Base of the Pyramid - Shrilk Crossroads
This is the east side of the base of the mighty obsidian pyramid created by the Core computer. From this vantage point you can barely make out the glittering portal at the top.
All around, in every direction, are the beginnings of the great winter Festival - tents are being erected, firepits laid out, merchants and artisans starting to set up their areas. At any time there are dozens of gryphons at work here, and at times, even hundreds. Great flights of them arrive from all directions, though primarily the northwest and southwest, carrying great nets and baskets filled with supplies, food, water, and more. Three immense fire rings, left over from last year, have been cleared out and re-established... and many other smaller firepits are scattered about this huge flattened area - some of them revived from the previous year, some the product of hard labor to create new ones.
Beyond this clearing to the north and south lays a dense forest, to the east a two rutted dirt roadways join, offering travel to the east, north, and south. The air here is cool and refreshing, blowing from the west across the lake which is on the other side of the pyramid. There seems to be a well travelled path curving around the pyramid and leading off west, directly towards Lake Evarim.
Clox - In your presence is a female gryphon of rather motley colorings. The nearly solid grey fur of her feline back half clashes most horribly with the peppered brown on white of her front avian half. Notably, Clox is a young adult having wings which appear rather oversized for her form. As an added bonus for the feathery bundle, her belly sags just slightly with lack sufficient strenuous exercise.
418362 - A multi-segmented flat insectoid creature, hundreds of segments long, with a single leg sprouting from the midpoint of each segment. It 'stands' about one foot tall at rest, and is about fifteen feet long.
Over-all a fairly drab olive color, segments seven and eighteen are both covered with black cloth, formed into a band that fits snugly around the legs, and completely conceals the segment, while allowing complete freedom of movement to the legs. Only two segments are differentiated from the hundreds of others in any way. The very last segment has modified legs, bright red, that look vaugly like stingers, while the very first segment is a remarkably expressive and unthreatening head. Broad, oval, multi-faceted eyes, grey in color, rest near the sides of the head, and a darker grey oval sits between them on the 'forehead'. It's mouth is a complex arrangement of hard and soft shapes, a combination of mandibles and lips, with a set of modified legs resting beneath and behind.
While at rest it's entire body ripples in slow wavelike motions, making a soft wheezing sound vaugly like a deflating bagpipe and emitting a smell oddly reminscent of burnt chocolate.
Traveller - You see before you a rather strange sight: a group of canines, all of them wearing packs. They stay close together and seem to constantly touch each other, sometimes taking things out of one of the packs. This group seems comprised of eight members, a rather large male with sharp metal claws straped over his shoulders, three females, one of which seems to be a bit fat, and four other males. Noticing you, a female with white blotched through her fur comes up and greets you softly.
Ceylana - Ordinary honey-brown lion half, deep chestnut brown feathers in front. Sharp black talons on all paws, yellow avian forearms and beak. Her feathers are dyed a variety of darker colors, some green, some blue, some purple. Her wings are broad, a full 20' tip to tip, her body large, 6'11" beak to rump and 4' high at the shoulder. She wears a variety of small pouches on thongs about her neck, all covered in different painted sigils and beads. Her demeanor is concise and to the point usually. She is soft spoken unless otherwise stated. Her age is old, over 200 years.
Clox blinks, trots over to Ceylana.
Ceylana has exited one of the tents and is standing before the one set up by Windhaven specifically for use by the featherpainters there. She looks over as she notices a gryphoness she does not recognize. She says softly, "Hello there."
Clox trots right up and tries to wiggle her way underneath Ceylana's wing.
Ceylana steps back a few paces, holding her wings up, "Uh...excuse me?" She tries to step back a few paces to get another good look at this gryphoness and ask, "Can I help you, child?"
Clox looks up at Ceylana, "Oh. Hello. How are you?"
Ceylana is unsure of the situation and tries to handle herself appropriately. "I am...fine, thank you. You, however, seem to be making yourself quite at home here, especially with a stranger." She does try to keep her distance.
