{{PP-PT-F29}} A Drink That Never Ends {On the House}

[Reytac 0]

Reytac stepped off of the teleport and immediately took in a breath of salt-laden air, and winced. It was clear that something had gone wrong when he'd tried switching floors - he'd been intending to go to the fifth floor, to see if there were any quests there that suited his level. But it was immensely clear that he was not on the fifth floor, not even close. A glance at his tracker had the brunette's jaw drop, and if it could go any lower it might have been hitting his clavicle. Somehow, his mumbled destination had brought him all the way up to the twenty ninth floor. In that moment, staring at that number, Rey knew that if he had even an ounce of sense in him, he would turn around and get right back onto the teleporter and get the hell out of dodge - this place dwarfed him by so much that it wasn't even funny. There weren't even safe zones on this floor! Even now, in this storm-swept city, theoretically something could attack him at any moment. And at best, he'd be an amusing insect for it to swat. 

But - Reytac didn't have an ounce of sense in him. If he did, he'd still grinding out the lowest monsters he could find to make slow progress, or even more appropriately, hiding back in the town of beginning and letting others work on getting out of this place. At the thought of that, he ground his teeth together - that was not something he could abide by. So instead of doing the smart thing, and leaving through the teleporter so quickly that he left an outline in the air, Reytac turned and walked into the storm tossed town.

He pushed rain-soaked hair from his face as he walked along the empty cobbled streets. Everywhere he looked he could see echoes, remnants, of the life that this town once had. Posters that were peeling from the walls that they had once been plastered to, or flickers of light in windows. But whenever he turned to look closer, those flickers were gone, the posters had already flown away. It was unsettling, and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. 

For some reason, he found himself drawn in a direction, like something he wanted to see was that way. His feet took him in that direction, across stones that had been wet for so long moss had grown on top of what had once been a busy street, and he sneezed at the salty sting in his nose as he turned the corner, his eyes scrunching shut as the sneeze over took him. 

Fwump Rey's eyes snapped open as he ran into someone, or something. He hadn't thought that there was anyone else here - the front liners had beaten this floor, had moved up and on. So he was jumping backwards before he even had his eyes opened all the way, his hammer snapping into his hand as he scrambled away. Only to freeze, confused, when he saw that he had bumped into a young woman, one with purple hair who had been looking the other way. 

"Oh, crap, I'm sorry, are you okay?" He hoped that she was okay - and that this wasn't some trick or trap. It'd be just his luck that there was some kind of mimic creature on this floor, and that it was about to eat his face off.

 

Spoiler

PLAYER TEST ENGAGE: REFUND SKILLS

Temporary Purchase:

Searching 5: LD+5 30SP
Energist: Cost 8SP +10EN

Hammer 5: 30SP Dam+7

Hammer Addon: Ferocity +2 DMG - 4 SP

SHIFT: TECH SPECIALIST 

10SP

+4 to Multipliers, +3 EN.

SP Cost: 82SP

Light Armor 5 - +30 Mit, 30SP
-2Steal Rating,
Meticulous: +1 Dmg - 4 SP

Resolve: +1 Accuracy, +20 HP - 6SP

SPCost: 122SP

Combat Mastery: Evasion GM: - 18SP

EX SKILL:
First Aid - 2 Ranks: 8SP

TOTAL SP COST 148 SP
 

REYTAC STATS:

Reytac | HP: 380/380 | EN: 64/64 | DMG: 14 | MIT:36 | ACC:3 | EVA:7 | REC: 2 | LD:5

 

 

lookit me actually using a Test Build.

@Teion

 

[Teion 0]

This floor stunk of salty mildew.

For a good twenty minutes, Teion’s nose had been wrinkled over the smell assaulting her nostrils, but after that she must have acclimated. That, or the rain sputtering down on her was keeping her sufficiently distracted. ”What an absolute ghost town.” She murmured, nearly scoffing. Not an NPC, player, monster, or so much as a rat in sight. Teion was left to wonder if this floor was so vile that all of the frontliners abandoned it to continue rotting just as soon as the boss fell. She wouldn’t have blamed them.

