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[Phoenix]

The Observers

From the rooftop of a tower across from the research building, several figures watched as people came in and exited the building. From the outside one couldn't tell what was transpiring within, but they seemed to know enough. Once it was clearly over, and the pink haired merchant emerged with her followers, one of them finally spoke up.

"Well, how do ya like that?" a familiar voice came. "That went better than I expected." The voice belonged to Silvia.

"Those fools hid inside the building and just waited for the military and those mercenaries to take them out? Were they that afraid of us?"

"No ... Dolan probably just figured it was his only way of getting out with his own life. His artificial garbage wouldn't hold up against us." She replied crossing her arms and smiling. "I've got to say, I'm quite happy it turned this way. It'll help me prove my point to them later on."

"Or just piss them off more." the shady figure commented wryly.

The Report

Craig had returned to give his report, and after that, he entered a room that seemed to be used for communications. Taking up a different gemstone than the one he had earlier, he spoke into it as it lit up. "Professor. Professor, can you hear me?"

"Yes, what is it, Craig?"

"Mission Accomplished." he replied simply.

"Yes-yes, I figured as much. Details, man."

"The military was closely involved in this one, otherwise we would have had to destroy the entire building. About one hundred or so artificials were present, and they gave the military a very hard time, as well as Raquel's unit. They pulled together and most of them survived. Raquel's unit had one fatality though, not certain who he was but I think they'll live." he explained. "I went ahead of the party to scout. They don't know I was there. Only Gabbie. When I found Dolan, he and the remaining scientists were hold up in the basement with an artificial dragon."

"What ...?"

"An artificial dragon. I tried to take them out with a series of bombs but only took out a lot of artificials. The dragon, Dolan and a few scientists survived. Raquel's people took down the dragon and Dolan, and the military stepped in to execute the scientists on sight. Orders came from General Ridge Remus, who was also present towards the end of the mission."

"Interesting ... Good work, Craig. You can let the group tend to their own affairs now. Keep an eye on things in Ursentius for me. I'll let you know if you have anywhere else to be." Weyland responded.

"Understood, Sir."

"Good hunting."

The Morning After

Raquel had spent most of the night fixing the clothes the innkeeper's wife hadn't hustled from her, and hadn't woken up just yet. Chip however was already up, and scurrying across the bed at high speed. He had the note with the list of contacts on it, as well as a sewing needle with no thread. With Raquel asleep, and him fully rested, he was free to try his hand at sewing. He didn't understand what Raquel had done to fix the clothes, but he had seen other people sew before and gave it a try.

Raquel woke up to the sound of a needle poking through paper over and over again, and surprisingly close to her head. Looking over she saw Chip puncture the note for the hundredth time. Surprisingly it was still readable. "Holy crap, Chip! Givemethat!" she lunged for it only to poke herself with the needle after Chip dropped it and took off running.

Her upper lip had been poked and a single drop of blood was forming that she quickly wiped away. "Well that's one way to wake up in the morning." she mumbled as she took the note and read down the list to make sure she could still read them all correctly. One name she arrived at jogged a memory and put an astonished look on her face. "Wait ... Doctor Fin ... ... Dolan?"

Paying A Visit

It had gotten late rather quickly, and rather than heading to his destination that night, Gabriel opted to wait until morning. He had nothing but time now anyway. When morning came, he rented a cab out to the suburbs. From there he walked. Some more miles and he eventually reached a cottage in a nice quiet, secluded area. From the look on his face, he seemed to be at his destination. Coming up to the door, he knocked three times, and then waited patiently.

[Rothene]

When dawn came, the sunlight danced in its awesome brilliance throughout the landscape, free from any retrains only to enter a particular window in an inn in the middle of suburban Ursium and smash itself into a rather short feminine Kigenese face. Offended by its persistence, the mage turned his head away, but the scorching rays refused to give up in its self appointed task of waking the little man chose to heat up his raven black hair.

In order to escape the heat, but not get up from his bed to close the window, the mage decided to cover his head with the blanket supplied by the inn. Unfortunately, that played well into the sun's hands and the mage found himself suffocating under the stuffiness of the realm beneath the blanket and was forced to surrender to nature's might by getting out of the bed. It was at that moment of triumph did nature play its cruel hand of having a cloud block the sun in a mocking gesture.

