IC: The Sun Never Sets, IC thread for The Sun Never Sets Options

[AtroposReborn]

"Guess it's up to me then," Ellesar muses. "Get some rest Stogie." The elf walks over to his pack and grabs his rifle to prepare for the next few hours of watching and waiting. After checking to make sure the weapon is properly loaded and prepared to use he finds a new tree to lean on.

[pbangarth]

Stogie sets up the one man tent he acquired to optimally hold the heat from the fire, and turns in. Jake curls up in the crook of his knees. In just a few minutes, it's hard to tell their quiet snoring apart.

[Tecumseh]

It's been a long day indeed, one that started back in Greenwater and involved hiking all the way back to the Sisters' camp. Stogie and Smohalla have no problems dropping off, leaving Ellesar to scan the forest by himself. Ellesar is also tired. Stogie needs three hours of sleep, and Ellesar debates the merits of doing it all himself or waking Smohalla halfway through to split the burden. He leans against a tree and feels the cold night keeping him awake.

Ellesar:

[ Spoiler ]

Ellesar's thoughts turn to the days and weeks ahead. The practical part of him wants to consider provisioning. As an accomplish survivalist, Ellesar knows that making through winter in the mountains is challenging. Not impossible, but certainly not a task to be taken lightly. November is about a week old now but so far the dry weather has kept the snow at bay. Ellesar knows that won't last: the air against his face is freezing, as as soon as there's moisture there will be snow. Lots of it.

He does math in his head, adding together the calorie requirements of a dwarf (if that's what Ellie is), a human, an elf, an ork, a troll, a were-eagle, and a border collie. The last two are a bit of a guess, but the overall answer is still very high, especially when taking into account the additional calories a body needs when continually subjected to freezing temperatures. And there's the question of morale too. Ellesar learned a lot about Leadership from his time with the Ghosts, and it's still as true today as when Napeleon said it: an army marches on its stomach. Ellie bakes cookies, drinks tea, uses refined sugar, and all sorts of other things that aren't available in the winter woods. Will the Sisters be okay without those things? Or will the role of the mundanes be to provision the Sisters so that they can continue work on their magical magnum opus? Somebody's looking for the Sisters, that's for certain, but nobody's looking for Stogie, Smohalla, and Ellesar yet.

With that, Ellesar's head snaps to the north. Out of the corner of his eye, his peripheral vision catches the barest hint of movement in the distance. There's a tiny speck of light moving east-to-west passing over Old Desolate - the sharp, craggy mountain to the north. It's small and flying along at a modest pace, maybe 30 meters per second. Ellesar's elven vision catches the barest hint of moonlight reflecting off the metal exterior as it passes in and out of bobbing clouds. It's impossible to make out any detail, but given the speed and size Ellesar's tactical experience tells him that's it's almost certainly a surveillance drone.

[Tecumseh]

In his fatigue, Smohalla dreams.

Smohalla:

[ Spoiler ]

Smohalla is everywhere and nowhere. Eagle sit at the top of a tree on the top of a mountain. He is and is not Eagle, just as he is and is not Human. To Eagle, all is visible below. Eagle's eye could count the trees, should he wish. The mountain falls away from him on every side, plunging into valleys below cut through by blue ribbons of water. The place is pure, and Eagle saw that it was good.

A haze on the horizon, visible only from this perch. A fuzzy grey shimmer, like a dirty mirage. A city of men, distant yet present. A flock of birds emerge from the city and extend out in an unholy halo. Pigeons and crows and starlings, fat with the excesses of men. They fly into the wilderness, settling into branches and trees, befouling them with their waste. One flies up the river valley, unaware of what circles above. Eagle will cleanse this place, and so he begins his dive.

Eagle smites the bird, but the bird dies not. It twitches and squirms within Eagle's clutch, but there is no escape. There is fear, existential fear. It is the feeling of Greenwater, of heart-stopping dread. Eagle punctures the bird with its talons, and the bird gasps as its life ebbs away around Eagle's claws. The heart flutters, panic flooding its final moments. Its heart rate hastens with its pain and oblivion, accelerates until it stops with a shock. The bird goes limp as Eagle carries the day.

