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An Ancient City Beyond the Lush Plateau

Scene details

  • Start date: July 26, 2026, 5:03 p.m.
  • End date: July 26, 2026, 8:20 p.m.
  • Location: Oradia - Lush Plateau
  • Participants: Reize Seatlan, Ivo Galvan, Atl

Setting: What was originally set to be a rumor chase of finding a wedding gift turned into an unexpected discovery of an ancient civilization predating the Ankhialeans. The Star Chasers find the ruins of a city similar to Aurita Meloda. However, they only scratched the surface.

Log



  The sun shines brightly, the blue sky casts over the surroundings of the plateau. Lush greenery is found everywhere through the low-lying jungles. However, there are the abundance of palash trees, the 'flame of the forest'. While the plateau would edge closer to the threatening Twilight Canyon, this is not where the adventurers are at.

  They find themselves closer within the vast lands.

  Reize is, of course, holding a map. Upside down.

  "So, I was told that this should be the area. I think." He thinks carefully, "There were rumors about a 'cinderheart vein' that can be found..." He looks ahead, furrowing his eyebrows as he looks at the sky.

  A few wyverns are seen soaring through the plateau.

  "...I think they may have something to do with it."

 


 Now this is a familiar experience for Ivo. Their adventures in Oradia have been full of surprises even by Star Chaser standards, mingling metaphysical mysteries with high politics and social discord irresolvable by straightforward heroics, and certainly the Cosmopolitan dilettante has found them stimulating. Still, there is something refreshing about trudging through a beautiful natural environment on a probably frivolous fetch quest led by the inimitable Reize Seatlan, who has definitely not been reading the map correctly and who, needless to say, Ivo has not made any effort to correct. In Ivo's defense, given the remoteness of the wilderness they have found themselves in, the map is likely to be inaccurate in any case.
 Besides, hot and humid as the jungles can be, at this altitude, the temperature isn't *too* bad. So far, it's been a pleasant trek, insofar as they've not been attacked by any wyverns yet.
 "Cinderheart sounds like a worthy nickname for our friend here."
 Ivo, who is just vibing, flashes a smile at Atl. The magitechnician may be ordinarily inquisitive, but he tends to find it far funnier to just let Reize surprise him with whatever ill-advised shenanigans the consummate adventurer has cooked up. Besides, deep down, after all the poor girl has undergone, Ivo just wants to radiate agreeableness in her general direction. She may not need his help keeping her spirits up, but still.
 "Cinderheart and The Navigator. Redoubtable companions indeed."
 Careful, Ivo. They might come up with a nickname for *you*.

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

'The adventurers'. Atl has yet to consider herself among that number, but the raggedy young girl is plenty keen to traipse along on one of their quests if it means not hanging around her hostile home - or, truly, not having to answer any difficult questions about who she really is and what all happened back there. For good or ill, she feels accepted by this number, and is resolved to pursue that at any cost...

Despite her clear ingenuity within this climate, her apparent agility or whatever magicks those itinerant wisps infer and bestow, she's aware that 'adventure' isn't travelling stealthily, swiftly, and evading threats with cunning and wisdom alone. To that end, she's equipped for action, her tiny, dextrous digits curled around the vine-wrapped haft of an obsidian hacking tool; an Ankhialean machete.

She remains nervous, her resolve still ailing from that perilous encounter with her cruel-hearted sister. Without Daiby, she's noticeably more uncomfortable considering herself among this company, too.

But then Ivo smiles at her, and her expression of concentrated concern lights up with dimpled return fire.

"Just," she gets out, still trying her best at this whole 'talking' thing, "Just Atl."

She considers quickly; this seems dismissive and unhelpful. And thus she adds, wrinkling her nose,

"Not fire. Water. Find water... follow... find fire."



  Considering Ivo's words, Reize scratches his head. His glance is returned towards Atl, who just introduced herself as 'Atl'. With a warm smile, he follows with a grin, "Thanks for joining us! It's good to have you with us! Even if it's just a small trip. I'm actually looking for a rumored 'Cinderheart vein'. It'll be a gift to Ruidosa." He considers, "...Maybe I should find a gift for Tranquila and La Crima, they're supposed to be my sister and mother-in-law soon."

