Quest When Ships Don't Come Home (Restarted In Summer)

[Gossamer]

Timestamp 50th of Spring, 518 AV

Juli had called the meeting at The Tidepool. The bar set out over the water seemed to be more and more settling itself up into a main events center for Syka, though it was small and certainly wouldn’t function as such for much longer. With the addition of a dozen more residents, Syka was quickly growing past the capacity for the bar to function as it was. However, until they had an actual community center, The Tidepool had to do.

The meeting wasn’t a spur of the moment emergency kind of situation either. This one had been well thought out with the Founders being in attendance and word being passed resident to resident that Juli had requested everyone’s presence at The Tidepool at noon to discuss the disappearance of her Father and The Veronica. After so many successful trips, the large modified two-masted war sloop was overdue by about twice as long as necessary and everyone was concerned.

Hopped up on the counter, visible but barely, was the transparent ghost of a little girl, about six or seven years old. In her arms she clutched a ghostly kitten that while seemingly more real than the girl, had transparent qualities to itself as well. The girl and the kitten watched as the crowd gathered, both human and Verusk, slowly filling up the bar to hear what Juli had to say.

Mathias and Randal were there as well, with Buraga and Stu in attendance also. Several of the cities full time leaders in other areas… Jansen and Rainmere as well as Tony Swiftwater was also present. Surprisingly though, so was Duncan Maelstrom.

Duncan stood next to Juli opposite of the ghostly child, quietly waiting until the group had quieted enough before he spoke.

“Can I have your attention? As you know, Juli’s father Captain James Chalvia is missing. He is vital to this settlement’s survival because it’s via The Veronica we get resupplied until we can provide our own goods and services. He’s overdue, by about twice the length of time he should have been gone and now we are starting to worry. We’ve had messenger birds that we’ve often been able to contact him with or send messages back and forth to Riverfall and truthfully, he never showed up on his last run. That’s doubly worrying because that means he’s been gone longer than we expected. That means he could have been in trouble the moment he set sail just before our expedition set out last season.” Duncan said, worried.

“We don’t know what happened to him, but luckily the Maelstrom Pod, my family, has stopped into Syka for a visit and has offered to help look for him. We are currently seeking volunteers to try to form a plan to find out what happened to The Veronica and James and see if we can’t get our people back home safely. This is absolutely vital because as of right now we have no other way to get the goods and services we need from Riverfall to Syka. And we have no other vessel dedicated to our support.” He said, laying it all out.

Duncan took a breath, linked his blind eyes, and gestured to a tall female Svefra that stood nearbye. She looked an awful lot like Duncan. She stepped forward. “I am Lia Diamond Maelstrom. I’m here to offer the services of my pod and our tavan to your cause. Is there any among you that would volunteer to help us form a plan and look for James?” She asked, looking thoughtfully skeptical, like she didn’t expect volunteers nor that if they did find James they’d find him alive.

Still they had to ask. Without James, no one was quite sure what Syka was going to do for supplies.

[Ialari Pythone]

When Ialari received word that Juli had requested a gathering of the settlers, she informed Kajun'tar that it would be wise if he attended with her. In agreement, the two of them made their way to the Tidepool to hear what Juli had to say.

As they arrived and just before entering, the mark on Ialari's left palm began to throb; the mark of Dira, the mark of Death. Upon entering, Ialari's mark honed in on the source of alarm; the little girl with the kitten sitting on the counter. While Ialari had seen death, felt and smelled it many times in the past, this was one of the few times; perhaps the only time she could remember, that she'd been near the ghost of a child. When it came to the unliving, Ialari felt a mix of emotions. During her time among the nuit of Sahova, she felt disgust and the desire to send every last rotting corpse to Dira. When it came to ghosts however, she felt a profound sadness; reflective of the that which the ghosts themselves often felt. This time was no different.

Clenching her fist as if to sooth the throbbing in her palm, she took her place, with Kajun'tar at her side. The Verusk noted Ialari's reaction to the ghost, his own surprise obvious on his face, yet he chose to take the wait and see approach. He would ask Ialari about it all later.

When Juli began to speak, Ialari's attention was only somewhat drawn away from the ghostly girl and her kitten. Half listening at first, Ialari forced her attention to the living girl addressing the crowd.

