Fantasy Cessation

[Ashvaliaen]

It had taken the rest of the day, but Eikana finally got done writing detailed documents for the top ranks of each profession aside from the warriors. She had hoped to deliver them herself, but as she watched the torches flicker to life in the later hours of eventide she realised this would be too large a job for just herself. She may not have intended to sleep that night, but nor did she hope to be delivering letters. So she tied and sealed them before finding a courier to deliver them, stressing that they had to be delivered by the next midday.

It was late when the priestess made her way back to the grove of statues; each one was made of a different material. Tonight they seemed almost scornful, despite their blank expressions. She did not care, after how Eikana ascended to the throne she'd turned her back on the gods altogether. Of course, she had to show people the spotless image of herself though she thought it truly laughable. Still she had to bide her time if she wanted to see him again.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses yawned as he got in bed after reading his prayers.
It took him a while to fall asleep but he eventually managed to, reaching a deep slumber which was occasionally disturbed by sinister visions, which blurred away as fast as they appeared.

The morning after he didn't remember much, but he felt uneasy, be it for the troubled sleep or for the thought of the ship and the ocean.
He donned his blue and gold silken robe and gathered all his stuff from the wagon, leaving it for the last time.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

Eikana had been the first to go to the waiting ships at dawn, she'd traveled with the priests leading the gedas. She'd decided to spend time playing a game with them before they were loaded onto the ship. She wanted them to sleep most of the way, because she knew how they hated the pitching of ships. The ships her people manned had always been made for speed, with triangular sails and a thinner bow than most boats. They always had the insignia of the gods sewn into the sails. They were armed with ballistas for defense.

Talruun was just after her, and it seemed like he went there just to glower at the dockworkers.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses skipped breakfast and headed straight for the docks, where she met with Eikana and Talruun.
He gave a disheartened look at the ships and opted for some small talk to distract himself.
"So is everything ready for the departure?" He asked, to no one in particular.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"Once our upstart commander gets here." Talruun grumbled.

Eikana paused in her tussle with one of the great beasts and said, "To be fair, he had to do more than simply picking up a satchel and glaring at the docks-men."

Sa'Netel had been hung up in finding their last companion, the phoenix from the day before had decided to go off on his own. It'd taken a while to find him, and longer still to reach the rebellious bird. So he was the last to join the others at the docks, with the proud bird resting easily on his shoulder. It seemed almost smug, as though it enjoyed making him chase it up a tree.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses chuckled as he saw Sa'Netel and the phoenix finally joining them.
He greeted him with a smile, admiring his plumed companion and then looked at Eikana "Alright, we're all here now aren't we? Are we ready to sail?" He asked nervously.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"Yes, we should be ready now. I suspect the ship will reach land in a few days, so long as our mage friend does his job of course." Eikana said as the priests began leading the gedas to their place on one of the lower decks. Talruun grunted in response to her jab, though it might've been a laugh. It was hard to tell.

Sa'Netel opted to stay quiet as he wondered why the keeper had chosen such a small band for scouting unfamiliar land; usually a scouting troupe would consist of no less than fifteen naga and forty five gedas. With a set rendezvous point, a typical group would split off into small groups to cover more ground. For some reason though, it seemed to him that she was more tightly wound than usual in this past week.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses reluctantly walked aboard the ship, and as it set sail and started to pick up speed he began feeling more and more dizzy.
He found a quiet spot on the main deck where he wouldn't be a burden, close enough to the railing just in case he felt ill.
He took some comfort in the sun rays and the wind through his fur. The short stay in the Shexili island was pleasant, but he was still glad to be going back home.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

Eikana busied herself in checking the ship, and asking the crew if there was anything that needed done. She noticed a few details that made her uneasy, but there was no thing to be done about that. Eventually a crew member told her that the only thing she could do to help was assist the cook, in more formal words of course.

Sa'Netel relaxed near the trees on the quarter deck for a while, thinking about their destination. The phoenix seemed to taunt him from it's perch on one of the branches. At least it sounded far better than the seagulls, he thought.

Talruun had immediately gone to the mizzenmast upon boarding the ship, he was meant to speed the ship along with runes to enhance the reach of the masts without really expanding them. He'd prepared the ink just before he'd gone to bed, so it would be at it's best when he used it.

 

[Project Naiad]

As he started to get a bit used to the ship's rolling, Ramses decided to join Sa'Netel for a chat. He wasn't sure there was anything he could do to help, he was a terrible sailor of course, but he still expressed his good will to the crew in case they needed anything.

