Quest: Wharrgarbl!
The tunnel is unusually still, and... icier than usual. A slick layer of translucent white ice covers the ground and snow, thickest near the center of the tunnel and thinning towards its entrances. Its almost as though a large volume of water has been gathering in the bottom of the path, and the tunnel is colder than usual.

A thunderous, hollow CRRAAAACK ripples through the tunnel.

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed.

Participants:
Part One: Carrie, Booker, Ghanyarah, Makyna, Arkrael, Diot, Eve, Kerberos
Part Two: n/a

The capybara needed time to herself, at least that was what she was hoping. So much has happened in the past few days and all of those things just continued to nag at her mind and the rodent needed to get some fresh air. Legs carried her out of Pisces and down into one of the tunnels that was connected to it to find the floor go cold. Strange, was it always so cold here? Maybe this was just what she needed to clear her head? Dropping her soft nose to the floor, sniffing lightly as she continued down the path. CRRAAAACK "What was that!" Coming to a halt, head jumped up and erect as she stared down the tunnel in which the thunderous sound came from. Quickly, Carrie spirited down the icy path towards the source of the sound. A part of her wanted to turn back, her feet were beginning to go numb. The rodent didn't have furred feet like some of the gembounds. --------- "Speechy speechy speech." OOC: words words

Barnett trotted through the caves, ears perked forward, twitching towards every slight noise. If there was a goal to his wandering, it was muddled, somewhere between finding a safe place to rest and seeking out his lost sons. His useless back leg dragged against the floor, only occasionally flipping forward to lurch up and twist down. The numbat kept shooting it annoyed glances, and it was in one of these moments that a massive crack! echoed through the icy tunnel he traversed. In moments, the priest was shooting to one side of the tunnel, shrouded by the shadows of piles of snow.

Come to think of it, it was even colder than usual, the ground covered in a thin layer of water. Barn shivered, slinking towards the noise, though every instinct shouted at him to flee. If Bee had been anywhere near that noise, he could be in danger - especially something so small in a tunnel so large. Charred fur providing no protection from the chill, Barnett finally resigned himself to stepping out into the middle of the tunnel. What was that!

There was a... big weird rodent thing traveling down the path, one leg paler than the others, and Barnett slowed to a shambling walk, staying in her shadow, snout wrinkling up in annoyance. "No idea," he murmured, throwing his voice up and to the side to - hopefully - be heard by the other Gembound.

It would kind of suck to get stepped on, after all.

This tunnel was a place he liked to visit for its colder atmosphere and the snow and ice that usually covered the ground. Cetus didn't often see snow. Every now and then, the air would condense into icy crystals and he would see a layer of frost cover the ground - today was one of those days, when it had just barely started to snow and Ghanyarah found himself drawn to one of the colder tunnels. There, he could practice his magic with ease. There was already snow and ice for him to manipulate, he didn't have to waste time concentrating on the water in the air to turn it into ice first. The cold felt slick against his thick scales, it felt familiar, like home; the brisk temperature made his muscles move a little slower, but at this point it was less an inconvenience and more a minor, idle thought. He was working on warming up his body so that it could function better in the cold, anyways.

As he descended the slope of the tunnel, a great loud CRACK had ripped through the passage. The sound was hollow and echoed from one end to the other, and he had frozen as soon as he heard the sound, thinking for a moment that he was in danger. But the sound soon faded, leaving him to realize that the mysterious phenomena must have been something moving in the tunnel - or the ice. Ghanyarah quickened, and once he reached the deepest part of the tunnel he'd noticed that he'd already been beaten by a few others. Did they have the same idea, practicing in the tunnel? It was unlikely... he hadn't seen anybody else here practicing before, so why the sudden change? Maybe they had come here investigating the crack too. The komodo hesitated, skeptically eyeing those that milled about, before moving to join them. "Any of you know what that was?" He called to the capybara and the numbat, frowning slightly - gross, smelly mammals - but shrugged it off for now. "It sounded like the ice."

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN

Ah, a nice day of hunting was always nice. It made her feel accomplished and it was always nice to bring some outside meat to the folks at Pisces. Their diet was almost strictly fish so something new always brought a light to their eyes. Especially the eyes of her teddy bear and her adopted children. The carcass of the Jungle Deer partly dragged along the ground as Makyna pulled it along. She was nearly back to Pisces when she heard the loud crack and the sound of worried gems. Was it some sort of disaster?

Fearful of what could be happening the lioness dropped her kill and went to investigate to find a familiar gem and two unfamiliar. The lioness approached, worry in her voice as she addressed the gathering. "What's going on?" The lioness towered over the current gathering but with her soft features and the flower in front of her ear she probably looked less like an intimidating predator and more like a fretful kitten.

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words: 168
tagged: Quest
ooc: ---
muse: 5/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Arkrael

You don't know what your power has done to me
I want to know if I'll heal inside
I can't go on with a holocaust about to happen
Seeing you laughing another time

Paws stepped carefully across the icey floor, carrying her along the tunnel as dual-colored eyes searched the area. She had been through here several times, but never had she staid long enough to look at much. With the water that was gathering with the tunnel Arkrael could not help, but to be a little curious as to what was going on. It wasn't until the loud rumbling crack did concern quickly grip at the she-wolf. A frown marred here features as she hurried her pace and soon it wasn't long before she found herself coming across a group of gembounds that seemed to be questioning what that noise had been. She spotted Makyna first, but her gaze quickly fell upon the rather large lizard that had a crest of red gems upon his head.

