A Search Party (Open)

[Samantha Slate]

13th of Fall, 512 A.V. Samantha was sitting in one of her least favorite places, the World's End Grotto. She hated being around so many people in close proximity. All the men and women eating and lazing about in the main lounge made her uncomfortable; she never knew when one of them might be watching her, especially today. It was around midday and the lunchtime crowd was shuffling in and filling the room with an uncomfortable sense of closeness. The woman was sitting alone at a larger table that was very near the center of the room, thus adding to her discomfort. All she could feel was strange people on all sides of her. Samantha felt hemmed in by their presence, not knowing which ones were only patrons and which may have come to harm her. The mage steadfastly forced herself to keep calm as she stared intently at the door, awaiting the first of her search party. Over the past three days Samantha had been spreading the word through all means available to her that a search party would be forming on the thirteenth to search for the four missing Svefran. The large reward would surely draw many treasure seekers to her side, and she had promised an equal share for everyone involved in the search if they found anything. She had included the instructions that they were to meet a woman of her description if they wished to partake of the search; the mage had left out her name for security's sake however. Whoever made those four Svefran vanish could probably do the same to her. Aside from organizing the search party, all her efforts at locating the four had been in vain; it was as if they had dropped off the face of Mizahar. Occasionally, a regular diner would seat himself at the table and try to initiate a conversation with her. Samantha's immediate response would be a nasty glare and curt orders for the person to be gone. The table could hold a good four or five people comfortably and she had no intention of sharing the limited space with people who would not be a part of the search effort. The mage shifted to a more comfortable position in her chair and straightened the small stack of handwritten papers that she had written out for the occasion. Each one, written in Samantha's plain handwriting, contained the names, ages, and descriptions of each of the missing people. She was anticipating a fairly small party, somewhere between four and eight people. Many of the greedier citizens would surely strike out on their own and try to find clues so they could claim the whole reward themselves; Samantha was nowhere near that foolish. A group effort would clearly be the most logical course of action. The mage kept growing more agitated by the tick. Every time someone sat down they turned out to be an inn regular that Samantha had to shoo away. After several chimes of this, the mage's eyes were a gray-red mix that allowed her irritation to shine through, if her perpetual frown and stiff posture were not enough to indicate it. She sat in sullen silence as she waited, looking over her shoulder every so often for fear of someone sneaking up on her. OOCThis is just a co-op thread for people to work together to find the missing people in the recent event that Arcane came up with. I'm hoping for at least three or four more people to join in before we actually get started. Please go check out the Zeltivan Chronicle thread for more information. Once we hit a fair number of people I'll close the thread and we can kick off the search.

[Lucas Arias]

Lucas had heard about the missing Svefra and Samantha’s search party while he had been at the university, drawing caricatures of the professors, much to the delight of his fellow students. That four people had disappeared without a trace intrigued him. He could very well imagine that they had been eaten by a monster or abducted by a mage. Or maybe they’d accidentially ended up in another world. Besides that he had decided that it was about time that he did something that would please his gods – Kelwyn – again, that he played the part of the hero rather than pranking people left and right and having no respect for authority.

And then there was the reward of course …

Wearing clothes that actually matched for a change and carrying a long sword at his belt, the former squire, almost knight and bartender entered the World’s Grotto. For a few moments he was distracted by the appearance of the inn. It looked strange, completely at odds with the houses around it, as if the people that had built it had been drunk. He needed to visit it again when he wasn’t trying to find missing people. It looked like it had the potential to become his new favourite place in Zeltiva!

Now where was that woman? If he had known her name, he could simply have called for her, but as it was he had to search the whole place. Finally he spotted her somewhere in the center of the room, looking just a bit uncomfortable, as if she didn’t really want to be there.

The redhead grinned and immediately walked over to her. “Lucas”, he introduced himself as he took a seat opposite of her. He wasn’t uncomfortable at all. “Are you the woman who’s forming the search party? For the missing Svefra? I’d like to help!”

