ORIGIN

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In the quiet, still air of Cetus, a breeze begins to pick up, waving through the trees and pushing some of the mist briefly away from the ground. Deep in the forest, under the cover of trees, a large gray rat skitters out of the undergrowth, black lines like veins spilling from its eyes. A trickle of blood runs from its nose and dribbles onto the ground.

At first, it chokes, perhaps it won't last long after all, will it die before its task is complete? But then its head raises and from it comes a whisper that echoes through the trees, barely louder then the breeze whistling through the cave.

"Children of Rot? Children of Rot...come here, secretkeepers....follow me, Children of Rot..." The rat shudders but stays still, echoing its message until the breeze dies down. And then it waits. Patiently awaits, away from the Heart and far from the Divine. Who has heard its call?

A call has been sent out to the Children of Rot to follow the rat. Others in the area that may have heard may investigate as well. There is no intentional danger here.

It had been a very long time since the last mysterious summons, monstrous appearance, enemy infiltration, spy claiming sanctuary and so on. Dragon had been content to gradually dig out hidden dens and nooks along the edges of Cetus over time, but mostly he'd just... rested. As alligators do. He'd lay mostly sleeping at the surface of the swamp for hours, or lounge in the shallows of the groves. Sometimes, he travelled to the Divine's enclave.

So when the whisper came, he had both a spark of excitement and an internal groan of what is it now? because rarely were magic and mysteries harmless. No, the rewards his Children were so often offered usually came at a cost, or a risk.

He swam as close as he could, swift enough but not rushing, wary of what this might be. And he didn't see the rat, at first. The swamp was dark, the foliage thick, the rat small. All he could do was follow the sound.

After he'd reached dry land, he grimaced. His old leg injury still left him somewhat lame; it was hard to just trudge over dirt, which was part of the reason he rarely left Cetus. Cetus, at least, gave him water to traverse just about everywhere. But Dragon did have alternatives.

When he reached the place he'd heard the voice, he was flying: wispy red dragon wings spread and flapping, ghostly horns twisting back from his skull. He'd have looked menacing if it hadn't been for his heavy body hanging awkwardly straight down. Only at speed did he gain anything resembling horizontal grace; as it was he sort of hover-dragged himself after the voice, warily wondering what it wanted.

"Hello?" he bellowed, and then grumbled to himself. He just knew this would be a trap.

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"HI!?"

This far less cautious cry came from Wyrm, who rather than sedately swim and then hover-copter over, was bounding like a giant, leathery ferret.

"HELLO! ...HELLOOOO?"

Unsubtle, unafraid, probably foolish, despite her experiences in brutal combat, Wyrm went scrambling after the voice. Partway through the thick swamp she even lit herself up like a torch, hissing and wincing but also serving as a beacon for any potential enemies who were trying to lure her out.

Also, a flashlight, because it was dark here.

But there was no attacker, and Wyrm just scrambled to follow, bright-eyed and intent.

The mysterious whisper in the air had their attention immediately. Children of Rot? What's that? While they might not be a part of this group, Larkspur was immensely interested in whatever this secret was. And they could keep it, too, they supposed. Mostly they just wanted to be involved in the fun! (At least, it sounded like it might be fun.)

As they swooped after the rat, it occurred to Larkspur that they seemed a bit out of place here. Cetus was mysterious, the whispers were mysterious, the other approaching Gembound seemed very spooky and fitting for the atmosphere, and Larkspur... well, they didn't have an air of mystery about them. They fidgeted with their wings, but... surely whoever it was wouldn't just kick them out, right? Right?

July, having mostly just slunk around the swamp without interacting with anyone since her hatching, had no idea that Children of Rot referred to a group. Instead she thought that the voice was generally calling out to the inhabitants of the swamp in general. You know, children of the swamp, children of the rot, whatever. Also she was a child so it seemed to fit extra well.

Her tail flicked with annoyance. She objected to being called a child of something like rot, really—that didn't sound very cool or heroic; it sounded kind of stinky—but it might be interesting? What if it was a foul, sordid secret befitting of the monicker 'rot'? That would be exciting. Also, it might be a chance for her to be a hero! July was already imagining herself airing out old secrets, long-buried tales of injustice or corrupt schemes... she didn't really know what these things would entail, but they would be foul and she could burn all that rot away! Somehow.

It found Cetus to be one of the more tolerable caves. Plenty of water- practically a prerequisite for Soh-ling- and the thick fog muffled the orblights that it often found to be painfully bright. It had nothing on Fornax, obviously, but it was pretty nice.

