THE BLACK CITY

The Blacksmith stood, waiting, at the shoreline. At last the Key had been retrieved--an unassuming-looking chunk of dark grey stone, etched with a sigil that now glowed a dim, dark purple. Now he had called upon Master Farina, and there he stood, fidgeting.

She had been... unpredictable, since her return. Violent, chaotic beyond her old norm. Hateful and spiteful, and generally worryingly unpleasant to be around. Her frustration and hatred had boiled the waters around her and kept him impaled on her acid gaze too many times in these last few weeks. He hoped that it might end here.

His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion of water, a crashing burst as the pock-shelled Master erupted in claw-smashing fury. "WELL?" was her immediate, deafening demand.



The Blacksmith bowed. He tried not to look at the way the water streaming down her carapace vanished into the scratched and boiled hollows. Or at the way her rending pincers raised, poised to strike. "We are... ready," he said, careful to be loud enough, for his voice to carry. One did not want Farina to need to demand a second attempt to be heard; she might not give him the chance. "We have the first Key."

"IT'S ABOUT TIME," and there was a savage satisfaction in her voice. A clack of her claws rent the air like a bomb, a loud crack and reverberating thunder. From the water beside her, as if summoned, erupted a second beast: something like a deformed, horse-sized seahorse, arch-necked and covered in spines, littered with misshapen holes that cut straight through its wiry neck. A grinning, hook-toothed jaw and four chartreuse eyes regarded the Blacksmith, and two hook-clawed forelimbs gripped the shore. Farina glared down at the Blacksmith. "THIS ONE WILL GUIDE YOUR SERVANTS. GATHER THEM, PREPARE THEM, AND HE WILL LEAD THEM WHERE THEY NEED TO GO. GET ME MY KEYS! GET ME MY STONE!" she screamed, and then--with a sucking gurgle of water--she vanished into the depths of Fornax's roiling sea. She didn't need to warn the Blacksmith of what would happen if he failed.

The Blacksmith fidgeted, staring for a moment at the misshapen seahorse--which grinned and stared back--before turning to the shore. Hopefully, enough Gembound would offer to help that this would be a quick, neat solution to a longstanding problem... and hopefully, Farina would become a little more manageable afterward. The piles of enchanted items were waiting: now he only needed volunteers.

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The Quest "The Black City - Part III" has now begun. New rounds will be posted every fourth day. Anyone may join in the first two rounds, but after that, the quest will be closed to new entries.

Previous segments:
[Quest] The Black City - Part I
[Quest] The Black City - Part II
The Black City - Interlude

Rewards for participating can be viewed here!

To her great disappointment, Whale hadn't been the one to find the key after all. She guessed it wasn't really her fault--the dragon who'd had it had a nest that'd been on land, where she couldn't go. But it didn't really seem fair that land animals could swim and use water-breathing magic, while she couldn't do much of anything outside the water. She might've asked the Blacksmith if he knew of a magic that might help when she came swimming into Fornax, but--

There was Master Farina, massive and angry and terrifying. "We're not servants," she protested weakly, but it was lost amidst Farina's screaming demands. Not very nice--but I guess if I was boiling alive forever, I wouldn't be either. So she couldn't really blame Farina.

Sighing, Whale took a breath and gave the sickly-looking seahorse a wary look. She'd never seen anything like it in her entire life. Though she supposed she'd met unique-looking people before, no one had had quite as many holes in them. "Hey, Blacksmith. I'm here to help with freeing Artio. Is that--alive?" she asked, bemused.

This entire little mission seemed to be made for it, if it was so egotistical to think such a thing. It stood, eyeing the pile of enchanted trinkets it had no use for and wondering who would come to take one from the pile. To it's knowledge, it was the only one from the chaos forge to attend- or, at least, Master Vargas hadn't informed it any others would be coming. It felt strangely alone in this way, even as other attendees began to gather.

It'd look down, avoiding the gigantic crab's gaze as she emerged, in an explosion of water and fury. It'd back into the water- away from Farina and closer to Whale and any others who were waiting in the water. It'd knew of the existence of other masters, and that this was one of them. But that did little to quell the sudden anxiety and fear. This wasn't just a simple training exercise, and none of them could afford to fail. To the whale it'd offer a side-glance and a tensely whispered, "Don't speak to a master like that."

It'd then stand back, waiting quietly until it was time to embark.

@Whale (vis)

Dragon had been here only a few hours, but those few hours had been... inconspicuous. He was watching, from a distance away, but he was in the water on the far side of the crescent shore looking rather like a mostly-submerged log.

