elnysa | text | un: 76

[ 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. ]

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How noble of him.

[ Not. ]

Did he say anything about being able to control Ysverai once resurrected? I've never had the pleasure of meeting any dragon but I can't imagine them to be easily swayed by human desires.

No, nothing like that. I don't know if they're just assuming that Ysevrai will take their side, or if they have something else planned.

[ 76 thinks back to what he went through while abducted, and suddenly he has an idea of what they'd been testing. He hopes he's not right, but... ]

There is something they might try, but at this point I'd just be speculating.

Speculation's better than nothing at this point, if it'll help us prepare.

[ And honestly if they're up against a dragon? He'll take what he can get. ]

[ This is really something 76 would rather not discuss over the network, but he hasn't heard of anything that's locked being hacked. There's no easy way to meet up in person right now, so he'll just have to put up with it. ]

When I was being held by this group, they injected us with something. It made me and another refugee go berserk. We forgot about everything else, we just wanted to fight each other.

Maybe they're going to dose Ysevrai with something similar.

An injection? You mean during the kidnappings some time ago?

[ He kind of slept through all of that, sorry. ]

Yeah. I was one of the people taken.

[ Don't make it weird. ]

My apologies.

[ But now is definitely not the time to share stories about being abducted. ]

How long did the effects last?

It's hard to tell. I was pretty out of it.

[ And hallucinating, but 76 isn't going to get into that. ]

Not more than a few hours. I don't know if they've refined it since then. Or maybe a few hours is all they need to do some real damage.

They have had a great deal of time since then.

[ He's no scientist, but surely a month and a half is more than enough time to improve if not perfect. ]

What else do we know of Ysverai, outside of the obvious?

[ That it's a big and most likely very dangerous dragon. ]

There are some texts about him in the Khalo library. Apparently they made it seem like he was sentient and intelligent, but I wouldn't necessarily expect something that was brought back from the dead to behave rationally.

[ Despite some counterpoints that have been brought up, 76 is expecting a fight. There's always a fight, in the end. ]

Having encountered creatures brought back from the dead, I can assure you that they retain none of their rationality or common sense.

[ So he's definitely going to be preparing for a fight. ]

Did this happen here or back where you come from?

Back home. We called them Risen, because they seemed to rise from nowhere.

[ He and his compatriots were a creative bunch, obviously. ]

Of course, none of them were quite so big as a dragon, but they fought with their own brand of mindless ferocity.

Well, that's encouraging. Any tips for how to deal with something that's been brought back, then?

Kill it before it kills you.

[ That's not helpful. ]

The ones I faced were particularly susceptible to magic, but unfortunately I possess no magical talent whatsoever.

Neither do I. Guess I'll bring out the big guns and see what happens.

[ By which he means one particularly large gun. He won't know if the pulse rifle will do any damage to this dragon until he tries. ]

Best of luck to you, though I pray things don't come that.

[ lol ]

I can't say I'm very well-versed in the use of guns, but I'm handy enough with an axe if you need back-up.

[ An axe? That's going to require getting up close and personal with Ysevrai, which 76 is going to guess they should try to avoid. All the same, he knows better than to refuse the help of someone who seems to be a trained fighter with a good head on his shoulders, who has experience fighting the undead. ]

Assuming we can get it grounded so you can get some hits in, sure.

[ It's not his fault they didn't have guns back then. ]

If all else fails, I shall see if I can borrow a pegasus for the time being. Surely riding one of those isn't so different than riding a horse.

Might be worth looking into, yeah. Maybe get some practice in with flying one now, so you're ready.

An excellent suggestion. I'll be sure to do posthaste.

[ Oh yeah. ]

My name is Frederick. [ In case the username in ALL CAPS wasn't abundantly clear. ] You can reach me here at any time, if you need me.

[ Yeah, the username definitely gave him a clue, hence why he hadn't asked Frederick's name before now. ]

Understood. I go by 76.

[ Which is, surprise surprise, also his username. ]

Edited 2018-06-22 21:24 (UTC)

A pseudonym?

[ Surely no parent would actually name their child that. ]

A codename.

[ No, his parents gave him a very ordinary name. ]

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