Clox cocks her head at Ceylana, flops down, "Where's a stranger?..", she looks around curiously, "I'd like to meet him.."
Ceylana raises an eyeridge curiously and points at herself. "Well for one, I am a stranger to you, for I can guarantee we have never met before. To just walk up and try to get under my wings is saying something."
Clox blinks, "What does it say?"
Ceylana looks at Clow with a soft mix of surprise and worry, "It says you are either so trusting of a complete stranger or that you are so new around here that you don't know any better. Or that you are very suicidal. I do hope it is not the later." She does take a couple more steps back away from this odd gryphoness.
Clox blinks, thinks for a bit, "Sorry. I'll remember to not do that again."
Ceylana nods slowly to Clox and says slowly, "Thank you. That is a very good idea." She settles down a little, long enough to fold her wings back up and asks, "Now then, what is your name child, and to what aerie do you belong? Or was I correct in my guess that you are very new to this world?"
Clox nods, "I'm a tad new.. What's your name?"
Ceylana inclines her head in greetings, "I am Ceylana Zenari of Windhaven aerie. Do you have a name yet, or shall I continue calling you child?" She is friendly enough now that boundaries of personal space have been set.
418362 ripples along from the north, sliding out from the woods, and making his way across the open space toward the beginnings of the great encampment.
Clox thinks to her self, occasionally chirping before suddenly announcing, "Clox!..My name is Clox!...I think.."
Ceylana inclines her head in greetings again to Clox and says, "Then I welcome you to Shrilk, Clox." She looks around at the slowly growing hustle and bustle. "You hae come at quite a busy time. They are preparing for the Winter Festival here. There will be lots of gryphons and other races..as..." That's when she notices the multi-segmented body of 418362 riplling along. "..well." She has never seen nor heard of such a creature before and is quite curious of it's nature. Only her training keeps her where she stands for now.
Traveller arrives from the southerly path.
Traveller has arrived.
Clox nods, "There's lots of peoples all around."
Traveller walks in, all in a group, the largest member leading the pack, the others clustered rather close together. There is a constant humm of sound around him, rather irritating sometimes, it almost is the type that would make your teeth hurt if you where human.
418362 pauses on the outskirts, the front quarter of his body lifted upwards a meter or more, and slowly scanning back and forth. After a few moments, he settles back down and continues foreward, his legs rippling in a steady, unhurried wavelike motion. He slips between the outer tents, then without any seeming hesitation, scurries up along the side of one of the sturdier ones, and across it's top.
Ceylana hasn't noticed the large group of canines walking up yet, her attention still divided between the new one before her and the large...bug-like creature. No, this isn't a Krzzn'tai, but is it possible it is of the same family, perhaps?
Clox curls up next to a random tent, hidden in a shadow and sleeps.
Traveller is rather carefull, traveling alone can be dangerous, but, he is well enough protected, two of his members are carring loaded crossbows in their muzzles, and he always has at least one pair of eyes on the skys. He does notice the odd bug like creature, and wonders for a momment if it is a visitor to shrilk as he is, or perhaps something else.
418362 moves foreward, so a foot or so of his body extends out from the top of the tent, and gazes down at the others. Or, at least, his body is pointed in that direction... it's hard to tell just where insectoid eyes are looking. His mouthparts shift and move slightly, gathering the scent of the area. "Hello?" he says after realizing that Ceylana is still staring up at him.
Ceylana is still looking at the bug, watching as it's many legs propel it over just about any stationary obstacle. She startles at it looks in her direction and talks. She inclines her head in greetings and speaks in common, "Hello there."
Traveller bobs a few of his heads, so, that mystery is solved, but its not something he has seen before, so he pauses, clustering in a group before a member opens the pack on anothers back and starts pulling a few items out, a muzzle pen, pots of ink, and a large book, bound in leather, two of his members hold the book open, and braced as a third, the thin scrawny looking one takes the pen, and dips it into the ink before starting to do something with the book, another one, a whilte blotched female moves forward a little, and says, in common, "Ahh, a traveller then, and where are you from? I do not believe I have seen your kind before."
