Warpland Fantasy

[jondude]

"Well... seems like it's been abandoned for a long time.", Nova says as she leads the way in. As she does though she spots the various small and medium sized animals, none of them seeming to react to their presence all that much. Naturally though her gaze quickly falls upon the skeleton on the throne. It seemed like it had been there for quite a long time as the skeleton was completely bare. "Well... thats a little spooky. But hey, chickens! Maybe we can salvage something from here!", Nova says excitedly.

Naturally though before she does anything Kayin explains her... telepathic findings. Nova is naturally confused, since the first part of her statement seemed a little obvious, but as Kayin explains in more detail the more weird the situation rapidly seems to become. "Wait... so... the animals are... people? Or animals acting like people?", Nova asks. She watches a dog plods by, seemingly completely ignoring them as they stood around the entrance and examined the town. "Well... that makes me way less comfortable about eating a chicken or goat then... damn. They seem to be ignoring us though. Maybe if we just leave the skeleton and animals be we can salvage some tools or gear from the buildings?", Nova proposes. "Maybe we can find some other clues as to what happened here while we're at it, unless you can do more spooky mind stuff Kayin."

Her thoughts said Nova gives the other to comment on things if they want, but if no one had any objections she'd head to the closes building and head inside, curious as to what they might be able to find and use. A gun would certainly be awesome! She'd settle for a pitch fork though. Good as she'd been doing with the chains a purpose built weapon would be a welcome change.

[Kuragari]

"Its a tad confusing to me too, to be honest." Kayin adds with a sigh. "To be honest it makes me wonder if these are real. I kinda want to pick one up, see what happens if I try to walk out past the gates with them." In fact, at first she decided to go ahead and stand by the gates, watching to see if any of the animals seemed to move over towards it. Then, if none of them did, she'd see if she could scoop one up and see what happened as it got near the gate. Or hell, what it did just with her picking it up!

[Taria]

As Nova wanders off to search for loot, Kayin begins working on her side project. She holds the gate open and a few of the animals wander out on their own, seemingly unperturbed by her presence as they meander around her. They move along specific trails and around the wooden wall as if they were looking for something or working on something specific. Eventually Kayin looks for an animal she could pick up and finds a cat. The cat she lugs around seems somewhat confused by the sudden abduction, but otherwise is completely docile. It makes no strange reaction at all to being carried outside of the outpost past the gates, and Nova can sense the same ever present calm still in its thoughts that has followed all the other “denizens” of this place.

Meanwhile, Nova has found a decent collection of ordinary household tools wandering through the buildings, a broom, hammer, even a wrench. She collects these things in a looted toolbox, replacing rusted and worn looking things for their useable counterparts. However, the bigger payoff comes when she stumbles upon what appears to be an armory full of iron age gear. It’s in disrepair, like most of the other buildings, and there’s nothing fancier than a flintlock, but there’s definitely some salvageable stuff here.

[Kuragari]

"Well, that just leaves me more confused..." She muttered aloud, holding onto and petting the kitty after a moment, scratching at its ears and keeping it in her arms for the time being as she headed back in. She didn't bother closing the gate, since it didn't seem to matter much. Still, after a moment she approached the throne and the skeletal figure upon it. For a good minute or so, she stared at it, then walked around it, as if doing so might provide some new kind of information. When she was back in front of it. she just sat cross legged in front of it and shook her head, petting the cat from head to tail.

"Well, this Telepathy stuff so far has been a mix of helpful. Hope it isn't always like this." It was still informative, just not as informative as she would have liked. And admittedly, a part of her did worry about making use of it too much.

[Soru]

Scarlet stays put for now, watching as Nova and Kayin look around or try to figure things out while she stands guard for a bit incase anything tried to come at them while they're distracted. After a bit though she finds that none of these strange animals are acting suspiciously at the moment and act like normal animals for the most part, though domesticated ones considering they barely react to them. Figuring that something would have tried something by now she decides to explore a bit on her own, hoping to find signs of any recent human activity since she was disappointed that they didn't find anyone but maybe she can find a clue of where there might be other settlements.

[jondude]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sorry about the long delay! Was doing a lot of traveling over the holidays.

Nova is quite happy when nothing untoward comes at her when checking for goods. One building seems to be a workshop full of good stuff too! She manages to grab some basic tools, aiming more for things like wood cutting axes or saws, hammers and nails. That sort of stuff, but she'd grab whatever tools she could stuff into the box she found. All she needed now was a proper back in which to carry stuff really, since the tool box would get heavy after a while.