Eagle lands and surveys his domain. The world is pure, except for the suffering that lingers around the kill.

A cloud of birds rise in the distance.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar eyes the drone warily as it flitters across the backdrop of the mountain. He holds fast and restrains his body from reacting hastily. There may be no need for alarm. Even if the drone does spot us it will see that we're not its targets, unless those idiots from before decided to tell the other parties or even just Gunny about our actions. Still, they will likely view us as just another team attempting the same as them. Either way, it'd be best if we aren't all noticed. The elf attempts to hide himself as best as possible behind the tree, hoping the drone will pass quickly.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla dreams.

[ Spoiler ]

The eagle soars high in the sky, master of everything his piercing eyes can see. All is below him, landscape spread out like a topographic map teeming with life and motion. His recent confrontation with the pigeon has left him feeling happy. Yet a strange sensation of uneasiness pervades his being, as though his recent victory was somehow incomplete. This feeling spurs him on and he flaps his powerful wings - he must learn the reason for the uneasiness. He rises higher and higher, up into the wispy purple clouds that gather in this dreamscape like cotton candy floating in the breeze. Higher and higher until he fears that any further would render him incapable of breathing, incapable of sustaining the wind beneath his wings as the air thins in the upper atmosphere. But this is the dreamworld. He finds no such barrier as his flight brings him to a point where he can look down and see the whole of Mother Earth from his vantage point in the heavens.

A sudden movement causes him to turn his majestic head away from the vision below. Again movement, shooting past his head. Another zips cross-wise to his path. Another, and another, and another. Around him, surrounding him, are bright points of light in furious motion, spinning and flashing through the darkness of the void. He swerves in his flight, losing altitude to try to avoid a collision, banking to avoid another. But there are too many collisions to avoid. The lights start to make contact with his body as he continues his high-altitude journey. When a light touches his feathers, he feels a slight tingle and warmth spread throughout, but nothing more. He laughs silently in his mind and stops trying to avoid them. The lights seem to sense this acceptance, and more and more begin bombarding him. Dazzling brilliance assaults his eyes and innumerable sparks shoot down on him, into him, through him, filling him with more warmth and energy than he's ever felt before. THIS is what being truly alive feels like! He feels the power coursing through his frame, a power that could shake mountains and assault the heavens themselves.

Time passes. How long, who can say? This is the metaplane of the unconscious mind, where the unhindered imagination frolicks with reckless abandon.

The eagle is found luxuriating in the star-bath, his eyes closed as he gives a contented mental sigh. It feels as if he is swimming in a gentle river of warmth, his body sumberged and navigating the river as easily as breathing. He is one with everything, and everything is one with him. Gradually though, oh so gradually, after what seems like eternity he notices that the warmth is fading and the collisions lessening. Then they cease altogether. He opens his eyes slowly, and all around him is darkness. Void. He shifts his gaze downward, and the light from the world below him is blinding in it's splendor. It is beautiful, this world. He sees the light from the heavens now in the world below him, filling it with a vitality and inner light that he can't look away from. Love swells his eagle-heart for this world, this living collection of energy and light that he is a part of now more than ever. Silent thanks fill his mind, prayers to Mother Earth and Father Sun and Eagle. He slows his flight and descends back down to this world. His world.

As he descends, he begins to again pick out landmarks in the topographic map below him. There is the lake where his people live, continuing their peaceful co-existence with Mother Earth. There is the mountain, great Talol in his power filling his mind to brimming with the light of life. All is light, all is life...yet some places are brighter than others....and THERE is a darkness, a spot marked by one of the pigeons seen earlier. And there is another. And another. Suddenly, so close to the ground, he can see the patches of darkness that mar this beautiful living world. No, that's not quite correct. He can FEEL them. Feel them down in the depths of his core, feel the lack of light. The not-light. The eagle burns to bring light to these places, to chase this not-light back into the void where it belongs. This burning fills his heart, a fiery inferno of heat that can melt the shadow of darkness itself into nothingness.

