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The Depths of the Jungle

Scene details

Setting: As our heroes venture into the eastern wilds of Oradia, the eidola Yacumama, Mother of Waters, musters sufficient coherence to plead that the party visit an ancient battleground.

Log


 The SaGa moves slowly now. Ivo's brow is furrowed, his hands clutching the helm tighter than usual, making delicate micro-adjustments with the steering wheel controlling the rudder, just as he might when wielding Hauteclare with flicks of his wrist. The serpentine rivers that branch through western Oradia have become shallower as the party has continued their journey and followed the current east, into the depths of the jungle. Yet the ground remains so thoroughly seeped through with water that the prospect of disembarking and trying to continue through marshed on foot is even less appealing than trying to take the SaGa as far as it can go. If the Ankhialeans wished to disappear from history and endure for perhaps hundreds of years before striking at Rosia now, this land would surely be an ideal place to hide.
 "Feeling better, Reize?" the dilettante pilot calls to his friend, tilting his head as if to look over his shoulder but not actually looking away, too focused on his efforts. Even Ivo is taking this seriously, lest the SaGa run aground. "Can't get seasick when we're moving at a crawl, right? ...Right?"
 Now that's looking on the bright side. And speaking of bright...
 "...pl... please..."
 Ivo startles as the quavering sound of an aged feminine voice begins to issue from Reize's pendant, the gem flickering. The eidola Yacumama, Mother of Waters, has been slumbering there unresponsive since her remnant was first retrieved from the ancient temple they had found, along with the Regalia of the Serpent Priestess that Daiby is now able to wield. Finally, she is trying to speak again.
 "...m... my people... here... roots..."
 The voice fades. Ivo, pulling the propulsive lever down to cut the magitech engines entirely, opens his mouth to speak and stops with his mouth open, seeming to realize that Yacumama likely expended everything she had just to express that and would not be able to converse or answer clarificatory questions. Instead, he looks around, scanning the area, before raising his eyebrows.
 "There's a mangrove marsh over there, it looks like," he says, pointing to the side, where mudflats give way to shallow waters and dense trees whose roots plunge into water rather than earth. "We'd have to disembark and wade... at least, those of us who walk. What do we think?"
 He glances among his friends. Their objective is the fabled last meeting place of the Oradians and the Ankhialeans before their war, to learn more of this past and the Ankhialeans' motives, but if Yacumama is linked to the Oradians' own origins, her wishes may be worth stopping for.



 It does not take too long for Reize to finally emerge out into the deck. For the most part, Reize looks quite spirited. With a wide grin on his face, he places a hand over to the back of his head. "Yeah! I'm feeling much better!" His smile is bright as ever and he appears optimistic about what the adventure holds for htem.

 However, that changes to a more thoughtful look as the voice echos from his pendant. As the gem flicker, he listens carefully and he looks towards Ivo. "We're getting closer."

 As the youth surveys ahead to see out to the marsh. Reize is already moving out towards the edge of the ship and he takes a leap off. "Let's go!"

Ruidosa La Crima eyes light up when the pendant speaks. "Oh! It's talking!" she says after it finishes. "Good. Let's go." she says as the slow ship comes to a stop. She hrfs, the ship can't really dock without a dock. So she looks to the area and wades---

"Wait my dress will get wet!" she insists.

So she turns into a bat instead and grips Reize's shoulder and--- as Reize takes a leap, she spreds her wings.

(Some player just held the 'A' button on a jump to activate the partner's glide mechanic.)


