Quest [Bronze Woods] Phantom Moon (Quest)

[Radiant]

Sacred Arch Hotsprings, Just oustside of Syliras, 22nd of Bell, 62nd of Spring 514 A.V AV

In the cool night Spring air, at the Sacred Arch Hotsprings, a popular gathering spot just fifteen chimes north of Syliras, could be seen a couple of men and women, all carrying weapons and wearing leather armor, adventurers or hunters by the look of them.

What were the occasions? Leo Valini's request of course, for the past few days, odd sightings of 'ghostly' wolves could be seen in the Bronze Woods and, occasionally, the Kabrin Road, creating disruption to both hunting and trade. The Valini merchant house wouldn't accept some phantom wolves to disrupt Syliras' lucrative trade, even it was just a minor disturbance, this could potentially grow into something uncontrollable if let be, the Knights had their hands busy with things, as a good citizen and wealthy merchant, he supposed he could enlist help the good Syliran citizens, they all lived in wonderful Syliras after all.

One of Valini's personal scribe and secretary, a middle-aged woman named 'Moira', was sitting in a portable desk, a quill on her right hand, a parchment on the table, she was the one responsible for documenting every interested individual and once the task was done, these individuals would be handsomely rewarded of course, courtesy of the Valini merchant house.

OOCAlright! You can make your preparations and entrance! Beginning with how your character found out about the Quest is a good start.

The turn order will be determined in this initial rotation, whoever post first gets that queue spot.

[Nivel]

Nivel had seen the large bulletin board in the city many times. The Pycon would normally use it as nothing more than an obstacle to climb, but she also routinely checked the postings to see if any caught her interest. The inexperienced squire wanted greatly to go on a thrilling adventure but was also well aware that she lacked the skills to do anything too dangerous. The squire had a run in with wolves and even though the person she was intending to save did most of the work, she still helped a great deal. When the post about phantom wolves came about, Nivel though this might be something she could handle...provided she wasn't alone. The Pycon debated with herself for a few ticks but eventually decided that it might be time for her to take a risk and help defeat some Phantom wolves...she just need to find out what “Phantom” meant. Nivel rushed to her living quarters hoping that the job wouldn't be taken down by the time she was able to get back. Since she slept under the Tall Folk sized bed provided for her, she used the top to place all of her belongings. She grabbed her Pypole that was given to her by her Patron knight Grey, It was cast in the shape of a key using ember coloured tree resin with a sharpened point at the end. Nivel had never used the weapon but was dying to put it to good use. She then found her dark purple stained leather armoured “dress”, which was made by Grey out of leather scraps. It was sleeveless except for small shoulder pads, and draped down just past her knees with a slit in the back for her plant like tail to stick out with ease. It lacked any kind or form or elegance and could have easily been made with a male Pycon in mind. Nivel didn't really mind this however as gender presentation was much more fluid with her kind, her father possessing the most feminine figure of anyone she knew made this all the more evident. The only thing Physically feminine about Nivel was her voice and the crushed gemstones mixed in with her clay body to give it a pleasant emerald sparkle. The last thing Nivel would need was her Helmet, which unlike her other gifts was one she didn't much care for. It was originally a bronze teapot made for one of Grey's dolls when she was a younger that she had recently taken to a black smith to get it reworked. When it was done it still had the features of a teapot left in tack; with the spout sticking out the forehead of the helmet, the decorative handle at the back and the lid fused to the top. The new additions were the visor and ear holes drilled in. The visor had little eye holes on it and although it looked like it could be pushed up out of the way, it couldn't. The ear holes were what Nivel took the most issue with as it was very uncomfortable to squish her bat winged ears into the helmet, changing shape was easy but still very uncomfortable. The helmet was also more heavy she would have liked and made movement more difficult. She clumsily put her belongings on and rushed to the location indicated on the post. Nivel was afraid she would be lost but noticed the large gathering of warriors and assumed this must be the right location. Her bat ears flapped in anticipation as she walked up to a desk she assumed was were she needed to sign up. Nivel went around the desk and talked to the Tall Folk behind it directly. “Excuse me is this for the Quest involving the Phantoms Wolves?” Nivel asked hesitantly “If it is, I would like to join..My name is Nivel and I am a Squire of the order.”