Furthering her looting though, in the same building she finds what appears to be an armory! It's nothing fancy, as clearly Torben down had made a lot of their stuff here given the technology level, though some of the tools seemed a little more high quality then seemed reasonable and were perhaps looted somewhere else. There is a bunch of honest to god flintlock stuff, but it was all rather useless without powder and admittedly Nova had no experience with them. Luckily though there seemed to be actual melee weapons to use though! If she could she'd prefer to get a sword with a sheath and hopefully a belt in which to put it on. And if any were available she'd like to get a spear for everyone in the group. Spears were incredibly easy and user friendly weapons, not needing much experience to be good with, and were incredibly versatile in a survival situation.

[Taria]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

all good, I figure with the holidays we're bound to have some breaks between posts.

Even without telepathy, being around the throned skeletal figure fills Kayin with a sense of... warm fluffiness. The cat in her arms mews softly at the pets and swishes its tail around contently. Nothing unusual jumps out at her, and there doesn't seem to be any impeding threat. Everything in this place seems peaceful and the day lazily continues to come to a close.

Scarlet meanwhile goes searching for information. After everything seems to be all clear, she begins digging through the more official looking buildings (thought it is a bit hard to tell with all the decay). Eventually she stumble on what looks to have been an administrator's office, currently occupied by a chicken, standing upon a paper-piled desk and marking the papers with literal chicken scratch, making them unreadable. What Scarlet is immediately able to recover is dated a five years back. It details an account about the founders of this town, all exiles with various reasons given as to why they were banished, many of the city names either match Scarlet's own home or at least sound familiar to her. The language used in these documents seems to more open accept and even celebrate their different kinds of warp taint, calling them quirks or gifts depending on how beneficial the changes seem to be for the town and others. Out of the destroyed documents on the desk, it is harder to make out exactly what was recorded, but they do seem to be the most recent, just a few years ago, and mention the town's renaming to Torben Town; that he was a new arrival with incredible gifts, something about creating a paradise.

Nova comes out strapped with a moderately nice sword and weapon belt strapped around her waist, and a whole rack of suitable spears for herself and the others. She is unable to immediately locate Scarlet who has also squirreled away into some buildings, but she finds Kayin quite easily, pondering over the skeletal figure in the town square.

[Kuragari]

"That is definitely... Strange." Kayin remarks aloud as she remains seated where she is. She would not have expected a strange throne with a skeleton on it to give her a feeling of warm fluffiness. Idly, she pets the cat in her arms, then glances to the sky as she notes it starting to get darker.

"We should probably see about staying the night here. Unless folks think we should be fine heading back in the dark." Though some small part of her idly wonders if that would be the best idea. A part of her mind wondering if at one point these animals had been people, or still were in some strange warp twisted fashion. If they stayed here for even a night, could such effect them?

When Nova comes over, she accepts a spear and says, "Thanks. Say, standing around this throne, near mr skele-king guy there, do you get a feeling of... Warm Fluffiness?"

[Soru]

In the past Scarlet has infiltrated many buildings like the one she was currently in for information, usually some sort of company secret or sometimes to install viruses onto a CEO computer, so it was a bit eerie to be in such a place and not needing to worry about security or getting caught. She looks at the chicken on top of the desk and tries to gently pick it up and place it on the ground. "Excuse me but I need to check this desk for a moment..." She tells it before going through the papers, not really finding anything too useful. What she is able to get from her quick reading this place was founded by exiles from various places and for various reasons. It also seemed like that they liked their changes, or at least learned to embrace and be happy with them and even call their warp taint by different names so it didn't sound like some sort of disease. The last bits she finds through the old documents is something from a few years ago, something about changing the town's name because of a new person who seemed to have strong abilities. "This can't be the paradise considering it's abandoned unless they set out for that paradise..." She mutters to herself before searching for more, searching the desk drawers for anything and checking for any hidden compartments; in her old line of work those were common and she learned how to find and open them. If she found nothing in this room she'll search another.

[jondude]

Nova is happy as a clam to have some actual weapons, even if they are probably really old. They seemed sturdy and more effective then the wild nature of the heavy chain though, though she as those in the toolbox she found. Heading back out near the entrance she plunks the tool box down and then hands a spear to Bean. Nova wasn't sure she liked the idea of Bean fighting anything, given that she looked so small and cute. But she supposedly was a genetically engineered fighter and Nova would prefer her have something to defend herself if it came down to that. She could probably defend herself better then her appearance suggested, sort of like her really, but Nova felt a strange sense to protect the girl she couldn't deny.

That done, the two of them quickly spot Kayin and head over. Nova handing over one of the spears from the small bundle in her arms as she listens to what Kayin has to say.