 After a thoughtful look, Reize turns around and he points ahead! "Let's go! I can feel that we're getting closer!"
 

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d10.
Comment: Travel Roll (and/or Rock)
Roll(s): 1. Total result is 1.

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20.
Comment: Consulting RNG first for anything fitting
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4.


 One might imagine that even the curious Ivo, in desiring something of a break from the relentless novelties of their journey through Oradia thus far, has limits on how much mental stimulation he wishes to experience. In fact, however, his motivations are consistent: it is only when he is able to clear his head and broaden his perspective that, he finds, he alights upon his most interesting discoveries.
 Thus it is without thinking of much at all that his smile to Atl grows warmer, touched by her earnestness and resolve. He cannot help but obsess over the meaning of words and things, even when he trusts others absolutely, and to be in the presence of those who *can* be trusting even amidst adversity helps him to accept himself and his own nature.
 "Atl, then, and I'll be just Ivo," he lightly replies, before glancing to the rambunctious Reize. "Our chief here has acquired all sorts of names on his travels, though. Hero of the Shamshir Vultures of the Isle of Blessed Winds. Harem Master. Sea Madman."
 Why, even now, as he looks away from the girl and chatters on casually, he is turning over her words in his mind. To find fire, follow water. Is this a feature of the local environment or a generalizable principle? There are all manner of spiritualist or folkloric views about the elements in which Ivo, as a scholar and scientist, puts relatively little stock, though he would never dismiss their potential insights carelessly. Traditionally, water is associated with vessels, and this tends to supercede any supposed opposition with fire. Why, one attuned to water can, in the proper circumstances, become a vessel for fire itself and more--
 "Hmm."
 Ivo, who has sunk completely into this idle speculation moments after teasing Reize, suddenly blinks.
 "Atl, have you... ever tried to attune to..."
 His boot sinks into previously steady ground. Stopping short, he looks and sees that, otherwise hidden in the underbrush, he has tread upon a little trickle of a brook that seems to be proceeding downwards towards a cranny in a nearby cliffside. Ivo flashes a smile toward his companions, lifting his foot to show off the mud on his sole.
 "I may have found some water," he remarks. "Shall we see if fire awaits?"
 If no one objects, he shall be glad to have Reize follow the hidden brook as it widens and hopefully leads them somewhere promising.

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Indeed, whatever hidden depths the girl might have - and have exhibited already - it's for simplicity and earnestness that she yearns, and in these two she finds much of that. The rattling off of lofty titles means little to her, in truth, but her observant gaze does scan Reize Seatlan thoughtfully during this heraldric spew. She's entirely too innocent (and uncultured) to settle on the 'Harem' part, but the rest seems ill to fit the young man who seems only an ardent and enthusiastic defender. Titles, glories, trappings...

They're too much like her sister, or the sad path she's ended up following in Atl's eyes. As she considers this, the wisps rummage around inside of her sackcloth, one cerulean gleam glinting from beneath her armpit as the wee magickal anomaly takes a look of its own, and then drifts lazily out and toward the ground--

--just in time for Ivo's boot to sink, to the rare sound of a soft snicker from the Ankhialean.

"Always fire," she insists, flashing her slightly snaggletoothed grin, "Man, men; water, fire."

There's firmness on each noun - she says these words like others float lofty concepts like good and evil, or even moreso law and chaos. Not just physical, extant things, but forces - important things with rules.

"Now, then, the same." She takes a breath, hefts her machete, and takes a step ahead of Ivo, calling out to Reize with clarion effort, "Follow the water!"



 As Ivo uncovers a trickle of a brook flowing downward, this would lead the party to travel down the hidden brook. The depression of the ground leads the group through the trail of the flowing water.

 What they will find, through the brook, is another depression. Further below, through what appears to be foilage of small trees and bushes, it uncovers something further down. It leads into a canal.

 The canal itself is rather low on space, filled with darkness requiring a light. However, the further they travel, the more spacious it would appear.

 This would take them to be out within the open. Should they look around, the open area would be surrounded by the jungle trees. Those trees cover the entire sighting from above; making it easy to miss.