Recognition hit her instantly and she couldn't help herself as she grinned at the gembound. He sure had grown since last she saw him, there was no mistaking that. "It's been awhile, Ghanyarah," She greeted him first before turning her gaze to Makyna and greeted her. It was only after greeting those two did she look upon the others that had gathered there as well. "Any ideas as to what that sound was yet?" Shee questioned them all, curious to see what they thought the sound may have been.


"Speech"
Words:Words
Tags:
OoC:

---

You'll never know why your face has haunted me
My very soul has to bleed this time
Another hole in the wall of my inner defenses
Leaving me breathless, the reason I know....

Her feet were becoming numb, but that didn't matter when a voice startled the rodent. Glancing around, she tried to figure out where the voice came from but soon it was clear. Gazing down to the small mammal, a smile danced onto her face. "Hi . . . and it is strange. My name is Carrie, what is your . . . na . . ." Only to be interrupted when more voices came into the tunnel. At first, the approach of others didn't bother her but when she looked to see what they were, Carrie would freeze. Whatever the current disaster was, it didn't mean anything to her any longer. For now, in this tunnel, three meat eaters had all seem to come out of no where. What did the Lord Stag tell her again? They are not your friends, they are the enemy and they only wish to trick you. Heart raced, pounced away in her chest and the tunnel seem to feel even smaller then before. " . . . I . . I got to go." Trying to squeeze past the larger beasts. Monsters Shacking her head, the capybara ran passed the lioness and brushed her with her shoulder. "Please don't hurt me!." Sadly, Carrie didn't get a good look at Ky to realize who she was but it was to late. The rodent was gone. [EXIT] --------- "Speechy speechy speech." OOC: SHE IS GONE

@Booker

The lioness had paid much attention to the brown creature at first but when she overheard the name "Carrie" something seemed to click. She remembered a tiny brown creature with a frozen leg. Her mind seemed to drown with a feeling of guilt like an ocean. It froze over her soul as she remembered clearly the water gem using ice magick, freezing her leg and then Leon trying to rescue her. It had all been buried and forgotten about for a while but now it was clear as day again.

Despite what was going on in this cave she could not stick around. She had to go check on Carrie. She'd been gone for cycles upon cycles and she couldn't just let her get away now. "I'm sorry... I... I... I gotta go!" With that the lioness bounded away behind the capybara calling her name, loudly to catch her attention.

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words: 150
tagged: Quest
ooc: -exit-
muse: 5/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

My name is Carrie, and what is your... "Oh, I'm Barnett, but you can call me Barn," the scribe replied, blithely ignoring the rest of the girl's statement.

Par for the course, really.

Any of you know what that was? Barnett hopped in place, scrambling to turn around - and he really needed to get better about that focusing-on-one-person-at-a-time thing, because apparently it let giant lizards sneak up on him. It sounded like the ice. The numbat panted, coughed, and settled, squaring his shoulders and straining to regain his composure. "Yeah, that's what I'd guess. Maybe it's melting? Would explain the soup we're walking in," Barn added, glancing down at the wet floor with a grimace.

And just as soon as he'd regained his balance, he lost it again - because that was totally Makyna waltzing in, and he idly pushed away the tiny blip of rage that spawned from Booker's resting place. She wasn't paying him any attention, and that was definitely filed under "totally fine by him," considering it meant she wasn't eating him. Score one for the scribe.

Now he just had to also not get eaten by the wolf holy All Mother where were all these predators coming from? Skittering back until he bumped into the big rodent's foot, Barnett moved partially behind her leg, at least a little hidden from the strangely familiar wolf. Well, she was either a friend, an enemy, or a victim, but either way she seemed just as disinterested as the lion, which: score two. He was on a roll today.

"As we were saying," he muttered from his hiding place, "it sounded like the ice was melting, or breaking. Doing something bad, anyways."

And then because of course his hiding spot was lifting up and away, cantering down and out of the tunnel, followed by Makyna like a bat out of hell. Well. One down, two to go. Barnett stared rather awkwardly at the lizard and the wolf, finally raising a tiny hand in a wave. "Uh. Hi! Like I was saying, I'm Barnett. Call me Barn, though, sounds less pretentious. You wanna find out what that noise was?"

@Ghanyarah @Arkrael

The ground begins to slowly shake. A distant rumble opens up through the tunnel, sounding as though it is coming from everywhere all at once. The rumble slowly begins to mount in volume, so loud that the snow and ice creaks with force. Suddenly, an explosion of water bursts through the wall where the Gembounds have gathered. The ice breaks away, sending gleaming shards flying in every direction as a torrent of water shoves into the tunnel. The force is powerful enough to sweep anybody off their feet if they aren't paying attention; the water continues to gush through the opening for another couple seconds before dying down, revealing a new branch off of the tunnel.

A new tunnel opening has been discovered.
Surges of water regularly rush through this opening. Characters will have to do a saving throw (Roll Other) to prevent losing their footing each time the water rushes through. So what are you waiting for? Explore this new tunnel!

@Booker @Arkrael