 Ivo, alas, does not have a glide mechanic. Pacing to the edge of the SaGa, he peers over and surveys the swampy wetlands about. Unless he is inclined to spring amongst the tangled roots of the mangrove trees, which he is assuredly not, his only path is slogging through shallow water. He might hypothetically be able to create small pedestals with earth elespheres, but lacking the means of crafting new ones on their journey, it would be more prudent to save those for when they are deeply needed.
 Taking a deep breath, he imagines eventually drying off by a fire to try to encourage himself, then vaults over the railing and lands with a splash in thigh-deep water. He can already feel it filling his boots, but he's not going to blindly walk through this marsh barefoot.
 "Great Yacumama, Mother of Waters," he calls, expecting nothing but giving it a try, "what of your people do you wish us to find here?"
 Naturally, there is no response, the pendant not even offering a flicker, as if the eidola is already exhausted. Yet the water is quite clear in most places, the wetland's flora serving to cleanse what flows from the silty river, and Ivo is able to sweep the area as he advances behind his swifter friends.
 "Oh! Rui, look! Your favorite."
 Why Rui specifically? Because Ivo has spotted a mangrove crab, thrice the size of a typical crab (if not "giant" by our heroes' unfortunate standards), scuttling near the roots of a mangrove. ...And then another, and another. Stirred by the moving waters, they are maneuvering about what is apparently a feeding or breeding ground for them.
 "...I mean the crabs, of course."
 He has stopped short, noticing something else near where the crabs move: there, entangled in the roots, a pile of bones... and a humanoid skull.
 "Let's attend to the presence of undead, as we can."
 If Rui is sensitive to such a thing, then she will be most likely among the party to sense it: the profound presence of layered negative Destruction energy here. This was an ancient battleground, and spirits may well still linger.
 But also, crabs!



  Thanks to Ruidosa, Reize is gliding his way onto the ground. As his boots hit the muddy soil, he gives a grin as he surveys his surroundings some more. He'll have a better idea as to what is going on. His attention is soon towards the crabs that gathered.

  "...I guess this is an immediate lunch break?" He looks at his batty partner with a sweatbead on his head. It isn't long until after Ivo notices that Reize notices the pile of bones entangled in the roots.

 Reize immediately draws both boomerangs, readying himself for battle that may soon occur.

 

Does Ivo have a glide mechanic?

The camera pans over to Madonna who shakes her head into it with a scoffed, 'like I carry peasants' expression, as she goes back to having the giant necro monkey fan her with a big fan as she lounges.

No. No he doesn't.

"What was she scoffing at..." Ruidosa mutters under her breath as she eyes the crab and stares at it. It stares back. She stares at the crab. THE CRAB SCUTTLES AWAY and she tries to catch it, hitting dirt near the tree roots and coming face to face with the skull. "Oh." she goes as she suddenly bolts to her feet. "Wow. I sense it now, this place is teeming with lingering magics." she says as she frowns. "Undead, yeah, be weary." she says, as she frowns and looks around. "Something is wrong. Here. Like. I feel it?" she says.


 Ivo unsheathes Hauteclare as he tries to slosh his way closer to his companions and at least slightly higher ground, looking at the aether sensor on his magitech sword's hilt. While it is fine-tuned to detect eidola, all that it can tell him about undead is indicate the general concentration of Destruction domain aether, which indicates far less than Ruidosa's own senses.
 "Strange," he murmurs, gauging the inscrutable readout, crossguard pulsing in a manner Ivo has trained himself to interpret. "These energies weren't so great at first, but they're concentrating over time... and accelerating."
 Even as he says this, the physical environment does not seem especially threatening. Sun filters through the leaves of the mangrove trees, the clean wetland waters sparkling where shafts of light make contact. The crabs go about their business unperturbed. Uncomfortable as it may be to have no firm purchase on land, the grove is almost idyllic. Perhaps that makes it only more eerie to see, as one looks, more skeletal remnants half-buried in silt.
 "Do you see anything?" Ivo finally asks. "I--"
 The party may hear something first, instead.
 ~~Mmm... mooootheeeer...~~
 A chill wind seems to pass, though the leaves do not rustle.
 ~~Whhh... whhhyyyyyy...~~
 Nearly indetectable to the eye, mere ripples of translucence, ghostly specters are arriving on the scene, floating through the trees as if in some enthralled procession, making their way to fallen skeletons. Where they reach them, the skeletons, far more detectably, begin to stir and rise, bone hands claw-like, empty eye sockets unseeing.



