The Ghostfence rp: Playground 2 Options

[Olen]

Rothan

For a moment Rothan couldn't speak. He looked at the ashlander woman carefully, "So your a Wise Woman, or studying to be one?" he asked, "Perhaps, in a place less..." he paused for the word, "Open to eavesdropping I might ask you some questions?"

The ashlanders passed stories from wise woman to wise woman, its how their history was told. There were some major discrepancies between the stories and his doctrine in certain areas which distressed him, if perhaps he heard the story fresh, as it were, it might settle his mind.

[minque]

Rianne

She looked carefully at Rothan and smiled to his astonished looks

"Yes, I am studying to be a Wise Woman, and have been doing that for as long as I can remember, the wise women are chosen when they are very young. You are welcome to ask me a question"

She did remember her good manners....

[Olen]

Rothan

Rothan paused, was it wise to ask here and now with so many priests about? No. But would he necessarily get another chance? It was too good to miss, and it wasn't heresy to hear if the tales were true. Maybe they were all fabricated by the heretics.

"You have legends," he started, knowing he would have to be careful, "Or at least I've read you have, about the origin of blessed Almsivi's power. I believe these are different to our writings and would like to hear them." He held up a hand to forestall any protest, "I do not ask as a test or as perhaps the ordinators would, I am simply interested. Interested and troubled, you seem to know much of our culture for an ashlander so I would also ask where you believe the truth lies."

He stopped, there was something powerful in letting his thoughts outside the confines of his mind. It made them real, and he couldn't deny them at will. He shivered slightly and glanced to make sure they weren't overheard.

[Dantrag]

Dralas

Dralas returned, with Morrie the guar on a leash behind him. He knew nothing of the current conversation, but he did notice that Rothan looked a little tense.

He busied himself by securing Morrie's cargo, and pinched a bit more of the Temple's hackle-lo. He sat on a rock and began rolling the leaf while he listened and waited.

The rest of the caravaners were also packing up to leave, but there was no telling how long it would take to get this number of people moving again after such a crisis.

[minque]

Rianne

Rianne felt awkward, she knew she wasn't allowed to speak of her Tribe's legends, since she wasn't really a Wise Woman yet, she still had to take the rites before she could actually practise. She sighed.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you what you want to hear" she answered Rothan "I'm not a real Wise Woman, I'm just studying to be one, but the fact that I know a little bit of your culture is that I've been traveling a lot and there were visitors to our camp, and since I like to speak to people I learned a lot"

In the corner of her eye she noticed Dralas approaching...with Morrie all set and clear, that was indeed a relief!

"Dralas! good you're here, I reckon we've got allour gear and we shuld be ready to leave"

Rianne went over to her friend and asked if she could have a hackle-lo

"I'll really need one" she muttered

[Dantrag]

Dralas

"We can share this one," he said, taking a breath of smoke before handing it to her. He noticed ordinators milling about, telling people to fall in line. It wouldn't be long before one came their way. Up ahead, the caravan was already on the move.

Dralas looked at Rianne, who was passing the hackle-lo back to him, and glanced back up to see a bonemold face staring at him.

"Finish gathering your things and start moving," the ordinator said in a raspy voice, "The journey to Ghostgate is not easy, but follow orders and we'll all get there alive."

Dralas nodded to the guard, took another puff, and gave the last of it to Rianne.

He stood with a sigh and grabbed Morrie's leash. No part of him wanted to resume the journey just yet. He was still tired from the first leg and stressed from the fight; their stay at the halfway camp had been less than restful. He wasn't the only one, he knew. Many caravaners were dragging their feet, while others could barely keep their eyes open. Not to mention that the majority of them were still terrified from the appearance of daedra.

There was no more stalling. The caravan moved, and they all went with it.

[minque]

Rianne

Rianne finished the last of the hackle-lo, and thought about how to get more of that stuff, but there would be opportunities she thought.

Looking at her appearance she was a tad worried. The long thick shirt she had borrowed from Dralas was now pretty dirty and also stained with blood, but there was no time to think more about that, she was happy to even have a shirt!