Consciousness comes with a slight twitch of the body.

The dream fades slowly into the corners of the mind.

Smohalla rolls over silently, his eyes open and staring at the heavens above.

He will not sleep again this night.

[pbangarth]

Stogie rolls over and jostles Jake. The dog grunts and rises. He walks in a circle, once, twice, three times and drops with a sigh in the newly created crux of Stogies knees.

[Tecumseh]

Ellesar ducks behind a tree. He feels confident in his hiding spot and in his interpretation of the situation, but there's a nagging doubt in his mind. Any drone that's out at this time of night is almost certainly not relying on low-light vision. More likely it's employing thermographic vision, if not something even more sophisticated. If that's true then the campfire will show up like a spotlight, with Stogie and Smohalla and Jake visible too.

Smohalla stirs after only twenty minutes of sleep. Stogie and Jake sleep by the fire in a new position, but Ellesar - the watchman - is gone.

[phlapjack77]

Staring up at the endless heavens, Smohalla feels his soul pulled upward and far away.

He slips his mortal sheath and rises up on the astral, a ghostly eagle hovering near the reflected shadow of the campfire.

The surrounding campsite is then searched for signs of the elusive elf and any other possible dangers.

[Tecumseh]

Smohalla has no trouble quickly locating the elf. Why he's hiding behind a tree and why his aura looks that way is another issue.

Rapidly circling the camp, Smohalla soon determines that there's no major lifeforms within a hundred meters.

[phlapjack77]

Eyes wide open, Smohalla's meat body continues to stare at the stars that are so distant in the night sky.

In the astral an incandescent form wings it's way towards these stars, hoping to replay the moments just prior.

Yet the closer to the heavens the eagle gets, the weaker he feels. This is no dream now.

Saddened, Smohalla returns to Mother Earth and the campsite the group inhabits upon her.

Taking up residence on a branch near Ellesar, the astral avian waits to see what happens next.

[pbangarth]

Stogie rolls again, restless and noisy in his sleep. Jake grumbles. A low moan escapes Stogies throat.

For all the world he looks like old Tommy, the first of my herders. But way bigger. And he glows! That can't be right. What's he doing here on the mountainside, what do the Sisters call it, Tlalol? Hmm. What am I doing here?

No sunlight. No starlight. How can I see? The ground glows. No. Parts of the ground. Strips of land. One big one going up the mountainside. What is this?

"You asked to know. I can tell."

Shit! Tommy, you can talk.

"Here I can. Here I am more than Tommy. More than you know."

o_O

"You asked to know. I can tell."

Ooookay. What is this?

"This is the sight of Earthpower. You walk among the veins and arteries of the Mother, yet you don't know of them or see them. Some do. They have learned. You once asked one such man. A wise one."

Old Megwetch, from out East. Yeah, he told of ... ley lines. Yeah. Said he could tell manastorms and twists in the astral plane without even assensing. I told him then I didn't see much use for that. He let it go and didn't say any more.

"He was wise. You were not."

So, this line up the mountain, is that one?

"Yes. It feeds the power of the women. Yours too, for now. It likes you. Were you to choose, you could have this sense. You are ready. I can feel the energy in you. Waiting to be trained. Do you want to see?"

It could be useful here, yeah. What do I have to do?

"You have done it before. Long for the knowledge. Open your mind and heart. Pay the price."

What price?

"Your energy. Or another price if your energy is dear to you."

I don't like the sound of that.

"Everything costs. What is it worth to you?"

I'm not paying any price I don't know the measure of.

"Do you want this power or don't you? I grow bored. There are squirrels that need chasing."

Stogie tosses and turns. Jake jumps up, back to the wall of the tent, hackles raised, looking around for ... whatever made Stogie feel angryscared. And where did those glowing squirrels he was chasing go?

I wanna be whatever I need to be to fight the bastards who killed you. And I don't even know what the hell you are doing here. This can't be real. None of this.