 If they were to look ahead, they would find what appears to be the remains of an old city. The structure has ancient symbols and etches that would exceed the familiarity of the Ankhialeans or the vampires. None of this exists. It predates them. The structure itself is very rigid, hard rocks shaping the area. The water from the brook flow down on each side of the ancient city.

 An old city that is long forgotten.

 



  Reize's eyes widen as he gazes at the sight of the city and the backdrop. "...Wow! T--To think that we would had missed this!"

  There is a moment when Reize looks back at Ivo at his earlier mention of his titles. "Oi!" He flatly stares at his older companion.

  "Err... Atl, know anything about this?"


 Ivo grins to Atl as if mirroring hers, not put off in the slightest by her snickering. "Lead the way," he remarks to his younger friends as he follows, brushing some of the mud off of his boot on a cluster of nearby reeds. As he ambles on, he allows his thoughts to wander again, struck by Atl's further words. Ivo has taken to heart the importance of humility before a potential discovery: the patterns of the world are all-encompassing, as he takes the girl to imply, but their mysteries are deep and not easily discerned, the smallest of parts too easily mistaken for the whole. He should not leap to conclusions about her capabilities based on an exciting intuition, and besides, he doesn't want to push Atl any further right now. She's only just awakened to a new side of herself, it seems, and so much remains unsettled. Experimentation can wait until it is needed or wanted.
 Still... every once in a while, a part leads to a greater whole. What if, rather than Atl having some special resonance with Ankhiale per se, Ankhiale chose her because of some greater potential for communion with spirits, not limited to Ankhiale herself? If that were so, then...
 "Hm?"
 Strange. Ivo had been drifting off into his thoughts, but he is brought back to reality by what an odd intuition he can't place, which only makes him wants to think it through. What was a brook has become rather regular in shape, unusually so, and the design feels oddly familiar.
 "I'm reminded of Aurita Meloda," he casually remarks, voice echoing in the darkness that has descended as they venture on, "and the canals that lace the city. I..."
 He trails off as the city comes into view, stopping short. Ivo's amiable expression has gone blank, veritably poleaxed with astonishment as, slowly, he scans the environs.
 "This... this doesn't resemble anything we've seen in Oradia," he says, now sounding hoarse, as though strangled by surprise. "Not the temple of the serpent cult... not Rosia's architecture... and not even Hidden Hearth. It looks like... if anything, it looks like Aurita Meloda, at least in part. Which... would mean..."
 Ivo looks like he might be able to fall over.
 "...this is... a lost beastkin city...? By the Twilight Canyon? That's..."
 He looks at Reize, all teasing forgotten.
 "Reize, this is extraordinary!"

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

The wilderness is vast, and full of treasures. Much is familiar to little Atl; the lay of the land, its patterns, but hers has not been a life delving for anything but survival and - perhaps - an occasional respite in the form of delicious fruit, or a beautiful view. Simplicity does not breed discovery, so it's never occurred to her to search for entirely hidden cultures, or the plundered remnants of them.

Those things are danger. She has enough danger at home.

Her grip on that machete, whatever good it might do to any true danger, has whitened much like the wisps are growing whiter, and hotter, with each step. Perhaps *they* would know something, but their nature remains as much an enigma, and Atl's communion with them is not such that they represent an encyclopaedia. What is she to them, then? Well, the one roving beyond her returns to the confines of her personage, nestling into an armpit as she shakes her head to Reize, the ornaments in her wild bush of hair bouncing uncertainly.

"Old," is her immediate response, before Ivo elaborates with more scholarly acumen. She inhales at that, dark nostrils flaring, eyes deepening their reddish glow too. "We..."

She gestures back the way they came, indicating the Hidden Hearth.

"Fear the old. Protected by--" The wisp boils against her upper ribcage, blazing fervent warning. "Ankhiale. But, we protect her." She takes another breath, and cautions even as she takes a daringly willing step forward. "Do not disturb the old, Hero."



  Reize watches the water flow from each side of the old city in marvel. As he squints, "...I am actually reminded of Aurita Meloda, now that I take a better look at it." He considers, "You may be right. This would be a lost beastkin city." He approaches the city carefully, looking over towards the sky.

