Abbas pauses as the other use the first language "Baru" yelled in. As the others start talking away and Baru lowers his weapon Abbas takes that as a sign of at least a temporary peace. He merely looks on as the others talk.
"Each area of this place is a Hectate. You..." he searches for the word, for a moment. "People, must have certainly come from Center Hectate. There's nothing there but just a platform, so nobody else lives there. But...if what you say is true, then that makes things very different..."
The tiefling stands and begins to pace back and forth, unhooking his crossbow and putting it across his arm, flicking the bowstring as his tongue plays behind his lips.
He then taps the crossbow against his boot, knocking dirt and grime off of both, he slowly approaches the group. Once up to them, he sighs.
"I was part of a hunting party. There were about the same number of us as there are you now. Strike teams don't do well in battles of attrition though. I lost the last one after a makeshift raft ride through the sea from the Center Hectate...There was a black wall, and after going through it, I ended up here. You're the first humanoid life I've seen in quite awhile."
Hmmm so should we assume that we are in a "Hectate" that is uninhabited? If you came through the wall. Abbas translates the musing to Terran if it seems like Baru doesn't understand.
If there is the ruins of a battle here, this is a semi-stable hectate, which means it's close to a stable hectate. Since you don't recognize it, that means you are trespassing on some other hectate's lands. That is not normally a good idea. If it is a hunting ground, there will be a central fortress or redoubt of some kind in the exact center, and a road leading from it to the main hectate that claims the hunting ground. This is the time of year for harvesting in your own hectate, and you are fairly certain things work the same way for other hectates.
"I speak the local dialect, but if what you were speaking earlier is your..."Common tongue," then no, I do not speak it. Now, considering that this was a battlefield, it's likely safe to assume we're in a somewhat stable hectate, meaning we're near a stable one. But...I don't recognize which one, which likely means we're trespassers. Bad thing in these parts. If it's a hunting ground, then there should be a fortress or some such thing in the center and a road leading here that proves it."
He pauses again and taps his chin.
"But it is harvest time, so that does make us more likely to find people a bit...more agreeable to an influx of strangers."
The center? Should we try to go that way or should we head back out and try another...Hectate? (Translating to Terran after I ask the others.)
with our current supplies w have some time and a direct travel back would be faster...but i didnt recall the need to return...given the hostility we have.experienced.we mivht want to.return. Translating for Baru
The newly formed group has a meal together and, and have some translated conversations getting to know each other a bit over dinner.
The next morning, the Pillar party awakes with a splitting headache. It doesn't take long to notice that the crystals are all pulsing with blue light. The headaches fade after about an hour, but there's a faint pulse in the back of the pillar parties heads, that seems to be in time with the pulses of light from the crystals.
At the pulsing Abbas stops and looks to the others, What is that? What should we do?
"You all are a better bet at knowing how to get back than me."
Baru shakes his head in slight frustration at the whole ordeal, but he disassembles his lean to and packs away his weapons.
Abbas looks around, doing his best to orient himself to return.
The compass spins madly, like a twig caught in a whirlwind. It eventually settles down pointing in one direction, but a single step is enough to send it into paroxysms of spinning that finally end with it pointing in a different direction.
Abbas, on the other hand, looks with a shaded hand toward the sun, then looks along the wall in both directions, and finally points along the wall, indicating that the party came into the hectate from that direction.
The tiefling just chuckles, seeing the spinning compass. Yet another complication in a world growing stranger by the moment. Oh the things his fellows would say if they saw "people" with crystals in their heads.
Baru looks on with interest at the strangeness of the ritual, having not seen its like before and visibly making mental notes.
"She is performing some...process or ritual, I'm assuming?"
Once everyone is ready Abbas will attempt to guide everyone where he *thinks* they need to go.
With Abbas guiding everyone, and the party staying along the wall, it's only 3.5 days to get back to where the party left the boat. You had left markers where the boat docks were, so it's easy to find them again. Because you can stay near the wall, you can duck into it and only get wet if anything attacks, so it's a relatively uneventful trip back. Soon you find yourself standing on a marble dock, looking at a ship with a stag's head on it.
The ship guided us on its own the last time....we should load our gear back on to the ship.
With that, Abbas will start loading things back up.
Baru helps load the equipment in as well, trying to speed up the process, unaware of what may be different about the boat.
The boat is reloaded, and then everyone piles on. As soon as everyone is on, and the small gangplank pulled up, the ship slides out of it's slip. About 4 hours into the trip, another (empty) white boat passes about 300 ft away, heading in the opposite direction as those in the boat.