418362 also notices the pack of Tines, as he ripples foreward, moving down the side of the tent wall as easily as if it were the ground itself... though the tent sags somewhat under his weight. His appearance definitely seems to bring a few stop-and-stare reactions from the gryphons around the site, as he moves toward Ceylana, and the pack... though he stops some distance away, just to be careful. "Am I four one eight three six two... Fawane is an acceptable address. I'm from Mawvilina... and I don't think I've seen one of your groupkind before, either?"
Ceylana turns to look at the pack of canines as the female speaks up, a group of them! My, but the Grylrans are attracting quite the crowd this year. She looks between the two as they speak, groupkind? I wonder what he means by that? She inclines her head in greetings again to 418362 and to the group of canines, "Greetings. I am Ceyalana Zenari of Windhaven aerie. I take it all of you are here for the Winter Festival?" She addresses both paties with her statement and question.
A ripple of motion slides along the insectoid's body, the legs lifting and then dropping down again, for about a third of it's length. "Greetings and well met, Ceyalana Zenari, of Windhaven. It's a pleasure to meet you. Yes, definitely here for the festival. But I am concerned that my arrival is over-early?"
Traveller looks among himself a momment, almost quizicaly, even as the white blotched female responds to 418362, "I would be suprised if you had heard of my kind, I have been travelling for a very long time. None of me were part of the pack that originaly left my home, but my soul is still intact. How far is your sphere from here?" As the white blotched female speaks, the scrawny male keeps writing, or drawing in the book, and another member speaks to Ceylana, "All of us? Oh, ahh, I see." A few of his heads bob before he continues, "Windhaven you say? I have been meaning to visit that place, but, the times did not seem right, yet. Perhaps after this celibration that Stormdancer is holding is over with I might visit your aerie."
Ceylana looks around but does not see a representative from Grylra, so she takes the diplomatic side and answers, "You are, but for one who must have travelled far, earlier is better than late." She waves to the different tents she was told were for just such a purpose. "There have been tents set up for early arrivals and those gryphons who are already staying here to keep an eye on things. Please feel free to find one suitable for your needs." She turns to the female canine. "I would be delighted in showing you to our home after the festivities, if only for the opportunity to learn more about you and your people here, miss...? I am sorry, but I seem to have not caught your name."
The large male canid responds to Ceylana, "I am called Traveller. I have been staying at Grylra for a while, learning what I could from them." Two of his members look at each other, then look back at Ceylana as the white blotched female continues the thread, "Ahh, I believe you are in error, I am not a miss. I am male, not female." The scrawny male makes a few last notes in the book, and starts to pack the stuff away, saving the book for last. Pen and ink going into one pack, and then the book into another. Its rather odd seeing the canids working togeather, flawlessly, with no communication between them, that you can tell.
418362 discovers that part of him extends into a thoroughfare, and so he sidles that part sideways, curling slightly, to an open spiral. "I think you for your gracious hospitality, Ceylana Zenari," he says, his common remarkably good for having no apparent way to produce the sounds. "My sphere is ... an uncertain distance away. I believe it is seventeen, now, but my path has been somewhat convluted. Traveller... is your name, or occupation? Or both?" he wonders.
Ceylana is slightly confused and looks at one canine and then another and then asks the one female speaking to her, "I do not understand, Traveller, would you please explain to me about your peoples? You work as a group," She motions to 418362, "And Fawane here called you a groupkind, so it makes sense. But I have not had the pleasure of meeting such a unique group before." She does not understand yet the concept of many bodies, one mind.
Traveller chuckles softly, the sound exactly the same as that of a chuckling gryphon, a pair of his heads bob slowly to 418362, and the white blotched female says softly, "Both, yes. Humm, that's a fair distance away, but, you must have been from a direction different than I came, for I passed not through your lands, nor heard much of your kind. I would have to admit that some are rather reluctant to speak of those around them, and some seemed more interested in trying to capture me for a pet." A few of his members aproach a little closer to Ceylana, one of them, the scrawny male responds to her, at the same time he is speaking to 418362, "Ahh, that is not quite acurate." His members bunch up a little again, "I am just one person, though I have several members." A few of his members look at each other, and another member takes up the thread, "In a way, think of a member as nothing more than a muzzle, or a leg, usefull, but, something that you can live without."
