In reply to Ailith (msg # 784):

Olk lets out a long sigh.  "It's alright.  For now, rest up.

"I think I'm going to send you and Coq back with a couple of the drivers in the morning.  Since we don't know if there are any more of these...whatever they are...roaming about, I think it's best to get you out of here as soon as possible.  Finish up any business you may have.  And rest up tonight."

Anything Ailith wanted to finish here in the village?  You have an afternoon to do so.

Thanks

“Hmm…” Ailith didn't seem too sure about that. On the one hand, she wasn’t terribly pleased to have to cut the trip short and inconvenience everyone because she couldn’t keep herself from talking. On the other, between the nuk incident and Nyl, she wouldn’t be all that sad to leave. Not that there was any danger of a repeat of the nuk thing now that she knew she had to look for it and most of the people were decent she supposed.

Still, she found that for a first trip it would be more than enough. More importantly… Was it a way for Olk to help her with that whole go-to-the-moon business? Even if it wasn’t, with how Foot and Hammer had been really eager to get there, she supposed they wouldn’t mind going early. But…now that she thought about it… How was Llewelyn going to know when to pick them up? What were they going to tell to the drivers?

Questions she might have been better off asking before the trip obviously. Now there was nothing else to do but trust that everything was going to be fine. “Alright.” She finally nodded. “I’m not sure what else I have to do,” she had sold everything and wasn’t exactly eager to show her abacus around… “but maybe I can visit their crafters?” She might be able to learn a thing or two after all.

Probably just look around at the various shops and crafters. Possibly buy souvenirs for Oscow, Iriz, Helza, Matah, Zez and Llewelyn.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 786):

The crafters in the village welcome you, eager to talk business with someone else in the trade.

While everything you see looks serviceablenothing is shoddily made...you don't see much in the way of artistry.  The crafters for this village make things so people can use them.  Not admire them.  The only thing you really get from perusing is that Master Matah's house really is head and shoulders above the average villages crafting house.

The next day Coq helps you load a wagon.  Two drivers, Gib and Orda, hitch up the animals and you are all on your way before the sun has climbed much over the horizon.

I was wondering about what you were going to do for the whole driver thing myself.  But let's just see how it works out, shall we?

By the afternoon, you've learned that Gib has a ten word maximum per day while Orba has no limits.  Orba chatters about anything and everything, non stop. Gib doesn't seem to believe sentences should have more than two words.

For example, when you all stop for the afternoon rest, he holds up his empty canteen and shsakes it, before upending it, proving there's nothing left inside.

<brown>"Need more,"</bown> he says.

"Did you finish all that off?  I swear Gib.  It's like there's a big hole in your gut that just takes everything into it.  I mean you musta been thirsty cos that is one. Big. Honkin'. Canteen.  You hear what I'm sayin'?"

Gib grunts.

Orba continues.  "I just don't know what you do with it all Gib.  Maybe we should just empty the stream over there and have it pour into your mouth?  Now wouldn't that fill you up?"

Gib gives a non-dommital grunt.

Orba turns to you and Coq.  "One of you mind filling up the canteens?  I gotta finish up these repairs on the cart.  Gib has gotta take care of the animals.  Thanks>

Ailith can’t think about everything ^^ Plus, for the most part, she decided that Matah / Olk / Llewelyn would be the ones to deal with it.
Though at least don’t worry, she didn’t forget about the 'dream'!

“Sure, I’ll go.” Easily answered Ailith, more interested in stretching her legs than anything else.

Gathering the empty canteens, she headed to the stream to fill them up. She did that cautiously though, wary of any beastie thinking she was a tasty snack or anything…and glancing back towards the north from time to time, worried Nyl or his ilk would have followed.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:53, Thu 17 Nov 2022.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 788):

And that's when Nyl jumps you!

Or not.  You find the stream easily enough, though there are lots of tall boulders around that throw deep shadows and you're just sure that Nyl is hiding in one of them.

So when Llewelyn comes out of one of them, it may just scare the shit out of you.  Then again, maybe not.

He signals for you to hush and glances behind you, to see if anyone is following.

"Are you okay?  I got a...message that you were hurt."

When she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, Ailith jumped up. Thankfully, by the time she had enough air for a bloodcurdling scream, she recognised Llewelyn so didn’t scream…but it took her a moment to get her heart under control…

While glaring at the Interloper, she nodded. “I was. Apparently some people don’t like you or people who associate with you.” She glared some more, then breathed deeply and shook her head. “I’m fine now. When no one tries to scare me anyway…” She poked her bandage though, just to make sure.