[Samantha Slate]

After several chimes of waiting, someone finally approached her with more than a meal in mind. A redheaded boy a few years Samantha's junior approached her table with an easy kind of confidence, “Lucas”, he introduced himself as he took a seat opposite of her, “Are you the woman who’s forming the search party? For the missing Svefra? I’d like to help!” The mage eyed Lucas for a few ticks in silence, her blue eyes gazing steadily into Lucas' own. He seemed harmless enough, save for the sword at his hip. She certainly hoped he had more going for him than possession of a sword; this was likely going to require intelligence more than strength. In any case, an pair of eyes(and a sword) couldn't hurt. Her examination finished, Samantha nodded to Lucas, "Samantha," She returned his introduction with her own, chillier version. "I am. What can you offer?" The woman's blue eyes dulled slightly, the cold blue losing its edge as a light gray tinted over the blueness. She would accept the boy's help no matter what he could do, but it never hurt to know specifics. Besides, if she knew his strengths, she could get a fair idea of his weaknesses. "Do you know anything about the disappearance?" Samantha added after a moment. There was no need to let him know that she knew next to nothing about the disappearances, much less that he very well might know more about it than she did. The mage passed him a single sheet of paper, containing everything she knew about their search. It included the basic information that anyone who knew about the Svefra knew, and little else. Samantha noted with dissatisfaction that the likelihood of their success was fairly low. She disregarded that thought and focused on Lucas to keep her mind off of potential failure. Negative thoughts always lead to failure. If he knew anything of value, she'd need to find a way to get it out of him. If he didn't, then at least he could be an extra set of eyes to watch out for information or danger. She looked around the inn once more, having dismissed Lucas for the moment. She wanted to make certain that no one was watching them. She gave the patrons a once-over each to make certain that none of them were paying her any mind. A few were, in fact, watching, but they had only begun paying attention to her when she started gawking at everyone else. A flash of annoyance crossed her face as she returned her eyes to Lucas. She really did hope someone more useful would come along. A spy, perhaps? Or maybe a thief. No, not a thief. A man like that would surely run off with the reward without a second thought.

[Matthaus]

Matthaus knew that many people heard about it. It wasn’t common talk but it was common knowledge, as was the search party. Word of mouth traveled fast in Zeltiva. And that many disappears couldn’t be hidden, however, it was Svefra only (so far) and that seem to make people feel at ease. That or they couldn’t be bothered to actually care. Actually, the boy wasn’t sure whether he cared or not either, people died and bad things happened, it was a fact of life and you got over it or you were left behind. No, his concern was more with the why. Why kidnap people here? Why only Svefra? Where would they hide them? Questions fluttered in and out of his head so fact he couldn’t truly remember half of what he thought he needed to know. This was much bigger than anything Rikki had ever let him be involved in. It gave him a twinge of nervous anticipation. And in the back of his mind dark thoughts of his true motives swirled. He pushed them down, he didn’t need his childish thoughts interfering, being scared or nervous would gain him nothing nor would over thinking things. He just needed to breathe. In and out. Slowly. Calmly. Feeling his mind unclutter itself slightly he pushed into the World’s Grotto. Looking around he wondered who was in charge. Trying to think of the name that had been given to him, it was in the back of his mind, swirling with other information. He pursed his lips, eyes roving the building slowly, no face jumped out at least not any in particular. They were faces he might have seen in passing briefly and seemed vaguely recognizable. Then he seen her. Samantha. Perfect. A wry grin flitted across his face and he shook his head, he simply would not escape this woman a second but nor would he get caught. He was decided to walk out but his feet disobeyed him and carried him to the table and taking a seat without a word. Flicking his gaze to both he gave a slight head nod, “Hello again. This will be it for our search then?”

[Lucas Arias]

As Samantha asked him what he could do, Lucas rolled his eyes and pointed at his sword. In his opinion it was obvious. “I can help you out if it comes to a fight”, he informed her proudly. “I was a squire in Syliras, almost a knight in fact, but I left before I went on that quest because I wanted to attend the university. I’m really good. Did you hear about that tournament in Nyka in spring? It was a rather big thing. I won a couple of fights – against mages and even one of their own monks. That was before I came here.”