James and the Veronica were missing. Ialari realized quickly the significance of such an event just as Duncan voiced it aloud. The desperation in Juli's voice over her father's disappearance was equally as upsetting. Even in Ialari's short time in Syka, she'd seen and felt James' importance to the settlers. When the female Svefra, Lia, called for volunteers to help find James, Ialari stepped forward and said slowly, keeping her accent as controlled as possible, "James puts his life on the line every time he and his ship leaves us. Without him, there is no Syka. I offer all that I have to help find him." Her offer was genuine as Ialari never made an offer without the intent to follow through. The disappearance of James was a logistical disaster. He and his ship formed Syka's lifeline. Without the trade he engaged in, survival in Syka would not last, at least not in any semblance of the way it currently did.

As for the personal aspect of his absence, Ialari didn't know James terribly well. She knew of his importance to the settlement as well as knew him to be a kind man but other than that she didn't know all that much about him. Despite that, as she stood waiting for others to step up and volunteer to help, she couldn't shake the sadness that was slowly falling upon her; a sadness she somehow knew was related to his disappearance. Her palm continued to throb. She considered the possibility that she was feeling the sadness due to her extremely close proximity to the ghostly child.

Ialari maintained a bit of distance from the little girl. Ghosts were unpredictable in their reaction to her due to her mark of Death. Sometimes they were uneasy around her or even repelled. Other times, they were drawn to her. She never was quite sure which it would be at any particular time or why. Her experience with ghosts in the past had left her with some knowledge of how to deal with them. Ialari had been possessed by more than a few ghosts in her life, seldom was it ever entirely pleasant. She had a good amount of knowledge of ghosts in general yet possessed only a tiny amount of skill in the actual discipline of magic that related to them. The fact that there was one present, manifested enough to be seen must be significant to what was going on with James.

Although she didn't know exactly why the ghost was there, she didn't want to seem threatening to it. Tapping in to her mark of Dira, Ialari embraced the feeling of ease and calm that the mark brought her in the presence of death. She tried to will it outward in hopes that the calming effects would somehow be felt be the little girl and keep her at ease; revealing Ialari to be someone who could be trusted and helpful.

[Alwyn Seapearl]

When one of the settlers had came to get Alwyn, he had hesitated. It was only for a fraction of a tick and not much to speak about, but it was still enough that Alwyn's mind had started to wander on the implications. He could tell from the person's tone and anxiousness that the meeting was important, which is why he fully committed to attending, but he wasn't fully mentally present until Duncan had started to talk.

Before they came to get him, he'd simply been crouched some yards away from the fringe of the forest. He tried to peer deep into the depths, tried to see anything at all, but the pure density made it near impossible. Which only seemed to spur his curiosity, as he wanted to go in and see what he could see and experience what he could experience, except that created a conundrum.

Alwyn damn near hated the idea of the jungle. It had too many plants too close together and too many ugly creatures that ran around within its depths. There was water, but it was the humid rain and most likely the salty sweat of now-dead explorers; in essence, it wasn't the sea that he so loved. He could tell just by looking that he'd hate going in, and that made him dislike the Sykan settlers to some small degree.

Only land-dwellers would willingly forgo ships for wood and stone prisons on a beach next to such an odd and hostile type of environment. And Alwyn so rarely got along with land-dwellers in any place, and so he rarely tried to join any of their 'communities' in any meaningful way, hence the magnitude of the hesitation. He didn't want to go and see what sort of problems living on the land had caused these people because many of them would be solved if only they lived on ships like the grand Svefra.

And it was the accuracy of that thought that caused him to chuckle softly to himself at the meeting. It was truthfully a bad time to show such a light-hearted emotion, but Alwyn was prone to reacting the wrong ways in some situations. This situation could have been avoided if they lived on and from the sea, or if they had more than a single ship dedicated to shipping what they needed. But, that wasn't the point.

Much like Ialari, the rampant negative emotions that could be felt in the words of the settlers upset him. His lips turned down. He could sympathize with Juli if nothing else; after all, he'd lost his own father to an accident on the sea, and wouldn't wish that on anyone. It was a terrible feeling, and he guessed it was much worse when you don't know what happened. James could be alive and well but lost, or he could be stranded and in pain, or he could be dead. The uncertainty would kill him, and he wouldn't feel right if he sat on his arse while someone went through that.

He waited to see if anyone else would volunteer. Land-dwellers often didn't step up to help, he noticed, because they weren't as tightly knit as the Svefra were as a whole. Still, he wasn't surprised when one obviously non-human stepped forward. He only half-listened to her words. The other hemisphere of his brain was focused on her arm, which seemed... Extremely odd and somehow formidable.

The end of her words seemed to snap him out of what trance he'd gone into while he stared at her arm. He made a mental note to ask her about it later, as they'd most likely speak quite a bit on their way to rescue James (or his body).

