Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Drannin »

"I didn't catch the name," Argus commented, "I was more focused on other things at the time, why?"

Harker peered at the horizon. "Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's Fayna's airship coming in on the horizon."

Argus blinked. "Oh. Come to think of it, I hadn't gotten a hold of her since, well..."

"Since you nlew up in a mass of arcane energies, y'mean?"

"Yes, that." A pause. "She's going to be upset."

"Y'think?"
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Graybeard
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

Fayna Cleiviein's airship (it was "hers" whether she was on board or not) rapidly overtook the Veracian one and disappeared into the night, leaving the other airship in its magically-energized wake.

This caused Sister Rose a few minutes of uncomfortable thought. There was a section of her orders that was meant for no eyes but her own, and that faded into magical nonexistence as soon as she read it. In it the superiors back home instructed her to, if possible, make discreet inquiries into the obviously highly advanced magical technology the Cleiviein ship used, and to report back home on what she'd learned, without a word to Argus or other members of the party. As if I'm going to spy on my own stepdaughter-to-be, she snorted (entirely mentally, or so she hoped); that just wasn't going to happen. At the same time, she did have her duty to the Church ... Well, all that could be resolved by the simple expedient of making sure that she was too busy chasing Brother Dalton's kidnappers to poke around too much with the airship. She mentally promised herself to make it so.

However, two disquieting issues remained. First, she couldn't avoid the feeling that there was a subtext to these orders, that the Dalton business was being used as an excuse to conduct industrial espionage rather than to rescue a brother in the Church, as it appeared to be at face value. Her brow crinkled into a frown at the thought. Since when did possible weapons systems become more important to my church than its people? And then there was the other thing ...

"Argus," she said, "if we do happen to run into your daughter in Douaga, before we set out for this little town where the kidnapping occurred -- what are we going to tell her?"

She mentally added about us to that question.
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Drusia
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Drusia »

OOC: I'm alive. I'm just not sure what exactly is going on with Desiree at the moment.
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

OOC: OK, then I'm going to take the liberty of pushing things forward to the city, so everybody can get active again...

Sister Rose awoke the next morning feeling surprisingly refreshed, considering the cramped accommodations. Leaving Argus asleep for the moment, she went forward to the observation deck (more of a military surveillance setup than tourist windows, but that wasn't what she was there for) to do her morning prayers ... only to find it already occupied by someone very surreptitiously doing the same.

"Oh, you surprised me," Therese said as Rose said down beside her. "I -- didn't sleep well, and thought I could come here and meditate."

Uh, oh. Problems with the threesome that isn't a threesome? Rose thought. "Not used to sleeping on an airship?" she said, hoping that her speech was closer to the mark than her thought.

"Yes, that must be it," Therese answered, fooling absolutely no one. Well, there would be time to explore that later, Rose decided. She was about to say something vague and reassuring when a crewman poked his head into the deck. "Excuse me, ma'am," he said, "but the captain says to start getting ready to land. We're over the outskirts of the city right now, probably about half an hour until we dock, then we get to the surface ten minutes after that."

This came as a surprise. Rose had been gazing out the window as the small-talk conversation with Therese had unfolded, and there was nothing below them but a sea of green. "Where's the city?" she asked. "I don't see it." She indicated the lush forest beyond the window.

The young crewman shook his head. "I don't be seein' it either, ma'am," he said, slipping back into the accent of the hill country that he obviously called home. "Cap'n be sayin' it be down there, though." He shrugged ... and suddenly something from the orders that had seemed mystifying became clear to Rose.