 However, the sky would be shrouded by the jungle trees. There are small glints of the sky, but the shroud gives it that mysterious shade of darkness.

 "Nnggh, not a hero." Reize furrows his eyebrows, "I'm an explorer." He gives a bright grin, "Let's see what's ahead!"

 Further down through the old city, the halls are quite spacious, seemingly empty and abandoned. There are pedestals propping the place up, the structure remaining intact. As water continues to flow through the old city, there does not appear to be a presence of people.

 The further Reize explore through, there are a few doors that would lead into several rooms. He glances back towards Atl. "Ahh, if we don't explore, we never discover the unknown! It's important to uncover the unknown."

 

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Do I Manage WithOut Triggering Trap?
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 5. This is a failure (by 5).

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20+2>=10.
Comment: Beastkin lore check (familiarity with Aurita Meloda bonus)
Roll(s): 5. Total result is 7. This is a failure (by 3).



  Unfortunately, Reize is treated to the wonderful presence of ancient BEES! Or sprites that are glowing of fire, followed by water. They start pelting the boy with splashes and ember to the face.

  "ARGH GETEMOFF!"

  They are on Reize like angry bees.

 


 Ivo can hardly tear his eyes away from their surroundings, but when Atl speaks up, he glances at her and then promptly double-takes, only now detecting her evident unease. Even in these thrilling circumstances, he at least has enough presence of mind to glance worriedly between Reize and Atl. Frankly, Ivo is torn. His inclinations are with Reize, naturally, the dilettante all too willing to follow in the explorer's footsteps (at a safe distance). He is more than willing to disturb the dead to acquire knowledge that might be useful to the living, and he puts no special stock in tradition. Still, doubtless the Ankhiealans' attitude has served them well, and more importantly, he would fain antagonize Atl now, especially without the darling Daiby to comfort her.
 "Just knowing that this city is here is a tremendous discovery, chief," Ivo says, adopting a mollifying tone. "Let's go tell Rui! I bet she'd love to see this, too. You can... oh."
 Suddenly, bees.
 "You did it, Reize!" he calls, cupping his hands to his mouth to make sure he can be heard from a very safe distance indeed. "You uncovered the unknown!"
 The unknown was bees.
 "Think those might listen to you, Atl?" Ivo asks the girl, who is doubtless satisfied to see her philosophy instantly validated before her eyes. "If not, don't worry. He'll be fine."
 He sure doesn't sound worried. Not as long as those bee-like sprites aren't coming *their* way. Instead, he takes this opportunity to see if he recognizes the writing or sigils he can see etched on some of this rather familiar architecture. He does not, somewhat unsurprisingly. For all those save the beastkin traditionalists on Isla Sacro or perhaps the legendary Lorekeepers, the specifics of cultural difference during the beastkin golden age is largely unknown. Even if Ivo had access to the libraries of Cosmopolis, he might not be able to translate this, and he certainly cannot off the top of his head. But he dearly wishes he could.

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Not a hero.

That, thinks the wee jungle-maiden, is just what an actual hero would say.

But that's okay. She smiles, and follows along, perhaps betraying what one might assume she'd do after her warning. There is determination in her step, though, to challenge the comfort zone she's adopted - beyond the average as it may already be to clamber up trees and wander through groves of luminescent, dangerous mushrooms in a climate that stops most in their tracks. Still, comfort zones are relative.

If these good, humble men follow other rules, perhaps they know better rules than she. They're not /dead/.

More immediately true to herself and her words, Atl rarely removes her gaze from those flanking waterways. She even crabwalks over, Slav-squats down and reaches out to dip a hand in, testing the temperature thoughtfully before bringing a sodden finger to her lips and tasting - for palatability, and for distinct volcanic flavors. Sulfurous water would mean one thing, and one thing only...

It doesn't necessarily mean bees, but neither do these 'bees'. Ivo doesn't need to inspire her this time. Her brow furrows, and with an unspoken command, the wisps surge forth from within her figurative marsupial pouch, pulsating furiously and eager to show that these fiery bees may sting - but there is fire, and there is the primordial, true /heat/ of the gods that birth it. Colony meets colony, and Atl rises to her feet, uncorking a breath that carries on its wistful way a ripple of instinctive magickal energy, emboldening the wisps and charging their power with her own, perhaps leading-to-cinder heart. Are these older than Ankhiale herself, or might they heed the counter-intimidation of something as old or older than they?