"I may not agree with the expedition, as it is usually Laviku's will that a ship sinks in his domain and who are we to go against a God's desires, but I will pledge my ship to the search nonetheless, Lia Maelstrom," he said aloud. He hadn't moved much, simply raised his chin and spoke incredibly loudly, but eye contact with Diamond was enough to show her that he was serious. After all, he'd never ignore a call for aid from a fellow Svefra. Never.

[Nayato]

“Are you going to help?” . Hm. The idea sounded quite interesting to the Chaktawe as he stood amid the group while clad in a set of leather armor. The words of the question were ones that rung though his mind, but were alien to him. He cast his obsidian eyes to the side to spot Ibiski; his golden dingo Chaktawe Gurdian, just on the ground next to his left foot. The golden dingo sat there shaking its head, as Nayato shook his back at it before thinking to. “We both know I am.” It was a message the dingo seemed to scoff at before simply vanishing in between the next moment Nayato blinked.

He stood at attention, running a finger along the steel surface of the buckler attached to his left forearm while he listened to Duncan speak. He did his best to remain focused on listening to everything being spoken, but his eyes kept drifting to the ghost girl on the bar. Talivindra, the Artisan Verusk, had accompanied Nayato to the gathering. She chuckled to herself as she realized the Chaktawe had an oddly morbid but fascinating interest in the incorporeal undead.

By the time Lia Diamond had begun to sleep, he had already slung his backpack from over one of his shoulders; not fully wearing it as he wore a quiver of arrows, and just sat down on the ground where he stood. "“ of course I’ll help.” He spoke as he pulled out a small bowl then proceeded to reach into his backpack three separate times to fill the bowl with three ingredients he carried around at all times. A handful of flour was added to the bowl, then a nice glob of animal lard which was specifically goat lard at the moment, and a soft cheese. He then pulled an arrow from the quiver to run its point along the ball of his palm to let a bit of his blood dribble into the bowl.

Nayato shoved that same hand into the bowl to knead everything together with his knuckles until it looked like a pink bloody paste. He then ate the contents of the bowl to ingest the batter that Nayato would use to craft soulmist with. He left one last little bit of bloody paste in the bowl that he quickly used to smear onto the small cut to act as a makeshift flour based poultice. It was just to slow the bleeding process as he quickly wrapped a strip of cloth around the palm of his hand.

The Squire then sat there cross-legged on the ground as he looked up at any one staring at him. "If it is within my power to do so, I wish to help bring Juli some tranquility. And if James's return brings peace to Syka, then its a task that I wish to see through to the end. And hopefully, Sylir's will shall be done." He might have not been a knight, but he was still a squire at heart, and that meant he still wished to help people in need.

[Nieve Glass]

The Tidepool Bar was crowded with just about every resident of Syka and then some by the time Nieve arrived with Sinaetri. Luckily for her, she was small; she slipped in between the crowded people, raising up on her toes to better see the people gathered at the front, preparing to address those who had gathered. She had no idea what the meeting was about, and was curious to know. Behind her, Sinaetri simply moved among the crowd with curt words.

As she waited, a flickering caught her eye; glancing sharply to the side, Nieve caught sight of the ghostly image of a young girl sitting on the counter, clutching an equally ghostly kitten. The Kelvic's eyes went wide and round. Her first response was instinctively of fear, but it was followed swiftly by curiosity. She wanted to go and talk to the ghost of the little girl, but before she could get a chance, Duncan began to speak.

Nieve couldn't quite tear her gaze from the barely visible girl, but she listened intently despite that; one could almost imagine her ears turned and flicking in Duncan's direction. A sharp claw poking into the back of her neck drew her attention finally. "Pay attention," Sinaetri spoke, voice low and serious. Evie frowned, biting back the retort that she was, and finally turned to look at the speaker addressing the crowd.

James was missing. Nieve had never had a chance to speak with the man, and even her glimpses of him had been fleeting, but she understood his importance to the settlement. She felt bad for poor Juli, as well; it was clear to see how distraught she was.

They were looking for volunteers. Nieve stayed quiet for a long moment, contemplating. A few others spoke up to offer their aid; the woman who was of the same race as Aladon, the man with the black eyes, and a newcomer who she'd never seen before.

"You aren't going to volunteer, are you?" Sinaetri looked down at Nieve, face unreadable.

"Maybe," Nieve said, honestly. She wasn't sure what she could offer; but she was always eager to prove her usefulness, and it sounded like it could be quite the adventure, at the very least.

