text | un: 76

[personalwar]

[ Given everything that 76 has learned in the past few days, there's no doubt in his mind that he needs to inform the rest of the refugees about what might be coming. That bandit seems to have been telling the truth, or maybe what 76 saw up on Namarak Mountain was staged, but that seems like way too much work for no real gain that he can foresee.

Enough of the details have checked out that a warning seems necessary. Only a few of the refugee group had actually been on the missions to transport the heart and the skull, and there's no telling that all of them learned what he did.

While this is his first time posting on the network, 76 doesn't introduce himself, but just gets right down to business. Who he is isn't really important here. ]

Word probably got around that Nithor's skull and Ysverai's heart were being transported back to Olympia and Wyver, respectively. Well, things didn't really go as planned. Both caravans got attacked on the way by a group of bandits. I managed to chase down one of them and question him. He was surprisingly forthcoming.

Assuming he was telling the truth, and that's seeming more and more likely at this point, it was the heart that they were really after. These bandits are part of the same group responsible for the abductions, and they took Ysverai's heart up to Namarak Mountain to perform a ritual.

Apparently, that ritual was to revive Ysevrai, and if you've seen some of the skeletons of the old dragons, you know what that means.

I went up to the mountain to see if I could interrupt the ritual, but it was already over and cleared out by the time that I got there. I did find a cryptic note that looked like it was written in blood. It said "He Shall Rise Again."

According to the radical I interrogated, this dragon could mean the end of Olympia and Wyver and everything else. I don't know how much I believe that, but we need to be ready for anything. If you've seen anything, let me know. If you have questions, I can try to answer them, but this is most of what I know.

[ Not everything, though. There's one detail he's still sitting on. But Wyver family drama isn't something he wants to report to all of the other refugees, aware of what kind of unrest that could cause among the natives. ]

Comments

[personalwar]

[ Not decisive enough, apparently. ]

I read something there about Rasyc too, and the bandit confirmed it. I'm sure a good number of us know, but if we start spreading that kind of information around Wyver, it could just make things worse.

What'd you read about Ysevrai?

[personalwar]

I wouldn't necessarily trust any of the shamans. It's possible that some of them are connected to this group. Digging through more of the Khalo records might be worth doing, though.

private;

[personalwar]

This is probably going to be more overt than a horror movie. What kind of leads?

Yeah, guns can be hard to come by around here. Where'd you get it?

video

[personalwar]

[ It hadn't been 76's intention to do any of this over video call, but Mister Revolutionary here is speaking sense. Informing the rulers is going to allow them to spread the word much faster than they would otherwise, and to the natives as well. This doesn't only affect the refugees. ]

I have a lot more connections in Wyver than I do in Olympia, but I'm sure that we can find someone who can get an audience with her. I'll try to ask around.

[willrevile]

It's gonna get out. It was already a rumor, and yours wasn't the only bandit talking - I know a couple other people on the convoy, and they've got the same intel. Do you know anyone who's got an in with getting word to his father about possible damage control?

The Khali people considered Ysverai a kind of protective sage, who spoke to and mentored early populations on the planet. They saw his death as a sacrifice, and at the end, there's a quote about the Storm. Capitol S Storm. 'Your hearts will fill with greed and malice the moment my own stops beating. Take care in the Eye of the Storm. Find strength in one another, before it is too late.'

[ Jim's got a good memory, but he also took a picture of it, so he can check for specific wording. ]

private;

[impavid]

One from home. It has an incinerate setting, which I'm thinking I might need.

[ Anyway, Pavlovian gun salivating aside -- ]

Anyway someone told me that he wrung info from a bandit and three weeks from the heist something might happen in Khalo. Which could be a false lead, but there are rumours that some of them are hiding out in Khalo so it seems like it's worth looking into. Best lead I have so far.

voice

[personalwar]

I can't be sure, but it seems like they take issue with the two nations trying to make peace. They want things to stay they way they have been, with Wyver and Olympia constantly at each other's throats.

[ 76 wouldn't doubt that there's more to it than that, but that's all he'd been able to gather from the words of fanatics, and from what he's read. ]

[personalwar]

You want a medal?

[objectionattorney]

Not really.

