lifeaftr | December Adventure: Turn Your Face Towards The Sun

December Adventure: Turn Your Face Towards The Sun

NEW ISLAND: CHOL

Who: Everyone!
What: There's a brave new world to explore
When: December 14th and onward
Where: Chol
Warnings: Mark as needed!

The Overview: Chol
On the dawn of the 14th, characters will awaken from a brief, rather harried dream with the Storyteller who has advised of a new island accessible through the mana pool. Welcome, adventurers, to the island of Chol.

The edges of Chol are unremarkable, craggy bits of cliff and rock, gradually sloping upward into a vaguely mountainous region. While there's not a great deal of natural life growing here, characters may nonetheless notice the odd prey animal scuttering about, only to vanish in the steep cracks running along the cliffsides.

Once the island's hardened exterior is crossed, the rocky canyon gradually gives way to a gently sloping valley that, the further down you go, reveals an atypically verdant center. The contrast is not sharp to the point of unbelievability, but it's clear that the valley is where the most life is sustained in earnest. The rock dips in an almost craterlike fashion to favor the fertile heart of the island, around which the people who live there has established a rudimentary encampment.

Chol Outskirts: Do Not Break
As described above, the island of Chol is composed of mostly rocky ground, with very little fertile soil. Further examination of this land will prove that the composition is hardly a natural one- the dips, valleys, and sharp rocks reminiscent of craters that scar the land. It's not surprising that no one lives here.

There is, however, still things of interest to find here. Scouting Jormun will be happy to stop and direct characters to camp, whilst others yet may have goods to trade. All will point anyone with questions to the center of the island, where their leader resides- but if you're willing to accompany them in their scouting and hunting duties, you may just find this amphibious race warming to you quickly.

Chol, C3: Just Carry On
At the sloping center of Chol, a veritable village of tents can be found, with Jormun hurrying to and throe. In the center of this point, they seem to be busy building walls and spiked partitions- and surveying all of this is their mighty leader, Muninshhashvark.

But please, call her Munin, if that's easier for your less wet tongues. Here, trade is at it's peak, with plentiful interesting items on offer- for the right price. Adventurer's can feel free to wander through the encampment, though try not to get in the way of anyone who looks particularly busy.

Munin however, though in the center of everything, is more than happy to be approached-- by anyone willing to look past the fact that she is an eight foot tall snake.

For OOC information about Chol and the Jormuns, please see our recent OOC information post!

Feeling a tad adrift? Make sure to check the Locations Page, which has details regarding the starting areas and a handy map for those who feel better with a bird's eye view!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

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He may not mind it, but Munin is nevertheless quick to stoop, bracing her broad, webbed hands on the stone and leaning down to lessen his neck strain. She nods her enormous head emphatically.

"Certainly, little one. The Storyteller's reach is known throughout the archipelago, even to those such as the Jormun, who normally dwell beneath its waves.

There is a juxtaposition between her frightening appearance and the simple kindness of crouching down to lessen the strain on someone's neck because they have to look way up to speak with her. He wonders, for a moment, if that was a thing that everyone considered 'good'.

He was still learning, after all.

"Why have you come from the waves to this place?" A pause, before the Batter adds. "If I can ask."

He still also bad at being polite. Something to work on.

A series of hisses and clicks filter from Munin's mouth; this is apparently how she laughs. It isn't at all meanspirited, and the Jormun smiles down toothily at the Batter.

"You can," she replies patiently. "A cycle seeks to begin itself anew, and we are here to serve as sentinels for the oncoming danger. Though, admittedly, I have a vested personal stake in this as well."

He doesn't take offense either way, although it's due to the fact he can't really feel offended. The toothy smile, however, reminds him of a monstrous creature who smiled down at a small child in a Room despite the pain he was in.

...he's been thinking of the past too much. Address what's being said.

"What is the danger?"

They can get to her personal stake in this a little later. What's going to happen this time?

"The sun is going to die."

She replies simply, in a low, toneless hiss, gesturing with one log-like arm to the very star burning brightly overhead.

"It will be reborn, as it always is, but the time between its death and rebirth will be tumultuous. A sunless chill will settle upon the land, and those who seek to end the cycle within the sun's death will rise."