He paused and looked her over. He couldn’t help but wonder why she had decided to look for the missing Svefra. She didn’t look like a Svefra herself, and he doubted that she was much of a fighter. And her eyes were strange. He could swear that they had just changed color!

Shaking his head he continued to tell her what he could offer, “I’m also good at talking to people and gathering information. I work for a professor here in Zeltiva, and I’m just about to solve the mystery of the library ghost.” He contemplated telling her that he knew Voiding and that he had been marked by Kelwyn as well, but she would probably not believe that. There were very few people who were almost knights, excellent spies and had attracted the attention of the gods – like him.

“No, I don’t know anything”, he admitted. “Other than that they have disappeared without a trace, as if somebody had sent them into the Void. Do you think it was a mage?”

He took the paper and read it, furrowing his brow as he did so. “If they are Svefra, maybe we should start looking close to the sea. Svefra like water. By the way, is anybody else going to help? Why are you interested in a couple of missing Svefra anyway?”

[Samantha Slate]

OOCSorry for the delay. I've been a bit busy. Samantha listened to Lucas' bragging with an expression of patience and long-suffering. Though she appeared to be taking him completely seriously, the mage was trying with some difficulty to keep from laughing at the boy. Why would he suddenly decide not to be a knight of Syliras? From the little that Samantha knew, such an achievement took great devotion; something Lucas obviously lacked if he'd abandoned the cause before even reaching the only logical goal that becoming a squire would suggest. On top of that, he participated in a tournament in Nyka and came to Zeltiva to attend the University? Samantha considered herself very well-traveled, and even she had not gone to Nyka or done much of what Lucas so proudly claimed he did. Though... His mention of information gathering was interesting. She might have to test him on that particular ability; if he knew even the very basic principles of it(of which Samantha knew little), then he would be valuable. His apparent interest in the 'library ghost' myth was certainly an undesirable trait. If Lucas believed in such petty and unlikely things as that, then there was a fair chance that he would end up spending his time chasing false rumors and listening to drunken old men spin tales of how they had seen the Svefra being kidnapped by Rhysol or some silly thing such as that. The woman nodded in false admiration all the same, however. It was best to let him think that she valued him as though his claims were true. "Oh, my. You'll be so helpful to our cause," Came her reply, though her eyes were still the mocking green color. Her hopes that Lucas might actually know something about the disappearances--as his claims of skill with the gathering of knowledge would indicate--were dashed as he admitted, “No, I don’t know anything other than that they have disappeared without a trace, as if somebody had sent them into the Void. Do you think it was a mage?” The thought was one that Samantha was sure ran through everyone's mind. The first thing many people did when something unexplainable happened was blame it on magic. If it wasn't the gods, it was some rouge mage with supposed power that rivalled the gods' own. And if it wasn't that, it was something else undoubtedly related to Djed in some form or other. Why does everyone assume that mages are responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world? In any case, it was fairly clear that they would be starting off their search with nothing unless someone who actually knew something useful showed up. “If they are Svefra, maybe we should start looking close to the sea. Svefra like water. By the way, is anybody else going to help? Why are you interested in a couple of missing Svefra anyway?” The boy asked Samantha, his brow scrunched up in thought. Had she not asked him a few personal questions, Samantha would have thought he was far too interested in her personal affairs. As it was however, she decided that giving him a little information about herself might be a good choice. If he had some idea of who she was, he might be a bit more trusting of her. "The reward, of course," She explained with a chuckle, "What else would I be after? There ought to be more people coming, but I don't know who they are." Samantha was about to agree with the boy's suggestion when a short figure approached their table and sat down without preamble. He gave a nod to both Samantha and Lucas, "Hello again. This will be it for our search then?” The woman's mouth, opened to speak to Lucas, gaped at Matthaus for a few seconds before she could shake off her surprise and speak, her eyes glowing a displeased light red. "Aaron!" She snapped at the boy, her voice filled with irritation. The boy had just vanished without a trace the last time she'd seen him. It was both infuriating and impressive that he was able to do it when she was dead-set on keeping tabs on him. "Where in the name of Laviku have you been?" Despite her anger, she had the presence of mind to realize that he wanted to join in the search as well. He was intelligent. A useful member of their group certainly. No matter what he'd done to anger her, Samantha would work to make sure he didn't leave because of her displeasure with him. She pushed one of the sheets of paper over to where Aaron sat, somewhat more forcefully than was strictly necessary.