 "Ah..." Reize watches the interaction between Ruidosa and the crab with arms folded. Just as he expected. It did not go as well as Ruidosa would ahd liked. Reize offers a helpless smile, "We'll grab one along the way back."

 He turns more serious as the presence of the undead manifest. Reize keeps his weapons drawn, but he doesn't go on the offensive. The spirits rise and the skeletons soon follow once they merge.

 Reize is waiting to see if the skeletons are planning to go on the offensive before he strikes. "... Are you the Yacumama's children?"

 

Ruidosa La Crima stops and frowns as ghosts start to materialize, and Skeletons rise. She takes a breath (even though she doesn't need to breathe, it's easing!) and raises a hand. "If they attack I got the ghosts." she whispers to Reize.

She looks back and frowns a little. "Spirts." she asks. Because when you're a vampire, you're used to other undead, they like pals!

"What causes your unease?" she asks. She looks to the skeletons and frowns a little, she doesn't trust those.

She trusts the ghosts more. They can at least usually be reasoned with. Skeletons are like. USUALLY dumb. Usually. She sighs a little. "Ivo, the arrival of Yacumama probably is causing a build up of ... well feeling. Power. It's familiar so it's probably drawing it all in. That's all speculation I'm not getting into it now." she says. "No time."


 Ivo, having focused on the skeletons, had assumed, with similar reasoning to Ruidosa, that it would not be possible to negotiate, so he is momentarily taken aback at Reize's question. Recalibrating, he double-takes and at last notices the first faint blur that represents a passing spirit. While he does not lower Hauteclare, he does not disengage its blade, either. He may pride himself on what he considers his diplomatic abilities, but in his adventures with the Star Chasers, he has long since concluded that on matters that likely call for sincerity and earnestness, Reize should take the lead.
 And, obviously, Ruidosa understands undead far better than either of them.
 ~~Whhhh...~~
 The spirits are beginning to cluster around Reize, hovering, reminiscent of moths approaching a flame, seeming poised between a yearning need to approach and a fearful urge to shrink back.
 ~~Whhheeeere... did you gooooo...~~
 The skeletons, slow to reassemble, begin to slowly and awkwardly advance, even clumsier than usual in the water, slower than the large crabs that heedlessly scuttle across the silt below, the crustaceans showing no concern for the now moving bones.
 ~~Whhyyyy... did you leeeeave usssss...~~
 They seem frail, as if they might crumble at any moment, but the skeletons are able to advance if not intercepted or prevented. One steps past the circle of ghosts, either braver or more foolish as skeleton, and reaches with a quavering arm. A single bony finger, sharp as a dagger, reaches out, seemingly trying to touch the surface of Reize's pendant.
 ~~...to our faaaaate?~~
 Ivo's face is tense, but he does not move, deferring to how Reize and Rui want to respond to this unsettling encirclement and approach.



  Is it empathy? Hard to say. However, considering the lingering regret and sorrow felt by Yacumama, he figures he can try to act as the bridge between her and those tied to her, just as he did for Kernunnos.

 As the spirits draw closer to him, he doesn't falter. He lowers his boomerangs, instead choosing to just accept it.

 "We found her in the temple far off from here." He looks at the pendant, "...A lingering memory." He glances onto the pendant, then lifts his head to towards the skeletal hand that approaches. He takes a deep breath, but refrains from shying away. "...Yacumama, are you able to answer? Just as your memory lingers, so do theirs."

Ruidosa La Crima eyes the Skeletons and frowns. They're frail. Brittle.

Good. That'll make putting them down physically easier.

She watches a little with concern as one ''reaches out for Reize'' and she almost flattens it on the spot, almost, but stays her hand as she frowns a little. "Easy now." she whispers to Reize. and maybe herself.

"I'm sorry." she says to the Skeleton. "Your mother is tired, and weak. She might not be able to answer. Can you... help her at all, with that? Can you. Tell us anything?" or are you weak yourselves, she thinks.