Ceylana lowers her head in thought, interesting. She raises her head and listens in on the conversation beteween 418362 and Traveller's female canine and interupts, "I don't mean to sound rude or offensive, but you do not come from the Krzzn'tai sphere, Fawane?"
418362's bright red stinger-like appendages at the very end of his body twitch and point upwards briefly, before an apparent concious effort puts them back down and streamlined together again. "Very much and completely not at all from the hivemind Krrzn'tai!" he says emphatically. "Heathen they may not be, but neither civilized toward communications with otherkind." Seemingly at random, legs lift just a tiny bit from the ground and step back down again.
Ceylana steps back a few paces at the sudden outburst from 418362. "I do apologize, I did not mean to offend. I only wished to know if you were a threat to us or not. The Krzzn'tai nearly destroyed my home and half this sphere with it! If word got out that another one of them was loose in Shrilk, it could cause mass panic." She bows deeply, "I am truley sorry and will not bring it up again."
Traveller shakes a few of his heads, the scrawny male sayng softly, in gryphon, "Is it not obvious that its not krrzn'tai? None of them talk to anyone." It might be noted that two of his members are still carrying his odd crossbows around, cocked and ready for use. He might be friendly, but he knows too well that others might not be friendly.
418362 moves backwards as well, and says "They do disservice to all hardskins for a dozen spheres around them. The stories of their ravages weigh heavy on every sphere adjoining to them. I appologize for the... strength of my reaction, but their scavangers are very unsettling to me."
Ceylana answers Traveller, "I can see that he does not look like the species we have met before, but he is also of the insectoid race and if I can make the connection, just think who else could do as much. Now that it is obvious he has nothing to do with that horrible race, then I shall spread word to Windhaven that he is safe as far as that is concerned." She tells 418362, "It is perfectly alright for your reaction. I asume I would have a similar one if I were accused of being Shkrill or worse...Please put your mind at ease, you are in good company here." She eyes the crossbows and silently hopes her words are true.
Traveller blatently carries around his crossbows, he has had to take a few potshots at gryphons before, but is not expecting any trouble for now, its mostly the paranoia of an old old traveler than anything else. A few of his heads bob, "That would be as if I would shoot at a kefetuin just because I had seen evil done by a gryphon, or rolarii." The white blotched female says softly, as the scrawny male bobs a head to 418362, "Perhaps later we can talk. You may have some information on the krrzn'tai that I have not heard yet. I have been attempting to catalog all the sentient species there are in the spheres, and any pertinant information would be helpful."
418362 wheezes faintly, possibly in laughter. "Every sphere carries it's own fears and preconceptions about others... usually based on their own bad, or good, experiences. Few ever travel more than one or two spheres from their home, so it is unsurprising that such biases remain strong. I will be content to convey what I know of Krzzn'tai to others, even if only to remind how different they are from other hardskins."
Traveller chuckles softly, several of his heads bobing a little, "That's true enough." The scrawny male says softly, "I ran into a race of, ahhh, hardskins that where absolutly terrified of furless mammals. It was rather an odd sight to see. They had no fear of furred mammals, or amphibians, even ones that looked close to a furless mammal, but, if they saw a furless mammal they would attack it, right away. Even some such as a mythrailian would insite that type of response."
Ceylana shuffles her wings across her back and says, "I am of the firm belief to ask first and attack later, unlike some others of my kind." She refers of course, to the Shkrill, who attack first and never bother to ask questions at all. She decides to change the subject. "We have since blocked off our immediate connection to the Krzzn'tai, as the unicorns of Kefetiu did long ago. But I am told that the dragons of Argalia still have an open connection to them. Perhaps you can also talk to them, Traveller, if they show up at all to this festival."