"Warm fluffiness?", Nova repeats, cocking an eyebrow briefly. She briefly stares at the happy cat in Kayin's arm purring as she pets it, then at the skeleton on the throne, then back to the cat, then back to Kayin. "Well... I'll check. But I have a theory as to the source.", Nova replies wryly. The answer seemed a little obvious to her... but then again this was the warp lands. She hands over the spare spears she has for Scarlet and Vale for Bean to hold, and then approaches the throne to see if she feels the sensation that Kayin described.

[Taria]

Scarlet

The chicken clucks contently and wanders over to a nest of shredded papers to sit and sleep. Vision becomes more and more obscured as you are losing daylight, but you do manage to collect a stack of notes pertaining to some sort of ritual performed by Torbin to create said paradise; so Torbin town is supposed to be this paradise now, but either something went horribly wrong and now everyone is gone, or you are missing some kind of detail.

Town Square
Bean takes the weapon handed to her gleefully, apparently also happy to have a more meaningful weapon in her hands. She gives it a few practice thrusts and swings to test out the weight, showing signs of training as warrior. Bean follows Nova to the town square where the throne of the skeleton sits profoundly. As Nova approaches with empty hands, there's definitely a feeling of.. something. Not sure if it would be called warm and fluffy but it does seem peaceful here. Maybe it could just be the signs of civilization again, as ruined as they may be.

Even Bean comments aloud as she holds her spear up by her side and looks over the throne. "Normally a corpse on display would be cause for alarm, but this almost seems honorable. Like he is meant to be sitting up there." The cat in Kayin's arms stretches out and give a soft meow before curling up more, sleepily, and all over the town animals seem to be wandering home, slipping into buildings as if they were their own and some even having their own makeshift pens. "I am not overly fond of making a trek in the dead of night, and we already have some decent fortifications here again any wild creatures, or potential monsters.

[Soru]

It takes Scarlet a bit to remember what the town's name was and starts looking at the notes again. "Wait, if this is supposed to be the supposed paradise mentioned in the papers... then something didn't go right." She mutters to herself before noticing that she was losing light. Taking what seemed to be the best of the notes she grabs a stack of the papers before heading back to meet the others. As she leaves the building she notices some of the animals entering as if they lived there. "That's... not creepy at all..." She mutters out loud before trying to find the others. "Hey, I found some notes. Seems like some guy with a special taint power wanted to do a ritual here to make a paradise. Seems like something went wrong because considering there's no people here, just all sorts of animals." She tells them.

[Kuragari]

"The cat may be warm and fluffy, and plenty adorable, but there's definitely something about this throne, the skeleton, or both." Kayin murmurs aloud as Bean shares her own thoughts about what might be up with this place. As she glances about at the animals now, she again can't shake a feeling... and as Scarlet comes over and shares her findings, it just reinforces an earlier thought.

"I... I think these animals were people, once." She shakes her head and says, "They all seem to have... purpose to what they're doing. More so than you'd expect from a bunch of wild or even tamed animals. And considering what I sensed with my telepathy..."

Casting her eyes about, she hums and says, "I mean, to us it's just an abandoned village. But maybe to these animals, it is a paradise?" Still, this makes her wonder somewhat at staying the night here. She'd prefer to stay here than wander about at night even if they could fashion some torches. But she also has this wondering feeling of what might happen to them if they remain here for a night. Though even as she says this, with a soft, warm, fluffy kitty in her lap curled up and sleeping, Kayin finds herself starting to feel a might tired. Rest sounded good.

[jondude]

"Well... that guess doesn't make me want to stay here, I'll be honest.", Nova says, replying to Kayin's theory about the animals here having once been people. There was clearly something to it all though what with the way the animals seems to act and largely ignore them. Given the state of the skeleton that was presumably Torben it was clear this place had been abandoned, or at least humanless, for quite sometime. If that was the case then these animals should be pretty much feral and not willing to approach them at all. Yet here they were, practically blaise and unconcerned. There was definitely something off about this place.

"Well... if what Scarlet says is true, then maybe Torben got a little ahead of himself and turned everyone into animals somehow, then through some unknown course of events died and ended up there. Hopefully with him gone any danger is past, but that is only an assumption.", Nova guesses, cocking her head slightly as she examines the skeleton of Torben. "Probably best not to touch the skeleton or go anywhere near the throne either... just because he's dead doesn't mean his bones aren't still tainted."

If there was nothing else then it would probably best for the five of them (including maybe Vale) to find the most intact building and spend the night there. Maybe if they were lucky they might be able to find some candles and something to light them with. Any light source would be good really.