It was his clever idea to spy on the Masters, possibly, before lending his aid--except that this clever idea meant that in the short time Farina had come and gone, the alligator hadn't made it all the way over there. The roiling black and red wings had swept up too late, struggling and faltering as the alligator cursed quietly to himself. He'd landed, rocks skidding out from underfoot and horns flickering along his skull, right when Farina was submerging.

"WHAT ABOUT NEMEAN-" he called, but it was for nothing; he was yelling at the ocean.

Damn it!

It was partially his fault--he'd frozen upon seeing the giant crab. She wasn't like anything he'd ever seen, and in her colors he at once recognized some of the other, older denizens of the caves. What did Nemean have to do with this?

Everything he'd heard thus far about Nemean's involvement had been secondhand. And his bellowing at the Heart had been too little, too late; Aquarian hadn't turned up to provide any amazing insight. Now he was here, in Fornax, with the choice to delve deep with strangers or not to go at all.

Something of his little sense of adventure remained, and inner fire; he wanted something to do, some sort of challenge. It was just... he'd liked to have had more information, first. "What is Nemean's involvement with this?" he asked, the chaotic wings and horns fading, Dragon relying instead on four low-slung limbs (one of which was wholly lame) to drag himself over toward the Blacksmith and those few gathered.

Cerilaine came rather, early, too- came with the arrival of the key, really. After she'd met with Attikias, though, she was adorned with leather and had a bead of her own (she eyed the pile, briefly, tail flicking). She'd been quiet the whole time- only now had she approached, watching as Farina was summoned and appeared. And what an entrance it was. The leopard winced back, reeling away from spraying water and backpedalling from the shore. Even with her gem-logged ears, the booming voice of Farina was loud, and she blanched at the reveal of it.

Breathing hard, she recentered herself, standing up taller. A seahorse appeared, and she eyed it, before she glanced back to the Master with an unsettled expression. She continued- and the others spoke- but one thing was on her mind. Keys? She only needed to find one. Lip curling, her pelt quivered with unease as she vanished once more, left with the strange alien and the Blacksmith, and the rest of the beings. Her expression reset soon enough- it was none of them that had caused it, anyways, and she let out a small sigh to herself.

Right. Stepping closer to the ground, Cerilaine watched the others, ears forward as she waited. "I'm ready whenever."

Hopefully, this would be over sooner rather than later.

Ceri's got leather armor and a water bead from this thread!

The disturbances had been great, as of late. Enough to send the Orarian deep into the hot, boiling trenches and the darkest corners to avoid trouble. The Ocean was angry, and violent, and the reason... was unknown to the Orarian. This unknown was haunting, a great plague on the leviathan's mind.

But the usual currents were disturbed in a different way. There was sound, noises, voices-- the Orarian could hear them, distant. Was it another war upon the Ocean's shores? The tendrils shifted in the deep currents, and the monster of the depths rose, drawing close enough to investigate without drawing the attention of the source of the Ocean's violent raging: known to the others, but not the Orarian, as Farina the Master.

The Orarian, upon hearing what was said, might have retreated. This all was beyond strange, and filled the leviathan with dread. One thing made the beast draw closer. Another of the Ocean: a whale, one of softer voice. Immediately they were recognized as a creature of the sea, and also... as someone who knew more of what was going on than the Orarian. As the beast drew closer, it sensed the other creature of slick oil and fin; another? This one was different, and yet, something in the shape reminded the Orarian of another. Ally. Friend.

I AM W̸̶̷̨͞R̶͟͏͝O҉̧͘҉T̷̢̕H̨͜͞. I AM OR̷A͡R͡͝I͟͡A̛N. OF ̀F҉ORNAX. The Orarian spoke, a deep reverberating sound that was in such a low frequency it might be lost to those on land. As the words pulsed through the water in waves, the Orarian's tendrils spread out, almost but not quite reaching toward the whale and the labradorite. WHAT IS THIS? IS THIS W̶͉͆Ȁ̵͚R̶͎͛? THE OCEAN IS ONE WITH YOU. The Orarian's eye, like starlight, seemed to glisten with the creature's spirit of inquiry.

No closer did it move to the shore. Nor did it seem to pay mind to the sickly vessel the Master had made to guide the gembounds. All attention locked upon this sense of kinship with the other creatures of the sea.

@Whale @V-Labradorite-One (for visibility...)

Carja swooped down, already wearing her ring of water breathing. She alighted on the ground with a soft sigh and folded up her powerful wings, looking like she'd been pulled right from the sky of Orion.

”I'm coming! I'll help!”, she said, stepping forward, hopefully not showing her nervousness.

She peered at the others and realized their group was awfully small. Swallowing nervously, she prepared herself mentally, willing to be the 'tank', as it would seem. Her scales were hard and would take damage as it came, should this get violent.