Standing outside what may have once been tavern, Teion’s hands were placed squarely on her hips while she looked the place over with a shrewd expression. Before she could reach some arbitrary conclusion, however, her center of gravity suddenly shifted under the weight of a strange man. ”Hrrk–!” She let out an involuntary grunt, catching herself on a cracked old crate whose planks whined under her touch. She spun around, meeting Reytac’s bewildered gaze with her own just as soon as she’d wrapped her fingers around the handle of the large battle axe that rested on her back.

”Huh? Oh.” It took her a moment to process, but her hand loosened quickly once she did. The initial sight of his face: a player. The quick shift in her eyes to land them on the spinning cursor just above his head, gauging its color. They flicked back to meet his, her surprise melting into a neutral, cautious expression. ”Yeah, I’m fine. No worries.” She replied simply. Besides looking slightly drowned by the unforgiving drizzle, she truly wasn’t any worse for wear after their collision.

She took a slight step back of her own to regard him. ”Have you been around here before? Teion asked. She stole a glance to the side, back towards that old tavern beside them. Something was nagging at her to finish checking it out, but maybe that was just the wishful thought of a roof over her head.

[quest info]

Teion | HP: 780/780 | EN: 92/92 | DMG: 23 | MIT:78 | ACC:5 | BH:43 | REC: 4 | LD:4 | QTY: 2  CHARACTER SHEET   Hide contents Teion's Character Sheet THREAD INFO   Hide contents equipped »Eclipse Edge (+3 ACC) »Amethyst Set (+48 MIT, +4EN Recovery) »Sun Spot (+2 Quality, +1 LD)   battle-ready inventory »Sand Armor Potion (Parry next attack) »Bottled Banshee Scream (Stun all enemies for one turn) »*Potion of Fallen Strength (+3 DMG, -9 MIT) »Banner of Command [3 Charges] (+1 ACC to your party until start of your next turn) »Teleport Crystal (1) skills »Axe R5 (+7 DMG) »Light Armor R5 (+30 MIT, -2 Stealth) »Battle Healing R5 (38 healing per turn) »Searching R3 (+3 LD, +3 Stealth Detection) »Charge (+3 DMG -1 ACC attack | 3 post CD | 8EN) addons »[Axe] Precision (+1 ACC) »[Axe] Ferocity (+2 DMG) »[Axe] Stamina (-2 EN) »[Light Armor] Resolve (+1 ACC, +40 HP) mods »Meticulous (+1 DMG) »Emergency Recovery (Heal 76 when brought below 190 | Once per thread | 10EN) »Night Vision (No penalties from low light/darkness) »Detect (+2 Stealth Detection, +1 LD to dungeons/labyrinths) »Bull Rush (Charge may stun instead) buffs Spoiler »

Edited yesterday at 06:15 AM by Teion

[Reytac 0]

"Again, I am sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going - I didn't expect to see anyone else here." Other than distant shapes in the storm clouds or fog off in the distance, Reytac hadn't seen another person since he arrived on this floor. He was honestly surprised to have run into someone else here - and embarrassed to have literally run into her. He didn't take offense to the way her eyes flicked up when she ran into him - it was a good precaution, and especially this high up was probably a healthy one to take. He did the same, a small bit of tension easing from his shoulders at her cursor showing green. 

His gaze followed hers as she looked back towards the tavern - how did he know it was a tavern? The place, outside, looked just as rundown as everything else around them, but for some reason Reytac felt like heading inside was exactly what he needed to do. If for no other reason, it would let him stop having to push his hair out of his eyes. It took him a moment to process through that odd pull to realize she'd asked him a question, and he blinked against the salty air as he looked at her side-profile. 

"Ah, no. First time on this floor. I had an issue with the teleporter, didn't mean to come here but..." He couldn't pull himself away. "I don't know about you but I'd like to get out of the rain for a moment, and that place at least looks like it isn't about to collapse on me if I step wrong." Rey suppressed a shiver that tried to run down his spine as he could swear he saw something watching them from a doorway down the street, but when he'd tried to look at it again, there was nothing there. Getting inside would at least stop that, he hoped. 

