witchesreign | SeeD field exam

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SeeD field exam

Incongruous architecture and reports of suspicious noise around ruins recently unearthed on a Trabia farm have led the local town council to suspect off-world involvement. SeeD has been hired to provide a thorough safety assessment of the site, with an eye for potential future development.

[The town council, who hired SeeD for this mission, have supplied a check list for Namur and Maria to refer to, things like monsters, structural integrity, and other hazards. Amid whining about the overnight appearance of these ruins "DEVASTATING!!" his potato crop and some sideeying of Namur, the farmer with sudden ancient ruins on his farm has shown them to the entrance, handed them flashlights, and gone back to his work.

[The entrance is actually a small cave, half-sunken into the ground; Trabian excavators have dug up enough of the earth around it to get inside. It's dark and dusty inside, but well away from the entrance, one can start to make out what may have once been a city (note: visual guide for architectural style and atmosphere only, not layout) in the stone, about ten metres down: Crumbling walls of a blue stone not found in Trabia, ornate stone doors in the most solid-looking wall with a sign carved nearby, worn pavement in that same blue stone, the ends of clay pipes sticking out of the ground, large boulders dotted around the area.

[There happens to be a ladder down to this level, though one that's seen better days.]

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[Odd or not, Namur's heading that direction and tugging experimentally on the stalks when he gets there. They feel pretty tough and secured...]

How's it look up there?

There's a vine up here! I have the sneaking suspicion that when I seize it and toss it down to you, it's going to turn out to be the tentacle on some hideous plant monster, but I don't see another way up for you!

Yeah, me either...

[Maria doesn't need to drop it, he can reach. But he'd had the same thought about it suddenly trying to choke him the second he's not in a position to fight back. Maybe it would have been a good idea to wrestle Karma a bit more, back when he had the chance. Learn how to deal a bit better with attempted choking from multiple, flexible appendages. Nothing he can do about that now.]

A'ight, be ready t' split this sucker if shit goes down. I'll take a fall better'n gettin' squished.

[Namur punches it fairly hard, just to see if it suddenly curls up or something, and failing that, will jump up and begin climbing.]

[Namur's punch dislodges a few little bits of masonry from up above, which bounce away in the darkness. The vine, springy and more than tough enough to bear even a bulky fishman's weight, doesn't seem to mind in the slightest.

From somewhere inside the building, muffled but practically thunderous in the midst of all this damp silence, there come a couple of wooden-sounding thunks.]

[Climbing faster! Namur's an experienced hand at making his way up rigging, so he gets to the top rather quickly, and shoos Maria on ahead. If something's going to come try and find them all in a tizzy for getting punched, he'd rather be on the other side of the building when it arrives.]

[The most obvious way "ahead" is through the open window - it might seem a little illogical that somebody would have built a ledge here without a visible door or other obvious way to reach it, but if there ever was one, it's nowhere in sight.

The window leads into a room, spacious and perhaps once even airy, although the best you could say for it now is that in here they're more likely to choke on the dust than the damp. The outline of an unblocked doorway is visible at the end opposite the balcony, but watch your step; towards the centre, a few chunks of the stone floor seem to have crumbled away. And what's that persistent tapping noise, fainter than the thumps from before, originating from somewhere below your feet?

Now that the two of them are out of the earlier smoke, there might be a clue in the air: the extremely faint scent of another human evident all the way back at the gates to the ruined city is a lot stronger here. So is the mix of all the other mammalian scents from before, though...]

[The tapping is probably the rats. They had to get their shitty armor from somewhere and Namur doubts they just found it laying around. The taste/smells from earlier also come from below, and one of those may or may not be a capturable Guardian Force. There may or may not be a pissed off plant thing coming for them. The weakass floor may or may not crumble beneath them even if they try skirting the edges near the walls. The shitty building may or may not be a maze, and it would be damn stupid to get lost in it when the place they probably need to go is open to them right now.

They just have to dive in and hope the proverbial sharks are too damn surprised to do anything while they get their bearings and get to cover.

Namur grits his teeth, letting out a long, slow breath between them. He should probably suggest they stick to the walls and go through the door. But that feels like more circling, and he's circled enough to be satisfied. It's time to strike, the quicker the better.]

Okay, goin' t' drop down them holes in the floor.

[He's still keeping his voice low, but anything he can smell can probably smell him, too. It isn't as if there's a current around to move the scent.]

There's a shit ton a critters down there, maybe a human. Y' got any ideas better'n jus' walkin' over an' hopin' the shitty floor crumbles t' our advantage?

I can get to the door safely, but it'd be noisy. [She's confident that with a flip and riding the recoil from her gunblades, she can bypass the unsafe section of the floor entirely.]

Of course, you could always give the floor some encouragement in how it could fall. [She mimes punching the ground.]

[Namur considers that idea, then nods.]

Puts us in a damn shitty spot, though. Got t' assume its enemies down there, an' be ready t' fire on 'em. But they might be jus' people, too. Don't want t' kill 'em 'less we got t'. If that ain't a decision yer willin' t' make on the run, y' can stay up here an' cover me. If I need it.

[He runs his hand over the back of his head. Obviously she isn't going to start shooting if he doesn't need it.]

Y' in or stayin'?

