All 09.0 - Omulde Iarna

Victor, Lucca and Caitlyn each recieved a note from Pierce on the 30th of Tivet, asking them to meet him in his office. By the late morning, they had convened, and Pierce asked them if they could handle a pair of jobs in the far north. He had apparently gotten a message from an old retiree of his father's: an adventurer named Tavish who had gone to Ahpkalawok on a quest, fallen in love with a native and stayed. Tavish was worried, as several villagers of the remote tribe had gone missing without any natural trace, and he suspected the work of a monster. It was hunting season though, so all of the young hunter-warriors were away; a boy had already gone off on a fool's quest, and he was worried what would happen if no one could stop the creature. Pierce told them that, since he needed to send someone anyways, he had worked out a deal with Narcissus to send Lupin as well, so that the tribe could have a portal constructed, which would allow them much-needed access to supplies. Their job would be to escort Lupin north to the Ahpkalawok, where he would construct a portal, and while there they would find the monster and deal with it, protecting the villagers. Pierce explained that he had selected them both for their proven ability to deal with long treks through harsh environment, and for their higher-than-average likelihood of not leaving the obstinate and arrogant Lupin strung up in a tree somewhere. While none of the group was particularly thrilled with the concept, Caitlyn in particular wanted to refuse. Pierce referred her to her contract, which she was more than welcome to break; she demanded that, upon her return, she wouldn't go on any more wilderness expeditions and would be renegotiating her terms. They agreed to meet Lupin at the Troitsk LT station at 9am the next morning, giving them the day to prepare.
Lucca, recalling a legend of the northern tribe involving a winter spirit that kidnapped and consumed people, and how in the tale the warrior was led by a talking rabbit, went to the post office to send a Sending to Cheko, to see if she'd like to join them. The clerk was astounded that the spell worked, and got a response, when he had to picture a large rabbit as the target; Cheko cheerily agreed to meet Lucca at the portal. Once there, Lucca told Cheko about the story, the mission, and asked her whether she would like to go with them, and possibly meet the Snow Tribe. In awe of possibly becoming a Longscout, apparently a rare and prestigious position given to mimiga scouts who go far from their homes and meet other tribes, she agreed; she would be the first to speak to the white-furred tribe in many generations. Running off to gather her supplies, she left Lucca reading a book in the cavern until she returned. Hopping into Lucca's bag as normal, the two returned to Arlington. Meanwhile, Caitlyn went to talk to Ryuji, who she had been hanging out with recently and going on "not dates". On his lunch break, they went out, and she told him that she would be out of town for the next few weeks on a stupid hike. Victor, deciding that anything that the wilderness might present them with would be less dangerous for Virgil than the Kamuns not staying to their word, prepared to go on a winter hike with an infant.
The next morning, the group convened at Victor's house before setting out. Lucca shared what he knew about the myth with the others. They agreed that ending was probably romanticized or entirely false, and that the creature sounded like an undead, possibly a ghost; Lucca decided that meant that Ryuji, a holy warrior, should certainly be coming with them. Sending Caitlyn to pick up his supplies from his house and Lucca to get Ryuji himself, they agreed to meet at the station in 15 minutes, before they became desperately late. 
Caitlyn was let into Ryuji's house with no issue by two of his leering housemates. She grabbed his bag, collected as many of his belongings as she thought he might need, and rushed to the station. Lucca, entering the office, had a secretary bring out the law graduate. In his usual loud and perplexing manner, the druid practically kidnapped the man, pushing him down the street as he demanded an explanation he never recieved. 
Meeting up and teleporting to Troitsk, the closest portal to their destination, Caitlyn tried to give a better explanation to the Yetoman. A snarky voice interrupted: Lupin was waiting for them, and didn't like his time being wasted. Ryuji, Lucca, Lupin and Caitlyn yelled at each other for a few minutes; Victor wandered away with Virgil, spurring Ryuji to go to a nearby cafe, followed by Caitlyn. Lucca and Lupin wandered apart themselves. Ryuji took a few minutes to compose while Caitlyn explained that, while it would be nice if he came, he certainly didn't have to, and if he wanted, they could call him when they got to the Ahpkalawok and he could teleport in when the portal was complete. At the mention of the portal, his demeanor shifted. Caitlyn explained that Lupin was the son of the Lightning Transit proprietor, and was the one making the portal in the north; Ryuji explained that his family had wanted a station in Nara for the commercial applications, but the bid had been denied by the provincial council. This was an excellent opportunity for him to work out a deal with the proprietors themselves, usually impossible to contact, to get the coveted transporter in his hometown for his family's private benefit. Caitlyn was quick to jump on this opportunity, and the two agreed to make this their goal as they headed north with their captive audience. Reconvening, much more calm at this point, the group set off into the northlands wilderness.
