station72 | [mission: hyrypia] and when our bottles and all we are fill’d with immortality

CHARACTERS: The Barithian Hunters (and anyone sneaking along)
WHERE: Hyrypia - The Finger Maze
WHEN: DAY :018
SUMMARY: The barithian hunt leads into the depths of the Finger Maze.
WARNINGS: Violence. Animal slaughter. Character death. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

THE FINGER MAZE
DAY :018
IN MORNING'S PRE-DAWN GRAY the camp is far more subdued than on preceding days. There's no music, breakfast is a quiet and simple affair, and the servants are hushed as they go about their duties. Before the sun has even fully risen, the members of the Envoys participating in the hunt make their way to their mounts. When they arrive they are given a speech that seems practiced - likely only a slight modification of something that the Elinmaster has said many times before. The group - just under forty hunters kitted out with all of the weapons and traps they have had time to learn in their days on the graze - is brought to the fenceline running parallel to the technomagical barrier which guards the mouth of the Finger Maze proper. In the fence is a plain gate. Once the hunting party is gathered there, it opens. A slash in the technomagical barrier disintegrates before them and the smell of ozone evaporates or is carried into the twisting depths of the Maze by the wind howling mournfully inward from off the Graze. The Elinmaster leads the hunting party through the gap.

Once on the other side, the party draws pauses until the technomagical barrier rises once more behind them. No crowds today. No onlookers (unless they're being especially industrious). Then the Elinmaster brings a familiar sounding horn to their lips. It's long, low wailing note echoes down into the maze and splinters down the endless twisting pathways. With that, the hunt begins.

INTO THE LABYRINTH
I. THE STAGING GROUND
HERE IS HOW YOU HUNT A BARITHIAN, explains the Elinmaster. First, a field of battle needs to be chosen - and it's always better to know the ground you're fighting on than to be caught unawares in unfamiliar territory. The hunting party will need to establish a fall back position inside the canyon that's advantageous to them, at which point it will be lain with all manner of traps. Memorize it. You'll want to know every nook and cranny when you return here under duress.

Plan your routes and lay your traps. You do remember how to set them, don't you?

II. BY THE TAIL
WITH THE STAGE SET, only the star is lacking - or the villain is. But the Finger Maze is a vast labyrinthine space that stretches on for miles. Finding the Barithian, even as large as it is, presents a challenge - perhaps the second greatest challenge of the hunt. It is time for the hunters to separate. Some go off alone, some travel in small groups. Each is equipped with a small version of the horn that had summoned them to this work in the first place. Their task is simple and herculean: to search the maze for signs of the beast and locate it, then to draw its attention and lure it back into the staging ground. Lastly, they must send out the call to summon the rest of the party to rendezvous meet them where the chase will end. However, only one route leads to the barithian. Perhaps--

a) There were signs - a bone, a tell-tale scrape on the canyon walls, a corridor of felled coral. It was difficult to tell from the back of the Elin, so it made sense in the moment to dismount and check more closely. --At least, it made sense right up until now when you suddenly hear something. Something-- big. Its footfalls shake the floor under your feet; its heavy breath snorts out of its multiple sets of nostrils with a wet visceral sound. You can’t go back the way you came - the trembling footfalls seem to come from that direction. Luckily, there's a narrow cave opening in the canyon wall right there.

Inside is dark. The cave goes very deep indeed - so deep that after a time you can smell the promise of fresh air again. Maybe there's another exit? Which is good, since the way you entered is no longer an option: the beast is there, it's massive forepaws clawing into the stone on either side of the cave entrance and its huge mutli-nostriled nose sucking in big, gulping breaths.

b) ((OOC NOTE: first come first serve)) You find the Barithian. Even with its great hulking back turned to you, it's awe-inspiring. Terrifying. The Elinmaster's assistants had described it on the way in, but their words failed to convey the details. It's disturbingly massive - mammothian, even -, its six legs coiled tight with muscle, and strong, sharp claws on each of the massive paws. You have to get it’s attention. How you do it is up to you, but you know that the moment it turns its massive head toward you with its beady eyes hidden behind a broad, triangular face plate and its multinostrils flaring with a horrible groaning noise that it's time to get a move on.

c) Your search has turned up nothing - but that's not surprising is it? The maze is huge. Not everyone could strike gold. Hell, not everyone would even want to. It’s almost a relief until you hear it: the low, moan of the signal horn echoing through the maze-like canyon. You need to get back to the staging ground and you need to go fast - or risk leaving the other hosts to face the beast alone.