"That's foolish of you. You'll almost certainly not find him, and if you do, I doubt he's alive." Sinaetri spoke matter-of-factly, seemingly unmoved by what she'd just said. It bothered Nieve. "Besides, you have no experience with anything like this."

She frowned at the Verusk, irritated by both her attitude and her words. Nieve was nothing if not stubborn and contrary, so she spoke up without removing her vivid gaze from Sinaetri, her choice now made. "I'll go. Whatever skills I have, I offer." She had been decidedly leaning towards offering her help in any case, so it wasn't a huge decision for her.

Sinaetri made a sound in the back of her throat, a hum that could either be amusement or disapproval, Nieve wasn't sure. Perhaps it was both. "You are being childish. I suppose I should not have expected less from one of your kind; brave yet stupid, and oh so spiteful."

Evie wasn't sure if she meant Kelvics as a whole, or felines in general. Either way, she folded her arms over her chest and raised her chin slightly. The two often butt heads in such a manner; they were almost polar opposites, yet both were stubborn. The age difference only exasperated the issue. Thankfully, the Verusk had a deep, seemingly endless well of patience.

Sinaetri shook her head silently, light reflecting off the scaled golden highlights along the center of her face. Evie's gaze caught sight of the dark-haired man with the black eyes again, accompanied by a female Verusk, and watched as he ate a strange-looking pink dough from a bowl in front of him.

Unable to be contained and her brief attention span once again diverted, Nieve edged over to the man to peer curiously at the now empty bowl. "What was that you just ate?" She didn't introduce herself, too curious, but she was mindful to keep her voice relatively low so as not to interrupt anything important being said. Behind her, Sinaetri caught Talivindra's gaze and shook her head.

"I hope yours is not as stubborn as mine," She spoke to the other Verusk, not particularly caring if Nieve could hear. Being around the Kelvic was truly like living with a rambunctious kitten.

[Turrin]

Turrin's mood has improved since he came back to his father's homeland of Falyndar. He was a long way from Taloba, and he had no intention of ever returning there after his grandmother banished his father's family from the clan. The former Endal was quite happy that he found out about Syka because it was the perfect place to start his life over again. Taloba and Wind Reach were his home in the past, but those chapters were over, and Syka seemed promising to forge his own destiny without the push or pull of Aponivi interfering in his decisions. The Inarta half breed was dressed his traditional burgundy bryda, long baggy flowing Inarta designed pants. He wore his ankle high brown leather boots. In Wind Reach, the former endal never wore a shirt, and Syka was to hot to wear a shirt all the time, so he walked into the Tidepool bare chested displaying his large tattoo on his right shoulder. Strapped to his waist, he wore his scabbard holding his mother's talon sword. He decided to leave his short bow in his tent because he didn't need it getting a drink at a local bar. In his hair was braided a assortment of feathers a tradition that he picked up from his mother's homeland. He hoped in the future to add a colorful feathers from the many birds of paradise in the jungle.

Walking down the dock to the Tidepool Bar, he could tell that their were quite a lot of residents already drinking the night away. As he got closer, he could tell that it wasn't as rowdy or lively as the Inclement Weather in Wind Reach, but he wasn't surrounded by hot headed red headed humans either. When he walked into the bar, he stopped in the doorway and his golden eyes immediately went to the bar. He thought he saw something out of the ordinary at first, but he watched for a half a chime as he saw a barely faint little girl hopping up on top of the counter. He pulled his eyes away from the apparition and found a open table by the water. Sitting down his chair, the sea breeze felt coming off the ocean. The half breed always enjoyed sitting by the ocean by Thunder Bay, but the breeze coming off the ocean tended to be much colder than ocean breeze in Syka.

Leaning back in his chair, Turrin heard a man start to talk to everyone about how the Veronica and it's captain gone missing out at sea. The looks on the faces of the people of Syka a collective worry for the settlement survival was on the faces of the settlers. From the looks of the fledgling settlement, the village had no way to self sustain itself if their outlet to the outside world went missing. Suddenly a woman introduced herself as Lia Diamond Maelstrom. She used the term pod. A term that the Inarta had not heard before. Suddenly, she asked for volunteers to help her in finding their missing ship and captain. Patiently, Turrin decided to wait and observe the volunteers willing to put their lives on the line. The first volunteer was a short woman with silver veins running through her skin and a black arm. He was definitely curious about her oddly colored arm. It didn't looked disease, but it looked stronger than normal. He was wondered if it was artificial since it looked almost looked metal. Regardless, she was beautiful woman and his golden eyes might have lingered longer than expected on her. She didn't give a name, but everyone seemed to know her.