Traveller bobs a few of his heads at the gryphon, the white blotched female replying softly, "I have been planing to visit argalia some time soon. I will ask them what they know when I get there. Better than to listen to stories that have been passed around for others to hear. Also, many tend to exagerate there exploites when they are at something such as this festival. I would rather have something closer to the truth.
Ceylana wingshrugs, "Only time will tel if they make it here. They would most likely come directly from the interface between our sphere and theirs to the northwest, which would bring them through Windhaven lands first. We should hear of their pending arrival before they get here if that is the case." She settles down a little, resting her tired bones for a little while. She's not been out of Windhaven for such a long period of time at once before.
418362 slowly thrums a few dozen of his legs, near to his head. "Argalia. I have been trying to get to Argalia, as I must pass through it to continue on. Perhaps some of them will allow me to accompany their return, if they choose to do so by land."
Ceylana wingshrugs to 418362, "I do not know how they will arrive. They are capable of flight, just as we are, but it has been a proven fact that it is harder for them to fly in our skies, just as it is harder for us to fly in theirs. The land is very difficult to pass and I do not know if they will come down the river in that fashion. Only time will tell."
Traveller bobs a head or two, a few of his members milling about a little, "I have heard there are roads, of a sort." The white blotched female adds sofly, "I do not know how passable those roads are though. I had been planing to go through Mythryial, and then perhaps into rolarii."
418362 says, "I don't really need roadways, but they are useful guidelines. However... I found myself quite deeply misplaced when I last attempted to reach Argalia."
Ceylana ohs questioningly. "Really? Where did you end up then, if I might ask? And what directions were you following? I'm told to just follow the river up and it leads directly to the interface."
418362 gestures vaugly to the southwest with it's left lead leg... utterly the wrong direction. "I was told to follow the road, until it became muddy, and pick up the river, there. I was... unsuccessful."
Traveller has to chuckle softly, "Not all spheres have roadways." The scrawny male says, "I have had problems in a few places because of that. I had to find someone to guide me from one end of the sphere to another. Roadways make for safer traveling, if only because it keeps one from traveling though another's property, and helps to keep one from accidently running into another pack." One of his members, the heavyset female settles down, and lays her head on her forepaws, drifting to sleep, the rest, mill around a little, sometimes one going off one way or another a little bit and looking more closely at something that attracts his interest.
Ceylana figures out rather quickly what happened and points in the opposite dirstion, "Actually, it was follow the river that way." She does some quick thinking in her head. "The way you went, you must have ended up in Grylra, or somewheres thereabouts."
418362's mouthparts move silently for a moment. "Oh. I have limited understanding of directions, in other spheres. They lack ... a word that has no equivilent in common."
Ceylana nods slowly, "Interesting. On both accounts." She looks between the female who has been speaking for Traveller, trying to accustom herself to thinking of this group as one person still and at the rather large centipede before her. She tells herself that perhaps she will be getting some studies in after all here at the Festival, just studies of a different sort.
418362 lifts his head up slightly, and waves it around, scanning the area. "I think I need to sleep for now. It seems safest to do so in the woods, unless there is a place where I won't be mistaken for food?"
Ceylana waves to the tents set up, "If you feel comfortable in such an eclosed space, the tents are available, I am told, for use by guests. You should be perfectly safe there."
Traveller chuckles, the scrawny male saying softly, "Keep one member awake and armed at all times, and keep an eye out for anything that looks hungry. Some odd things come to these festivals, if I remember right, and its best to be carefull." The heavyset female wakes, and stands, his members milling about a little, muzzles pating packs to make sure everything is secured before the white blotched female continues, "I am going to take over one of the tents, maybe share it with one or two from Grylra that know me well enough not to be a hazzard to share the tent with."
418362 looks toward a likely seeming tent. "That would be pleasant. The cold makes me very slow, and so staying here would be preferable."
Ceylana stands back up, shaking her wings out yet again and bows to both odd creatures, "Then I bid thee both good night and pleasant dreams. If you have need of anything, just flag down a gryphon and do not hesitate to ask." Her own nest back at Windhaven sounds good right about now, but the large pillows brought in for her tent sound just as welcome right now.