[Teion 0]

His initial response was the opposite of what she was thinking–that she had expected to see someone else around, somewhere, on this floor, but that it was strange that it had taken this long. His admission of a teleportation mishap caused her to cock an eyebrow and take another brief look over him. Her eyes paused at the hammer in his hands. Best she could tell, it looked incredibly basic. She thought about prying over his level, asking why he wouldn’t just head back down to a lower floor. Instead, she just frowned and turned her gaze back to the building. He’d said exactly what she was thinking now, and so she had no rebuttal or retort. She chose not to fuss over the adult man’s safety.

So Teion gave a small nod, straightened up just a little, and headed for the door. ”Yeah, that’s fair.” She planted a hand and gave it a push and it swung open with incredibly little resistance. Crumbs of old, musty wood felt like they clung to her skin and she promptly wiped her palm against her wet clothing as she stepped inside.

A hush fell, the wind and rain and whispers of the dead city suddenly miles away as the door swung shut behind them. The silence was disturbed at first only by the groan of the floorboards that bowed underneath her boots–some more drastically than others. ”I’m not so sure about that last part, though.” Even her soft muttering cut through the dingy atmosphere of the interior. But he wasn’t wrong. A break from the rain was incredibly welcome.

Teion brought her hands up to peel back her bangs and slick them into the rest of the wet hair on her head, then ran them down across her face, flicking her hands at her sides and letting loose water droplets splatter onto the floor off her fingertips. ”I heard the last boss fight was pretty nasty.” She remarked plainly. The stranger seemed innocuous, so she tried not to be rude. ”Figured I’d visit before going to take a peek at floor 30.” She went to pick up an old glass from the far side of the bar, only to pull against it as if it was glued to the surface. She frowned again, shifted her grip, and gave another steady pull, holding the pressure this time until she could dislodge it by force. And by force she did so. The glass let out a sharp, scraping cry as it separated from itself, the base still holding firmly to the bartop and the rest of the dusty cylinder wrenching free in her hand. She stood a bit stunned from the interaction, then a moment later both sections of the glass burst into shards of light blue.

[Reytac 0]

Reytac followed the purple-haired woman into the bar, and let out a soft sigh of relief as he pushed his rain-slick hair back from his face again, and this time it wasn't immediately shoved back down by the constant drizzle. It wasn't like it was a solid downpour, but the storm never let up out there, even for a moment. It was like they were in one of those old noir films about a stormy city, but instead of a neon abyss their environment was ore along the lines of oversized fishing town. He shook his head side to side, scattering water from his hair and face, then gave an irritated scowl when he realized that just whipped some of his damp hair back into his face. 

"So long as it doesn't just give out beneath us..." Reytac jumped forward slightly when one of the boards he stepped on felt like it was doing just that, cutting him off mid sentence. The creaking of the floorboards beneath them felt somehow both unnaturally loud in the empty air of the tavern, bar, but at the same time muffled, like every step was made in a different room. He focused back on the woman, following her towards the bar itself. Every step now though, he tested the floor before he stepped, it would be just his luck to find the one that had fully rotted through. 

The purple haired woman's words felt - right, to him. Not necessarily right for her, but they resonated with him. He wanted to reach the frontlines himself, but he knew he was nowhere near ready for that. "I guess,.. That's why I stayed. Getting to the frontlines, seeing places like this shows me what to aim for. Oh. Handle is Reytac, sorry for not introducing myself earli-what on earth." Rey cut himself off as he stared with the woman at the glass that had refused to come off of the bar top. While he hadn't seen everything the game had to offer, he felt comfortable in saying, "That ain't right." He stepped away from it, towards the lantern that was hanging down from the ceiling, and frowned. Sitting innocuously beneath the lantern - which was lit. Why hadn't either of them questioned the fact that there was an active light here? But even has he tried to bring that up, he forgot what he was about to say, and something else came out. 