"Try this for 'real'!"

Wait! What? What's happening?

the ground reaches for stogie's legs with ropes of light. He is pulled down... down...down into a river of light. he can't breathe. no. he doesn't breathe. or see. just know. like a tide he is carried through the ground, faster and faster up the mountain. down into the heart of it. channels open in every which way. pushing and sucking him he is tossed far across the mountain to others like it. the feel changes and he is whipped through a city.. what city? does it matter? it feels ... twisted. down .. down deeper he goes, ever faster. up into a round mountain... there is water all around... how does he know? he knows. another city, with buildings that feel like batteries plugged into his eyes as he passes them. down again... through such heat as burns his bones, but he doesn't die... he lives! what a rush! who would have thought pain could be so full of life? swirl through and around and around and around a circle of stones whose earth-age and strength bend and flow with triangles and squares and quincunxes... and whothefuckknows what a quincunx is? but it is! and stogie is one too! Hotdamn what a rush to know this... he has gotta have this ... gotta have this...

"You have chosen."

W..w..wubb... Yeah. I choose.

"Wrrrowww!"

Stogie arches his back and howls in agony, and streaks of light shine from his eyes and light up the tent. Jake howls with him, utterly, utterly scared out of his canine wits by what he feels from Stogie.

Stogie whips up to a sitting position, and looks around. "Jake... buddy! Come here little guy. Lemme tell ya about the ride I just took!" In an instant Jake is licking Stogie's face as fast as he can.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar sits quietly, his head rested against the solid trunk of the tree. He continues to wait for the drone to pass over, hoping that the stirring of the others doesn't attract any greater attention.

[Tecumseh]

Ellesar watches as the drone banks slowly, curving to the south toward the campsite. It seems to be headed for the fire. Unless it turns again, it will pass overhead in about thirty seconds.

Smohalla, against all odds, manages to spot the movement of the drone. It was only by following Ellesar's line of sight that he knew where to look. Lacking any appreciable night vision, he can't make out what it is. From his astral vision, he knows it's not alive.

Stogie is too busy trying to keep Jake's tongue out of his mouth to notice what's going on.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla resolves to follow the not-alive thing.

The shadow cast by the drone is indistinct, a dull gray that is hard to pick out from the surroundings.

But being on the astral does reduce the chance that he'll be spotted.

[Tecumseh]

The drone passes over the camp. As it does, it finally draws Stogie's attention away from Jake and the crazy dream he just had. Ellesar gets a good look as it flies overhead.

Ellesar:

[ Spoiler ]

It's a aerial recon and resupply drone. Ellesar doesn't know the exact make and model but he does recognize it as something the Ghosts would use in wilderness settings. Not only does this model have sensors to observe the terrain, but it also carries small small containers under its wings that may be airdropped for resupply purposes. This one isn't equipped with any containers now.

Ellesar doesn't know a ton about technology but he does know that wireless signals don't carry more than a few kilometers, and probably less than that in the mountains. If there's a rigger controlling this drone, then he or she would have to be relatively close and have a good line-of-sight for their signal to reach the drone. (Ellesar has already watched the drone fly a kilometer.) Alternatively, the drone could be running on an autopilot program. In that case, it would only be limited by its range. The range for this model is pretty significant. It could have come from Greenwater or even the outskirts of Seattle.

The drone banks around the campsite, taking a pass over the trees and the lake. It begins to fly back north in the direction from which it came.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla takes up a position high above the drone, framing it's dull shadow against the vibrancy of the forest life below.

Here on the astral the flight of the drone is almost a crawl in terms of speed.

It is no trouble for the shaman to keep pace with it - now to see where it leads him.

[Tecumseh]

The drone disappears to the north, leaving Ellesar, Stogie, and Jake alone with Smohalla's unconscious form. Stogie sees that Smohalla's spirit is separated from his body; he glances up to watch it follow the drone away.