“Are we going to the moon now?” She asked then, her fright apparently forgotten.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 790):

Llewelyn shrugs.  "If you're ready, I'm ready.  Just say the word."

Ailith looked at Llewelyn, a bit surprised and wondering if he was serious or not. In the d, she just shrugged. “Ok, 'the word' then...” What a weird thing to say to state one was ready, but... Well, just one more weird Interloper thing.

“I'll just go find Coq.” Before she went though, she asked, “Is there something I should say to the drivers or Masters Olk or Matah already warned them or something?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 792):

Llewelyn kind of shrugs.  "No one said anything to me about drivers.  I can knock them out if you want."

“What? No!” Exclaimed Ailith, “Why would you hurt them!? Besides,” she shook her head, “they’d be very worried, especially considering, well…” She waved her hand towards the north.

“I’ll just tell them Coq and myself need to do something for our masters and for them to be on their way.” She creased her nose, obviously not terribly pleased, mumbling under her breath how they could have handled that better… “We’ll take our gear, pretend we were always planning to come back by ourselves and act surprised no one had told the drivers anything.” Which she wouldn’t really need to fake for that matter.

“Considering that we left early, it shouldn’t be too hard to make them believe that information got lost in the mess or something.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 794):

Llewelyn nods.  "Okay then.  I'll meet the two of you back here in...what?  A couple of hours?"

---

The drivers seems puzzled by your news.

"Master Olk didn't say anything about you two going off on your own..."

Coq picks up the sack containing Hammer and Foot.  "He must have forgotten because of all the uproar after Ailith was attacked-"

"Which kinda makes me wonder if you two should be alone-"

"It's fine.  I'll be with her.  And we're still not far from the village.  So we can head back there if trouble rises.  We just need to pick up some roots that grow here."

He glances at you, as if urging you to jump in here anytime now.

“Sorry,” Ailith grimaced, obviously not terribly comfortable, “I really thought you’d have been informed beforehand and didn’t think it pertinent to talk about it.”

“But I’m afraid not going is not really an option, it’s something Master Matah expects of us. And don’t worry,” she looked north for a brief moment, but she didn’t seem worried: not long after the drivers would leave, she’d be aboard Llewelyn’s shuttle: no northern fanatic was going to find her then! “It’ll be alright.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 796):

The drivers make nervous glances at each other.  But they can't rally tell you no.   You and Coq are soon on the way.

Llewelyn is waiting where he said he would be.  He leads you down stream and around the base of a small hill.  His shudd-dle is sitting there, waiting.

Coq stops and looks at it nervously.  "This is safe...right?"

Foot and Hammer are excitedly squonking.  They seem to understand they are finally heading for the moon.

Any questions before we begin your trip to the moon?

Thanks

Nothing that comes to mind no.

Ailith looked at Coq, then at the shuddle for a second, then back at Coq. “I guess?” She shrugged, “They travel through the stars in things like that... Well, much bigger than that but same idea. So...”

Being away from other observers, Ailith freed Foot and Hammer to fly around as they willed. “Yes, we're going.”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 798):

A few minutes later, Coq has his face almost literally stuck to the window.

He points at the sun.  "Is that really..?"

He points at your world.  "Is that really..?"

<grya>"Yes!"</gray>  Llewelyn sounds a little irritated.  Though to be fair, Coq has asked the same questions about five times in the last two minutes.

Llewelyn waves a hand in the air, trying to shoo away Hammer and Foot who are hovering around his console, squonking at him.

"Ailith.  Can you keep your comps under control?  Thanks."

You notice Llewelyn is guiding the shud-del away from the moon.

"We still have my people on the moon.  If I come too close, they will know we're there.  Though I still haven't figured out how they haven't picked up the signals your comps are zoning in on."

He swings wide around your world.  You can see it below you, twirling like a globe at the end of a string.  Coq is too flabbergasted to say much else.

Finally, the moon comes into view.  On the window, a small section of the moon suddenly lights up.

"That's where we're going.  There's a crater there.  The signal is coming from inside it."

The surface of the moon seems like the low mountains in the dry lands.  Craggy.  Reddish.  Nothing but stones.  But there's no sky.  It's all just the dark of night.

The shud-del slips into a small canyon like feature.  Lights flick on outside.