"<Stupid sun, you just had to have things your way,>" grumbled Ranyin in his native tongue as he sat up and stared out of the window. After he was sure he was awake, the Kigenese mage walked to the window to take a good look at the surrounding landscape before turning back to the room and noting that the Neviskotian wyvern rider was still asleep in the bed further from the window.

Quietly, Ranyin put on his robes and took out some parchment, writing brush, small clay bowl and charcoal from his travel bag. He poured some water into the bowl and started grinding the charcoal in it with his smooth supple fingers. Satisfied with the concentration of ink made with the little procedure, Ranyin started making sketches of the view outside the window in simple Kigenese artstyle.

Edited by Rothene, 18 June 2011 - 02:14 AM.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

After working for several hours during the night upgrading the wooden shield, Connor went to sleep in the very comfortable hotel bed. He would not be waking up naturally until very late the next morning.

Veronika

Veronika woke up to Raquel yelling to the monkey about...something or other. Not getting up out of bed, she saw Raquel look at the list of contacts and read one of the names off the list. "Wasn't Doctor Dolan that scientist we killed last night? If his name was on the list of contacts...that means that he had something to do with the organization right?" she asked Raquel, sitting upright.

Nadya

Nadya spent the evening sleeping outside, being sure to remember where the rest of the group was staying, since one could only rely on Satarma's guidance so many times (and it obviously wasn't much help during the daytime). She woke up earlier than she would have liked due to early morning merchant caravans passing through near where she slept. After doing her morning routine, she and Luca set out for the inn for the next day's adventures.

A New Challenger Approaches?

The old archsage had been sitting at her table, examining an eclectic collection of tomes, more modern books, and scrolls, such as: Sardius: 1000-3000, Psychic Powers and You: A Beginner's Guide and several scrolls in a language unrecognizable to most. At the sound of the knocking, she quickly cleared off the table and walked over to the door before opening it.

She smiled at who she saw in the doorway. "Gabriel! This is quite an unexpected surprise, how are you?" she asked him, leaning forward for a hug.

[the_whistler]

To Be:

Nanahm grinned and thanked the salesman, strolling off to look at other goods when he noticed Domovoi walking towards the wagon with a shield in hand. "Do you really need a shield when you have a giant wyvern following you around? It'll turn you and uh, what's-his-face whatever your wyvern is called into a real tank. You know what I mean?" Attempting to direct his question to the wyvern rider, when Nan realized he was gone.

Now Nanahm felt like a fool for talking to himself, not that talking to his invisible friend would've been much better. Perhaps he could say he was addressing Raguni about shields…. made of tomato sauces. Yes, that was certainly it.

Arriving at another rest stop Nanahm slumped his way upstairs and picked a room at random. The fighter fingered the axe gingerly- he hoped he hadn't made a foolish choice buying this new fangled thing. With that uneasy thought on his mind, Nahm had a restless sleep. Waking up in the morning, he promptly put the pillow over his head, and went back to sleep.

Edited by the_whistler, 18 June 2011 - 02:53 AM.

[Phoenix]

Amon

Amon had somewhat gotten his way as far as sleeping with the wagon. Fortunately no one came to steal from it in the night, and he woke up to find everything untouched and just like he'd last seen it. Relieved, he got up and ventured into the inn hoping to wash up and eat breakfast if it was being served.

Raquel

"Yeah, I think that's it." Raquel replied, still dumbfounded. "It didn't occur to me at the time because I hadn't looked at this thing in awhile, but they must have been involved with them to some extent."

Chip meanwhile had grabbed another needle and went to work on a piece of cloth, poking dozens of holes in it with no real goal in mind.

Gabbie

Gabbie fell asleep in a hotel bed, and if not for being a light sleeper, she could have very well slept all morning. When she woke up, she saw some things around the hotel room. Connor seemed to have been busy while she was asleep. She had other things on her mind though. The next mission, and the payment for the current one. Weyland had a few ways of getting money around, but she wasn't sure which he would use in their current situation. Would someone deliver it, or would they have to go somewhere to pick it up? Who knew. She needed to freshen up before doing anything else though, so she took a bath, then got dressed and then quietly left the room to go get some breakfast.