[Athaera]

The strangers around her were making Athaera a bit... uncomfortable. They were all older than her. And taller. Except for... was that a pycon? She was small... very small.

She'd never met a pycon before... The creature looked a bit strange. Were those bat wings sprouting from her head? And was that a tail? Other than that, the terra cotta... thing looked pretty normal. Besides the fact that she was only about four inches tall, and when the light struck her, she literally sparkled. Athaera was tempted to scoff. Realizing she was staring, Athaera quickly looked away.

Athaera was glad the rest of them knew where they were going, because she was clueless.

Sun shone through the canopy of trees, beams of light resting on the colorful flowers and gnarled roots that littered the ground. Footsteps crunched on the leaves, and some unknown creatures rustled in the bushes. Trees seemed to reach to the sky, giant pillars of wood, branches, and leaves, ending in a roof of greenery. Some Athaera couldn't hope to wrap her arms around, thousand year old plants densely populating the woods.

As they walked, her mind drifted, and Athaera recalled how she'd discovered the quest.

She'd seen the bulletin board and, in need of some extra money, had looked at it. She muttered to herself as she browsed the jobs. "A fight? No. A thief? Boring. Wolves?" That seemed interesting, and she continued muttering, not realizing that she must seem quite strange talking to herself. "Pack of wolves... appear and vanish... Handsome reward..."

Someone pushed her aside, and she grunted. He'd quickly taken her place, so she couldn't keep reading. "Hey!" she protested, but the man pretended not to hear her. She now realized that he was on this quest with her, and she instinctively began to reach for her bow, which was resting in her quiver. She quickly stopped herself, and was pulled back into her daydream.

She'd left the city gates, making her way to the spot where she'd set up her tent. She'd snatched her bow, quiver, and arrows. Stuffing a roll into an empty space in her quiver, she began to make her way to the merchant house. She had no experience fighting, but it couldn't be so different from hunting, could it?

A distant childhood memory had struck her mind, and she recalled the general area of the merchant house. She'd set out, trying to hunt down the building, hoping they were still recruiting.

After much walking, hitting dead ends, and asking for directions, she'd finally found the merchant house. Entering the building, she saw a woman sitting at a desk. "Is this where I would sign up for the phantom wolves?"

The woman had nodded, and she'd signed up.

A yelp escaped Athaera's throat. Tripping, she was torn out of her daydream.

[Radiant]

Moira looked up as her eyebrows slightly quirked at the sight of the small clay-person, wearing make-shift armor and helmet, which kinda looked like a teapot. She chuckled, these Pycons were always amusing, full of energy and curious, yet they survived ordeals and had more bravery than common men, the woman nodded, "Yes, dear," Nivel looked adorable, why not call her such? "This is the place," When Nivel introduced herself as a squire, Moira paused for a tick then immediately changed her attitude, this adorable creature was a squire?! She didn't expect that, "My apologies, Squire Nivel, I shall put your name." The woman then wrote Nivel's name then nodded, "We are honored to have one of the Order here."

The next applicant was a female, with average height, dark hair, and... vibrant shaded eyes, the famous trademark of a Vantha. The girl looked a tad too young, but if she was capable, who was she to judge? "Alright, Miss Athaera, welcome and good luck." She nodded then motioned for the next applicant.

About twenty adventurers gathered that morning and a group leader, a man named 'Gan', quite short in height but with the chiseled body of a warrior, stepped up a makeshift podium then made an announcement, "Alright! You all have heard about this 'Phantom Wolf' incident! Well no more of that! Mr. Valini wishes this canines to be eradicated!" Gan cleared his throat, then gestured to the Bronze Woods with his hand, "Scour there! If you find any of those wolves! Feel free to hunt them down! Phantom or not, they are still wolves! Now, move it! We don't have all night!" At his command, the adventurers began moving away to the Bronze Woods, carrying bows and arrows, and some of them were spiritists, carrying souldarts since... well, it seemed to be a ghost problem.

As Nivel and Athaera headed to the Woods together with the other adventurers, they would find the forest ordinary at first, just quite late night forest breeze, along with the flickers or torches carried by the adventurers.

