[EVENT] THE FOG COMES - Ship's Return

[khuimods]

Characters: ALL
Date: July 10
Location: Aifaran Harbour
Situation: The Narrakra has returned, but those aboard are not the same as when they left...
Warnings/Rating: Creepy descriptions of things?


The night of the Narrakra's return, fog poured into Aifaran's harbour. It was thick, soupy and cloying in the summer heat, swirling and shifting with every change in the air, but never dissipating. Many Dreamfolk may feel heavy tension in the air, an eerie stillness about the night that seems unnervingly familiar. But beyond the occasional, inexplicable power outage, nothing seems to be otherwise amiss.

The Narrakra limps into the dockyard port on a single engine in the early hours of the 10th, steering itself erratically toward the nearest berth. The dock workers, having not expected to see a Sentry ship sliding out of the pea-soup fog, are quick to raise the alarm, which is hurriedly passed to a runner to bring to the nearest Sentry outpost. Heavy pylons keep the Narrakra from outright running into the dock itself, as the engine sputters and dies, leaving the ship without steering.

The ship itself is in poor condition, metal hull dented and scarred as if it had been in combat with some great sea beast. Deep gouges, like something had hurled sharp points into the metal sides and pulled, some even deep enough that glimpses of the hull's structural support can be seen. In other places on the exterior, what appears to be an advanced stage of corrosion and rust have affected sections of the ship, but not in any uniform way. A handrail might be corroded to the point of the metal disintegrating at a touch, but the stairwell next to it still gleaming as if it had just been put into place.

---

OOC Notes: This is the culmination event for the Ships in the Night plot that's been ongoing for the last few months, although the outcome will play into future metaplot. Characters can witness the Narrakra's not-so-triumphant return at the docks, speculate on where it's been and what could have caused its disappearance, question the crew (if they can get past the Sentry), or sneak aboard the ship to do some reconnaissance and potentially find things...

Links: OOC Questions | On The Docks | The Survivors | Sneaking Aboard

Comments

[spiralpatterns]

Zephyr sighs, pressing a hand to his forehead. How does this happen? Why is he the responsible party? This shouldn't be happening.

Also, where is his ability to say no.

"Really? You think exploring the broken, probably haunted ship is a good idea?" Please tell him more, X. But, pointedly: it isn't actually a no, not in the face of that cheerful, hopeful look.

Leonne, why.

[psituational]

X looks like he's seriously considering the question for a few seconds, an illusion broken only by the fact that his eventual answer is a nod and a "Yes?"

Zephyr sounds like he'll need more than that. Hm.

"The broken, probably haunted ship might help us figure out what happened to the crew," X pointed out. "And what happened to all those people back during that festival, not least the kin'nal girl. If we explore it now, before too many other people do, we might find out how to prevent the same thing happening to anyone else."

[upshore]

Miles was the only person in the room who could not see magic; nonetheless, judging by Leo's extreme freakout, he knew something had gone terribly wrong.

(If he had seen the sacrifice, he would have been out of there faster than you could say No Thanks. He'd had it up to here with rituals and all of that crazy shit.)

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he said, jumping back. "Try not to scream in my ear, I need that!" He cleared his throat. "Valdis? Why am I the only one who hasn't touched anything, and, more importantly, what in the whole hell just happened?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Leo's voice seemed very far away, the sound of her own heart racing and the memories of pain and death far stronger than whatever her companions were saying. The sense of death still filled the room, confusing her other senses and making it hard to refocus on anything else.

"Jeg hører dem hviske navnet mitt. Igjen og igjen. Den hissing, blodrøde øyne. Banene til de døde åpnes. Stoppe. Bare stopp."

The hissing grew louder as the shadows darkened and twisted. Valdis put her hands over her ears, clenching her jaw, her eyes shut tightly as she tried to kill the images of the crew slaughtering the animal over and over. She continued to shake, trying to find a center, any center she could focus on instead of the death in the room.

[annihilist]

The change in demeanor could be anything. Devin tends towards suspicion, but he's also fully aware that trauma is difficult to talk about at the best of times. If the two women are concealing anything, it could just as easily be that their experience is too distressing to repeat as intentional evasion. He doesn't have nearly enough information to give credence to the latter.

