Pax RP

"They're neither species nor creatures." Dravlin said in a grave voice. "They're. . . forces of nature, but on a scale so incredibly grand that, if just a single one were to break loose with their full power, it would unbalance the entire existence of everything, in this realm and in all realms. But, fortunately, it's not in their nature to do so. If I had to explain their purpose, it would be something along the lines of. . .cultivating the multiverse, and to make sure animals, sentients, deities, and more don't damage or cripple the balance of anything. What's odd, though, is that each Aeloci, despite not having much of a personality, have their own set of. . .habits and preferences, usually based off of an emotion or a feeling. The Warrior's patron emotion is 'competition', if that could even be called an emotion, while the Crier's is 'bittersweet hope'. There are uncountable others, but there are few I actually know about, despite being a scholar who specializes in learning about them."

"An aeloci is more common on new worlds, where they hide in the shadows and manipulate events from afar. No doubt, there's one probably watching us now." Dravlin said, dropping into a conspiratorial whisper, and winked.

How exactly he winked without having a face was unknown.

"This 'Crier' Aeloci's default emotion sounds the same as that which I have experienced the majority of my life-ah hah!"

Laur's exclamation proceeding her comment was the result of her search coming to a satisfactory conclusion, the Mutant had found a pair of stones suitable for creating a spark along with a handful of brittle grass. Laur strolled back to the woodpile, where she proceeded to sit upon the ground crosslegged, unceremoniously dropped the dry flora atop it, and began the deceptively easy task of setting it aflame by sending sparks flying.

"A pity I suspect my particular abilities cannot detect beings of deity status-or higher-unless they wish to be observed, otherwise I may have been able to inform you whether we are being observed or not. You appear highly intrigued by these Aeloci, especially to devote such time studying to refer to yourself as a scholar"

Laur was interrupted yet again, this particular time via a small spark of flame bursting into life. The Mutant coaxed the flame into a bigger, stronger one and thence kept a watchful eye over it whilst she continued to speak.

"i imagine your little group is heading towards the large population centre not too far from here. I will join you until we reach there. Then I am not sure what would be advantageous for me to do..."

Laurs features that had previously been so pleasant morphed into a frown. An occurrence farther away from their current position had caugh ahold of her attention.

"I have been dragged here upon the eve of war, have I not? This must be one of the Aelocis manipulations you were talking about"

Swix had found one of the glowing violet, poisonous mushrooms and was stuffing one quite happily into her bag when she noticed something was... a bit off. The humanoid stood up straight and stared at the shadow of a tree that seemed darker than the rest once the mushroom was safely stored. "I don't suppose my apologising would make any difference?" she asked, then shook her head when there was no answer "no, I didn't think so" Swix swallowed, and stepped onto the darkness.

((Just a note, if anyone is close enough to see this it will look very strange as the only one who is seeing a 'darker than dark' shadow is her

PPS sorry for short post, ran out of time ))

"Indeed," Dravlin said, nodding. "In most worlds, as I've noticed, there's usually a single race or species in control, or at least dominance, of the majority of the world. There's a reason for that. The reason, I believe, is because in a place with so many different cultures and species with completely different purposes, that a war serves as a catalyst for all the normal pent-up tensions that would eventually tear everything apart. I'm not certain of this, but that's what the evidence says. I'm a bit more certain now that I'm actually on a new world and have experienced it firsthand, however." The masked figure seemed delighted at the prospect, not noticing anything out of the ordinary.

ES reentered the clearing at that point, her expression showing that she was in a very bad mood for some reason. It probably had something with whatever was causing her to try to hide the limp she'd gotten-though it wasn't quite working, as her steps were slightly uneven The woman glared at the fire Laur had started and deliberately sat quite close to it, watching the flames closely.

"So Dravlin" she said after a few minutes "I showed you mine, it's your turn to tell me yours. What are you?"

"It's quite simple, Lady Swix," Dravlin said pleasantly, "I am an incredibly complex golem."

For once, he didn't elaborate.

ES blinked at the information Dravlin had just given, and turned from watching the fire to watching the 'puppet like' being., her troubles suddenly forgotten. "A complex golem..." she said thoughtfully "what sort? What sort of power source? Magic? Or are you one of those 'soul based' ones? Or even something else?"