"This has ahtmo." Llewelyn mutters.  He points at one spot in the dark.  There's a dim red light.  "There's some kind of structure there.  It's a door.  I think it's an entry that people would use to get inside where there's air.  We can't walk over there because there's no air between where I'm going to land us and where the door is.  It's also very cold.

"I don't know if we can open the door either.  I'm going to go over there first.  I'll take one of your comps with me.  Hammer or Foot.  Your choice.  Maybe they can open the door.

"Once we get it open, we'll figure out how to get you and Coq over.

"Sound fair?"

Ailith grinned, amused by Coq's antics...but was too busy watching herself to really pay attention to much else. Though she did call Foot and Hammer back when Llewelyn asked not wanting them to cause the Interloper to crash on anything.

“Uh, alright.” she agreed to Llewelyn's plan...what else was she supposed to do? “Why can't we just hold our breath and run though? It's not that far.” She pointed at the red light and where Llewelyn though a door was.

Ailith didn't decide which of the two drones would go with the Interloper though, instead turned to them, “Which one of you wants to go with Llewelyn to open the door and figure out a way for Coq and I to go in?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 800):

Llewelyn makes that sound he makes when he's tried to explain something to you a few times but you can't quite seem to get what he's talking about.

"It's really, really cold.  So cold you guys would probably freeze to death before you got ten steps.  Also...it's hard to explain to you about pressure...Just trust me on this."

Hammer and Foot squonk at each other.  Hammer floats forward and pushes at Foot.  Foot squonks harder.  Hammer pushes him forward again.  Finally, Foot floats towards Llewelyn, not without turning back and glaring at Hammer a few times.  Or at least that's what it looks like.

Llewelyn goes to a cabinet and pulls out some kind of elaborate shroud.  He wraps it around his body so it covers him completely.  You can see his face through a clear window in the shroud.  It's very...odd.

"The two of you stay in your chairs.  Don't touch anything."

With that warning, Llewelyn steps to a door and through it, pulling it firmly shut behind him after Foot floats after him.

The minutes drag.  And drag somemore.

Coq finally looks over at you.  "Are we allowed to talk to each other?"

It feels like forever, but there's a sudden screeching sound.  The shud-del<blue> shakes.  Hammer starts sqonking excitedly.

The door Llewelyn went through opens up. The Interloper sticks his head in, his shroud gone.

"It's okay.  Come on.  You guys should see this."

There's a long tube that connects the <blue>shud-del to the door in the side of the rock.  Where the tube came from you aren't sure. But it looks like it extended out from the walls.  Like a hallway hastily built just for you to walk down.

At the end of the long tube/hall is the door.  It's much larger than you thought it was.  Well above your head.  Taller in fact than a hut in the village.

The door is made of some odd metal.  It's cut with grooves that seem to form some kind of pattern, but what the pattern is precisely you can't tell.

Hammer and Foot begin to fly around each other, squonking.

Llewelyn looks at them.  "Foot knew exactly how to extend...make the tunnel you walked down come out of the wall.  But he wouldn't do anything about the door.  I think he was waiting for you guys."

There are words cut into the metal of the door.  You can read them, though they appear to be sort of archaic.

Survey Doth Moon Some symbol you've never seen before One.  Door Eight

Hammer floats to a small pedestal set on one side.  It lands on the pedestal.  After a moment, the door starts to part, like someone inside is pushing each side of it into the wall.

The door yawns partway open.  Beyond it is just dark.

Llewelyn gestures.  "After you."

Ailith watched, amused, as Foot and Hammer 'negotiated' who was going to go with Llewelyn, then lifted her hands when the latter instructed both Coq and her to not touch anything, “No touching, no touching.”

Still, while she did stay in her chair, she tried to do her best to see anything of what was happening outside, distractedly answering Coq's question, “Well sure we can talk, why wouldn't we?”

The movement of the shuddle worried her at first, but seeing Hammer apparently excited and not worried, Ailith relaxed visibly and she jumped on her feet as soon as Llewelyn gave her the go-ahead. “Good work Foot!”

Before she went in though, Ailith turned to Coq and poked the unknown symbol, “Do you know what that means?” Once she got the answer, she nodded, then turned to Foot and Hammer, “Can you make some light?” She waved forward and stepped through the door.

In reply to Ailith (msg # 802):

Coq shakes his head at the symbol, which he's been staring at.  "It kinda looks like the symbol that means search.  But...it's not right."