"I doubt we will any time soon," Devin replies just as quietly. "They're not likely to allow members of the general public to speak with the crew for quite a while." He nods to the pair. "We ought to let you rest and recover, even if it may mean we won't get the chance to talk again. It may help if you write things down," Devin suggests. "The Sentry will want an account of what happened, and I've found writing is often easier than having to speak about it."

[iseeall]

Leo would probably apologize to Miles, but he wasn't in full control of his senses anymore. Whatever magic Valdis was wielding or channeling was entirely too powerful and he started seeing what she was: the death of the poor animal over and over.

Her aura and the shadows were growing to extreme proportions and Leo clung to Miles' arm like if he let go he'd die. He wasn't sure that was untrue, but Leo knew he had to do something or Valdis and Miles would both be in danger.

Thinking quickly-or not thinking at all-Leo suddenly pushed Miles back, hopefully actually moving him away from what was going on before turning back. "Miles, get out of here! Valdis!"

Leo then rushed forward before his feet became paralyzed by the horrific site, hoping to knock straight into Valdis and at least snap her out of it.

[ninjainviolet]

After what Sheena had seen in those visions, she wouldn't blame the woman for suddenly turning tail and running. She may be home in familiar territory, but that doesn't mean her fear over what happened is completely gone. It's going to take some time for her to actually "come home".

"I know how you feel," the ninja replies. "At first, I thought they were--- What? What do you mean, 'so many years'? Al'amar, how long ago did this happen?" Sheena asks, her concern for the other woman visibly deepening.

Re: the Narrakra itself

[khuimods]

-It's a medium-sized military vessel, probably analogous to something like the Bob Hope Class cargo ships, so while not the biggest ship in the fleet it's still pretty big and in precarious shape, making a thorough top-to-bottom search by one or two individuals impossible in the narrow timeframe they have.
-It's fairly standard in layout. There's three decks - top level consists of the captain's quarters and the bridge. Second level is the cabins, recreational area and mess hall, and the third lower deck contains the engine room and cargo bay. The machinery is what you'd see throughout Aifaran albeit a bit more advanced because this is (was) a top-of-the-line Sentry vessel. What they would see is a mixture of magic, biology and tech (notably the work of the Muin and Kedanese engineers), but the keen eye may recognize Chihuelan tech mixed in. Like the rest of the Narrakra, it would be in a sorry state of disrepair.
-The fungus, insect carapaces, and rust can be taken as samples. There's also that carcass on the lower deck. Depending on where Kit and Rutile explore, there may be other samples that the crew have gathered.

There is no specific direction your characters need to go beyond what intrigues you. They'll only have time to explore one - two areas thoroughly before the Sentry wises up and gives everyone onboard the boot however.

[makebelieveavenger]

Alice jerked reflexively out of reach, holding the Yimo behind her back, and ready to make a run for it before Bastien seemed to recall he was a Sentry.

She bristles a little at the 'sweetie' however.

"I won't tell if you won't," she said, now taking pictures of the dilapidated cargo.

They were both where they shouldn't be after all. "My god, the state of things - you'd think the ship had been gone years and not just a few months."

[makebelieveavenger]

"The force behind these visions may not be 'bad'," Alice said. "And it may not have been toying with us - it may have been trying to tell us something."

She didn't much like having her head toyed with, or dropped into hellish hallucination after hellish hallucination, but she was a bit more used to it than most, and in her experience those nightmarescapes were trying to point her in the direction of something real and sinister. A helping hand wasn't always pleasant.

"Are you alright to walk now?"

[afoolsgold]

okay, this is helpful!! Kit and Rutile are currently on the lower deck, in that case, in the room with the carcass and all the insect carapaces. Is this in the engine room or the cargo bay, or in a different room entirely?

once they enter the engine room or the cargo bay will we receive a mod tag?

[khuimods]

It would be somewhere between the cargo bay and engine room (closer to the engine room).

We'll keep an eye on Kit and Rutile's thread and give you a mod tag when they get where you want them to go.

[eyeinfusion]

Judai also has the strength of a normal human, but together they can...probably do something, so he gamely moves to the side opposite her. "Where do you want it?"

And, of course, there's also the fact that that's the easier thing to think about. 'People fishing around' in brains doesn't sound...pleasant, even if she doesn't mean it literally, which, considering the linked-mind thing...probably is.

"Good thing there was no blowback on us, I guess!" Which he's only guessing there hasn't been any blowback, but no one's mentioned it if there has been.