So she started walking beside Dralas and Morrie...silently singing a tune

Her hand happened to touch Dralas' when they held Morrie's leash, Rianne took the opportunity to squeeze it very short, Dralas would understand...she looked at him and smiled...

[jack cloudy]

Fastforward quickly to the forward construction site, aka ghostgate.

The caravan marched and marched, resting only when they could march no more. Perhaps in the hands of other men, the leaders would have realized that the chance of Daedric pursuit was slim and if it happened, not even the Ordinators and Armigers would be rested enough to provide stiff resistance. Yet the leadership was gripped by fear and at the edge of madness, and would hear no pleas for a calmer pace.

When the caravan arrived at the construction site, it was a sorry sight. While its numbers were far greater than expected and its arrival nearly a full two days ahead of schedule, exhaustion had reduced most travelers to a subdued mob whose only wish was to rest, and not rise from their slumber for days.


OOC: Ok, that's my forward post. Feel free to suggest alterations and stuff.

[Dantrag]

Dralas

Dralas lifted his weary eyes to finally see their destination. It was far from pretty, but it did offer the promise of rest soon to come, and that thought kept Dralas' feet moving.

Lines were formed (again) and they waited to be seen. Assignments and reassignments were made, and the Temple made sure that its goods were returned. He and Rianne stuck together as usual, and after a long time standing, his turn finally came.

"Name?"

"Dralas Lasamsi,"

"It says here you were entrusted with Temple supply sacks. Do you have them?"

"I do," he unstrapped the ties holding the sacks to Morrie. Two workers took them away while the clerk scribbled. Dralas gave a small sigh of relief, as there had been no notice of his small hackle-lo theft.

"Almost done here," he said, pausing for a moment to read, "It says here you signed on for construction, but your first choice of work was scouting, correct?"

Dralas nodded.

"Hmm...still no escort slots open, so I will assign you to a construction team," he flipped through a few more pages, "Alright, you will need to report to the eastern barracks. Normally, you would go tomorrow, but we got word that your caravan encountered some trouble, and since you're all early anyway, the decision was made to allow you all to rest. Be there at dawn, three days from now."

"So I'm done?"

"Just one more thing. You are worker number 4907. Remember this number, as you will need it when you come back here for your pay."

This post has been edited by Dantrag: Jan 9 2010, 08:08 PM

[Olen]

Rothan

While the rest of the caravan went to return temple supplies or to report to superiors Rothan was left feeling unneeded. The march had been tiring but he hadn't suffered nearly as much as the least fit and, anyway, felt restless. He decided to take a look around the construction site.

It nestled in a bowl in the hills gouged by the fires of the great crater in Red Mountain whose ash blown slopes dominated the view to the north. He shivered to think what lay within and was glad it was north and they would not have to lie in its shadow. The ground was ashy mainly but in places edges of twisted rock reached upward as if writhing, frozen in their agony. It was a bleak place for dark thoughts.

Only the deep foundations of the keep they were building which was to be the only portal through the fence had any look of permanence, the other structures were mainly glorified tents with the occasional larger structure hastily thrown together in cheap wood. He glanced back the way they'd come, a deep gouge in the landscape marked Foyada Mamaea with a few narrow paths climbing away from it up the mountains. A larger valley, though still dark and narrow, led towards Ald'ruhn, but it was off limits, too dangerous. On the other side the foyada continued toward the shrine of pride, why it was to be left within the ghostfence he couldn't imagine, but so it had been decreed.

Eventually he decided that, for appearances, he should go and see the head priest, though with the unexpected influx of people he wasn't sure who that was now. A pair of banners flapping listlessly on the breeze marked a long wooden building as a temple so he made his way north towards it.

[minque]

Rianne

Rianne was close behind Dralas in the line. She nodded thoughfully when she heard he was assigned to construction instead of being an escort, which was his wish.

So finally it was her turn.

"Name?"

"Rianne de Z..., nevermind, just Rianne"

"Ok I need your full name, woman as it says here" the officiant answered grumpy

"Rianne de Zoete, and I have my temple supply sacks right here"

"hrmpff, you better have, it's your darn responsibility"

Rianne stood silent as the officiant resd the papers...