There was some minor shock when Cheko introduced herself outside of the city. Ryuji was mildly incredulous, but maintained polite behaviour. Lupin, on the other hand, was nosy and intrusive until Lucca told him to back down, much to his disdain.
Fifteen days were spent walking through the wilderness, starting in the evergreen woods of the central Northlands that eventually gave way to boreal forest, which eventually thinned away to tundra. Lucca and Lupin quickly learned to stay a far distance from each other, particularly after enforced by Victor; Caitlyn and Ryuji used all of their not-inconsiderable wiles to impress and befriend the elf, drawing the druid's second-hand ire. Lupin was uncomfortable and inconvenienced, and made certain to let everyone know. He used Forced Quiet on Virgil once when he wouldn't settle; a forcefully-stressed threat to break his hands from Victor pre-empted that ever occurring again. Cheko was a calm and friendly voice of reason, getting along well with everyone and soothing otherwise hard feelings. Between the wide number of mages in the group, the weather and wilds barely affected the travellers. Lupin eventually warmed up somewhat to Ryuji and Caitlyn; he had an abrasive personality, but wasn't nearly so bad once he wasn't being actively defensive. He agreed to discuss the creation of the portal in Nara; he assumed that his father wouldn't have any issue with it provided he was properly recompensed, to which Ryuji promised he would be.
The sixteenth day of their expedition led them to a patch of snowy drifts that they thought was supposed to be the village. It was dim out, despite being the afternoon, owing to the time of year in the far north. As they walked through, Cheko hidden away, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a large number of people, watching them silently. Many of them had tattooed faces and sharpened teeth, adding to their creepy demeanour. They asked for Tavish; they were pointed soundlessly towards an igloo, camoflauged under the snow like the rest, creating the appearance of many drifts. As they walked away, many of the people seemed to vanish into the ice. 
Knocking and piling into the igloo, they were greeted by Tavish, an aged man with a gregarious personality and a large beard that hadn't entirely lost all of its ginger colour. He and his wife welcomed them in. Lupin almost immediately left, after being pointed towards the rocky landmark where he was to put the portal, eager to start and finish. Victor chatted with the wife, enamoured with the young Virgil, while the others talked to Tavish, who talked about the tribe and the strange occurances. Apparently another person had gone missing in the interim. Wondering how they were going to spend the rest of their day, Victor mentioned that this was probably a good place to take pictures, alighting Caitlyn's interest. Enlisting Ryuji as a scribe and secondary interviewer and Lucca as a photographer, she began her anthropological study on the remote Ahpkalawok people. As they went about, asking questions and getting people talking, the Northlanders began to warm up to them in kind, and began asking questions themselves with just as much, if not more, enthusiasm for the foreigners. Cheko was introduced to Tavish, and everyone agreed that she should stay in the igloo to avoid a commotion. Later that evening, the village threw the visitors a party, and everyone, with the exception of Lupin, had a very good time.