Both Foot and Hammer start shining rays of light.

Past the metal door is a short room.  It's also got walls of metal, though these seem to be banded and without the weird etchings.  There's what you think is a door on the other side.

"This looks like it's a...what would be called an ahr lahk.  It's for when you come outside.  You need a barrier of sorts between the outside and inside of one of these vessels."

Hammer floats over to the what-you-think-is-a-door and does something.  Suddenly the door seems to peel open, the insides spiraling outwards until the doorway sort of folds into the wall.

Llewelyn moves past you and the doorway.

You are in a much larger room.  It might be larger than Master Matah's house.  There is odd debris around.  You think it's the remains of old furniter.  A skeleton is collapsed in one corner.  Other doors like the weird one line the wall.

The light in the room has a bluish kind of tinge to it.  It's flashing.  Like someone is opening and shutting the curtains very quickly.

Llewelyn stares at the skeleton a moment.  And then looks back at you.  "I can't be sure.  But I think there's some kind of danger."

Ailith looked around curiously, but the skeleton stopped her in her tracks. When Llewelyn suggested that there may be danger, she looked at him for a second as if to say 'No, you think?' but soon enough she shrugged. “Whatever killed him did so a long time ago. It's probably fine now.”

Though... She might try to convince herself more than anything else. Still looking at Foot and Hammer, she asked, “So, what now? And, uh, do you know of any danger? Or any way to deal with danger?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 804):

Llewelyn shakes his head.  "I'm not talking about what killed that one..."  He gestures towards the skeleton.  "There may be...guardians.  We should be careful."

He waves at Hammer and Foot.  "They should know where we're going.  I'm assuming there's some kind of beacon going off here on the wreck.  Tell them to take us to it."

Hammer and Foot don't wait for your order.  They fly to a door.  Just different ones.

Hammer is hovering in front of a bluish colored door.

Foot is hovering in front of a silvery colored one.

They are squonking furiously at each other.

“Hmm, well… Yes…?” Ailith answered, a bit confused: she hadn’t planned on strolling into the place without a care in the world after all. Though… Maybe the things that dream had been about would help her? She didn’t really know - she hadn’t really had the time much less the head-space to really think about it - but surely it couldn’t hurt?

The new concert of squonks briefly disconcerted Ailith, but she didn’t let that stop her for long. “Alright, so… If they both know where to go, and don’t agree… I guess that means there are two possible paths?” She looked at the two drones in turn, and asked “Unless one of you wants to go somewhere else first for whatever reason?”

“If that’s not the case, and you can’t get to an agreement…” she paused to see if they would then she shrugged, “Well, Foot you got to open the door, I guess it’s Hammer’s turn then.” It wasn’t like it would be worse than picking randomly, and in the absence of any other way to figure what path would be the right one… “But please, try to come to a consensus…”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 806):

More squonks follow.  But Foot's door whooshes open...WHOOSH!!!...and you are looking into a corridor that seems to head down a ways.

Hammer opens his door...WHOOSH!!!...and it's another hallway.  Though this one seems to come to a T juncture not far away.

Both hallways are lit.

Hammer and Foot seem to not be giving any ground to each other in their argument.

“Hoy come on...” Ailith rubbed her eyes tiredly, “do I have to pick at random?” She shook her head, “because we're certainly not going to split here...”

“Can you at least try to explain why you think your direction is the best one? Are you even trying to go to the same place?”

In reply to Ailith (msg # 808):

Hammer and Foot start to squonk quite a bit.  Then they stop, apparently realizing it isn't helping.

They seem to squonk at each other.  Then Foot emits a light that forms a picture.

A large metal looking desk of some kind.  There is something on it blinking.

Hammer then makes a picture too.  A large door with some kind of severe looking decoration on it.  Across it are some words too.  The only one you can read is DANGER

Coq can't read anything else either.

Llewellyn considers.  He points at Foot.  "Foot seems us to want to go to some kind of...uh...how do I explain this...control.  A place like the controls on my shud del where we can...uh...make something happen."

He shrugs, giving you an expression which must mean embarrassment over not being able to explain things better.

He then points at Hammer

"I think he wants us to go to...well.  That door.  I don't know what it is.  But it looks...serious.  Because it's thick, it probably is meant to contain something very dangerous.  Hammer may want us to deal with whatever it is.  But..."

He shakes his head.  "I'd have to see both of them to try to figure things out."