III. THE BATTLE
THE HORN DOES ITS JOB. By the time the hosts unlucky enough to have the tiger by its tail come riding back into the staging ground, many members of the hunting party have already returned and are armed, if not ready, for when the creature comes barreling in behind them. It shakes the brittle bone coral with the weight of its galloping footfalls and makes a deep, low sonorous noises that echoes down the stone walls. With its ire raised, the barithian is even more fearsome than it had seemed from a distance. It’s size and strength are undeniable up close. The creature tears great mounds of earth up under its clawed feet and there's a mesmerizing, horrific quality to the flash of filtered canyon light off its sharp teeth.

The riders are now tasked with the last phase of the challenge - kill or be killed, using the weapons and techniques they have learned in their time here. And hey, maybe you have a few non-Hyrypian tricks up your sleeves you can play with some subtlety. Fighting fair seems less than ideal when one of those huge paws comes swiping right at you.

IV. THE FRUIT OF DIPLOMACY
'DON'T GET CLOSE TO THE HEAD,' had seemed like an easy to follow rule back on the Graze, but the reality of facing down with the barithian is far more complicated. And despite being slowed by the environment, the traps laid for it, countless spears jutting from its dense marbled hide, here in its last moments the great beast is at its most dangerous. Maybe someone gets over confidant. Maybe it's just general exhaustion. Maybe it seems like the barithian is staggering when really it's turning for one final, deadly snap of its ferocious jaws.

It bowls three riders from their Elin with one swipe from its massive paw - mechanics twisting and bursting with brilliant flares of released technomagical energy - then lunges for the felled hunters left in the wake of their ruined mounts. A Descendant throws up both arms in some lunatic, useless defense mechanism. Beside her, Lavellan drives the blunt end of his spear into the ground and braces the shaft across his knee. The Barithian drives itself down on the point of the spear, snaps down on his arm by reflex and then recoils - tossing him clear like a horrifying rag doll as the great animal thrashes.

There's an immediate, palpable, indescribable POP! A ship being hulled and all the air sucked out of into into the vacuum of space. A glass bauble splitting into a hundred thousand pieces on some distant stone floor. A seam splitting. A branch snapped across the knee. And then there's nothing left at all except the frothing barithian snapping out those nearest i to it.

V. THE RETURN
THE RIDE BACK TO THE CAMP seems to take twice as long as the one they took to the Finger Maze - though it hardly seems long enough, knowing what lies at the end. Certainly the other Hosts will have felt Lavellan's death, but you know what they say. Seeing is believing.

It doesn’t matter. The camp awaits their return regardless. As they ride through the gate again one of the massive technomagically driven wagons passes them, headed into the maze to retrieve their kill. Once they reach the edges of the encampment, the atmosphere there remains subdied. While the other Envoys and Hyrypian hosts might not know the nitty gritty details, the certainly seem to have considered the possibility of things going badly. There is food, drink, and eventually even some gentle, sober music, however the evening is quiet and many of the envoys retreat to their own tents rather than remain in the public spaces.

Some victories are not celebrated.

((OOC Notes: This log covers the barithian hunt and any relating events that take place on DAY :018. You can find information about the hunt and ask event specific questions HERE.

Have more generalized questions? Drop them on the MISSION: HYRYPIA OOC POST or get in touch with us on the Mod Contact page.))

NAVIGATION • GAME CALENDAR • MISSION: HYRYPIA • FAQ
• MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's not a good sign at all. On the back of the raging power flooding every limb, the anger driving him forward into the monster, moving him like a whirlwind across the space, something hard and cold and hot and merciless. One predator, trying to tear into another for invading its territory.]

[For preying on its family.]

[The memory of Lavellan's body replays over and over and over again in his mind, crackling along with that sickly green lightning where it once was vivid white. The same light coloring their shared nightmares. A feeling of hands grasping, trying to pull Lavellan's mind back, only to have the sensation of water falling through fingers. Trying to grab an illusion.]

[tossing him clear like a horrifying rag doll and tossing him clear like a horrifying rag doll and tossing him clear like a horrifying r a g d o l l l i k e l o s i n g a l i m b and thundering roaring through his head through their minds together.]

[don't leave me]

[There's no physical pain right now. Not even when the monster bats at him, clipping him in the process.]

[ Stop.

It's not quite an order, but it might be the closest that Sam's ever come with Shiro, and it doesn't leave room for any other options. It has to be firm, has to be absolute, because otherwise it's gonna come out like a plea.