"Tree houses," she said. "I couldn't figure out what tree houses had to do with us. But if I understand it now, then those trees are the houses of Douaga. And the big buildings, and probably our temple itself. They don't cut down trees to make buildings out of them, but rather, use them just as they stand. The whole city is alive." She chuckled quietly. "Just wait until a priestess from an idyllic mountain setting, and a girl who's lived in near-tundra conditions for all her life, see that." [OOC: Hint, hint. ;) ]
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Alberich
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Alberich »

Audie's good-boy clock had woken him up in time for prayers. And Audie's naughty clock had shut him right down again. No one was actually scolding him or poking him with a stick -- and if no one said anything about it, why, then, neither would he! Hunger got him up eventually, maybe an hour or so later, and he went on a quiet prowl for breakfast.

* * *

Anfisa, by contrast, stayed in her favorite position, nestled up next to Desiree 'til it was time to move. No one had said "land ho!" or whatever you said on airships, and she was used to late mornings in bed anyway.
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

By the time the airship was nearing the mooring tower, which appeared to be the biggest tree Sister Rose and Therese had ever seen and already had the Cleiviein ship moored at it, the party was up and active, preparing to move on. Rose noted with mild amusement the look on the young novice's face; he'd obviously slept in and was feeling guilty about it ... but not guilty enough that he hadn't enjoyed a privilege he didn't get often at the mission. More worrisome was the oh-so-slight tightening of Therese's features as a sleepy but blissful Anfisa emerged from her sort-of-cabin, followed by Desiree. By now she'd come to recognize that the Sisterhood woman held her emotions very tightly in check most of the time. Slight as it was, this change in her face suggested that all was not well beneath her carefully composed exterior. Well, that would be a problem for later.

Rose and Therese watched in amazement as the mooring proceeded. A large branch of the tree was extended in the direction of the airship, and crews both aboard and on the tree made ready to make the connection; but what amazed the women was that the extended branch, swinging slowly in the airship's direction, was still part of the tree -- yet it moved under careful control. Trees just didn't do that back home. Rose raised an eyebrow. This Douaga really is a living city, she thought. They seem to have control over biological, or at least botanical, structures here, the way we do with non-magical engineering of steel girders and concrete back home, and if I understand Argus correctly, the way the Tsuirakuans manipulate things magically. If their whole culture has that kind of sophistication in manipulating biological systems, there are some implications we'll want to think about. It wouldn't do to underestimate these --

The remainder of the thought was cut off, however, as the first breath of air from the ground reached the cabin, and Rose's nostrils ... which didn't like the experience at all.

"At-CHOO!" she sneezed explosively, and again and again and again.
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Drannin »

"Gesundheit," said Argus. "Allergies?"

I need to find Fayna and talk to her. How in hell am I going to explain this.
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

"It would appear so," Sister Rose tried to smile through the sniffles. "You, uh, don't happen to have any magical remedies for that, do you?" She sneezed again.
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Drannin
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Drannin »

Argus chuckled. "Not my field," he said apologetically.

"I can make something," Harker offered.

Argus stared at his familiar. "How..."

"I wandered around for six years," Harker said with a shrug. "You pick things up."
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Re: Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

Post by Graybeard »

"Thank you," Sister Rose replied, sincerely. She'd worried at times that sharing a life with Argus might be ... complicated by having Harker around too (although she'd certainly do it as needed). Things like this helped ease her concerns.

By the time her next bout of sneezing was over, the ramp was down, and three men were standing at the bottom, atop another huge branch that projected from this immense tree. Two wore robes of the Veracian Church, one Orthodox and one Reformed. (Do I know that guy? Rose thought, then decided that she didn't.) The third man's outfit, however, was like nothing she'd ever seen before. The layout was conventional enough, tunic and belted pants, but as far as she could tell, it was made of two or three enormous leaves that had been cut and sewn to fit, the "belt" provided by a different kind of leaf. With a handsome brown face and an open neck that revealed a similarly brown, and apparently well-muscled, chest, he resembled nothing more than a giant, walking ear of corn.

"Welcome to Douaga," the native said to the assembled passengers, speaking accented but understandable (and polite) Veracian. "Please follow me." He gestured back toward the trunk of the tree, where a door was standing open.
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