15strangers | (no subject)

W̡͜E̶EK ̵̕2̕͠

[The blight would not stop.

The world's leading experts have been trying to find a cure, to no avail. Th blight keeps changing, keeps foiling all attempts at being fully understood. It's almost sentient, or at least more sentient than any disease that's been encountered before. People fear the disease jumping from what's left of the grapes into other plants, into animals, or even humans.

You can only watch as entire economies and ecosystems collapse. You can only bury your head in your hands as your own business comes to its end. The destruction of the clusters of grapes has not simply destroyed the wine industry, either-other businesses are being destroyed by the plague. Food, transport, retail, nothing is untouched.

You look on your own vineyard, its yield almost entirely blackened and dead.

This can't keep going on.

-

A week has passed since everyone's arrival. No one has died, yet. But surely no one is holding their breath to see if they would survive this unscathed. They are veterans of the game, and they must know that whoever it is that is in charge demands their pound of flesh. The question is when it will happen.

It is the second week, after all-and when the second week of the game comes, death is not far behind. Not even when you wake up, feeling something different in your mind as you remember the truths you originally woke up with, deep in your mind. You feel...lighter, somehow, when you realize there is a change.

Even so, there are 15 strangers left in this place.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I... anything like that is probably something pre-Calamity in my world, but a powerful archmage could probably mange it as well.

....Yeah. Sounds like......him..... [A dangerous person like that. There's only one coming to mind. Arthur reminds himself he's dead, and terrible and pitiful as he was he maybe didn't quite deserve that.]

You said some are alright, though. That's good to hear.

I've... met one. And he keeps to himself for the most part. And also well outside the Empire.

A hermit, huh. That's cool. If he keeps enough distance he won't hurt anyone, he can basically do what he wants. Right?

Oh, no, he just doesn't want much to do with politics. He essentially controls one of the wharfs in Nicodranas, and his tower is right in the middle of that area. Many people in the Menagerie Coast would like to keep away from both the Empire and Xhorhas since the war's intensified again.

Oh. Well, I can understand that. The Midgard Library mostly stays out of politics, except to sometimes mediate stuff. A bunch of nobles send their kids to study there, so neutrality's kinda important.

That's more the Cobalt Soul's role. They have monks and Expositors, as well as various ranks that work the library. Expositors are more like... high-rank field agents who collect information and relay it back, as well as step in to break down rotten systems.

At least, that is what Beau has explained to me, but she does quite a lot of talking with her fists so she may be biased.

Expositors sound like investigators! Except we only sometimes take down rotten leaders kinda on the side... Visil was an outlier, basically.

Mostly we get sent all over to look into weird stuff or study ruins. Like, me and Simon and Raquna got sent to investigate weird noises coming from Old World ruins near a town called Etrian! And we ended up exploring the Yggdrasil Labyrinth as a result.

A labyrinth? That sounds dangerous. But exploring the past is very interesting to me... though I also try to focus on the future and pushing spell development further.

For example, I think I might have an idea for a spell, but I need to tweak it quite a bit before I can even think of testing it, and that's difficult because they took my spellbook again as well as our abilities.

Super dangerous, yeah. Most explorers who go into the Labyrinth don't come out. They're huge, and full of fiercer monsters than the rest of the world, plus FOEs. And there's no telling what's in them!

There's a lot of people who do stuff like that at the Library. Like, I'm always trying to develop new formulas! Not so much magic as science, but there's kinda a fuzzy line sometimes, you know?

... What is an FOE?

[They can get to the rest of that later.]

Formido Oppugnatura Exequens. They're.... Saying they're bigger and badder than other monsters is the understatement of the decade. They're the kind of creature that you take one look at and know if it catches you you have no chance in hell. Not all of them chase you, but... They're a big reason most explorers have their careers cut short.

It sounds like you're very brave, then.

Heh! [He beams, smug as anything and entirely too proud of himself considering what a twig he is.] I've been down to the deepest parts of the Labyrinth! And we're the only guild that's made it that far.

Who else goes with you into that place?

My guild - there's me, and Simon and Raquna, and Rune and Ricky too!

And what are they like?

[Oh boy. Here we go.]

Oh, they're almost as awesome as I am! Rune's quiet but fierce. He's from a tribe way up in the mountains, the Highlanders - their creed is "true justice for all". He's our leader. He's pretty serious a lot of the time.

Raquna's a Protector, her shield'll stop pretty much anything! She's loud and likes to drink, even though she's basically a princess. She likes cooking.....she's really bad at it, but don't tell her I said that. She's an investigator for the Library, like me!

Simon's from the Library, too, and he's the best. He's a Medic, and I wouldn't be here without him - he's probably the smartest guy ever... Honestly I'll probably just follow him everywhere forever. He only jokes about getting rid of me sometimes. And he-- [He's gushing a little, oops.]

Oh, and Ricky! She couldn't remember anything when we first found her, but she's from the Old World! She was sleeping for a thousand years! So she knows pretty much nothing about anything anymore, but knows a lot about all the ruins and technology that got lost. And I've never seen anyone use a gun the way she does. She acts a lot older than she is - uh, actually younger, I guess? She doesn't look anywhere near as ancient as she is, I dunno how she did that.

[He just smiles.]

They sound like very good friends. It's good that you have them.