[Lucas Arias]

As Lucas looked at Samantha he got the feeling that she didn’t believe him. Her eyes had changed color again as well. They were green now. He had no idea what green meant, but judging by the tone of her voice and the way she looked at him, it probably wasn’t good. The former squire made a face and crossed his arms over his chest. „I will be helpful“, he insisted. „And I was telling the truth. You can ask Professor Hadrian or Loren Dyres – or Uphis. Uphis was there during the final round of the tournament. He’s an Alvina, and he saw me!“

She also didn’t seem to like his suggestion that a mage might have been responsible for the disappearances, although she didn’t actually say anything. „I’ve personally seen what mages are capable of“, he informed her, sounding just a little less childish than he usually did. „I work for one. Of course it could just be a common asssassin – or the Svefra are still alive and just decided to disappear for a while – but we cannot ignore the possibility that it was magic. As for the reward, I have to admit, that’s what interests me as well, but I just want to find out what happened as well.“

„Are you going to join the search as well, Aaron?“ he asked as Matthaus sat down at their table. He clearly remembered that the boy had introduced himself as ‚Connor‘ when he had entered his fake fortune telling tent, but since it would probably make a bad impression on Samantha if she found out what he did in his spare time, he decided not to point Matthaus‘ little lie out. He just wanted to let him know that he was aware of it.

If Lucas didn’t tell Samantha (who had red eyes now which worried the former squire a little), maybe Matthaus would keep quiet about the fortune telling.

[Wart]

Figures it'd be some petchin' Svefra. Wart had heard about it all the day they'd been announced as missing. She didn't care to keep up with what was going on in the city, but working at a tattoo shop she inevitably heard about it all anyway. She didn't give any thought to hearing that they'd disappeared. After all, people went missing all the time, it wasn't her business and she had plenty of other things to worry about. And then she heard about the reward money. As she'd continued in helping Tock with the statue, she'd started to make the realization that this flower stuff was probably going to cost more than she'd anticipated. Adding that to the paint she needed to fill up on so desperately… But she was not about to go complaining to her friend about it, or, Gods forbid, go around the city looking for charity. No, she was going to go and get the money herself by whatever means were necessary. If that meant looking for some stupid Svefra that had run off, then fine. She'd do it. Tongue was still busy giving her the cold shoulder, and Coal was as apathetic as ever, so it was useless trying to go to them for any sort of leads. Eth, however, mentioned that there was going to be a search party gathered up at the Grotto. Well, a bar was as good a place to start as anywhere else. She walked to the inn wearing her usual sleeveless tunic and shorts, boots laced up tight. Her belt though only contained her chalks and some black paint, as apposed to the whole assortment of colors it normally held. Over her shoulder was her cloak which she brought just in case. It still had a large gash at the bottom but otherwise had still gone largely unused up until now. Entering the door she gave the place a sweeping look over, eyes their regular purple-blue. She didn't actually know who it was that was organizing this little group thing, so wasn't sure what to be looking for. Eth didn't have many details for her, being one that tried to stay out of anything that might even hint at confrontation. After a moment she spotted a suspicious enough looking group. A woman, a boy, and a kid huddled around a table with a paper on it talking real close. "Oh Gods what is this shyke..." They didn't exactly look promising from what she could tell. The woman was pretty small, fragile looking, the boy had a sword but didn't have the look of a real hard fighter, and the kid… What vagik invited a petchin' kid?! Eyes transitioning a slight red with irritation, she continued to the table anyway. If this "party" ended up a complete flop she could always find out what information they had and go off of that on her own. It was better than nothing. Pulling out a chair she sat down. "So's 'is that search party thing?"