OOCI kept it open in case you want to meet and greet, then form a team or individual.

[Nivel]

“Thank you, I'll do my very best” Nivel replied with a bow. The Squire didn't know why This Tall Folk apologized, was it because they called Nivel a “dear”, was calling someone a dear some form of insult she wasn't aware of. Nivel could see that she was busy so she held off asking these questions. She was sure she could pester her patron with her daily questions about the other people of the world. The Pycon walked out from behind the portable desk and watched as the next applicant walked up. They were a young looking Tall Folk with short hair, which Nivel was sure was a trait of male Tall Folk but they had other features that indicated other wise. When The Tall Folk spoke her voice was mildly gruff but feminine, so Nivel felt it was safe to assume female. The squire also noticed the subtle changing of their eye colour as they continued to speak, and wondered why she hadn't seen others do this trick before. Nivel made a mental note to pay more attention to the eyes of others. A very bulky Tall Folk who was clearly the one in charge of this expedition, started shouting the details of the quest from a makeshift podium to the gathered adventurers. The Massive creature didn't pull any punches about what they were supposed to do if they found the phantom wolves. Being the naive person that Nivel was, she didn't understand that they would have to destroy the Wolves. Other alternatives weren't really on her mind ether but she was still felt uneasy about killing a sentient creature. If she had only grasped that “Phantom” implied they were already dead, this dilemma would have been a bit more easy for her to swallow. The squires ears drooped to indicate her uncomfortableness as she looked up at all the others and saw that none showed any problem with what the group leader was saying. The squire followed the group none the less, hoping to think of a better way of resolving her situation. Nivel followed behind the girl with the shape changing eyes, doing her best to keep up. The teapot helmet made this a harder than usual as the forest floor was filled with obstacles and jumping over tree roots and rocks was hard with extra weight on ones head. “Excuse me!” Nivel said to catch the girls attention. “I'm finding it... hard to catch up with you long legged ones, would you... mind carrying me on your shoulder? Nivel asked between breaths. “My name is Nivel, by the way” Nivel was in fact heavier than she looked but not by much. She had ridden on the shoulders of her patron on a few occasion and she never complained, so Nivel though nothing of it.

[Athaera]

Pushing herself up from the ground, Athaera groaned. A dull throb pulsed in her leg, and she rolled her pant leg up to see a faint bruise already forming. She quickly rolled the cloth down again, catching up with the men who were already quite far ahead. She didn't want them to ask what was taking her so long, and then they'd see her bruise and start pitying her, and treat her like a girl. She wanted to be treated as an equal, like one of them.

She stood up, brushing the dirt and leaves off her legs. "Excuse me!" came a squeak from somewhere behind Athaera. It was the strange clay creature she'd seen earlier. The pycon asked if she could ride on Athaera's shoulders, and Athaera gladly agreed. "Of course, Nivel."

Athaera picked up the small pycon and was shocked at how heavy she was. Well, heavy for her size. She set Nivel on her shoulder and rushed to catch up with the others, who were already quite a distance away.

Many of the others clutched torches in their hands. Athaera wished she'd brought one; she was cold and the fire would help. A little. She shivered and pulled her cloak farther around her. "I'm Athaera," she said, realizing she hadn't told Nivel her name. "Aren't you cold?" She wasn't sure if pycons did get cold, but it was worth a try.

The only reason Athaera actually knew what a pycon was, was because her mother had had a friend that was one. So she knew they were made of clay, and that they were small, and a bit strange, but that was about it.

A roar echoed from Athaera's stomach, and she thought about the roll in her quiver. She hadn't had dinner, so she reached back and grabbed it. Ripping of the piece, she stuffed it in her mouth. "Want some?" she asked Nivel. Once again, this was something she was unsure about. Did pycons eat? It seemed a bit ridiculous, but she didn't want to seem rude.

[Radiant]

It seemed fate had matched these two odd souls together, a pycon squire and a Vantha hunter, their meeting might mean something bigger than they truly realized. The adventurers slowly dispersed in the forest, each taking their own path in their search for the rumored phantom wolves, one by one group... and finally our Pycon and Vantha duo were left with just two fellow hunters, a pair of male and female human.