"Hey, miss, there's something over here. Let's see... Shipping Manifest - Whoa!" Rey had picked up the page and glanced over it, getting ready to hand it over to her - only to have a screen pop up in front of his face, lighting him up in the electric blue of the menu. 

[Teion 0]

She listened to his explanation with mild indifference. A frontline-hopeful. She could hardly rebuff his aspirations, given how proudly Ryo stood among those ranks. Teion could only acknowledge her own decision to stay away from it. ”Hmm.” She gave a short hum in response, followed by a blunt comment, ”It’s certainly not boring up there.”

His shift in tone caused her to look back at the man–at least after she was done tackling that stubborn glass–when he introduced himself. ”Oh.” She echoed, realizing that they’d briefly missed that step of exchanging names. ”I’m Teion. Mostly just a blacksmith on the fifth floor.” She didn’t exactly fit into any other roles when it came to her presence in the game. Outside of her crafting work, she largely just explored at her leisure or sought out the occasional rare material drops. So that introduction would suffice, she thought.

She followed Reytac’s attention to the paper sitting on the opposite end of the bar that looked just slightly, inexplicably out of place. Yet when he reached for it she, too, was met with a dialogue box springing to life in front of her, causing her to give the smallest start.

”Shipping Delivery…” She read aloud. Her eyes ran over the rest of the minimal text displayed when her brows narrowed, squinting at something strange. Was that a typo? The name of the bar was left blank. She had little choice but to shrug it off as a harmless oddity, and so shifted her focus to the task laid out before them. Or the idea of the task, anyway. Teion looked back up to Reytac where he stood at the other end of the bar, as if trying to gauge his intentions. ”Do you…wanna do it?” Her words were slow, but not dismissive. Given her experience thus far, she was a bit apprehensive at the thought of taking it on her own, even if it was just a fetch quest. Something about the entire floor, let alone this room, just felt…off. It only made sense to stick together at this point, whether that was on a quest or hoofing it back to the teleport gate.

[Reytac 0]

Reytac blinked a couple times, the words on the quest screen dancing in front of him. Something was bothering him about the quest, but for the life of him he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Like a cut on the inside of his mouth that he couldn't stop worrying on, it was sitting there, just below active thought and pestering. He shoved that vague concern away, since all it was doing right now was slowing him down and distracting him. The brunette turned to look at Teion, only for his head to swim slightly as it felt like he went through a pressure drop, making him woozy for a moment. It passed swiftly though, and he focused his attention back on Teion. 

 

“Yes.” The agreement sounded flat to his ears, almost like he hadn't intended to say it. Had he? Something about this whole town was off, and he really should be getting out of here, not, “With as empty as this place has been knocking this out shouldn't be too much trouble. Go somewhere, grab a case of alcohol and run back?” He didn't even process that he'd accepted the quest, nor that he'd sent Teion an invite, until his finger was leaving the menu screen. Reytac frowned down at his hand, looking at it confused. Still - no matter. What he'd said wasn't wrong, the town had been abandoned except for the two of them. Even now, in one of the dry places in the rain-soaked, salt-ridden, town, they hadn't seen anyone else. 

 

Reytac just had to ignore the fact that he felt he was being watched, that if he looked at a window too fast he could have sworn he saw an eye peering back at him that was gone in less time than it took to blink. He coughed into his hand. They needed to knock this quest out, and get back to somewhere that was dry. Going to a desert floor sounded like a brilliant idea the longer he was here. But first, they just had to go down to the dock and find some alcohol to bring back. No big issue. 