[Namur earns himself an absolutely withering look for his implication. Which of them is the SeeD here? Not willing to make that decision on the run indeed.]

[And she'll get one right back.]

What?

[She just gestures ahead with a jerk of her chin. Let's go, cadet.]

[Mutters]

Oh Lord a the Sea.

[Seems like she made her decision, one way or the other. Didn't have to be a brat about it, but she is seventeen so he'll let it drop with a shrug of his shoulders.

Namur moves carefully across the floor, easing his weight forward carefully, listening for any indication of weakness or fracturing. When he gets to the already broken out section- if he makes it there without the floor falling away beneath him- he'll crane his neck over the hole, trying to see what's down there.]

[Whether he can make out much of it with only a flashlight to rely on is another matter, but by design or simply through centuries of weathering, the room below looks much the same as this one, complete with an almost identical doorway at the far end. It's hard to see anything in the shadows past that, but it might seem like the tapping noise is coming from somewhere beyond it. Actually, on closer listening, it resembles knocking more than tapping, and whatever it's knocking against doesn't quite sound like stone... It isn't getting any louder, though.]

[She very carefully takes a different route than him -- Namur's size and mass is not something she wants to add her own to, on a tricky floor. As the sounds become clear in her ears, she frowns -- all sorts of speculation drifts through her head, but she hasn't got enough evidence to say one thing or the other as even a reasonable guess.]

[She makes a gesture down with her hands, questioningly.]

[Namur nods, because yes, going down is still the plan. He sets a hand on the edge then hops in, letting himself swing for a moment to get control of his momentum and a better idea of how far down the floor is, then drops quietly into a crouch. He inhales through his mouth as he straightens up, getting an idea of how the tastes and smells have changed from the last room, then holds an arm up toward Maria.]

Y' want a hand or y' got this?

[Between his height and stupidly long arms, he probably very nearly clears the distance between the two floors.]

[Maria's practically down before he asks the question, landing lightly on the floor next to him. She flips a gunblade back into her left hand as she rises, then nods to him. All good here.]

[All of the mammalian scents from before are just a tiny bit thicker in the dry air now that Namur and Maria have descended a floor, but one in particular stands out much more strongly than the rest - and like the knocking sound a moment ago, it's coming from somewhere in the darkness past that doorway on the other side of the room.

Speaking of the knocking, here it comes again, with renewed vigour.

Along with a voice, too muffled for any real details beyond "probably a man".]

Er, hello?! Excuse me!

[Alright then. Dropping a level was less exciting than he expected but that is definitely for the best. Namur heads through the door towards the voice, and starts using a bit of Observation Haki to get a more precise feel for where the "probable man" is, if he is actually a human, and a vague sense of his intent- be it malicious or friendly.

And what is up with random dudes hanging out in ruins? It's like a bad trend gone viral, so now everybody's doing it just because they can.]

What up, dude? Kind a shitty place t' be chillin', don't y' think?

Oh, thank goodness... [The relief in the man's voice is almost as palpable as the dust in this corridor. Closer by, he (now unambiguously a he) sounds roughly middle-aged, and far too feeble to be threatening.

The only strange detail is that as far as spiritual energy is concerned, the hallway is completely deserted besides Namur... but the voice is definitely nearby, and it's difficult to miss the object at his feet that seems to be its source: a full-sized black coffin, sleek and devoid of all markings except a small cross engraved on the front, lying flat on its back in the dust.

From its interior come a couple more wooden thumps, followed by a pained grunt. The lid doesn't even shake.]

No, still no good... [The man raises his voice.] Terribly sorry, old chap, but I'm in rather an uncomfortable situation here - you couldn't...?

Who y' callin' old, Maggotbait?

[Namur puts his foot on a corner of the coffin and nudges it slightly, trying to get an idea of how much the whole thing weighs.]

Kind a creepin' me out here. How come they put y' in the shitty box, huh?

[A weak laugh.] You've encountered those brutes as well, eh? But as it happens, I wasn't put in here. I, er... fell in. It's quite embarrassing, to be honest. [The inside of the coffin rustles a little.] Not that I mean to hurry you, my dear fellow, but... I'm not entirely sure if this is airtight...

[The coffin is obviously heavy - it'd take at least a couple of non-junctioned adults to lift, that's for sure - but it isn't immovable, and in fact Namur's nudge is just enough to push it an inch or so across the old stone floor with an unsettlingly loud scraping noise.]

Ain't it not bein' airtight a good thing?

[...What brutes? And where the hell did Maria get to? She should have been right behind him.]

Look dude. I ain't so sure lettin' y' out a there's a good idea. Y' ain't givin' off any haki, an' that gives me creepy vibes, if y' catch my drift. Ain't been anyone in here for a longass time. Like months. Maybe years. An' y' been stuck in the box for longer'n that? Sheheh.

[Namur taps his foot on the coffin a couple times, and goes back through the door to see if he can find Maria.]

Wh-

[Behind Namur, there's a painfully solid-sounding wooden clonk.]

No, wait! Please! I wasn't trespassing...!

[Maria? She's guarding the rear, watching Namur's flank as he engages in, uh, negotiations with the coffin. Her weapons are at the ready and she's keeping a keen eye on their surroundings -- those rats surely haven't vanished for good.]

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