Quest Disinclined to Acquiesce (Open)

[Leaf]

There was so much to see, so much to do. Leaf was in the Chavena again, even though he did not know its name. After touching that Endal, he had felt it wearing in on him bit by bit as he interacted until finally, he had stepped aside to let it take its toll. There was movement. Fear. An acrid taste of metal on his tongue. Around him, people were slowly getting to their feet after the eruption of djed from the volcano's center. The Inarta had lost themselves in Ivak's release. He was getting to his feet as well, the excitement of... What?... Coursing through his blood. Was he excited that the Firegod had broken free from his prison now? Yes. That was it. His face split into a wide smile as he looked at the rest of his people, the Inarta, and... Leaf came to leaning against a wall just beyond the renewed festivities, sweat beading on his brow and a disgruntled expression in his eyes. He straightened and glanced around his area, glaring at a few of the staring Inarta, and composing himself to return to the festivities. He needed a drink. And some fish. He returned to the party, striding into it like he had a mission. He was as concerned to find the Endal's attacker as the rest of them, but first he needed to reorganize his thoughts. The center table awaited him, loaded still with succulent food. He snatched a handful of fried fish and popped each piece into his mouth, obviously enjoying the taste of it, even if it was cooked. Turning, he spotted an unnattended tray and helped himself to a glass of wine before looking for the Dek that was supposed to handle it. They were all lined up, uncertain and afraid, awaiting certain punishment for the crime only one of them had committed. Even though Leaf didn't particularly care for the lower caste, he didn't like the look of this. Something seemed off to him, and every one of those Dek seemed imperfect in some visual way. That can't be right, he realised. There were hale Dek about a few chimes ago. One had served him, in fact, before the whole mess. Where did they go? He approached these remaining Dek with a very serious look on his face.

[Ishgrameer Windwalker]

Ishgrameer had been standing for some time now, and had been nibbling at pieces of delicious meat to sate his appetite. The festival was a wonderful delight, and hopefully would lighten people's lives. He stood at the edge of the party for the most part, and observed peoples' actions. His large orange eyes taking in the majestic nature of the ebb and flow of the people all dressed in their colorful attire. No one had payed him much attention, and so he enjoyed the solitude that was his companion. A boy and a girl seemed to play a game of cat and mouse (though they seemed to not realize it). Dek's went about serving. People danced. An archery challenge seemed to be slowly erected. Ishgrameer was looking forward to partake. However it all changed when the Endal was assaulted. Ishgrameer thought that he had noticed some strange discord in the flow of the crowd, and then came the clanging of a tray against skull. Then there was the ensuing squabble as chaos briefly reigned over the party while the injured Endal was healed and they tried to reestablish order. Ishgrameer admitted that whomever it was who had perpetrated the assault was rather clever. The crowd was thick, and they had easily slid out of sight. Even his trained sight could not discern the path with which they fled. Though he imagined they were no longer here, but that was all just observational assessments. He was adorned in his night leather armor, with his modest cloth shirt and pants beneath them. His fur cloak was wrapped about him. He was dressed in such wears because they were all that he owned, and he had never needed nor bought finer clothing. He had truly hoped to partake in the archery, and to show off his skill. Perhaps among this throng of people he would find a falconer with whom to find companionship. Part of him wanted to help. But he was unsure if he should interfere or just remain where he was. He decided he would make a decision after getting another piece of meat, and if possible a drink.

[Farlen]

Suddenly Farlen had isolated a familiar scent over all the other familiar scents in the party. In fact, it seemed to have been lingering there from the very beginning, only he didn't notice it until now. None the less he began going about his business, realising that chasing after all this distraction had already got him into enough trouble. And Farlen didn't wish for anymore trouble. Sometimes he was like a kitten, chasing after every movement, every scent that caught his attention.

Making sure he was still within sight of Red, he observed everything that was happening. Noticing a polite nod from Kanri, he instantly returned it with a gentle smile. Her presence here reassured him, despite their very brief acquaintance. It wasn't easy to be a foreigner in this city.

... but that scent... that annoyingly familiar scent. "Keep your head down and stay out of trouble!" he said beneath his breath. Though this self-reminder did not help. He stood on his tip toes and looked over the heads in the crowd. And surely among all this red was a silhouette adorned by leather armour, just a few steps away.

Falren instantly submerged himself in the crowd again, recognising the man instantly. "Fancy meeting him here." he smirked to himself.

