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

[onemind]

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
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( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[wille]

[ Wholesale genocide, by accident or by design, is already as much part of her bloodline. It isn't as difficult for her to stomach. Demolishing a number, no matter how large, is infinitely easier than killing a person. Already the tragedy of Lavellan looms larger than the loss of the entire race of Rabadoceans, and she has to remind herself that they would think the same of their own family, and that she can't afford to be selfish. ]

I meant for 'Plan Z' to be a deterrent, a line we would do everything possible to avoid crossing. I thought that would be obvious -- but well, famous last words.

[ And Misato gnaws on the bone like a starved dog, ashamed too of her own appetite, palpable on her mind. How embarrassing, to take a slight when it was never intended. She moves on to the next thing to avoid facing up to the humiliation. ]

What work have you been doing?

[isorropia]

Oh, this and that. Nothing you need to worry yourself over just now. Not that I'm being coy to spite you, just that it's not terribly relevant yet. When something comes of it, I'll make sure you and everyone else knows.

[If it's any consolastion, there's something in the shifting sensation of her mind that seems genuine enough about that much. If only because it would be more dangerous not to say something than to share - imagine if she died in the middle of her project? At least if she'd chatty about it, she knows the effort won't be wasted.

Ugh, what a bleak line of thought.]

I'm sorry, by the way. That he died. I know it isn't easy.

[She feels it too.]

[wille]

[ It takes such great effort, does she know, for Misato to turn her weighted gaze from Rhan and let go of the matter. The act betrays something foundational in her, like shifting pillars. Only the promise of not yet rather than no helping her to cease and desist, huffing with discontent. ]

I'm holding you to it. "Even the stone you trip on is part of the journey." Ever heard that one?

[ Easy has nothing to do with it. Easy is more dangerous than difficult. Complacency is her greatest fear. ]

Some of us think this whole thing is a trap, either to weed us out or turn us against each other. What do you think?

[isorropia]

I think that phrase is 'shit happens' on my home planet. [Ha ha ha. She's hilarious.]

When you say 'us' do you mean the envoys or [somewhere in her mind there is the sensation of a pointed eyebrow raise. Us as in Hosts.] Because if it's the former - eh, maybe. If it's the latter... I doubt it. Sure, a lot of this is back biting and politics, but if the Hyrypians really wanted to invite war onto their planet there's a few ways to do it that seem simpler than this whole charade, right?

But maybe some of you have spent more time on this theory than I have. Any particular reason you're chasing that fuzzy bunny?

[She's all ears. Maybe literally if those segmented head frills are part of how her species processes audio.]

[wille]

"Shit happens" means it's random. Without purpose.

[ She is so curt. The distinction is too important to her for it to be reduced to a joke, but then she remembers to reprimand herself, when she is so lacking in humor these days. Her mind is in its bare bones, just the necessary parts functioning. Levity was the first thing to go. It is with deliberate intent that she shrugs off the hardened shell of offense to move on to more important things. She wills her shoulders to relax, let go, her gait to slow. For all her tales of being a liar, Rhan has given her no reason to be so guarded. Surely. ]

I don't know. It's someone else's hunch. I'm chasing that bunny, that the Hyrypians are the one, and I'm chasing eleven other bunnies. Hunches are a dime a dozen and no one has any proof. But when I say us I mean -- how long have you been a host? Are you still who you think you are?

[isorropia]

[Surely an eyebrow quirk must be happening under those dense robes. There's certainly a variation to the texture of Rhan's mind, some undefinable shift in the shape of her beside Misato.]

The time's difficult to say. Six years, maybe? Or twice that? I don't know - you've been to the station, you know how wobbly things are and really, I look pretty much identical to when I arrived so it's not like I've got a bunch of gray hairs to judge by. Lyr's started that way and Siva'co's always been a little grizzled, eh? [Hilarious. Rhan waves her hand, dismissive.] Anyway, it doesn't matter. Any of it really. I rather like who I am, whether that's me-me or me-some-combination-of-other-things. We could talk all day about how that might be the symbiote lulling me into some false sense of security or comfort, but [She shrugs, and that one does show through the heavy drape of her robes] I rather enjoy all this danger and sneaking around, so it's no skin from my nose. Someone else would tell you differently though, I'm sure.

[Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Rhan shifts gears with fantastic alacrity.]

Now, I'm not sure I really see the logic in our clever little friends being in with the Hyrypians. We're very certain they're aiming to shift the power dynamic in the war. If they were Hyrypian, they could simply pick who they liked and be done with it. No need for all... this.

[wille]

[ There must be an art to listening to the gap between words instead of the words, though it isn't one Misato can claim to be skilled in. What she draws from this is that Rhan's state of mind is the one she wishes for herself no matter how impossible such wants might be. When she speaks, she sounds so muted. Her mind is folded back and away, with even the walls stowed aside. ]

It bothers me. All this thinking about how I'm not myself. How what I want might not be what I want. It's enough to drive you mad. But -- [ But. Punctuated with a sharp huff. Snap out of it! ] It's not like there's anything else I can do.

[ Then, just as quick, a conscious or unconscious mimicking of the way the agent switched her gears. ]

Did Annie tell you what she found about the Carpathans? Domestic troubles from the sound of it. We'll try stirring the pot a little to see what floats up.

[isorropia]

I heard about it, sure. [Not as useful as a shapeshifter would've been, but she'll take spy goo if there's no other option. Oh Petre, what she could've done with you, you beautiful bastard. --Ah well. No use crying over spilled jaki. Just like she's not going to linger unnecessarily over Misato's personal identity dilemmas when there are more interesting topics at hand.]

From what I heard, it sounds like they're making deals with Descendants. I'm not sure I know anyone else who makes bets with favors as stakes, do you? In which case the real question is what could two Carpathans possibly want from some member of the Descendant envoy-- and what on earth is the Descendant getting from them. And of course I suppose we could talk about the matter of the bleeding. Is that some Carpathan thing? A weird sexy foreplay thing? You know, I knew a person once who was very into strangling and a little recreational blood play--

[See? Aren't these much nicer points of conversation to indulge in?]

[wille]

That's also a human thing. For, you know, some people.

[ In case of misunderstanding, in case saying so points the metaphorical knife toward her. And Rhan's right anyhow, better talk of things they can do, all the many moving pieces they can manipulate and change, rather than mope over the inevitable. ]

We can speculate all day. The Descendant wants allies to overthrow the emperor, build their very own villa on Hyanna'Vi. The Carpathans want to be the winner of their civil war back home. It's all about power, isn't it?

[ If only it's that simple, if it is. She doesn't trust herself to know what another person, let alone an extraterrestrial being, could possibly want. Better again to focus on actions. ]

How can I help you? Make more noise?

[isorropia]

I think it's an every species thing. No such thing as a creature in any universe who isn't a little odd now and again.

[But fair point on the rest. Maybe she's just talking to talk.]

I say keep doing what you're doing - whatever it is. No one around here is going to take us seriously, but that's a good thing. It means we can do a little politicking and even the people we're working with might undervalue us.

--So maybe not more noise, but the current noise level seems helpful. Being seen as a little obvious isn't so bad. I love being underestimated.