Maybe she was being cynical, though. Maybe she was just being a worry-wart. That had to be it.

Blight drifted in on tattered wings. His draconic neck twisted here and there to get a good look around at Fornax. He knew that his granddad had grown up here; he'd been here quite a lot, fishing and drifting, himself.

It didn't look like much had changed.

The sea still frothed with foam; light still drifted in from pinpricks high above, filling the room with a brilliant glow and diffusing where it hit the mist above the waves. The narrow bands of shore still lay damp with little more than sand and pebbles.

The only thing new was the gathering of Gembounds below; Blight had missed Farina's entrance (and exit) and could see only the group clustering up together.

He came in at a slow drift, wings thudding lightly in the air, and set crow-clawed feet lightly in the sand. He felt it give way beneath him, felt the moisture wicking up from below; his wings settled in before him and he craned spined neck to peer among those present.

"Hello," he offered, a little quiet in the face of so many once again. "I came to help, if we're still--swimming."

Blight wasn't entirely sure, still, what this would all entail--but surely he'd be useful-?

Not much had been going on in Kaimana's world. Not much out of the ordinary. After trying to help Levi pick out an object to get enchanted for this very mission here, time had simply passed and Kaimana had been... sort of frozen. There was a fear surmounting in her gullet each time she thought about this mission. This was some event, some truth or fate that had been slowly building around Kaimana since her hatching. And that wasn't Kaimana trying to make this hugely unknowable saga center around herself, it was more noticing that she had been here since it began... and she wanted to see how it ended.

What was all of this? Fish and chains and keys, Fornax -- her home -- and all the strange things now circumscribing it, or directly inside of it. This mystery was certainly bigger than one person, perhaps even bigger than just one waterway in the caves. Kaimana had sort of watched it all play out through each phase of her life, and it seemed kind of important not too many cycles ago... but as cycles passed, it and the importance of it seemed more and more distant. Kaimana didn't know what to think of it. It was weird.

Stranger still was how she felt about her own child's involvement in such discoveries. She knew Levi had wanted to be a part, but they had both entered their chrysalises at some point and he... still had not returned from his. It was just as relieving as it was disheartening. All this time she had spent, worried that this was the moment where the ocean would reclaim what it had once given... He was her gift, after all, a boon to her life and a calling of sorts. She hadn't wanted to let him go, but she was also excited to see him truly enter his element. He shared her love of the sea, after all.

But now she was here. James was busy, she still hadn't adopted out any of her stones -- hadn't even finished checking them all -- and she'd been asleep for who knows how long. Kaimana just didn't know how to feel, what to do. Alone.

It was a stabbing sort of familiar pain. The kind you just sat with quietly will wind blew by and ruffled the leaves around you. Sure, you might be falling, but you don't know when you'll land or when you'll see something you can reach for, so you just fall. It's not so bad, really.

So Kaimana just sat there and fell backwards in her mind, watching and waiting and feeling surprisingly dull somehow. Maybe it was just an after effect of waking up. Maybe all she needed was patience and the will to move and then she could grab some ledge and haul herself back to normal. It really wasn't that bad! Just a rough patch, a groggy "waking-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-chrysalis-you've-been-in-for-possibly-cycles" patch.

Perhaps through her arbitrarily self-assigned commitment to this, whatever this was, Kaimana would find and reestablish herself. Perhaps she would volunteer to go in Levi's stead, if the group needed a mind for logic puzzles or something. Were there logic puzzles in the depths of the ocean of Fornax? Heh.

Whatever the case should be, Kaimana wouldn't know until she gathered more information from her surroundings. So she would wait in place for more to appear.

Text. "Speech." Thoughts.

(Kaimana's just vibin' :3)

Telesto had arrived, to put it nicely, a bit fashionably late.

To be fair, they'd have to escape the watchful eyes of Electrum AND Haven. Evidentially it was much harder to sneak off when you have two parents. They'd waited until the two got distracted reminiscing over something in their collection, made an excuse about wanting to go fish for a bite to eat, and then off they went. To be fair, she DID plan on bring fish when she returned. Just... there'd be a little detour first.

The detour being here, to Fornax. She'd arrived after Farina had come and gone, so the only thing she saw was the gathering herd of gembound. She spotted the gembound who'd come to retrieve the 'key', and shot her a glance that she hope conveyed 'don't you dare tell my dad about this.'

But, being a nearly nine foot or so silver and gold dragon doesn't lend well to stealth. They slipped into the water, hoping that it'd camouflage them somewhat, but it wasn't like Fornax's waters were famous for being terribly murky.

@Electrum @Cerilaine (vis)