[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
• MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[deployed]

[ There hadn't been time to process Anakin's death. Bellamy had been seconds away from being caught in his own undercover operation, and he'd used his symbiote power seconds later. It had been enough of a distraction to tide him through the worst of the loss. But here, Lavellan's death has wedged into his chest. It won't be so easily shaken, especially in the aftermath of their victory. He takes a deep breath as he turns to Elena, letting her concern settle in against his mind. ]

It's not that bad, [ Bellamy tells her. Watching her take off her veil reminds him to lift his own away from his face. ] There were other people carried out of that canyon who had it worse.

[ Not just Lavellan. There had been other injuries. Bellamy had been aware of them, even if his priority had been getting to Lexa and getting them both off the field once he'd realized the Darkling and Shiro were both safe. ]

Are you alright?

[otrazhenie]

[ Grief is an old friend of Elena's, one who she knows intimately and is on a first-name basis with. It's been over a year of grief being an unwelcome guest in her life, and she's not about to leave the others in the Nest to deal with it alone. Not if she can help it, anyway. Focusing her energy on helping others is a much better use of her time than wallowing in her own pain, after all. ]

I heal fast.

[ Whether the question was about her physical or mental state, the answer still applies. Whatever injuries she might have sustained during the hunt would be long healed by now, and the grief she's feeling... She'll survive it. She always does. ]

I know some of the others had it worse, but they're being take care of. Who's helping you?

[deployed]

[ The sentiment Elena puts forth isn't unfamiliar, but it's not easy for Bellamy to acquiesce to. It's never going to be easy for him to take the help he's offered without some measure of hesitation. He pushes his veils the rest of the way back, letting them drop to the floor of the tent. It's easier to breathe without them masking his face. He doesn't answer until he's taken a few deep breaths, and felt the answering flare of pain in his body. ]

I don't think it's anymore than bruises. I hit the side of the canyon at one point.

[ Or he was thrown. Same thing. He rubs a hand down his face, then sits down slowly. ]

But I don't heal as fast as I think you're talking about.

[ Not that he'd let Sam help him out. He tips his head at Elena, inviting her to take the seat beside him as he starts opening the front of his robe to press careful fingers to his ribs. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ For some people, offering help is a thousand times easier than accepting it--they have that in common. She watches his expression closely as he removes his veils, takes those breaths, sits. Any slight indication of pain is noted, and she has a feeling that he won't accept her offer, but she's still going to put it forth.

Sitting beside him, she keeps her movements fluid and careful, trying not to jostle him in case there's more damage that he suspects. That's the thing about adrenaline and emotional pain: you don't always notice the physical aches until you're made to. ]

I could heal you too, if you'd let me. I did it for Shiro the other day.

[deployed]

[ The expression on her face almost makes him laugh. He's seen the exact same look on Clarke's face more than once. She's assessing. Elena is different in so many ways, but Bellamy can see that she's used to looking after people. Maybe she didn't come from a world engulfed in a war, but she's seen people hurt.

And she makes the same offer Sam had, once. Bellamy glances at her as he works off his gloves, eyebrow raised. ]

What's the catch?

[ He knows how Sam's healing works. It's a shell game. It's trading his pain away and letting someone else carry it. Bellamy assumes Elena's healing works the same way. Nothing comes to them freely. There's always a catch. There's always some kind of penalty with powers like theirs.

It doesn't occur to him that Elena might have something else to offer. What he knows of vampires is Damon's teeth in Lakshmi's neck. That hadn't been Elena, but the skillset must be the same. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ Her world might not have been at war, but she'd certainly been involved in one. Caught in the middle, a prize to be fought over and claimed by claimed by every side, from those looking for favor to those just trying to stay alive. She'd been sacrificed for personal gain and hunted for daring to survive. She's seen so much pain and suffering, and endured enough of it herself, that she can't not be critical and concerned now for Bellamy and everyone else in the Nest.

The catch. Well, there's the pretty big one of potentially being turned into a vampire, but that would involve the much bigger problem of being killed in the first place. It's not something that she wants to think about for any of them, but she's not sure that she can bring herself to hide it from him. Regardless, it's easier to start with the simple catch, the one that has her wrinkling her nose as she answers. ]

It's kind of gross? You'd have to drink my blood. Just a little, but it would heal all of your injuries in seconds, and it wouldn't do anything to me.

[ She adds that last part because Shiro had worried about it, likely remembering how Sam's ability works. Healing others doesn't do anything to Elena, and she's so used to being on the receiving end of such healing that she has to remind herself that people who aren't used to vampires will probably find it as weird and disgusting as she had in the beginning. ]

[deployed]

[ There's just silence, at first. Bellamy doesn't know what to make of the offer, and that tired confusion is clear in the expression on his face. Beneath the confusion is a faint flicker of disgust that hasn't found a foothold yet. Just a little, Elena quantifies, but that doesn't leech the sense that it would be a transgression to ingest even a small amount of blood. ]

You're serious?

[ Bellamy knows she's serious. Elena isn't the type for jokes. There's no hint of amusement underlying the offer she's making. ]

I've never heard of any rituals like that.

[ But he's also never heard of any vampires like Elena. She's not like the stories Bellamy had read. It's easier not to recoil from her than it would be from someone else. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ No, Elena isn't the joking sort when it comes to important matters. She wouldn't be offering if she didn't think it was a safe, perfectly acceptable solution to his problem. Her offer is born out of a desire to help him, to ease what burden she can from him when he's grieving with the rest of the Nest. ]

I wouldn't really call it a ritual, drinking it is just the easiest way to get it in someone's system. Before I died- [ there's a bit of a stutter on the word, but she moves on quickly ] I fell and hit my head. The injury was bad enough that a doctor injected me with vampire blood to heal me. That's how I got into this mess, actually.

[ The vampire mess, not the symbiote one. Though both are equally hard to deal with these days. Reaching up to tuck her hair back behind her ear, she gives a little shrug, trying to play off just how much she wishes he'd say yes, because then at least she'd have done something to help someone today. ]

I won't fault you for saying no.

[deployed]

[ The fervent desire for him to take what she's offering rattles down the bond. Bellamy can't miss it. It's a twin to something he's felt before more than once: the urge to help, in whatever way he can. Even with the unpleasant apprehension at the idea of drinking blood, Bellamy can't help but empathize with her in this moment. ]

I'm not in that much pain.

[ Not physically, at least, and the grief would pass. Bellamy reaches to take her hand, fingers settling and pressing down in silent comfort. ]

I can't let you do that for me this time. But if I ever...

[ Bellamy trails off, apprehension bleeding into the link between them. It's hard to predict what's coming next. There's a chance that they have to scrape through more trials that would create injuries even Elena's blood or the symbiote couldn't fix. He sighs. ]

Next time. I'll ask you next time, alright?

[ And hopefully he'd have the time to get used to the idea of drinking blood. Or at least, acclimate to it enough to distance himself from the sense of revulsion that rises when he considers it. ]