"Hey... look..." The young male hunter with blond hair and slim build alerted the group as he pointed to particular spot in the forest depths, waving his torch there and true to his words, a trail of mist could be seen, moving... ebbing and flowing and then another one to their right, and then... just at the corner of their eyes. The female hunter readied her arrows as she searched for the elusive source of these mists. Suddenly...

"!?" Their eyes widened as a translucent transparent wolf suddenly appeared out of thin air near Nivel and Athaera, the wolf pounced at them as if aiming to devour them, but its ethereal body passed harmlessly through both Pycon and Vantha, no visible effect except for the chilling cold feeling due to its mist, after the pounce, the wolf simply disappeared into thin air.

"Take care..." It didn't end there, more and more misty wolves appeared all around them, blanketing the particular area with white mists.

[Nivel]

Nivel was relieved that the colourful eyed girl allowed her to ride on her shoulder, The Pycon knew she'd get left behind if she was left to her own devices. While talking a rough ride on her shoulder, The girl introduced herself as Athaera. Nivel liked this name, it sounded powerful and reminded the pycon of her mother, Malgra. Malgra was a beastly looking Pycon with the noble heart of a warrior, Nivel hoped her friend shared similar qualities. “Ohhh I like your name, it's sounds like a good name for a warrior..are you with the order as well?” The two had gotten behind the rest of the group, although the faint glow emanating off their torches made it easy enough to track them. Along with the turbulence expected when travelling by shoulder, Nivel could feel a slight odd shake. The pycon wondered what could be causing this when Athaera suddenly asked Nivel if she was cold. “well it is cold out.. so..I suppose I am cold as well..why do you ask?” Nivel found this line of questioning odd, especially how they were being asked. Judging by Athaera tone, Nivel wondered if maybe she wasn't emanating the proper amount of coldness or if the coldness was something that should be bothering her more. It was true that Nivel was feeling a bit ridged from the cold but it wasn't anything for her to be worried about. The questions only got more strange, Athaera took out a peculiar object that Nivel hadn't really encountered before, took a bite out of it and asked if Nivel wanted some. The Pycon knew that Tall Folk didn't eat clay, but it still seemed strange to her. “Sorry I only eat clay...what is that exactly?” Nivel responded with curiosity “I thought you tall folk only ate carrots and that root vegetable you tall folk call Meat.” Carrots and Meat seemed to be the only thing that she had ever seen tall folk eat. Nivel's Patron had been kind enough to inform her that meat was a vegetable that grew in the ground, the pycon still didn't know what carrots were but assumed they were also some type of vegetable. Having been asked a few questions already, Nivel thought she should think of a question for her new travelling companion. Nivel had recently received a weapon but had still not given it a name. Nivel felt that every knight's weapon should have a name that strikes fear in the hearts of their enemies, so her weapon should be no exception. “um...since were learning new things about each other...would you mind helping me think of a name for my weapon.” Nivel asked as she did her best to display her resin key shaped Pypole. " I want it to be something scary and menacing like..Hargroar or Kaytor...Grick...its gotta be mighty!" Talking notice of the other two talk folk that recently arrived in the area she felt she should involve them in the conversation. “Oh hello, My name is Nivel! Can we join you in the hunt for these Phantom wolves?” Nivel asked politely” I was just asking my friend here what I should name my weapon? It needs to be something powerful and-” Nivels rambling was cut short by the blonde haired male, who seemed to have spotted something. His torch pointed to the creeping mist in the distance. It seemed to be moving toward the small group and the others seemed to be wary of its presence, Nivel didn't understand why but prepared herself none the less. Suddenly a wolf appeared from an unknown origin, and lunged at Nivel and Athaera with its sharp teeth and claws. To Nivels surprise the wolf jumped right through them as if it were made of wind or mist. Nivel almost fell off Atheara's shoulder when she jumped out of sheer shock and fear. While Nivel wasn't cold before she could feel the icy chill now running through her very core. Nivel looked to see where the Wolf had gone but it had already disappeared. Nivel had to wonder if she had just imagined it as she often did but it seemed from the looks of the others that she wasn't the only one that saw it. More wolves appeared and they had the group surrounded, but Nivel wondered if they were really any kind of threat if they were only made out of mist. Were they even made of mist? Nivel's assumed that magic had to be afoot, the question was what kind of magic and who was preforming it. "It could be some sort of illusion...or advanced Reimancy" she thought. Nivel looked to see if any Auras how ever small, were emanating off the creatures. She wondered if she should delve deeper and see if there was anything there to learn. She was a little worried of tiring herself out with the use of Djed, as it could prove dangerous if she would have to fight these beasts. Nivel had her nameless weapon ready in case another more deadly one made its move.