It looks like the boat the group is on, but has a dolphin head on the prow).
Eventually the boat pulls into the slip at the pillar. The bright white pillar gleams in the afternoon light.
Baru has never been here before, but he's heard all the old stories. The pillar/pedastal is a massive structure, a thousand feet high, with a thousand steps leading up to it. It's something of a combination of legend, myth, and object of fear. Parents tell their kids to behave and go to sleep or they'll take them to the pedastal and leave them for the evil spirits that live there.
Baru tilts his head slowly, as he watches them pass the empty boat.
"Now that's just odd...why put a dolphin's head on a boat?..."
It's when they reach the platform, their "destination", that he becomes visibly concerned.
"...Please tell me that you've never seen this pillar before..."
"Oh come on Palo, don't be such a sourpuss! We're all still alive and we've made a new friend - now we get to see what happens now that we've looked around a little bit. Maybe the Voice will give us a reward, or even a bonus if it likes the information you guys have gathered for it!"
Relas seems happier than he's been in some time - quite possibly due to the change Palomia has made in his summoning ritual. He always ended up banished back to his home plane at night when she slept or the times that she was nearly overcome by the hostile wildlife. Now, he doesn't seem to vanish at night - though whether he'll be able to stick around under other difficult circumstances has yet to be determined.
"This place is sort of a...mythical one. This is the stuff of stories, myths, legends. People threaten to leave their kids here if they're bad. And you...people just showed up here...Something very strange is going on."
The tiefling then looks to the summoned feline, really looking at him for several moments, before asking fairly bluntly. Not mean, just very curious.
"And..you are?"
"I'm Relas! I'm Palomia's guardian, so to speak. You know how some people use magic, right? Sometimes instead of focusing on blowing things up or charming or whatever it is that other mages like to do, they end up calling on beings like me to help them out - but it's more than just rudimentary summoning. We're bonded together; we're a team!"
Abbas lets the boat pass him by, the figurehead unnoticed until others mention it. Perhaps the heads indicate the destination? No that wouldn't make sense as we are on a different boat? Perhaps they indicate a route between stops?
The Suli allows himself to get lost in such thoughts as the pillar approaches. Nodding at Baru as he describes his tension at the situation the warrior remains silent but unconcerned. I wonder if more supplies will simply be here at the dock?
As Relas and Baru trade introductions, Abbas pauses as the boat docks. We should unload in case the boat moves while we do what we came to do. With that Abbas moves to unload everything as best he can with the others help.
*assuming that goes fast*
Shall we go up to the pillar then?
Upon reaching the top, which takes an hour or so of careful movement to avoid being blown off the stairs by the winds, the group arrives tired and out of breath. The giant flat top is devoid of everything, other than the pillar that was central to the supplies before.
When the group approaches the pillar, electricity arcs out of the pillar and strikes each of the people with crystals directly in the crystal, while additional electricity crackles over their body.
An hour later, the 5 collapse, and Tolla and Gniel flicker fitfully for several seconds, and then vanish as if they never existed, their equipment rattles as their bodies vanish leaving it behind.
The three remaining crystal bearers lay unconscious. The crystals were blue, they are now purple.
YOU HAVE RETURNED! EXCELLENT! DOWNLOADING INFORMATION NOW. YOUR BODIE HAVE GROWN MORE ACCUSTOMED TO THE CRYSTALS, UPGRADING CRYSTAL AND CONNECTION NOW. THIS WILL ALLOW MORE TIME FOR EXPLORING AND LEARNING OF THIS STRANGE PLACE BEFORE YOU MUST RETURN TO DOWNLOAD THE CYRSTALS.
The cyrstal bearer's relive every single second of their travels through the hectates, every thing they have seen recorded in exquisite detail. Finally, the crystals are emptied.
ANALYSIS INDICATES THE CURRENT GROUP IS NOT COMPATIBLE, ALTERING GROUP MATRIX, RETRIEVING LEAST EFFECTIVE GROUP MEMBERS. PLEASE WAIT ON THE CENTRAL PLATFORM FOR REMAINING EXPLORERS. NEW MEMBERS WILL BE SENT WHEN DOWNLOADS RECEIVED FROM SECOND PARTY. THANK YOU AGAIN.
Baru just stands there, dumbfounded for several moments, as he watches his now found..."allies"(?) essentially be electrocuted and fall unconscious.
"Well, that's a unique turn of events..."