It's a simple concept and the Batter understands it.

Without the sun, plants will die and the world will be blacked out. There will be no warmth aside from what people could provide for themselves. Fire, magic and shared body warmth. And it seems they will have some unwelcome company.

The Batter's tone of voice is suddenly a more business-like, but it suits this situation.

"When will this take place and how long will it last for? And what will be seeking to end the cycle?"

"Soon. There will be no sun to track the passing of the days, but in land-dwelling measurements of time... around a week." Munin has turned equally grave; she crosses her arms over her front. "As for those who seek to end the cycle... who else? The ones who cannot bear the sun's light. Those who dwell far from its reach, on the seafloor."

Her tone is clipped -- said creatures are no friends of the Jormun.

Clearly. Evidently there would be a mutual enemy between those who lived on the island and the Jormun once this happens. And by the sounds of it, there was no avoiding the sun dying out and getting around the upcoming disaster.

"Those of us who can fight will likely do so if it is required." The Batter is aware that there are children on the island, but the ones he had met could defend themselves or at least perfected the art of hiding away. "Will you as well?"

Just covering all of his bases here.

Munin nods solemnly.

"That is why we're here. This cycle is ordinarily of little concern to those of us who dwell in the sea, but I would prefer to think that all life is valuable. To turn a blind eye to our neighbors is not a principle I would instill in my people."

That makes sense. Since they appeared to live in the ocean it likely mattered little that the sun was gone. But morally to leave those above to their fates is not something this one appears to be comfortable with.

Then this will likely work out for the both of them, although the exact details the Batter will leave to someone else. He wasn't much for negotiation. Anyone who left him in charge of that particular subject had only themselves to blame for whatever happened.

"That is good. We can help each other. Do you have any information on what kind of impures will attack, besides their origin?"

The scaly ridge that serves as Munin's brow arches at the designation 'impures'. She does not comment on it, however, and merely transitions into a shake of her large head.

"We do not often make it a point to interact with those neighbors. They are violent and mulish creatures; our history with them is not one of friendship. The dark trenches of the ocean's floor is where they belong, and it is where we seek to return them, when the time comes."

He's willing to bet he messed up something, if going by the raised eyebrow(?). But now wasn't the time to focus on that and instead focus on the task at hand.

"Physically or metaphorically?" It's probably a very odd question but a lot of things in the Batter's world worked like that. Some things were changed physically or something happened metaphorically. And sometimes the Batter had a hard time telling the difference.

"Both," Munin replies without hesitation. "From those dark depths they will rise, and if we do not return them there, they will seek to make eternal the night descending upon your land, so that it may be their new home. They have no concept of honor, nor diplomacy. Heed our warning and do not let your guard down."

That's that, then.

No chance of diplomacy, negotiation, or peace. Either these islands would come under the control of those who wished to bring darkness to them or said creatures would be destroyed by those who made this place home.

No middle ground, no 'other course' that could be taken. It's far too familiar but it is what it is.

"Okay." A pause and then the Batter continues. "Thank you for the warning. We'll be ready by then."

"I trust that you will," Munin rumbles gravely.

It gives her relief to see that land-dwellers, however minuscule in physical size, bear the courage of Jormun warriors. She expects that fighting alongside them will prove their tenacity to her people; as she will prove hers.

"If you have need of anything else, you need only ask, land-dweller."

"Okay."

It's a interesting thing to be here. The Batter had worked with people in the past, sort of. The Puppeteers and his Add-Ons, partly because he couldn't function without them and partly because the Add-Ons became part of the purifier in a way. This was the same but this is coming together with words rather then simply...happening. Working together.

"One last thing. How often does this happen?"

Is it going to happen again in the future?

"Gods be willing, not again in our lifetime, my friend."

It is Munin's pride that prevents her from providing a more clear and direct answer; nonetheless, there is earnest determination in her tone.

"In our own way, we must prevent it from being the last."

That determination, at the very least, is clear. To see this to the end, even if it does not end well. And...

"In our own way, we must prevent it from being the last."

The Batter understands that far more then Munin may realize.

"Okay." The Batter still sounds just as emotionless as he did when the conversation began, but he's being honest. "Then it will be the last."

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December Adventure: Turn Your Face Towards The Sun

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