 

Edited yesterday at 07:17 PM by Reytac

[Teion 0]

The man was hard to read. Not that Teion had a knack for reading people, but still. She watched his response without attempting to hide the cautious, almost suspicious feeling that was creeping up on her. She’d kept her survival instincts sharp for some time now, or so she’d tell herself, and for a time held people an arm-and-a-half’s length away due to some of the more dangerous company she chose to keep. But nowadays she was a bit more laid-back. Keeping the gates closed to every stranger that passed them by was tiresome.

shatter–

–into nothingness

Teion’s head whipped to her left. The wind howled with a strength that caused the door to blow open, smacking into a broken chair with a low, wooden [/i]‘thud’[/i]. With it, she could have sworn a voice carried to her ears. Insidious whispers that caused her arms to ache with memory. She stared for a long moment at that open doorway, as if there was some real chance that Acanthus would be standing on the other side of it.

The party invitation pinged her back to reality.

”Yeah.” She didn’t know what the last thing Reytac said was, but she clicked on the ‘Accept’ circle anyway. A steady breath out her nose, and she steeled herself for…whatever it was they had to do. Maybe another soaking would wash away the sudden bout of paranoia.

She stepped outside, giving a quick glance down each side of the cobblestone street. They were met with an empty wagon parked directly in front of the bar that definitely wasn’t there before. Aincrad was usually a little more subtle when it introduced quest steps like this, but maybe since the town was so empty…

Teion let out a sigh when it became clear that they were going to actually have to lug the wagon all the way to the docks and back. In the rain. Through the fog. ”Right, then…” She accepted her fate, gathering her wet hair and making sure it was all pushed behind her shoulders while she circled around and claimed the left side as her own. She hooked a hand under the wooden beam and lifted it, the wagon shifting slightly on its wheels. ”Shall we?”

Edited yesterday at 09:13 PM by Teion

[Reytac 0]

 

It was official, there was something in this town. Call it the coding out of place, or worse, this was how it was coded intentionally, but this place was clearly meant to mess with their heads. And it was working - when the door slammed open and a gust of rainy wind swirled in, Reytac had nearly dropped into a defensive stance himself. But then other than the unearthly wailing of the wind outside, nothing else happened, and he relaxed as he saw that Teion had accepted the party invite. He followed her outside, wishing he'd bought an umbrella - and realizing that, at no point before this, had he even seen an umbrella - only to freeze at the rickety wooden shape in front of them. 

That, had not been there. There hadn't been the sound of wagon wheels on cobblestone, or splashes indicating something outside moving. He looked around to see if there was an animal to haul this thing around. He squared his shoulders up and nodded to Teion. “I think the docks were down that direction, Miss Teion.” He gave up on keeping his hair out of his face - the storm had almost immediately shoved it back down and into his eyes, as if something had reached out and deliberately done it. 

Rey hoisted up the other side of the front of the wagon, doing his best to ignore the spongy feeling to the wood. It felt less like wood and more like… A mushroom that was pretending to be wood. His fingers sank into it, soft and pliable, and it took a good deal of will to not hurl it to the ground and wipe his hands. It was cold and clammy to the touch, and a shudder of revulsion ran through him. Still - he forced through the disgusting sensation and started guiding, hauling, the wagon with Teion, moving through the storm-swept streets. 

Peering ahead through the gloomy atmosphere was difficult at times, but Reytac did his best to try to keep from Teion having to wade through any of the puddles, trying to keep them on his side of the wagon without shoving her ridiculously out of the way. It was slow going for the two of them, hauling the rickety wagon through the streets, over slick cobble and across sticky, grasping mud. And as they walked, he couldn't shake it, the feeling that someone was leaning right over his shoulder, whispering into his ear. Once or twice he looked towards Teion, to see if she was trying to get his attention, but she didn't seem to be saying anything to him when he checked. 

Seeing the vast expanse of the sea before them, with a disheveled dock, was almost a relief. If it wasn't for the fact that he could see the surface of the water bulging forth, slowly at first, like something was rising up from beneath it. Something massive - bigger than the town they were in, as the edge of the swell expanded outwards, wider than the dock, and he could almost see something beneath the water as it started to cascade downwards, terrible yellow eyes staring back at him-

Reytac let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. There was no swell in the water, no eyes bigger than he staring back at him with malovolent intent. There was only a ship, somehow as decrepit as the town they had passed through, sailing into the harbor. It wasn't here, yet - but it was approaching. 
”I see the ship, Miss Teion.” His voice was quiet, just loud enough to pitch over the rain falling around them. 

