Closed Phantom's Shell

Devi embarks on a search for her patient's cure and unexpectedly meets a much-changed Sayana on a search of her own.

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

Phantom's Shell

Postby Sayana on June 8th, 2016, 10:33 pm

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Holding her breath, she pushed hard against the water with her arms. Deeper and deeper she went, keeping her eyes on the faint glow. It was indeed rather purplish and as she kicked in the water she began to feel her eyes sting with the salt water. Almost there… With one more sweep of her high and mid arms, she made a grab for a couple of the purple slugs. One slipped into her hand with ease, but the other gripped the surface of the rock. Trying not to squish it, she made a more forceful grab and it relinquished its hold.

Oh right, the seaweed. Bubbles spewed out of her mouth as she found herself running out of air, and she aimed her feet at one of the rocks to kick off towards the surface. On her way up, she grabbed a hunk of seaweed growing near the rocks and wrenched it from the ocean floor with a hard tug.

When she reached the surface she gasped for breath, triumphant. With seaweed in her low hands along with the sea slugs, and one long piece of seaweed in her mid hand, Sayana swam to shore. As she reached the shallows and stood up out of the water, the cold seemed to hit her harder than before. Goosebumps rippled up her arms and the otherwise warm air seemed frigid after her swim in the cold water.

“Safe? Of course I’m safe. That’s what the knighthood is for. To keep people safe.” Sayana responded sharply to Devi’s question. There was almost an accusing tone to her voice as if the Order was doing too good a job.

Her teeth were beginning to chatter and she made a dash for her clothes. At least the sand was warm. As she put on her clothes, she was quickly reminded of her injured finger when she attempted to use that hand to pull down her shirt. The bandage still held, but only just, after the bout of swimming and being immersed in the salty water.

“I have several leaves from the seaweed farther out, plus the entire stalk of this other kind growing by the sea slugs, and two of those glowing sea slugs,” Sayana spoke as she presented her findings to the doctor. “…Or one actually,” she amended. One of the slugs was crawly slowly along her hand but the other was somewhat squished in her other hand.

“But look Devi,” she spoke excitedly as she covered up one slug with her hands so that the faint purple glow could be seen in the semi-darkness.

“My campsite is not too far, and if we hurry we might be able to get back before the coals of the fire burn out completely. Then all we have to do is burn some of the seaweed and see which ones make brown ash.” She spoke rather quickly, clearly eager to see if their efforts would produce the right results. However, she had also inadvertently let it slip that she knew more about the poison they were trying to identify than she had first let on.
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Phantom's Shell

Postby Sayana on October 8th, 2016, 12:31 pm

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For a moment, Sayana caught a strange expression on the doctor’s face. Surprise? Distrust? There was a renewed sense of urgency to the doctor, and yet despite the convenience of Sayana’s camp, Devi seemed far more interested in returning to the city right away.

“But it’s only a few chimes away. We could…” But Sayana soon broke off as her friend spoke otherwise. There was hurt and a sense of abandonment as the Eypharian passed over the seaweed, but she carefully stowed away a few leaves so she might try out the poison herself. As Devi left, Sayana returned to her camp with a much changed attitude. Where she had been bright, she was now withdrawn and she wondered if the doctor suspected something of her. Or perhaps the doctor merely wanted to get back to the city as soon as she could.

When she reached her camp, a few glowing red coals awaited her. In a more sullen mood, she gathered a few small twigs and some dried grasses in the clearing, and placed them on the remains of the fire. After several soft blows upon the coals, the tinder caught and she was able to start adding larger sticks.

Despite the setback, Sayana was determined to reproduce some of this poison. She took out three jars, which she usually used to store herbs, and set them out empty near the campfire. The seaweed was still rather wet, so she took a small portion of each type collected and placed it into the jars to warm by the fire.

In some ways it was like burning rhinedale for the healing ash properties, but she knew that the seaweed would burn much better after it was properly dried. It took time, and she prodded the damp seaweed often to check how it was coming along.

While the drying was taking place, she noticed a strange itch on her hand. No, it wasn’t the prick on her finger that still burned with a steady ache. It was more like… oh! With a surprised frown, she realized that where the squished seaslug had been, there was a violet fluid that had rubbed into her hand. And on closer inspection… She held up another hand to block the light and saw that her hand now glowed a faint purple. She honestly wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or impressed by the phenomenon, but she emptied out another jar of herbs to safely store the other violet slug.

OOC NoteAs Devi is probably not returning for some time, I took the liberties to softly roleplay her character's exit from the scene. The rest will be solo.