"It's . . .a bit complex, but I can try my best to explain it." He said, still in that same pleasant tone. He raised a hand to scratch his mask*, where the tips of his fingers scraped.

"When enough spellbooks and runes are stored in a single place, the result ends up with something akin to. . .accidental sentience."

"Knowledge is power, in other words."

There was something eerie about how Dravlin, who normally went off on tangents, was suddenly keeping his words to a minimum. Everything he said like this had a sense of finality to it.


((*... or Face? Who knows??))

ES folded her arms and tilted her head ever so slightly, a habit she'd picked up a while ago as she listened to Dravlins little information. "Well, that explains a lot" she said "but it kind of sounds like you don't want to say anymore. You can just say so, you know-I'm no stranger to keeping secrets. Besides, you've already answered the questions I wanted to ask anyway"

ES then crossed her legs carefully and lay down with her back on the floor, staring at the planet in the sky that blocked out the stars. She was going to put both hands behind her head but at a twinge of pain in protest from her shoulder settled for only the one.
"Do you eat anything at all then?" she asked suddenly, as an afterthought had occurred to her "I know golems tend not to but since you're not one made on purpose, I was just wondering" she finished, oddly.

"No, I cannot eat anything, nor use any sort of magic directly." He said. "And it's not that I don't want to say any more, it's just that. . . I don't know much about myself.."

Swix rolled over onto her uninjured side at this point to look at the complex golem again, her arm resting on her elbow as her hand held her head up under her chin. "Ahhh, I see. Well, that's a shame-and I'm not sure what to say now" she said, then went quiet for a minute or two and spoke again "Exactly how do you use magic indirectly anyway?"

"The same way I was attempting to get markus to use magic to heal your arm, with that so-called blood magic."

Was all he said, not moving an inch. From what one could tell, he wasn't even looking at ES.

"The fire is burning particularly well"

Laur had been utterly silent throughout the pair's dialogue, content to just tend to the flames until they formed a roaring blaze, bathing the surrounding area in the firelight. She did contribute anything to it, for she possessed nothing to add. Laur found the woman a tad uncomfortable to be close to, but that was not a very good reason to point out such things to the person in question, so she remained tight lipped.

The notion that she might never again see any of her family members however, made her feel increasingly lonely so rather than choose to dwell upon it, Laur chose once again to speak.

"Dravlin, Swix, might I enquire as to what you plan to do once you reach your destination?"

A particularly large creature, about the size of a small car, watched the bizarre group from a distance, tilting his head to one side as he wondered who they were and how they got here. His bulbous yellow eyes glowed faintly in the night, though these would probably not be visible to those people sitting around the campfire... he hoped.

~What are they doing out here?~ He thought to himself. News of the impending war had made the inhabitants of the encampment more cautious than ever, and he was currently on watch duty for this area, though he hadn't expected to actually see anybody out in the middle of nowhere like this, much less four anybodies. ~Friend or foe... Well, there's only one way to find out I suppose.~

He silently crept closer, keeping low to the ground and trying his best to get within earshot of the group without being seen.

Markus, having caught a deer like creature, was dragging it back to the camp when he saw... something. It was a big, bug eyed creature that was trying to sneak up on the encampment, and it seemed to be working. He had to do something.

Dropping the deer and rummaging around his person Markus discovered that one of his bandoleers still carried the last of a special kind of bolt known as a "screamer". It was designed to make a loud screeching noise as it flew through the air, not unlike a banshee or a firework. The downside was that they were not as strong as a normal bolt, and would probably break as soon as it hit something. They were designed to be used in large numbers to create a truly terrifying experience for the enemy... maiming them with the shards of metal embedded into their bodies was a bonus.

Loading the bolt in his crossbow, Markus aimed not at the creature, but just past it at a nearby tree. He didn't want to assume the thing was out to eat them, but they needed fair warning. He let the bolt fly, and as it hurtled through the air it let out a terrifying scream. Sailing past the creatures head it slammed into the tree and tore itself apart, silencing the bolt.

"If they don't hear that" He thought "Frankly they deserve to be eaten..."