 

 

Spoiler

Roll ID: 254519 LD: 3 Something terrible beneath the sea, but gone and replaced by the image of the approaching ship. 

 

Edited yesterday at 09:51 PM by Reytac

[Teion 0]

It was miserable, trudging through the empty, uneven streets. The only thing she had to be thankful for was that the cart they lugged was empty and therefore relatively light between the two of them, but she knew that wouldn’t be true on the way back.

What was she doing out here? They’d nearly reached the docks when the thought occurred to her. Was the quest reward worth it? What even was the reward? She couldn’t remember seeing one listed–or many details at all, now that she thought about it. Her frown set deep, and she let out a tired sigh when they’d finally crept up on the edge of the docks and came to a stop. Teion stood up straight, loosened her grip on the wagon, and cast a short glance towards Reytac.

Something about his expression made her pause and look again.

Silence had settled in between them for nearly the entire trek here. Neither of them had been particularly chatty in general–maybe he just didn’t have much to say. They’d only just met, after all. Maybe he was reading her reserved behavior and keeping conversation to a minimum, to avoid any potential social friction. She didn’t really mind, one way or the other. He was just some guy, poking his nose around the same as her.

She leaned forward a bit, still watching him, and opened her mouth to speak. But before a word could form, he quietly announced that he’d spotted the ship. It gave her pause, but she continued anyway, leaning her head slightly.

”Are you okay?”

Her brows were knit in an expression that winced against the pittering rain, studied his face, and hinted at concern all at the same time. Some thousand-yard stare was settling into his features that she couldn’t ignore. She only briefly looked out to sea to spot the ship that he mentioned, little more than a silhouette through the rolling fog bank past the edge of the docks. She didn’t watch it long enough to gauge how fast it was sailing.

[Reytac 0]

“I - wha?” Reytac tore his gaze from the oncoming ship that was cutting through the water towards them, his eyes bleary before he blinked twice, his gaze sharpening and focusing back in as he looked back to Teion, who was actually looking at him with some level of - worry, maybe, on her face? He shifted his grip on the wagon slightly and rubbed his eyes, then shook his head. Everything was foggy, only slightly less thick than the water in the air from the unending storm, even thinking was taking longer than he'd like. 
“I'm honestly not sure, Miss Teion. Constantly feels like something is watching us, or like…” He rolled his hand a little, as he tried to think of how to word it. “Like every step is somehow the worst step we could make, but also the only right step? If it wasn't for the fact that it's constantly raining here, I'd say there is… The kind of feeling in the air before a big storm breaks - but that's ridiculous, since it's already raining.” That was the closest thing he could think of, that sense of anticipation before a storm, before a lightning strike maybe? It was like the world itself was holding its breath to watch and see what happened next. 
Rey rubbed his face - he wanted to get the water out of it, but that was a lost cause at this point. But at least for a brief second, he felt something other than the clogging, cloying rain against his skin. “I think the sooner we get out of this place, the better it will be for us. This is one of those places where I'm starting to doubt what's real and what isn't, and right now the list of things I know are real, is at a whopping two entries.” He gave her a wry smile as he looked back towards the approaching ship. 

 

[Teion 0]

The frown on her face deepened a bit. He talked through the feeling, and his words about taking the wrong steps rang truer in her ears than she would have liked. She was quiet for a few moments longer, but as the hint of uncertainty hung in the air with his sentiment, she offered a small, audible agreement. ”No, I get it. I’ve been kind of getting that, too.”

With little to do besides wait the last couple of minutes before the ship made it to the docks, Teion heaved a short sigh. ”Y’know, we don’t have to stay.” She pointed out. ”Not to stomp on all the fun we’re having,” The corner of her mouth pulled up into a sarcastic smirk, ”But if anything bad shows up, or if we’re just over it, we can just abandon the quest.” Normally she wouldn’t suggest such a thing. If a quest made it onto her log, she was going to finish the damn thing. So, despite her proposal of cowardice, she walked to the docks once the small ship finally broke through the fog and drifted ever closer.