Lupin finished the portal by the following evening, after having worked basically overnight. He bid Caitlyn and Ryuji goodbye, telling them that he would discuss the Nara portal with them upon their return before leaving. Caitlyn assured Tavish that another representative would be along to give them the key and inform them in how to use the magical device. Victor popped off to leave Virgil with a nanny in Arlington at this juncture, unwilling to bring him when he knew there would be combat, before returning. The next morning, the remaining group members set out to the west
They walked for four days, taking a winding path and looking for any signs of life. The fifth day saw Cheko stop them. She took her slingstaff and rapped it against a rock, hailing someone unseen to the others. A tapped out response echoed over the snow; she communicated in morse to her unseen correspondent for a few minutes before telling the others to stay put while she ran ahead. They watched as she ran off towards the horizon, eventually stopping beside a white spot that they had taken to be another chunk of ice. She stood there, and as they squinted they could finally make out the white mimiga she was talking to. Some time later, she returned with the Snow Tribe member. She introduced him as Santa, a scout of the snow tribe: he looked similar to Cheko, save for his long white hair. He was visibly nervous of the humans, and didn't want to come too close, though he was obviously impressed at Cheko's ease around them. Acting as a translator, she told him of their mission; he seemed to know about it, saying that there was a ghost-spot not too far from there where, every 30 generations or so, the tingling, creeping feeling comes to a head and an ice cave appears. A creature comes out of it and feeds on everything, until eventually a human will show up, the feeding will stop, and the cave will eventually disappear again. He was willing to show them where it was, but wouldn't go near it; Cheko mentioned that she really would like to go visit the Snow Tribe, but if they really wanted her to go with them, she would. They agreed that she should go visit her kin, to which she was both happy and relieved; she would stick with Santa, and would meet them back outside the Ahpkalawok village when the scouts reported them walking back that way. Santa, keeping a good distance, led the group across the snow.
On the following day, he wouldn't go any further, pointing them over a series of dunes. He and Cheko left, and the final four explorers completed the final stretch of ground. Over the last dune, they saw a large pile of ice; it looked like a poorly-made fort of some sort, only a little more than a story tall with a rough, open entrance. Approaching it, they decided there was nothing for it but to enter the dark doorway. 
The dark, icy tunnel that stretched before them was certainly longer than the depth of the building itself; as they walked, they began to feel a chill in the air, cooling them despite their magical immunity to the weather. The only light came from their magic. They eventually came out  into a squarish, empty room, supported by several unadorned pillars. Exits yawned on every wall; selecting one, they quickly found themselves in another room that looked identical to the one they had just left. This repeated as they moved forward, giving the impression that they were leaving and entering the same room over and over again. Taking a torch and lighting it, they used the charcoal to mark the floor; working their way through the maze as such, they began to mark off the rooms and exits, trying to find the way forward. The cold air nipped at them, and as they walked they noticed that the icy walls, floors and pillars were not barren: if one looked deep into the ice, they could see bones and dried, drained corpses, both full and partial, frozen solid in the building.
Eventually, they found the entrance that led forward. The tunnel was longer than the others, and the air became colder as they walked. Eventually, it opened into a larger room, with six large pillars holding up the ceiling. These pillars, unlike the others, seemed to be almost entirely made of bones and bodies, held together with ice as the mortar. A rough, chair-like mound of ice stood at the far side. A figure sat upon it; when they entered the room properly, the figure looked up. It appeared to be a young man, 16 at most, pale enough to be dead and an emptiness in its eyes, dressed as an Ahpkalawok. It mumbled something unintelligible, and stood up. Two other figures stood up from the ground beside him: obviously dead yet animate corpses that were desiccated and hollow, also dressed in the manner of the nearby tribe. Drawing their weapons, the undead rushed forward and a battle began. 
The undead proved no match for the group, barely even posing a challenge. Lucca cast a fire spell that sent a flaming ball hurtling about while Victor and Ryuji attacked the creatures with their blades. Each of the swordsmen fell one of the rotten corpses, and it was Ryuji who destroyed the pale man, who had been injured sorely by Lucca's fire. Unlike the first two creatures, which had merely collapsed, losing their animation, the icy being who had sat upon the frozen chair dissolved into a pile of greasy snow, leaving no trace. An investigation of the room revealed an enchanted axe that had been left sitting by the chair, but nothing else. Disappointed by the lack of personal gain and the overall pointlessness of the venture, Caitlyn and Lucca complained as they made their way back outside. At the entrance, the group tried several different means of destroying the ice fort, but found that it was incredibly resistant to damage. Giving up and declaring their mission a success, the group headed back towards the village. Caitlyn noticed that Ryuji kept rubbing his hands; he said that they felt kind of numb, and he must have jarred them in the fight in the cold. It was nothing, he assumed. 
The four made it back to Ahpkalawok within two days, no longer taking a circuitous route, whereupon they reunited with a very pleased and excited Cheko, and returned to Asanon. Victor and Lucca went back to their homes, while Ryuji, accompanied by Caitlyn, set out for Nara City, to finalize the LT deal with the Komatsu family.
Category:Advent of the All