Sam has seen more than enough people he cares about die; he sure as hell doesn't want that memory on replay, blaring in his mind as both of them can't seem to stop themselves from trying to reach after Lavellan and pull him back -

he's not there he's not there he's not there

Focus. God, he wishes that Shiro'd never had to see that, but there's nothing they can do about that right now. What he can do is pull Shiro's mind from it, and as he widens their connection to dim the rest of the Nest, he blocks them from reaching for other connections - whether they're still there or not.

Focus - and he's talking to the anger that's taken over Shiro's mind right now, fingers in his hair and a hand at his back, turning him from the memory and pointing him at the monster he's fighting in the right now.

Focus, and stay alive. ]

[Orders though. Orders are good. They're hard and concrete things he knows how to handle. Even like this. Especially like this. When there's nothing but the Enemy nothing but loss and rage and he can't be gone. And the last comes out in another roar, this one all thunder and too much sickly green lightning.]

[But orders are good.]

[Orders and those hands mean he can turn away. Focus. This thing in his head is redirected. It's a thundering, rippling supernova. And all of it turns to the monster. Every cold and crackling star in his mind turned to it. Every muscle burning like solar flares.]

[Focus, and stay alive.]

[He'll live.]

[The monster will not.]

[ Sam can do orders.

He doesn't, usually, but he can, he can make the calls when he needs to. And right now he needs to, because he can't lose Shiro, he can't, he'll do whatever he has to -

No. Because they've talked about this, him and Shiro, because they've trained as best as they can under the circumstances, in the small spans of time between missions, and talked about what to do when it happens again.

And Sam can keep himself in Shiro's mind. Some days it feels like it's all he can do to keep himself out of Shiro's mind, not to make himself as much at home in there as he feels like he could. It's easy to stay there, to provide focus and direction, to support Shiro as best as he can.

To keep him alive, to keep him from hurting anyone else in his path.

Forget everything else, forget - he can't forget he can't almost a decade and he hasn't forgotten riley won't ever can't lavellan - No.

I'm with you, love, we got this. ]

[It's familiar. This sensation of direction. Of someone taking the reins. Guiding him where he knows he needs to go. It makes the situation feel more manageable, carving the familiar and safe out of something so wildly broken, so painful, he didn't think he could deal with it.]

[There's a heartbeat then, abruptly, where it feels like he can breathe. Even dodging and fighting like he's back under too-bright, too-hot lights. Thunder crackling in his thoughts. The lightning mingled purple and sick green strobes.]

[But the target is never lost. The target with its massive head, the feet. Things he can strike out at. Something he can wound.]

[Make it hurt like he's hurting.]

[Like it hurt someone else.]

[The heartbeat passes, and the anger asserts itself again. But now, trusting the hand buried in his hair, the hand at his back, to press him forward the right way.]

[ He tries to think of it like an extension of what he’s always tried to do with Shiro - give him a place where he doesn’t have to be completely in control, where he can trust someone to take that weight off of his shoulders. And it’s - it’s not the same, it sure as hell isn’t the same, when Sam knows that this above everything else is the one situation where Shiro feels like he needs control the most, where Sam wants to help him be in control, not take it from him -

But this is the best he’s got. Trying to shift this a little, to make this less overwhelming and turn it into something they can at least get a handle on.

Sam doesn’t falter when that rage surges back up. He knows it now, and it’s a part of Shiro as much as anything else, even if it’s not a part that Shiro likes all that much. He’s not afraid of it, of Shiro, and his mind murmurs approval as he feels Shiro focusing.

I’ll stay with you, he promises without saying a word, an assurance that fills the bond between them and twines itself in Shiro’s mind, that he will never have to do this alone. ]

[I’ll stay with you echoes in his head. In the part of himself still rational. Someone is here. Someone is with him. And someone isn't going to let him hurt anyone else.]

[It rises. Like a wild animal surging to its feet. With that voice at its back, with those hands turning it to face the monster at their doorstep. This is the fight. This is where he needs to focus every ounce of rage, every inch of strengthened muscle and solidified bone.]

[There is only one goal.]

[Destroy the Threat.]

[Protect his people.]

[With this thing in his head urging him on, with the guiding hand at his back, there is a sense of movement. He's going to kill it. Or fall in the process. Nothing else is acceptable.]

[mission: hyrypia] and when our bottles and all we are fill’d with immortality

wellp

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