He greeted the naga and the bird a bit awkwardly, "So here we are. I'm surprised how fast things moved under your Keeper. I arrived on the island, and moments later we have a plan and we're good to go! Back home an operation like this would have take weeks of unnecessary planning."

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"It helps that she's so motivated... and aggressive. I've never heard of any operation taking over a week, and the only thing I've ever heard of taking a week is preparations to greet a visitor. It's always struck me as odd how they can simultaneously give so much respect and hatred to outsiders." Sa'Netel said. He knew that most of the festivals to greet an outsider were shows of strength and resilience; with fighters doing most of the performances, and strong drinks that contrasted highly with the lighter tastes of the infused water.

 

[Project Naiad]

He nodded. "It shows the strength of the community I guess, some of the city states can be unwelcoming to strangers as well."
In Dhjiria, where poisonings were a daily matter, outcomers (and many of the inhabitants) were stripped naked and examined closely to make sure they weren't hiding anything, and were 'encouraged' to wear tight essential clothes, with no pockets or folds.

"Speaking of displays of strength, -- added Ramses -- I was getting curious about our third party member, Talruun. I would ask him, but he doesn't look like the talkative type."

 

[Ashvaliaen]

Sa'Netel seemed to think about that one for a moment, "Come to think of it, I don't know if I've ever actually met him before yesterday. I had heard of him of course, battlemages are the ones who we have to contact for improving our weapons with poison and the like, but I suppose he keeps it that way intentionally. I think he was the Keeper's teacher at one point, maybe in the runic languages and the powders they use? Either way, our battlemages are often strong with knowledge of pressure points, so if magic's added to the mix I would guess he's almost as strong as the Keeper." he said. By how he'd said it, it seemed that Sa'Netel believed the keeper to be in possession of a great deal more strength than her appearance would suggest.

 

[Project Naiad]

"I wouldn't want to be on their bad side", joked Ramses as he waved Sa'Netel goodbye and stumbled towards his room, where he tried to relax with some reading and praying despite the rolling of the ship.
The voyage went smoothly for the most part, thanks to a sunny weather that might not have been completely natural. Ramses didn't feel excessively ill, but he was still very grateful when he spotted the land slowly getting closer to him. His land.
He hadn't been away for a long time, but it still felt nice to be back home.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

As they neared the land Eikana set about untying some ropes near the back of the ship; what had appeared to be a raised portion of the ship actually proved to be caravan wagons that had been tied down. They weren't apt to slide unless the ship pitched heavily forward or back, their skates were in special grooves made to ensure they could only go forward.

Sa'Netel spent the day carrying some flat pallet type things with the same sort of skates as the caravan wagons, they were the transport for the large water barrels they would be taking. There places that allowed them to be hitched together, the connectors were peculiar in shape but they were made so they wouldn't easily slip like a hook might. He stacked them by the mainmast so they would be relatively out of the way.

Talruun lounged by the trees on deck, they would be taking them as well but they would likely be unloaded last. So Talruun made a point of watching everyone else work, he was tired from the continuous casting and renewing of runes over the last few days. So he had only bothered moving his own things to the caravan wagon he would be housed in.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses smiled, enjoying the feeling of the sand under his bare footpads. The sun's heat was intense, but he didn't seem to mind much, despite his thick cream fur and mane. On the ship he couldn't be of much help because of his sickness, but now he tried giving a hand whenever he could be of use, unloading the ship and preparing the wagons for the journey ahead.

By looking around he didn't recognize the area they were in, which was mostly desolated once the sand of the beach became that of the desert, and it seemed strange to him that Eikana preferred not to dock near a city, unless her goal was to enter the country unnoticed.
As their job with the wagons was almost complete, Ramses decided to take a short break and ask the Keeper herself out of curiosity.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

When asked about her motives in choosing this particular place to dock Eikana didn't have to think about her answer at all it seemed, "It was the closest familiar access point to our set goal and it seemed an easy spot to set everything in place. We also did not want to alarm the gedas who, before you, had never seen one of your people." She pulled out what appeared to be a hand drawn map. It wasn't her work, but she would be picking up where the navigator had left off. She gestured to an area of the map that seemed to be marked with some kind of plant life, "This is where the Gedas will take us first whether we want them to or not, I thought it best that we at least be close to it."

Sa'Netel was off connecting the appropriate wagons as the gedas were unloaded. It seemed each housing compartment was followed by one of the trees from the boat. Then the remaining utility compartment was attached to two of the water storage platforms and all that was left were connected. The connectors for the gedas' harnesses seemed to simply fold out from the wagons.

