The Fe'gan Mountains are the highest, coldest mountains Lambastia has to offer, with the highest peak recorded at 8589 m (28,179 ft). Only the toughest creatures survive here, and the trek to get to the Basantha Shrine lays through these harsh conditions. (+3 Endurance)

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Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/25/2017 7:29 PM

Eliza was so glad to finally be out of there. There was no way she could handle being in the same room with that bird for another minute...

Now that she finally had the map she needed, not a single second was wasted in getting back home to make a few more preparations for the expedition. Bringing a few friends along was among those things, along with making sure she packed enough food, supplies, and whatever else she thought was necessary.

Since they were going to climb up a mountain for this cave, which was going to be a fantastic way for her to get outside and stretch her legs after being cooped up indoors for so long, Eliza figured it would be good to dress warm too.

It only took about an hour to finish getting what she needed. Carrying a backpack, a large bag with leather straps hanging off her shoulder, and a peculiar device the size of her palm in one hand, she headed off towards that mountain.

Oh Raven won't you sing me a happy song

You don't want me to stay alone
That's why you gotta sing your song
You keep tapping at my door
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore
But can I ask you something
A favor from you my friend
This song you keep singin'
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore




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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/27/2017 2:24 PM

It was going to be a little while before they would reach the cave. That much she could already figure. But that didn't mean she had to walk all the way there herself.

Once she was far enough out in a large open space, Eliza took a glance at the device in her hand, and smiled. "You guys ready for an adventure?" At her words, the screen on the little thing started to light up and even flash a bit.

Yup, that was good enough for her. She raised her arm up high, pointing the screen out to the air, and spoke very clearly. "Psyche! Faolán! Reveal yourselves to me."
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/29/2017 3:27 AM

ImageImage

At her words, the device responded with shooting out a bright beam of light. From within that light two orbs materialized, starting out small and rapidly growing into individual shapes. The first formed into the shape of a winged dragon-like creature, covered in black fur with purple stripes and patches of white in certain places. The second became a large blue bipedal dog that looked much like a fighter, sporting metal gloves on his fists, and just so happened to have rocket engines strapped to his back.

Both came down to the ground with a thud, and then turned to their human companion. In contrast, she was a lot shorter than Faolán, as he looked to be about twice her height. And Psyche was much larger than most large horse breeds were. "Hey guys." Eliza came up to them and reached out with her free hand to stroke their heads. Which despite Faolán having to kneel for her to even reach, they were both quite happy with this affectionate gesture of hers. "You ready to get going?"
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/29/2017 7:20 AM

"We sure are!" Psyche chirped eagerly. These lands were all very new to them, that she was looking forward to finding out what this mountain had in store for them. From the looks of things, Psyche's best guess was that it might a bit of a long journey to get there, and she wanted to make it as safe as she possibly could. So, she jumped right ahead with crouching down low before Eliza could say anything else. Signalling with one clawed paw for her to hop on.

Eliza already had a feeling that she might do that, and wasn't going to argue. "Alright, who wants to carry this then?" She held out the bag that she was carrying. Faolán raised a finger. "I will." It would be easier that way, and then Psyche could focus on just Eliza. He even insisted on holding the backpack as well.

Once he relieved her of that burden, and Eliza was sitting comfortably on Psyche's back, they started to move onward. Going at a pace that Eliza wouldn't have been able to keep up with if she were on foot.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/29/2017 5:02 PM

Scaling up the mountain wasn't so bad, when you had friends like Psyche and Faolán tagging along. The rougher terrain as things gradually became rockier and steeper, not to mention colder the higher up they got, was something that they could handle just fine.

It still took them a couple of hours, as Eliza went about going at a more leisure pace during the hike. She had their little group take a few stops on the way just so she could walk around and take in the view. And that view was just getting better and better the higher they climbed. Even breathing in the cold air gave Eliza a great feeling.

Eventually though, that view would have to go unseen for a while, as they soon made it to the cave they were supposed to map out. It was kind of unnerving, staring into the gaping hole in the side of the mountain. Seeing nothing but darkness...

"Here, let me see that for a second." She told Faolán, reaching for the bag. In it, she rummaged around for some stuff. Meanwhile her companions continued to stare into the darkness. "...What do you think we'll find down there?" Faolán had whispered to Psyche. The dragon shook her head, unsure of the answer. "Hopefully nothing too horrible."
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 4:44 AM

One by one, Eliza began to pull out some stuff from the bag. While doing this, she was going through a mental checklist. Three headlamps? Check. A lantern? Check! The map? Yet another check. The, uh... feather pen that would be used to write down new information onto that map? ...A reluctant check.

She made sure to spray it down with as much air freshener as she could tolerate back at home beforehand. "Just... don't think about it..." She muttered to herself as she stared at the feather suspiciously.

Closing up the bag, that was all she thought they would need for now. "Here guys, put these on." Walking over with two headlamps, Eliza had Psyche and Faolán wear them. The bands on these ones had been modified a little bit so that they would fit better on their heads. The third one was hers.

Now equipped with a source of light, they could finally go in!
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 5:19 AM

Faolán chose to take the lead by going in first, and took the lantern that now looked amusingly small when gripped between his fingers. At first it didn't seem so bad as they headed deeper into the cave. With the lights to guide them, he could see well enough. But it was important to Faolán that he took his time anyway, that each step was taken with care.

The only worrisome part that came up was when he almost got stuck in a section that closed in around him... So that part didn't turn out very fun, as he had to squeeze himself through. And considering what he was wearing? That wasn't easy to do.

But progress was being made, despite that spot of trouble. Right?