[Iosha]

Holding the glass of wine in one hand and the towel in the other, Iosha cringes to herself when he asked her what happened to her head. She really didn't want to tell him about the Dek who assaulted her since he seems to be getting people together to find his attackers. She bits her lip a moment and she lies to him, “See Red I think I had a little too much wine before I went to look for the things. I needed for your wound, so I kind of stumbled into a statue.” Iosha groans at the stupidity of her lie. She will tell him the truth later, but not until he finds his attackers. Wishing she brought her sword with her, Iosha nods slowly to him and thinks to herself, “If things start to get really dicey when we met up with these Deks. I might have to use magic to protect myself. Hopefully it won't come to that...” Suddenly Iosha sees a large Wind Eagle land in the middle of the party, and she jumps back from the surprise of it all. She looks at the other Inartans and foreigners in the group and notice they are not surprised at the sudden appearance of the great bird. She watches the bird in quiet awe, and she starts to wonder if he father rode a Wind Eagle that looked like this beautiful animal. Not thinking of her safety, she slowly walks over the Wind Eagle and starts petting the soft feathers at the base of his neck. She smiles to herself wishing her mother stayed with her father, so he could have taken her for a ride on the beautiful beast. She says to the Wind Eagle in Konti, “I can't believe you really exist. As a child in Mura, I thought you were just a creature of legend in my mother's stories, but now...I am here actually touching such a beautiful animal...”

[Phoenix]

The party had definitely shed its fun and relaxed atmosphere, replaced instead by a wary sense of unease that crept into every individual there, putting them on edge and more alert than they would normally be. By now, everyone had figured out that something was wrong, or had at least noticed most of the part condensing into a serious, murmuring group and moving away.

Farlen would be forced to share his knowledge with Red and the others by now, telling them of the mysterious Bronaugh Den and the gathering that had been occurring there. However, never having been there himself Farlen had little information as to the whereabouts of this Den; the upper Castes had previously been oblivious to it’s existence, so hidden away it was that no one even accidently stumbled upon it.

It was Kenri that made a breakthrough, noticing a small ripped piece of fabric clinging to the walls where Ardal and Elna had spied upon the discussion between their two suspects. The cloth had previously been part of a lontev, ripped and torn and smelly as all get out. Everything was simple now: If the suspects were returning to the Den to regroup as was suspected, the Kelvics in their party could surely use this measly scrap of fabric to track the scent.

Iosha managed to stabilize Red’s head wound before the group gathered up and moved out, following the Kelvic’s lead out of the city and down the Pass, the trail leading them around the base of the mountain and too a well disguised crack in the rock; it was barely visible unless one knew what they were looking for, a protrusion of rock jutting out in front of the tunnel entrance so that it looked solid, those wishing to enter having to shimmy behind the protrusion in order to slip inside.

Dark, damp and eerily quiet, a sense of dread hung in the air, sending shivers and goose prickles over the exposed flesh of the searching party. It didn’t take them long to find the cavernous space in which the Dek found shelter. Tattered blankets that were hardly more than rags, rolled up fabric that were used as pillows, small broken pots, pans, cups and other equipment lay in neat piles around the place; it was clear that many people lived here.

The group wasn’t left to gawk for long, as the pair of men spotted earlier had stood from where they crouched in front of a deep shadowy nook in the wall, turning towards the group in surprise. The pair advanced towards the group, their hands held upright and weaponless, their faces expressionless, their eyes vacant.

“You are not Dek, not all of you. What are you doing here?” The stronger of the two, the one who had bullied his companion in the hallway, approached the group first, stopping them before they could go very far into the cavern. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Though there was no visible hostility in him, the man didn’t back down nor did he answer any of the questions asked of him, simply staring at each speaker in turn, clearly waiting for them to follow his command.

OOCFeel free to play out as much of the tracking and finding of the Den as you please. However, when you get to the Dek stopping you from entering into the Den further, everyone try to ask only one question apiece so that it's easier for me to pick up from that point. Don't go any further!

[Elna]

Elna followed diligently behind the suspects as they turned the corner. Where ever they were meeting Elna was determined to find it. She had been doing a good job at keeping her distance, she never lost sight of them and they never seemed to find the need to look behind them. She wasn't sure if that was a sign of luck on her part or stupidity on their part, but she still felt like she was accomplishing something regardless. Once she found where they were going she may even be rewarded, and with Ardal gone off to who knows where, she wouldn't even have to share credit.