Gabriel

"Oh I've been great, Lysandra." he replied giving the woman a big hug. "I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd come by and say hello." That was when his expression decayed a bit. He had just a bit more to say than hello. "One other thing ... Dolan died last night." he said in a lower deeper tone of voice.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"So Dolan has a connection with the organization then? That means that his documents could have information about the- <Chort voz'mi> the military took all his documents, didn't they? I doubt they'd be especially willing to release them either, given what other information they contain," Veronika said, attempting to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

Lysandra

Her expression darkened a bit at this last piece of news. "Well don't be a stranger, we can discuss this over tea." She walked inside and took the tea kettle off of the small cooking fire, pouring two cups of the hot beverage. She poured a generous amount of sugar into the one cup then put both on the table, sitting herself in front of the unsugared tea.

Sitting down, she looked over Gabriel carefully. "So, did you kill Dolan after all or did another do it? You were certainly involved in some combat, you have a few rips in your coat," Lysandra said, giving him a small smile.

Edited by -Cynthia-, 18 June 2011 - 03:37 AM.

[Mercakete]

Gytha remained asleep in her bed -- after a much-needed bath and change of clothes, which made her appreciate her foresight in having 3 separate tunics -- the next morning. Maw, however, slipped out through the window to catch some earlybirds for breakfast until Gytha was awake and ready to change her bandages like she did every morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The previous night, after the group went into their respective inn and hotel, Bert had flown back to the stream he'd washed up in before and used it for hygenical perposes again, seeing as he really needed to get cleaned up. The following sleep was deep and refreshing. When he woke up, it was in the combined shade of a tree and Riz's shadows. His right hand had found its way from the stream's bank into the water. It was such a peaceful morning...which ended when his stomach growled. "Guh... Why does food have to be so essential?" groaned the pegasus rider before cupping his right hand and splashing his face with water to wake up more fully.

Stretches soon followed, then his routine, morning exercises, primarily push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and practicing various manuvers and axe-swings. When he went to get his axe, however, he noticed another weapon on Rizen's saddle. For a moment, it puzzled Norbert. Then he remembered where the polaxe came from. That's right... I got this at Fortress Nature's armory... Valter had offered to pay for it when Bert attempted to return it to the axe dealer. ... I tripped over this thing... He wasn't entirely sure how he was supposed to wield a poleaxe, but the salesman had mentioned it was good for striking people who use certain techniques with swords. Valter thought it would be a good idea for me to hold onto this... Bert's grip tightened on the weapon. Then he brought up that stupid street kid...

"Well, I guess it's time you and I got aquainted," the pegasus rider sighed, trying some basic swings to get a feel for the weapon. Let's see... If a street kid tried to move out of my reach like they normally do... He swung the axe at the imaginary opponent. It cut through the air well, hitting the place where he'd invisioned the opponent moving to. Hm. This thing has good reach... I guess it's sort of like a spear in that way. It's lighter than I'm used to... He moved through his swings slowly. ...But its length makes the resistance to direction-changes about the same... Not a bad axe. I still miss Splinter and Crunch, though...

After his exercise routine -- training both with his iron axe in both hands and his new poleaxe -- Bert quickly washed up again, rested in the sun a while to dry then mounted Rizen and flew off for the inn to see what sort of work they had for him. Maybe I can pick up some food in town...

[Snowy_One]

As the various members of the party went to sleep about her in the inn, Robin did not. Instead, finding a small corner hidden away just outside and in back of the inn she sat down with the Obsidian in-hand, looking up at the stars overhead. Slowly and quietly she set to work, carefully shaping them while keeping the noise down to not disturb the others. As the moon passed by, then set, overhead she did not go to sleep. Instead, as the morning came and the sun rose, Robin was still awake; a small pile of obsidian arrows resting by her side.

'A mess' was not the right was to describe Robin as the others started to awaken. She had pulled all-nighters before and was not unused to it. However, as the morning sun rose, it gave light to various handprints upon her cheeks, signs if her effort to stay awake. Despite this, she remained hunched over the remains of her stone, carefully crafting more of the arrowheads for herself. The stone was about half-gone now and a small circle of Obsidian dust surrounded her as she continued her work well into the waking hours.

Edited by Snowy_One, 18 June 2011 - 10:01 AM.

[Acacia Sgt]

Even though there were signs that it was already morning, John hadn't woken up just yet. Figures, considering how much into the night it was when they finally got the chance to retire for the night.

By the time he did, he sat up, yawned and stretched, as per routine. He still felt slightly tired though. 'Ugh... I knew it was probably a bad idea to have wait it out awake.' He thought. Looking around, he noticed his roommate was already awake, and apparently busy with something. ''Good morning.'' He called out. ''What are you doing?'' He asked as he took out from clothes from a bag he had brought with him and began to change.