Eventually it had been left to Talruun to lead the sacred beasts out and back onto sand. They weren't hard to lead, just to wake up.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses examined the map, he wasn't sure what the green area was, but he guessed it had to be an oasis or a shrine, and if they were as far from the Moon River as he tought they were, places like that to rest and find water would become harder and harder to find, the closer they got to the tombs.
They would also have to worry about the desert itself. Aside from the heat and the thirst, they could also be found by beasts, bandits or undead.
Not all dead were revered and mummified, the unworthy ones were left in the desert without proper burial, and there were times when they came back as mindless ravagers, fueled by their very hatred.

It wouldn't be the first time he crossed the desert however, and he was sure his experience and his magic would be of use, whenever they found themeselves in danger. All in all, it seemed it would be an interesting journey.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

As Talruun was trying to instruct the gedas into their harnesses, it seemed something went wrong. The beasts paced anxiously, almost seeming to distrust the wagons themselves. Talruun did his best to try guiding them but the closer he took them the more aggressively they acted. One going so far as to toss the ill tempered old mage aside, he obviously did not appreciate but he had to respect them.

Eikana watched their behavior, it wasn't terribly unusual for them to be unruly but unfortunately that was usually followed by either abandoning the plan altogether or taking the time to scrutinize it and redo what was being protested. This time though there was no reason she could see for them to protest, she thought they seemed more afraid than anything.

Sa'Netel actively tried to calm them as the situation progressed, thinking it could prove disastrous if they were agitated further.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses watched the scene from reasonable distance, he didn't have much experience with these animals, but they seemed docile and unaggressive unless provoked. He looked around for anything that could have threatened them, finding nothing except from the occasional palm tree, although the dunes didn't let his gaze go too far, and could easily conceal whatever had upset the gedas.
He approached Eikana for an explanation: "They seem scared. Do you think there's something nearby?"

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"Typically they're confrontational with other creatures, even their own predators." She said, trying to think about the possibilities, "They're afraid of certain fruits, but we also steer away from them for most purposes. Or they could hear something they don't like?"

Sa'Netel had managed to at least get them to stop their aggression, though now they still paced and growled anxiously. The phoenix watched from atop one of the wagons with occasional tittering sounds, possibly to show interest.

Talruun flipped through a book to the side, thinking to find a way to reveal the source of their discontent. He wasn't practiced in this type of clerical work, so he was glad that he'd retrieved this book. It was almost like an entirely different language.

 

[Project Naiad]

Ramses began feeling slightly uneasy, "There's a number of things in the desert that could upset animals like this, especially if they had never seen them before..."
If something was spying on them then staying in place wasn't the best plan. Their party seemed experienced enough in combat and magic to dispatch most of the desert's dangers, but Ramses would still prefer to know what they were going to deal with.
He motioned closer to Talruun with a hint of hesitation, "Do you need a hand?"

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"Do you know clerical work? I have trained for battle more than communing with nature." Even the prickly exterior of Talruun seemed dampened by this occurrence. He wasn't exactly shaken, but to him this situation looked like the gods had wanted the mysterious deaths. That was a possibility he did not want to think about, so the only thing he could think of was sabotage. Not that he would say that with the keeper on edge as she was, he could see that this situation only furthered her less than rational stance even if she could hide it from Ramses.

Sa'Netel was mostly ensuring none of the creatures would not run off into the desert, and they eyed him as he did. It was unclear if this was an aggressive gesture or not.

Eikana tried examining the area for any hint of what may have caused this outburst.

 

[Project Naiad]

"I trained as a priest myself, although no doubt your traditions are different than ours. I know my fair share of heals and blessings, and some offensive magic, which I doubt could be of use right now. -- He replied as he examined the foreign book, -- Did you have anything specific in mind that could help us calm them down?"
When the animals sacred to a god showed signs of displeasure it was usually a bad omen in his home, and there were a number of rites to appease them, but Ramses knew next to nothing of the religious ways of the Shexili people.

 

[Ashvaliaen]

"Anything to reveal why they act as they do. It stand that we should ascertain why they would suddenly refuse after making the journey away from the rest of the herd." The man said without looking up from the book. The Shexili lettering was oddly simple compared to the spoke language, mostly the letters looked like they were written with only one line in various shapes.

Sa'Netel glanced back at the Keeper, thinking she could possibly calm the beasts further. He knew enough about the animals to figure out at least that they were drawn to the sound of bells or wind chimes. Likely they'd been conditioned to take something from the sound. Especially given the outfits the priests wore.