The Dek were certainly getting some distance, they where even leaving the city. Elna had never left the safety of the city without the protection of a hunting instructor before, but she had to stay brave about it. This was important and life doesn't give you anything without taking risks. She widened her distance a bit now that she wouldn't be worrying about them weaving though the city. She though them stop near the face of the mountain climbing though a crack in the wall where they disappeared from view. Now that they were making complicated maneuvers, she had to have been getting close if she wasn't already there.

She could lose them if she didn't hurry. She threw caution to the wind and ran towards the opening, hoping she would find the men not to far off. The cave was wet, cold, and uncomfortable, perhaps something a Dek could learn to tolerate, but Elna was already hating being here. Not only that, but the cave was dark, and she had lost sight of her targets. She slipped of her backpack off her shoulder pulling out her lamp and tinder. By the time her light was ready, she saw no sign of anyone in the area. Best she could do would be to follow down the cave until it forked, hopefully it wouldn't.

She was in luck! It was a straight shoot to small shelter. This was it, she found it! Her heart beat quickly in excitement. Unfortunately right before she could make her way back to tell someone she was stopped by the larger man that she had been following. She figured she was about to be in for a fight, and their was no way she was going to handle fighting a man of that size. However, to her surprise, he just asked her to leave. "Right, sorry I was just exploring" she explained innocently, milking what little she could use of her apparent Yasi status so she could appear to be harmless. She had never planned to do more to find where they where going anyway, now she just had to find someone to take care of the rest. She took a look back hoping they weren't packing up to leave as she made her way back out.

OOCI was following them directly so I arrived before the rest of the group, I'll likely meet the others on the way out and explain to them what I saw before they see for themselves.

[Farlen]

Farlen had been feeling increasingly restless, itching for something to be done already. Then again, he knew that part of the problem was on his behalf. He should have burst out and told Red the little information he knew upon their very first encounter, but his shyness had prevented him from doing so. Yet finally he had gathered up the courage and faced the Endal, telling him everything. This strange Bronaugh Den place he had heard about, despite not ever being there he figured that in his animal form he could easily lead them there by scent. The scent from the fabric brought by Kanri would surely be easy to pick up around the city. he his shyness prevailing again, he would do nothing until formally instructed.

He hovered there as the search party gathered, unaware of the troubles that Elna, the girl he didn't know, was getting her self into. "Come on, we must do something. Anything." he whispered to him self very quietly as he waited, a good cat he was.

[Red Daghul]

The group had gather and up to the place that the young Inarta had pointed out where he saw the two Dek talking. and Red quickly moved in to start investigating the scene for any clues about where these two might have gone. It was painfully clear that they were long gone from this place, and that added to Red's feeling of dread. What ever this was it was clearly not good, and the thought that there could be more attacks brought a dark shadow over the Endal's mind. They needed to find those Dek and bring them to justice soon before they had a chance to hurt someone else.

It was then that two things seemed to happen almost at the same time, Farlen the Dek that he had defend before approached him with some information about a location that he had heard about from other Dek called Bronaugh Den which puzzled Red as he had never heard of this place, and Farlen didn't seem to know where it was. The second piece of the puzzle though might be able to help them find said location Kenri had spotted a simple piece of cloth that some in the party were able to identifies as part of the one of the two Dek's lontev.

Now came a slightly harder task the Endal didn't have any hunting dogs, nor did he know where to get some at this time with the party still going about. Looking to the group not knowing that he was in the presents of Kelvics he said "Any chance any one can track by scent" his words though he tried to make them light hearted seem surrounded with a dark shadow of despair. What was the Endal to do? There was a danger in the reach, and he was aware even had a way to find this place, but still unable to with out wasting time. Turning to Farlen he asked "Is there anything you can remember that might shed some light on where this place might be?"