Credit: Shimoje
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Phantom's Shell

Postby Sayana on October 8th, 2016, 12:32 pm

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At some point, she really ought to get some real gloves. Especially if she planned to continue poison crafting. If some substances produced annoying itches just by being in contact with them, then she was sure that others might produce even less desirable effects.

Now that the fire had dried out the seaweed, she had three jars ready for testing. She used the campfire to light a small stick and only after a strong flame was burning at the end, did she bring it to each of the piles of seaweed. In hindsight, she would have ground up the plant material first, but they caught fire well enough after some prodding.

Feeling rather pleased with herself, she watched as the dark green and yellow plants were consumed by the flame. Now she just needed to see which turned to a nice brown ash.

She glanced briefly around the small clearing before taking out a small vial of her own Phantom’s Shell poison. The powder was a light brown and when she uncapped it, the poison smelled mouldy and wet. Probably fitting for something made of seaweed. However, as the jars of seaweed burned low and only ashes remained, none of the three seemed to match.

The sample found near with the violet sea slug was closest, its ashes being a dark brown colour. There were the white ashes of the seaweed found along the shoreline which Devi had collected. And the near black ashes of the other seaweed Sayana had collected furthest out. As she carefully sniffed each jar, it became quite obvious that the white ashes were most akin to the wet damp smell. Now if she mixed the dark brown ash with the white that had the correct smell…

She was suddenly more excited than ever to see this through. In small increments, she began adding the white ash to the brown. She stirred it frequently with a stick she had peeled the bark off. It wouldn’t do to contaminate the mixture with anything other than the ashes. Ever so slowly, it began to turn the colour of her original poison sample.

When at last she thought she had the mixture right, the Eypharian took a deep breath and coated a clean dagger with the substance. She didn’t need much since it was just for testing purposes, and when she was ready, she made a small cut to the finger beside the first she had injured.

Unlike other times she had experimented with poison, this one acted fast. Almost immediately she felt the intensified sting of the cut. It burned with acute pain which seemed to overshadow the effects of the first dose. Perhaps the earlier effects had begun to wear off. All in all, there was no doubt that she had crafted the painful poison.


Credit: Shimoje
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Sayana
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Phantom's Shell

Postby Sayana on October 8th, 2016, 12:33 pm

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The last step was to tidy up at her campsite and dispose of any ashes that remained. The unused black ash, she scattered in the surrounding forest. She also took the time to bandage up the second finger. Gods did it ever sting. She poured the newly crafted Phantom’s Shell powder into a fresh vial from her kit. There was certainly a lot less ash than the initial seaweed collected, but it only took a small bit of powder to achieve the results of the poison.

Finally, she took out the jar with the violet sea slug. It wasn’t moving and only after a few prods did she confirm that it was still alive. How well did it even last out of water? Should she be adding water to the jar? After pondering the situation for a couple of chimes, she ended up taking out her mortar and pestle.

After the first life crushing grind, the rest was just procedural as she created a thick fluid from the slug’s remains. With extra care, she poured the violet substance back into the jar then washed out her mortar and pestle. The slug wasn’t going to last and it was better to have extracted the glowing properties from it now, than wait and realize it was too late.

One success and one added bonus. Frankly, Sayana had no idea how she was going to utilize the violet substance but maybe it could help with hunting in the dark. Now all that was left was the constant and painful reminder in her fingers. Time would surely diminish it, and she could gain a real appreciation for what her future victims would feel.


Credit: Shimoje
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Sayana
Dancing in the rain...
 
Posts: 1938
Words: 1543550
Joined roleplay: September 22nd, 2014, 12:38 am
Location: Sunberth
Race: Eypharian
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Medals: 8
Featured Character (1) Featured Contributor (1)
Peer Reviewer (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
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Phantom's Shell

Postby Samuel Longwell on March 5th, 2017, 7:00 pm

Grading Complete


Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade.


Name: Sayana

XP Award:
  • Wilderness Survival 1
  • Cooking 1
  • Medicine 1
  • Swimming 3
  • Poison 4
  • Planning 1
  • Endurance 2
  • Foraging 1
Lore:
  • Phantom's shell: Increases sensitivity to pain
  • Phantom's shell: Recipe
  • Luminous poison made from sea slugs
Rewards: 4 Doses of Phantom's shell. 1 Dose of Luminous Vos

Notes: A shame that you had to finish this as a solo Sayana, but I think you managed to salvage it perfectly. I didn't give you a specific lore about Luminous Vos as you don't know the name of it, I hope that's ok. Enjoy your grades. Devi, if you pay your SE I will grade this for you.
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