[Matthaus]

Matthaus listened to the conversation closely, his own questions still swirling but he kept his mouth firmly shut about his own ideas. Best to learn what the others knew before he shoved his foot in his mouth but that didn’t stop a slight smirk from flitting across his face at Samantha’s ire. But when he caught a glimpse of her eyes he scooted back warily, this woman was stubborn, for all he knew she would tie him up so she would know precisely where he was. On the plus side, Lucas hadn’t ratted him out which meant the woman didn’t know what he got up to in his spare time. “It’s good to see you too, Samantha and yes, I plan to join. It interests me same way is does you although its nice to know we all know each other.” He was about to say more when yet another woman walked up. That made him, Samantha and whatever skills she had, the new woman was colorful and the man-boy (Lucas) was a what? He was sure he had caught something about swordsmanship as he approached the table. Holding his hand out he slipped the new woman the paper with the information. “Perhaps we should right down our questions about the disappearances and see what we can solve about them together. Magic or not the people are alive or there would be bodies. And I don’t think they just decided to ‘disappear’ without notice, unless that is within Svefra nature.” Truth be told that was another problem, what did he know about Svefra? Could it be politics? Or was it a simple crazed person or mage? Glancing around the tavern he pursed his lips, there were too many variables that he didn’t know the answer too. Too many things he questioned. He needed more time, more information. Much more. Turning towards the newcomer he realized he should try and read their auras but probably after the meeting was coming to a close, if he got tired now there was no telling if he would wake up on a tavern floor later.

[Samantha Slate]

"Are you going to join the search as well, Aaron?“ Lucas asked Aaron, much to Samantha's surprise. They knew each other? The mage filed that tidbit of information away in her mind, resolving to find out what Lucas knew about the strange boy at the next available opportunity. For now, however, she kept her mind on the task at hand. Going off on a tangent would be counterproductive, and she had a deal to gain from this search if they succeeded. For a moment, Aaron smirked in satisfaction at Samantha, before quickly scooting his chair away from her. The mage's eyes returned to their previous green, at that. Her expression showed little of her amusement, but the eyes were a dead giveaway. Especially to the next member of their party to arrive, though Samantha did not know it yet. A young woman sauntered up to their table and sat down at one of the few remaining chairs and said in a thick accent, "So's 'is that search party thing?" Instead of replying, Samantha sat there in shock for a few ticks, her mouth starting to gape open a bit. The sight of the woman was utterly foreign. Every inch of her body held a new oddity, each stranger than the last. She was, in a word, colorful. The woman's clothes were smudged and covered in paint in several places, her exposed skin had swirly tattoos embedded in it at every convenient location, and her makeup was more colorful than the auroras her mother's homeland featured in their skies. She even had a streak of rainbow color running down a thin strip of her hair! How did she even manage that? Even her eyes were colorful! Had a normal person had eyes that color, Samantha might have thought that they were Vantha. Not this one, however. With all the hues of the rainbow exhibited somewhere or other on her body, the new woman had almost certainly found some strange way to dye her eye color. They hadn't changed color yet, so they surely had to be artificial. She hoped so, anyway. Realizing she had been gawking like a child at a circus, Samantha visibly shook off her surprise and pasted a slight smile on her face. "Yes, miss. It is." She said in a neutral tone. Her disdain showed through only slightly; the woman was quite practiced at controlling her tone and expression, even if her damned eyes betrayed her by turning a faintly darker green. "I am Samantha." She introduced herself and pushed another sheet of paper at Aaron. He gave his to the woman, much to Samantha's relief. She didn't want to interact with the woman any more than strictly necessary. People so unusual were unpredictable, and unpredictable people were dangerous.