"Not to me," she utters, and steps forward, swinging the machete in what she hopes is a heroic and decisive gesture - not to cut, but to put behind her ward's furious action the correct, brave intent. "To her."

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Atl rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Which bees are the b(e)est?
Roll(s): 11. Total result is 11. This is a success (by 1).



 It immediately goes from being pelted by the sprites to suddenly... Reize is yanked into the room.

 A moment later, Reize nearly crawls out until one of the sprites tosses Reize up into the air while the other one just starts air-juggling Reize with repeated smacks. "Gaaah!"

 The sprites, however, do see the colony approach them. With the ripple of energy emitting from them. Atl will observed that they do not heed because the wisps are older. They are heeding because those are 'younger' than them!

 They stop air-juggling Reize to give a happy glow. The burn brightly and happy. There are younger ones that come to see them! As they glow with a magical energy, they start slipping further into the old ruins.

 ...Eventually, Reize does emerge from the room with a few things. He has small ring, made with a Cinderheart vein. This appears as a smoldering ore, red and black.

 In his other hands are a couple of necklaces made of a copperish red ore. It appears cut as a gem. One is purple and the other has a yellow glow.

 "I got what I came here for!" Reize looks a bit beaten up, but he is pleased.

 


 Ivo may be committed to the pursuit of knowledge and its dissemination among the people and all that good stuff, but he can spare a moment from marveling at the earthshaking discovery that is this lost city to watch Reize get air-combo'd by a bunch of sprites.
 "Look at that," he says to Atl. Not the air-comboing: the fact that the wisps all seem to be getting along. "For me, elemental interactions in the wild are a rare sight too." Ivo blinks and seems to catch himself. "I haven't seen something like this before," he continues, basically repeating himself, but in a manner that is hopefully a little easier to understand. "I think you'll show me many new things, Atl, and I'm glad."
 He smiles at her again, and very carefully does *not* look in the direction of Reize, so that maybe Atl will not dwell overmuch on his tomb raiding. Well, if the wisps themselves are drawn to cinderheart, maybe what Reize is doing so far as at least elementally endorsed.
 "You sure did," Ivo quips to Reize, trying not to sound too amused and more or less failing at that. "I'm counting on you to sketch some of what we've seen tonight for our records. I bet there's no note of this city even in the La Crima tome!"
 Could Reize have found not only this so-called cinderheart but the rare carnelian copper as well in the form of these ornaments? He'll ask later. Ivo has a *lot* of questions of all sorts to ask later.
 But what else is new?



  ...There is one sprite that seems to hang around Ivo for one reason or another. It idly hovers over him, appearing quite calm and even happy!

 

  • Character: Atl
  • 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Atl has more control than it often appears, but in this she's at a loss; one moment she's imbuing elemental laylines behind the dissipated fury of a goddess she has long played custodian for, and the next Ankhiale's remnant pieces are dancing around with other, yet more alien entities - alike but not, at once utterly strange to one another but conjoined in their rare resonance into a fabricated, briefly-aligned whole.

Her breath catches in her throat, and she almost chokes, swallowing tightly as she looks away from the all-right-now pansexual elemental dance party to Reize and Ivo, her thoughts wandering to Rui and Daiby with a natural immediacy that echoes the swift conjunction of wisp-forms.

"Like us," she remarks, sidestepping over, fluid and agile and naturally stealthy, to slip a tiny hand inside Ivo's, her fingers briefly seeking to entwine his as she returns the smile - but at Reize, whom she feels she just failed to save but-- with a positive consequence. Is this what being a hero is? It seems to be a pattern, thus far. "Water leads to fire, and fires burn brighter together."

Verbiage comes more swiftly, thoughts and lips well-oiled in the heart of her first 'quest'.

Her own carnelians flicker back to the whirling wisps.

"Perhaps," she posits, tugging on Ivo's hand and beckoning Reize to move away from the phenomenon, "Quiet time?"