 As Ivo watches the skeleton reach with a single quavering finger for Reize's pendant, inches from making contact, and occasionally glances to Ruidosa for any cue to attack and defend their friend, he soothes his nerves with a moment of abstract reflection. Their adventures have brought them into contact with all manner of unusual beings. Eidola, fragments of consciousness left behind from the great sundering of the Primordial Wars, some concentrated enough to achieve sapience, many mere mental patterns wreaking havoc and causing distortions wherever they wander. Undead, the consciousnesses of mortals trapped like anchors by concentrations of domain aether and so unable to pass on from where their material bodies remain. Sapient elementals, their bodies composed of concentrations of a single material element rather than the balance that holds in mortal bodies, also serving as effective vessels for a consciousness. Even undead elementals, on the Isle of Blessed Winds.
 How, then, might an undead interact with an eidola? When a consciousness cannot pass on from this world and begins to fragment, left with its strongest lingering memories, how does it greet a consciousness that was, from the beginning, not more than a lingering memory itself?
 Perhaps one cannot generalize, Ivo will later think. Perhaps it depends on how one spirit relates to another. But at least he can record and impart what happened in this case.
 Despite Reize's question, Yacumama does not reply, his pendant not even flickering to indicate some effort. The Mother of Waters seems insensate, numb to her children's clamor. The skeleton's bony finger trembles closer and the spirits begin to bob and sway, agitated, perhaps in anticipation, perhaps in outrage at the skeleton's callous transgression, one of their own number daring to seek to touch the eidola's vessel. But at last--
 It happens in an instant. The very moment that the skeleton touches Reize's pendant, it collapses in a heap of bones, splashing in the water before Reize. Ruidosa can sense what remained of the spirit within dissolving, much of it lost and scattering, yet some of it able to pass through the crystal, reaching out to the serpent who slumbers within. This seems akin to a dam breaking. The spirits close in, reaching out in desperation, and as they do, they too begin to dissolve, more and more of their ectoplasm trying to seep into the pendant.
 "N... n..."
 And Reize's pendant is beginning to glimmer at last.
 "No... I..."
 There is no stopping what is happening now. One by one, as if their souls were pouring down a drain, the ghosts distort and fade, the skeletons disassembling moments after raising from the dead.
 "I remember... I..."
 For the first time, Yacumama seems to speak clearly.
 "I didn't... I didn't leave... it was you... who left me!"
 Her words become a cry.
 "Don't leave me... not again!"
 The last of the ghosts is undone.
 "No... not... again..."
 And there is only silence in the grove, save for Yacumama own words. Once again, the bones scattered in the silt lie still, now forever.



 Reize extends a hand out to Ruidosa, as if telling her to pause any further actions. How is the boy so confident? Truth be told, he is uncertain as to what will happen. Should he get into conflict, he'll handle it however he can.

 What is surprising is the eidola's reaction. Seeing the spirits slowly dissolve and the skeletons collapse, his eyes widen. The boy tenses and he listens.

 Once everything seems to pass and nary spirit or skeleton left, he looks towards Ruidosa and back towards Ivo.

 "... This is very confusing." He frowns, "...We can only go ahead from here."

 

Ruidosa La Crima looks surprised at all this when the pendant speaks and the ghosts start dissolving and soon she frowns. It's confusing. How did they 'leave her'? Did they stop worshipping? Was there was sort of problem in the ancient past? She doesn't know.

"We can." she says. "But we stopped because she told us to. Do we go back on the boat or do we explore more?" she asks looking around, looking down to the bones on the ground now.


