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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[Honestly, it's Rocket's hard line too. He can do a lot to a person, but he'd rather kill outright than drag it out. The look on his face softens a bit and he glances away from the camera]

Uh-huh. [He huffs.] If we have to fight an undead dragon, I'm gonna be pissed.

[ At least Rocket isn't pushing that issue. This isn't the time for them to be arguing amongst themselves. ]

Believe me, it's not like I'm happy about any of this either. The dragons are supposed to be intelligent creatures, though. It could be that the radicals have built up a scenario in their heads.

Intelligence just means that when they decide to kill us, they'll have thought about it beforehand for a little while.

I'm also going to assume this thing is going to be violent, but if there are people who want to try and reason with it first, I'm not gonna say no.

[ As much as 76 is a soldier through and through, at one point his mission had been peace. There's a part of his brain that's still wired to look for the non-violent solution first, if such a thing exists. Often it doesn't. ]

That is a terrible idea. Who here do you think is really that crazy?

[ 76 raises an eyebrow. ]

Are you really asking me that questions?

[ They're a pretty crazy group, all things considered. ]

Anyway, we won't know much about this dragon until it shows itself. Then we can figure out how to deal with it. Assuming that the ritual actually worked and they aren't just trying to scare us. Didn't wanna take any chances.

Yeah, yeah. Fair point.

[Too many idiots in this shitshow and this coming from a guy who thinks everyone is an idiot.]

Either way, we should probably keep our ears to the ground just in case. I don't wanna be surprised by a frickin' dragon.

Agreed. That's why I wanted to spread the word. This way if anyone catches sight of this thing, they'll know to sound the alarm.

I'll keep an eye out, but I'm leavin' the research to the people with nothin' better to do. 'Sides there might be more of these assholes around to talk to.

[he heaves a sigh.] In as polite a manner as I know how to.

[so no torture.]

[ The concession earns a wry smirk from 76, not that Rocket will be able to see it. ]

That's fine. We should spread the work around anyway. Some people are headed back to that library and to question the Khali, so we'll need people trying to track these radicals down, too. We still don't know where they're based.

Not the mountains, that's for sure, unless they're real deep in there. I've been back a few times, tryin' to see what kind of crap those Fang dudes left behind and to look for trails.

Find anything on the Fangs?

[ Now that this information about Rasyc has come to light, it seems pertinent to ask. ]

Not a lick. They took all the good shit and left us to burn the rest. All Jess and I got out of it was scraps.

Huh. Guess Rasyc knew he couldn't leave any tracks, now that he's kicking things into high gear.

[ 76 doesn't know how much Rocket knows about Shanrian's son, so he pauses there, waiting to see what his reaction will be. ]

[Not a whole lot, though he's a little annoyed that he, ONCE AGAIN, threw any kind of support behind someone who ended up dicking him over.

It's an elephant in the room he has to awkwardly address.]

So the guy who ran the Fangs turned out to be a genocidal sonuvabitch, huh? That'll teach me to back the wildcards.

[ 76 shakes his head. ]

You had no way of knowing.

[ Granted, it made sense to be suspiscious of someone running a spy network, but all the same, none of them expected the king's own son to be the one causing all of this unrest. ]

We just need to focus on making it right.

By killin' a zombie dragon.

[He exhales.] What about the Celestials? The Natha or whatever they call themselves.

Seems like they flew the coop. There's been no sign of them since Darma's last announcement, and everything's quiet up on the Station.

Seems kinda weird for 'em to just leave over something like this. They bested an intergalactic world-killing storm and now they're runnin' scared of a dragon?

Something ain't right.

Yeah, I don't think it has anything to do with the dragon.

[ 76 tilts his head up, as if he's scanning the sky for a moment. ]

It's whatever else is out there.

Yeah, and I hope that's just a coincidence with bad timing, and not a combination of the two. People're saying some shit that's got me a little concerned, about the Storm and this place.

Like what?

[ That doesn't sound good, but 76 will take any shred of information on the Storm. ]

Like this place was where it started or something like that. It'd explain why it's the only planet that got spared.

Assuming it's the only planet. We don't know that for sure.

[ That being said, the Storm still could have originated from here. Why else would the Natha be so fixated on this place? ]

Yeah, I still don't buy that it is, but it might just be this whole quadrant they're micromanaging with this being the only planet worth paying attention to for one reason or another.

Now that I'd buy.

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personalwar - 2018-06-20 19:13 (UTC) - Expand