadn't been so monumentally baffling.

"Is anyone fluent in this language?" Renata said, holding up the Doctor's journal to those sitting around the fire. "I know most of these words, but not all. We need to find out what that orb fabrial was - the one that made the light."

@I think I am here. @kenod

[Snipexe]

Jack stood quietly in the edge of the fire. Things had changed. The others seemed to be ignoring him, which was good. The less people that saw him the better. As he watched the others frisk the bodies, he smiled fingering his shard of glass. It was good to be with others who could do what was necessary to survive. He knew what that was like. Wilhelm seemed to be attempting to get the water out of the alcohol. Making a snap decision, he walked over.

”You need any help with that?”

@I think I am here.

[+Sorana]

Lizanne followed Renata back to the fire and took a look at the last page.

"Yes. That's the thing. But it's gone."

Or it turned invisible. She looked around another time. Where was it, ithad to be here? If you spied, you always stayed close unless you were reporting.

Lizanne looked at the mass of rags they had collected and an idea crossed her mind. Cutting them into strips she started to make a net. She could judge the size of the thing, so she made sure it would stay inside, once caught.

"What is written next to the picture?"

She asked Renata while working.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

23 minutes ago, Sorana said:

"What is written next to the picture?"

She asked Renata while working.

@ZincAboutIt

Renata felt a sick feeling settle into her stomach as Lizanne confirmed that the eye she'd seen matched the one in the journal.

"It says 'watching?'" Renata read. "The Doctor has written it as a question, like he's asking it of himself..."

She flipped back to the loose notes, looking them over. Even missing gaps in this language, she could tell that the writing was terrible; words were misspelled, sentences constructed oddly. The handwriting was different. A correspondence of some sort, then? Likely, whoever was writing these letters knew even less of this language than she did herself.

"Something happened, even before they called for this expedition. He knew about this...thing." Renata waved a hand at the darkness beyond the ring of firelight. "It was watching him, too. And now..."

And now, he's dead. 

Renata shook her head, flipping back to the page colored almost entirely black. She pointed to it, careful not to smudge the charcoal further. "He called this thing the..." she squinted at the page, "...rist? No, rift. Like... a chasm? Some sort of crack? Does this mean anything to you?"

Edited May 2, 2019 by ZincAboutIt
Correcting Renata's notice of the handwriting on loose letters

[Voidus]

Quote

Sorry, should have specified but the loose notes of paper would be noticeably in a different hand.

@ZincAboutIt

[+ZincAboutIt]

6 minutes ago, Voidus said:

@ZincAboutIt

Quote

Woops! Thank you, will change!

 

[+Sorana]

1 hour ago, ZincAboutIt said:

"He called this thing the..." she squinted at the page, "...rist? No, rift. Like... a chasm? Some sort of crack? Does this mean anything to you?"

Quote

Yes. As does the stormy sky without any wind. Or the way we were pulled over. I have this association I can't get rid of. The only thing I'm missing are strange floating things, but that's just a could-be, no has-to-be.

"No."

Lizanne shook her head.

"But the eye was watching, so maybe it's a guardian of some sorts. Or a spy."

She mused and then froze. Arun was bleeding, Renata had bled,  but the rest? What if they had been replaced? What if they were monsters wearing their face? She hid her thoughts, instead continued to make the net.

[Silva]

Corpses. And blood.

Aderet choked back a sob, still staring blankly at the fire.

And no food. No shelter. No water. No way out.

The tears came in full force.

[Lunar Blessing]

On 4/30/2019 at 11:57 AM, Sorana said:

Lizanne handed her a bottle of wine.

"You should drink. We need to clean the wound, maybe sew it shut. It will hurt and we have no painkillers available."

She smiled a thin smile.

"The wine will help."

Arun nods, taking the bottle. She slowly starts drinking it. She’s had wine before but she’d always hated the taste. 

 

[kenod]

Lisa watched as the cup slowly filled with alcohol. Not a lot, but it would have to do. When the wine started cooking she withdrew the cup, making sure that no water ended up in it. She walked up to the others. "I've got the alcohol, and the wine is cooking." She said. "Do you have the bandages, needle and thread for me?" She took a second look at the group. "What are you doing?" She asked, curious.

[+Sorana]

23 minutes ago, kenod said:

Lisa watched as the cup slowly filled with alcohol. Not a lot, but it would have to do. When the wine started cooking she withdrew the cup, making sure that no water ended up in it. She walked up to the others. "I've got the alcohol, and the wine is cooking." She said. "Do you have the bandages, needle and thread for me?" She took a second look at the group. "What are you doing?" She asked, curious.

"A net. There was a scary eye watching us. I want to capture it."

She nodded to the side.

"You can use the rags for bandages. And Renata has some notes of the professor. You should take a look at them. Maybe you can make sense of it."

[+ZincAboutIt]

Renata set down the journal for a moment and opened her pack, taking out the small leather pouch that contained her needles and gut, along with her pouch of clean bandage. She handed them to Lisa, then scooted over towards her with the journal in hand.

"This is the Doctor's journal," Renata said, opening the journal to the last page, where the round eye peered up at them with its glaring, charcoal stare. "Lizanne saw this eye not half an hour ago," she pointed out back towards where they had found Nitinyas's body. "I think it must have been watching him too, before this expedition even started."

She flipped back to the page with the large black hole drawn into it. "He called this thing 'the rift,'" she said. "Do you know what he might have been talking about?"

@kenod

[kenod]

14 hours ago, ZincAboutIt said:

Renata set down the journal for a moment and opened her pack, taking out the small leather pouch that contained her needles and gut, along with her pouch of clean bandage. She handed them to Lisa, then scooted over towards her with the journal in hand.

"This is the Doctor's journal," Renata said, opening the journal to the last page, where the round eye peered up at them with its glaring, charcoal stare. "Lizanne saw this eye not half an hour ago," she pointed out back towards where they had found Nitinyas's body. "I think it must have been watching him too, before this expedition even started."

She flipped back to the page with the large black hole drawn into it. "He called this thing 'the rift,'" she said. "Do you know what he might have been talking about?"

@kenod

Lisa took the pouches, looking around nervously, scared at the talk about the eye. Trying to distract herself she looked at the picture Renata was showing her. "Probably the anomaly in the cognitive realm he was talking about," she said. "I can't really give more info though, not without more information on the cognitive realm in general, or without having a look at the math involved. First instincts give me the idea that it is a form of Einstein-Rosen Bridge though. I guess the weird mists and shaking was us going through it. I can take a look at it later, but I have to sterilize these first," she said, holding up the pouches.
"By the way," she asked, curiously, "Who is going to take care of stitching the wound?"