 Ivo looks to the confused Reize, then to Ruidosa as she speaks, and shakes his head slightly. It seems that their resident exposition-deliverer is at a loss, too, and rather shaken by what has just transpired.
 "Yacumama," he finally tries again, "what should we do? What do you remember?"
 "A battle..."
 Ivo visibly startles when the eidola replies, Reize's pendant pulsing.
 "I remember... *they* remember... a battle. The hunters, wreathed in flame, attacked. My children cried out for me. My chosen tried to protect them. Why? Why were they killed? Why... why wasn't I there? I... I don't..."
 Ivo purses his lips, expression tightening as he thinks.
 "Then this was likely the site of a massacre of Yacumama's worshippers by the Ankhialeans," he says. "Close to the ziggurat where the last meeting was supposed to occur between the Oradians, the snake worshippers and their vampire allies, and the Ankhialeans. Did the Ankhialeans betray them? Or..."
 He glances between Reize and Rui.
 "We found the remnant of Yacumama in that ruined Oradian temple," he murmurs, "at the site of some ritual. Was she unable to be summoned by her worshippers here because of what transpired there?" At last, he shakes his head again. "I can only speculate. There are too many unanswered questions. But if spirits yet linger at the place of that final summit, then maybe..."
 He looks again to Reize's pendant. Whatever transpired here, the spirits' sacrifice seems to have somewhat awakened Yacumama, at last restoring her coherence, the fragments of their memories supplementing what the remnant has lost.
 "There," the eidola says at last, sounding distant. "Over there... my... chosen..."
 As Ivo looks about, unsure what 'over there' means, Reize can feel the pendant tugging, pulling deeper into the grove. If he proceeds through the tangled roots and squints, eventually, he will see a faint golden gleam. A wrought circlet is almost entirely hidden beneath one of the trees.
 And then, startlingly, it moves a little.
 ...because it is being worn by a mangrove crab.

> An elite mangrove crab has emerged carrying a rare drop!
> But its stats are the same, because it's just a normal crab.



 Closing his eyes, Reize takes in the melancholic scenery surrounding them. His boomerangs linger in his hands, yet the strength to wield them loosens. At the pendant's reaction, Reize's attention refocuses. "Ah...?"

 He is attentative again. He looks at the distance, hearing the eidola's lingering words. He follows the tug of the pendant.

  "Oh...!" He looks over at the crown. "Guys! I found it! There is a treasure there!" His eyes light up at the sight of the golden gleam.

 However, the mangrove crab's emergence has Reize ready his boomerangs.

 "Rui! Your lunch has something that we need to get! Let's go ahead and deal with it!"

 

Ruidosa La Crima looks as Ivo speculates and speaks to Yacumama. That's weird. This is weird now. She frowns. "Spirts. Lingering at the final site of their battle, bones left to rot and not even buried?" she asks. "Most likely your speculation has some merit." she says bluntly.

"But what exactly happened..." she trails off.

Then they're drawn to a circlet and Ruidosa reaches out when it moves and---

Oh crap it's on a crab and these things are fast. "Quickly before it runs!" in the first turn like one of those evasive RPG enemies with 10,000 gold and 10,000 XP.

She quickly fires a blast of energy at it, destruction flying free in the grove again, but this time towards a crab massacre.


 Ivo, giving up on trying to find what Yacumama was going on about, solemnly lowers his head and closes his eyes. To think that they would stumble upon such a tragic scene. What memories were lost with the dissolution of these spirits? Is their suffering at last at an end? Can our heroes bring meaning to--
 "Hm?"
 Ivo looks confused as the background music that accompanied his wistful reflections, the sound of a chiptune harp joined by a ghostly chorus that his player has left looping for the entirely of the scene thus far, is replaced by suitably epic battle music.

> BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-bxu_mk_WE

 "Trust you two," he quips, "to still have an appetite after all that."
 He sheathes his sword, content to observe, as the great battle begins. The elite mangrove crab, sensing danger, raises its oversized claws and clacks them menacingly. Surely the wearer of the circlet must be the leader of the mangrove crabs here. Crabs have leaders, right?

> The elite mangrove crab acts first! It scuttles back and forth!
> Nothing happens.

 Then Ruidosa's blast of Destruction, surely all the more enhanced by the omnipresence of that domain in this locale, rockets towards the super rare crab.