"you signed up for healing and alchemical sercvices I see here, but we haven't got a apothecary here yet so you'll have to join a construction team for the time being. i'll sing you up for the samt team as the other...ashlander!"

He spat that word out, obviously he wasn't very fond of ashlanders.

"If you think you can cope, it's hard work ya know, woman" he grinned evilly

Rianne didn't answer, her face totally numb. Not in thousand years she would admit his attitude and words hurt her.

"My working number please?" she asked calmly

"4908"

Rianne nodded and left the counter. Looking up Dralas.

"Looks as we're going to work together" she smiled

[jack cloudy]

Haz

He wouldn't admit it to himself, but he was tired. However, no matter how great the fatigue in his bones was, there was no time to rest. As they'd reached the construction site, the attentiveness of their guards had fallen tremendously and the other travellers seemed to be either occupied with bureaucratics or their own exhaustion. He would never get a chance like this again. The time had come for Haz Andrethi to vanish, and the time had come for Has-no-tail to uneventfully lose himself among the slaves.

Still under the guise of a pilgrim, Haz walked over to the north side of the camp, where the shrine was located and more importantly, where few people wandered at the moment. The Argonian moved swiftly passed the actual shrine while the other pilgrims in the caravan were still dutifully waiting for their turn to hand over their equipment. As for him, most of his load had already been handed over to that trader and what he had left, he would never hand over to the Dark Elves. Any blow to the oppressors, no matter how small, was a victory in his mind.

Having ventured beyond the edge of the camp, he became more wary. The great number of guards posted at the northern perimeter had not gone unnoticed. They had to be there for a reason, even if their attentiveness regarding an unassuming pilgrim heading towards a small shrine had been rather lacking. If he encountered anything dangerous, like more ashlanders or more of those monsters from the half-way camp, he would have no choice to run.

"Best option would be to throw everything, clothes, possessions of Andrethi and supplies in a stream of molten lava. But I'll have to walk too far from the camp to find one. A fire's smoke would draw the attention of the guards, so I can't do that either. I guess I'll have to bury it deep beneath the ash. A poor choice, but no one should come to this particular place and the winds will blow away all trace of my footsteps. Then, I'll have to infiltrate the mass of brothers and sisters that are being used." He thought to himself and thrust his claws into the ground.
"I saw them working on the foundations of this ghostfence to the east. If I approach at nightfall, I should be able to bypass the guards. Even if they do notice me, why would they respond? I'm only a slave, after all."

[Dantrag]

Dralas

Rianne smiled at him, but Dralas could tell that the clerk had gotten under Rianne's skin a little.

"Couldn't have worked out better for us, could it?" he laughed a little bit, "That s'wit wanted us gone so bad he doesn't even know how much he helped us."

He was glad that he would be working with Rianne, but he was much more interested in the next few days of rest than the coming months of hard labor.

"Anyway, I'm hungry and tired. Looking to fix both problems."

[Olen]

Rothan

When he reached the makeshift Temple building Rothan discovered that it would be hard to report his arrival to the head priest, or to anyone else. The place was in uproar. He looked at the harried-looking clerks and red faced officials in confusion for a moment before cornering a junior secretary.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Go away," replied the young dunmer.

"I am a priest, just arrived. Who is in charge here?"

"Ha. Your guess is as good as mine. Serjo Salethrin was, at least officially, but now your caravan arrives attacked and nobody knows," he gestured to the chaos surrounding them, "Salethrin still claims the charge but the Ordinators are twisting his arm and the priest who headed the rest stop at Assarnatamat is technically his superior. In short only the Buoyant Armigers aren't claiming control of anything except themselves, not that the Ordinators agree."

"What of the foreman?"

"He leaves well enough alone, builds the thing and leaves the politicking to the others."

"Who do you think I should report to?"

The clerk snorted, "Might as well be the Armigers seeing as that would annoy everyone, but you want my advice? Wait for it to blow down a bit then report in a couple of days."

"Thanks," Rothan nodded. It sounded like the High Priest in Balmora had been right.