[eyeinfusion]

"Years, huh..."

He gestures to a crate near enough to the medical area that there's no way that the staff wouldn't notice, and makes to lightly nudge Nerrin toward it.

"...If you don't mind... how many years? It seemed like...a lot."

[spiralpatterns]

Zephyr absolutely needs more than that. Come on, now.

But he listens, at least; and the more he listens, the more he can feel his will to be sensible eroding. Dammit. X actually does have some logic here. "Fine," Zephyr says, low and grumbling. "But you stay with me, and you stay behind me." If there's something magic wrapped up in this, he's almost guaranteed to be better able to handle it.

He cracks his knuckles -- mostly, it must be said, for show -- and turns a grim eye on the nebulous deeper of the ship.

[psituational]

X raises his hands, entirely serious. "Of course," he says. "Lead the way, I'm right behind you."

Zephyr certainly acts capable, and he isn't the type to put on bravado just to reassure someone else. As always, X prefers to be a last resort when danger strikes, if he's even a resort at all.

He follows Zephyr down into the second level of the ship, and right away, X can tell it's worse than the deck. For one thing, there's some kind of fungus growing everywhere, and X gives the walls a wide berth to be on the safe side. But more than the potentially poisonous fungus, there's also... well, the general atmosphere. It doesn't feel like the top-of-the-line ship it must have been when it left. It feels like a derelict wreck.

"What visions did you see?" X asks as they move deeper in.

[khuimods]

"It didn't behave like any of the Shunts we had records of," Nerrin said tiredly, rubbing his temple. "And on the island, there were parts of other Shunts... I don't know. It was like it was eating other Shunts."

[khuimods]

Faias seems startled by her reaction, like his comment had been the last thing he expected her to be startled by. "Y-Yeah," he answered, looking at her strangely. "It has to be... at least eight or nine. Maybe ten? I lost count, to be honest, after the first five..."

[khuimods]

Al'amar is plainly relieved that the topic isn't pressed upon, and Devin's suggestion is much better received than it might have been had that avenue been pursued. "I'll try to," she agreed. "But I... did they look for us? They must have, I know, but... how long before they gave up? We thought after the first year, there was basically no chance of being found..."

[khuimods]

Faias stares at Padparadscha blankly. "N-No," he attempts to correct them.

"No, we didn't even leave the ship for the first three months, and the island was... we tried to keep track by the seasons at first, because Eitria couldn't find the stars, but... it was definitely years."

[khuimods]

Nerrin takes the offered seat heavily, but with gratitude. They probably don't have too long until the Sentry and the medics locate them. "How many..." he echoes. "Mother's trident, I don't know... seven? Eight? Maybe more... I was a senior engineer already, but now..."

[khuimods]

Al'amar exhales in a long, kind of broken shudder. "I-I'm not sure," she admits. "We all did our best to keep track, but it got harder and harder. The last reliable count we had was six years, but I think it was probably closer to nine... maybe more? Nothing happened regularly, not even seasons."

[whattail]

"I didn't-I don't want that! I didn't ask for this," Konoe growled, but with far less avarice than he felt like he should muster. He did however, managed to stand up, with a hand of his on the wall.

"I can walk, though." He was still going to find the reason for this no matter what.

[bestofthevein]

...basically, silhouetted there in the dark, they look unexpectedly gorgeous, and Kit needs a minute to rein his thoughts back under control, because he's definitely not supposed to be here for that. He clears his throat.

(dwarves return to the Stone in death, huh? awkward.)

"More information," he repeats, nodding his head in agreement, and drags his attention back towards the rest of the chamber around them, most of it cloaked in shadow. Then he nods and falls into step behind them, motioning ahead. "I think the engine room is that way. I smell old smoke and oil." Strong signifiers for fuel no matter what universe you're in, he suspects.

[spiralpatterns]

Against his better judgment, Zephyr leads the way further in.

He hates the fungus immediately; he steers clear of that, and fortunately it looks like X has the good sense to do the same. Everything else is just... bad. Not fun. And not sensibly corroded, even, there's advanced rust besides only the vaguest of oxidation.

It's all putting Zephyr on edge.

"Her name's Eitria," he says absently, as they go. "She couldn't see the stars, and that was pretty bad for her. But when she did see them again they were wrong-- I dunno which was worse, really."