epidemiology | EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

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EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

Recruits leave Oska at midday, with about 10 minutes of final warning given from the jewelry. Then the white mist rises as rifts open, and Oska is left behind. The transition into Nalawi is not a peaceful one. When the mist fades, recruits are immediately hit with a face full of lashing rain and driving wind.

The recruits have arrived in the middle of a nasty storm, but that’s not all that greets them. Seawater surges all around, breaking against -- houses? It’s a little hard to tell at first, in the chaos of the storm. Half of these buildings are made of rock, not carved, but shaped, and the other half seem to be living trees, thin wood and thatch, and a handful of more ornate (and more fragile) material, including clouded glass or obsidian. The stone houses are standing up best to this onslaught of waves, but even they weren’t made for this, and they shudder and crumble in the thrashing storm.

Thin screams can be heard over the wind and water, too. The locals are having some trouble not being washed away. The people here are small bipedal deer, and those hooves were not meant for swimming. They struggle in the water, some of them trying to snag a few precious belongings from drowning houses, some of them not even able to do much more than hang onto some jutting stone or tree. There are a few heroes among them, putting superhuman powers to good use: here a young man hovers in the air, dragging others out of the water and toward safety; there a girl parts the water with careful gestures of her hands, enabling a whole family to dart from their ruined home and run for higher ground. These feats are rare, though, and on the whole most of these natives are in trouble.

They don’t look too stunned to see the new arrivals -- they don’t have time to, and will push roughly past a new arrival to deal with some crisis sooner than stop and stare. They’re mostly just grateful for any offered help, generally seeming terrified and shellshocked by all of this. If any of them are asked what happened, they’ll point with varying degrees of wordlessness toward a high stone wall between the village and the sea, with an enormous gap broken through the middle of it where the sea rushes in. Like many of the houses, this dike was clearly shaped from living stone. But whatever shaped it apparently has no power to maintain it, and this is the storm that had finally taken advantage of that.

This long, dark afternoon provides plenty of tasks: help the Nalawi people evacuate from their ruined village, try to find material to rebuild their shattered (and still crumbling) dike, or take care of the hungry sea creatures that have taken notice that the deer, usually safe on land, are suddenly in easy reach. They look like crabs with too many legs, but each of them is nearly the size of one of the villagers. They’re more than capable of seizing a struggling villager and scuttling back toward the break in the dike to drag their prize into the sea. Their shells are difficult to get through, their pincers terrible and sharp, but their joints and eyes are unprotected and tender.

The storm won’t last forever, though. It blows itself out in a few hours, just in time for a truly beautiful tropical sunset over the western edge of the island. Exhausted locals will finally begin to talk a little more. They’ll explain to their rescuers that the Stone Shapers have all had their Gifts faded out: there’s not a single one left. Without these abilities, the dike was left defenseless against the storm and the water rushed in. Their despondency and resignation suggests this kind of disaster is not new to them. They are, however, very grateful for the help: anyone who lends a hand over the new few days (thankfully sunny and clear) sorting through the wreckage, rebuilding, and setting up new dikes will be given food and shown to the inn for free lodgings.

Welcome to Komo, Nalawi.

OOC INFO

ICly this log will cover the day of arrival and the following few days of recuperating and rebuilding, if you would like to include that in your top level prompts. OOCly it will last until the 26th. New information will be available at that time.

As some quick refreshers, we have our Mission Overview here, which also includes a questions subthread for general questions. For intro event-specific inquiries, please see the comments below. Additionally, be sure to have read the Chantes epilogue as well as the Nalawi: Locations page. Note that we will also have new characters arriving during the event, so be sure to give them a hand!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of course. [He turns away just long enough to get the vial, pressing it into her hand once he finds it.] Here.

[Merlin casts a glance around them, and there's still so much to do. It shouldn't surprise him, not anymore. Such is the case wherever ALASTAIR sends them. He takes a deep breath and crouches down beside her.]

Do you think the worst is over? [And he really hopes he's not jinxing it by asking.] Which potion are you using?

Thank you.

[She remembered to say it when he pressed the vial into her hand, popping the stopper off with a flick of her thumb and moving from the Nalawin's ankle to its flank with a soothing word.]

This potion purifies wounds and numbs pain. I'll be stitching, so-

[At least it seems she's discussed this possibility with her patient already, because he doesn't seem shocked, even as Sieglinde gently poured some of the runny white liquid into the wound. While it was taking effect, however, she spared a glance up at the sky, contemplating Merlin's question.]

Those that can be saved easily have been saved... anyone who was trapped has surely drowned. I fear there will be fewer survivors reaching us...

[In a sense, that meant things might end soon. Perhaps.]

You'll be alright.