As soon as it caught wind of the mysterious call, its curiousity was piqued. Children of the rot? Secretkeepers? It didn't know who that was and it was curious and bored enough to want to find out. It would track down the call through the murky swamp, until others came into view, at which point it would fall back, lurking at the periphery. The top of its head and back barely breached the water, looking more like a tangle of black-green water weeds than a living creature.

Of course, the faint bioluminescence of its eyes and the twitching of its ears and feelers kind of gave it away. Soh-ling certainly did BELIEVE it was being sneaky at the moment, however.

Also @Brandle is present just kind of hanging out in the background I just don't know if I wanna reactivate him yet

The Echoing Gray did not delay. As soon as the first gembound noticed it, it turned and began to hobble off into the trees. Closer to the edge of the cave it went, unsteadily. Something was quite wrong with it.

It led them a ways deeper, if they continued to follow, before it suddenly stopped. The veins from its eyes had nearly covered its entire face in pitch. A choking sound came from it and blood gushed from its jaws. It shivered violently and then keeled over and died.

"Damn..." A voice whispered softly from up ahead. "Fragile things." Ah, well, it may not have brought the gembound to its final location, but it had brought them far enough away from the heart. From behind a tree up ahead, she emerged, two-legged, dark skinned, and clad in furs, hand gripping a gnarled wooden staff, Oilstone crowning her brow.

She looked nervous, eyes darting left and right. She looked over each of them, lingering on the glow of Soh-ling suspiciously. "I can see you there, Valkhound." She hissed quietly, but did not make any further actions towards it. Not all were her enemy.

Her eyes moved back towards the alligator - that was the one she'd been looking for. She took a step forward so she was a few feet away and crouched, closer to his level. "Greetings, Dragon. My name is Lilith. I've heard of you and your group...secretkeepers, searchers. You know things, yes?" She tapped a finger on her staff. "I seek knowledge. And opinions, if you have the time and desire to share them." Her eyes moved from Dragon to the other gathered gembound. She had not intended to draw a big crowd, but she would make use of it. "From any of you, if anyone would like to share."

@Dragon @Wyrm @Larkspur @July @Soh-ling

Soh-ling would growl when attention was drawn to it, the deep reverberation of sound causing the water around it's chest to agitate. Its movements were languid and unperturbed when it finally pulled itself out of the water, although tinged with a bit of feline annoyance. "You speak with such derision, but we share the same lifeblood." It purred, shaking bits of muck off it's frills, which were now pale lilac and pink-speckled. The rest of its hide was mottled shades of purplish-grey, a mockery of Lilith's color palette. It would flop down a couple feet away from the water's edge, unbothered and moisturized- although it did keep a half-lidded eye on Dragon, the only gembound here who may pose physical threat to it.

"I have knowledge and opinions aplenty, but I know not if any of it pertains to your woes." It would stare at her unblinkingly, waiting for her to elaborate.

Now that they'd caught up with the rat, Larkspur could see that there was definitely something wrong with it. There was some kind of horrifying black infection creeping from its eyes, and blood dripping from its face. Any curiosity they had was replaced with concern for the clearly-sick animal.

Larkspur followed it closely, trying to get a better look at what was going on—although he wasn't sure that he could've figured out even if he could get a good long look at it. He'd never seen something like this before. Suddenly it stopped moving, and Larkspur pulled upward in a braking motion before landing and hopping toward it—only for the rat to suddenly seize and throw up so much blood and then fall over and—die. Larkspur made a soft gasp of horror, but his eyes were transfixed on its blood-soaked corpse, and he even leaned in, as if to confirm it was really dead.

At first the new Gembound's voice did not move his eyes from the rat, but as she spoke directly to them he finally looked up at her. He did not answer her questions, but one that was eating at his own chest wandered out: "What happened to that rat?" he asked softly, the slightest tremble in his voice.

There was already signs of drama going on. The big aquatic-looking one and the one with the staff semi-facing-off with one another, the bird hunched by the bleeding rat. July did not flinch when it keeled over and died, although the sheer amount of blood coming from it surprised her. She stuck out her tongue, flicking it up and down for a long moment to gather the scents around and draw them back to her. Metallic salt, earthy swamp, and the unique scents of these particular Gembound. One by one July tried to commit them to memory, especially the scent of the one with the staff—she seemed important, somehow.

"About what?" she piped up at Lilith's questions. Of course, she didn't have much knowledge she could give her anyway—but she could form opinions, if Lilith wanted them.

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Game Master Jaymie

Dragon

Wyrm

Larkspur

July

Soh-ling

Game Master Jaymie

Soh-ling

Larkspur

July