Smohalla:

[ Spoiler ]

The drone travels due north. After twenty minutes it passes about five kilometers to the west of Greenwater, for which Smohalla is grateful. The forested mountains are alive and beautiful in the astral world, even in the middle of the night, but the cloud of despair surrounding Greenwater rises up from it like the ash cloud of a volcano.

Another twenty minutes later and the drone begins to descend toward North Bend. The drone lands in a field, received by a smug-looking dwarf. He is significantly cybered, as are the two humans with him. There's a fourth, an elf, with substantial Talent. The elf keeps and eye open on the astral but does not appear to notice Smohalla for the moment. Or perhaps he sees the eagle but has not returned his vision to the mundane world to realize their is no physical bird flying there.

Smohalla does not recognize any of their auras. The dwarf is not Jeff, the humans and elf are not any of the punks from Greenwater. These individuals all appear to be more experienced. Their auras are confident. The dwarf looks especially satisfied with the return of the drone, which he pats and strokes as if it were a pet.

[phlapjack77]

Smohalla circles long enough to memorize their auras.

After he is done, he quickly wings his way back to the campsite and rejoins with his physical form.

The shaman's body gives a small twitch and sits upright.

He looks around the camp and sees his friends are awake.

We will have visitors.

One dwarf, as our lost friend Jeff was.

Two humans, full of metal and machinery.

One of Ellesar's kind, a medicine man with some power.

Their arrival will be from the north.

[AtroposReborn]

Ellesar peers around the base of the tree over to where the others reside. He stands, dusts himself off from the residue of his hiding spot, and joins them at the campsite. He appears worried and thoughtful. Listening to Smohalla's words bring him further grief. "Visitors? That's concerning, given our situation. None of us have had any sleep either." The elf sighs and sinks to his knees. "I guess it can't be helped. How far north were they when you saw them?"

[pbangarth]

Stogie's mind clears with this news. "Four of them, three of us. But we have the advantage of foreknowledge and preparation.

"If we could deal with these people on our own, protecting the Sisters while they may be at their most vulnerable, we would demonstrate our trustworthiness to them."

He feels a new sensation, almost like an AR overlay on his senses, that reminds him of the dream. He lets it intrude into his consciousness. Did that dream really happen?

[Tecumseh]

Stogie concentrates for a moment, making sure that he is not assensing. This is relatively easy to do: he looks as Jake. If Jake looks like a fireball about to explode, Stogie is assensing. If Jake is just running around in circles, digging, or eating, odds are Stogie is not assensing. If Jake is confused and transmitting bewildering thoughts, then Stogie passed his astral perception to Jake and Jake is assensing.

Stogie:

[ Spoiler ]

Satisfied that his eyes remain in the physical world, Stogie closes them to see what he can feel around him. There's a thrum of energy from beneath his feet, the ley line that runs through the campsite straight up to Mt. Rainier. Behind him, Rainier reverberates with frightening, ominous energy. The peak of the mountain is six kilometers due south, but Stogie can feel it pulsing behind him, like hot breath on the back of his neck. It's overbearing and pleasant and alarming and comforting. It's like a sugar rush that's about to turn into a headache, or that already did. Stogie doesn't fight the feeling as it slips away, his senses returning to the physical world. The feeling that he's sitting on a ton of dynamite disappears with it, but he can't forget that it was there just a second ago.

[phlapjack77]

The question from Ellesar gives Smohalla a moment's pause.

Sixty kilometers north, near the city of North Bend.

These men seemed experienced...dangerous.

In answer to Stogie's statement:

We must prepare ourselves then.

[pbangarth]

Stogie files away the sensations he acquired. Sitting on a ton of dynamite. Hmm.

"How are they traveling? Sixty kilometers is a long way to walk, especially through this forest. They wouldn't be here till at least tomorrow, even if they knew we were here and came right at us."

[AtroposReborn]

"By then they're sure to have met some sort of resistance. If nothing else the wolves in this area are none too kind to strangers. They must be here for the sisters. I can't think of any other reason for a group of well-armed men to go wandering in the woods."