If anything 'able to predict the revival of a giant ancient death dragon' is the worst type of medal to receive.

It just makes me wish I fought harder to protect the darn thing...

[personalwar]

Someone responding here is offering to warn Shanrian about Ysevrai. We can tell him about his son too, if we want to go that route. On the other hand, there's a chance he already knows.

Doesn't really sound like the type who wanted to burn everything to the ground. [ Also, since when did dragons talk? ] But that's also the first I've heard of the Storm here on El Nysa.

[ Was there really a connection between Ysevrai dying and the Storm coming? Sounds a little farfetched, but 76 can't just ignore this either. ]

private;

[personalwar]

I don't know if we need more fire in this situation, but I trust you know how to use it.

[ 76 appreciates anyone who knows their way around a gun, but now really isn't the time to be talking shop. ]

Yeah, it's definitely worth a look. The Khali have been pretty accommodating. [ Which he finds suspicious more than anything else. ] I don't know if they're related to this at all, but if you're going to hang around there, you better grow eyes in the back of your head.

[personalwar]

Were you part of the group transporting it?

[willrevile]

Good. I don't know enough about Shanrian to predict a reaction, but while I'm sure he knows, does he know half his city's probably going to know?

Same here. It could be fiction, given the nonsense that makes up half the refugee 'records', but it's too weird to ignore. And Rasyc's information seems dead on.

Not helping the timing is what's going on upstairs. I think I've got a pretty good idea of what's going on with the Natha, though. You want in the loop on that?

[objectionattorney]

I was.
I initially signed up just to work as an emissary upon handoff.
As important as the artifacts were I never thought we would be so open to attack from those who opposed the trade.

I was kind of useless really.

private;

[impavid]

It's more an energy blast than a fire situation, but either way -- I'm thoroughly expecting at least one person to try to kill me. In fact, I hope they try so I can find them easier. I'd much prefer that to days of trawling around finding nothing.

Re: text

[panzersoldat]

I know that. But we need to be prepared for this. If they are really reviving a dragon and it's angry, we need to find a way to stop it. However, dragons are intelligent, ja? Maybe we could reason with it.

It seems strange though. That the Natha suddenly disappear and then this happens.

[ It's above Reinhardt's pay grade too. But he's the crazy bastard that's imagined slaying dragons for years. He and Gilgamesh and Ozymandias managed to slay one in the VR before. But that was VR and he was backed up by OP Servants. ]

That and we get the knightryders and the olympian guards a heads up. We have people in both groups, ja? We prepare for the worst.

[beatupgrass]

[THE WORLD DESERVES HIS ANGER and look sometimes you're too infuriated to type.]

Torture him to see where his buddies are? They were pretty keen on doing it to us.

[He will go to town on eye for an eye.]

[idealisme]

Good. [Well. It will help the people, so that has to be good.]

Does this group have a name, do you know?

[song_of_ice]

If they are willing to share. Khalo Village only recently allowed others in. That might be a bit much for them to give. There is no harm in asking though. Even if they don't know anything, they could tell us something about the Wyvern Shamans.

private;

[song_of_ice]

[He so doesn't want to do this now or be reminded of Ramsay's presence.]

The dragons of this world are different from the ones of Westeros.

text | c.fraser

[nineteenfortyfive]

Time to hope we have some dragon slayers in our numbers.

[winecasks]

Things can’t possibly stay as they have been if both cities are destroyed. Perhaps they should rethink their plan.

[personalwar]

You really want to stoop to that level?

[ Look, even someone like 76 has lines that he won't cross. He isn't above some rough interrogation, but he sees a difference between beating information out of someone or scaring them into it, and full-on torturing them. The difference might be small, but it's there. ]

He was already saying a lot even without torture. I think it's just a matter of wearing him down.

[personalwar]

Probably not. We can give him the option to do some damage control, but I don't know how we avoid another angry mob at this rate.

I'll have to go give it a read for myself, assuming there's even time for that before everything goes to crap.

Yeah, what'd you find out?

[ It's not like they need something else heaped onto this mess, but 76 naturally wants to be in the know. ]

[personalwar]

They didn't seem to care that we were digging through their massive library. Granted, there's a chance that they hid some things away, but at this point we need to exhaust every option.