> Ruidosa's blast of energy hits the elite mangrove crab!
> The elite mangrove crab is defeated.

 A little crab ghost drifts up from its body, wearing a halo instead of its circlet, as the circlet tumbles onto the silty marsh ground from its delicious body.

> Victory!



  Reize is ready to fight! Ruidosa! Let's do this!

 The boy prepares to run towards the crab as Ruidosa launches out a blast of dark energy. As he is readying to follow suit--- it looks like it's over!

 "Oh... Huh."

 He comes to an awkward stop.

 He look to his left and then right.

 "Well, I guess that's that." He approaches the circlet as it tumbles into the marshy ground. He reaches over to grab it and he holds it.

  "We got our treasure, guys!" He lifts the body of the crab up, handing it over towards Ruidosa for her hard-earned win.

 

Ruidosa eeks as she overdoes it and the crab is dead. "Oh. I guess it was a normal crab afterall. I guess I overdid it sorry." she says meekly and ... did that crab have a ghost? She's glad Tranquila isn't here. They don't need another undead crab leader.

She takes the offered crab and turns away from the group as there's a loud 'mounch' sound and the crab is gone in one go. How did that happen? Don't think about it too much.

She turns back around and examines the circlet now. "Huh. I wonder if that's part of the priestess set?" she asks.


 "There are other crabs," Ivo says to Reize, trying to sound encouraging. "You could attack one of those." Yeah, but none of them have cool treasures. The super elite mangrove crab may not have awarded massive XP, but the circlet does seem remarkable, reminiscent of the accoutrements found in the hidden temple of the snake cult. Reize can feel his pendant pulsing again as he moves to pick it up, and lifting it from where it has fallen, he can now make out the details of its design: an exquisitely detailed serpent devouring its own tail, thereby forming a circle that may be set upon the brow.

> The party has acquired the Serpent Regalia, Ouroboros.
> The path to yet deeper secrets of the magic of the snake may be opened.

 "I bet you're right, Rui. Let's show that to Daiby back on the SaGa," Ivo suggests. "Now that she's gotten used to the staff, she might be able to synchronize that new treasure with--"
 "My chosen."
 He stops when Yacumama speaks up again.
 "I can see," the eidola says, the pendant that contains her flickering with every word, "what she saw as she perished. She sought to protect my children... our children. She treasured them, as I did... she did as I would have done."
 As Yacumama has grown more coherent, the range of emotions she is able to express seems to have broadened, and tenderness seeps into her echoing words.
 "I must remember... why I could not protect her in turn."

> Reize has acquired Affinity Rank 2 with Yacumama.
> Reize has gained a temporary pact-based Passive Ability: Oradian Bequest. He may now sense when spirits and relics of Yacumama's serpent cult are near.

 Ivo looks up, as if to query the heavens, and sees, perhaps rendered visible by how much negative energy remains gathered here, the ghost of the mangrove crab ascending. Solemn-faced, he salutes it.
 "May you be at peace," he says, "and not entrapped at a restaurant."
 That whole business was your fault too, Ivo.



  Reize Seatlan raises the circlet up high, beaming happily. "Treasure~!" It is not often that he successfully recovers treasure, so he will take this achievement. He looks over at the design, tilting his head over to study it. "Oh... Interesting." He furrows his eyebrows.

 "Yeah, let's head back to the Romancing SaGa." Their thoughts are interrupted by the voice of a more coherent Yacumama. Listening, the boy frowns a bit more. "... We're one step closer, at least."

  As he draws the boomerangs back to his sides, his hand rests on his pendant to feel the affinity with the remnant eidola grow closer.

 He looks back towards Ruidosa and Ivo, "...Yeah, let's head back. We can explore here a bit more later once we regroup."

 

Ruidosa La Crima sighs a little as Reize calls out treasure and yes they have treasure. "Enjoy it, but be careful with it. That seems important." she says.

She sighs a little, back to Madonna. Who's getting fanned still by a giant zombie monkey. This is the life.