[Athaera]

Athaera laughed a bit when the pycon said that "Athaera" was a good name for a warrior. "Hmm," she replied, "I never really thought of it that way, but I guess it is. But no, I'm not with the order, but you evidently are. What's it like?"

It seemed like Nivel didn't really realize that a name didn't determine a position. But it felt like a compliment. Athaera always liked being called strong, like a warrior. "Thank you, by the way," she said, realizing she was supposed to thank her for the compliment. She had never quite understood the concept of thanking people, but she had to be nice. Apparently you had to show your gratitude to everyone within earshot. She wished she could just keep it to herself, instead of wasting breath on a sentence.

The pycon then asked her why Athaera had asked if Nivel was cold. Athaera lifted her cloak from her shoulder, and put it around the pycon. "That's why," she replied.

Taking another bite of her roll, Athaera said, "It's called bread." Wait... had the pycon just called meat a root vegetable? "A root vegetable?" she asked," and where, exactly, did you get this quite inaccurate piece of information? Meat comes from dead animals." She saw no point in softening the truth, but she wasn't sure if this would offend the pycon in any way. "Although, carrots are root vegetables."

"Humans, or tall folk as you seem to call them, eat pretty much anything as long as it tastes good and doesn't make them sick," Athaera explained, a question forming itself in her mind. "Doesn't eating the same thing all the time get dull? It seems like clay wouldn't taste very good."

"As for the name of your weapon," Athaera said, "I have no idea. I'm not the best with names. But I think Grick sounds cool."

Nivel then continued to include the two others that had been left, but this didn't last very long. The man had spotted something, and at this point, Athaera wasn't very sure she'd make it out of the forest alive. Suddenly, a ghostly wolf came hurtling towards them, and Athaera yelped. But, surprisingly, it passed through them, leaving behind a chill in her veins. Athaera quickly pulled her bow and an arrow out from her quiver. She set the arrow into the bow, pulling back. She had no idea how to fight these... whatever they were..., but shooting them seemed like a good way to start. It was just like hunting. They're just weirder, faster, possibly more deadly deer, right? Athaera thought. She thought she could possibly imagine them as deer, she seemed to be pretty good at fighting those. Her bow was still taut in her hand, and she pointed it toward one of the wolves, which had been appearing all around them. She let go, and it whizzed toward the creatures.

[Radiant]

As Nivel activated her auristics, she could discern a few things with her skill level, one, the wolves gave an aura of... grey, dull grey, and they were faint, as if they were not living, not sentient, a mirage or hallucination. These phantom apparitions were not ghosts, they were merely mirages.

Of course, due to their state, the physical arrow that Athaera launched merely passed through its body like it was air, burst of mist could be seen at the spot where the arrow should have impaled it. Seeing Athaera's attack to be futile, the hunter duo opted to not make the same mistake, they simply stayed close to each other, holding up their torches. They had no time to answer Nivel's question, not with these wolves circling about them.

The mist was getting thicker and thicker, until they could see nothing past a few feet in front of them, "P-petch, we have to get out of he-" The female hunter spoke, then stopped when a scream rang in the woods, quite a few distances away from them, the scream of someone being ambushed, "W-wha-" *WHOOZE! THUD!* Not even finished, an arrow struck out then almost impaled Athaera's eye, missing just a few inches as it brushed her hair, "C-crap! A-ambush?!" The hunters took out their bows as they searched around, but due to their mist, they vision was horribly limited.

Through her auristics though, Nivel could see about four humanoid silhouettes surrounding them, holding bows and arrows, and these were sentient, as apparent by their throbbing aura. Someone or something was clearly going after them, two more arrows whizzed and the hunters returned fire, blindly, as expected, they hit nothing. With each arrows exchanged, they were getting more and more accurate.