[Merlin offers a comforting word to him, which actually does as much good for Merlin as anyone. There's always plenty of death when it comes to disasters such as this, and he knows it. A turned ankle and a few stitches is good news.]

There are people still working, still searching. [But he fears that she's right.] Do you want me to take over while you make some more potions, maybe catch your breath a little?

[Though it was in her first instinct to protest, to insist on seeing it to completion herself... She had worked with Merlin since Chantes, seen what he could do and imparted some of her own knowledge as well. He could handle the task, and she- she was tired, even if she didn't want to admit it, and using as much magic as she'd had was exhausting when her supply was finite and tied directly to her own condition. She'd be no good for anyone if she didn't rest- no good for Masamune if he showed up injured.]

... Very well. Here.

[She scooted slowly out of the way after giving her patient a reassuring pat and word about Merlin's competence, rifling through her things to come back with needle and thread to offer him before she went about trying to take stock of how much she had left of everything. Shook a vial only half filled with what seemed to be a pale powder, frowning.]

Did you catch sight of the ocean beasts by the beach? Did they seem chitinous to you?

[A prime ingredient in her powder, the one that stopped bleeding. It was easier to think about that than how many survivors might still be out there.]

[Merlin's increasingly thankful that Gaius didn't allow him too many magical shortcuts, and that he'd learned the basics just from assisting the court physician for a couple of years. Such talents seem to be needed everywhere they go, and might even be again before this is all over. so Sieglinde really does need to take care of herself whenever she gets the chance.

He takes the needle and thread, settling in at the task at hand.]

Uhm, maybe? [He makes another stitch before glancing up at her quickly.] What's 'chitinous' mean?

[He does like big words, but he makes some of them up himself.]

Ah- Chitin is...

[The chemical formula for it as she knew it, a chain of circles connected by lines and numbers in Theban in the form of a magic circle, came easily to mind, but she'd already learned that no one else in ALASTAIR thought that way, had learned that way. What was the better way to phrase it?]

It is a material often found in nature... The wings of bugs, the shells of crabs... A material that makes strong bonds, and provides for a seal in the body when I use it for this.

[She shook the vial in her hand, carefully taking a look at Merlin's stitches as a good supervisor ought. No problems, good-]

It can stop bleeding on contact, even massive hemorrhage... But it is very difficult to make.

They were definitely very crabby.

[It more ways that one. They were also larger, leggier, and Merlin assumes that they were also faster because of the extra ones. He doesn't think much of it until he's finished, but then it hits him like a lightening bolt.]

You're not planning on getting close to one, I hope.

Oh, no, no-

[Sieglinde waves a hand dismissively of such an idea- they were awful large, after all, and dangerous... As stubborn and reckless as she could be, as actually had a healthy respect for her own limitations... As much as they bothered her. Instead, she tapped her temple with a finger.]

I shall bribe one of the more muscle bound of our number to get it for me. With my extensive charms, they may even do it for nothing!

[Clever is as clever does???]

[Merlin relaxes at that. It's not unusual for Merlin himself to say one thing and do another - sometimes that's just comes with hiding who he is. But he believes that Sieglinde is clever enough to find another way, and she proves him right with her plan.]

Oh, I doubt you'd have to bribe many of them at all. [He busies himself, checking with another patient, seeing if there's anything else they need that he himself can supply. Merlin smiles back at her.] There are some who might even enjoy those sorts of things. Do you know Ban?

[Did she know Ban- Sieglinde's gaze suddenly moved upwards with a cough, adjusting her hold on a potion vial before moving to check the contents of it from the bottom. Not clouding, good-]

We are... acquainted, yes. In a business fashion.

[Read: I drunkenly hired him to punch someone in the face for me.]

[Merlin would understand - all except that part about hiring him. Ban seems like the type who'd just enjoy that, under the right circumstances.

But Merlin looks pleased that they know one another.]

There you are! I bet he's more than strong enough to take one down. I'd almost feel sorry for it.

Well, when one is immortal I imagine all sorts of tasks become easier...

[She pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment, suddenly realizing that... when she'd drunkenly spoken to him she'd actually forgotten to ask him something vital.]

- I forgot to ask if he still has pain receptors, though.

That's true.

[Merlin grins despite himself. He wonders how different Ban would be if he wasn't immortal. He can't imagine it.]

You mean you wonder if he still feels pain? That's a good question. I can't recall him ever showing any.

That's correct- immortality with pain or without is much like the difference between immortality with or without eternal youth.

[By which she means it's super important, of course. She may have thought about this quite a lot.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT ★ NALAWI INTRO

say goodbye to the simpler joys of the s1 & 2 ;;

I miss it already...

me too, always. ;;

so about S4...

oh dear

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

just sits here and ??? over the ending of s5

years later and i'm still ???

will the ??? ever die, I wonder...

it's been years and not yet

i'm in for years of pain why did this happen