[Taria]

Bean seems equal parts cautious and unconcerned as she gives the throne a wide birth but then casually remarks. "If I were an animal, what kind do you think I would be?" She walks together with the others as they gather up their things and consider rest options. There's certainly no shortage of buildings, but only a few seem "unoccupied".

[jondude]

Nova keeps an eye out for the most intact one that was ideally unoccupied as they look for a place to spend the night. Maybe if they were lucky they might even find some beds, though they probably be in poor condition. Any blankets would've fallen apart by now, either due to exposure or the animals simply ruining them over time. Furs however had a good chance of being in good condition, so hopefully they could find a few of those. Even if they did though, they
d likely need to huddle together for warmth just to be safe since they didn't have the ambient warmth of the desert to keep them warm over the night. If their best option with a roof happened to be occupied already though, hopefully it would be by something small and quiet. Cats would be okay she supposes.

As they look though Bean suddenly asks what kind of animal they'd think she'd be. A curious question, but certainly a little valid given the circumstances. Given her immediate past though and the strange... alternate creature that seemed to possess her, Nova stamps down the sudden urge to say wolf. "Um... the fluffiest sort of puppy, no doubt.", Nova says, picturing something along the lines of a Samoyed or Malamute. It was a cute image, which in her opinion matched Bean who in her estimation, was also rather cute, if also full of surprises and apparently a designed super soldier. She'd never have guessed that just by looking at her thats for sure.

[Soru]

"I rather not assume that with him being dead that his abilities are gone with him. With how Taint can be... might be best to take the safest options." Scarlet says as she looks around, eyeing some of the animals that could possibly be people. "I wish I could have found more clues about what happened here but there isn't enough light for that... and a chicken ruined a lot of the papers I found."

She then looks around at the buildings. "Well if it's just animals here we might be able to find some bedrooms; odds are most of the animals wouldn't care for them so there might be some free ones. Then suddenly Bean asked a strange question that caught some of them off guard. "Um... Sure, what Nova said... Why do you ask though?" Scarlet asked as she looks at bean. Her first answer would have been maybe a bat considering how they first met her, but she didn't want to say it out loud.

[Kuragari]

Pushing herself up but making a point to try and keep the cat in her arms, since she was growing a bit fond of it, she hummed at bean's question. "For you... well, hmm. My first thought was a bat, thanks to how you seemed when we first met. But that wasn't you but something else so... Dog seems fitting!" She then hummed, before musing aloud, "As for myself... Well, I've always liked cats, though... There was a petting zoo when I was younger in the city that I liked to visit since the baby goats looked so cute. So... a goat or cat?" Though even as she said that, some small part of her vaguely wondered if thinking about such things here was a good idea... No, she had to be overthinking it.

She made sure to follow after the others, petting and nuzzling the cat she was carrying.

[Lazy Kitsune]

"I suppose we should get used to encountering things like this..." Vale mumbled. The whole town sitting under the watch of a skeleton on a throne was eerie enough even without this added layer of possibly transforming into an animal. Yet as unsettling as that notion was, the creatures all around them seemed oddly peaceful about the whole thing. If it weren't for the taint, this would be a nice place to visit. Corpse not withstanding.

"Does anyone feel like they're turning into an animal?" Vale asks, before considering the animal traits certain members of her company already carried. "I mean... more so than... ah... never mind." She clears her throat before trying to move on. "Well, I don't feel like I'm changing, but I do feel tired... and whatever weird shit is going on here, it seems to be keeping this place safe. So maybe one night only, then we move on in the morning. If anyone feels particularly fuzzy at any point, we can bail right away."

As they searched around for a place to stay, Vale also kept an eye out for any additional supplies they could salvage. She didn't want to depart the group to do a thorough search, preferring the safety of numbers, but if she saw anything that could potentially be useful, like medical supplies, tinned food or a weapon, then it could be worth snatching up.

Bean, who seems more curious about the bizarre happenings of this town than concerned, treated the risk of transformation as an idle talking point. Though it did get Vale thinking on herself. As she was back home... she would consider herself a vixen. A sly fox, cunningly rooting out her prey. Since being cast out here, she felt much more like the prey itself however. It was not a feeling she enjoyed.

[Taria]

Bean just shrugs “Apparently these are people turned into animals; it was a curious thought. Maybe I’m more accustomed to the idea of turning into something else. At least a small animal wouldn’t be as dangerous.” With a yawn Bean stretches out her arms and takes a final look around the perimeter of whatever area the party has chosen for rest. Night falls on the quiet village with little noise save for a animal snores.

During Vale’s search throughout the day along with the others, she does manage to find some decent bandages. Most everything else medical seems to either be missing or in an unpleasant state of expiration.