She did stop though, as if she remembered something. Teion turned and looked to Reytac, addressing him bluntly again. ”You do have a teleport crystal on you, right?”

The boat had arrived. Pulling her knee up high to lift herself onto the vessel, she scanned the deck for any hint of life. She wasn’t sure how strange it was that there seemed to be none. No NPC at the wheel, no crew to speak of. But there were boxes and barrels gathered together in its center, so their objective was made abundantly clear. ”Weird…” How many times would she mutter that word in one day? Her boots sounded especially heavy on the wooden planks as she made a wide circle around the supplies. Then she froze.

A dozen rusty-red eyes glinted against the flickering flame of the single lantern and stared up at her. A single scaly appendage waggled in the air and a mouth filled with uneven rows of teeth stood agape. A small creature unlike anything she had even seen, anything she could even begin to describe, stared at her like a cornered animal, frozen just the same as her. Teion’s pulse began to beat heavily at the sides of her neck and the rain sliding down the skin of her face suddenly felt a little colder. Her fingers twitched at her sides, yearning to take action but not daring to move.

It let out a horrifying shriek that blasted her senses into action with a heart-rending beat of adrenaline. The sound of wood splintering followed, the head of Teion’s axe now firmly embedded into the deck and her grip rigid on its long handle. She yanked upward, forced to stop and plant her foot firmly beside the metal to dislodge and shakily retrieve her weapon.

She had missed, yet the creature was nowhere to be seen.

Post Action | Unloading the Cargo...
ID#: 254542 | LD: 7

Edited 5 hours ago by Teion

[Reytac 0]

Reytac was right behind her, walking not quite in step with her as they boarded the boat. He'd wanted to agree, and possibly push them to get all the way out of this forsaken town, but his mouth hadn't bothered to open, words hadn't come from his lips. But at least it didn't seem like anything was going to attack them on the boat, as it seemed... Deserted? Rey blinked, salt water dripping from his lashes to join the rainwater running in rivulets down his face, and looked around. Who had docked the ship, dropped the anchor? 

"We should try to stay in ear shot while we find.. Whatever it is we can, to bring back." Reytac frowned as he turned away. He knew she'd asked him a question, something that was important, but he couldn't remember it now, and as he walked away from Teion he struggled to keep her in mind. 

But that little fact was what made him do the struggle, to keep her in his thoughts. Something was trying to make him just foggy, muddled. And he had a dread that if he forgot Teion - he might lose track of her entirely, or get trapped in this place somehow. Or she would. So as he walked through the ship, he started mumbling to himself, his eyes flicking across strewn remnants of people long gone - moldy cheesy, wormy bread. 

"Not alone. Teion. Get out of here, together." He kept repeating this under his breath as he moved through the ship, doing his best to listen out for Teion, staying where he could hear her. He turned a corner and found a large cask of wine, laying on its side, with a small hole in one side, from which a dark purple fluid was leaking out. Purple like hair. Purple hair, Teion. Not alone, they needed to leave together. 

He watched the barrel for a moment, the flow of wine spilling out unending, and coming in odd ebbs and flows. Reytac frowned and put one and against his neck, using his fingers to test his pulse as he watched. He felt some of the warmth leave his skin when he realized that they matched, nearly, and that the wine was leaving in an odd 'heartbeat' pattern. He stepped forward and dipped his fingers into the wine and lifted it up to taste it, hesitant. Why was he - it was oddly flat, despite having just come out of the barrel. He glanced at the purple liquid and his eyes widened. Purple. Not alone - Teion. 

"Right, no, okay, the creepy unending wine barrel sounds perfect for the creepy unmanned bar." Rey righted the barrel, frowning when he saw it was still leaking - then with a heave, got it into his inventory. 