The next person was tall human with a thick scruffy beard. The most distinguishing feature about him was his deep blue eyes. The endal was close enough to hear him talk to Lia and the other people by the bar declaring his assistance. However, he was surprised on how insensitive as he disagreed about the rescue mission because it violated some religious belief to his god, Laviku. The former endal snorted and thought to himself, 'If he was floating in some log in the middle of the ocean, he would be happy as hai to be saved by anyone. The god's will be damned...'

The half breed turned his attention to the next volunteer and noticed his eyes were completely black. The man was sitting cross legged on the floor. He never met anyone with completely black eyes in Kalea. He would definitely need to speak to the strange man and ask where he was from. This man dropped the gods name of Sylir. He felt relaxed as he encountered so many men with convictions since they tended to have a moral codes.

The last person was a bubbly young woman who seemed to be arguing with one of the strange new races to Mizahar. If he came in the winter, he would have known more about them, but destiny brought him to Syka in the spring, so he missed out on it. The curious human woman declared her intent to help the cause. When she was finished with Lia, the young human woman seemed curious about the black eyed man on the floor. She never gave a name either. He wasn't sure what they were talking about, so he turned his attention back to the Lia and Duncan. Turning his attention away from the volunteers, Turrin stood up, walked over to Lia Dimond Maelstrom, and said with a incline of his head in thick Inartan accent, “My name is Turrin, and I will assist all of you in rescuing, James.”

It was simple and to the point. A declaration of his assistance doesn't have to be flowery. Walking back to his seat, the Inartan sat back down in his chair and listened for more information. In the Unforgiving, Aponivi and him looked for lost Inartan's in the wilds of Kalea. It was shame that he didn't have his other half with him. With this realization, he frowned slightly in chair as memories started to flood back to him; however, he would be damned to show emotions around a bunch of strangers.

[Sara]

Running down the hill of Syka Sara greeted the day grumbling under her breath. She had been ill the last few so she missed the town meetings uptill now preferring to work with her boat. While she had not applied for citizenship she still felt apart of the township. Happily she managed to arrive before anything could happen slipping in unnoticed. A single Glance an her eyes were glued on the sight of Juli, the ghost of James Chalvia. The auror of gloom was not help by the fact she was holding a small ghost of a kitten. Nervous and a bit frightened by the sight she took a spot in the back.

From this angel the tarven made a harsh visual mural as Juil stood next to a man she remembered as Duncan, one of the Maelstrom Pod.. A hope started to bloom in her that the Maelstrom would take her in as one of their own. This was the one thing she wanted most ever since begin shamed out of her old pod.She snapped back to herself As the man began to speak

Duncan spoke of the trade ship The Veronica having gone missing with no messenger birds being sent or returning with unopened notes.This caused a near panicked emotion amongst the crowd. Everyone relied on The Veronica it was represented so many different things. Sara had began sneaking back towards the door unhindered and unnoticed - she did not what to see or a be seen as a part of a riot. Then a Tall woman stepped forward Her a grey hair Female Duncan look alike. When the lady introduced herself as Lia Diamond the it seemed to be a release of whatever fear she had.

But it was never that simple. While the Malstromes were willing to look for The Veronica but the band of svefra still needed volunteers to find the ship and rescue the crew and Captain. The god Laviku was likely to be apart of the voyage for good or bad. She thoughtfully made a mental note to go and place an offering in the water before the tides changed.

Her mind came back to the room around her and she saw a middle aged female of what she guessed was an Isur standing in meditation. The fact that the room was watching this strange women gave her the idea she had volunteered while she not been paying attention. Right there stepping up was another follower of Laviku from his tan and stance sara took him to be a fellow svefra. She started to make her way to him to start a conversation but the yet.another man that look like some kind of hunter with his bow and arrows as well as being dressed in leather and then there was another girl naturally curious as she asked what the batter the man in leather.

As the young girl asked conversed with the hunter Sara herself moved to the side of the man who had at least given thought to Laviku and the power of his will she was about to speak when she was push to the side as a man wearing the clothes of places far from the sea she heard stories about. When he to volutered his help Sara felt ashamed of herself for not helping her fellow svefra. She turned to Lia Malstrom “I volunteer myself and my boat The sunny .”

She paused a moment thinking of the Malstrom pod. She had seen the group of different boats anchored off shore. The pod could take it choice of boats but she just had her casinor. “I can take 4 people aboard my ship. So spots are open and i will take the first four who ask.” she said looking around the group of volunteers.