He made his way back outside and looked back down at the encampment. His stomach rumbled and the ache in his legs was building not he wasn't walking. He started down towards the area where most of the living tents were and where there was a scattering of food stalls.

[minque]

Rianne

"Hungry, are you, Dralas?" she laughed , playfully patting him on his shoulder. "Well so am I and we'll need to remedy that first of all"

"I wonder...if it would be time to look up my "brother" Salyn...or maybe not yet, anyway there are some food stalls over there..and oh my that nice priest is heading our way...let's go there ok?"

Rianne glanced at her clothing, then at Dralas, they really needed to fix that as well. Working with construction is a craving job and they most certainly had to fix some more clothes otherwise....ewww

Anyway she was glad to work with Dralas...in fact he still was the only one she felt totally comfortable with...

"Come on, let's grab something to eat!"

[Dantrag]

Dralas

Dralas agreed and they approached the nearest stall. A young dunmer served the food to a long line, while an argonian slave worked over a large cauldron preparing more of the stuff.

While they stood in line, he waved to Rothan. They hadn't spoken to the priest since the departure, and Dralas wondered if he would have more insight into what was actually happening here.

"Next," the young dunmer said loudly, "Do you have a bowl?"

Dralas moved forward and shook his head in answer to the question. A small wooden bowl was put in his hands. It was warm, and the stew inside smelled of alit meat. Alit was not appetizing game, and what it lacked in taste it made up for in toughness.

At least it's filling. he told himself.

"Keep it," the server said, "If you don't have a bowl a week from now, you don't get served."

The hunter nodded and waited for Rianne to be served, standing in amazement at the substandard conditions they found themselves in. Bad food, scarce supplies, and terrible organization seemed to be the nature of things here. Not even a bowl could be spared.

[jack cloudy]

Eno Arval

Eno's first act upon arrival was less than elegant. After presenting his Guar with its feeding bag and making sure it would get through the night in good health as well as making sure it couldn't run off, he merely fell flat on his back and lay there, staring at the sky.

The journey had been horrible for him, especially since his crippled leg had started to act up. As it was, he was barely capable of walking even with his staff and till the muscle cramp subsided, he decided he would just stay where he was and deal with the proper regulations, such as turning over supplies, later.
"ALMSIVI knows I'll be giving everybody else the time they need to reorganize. Adding to the chaos just won't do. Ah well, at least I saved some bread. I won't have to go anywhere till morning." He muttered to himself as he began working on a bit of bone he'd found next to the path earlier this morning. The attention his work demanded from him was a welcome distraction from the ache in his legs.

[minque]

Rianne

Rianne observed how Dralas got his food...and the bowl with a grimace on her face. Conditions here was reall not so good, but she had no expectations so she decided to keep her low profile and just smiled kindly at the server when she got her bowl with alit-stew.

"Yuck, luckily I'm hungry enough not to throw this away" she whispered to Dralas, as she took a mouthul of the stew. "It's ok considering the options" she continued with a smile

"We need clothes...oh there's Rothan!" She waved at the priest

After finishing her meal she took out some hackle-lo

"Want some?" she asked Dralas

[Olen]

Rothan

Rothan took the ashlanders' waving as an invitation and, after getting a bowl of what in the past might have been ashyam, wandered over to join them.

"It's good to be here..." he looked around the blasted landscape, "Probably. Place is in turmoil though. How did signing up go for you?"

He wanted to hear as much as he could about what was going on for his report, whenever he was able to make it. Something just didn't feel quite right in the camp. He shook his head at his malaise and took a spoonful of the grey mush in his bowl. He grimaced - it was as vile as it looked.

[minque]

Rianne

Rianne smiled at Rothan...

"Well it seems as we're going to do some hard work here...construction they said, but that's ok.hehe that rude officiant didn't think i would cope...but I'll just show him!"

I wonder...that leg of his really need some attention Rianne had noticed Eno slumping to the ground, obviously he was too tired to fulfill his registration, or was it merely his leg that hurt so much? Rianne's urge to help and heal made her worried about Eno.

"Maybe I should give him a hand? he looks just worn out" she asked Rothan "would he mind you think? some men are so proud that they just won't accept help...at least not from a woman."