Then an ungodly shriek ripped through the air from the direction of the deck. Rey's eyes snapped open wide and before he knew it, his hammer was in his hand as he bolted back through the ship towards where he'd last seen Teion. His feet pounded against the boards beneath him, an he was fairly certain at least once he heard splintering as he raced back, but he didn't slow down. The door ahead of him had swung closed behind him, and Rey hit it full speed, slamming into it with one shoulder as he burst back out into the rain, his eyes scanning around to see Teion pulling her axe from the ship's deck. 

"Are you okay?!" Reytac called over the storm as he moved over towards her, his eyes scanning around the ship to see what had made her strike out, and what could have made that shriek. 

 

 

Spoiler

Roll ID:254543    LD: 9 
EVENT: You find a barrel of wine that is leaking profusely. Its flow seems never ending. It tastes a bit flat.    

Quest Stage:Unloading the Cargo! 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Reytac

[Teion 0]

The breath that pushed out her nose tried its best to keep steady, but shook nonetheless while her eyes darted across the deck. They strained against the low light, letting off a dim glow of yellow layered over their normal blue. Cardinal allowed this basic of mercys, her Night Vision sparing her all but the darkest reaches of shadow. Yet they found nothing. Where one abomination crept, she anticipated hundreds to swarm out at any moment, to overrun them. Perhaps that would explain the empty ship.

Her eyes landed on a worn pair of boots, stopped at first, then walking towards her. She followed them up and it was as if her sanity renewed its grip. She blinked. She kept a hold on her weapon.

”There was, something.” She broke her gaze off and swept it back over the ship again, much less desperate this time. ”Some little rat-monster.” That wasn’t even close. ”It didn’t attack, but I didn’t kill it, either.” She seemed reluctant to admit it. The least she could’ve done was destroy the little freak for giving her a heart attack. Now it could scurry away to the back of her head, nibbling, gnawing, waving its slimy little limbs just on the peripheral of her vision–

She stole a glance back over her shoulder, just to be sure. Nothing. She let out a heavy breath not unlike a sigh out through her nose. She wouldn’t let this place get to her. So she said.

”Sorry. We can stick together, just in case. I should be able to handle any roaming monsters on this floor.” Who exactly was that reassurance meant for? It was only after she said it out loud that she glanced in the upper corner of her vision. She had to stop herself from cringing when her party menu displayed Reytac’s actual HP total against hers. ”And if this quest has a boss at the end of it, well…” Her brows lifted in a sarcastically-thoughtful expression that quickly turned to a look of morbid humor. As if to say, ‘no, thank you. I’m good.’

Teion looked past him, towards the door that led below deck. ”Find anything?”

Edited 2 hours ago by Teion

[Reytac 0]

Reytac let out a self-deprecating snort. "I'll be a momentary distraction while it picks its teeth with me."Talking - helped. Kept him grounded in the here and now, not getting sucked into his own head with whatever was going on with this place. He swung his hammer around in an arc, water scattering off of it, before he let it fall onto his shoulder. "Sticking together is still probably a good idea though. This place messes with our heads, hard." He turned his attention back towards the door he'd burst through and gave a slight frown. 

"As for what I found... No weird abominations from outside time and space. Unless you could a barrel of wine that doesn't stop leaking, and seems to pulse like a heartbeat. Didn't seem to slow or stop, even when I moved it, just kept pumping purple out at the same rate." He glanced towards the dock and his frown sharpened. He could have sworn he saw someone standing on the dock, watching them, but there was no one there.  The brunette shook his head, rain-soaked hair flicking about his face. "Not Alone - Get out, Together. We should probably get off this ship soon - I dunno if the wine is enough, but I'll stick with you if you want to look for anything else."  His hand tightened on the grip of his hammer, the wet leather creaking against his palm. 

The air was feeling - not outright hostile, but definitely unwelcoming. Like they'd stayed just a bit too long at a family gathering, and the hosts were glaring at them to leave, but not yet chasing them out. Rey swept his eyes around, looking for whatever it was that Teion had spotted before, but he couldn't see any sign of anything in the rain and shifting shadows that draped the deck of the ship. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Reytac

[Teion 0]

rolling :)