Then looking to the group he decided that he needed to get everyone to work together to find out how to find this place "Does anyone have any ideas on how to find this place, hunting dogs would be helpful, or anything?" pausing he thought about what else to say then added "we need to hurry I have a bad feeling this is just the beginning"

[Ishgrameer Windwalker]

Ishgrameer had just noticed a familiar crop of hair traveling through the crowd. It was Farlen sure enough, and so as he finished his piece of meat he decided to catch up to him. He waited until Farlen had talked to an Endal about something that had to do with whole debacle that had transpired, and subsequently shifted the atmosphere of the party. Finally finding a moment with which to interject he laid a hand on Farlen’s shoulder. Farlen turned to see who it was and it was thus that Ishgrameer spoke: “Hello friend, I was wondering if by some chance there was any way I could help?” He studied the group that had formed to assess-and hopefully fix the problem. He did not wish to directly interject into their discussion, and thus he decided that perhaps through Farlen he could be introduced and subsequently lend his aid in whatever facet they required. At least then perhaps they could resume with the archery competition which would allow him to hopefully show off a little.

[Iosha]

When Red started the group on hunt for the perpetrators, Iosha decided to make her way back of the group of do-gooders. Unlike most of the people in the party, Iosha knew in a fight. She was not normally the person to fight on the front line. Honestly, she tried to avoid most conflicts in general, but if push comes to shove, she wouldn't hesitant to defend her life with deadly force if she felt like it was in danger. She looked at the party of misfits and thought to herself. She will be safe with them, but the logical part of her mind thought this might be a bad idea since they had no clue what they were walking into too. Getting a bad feeling, Iosha felt this whole situation could be a trap, and they were blindly walking into a potentially hazardous situation. She decided since Red was the leader of this band of heroes, she will speak to him about her concerns. Making her way through the crowd, Iosha walked over to Red and whispered, “Hey Red. I am not sure what we will encounter when we find the people who attacked you, but I suggest we prepare for the worst possible situation.” She looked at the ground and continued, “If these people are determined enough to strike out at a Endal in public and not care about the consequences. They will not hesitate to do whatever is necessary to succeed in their cause. You should keep this thought in the back of your head, Red when we meet up with your attackers..” After she said what she needed to say to him. She slowed her pace until she was once again in the back of the party. Carefully making her way down the rocky path, Iosha looked around the path for anything she could use as a weapon. Frowning to herself at the lack of things around her, she looked up from her desperate search to sees the party has stopped in front of the cave. Never liking the feeling of being helpless, Iosha decided to put her hands behind her back. Before entering the cavern entrance, she stopped and waited for a moment until everyone was safely in the cavern When she felt alone, Iosha closed her eyes and started to envision a rotating ball of Res in her hands. Feeling her res start gathering her hands, she decided to will the res into the rotating ball. Iosha opened her eyes and she started to notices her ball was starting to waver for a moment. Taking a deep breath, Iosha willed the vision of the ball into shape. She slowed it's turning and started to will it to a more condense shape. Iosha knew from her grandmother reimancy tutelage that even water can shatter bones if it is dense enough. She slowly condensed the larger sphere of res into the much smaller sphere about the size of a fist. When the small sphere stabilized under her relentless will, Iosha's eyes fixed on the cavern, and she slowly walked into the cave with her hands behind her back. Staying silent and holding her concentration on the sphere of res, Iosha stayed in the back of the group. Hoping no one noticed the nearly invisible ball of res in her hands. Walking down the hall, Iosha knew what she was doing was risky, but she needed a way to defend herself, and since she doesn't have her sword. She decided to use her next best weapon, magic. While she is following the group, she suddenly heard a voice in the back of her mind say to her, “I am proud of you, Iosha. You are a wizard through and through and in this situation, you will show your enemies and allies your power. I don't think you have to worry about the Inarta caring about your magic because even they realizes magic is strength, and in the end, people with power ultimately have control over the weak. I am proud of you...” Hearing the ghostly voice trail off, Iosha made her slow decent into the cavern. When they made their way deeper into the cavern, Iosha smirked to herself when she noticed the ground and the air around her was damp with moisture. Iosha thought to herself about presence of water around them is perfect for her weapon. However, when she starts pulling the water to the sphere of res, she will have to do it slowly otherwise the walls and ceiling would dry out and people could get hurt. Iosha noticed the hallway slowly turned into a wide open cavern. When she walked into the cavern, she can't help, but notice the horrible living conditions the Deks are forced to live in on a daily bases. Being an outsider to this land, Iosha can't help feel sympathy and anger towards the society that did this to them. Deciding to keep her anger in check, Iosha took a deep breath trying calm her emotions. Suddenly, she looked over at the crowd and heard a pair of Deks barking order at them to leave. She decided to stay in the shadows still keeping concentration on her spell. Hoping she wouldn't be noticed by the Deks.