FINAL INVESTIGATION

[strangerpeople]

FINAL INVESTIGATION

[The morning of the last day-the day of the deadline promised by the Elder Steward--there is a loud CRACK that echoes through the Mansion. It comes above, over, and around them.

Indeed, it seems to originate from outside.

Those who go outside will find themselves staring at a sky that is cracking everywhere. The cracks Osomatsu had seen before had somehow spread over the days unchecked. Now, the cracks become larger and larger, until finally, the sky itself breaks.

Glass-like pieces fall downwards as it shatters, dissipating lone before they hit the ground into sparkles. A cool breeze suddenly blows through the garden, while the sun suddenly appears for the first time, shining high in the sky. A...slightly creeping-looking, laughing sun, but that doesn't seem to be an illusion, unfortunately. Also it doesn't look ready to swoop down to attack them, which might be a small comfort.

The hole in the wall that had been made earlier is still there, large enough to crawl through. And when they do, the Strangers will find themselves in a more open grassy field, with a beach to the south.

The nice weather and grass, however, is not all that is there. It's clear there are other places in this complex to explore.]




[Before anyone can react, there is the sudden telltale ticking that begins in their heads, and their investigation scrolls appear. It's clear that the Stewards have started a countdown for them to get to the Temple, which sits beyond their immediate area, within a forest of trees that the grass transforms into. But, perhaps, the Strangers can use this to their advantage. Now, they know they have a time limit to search these places for more information about just why they are there.

Perhaps, now, they might have a chance to find something useful.

There are six strangers left. Best get to work.]

Comments

[yonosoymaria]

Was it a river, there? The name makes it sound like a beautiful place.

[There is no better time for light conversation than when one is confronted by hell. It is a last-ditch effort, a falling-back-through-No-Man's-Land effort, but it's something that isn't despair.]

Ah, but you're lucky to be near the sea. My hometown is landlocked... there's a beautiful river, a beautiful series of canyons north of there, but it isn't the same.

[incendiarize]

Nah, it was part of the Labyrinth.... Yggdrasil has a huge labyrinth under it, all through the roots. It's like...thirty forests, all stacked on top of one another, and the ground on top. There's six sections that're all really different. There's the Emerald Grove, which is a pretty normal forest, but more vibrant and lush...then under that's the Primitive Jungle. Everything's wilder there. It's like going waaaaay back in time, before even the Old World. Under that is the Azure Rainforest....everything's blue, there, mostly, it's like being on a different planet. And it's full of water. It starts with just pools of it, then some streams, but on lower floors it's huge lakes, with giant pink flowers floating on the surface...

I guess all the water stops there, though, 'cause the next stratum is the Sandy Barrens. It's a desert. Everything's dry and the trees twist all funny. And under that, there's ruins from the Old World. Ricky said it was a huge metropolis called Tokyo, a thousand years ago. There were buildings bigger than anything I've ever seen, so old they'd crystallized, and everything was covered in plants...

...Under that is the Claret Hollows, though. Those're....like nothing else, anywhere else. I kept seein' them instead of the mansionhouse. They were humid and warm. The walls and floor were soft, squishy...warm and wet sorta moving? They were- they were made of flesh. And there were rocks, white and bony, and the doors were like heart valves, and the smell...

[He shakes his head. Don't get lost in it. That quickly stops being light conversation. Back tot he conversation....]

Etria's not my home, though. The Midgard Library makes a point of raising orphans, and Simon and me went there after we left what was left of Gotham. It's farther fromt he sea than Etria is.

[yonosoymaria]

[Midgard... Yggdrasil... Tokyo? And that last as part of "the Old World", said like it got capitalized in writing... Eric realizes he's been silent a bit too long, and almost startles himself when he speaks.]

I ought to have remembered Gotham, you did mention it before. I'm sorry. And I wish it had been some place other than those hideous Hollows, that which this place pulled from your mind. The Azure Rainforest sounds almost like a pleasant dream - but you'd said it was dangerous there, too. Monsters?

[incendiarize]

Yeah. The whole Labyrinth is full of them - all of them super vicious and dangerous, but especially the FOEs...

Most people who go in don't come out. And until we came along, nobody'd made it to the Azure Rainforest in ages and ages. And we're definitely the first ever to set foot in the Claret Hollows.