For a minute Eliza was getting confused, and looked up from her map doodling. Coming to a stop. Psyche was intently keeping a close eye on her, to make sure she didn't go tripping on something while doing that. "Is it getting brighter in here?" Or was she imagining it?

They hadn't made some kind of mistake and taken a wrong turn, did they?!
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 6:44 AM

Worried that that might be what happened - though she wasn't sure how - Eliza started to rush further towards that light. Faolán tried to stay ahead, but she seemed to decide that he hadn't been going fast enough and just squeezed right past him.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Psyche shouted. Insistently the dragon pushed her snout right beneath Faolán's arm, and just huffed in annoyance. She started complaining to the big blue wolf that was now in her way. "You need to move faster! She could hurt herself!"

Further ahead, Eliza payed no attention to the complaining, grunting and growling coming from behind her. She was just concentrating on finding the source of the light.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 7:14 AM

It would turn out that it wasn't what she had been dreading, thankfully. The light would instead be something completely different in a very surprising way. As the light got brighter and brighter, that she could see fine without the headlamp, she just kept picking up speed. And came to quick stop when the cave opened up into a much larger space.

In hindsight, that was a bad idea.

The floor of the cave was slick with moisture in that spot, and while Eliza had been careful about her choice of shoes, it wasn't going to help much with that. One wrong step was all it took for her to slip and fall backwards onto her rump. She reacted to this by letting out a yelp.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 7:41 AM

The noise echoed its way back up the tunnel, and it really set off Psyche into a panic. "You see!? Something happened!" Even Faolán became pretty concerned about that noise too, but come on. He could only move so fast in here! Her badgering wasn't going to change that. But despite all of his complaints, that didn't matter to her. Not this time.

So what did she do?

The only reasonable thing a dragon could do!

She rammed her head into his body, dug her claws in wherever she could find purchase among the rocks, and started shoving.

Faolán would not enjoy the ordeal one bit, and would regret his earlier decision on taking the lead.

Her idea was a painful one, but it actually started to work with speeding things up. Soon enough she was pushing him right through the tunnel and out on the other side. At some point he had made the mistake of trying to stand up straight and got knocked right over by Psyche.  She had barreled right through - and may have stepped on him a bit - in her rush to get to Eliza.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 8:54 AM

"Elizaaaa!" Coming right up beside her human companion, Psyche brushed her head against Eliza in relief. Until concern took over, and she started nosing around to check for any injury. "Thank goodness! You're not hurt, are you?"

The invasion of her space was met with some uncontrollable giggling, as the dragon's nose was hitting some ticklish spots. "I'm-hahaha-fine! Hahaha-stop it-ahaha-you're tickling me!" It took a some effort for her to shove Psyche back so she could get up. Once she did, she could tell that what she said probably wasn't entirely true, and a bruise might show up later... She wasn't going to say anything though.

"...Yeah. I'm doing great over here too." Faolán grumbled, his face still down in the dirt. He lifted a hand for a sarcastic thumbs up.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 5:10 PM

They had to take a moment to dust themselves off and calm down from that. Then Eliza needed to retrieve the map, since she dropped it when she fell earlier.

But once they had gotten reorganized, the little group got to finally see a pretty cool sight that had been waiting for them beyond the tunnel. "Cool!" This place was way bigger than Eliza had imagined it would be, and she started scribbling away to add this new information in delight. It was perfect in here! With an opening in the ceiling that was really high up, it illuminated the room pretty well.

The hole in the ceiling of the cave was taken with special notice from Faolán too. From their distance, it looked like it was a pretty large opening. He pointed right up at it. "When we leave, I'm going that way instead."

He was never going to go through that tunnel ever again.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 5:29 PM

Eliza responded back. "That probably would be for the best..." For his sake anyway. She'd let him do what he wanted when that time came, but it was likely going to be a while before they would even get around to the leaving part. There was so much for them to see!

Glancing between what she put down on paper, and the real thing in front of her, she did notice something. "Hmm... It looks like this place splits off." She could only see so far, even with all the light, but it definitely looked like the walls split off into a fork further down in the room. Between the two directions they could go, she pointed over to the right. "Let's try that way first!"

With her taking the lead this time, the other two followed.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 6:20 PM

As they walked, Psyche and Faolán were just taking in the scenery, while Eliza lead them further in. Though it didn't seem like there was all that much to see yet, as they could see nothing but rocks, rocks, and more rocks... All of which were pretty plain looking. (Not like they knew anything about rocks anyway...)

Hopefully they'd find something more interesting further in.

Soon Eliza would take a pause, and scribble some more with the pen. Up ahead, the path split off again.
"Another fork..." She turned around. "Any suggestions on which way we should go?"

Between the choices presented to them, to their left the path would lead further into the current room that they could still see, while the opposite way grew darker into a corridor that went somewhere else.
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Re: Discovering the Unknown [Caving] [H by C]

Postby FrostWynd » 09/30/2017 6:38 PM

After thinking about it, Psyche and Faolán glanced at each other. The choice seemed pretty obvious! "Left!" "Right!" They said in unison, finger and claw pointing in opposite directions.

...This time they stared at each other, frowning. Eliza stared at them both.

"Guys. Seriously." How was that supposed to help her decide? They couldn't split up to go both ways either, that would ruin the fun! "I think that way would be better." Psyche snorted. "Better how? This way looks more interesting! It gets darker in there, so there might be something inside!" Faolán didn't have a response for that.

Eliza wasn't interested in getting into an argument over something this silly. So she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a coin. "Alright, let's do this then. If it's heads, we go left. And tails, we go right." Faolán seemed reluctant about the idea, but they both nodded in agreement.
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