[MinunRobotnik4]

Saken got up in the morning with a crick in his neck. After sorting out that discomfort he noticed the heat which was also another discomfort to one who liked it colder. Not much he could really do about that problem except hope for cold winds.

He then turned towards the events of yesterday thinking Bert did not seem happy that I requested to go along with him. Still I managed to convince him I'd keep silent about the whole thing. That is a plus. And Truth knows that I pretty much need it. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't think so. Too much unnecessary risk.

Sighing he thought I suppose I should find Ranyin and Bert.

[Phoenix]

Raquel

"The military took them? Well, we won't be seeing those again. They either got rid of them or locked them up someplace." Raquel said with a grimace. "He sure wasn't going to be taken alive but it would have been nice to at least ask him some questions about them. Now I guess we have to cross another name off of this list. Ugh."

Gabriel

"Multiple stab wounds, and an arrow to the heart. Courtesy of the volunteer teams the military brought in." he said sitting down and glancing at his coat the moment she had mentioned it. "Oh uh, yeah. Well I can't dodge everything I guess."

He took a small and obviously restrained sip of tea before going on. "Thank you. It's perfect. You know, I half expected Dolan to go out doing something crazy, and it turns out he did. The military's not going to let the news spread very far, but Dolan came at them with a man made dragon." And I thought the last time the military ended a project like this things got out of hand.

Gabbie

Breakfast was taken care of swiftly and Gabbie returned to the hotel room to see if Connor was awake yet. She didn't want to admit it, but staying separate from the group did give her a bit of a challenge to deal with. Looking after Connor on her own wasn't a big deal, but without a way to reach them in an emergency ... hell, they couldn't even be sure when to meet up with the party.

Fortunately she had received enough information after speaking with Raquel the previous night. Since they had stalked up on new weapons and equipment, they could leave the city in the morning after everyone was rested up. She knew where they were staying, so heading over there to regroup with the others was what she planned on doing once Connor was ready to go.

[Mercakete]

The pegasus rider sighed as he counted up his meager supply of gold. "This is one of those times I wish I could cook without whatever I kill falling into the fire..." he groaned to himself as Riz slowly walked up the road towards the inn the group was staying at. Rizen merely whinnied lightly and cheerfully as a reply. "Easy for you to say... You can just graze whenever you want to..." he sighed. Rizen simply made a simmilar whinny. "And now I have to cut back on food to get Splinter and Crunch back..." As Bert leaned against the back of Rizen's neck, he delighted himself in daydreams as he continued his pointless babble to his pegasus, "At least until I get enough gold. Maybe I can get something from a butcher after this next raid; that'd be nice. Like some chicken or quail or phesant or pork or beef or lamb..." An abrupt, shrill complaint from Riz left Bert know to wipe his mouth and to get his drool off of her neck. "Sorry, Riz," he sighed, brushing off Rizen's neck until it was clean again, "I know, I know, you like to keep clean... We're here anyway."

Spotting the somewhat-beat-up wagon wasn't hard. The sight of it reminded Norbert of his promise to help fix it up...and to pay for any expenses that it might cost. "...I'm too low on energy to get too worked up..." the pegasus rider sighed, petting Rizen's neck, "But if I wasn't raised by a saint, that pink snake would be dead by now. ... And I'd steal for food only to eventually be done-in by a patrol or something... Whatever. I'll skip breakfast..." I skipped dinner yesterday, too... Again, the pegasus sounded almost like she was alughing at her rider's sorry condition.

[Rothene]

Lost in deep concentration to get the landscape imprinted onto the parchment as perfectly as possible, Ranyin worked on the art with more care and skill than those he displayed on the battlefield. He had just finished the ground and some of the trees and was now working on his old rival, the sun when he heard John's question. The sudden disturbance cause Ranyin's hand to jerk momentarily, the brush sliding at an odd angle. The result was the sun became a circle with a single jagged edge.

Grunting at his disapproval at the ruined picture, Ranyin turned around to politely reply to his roommate's question despite his sudden foul mood as his parents had taught him. "Good morning John, I'm doing some painting of the view outside the window and trying to capture that persistent sun in its full blazing glory." said Ranyin showing John his unfinished and potentially ruined sun in the painting.

[Acacia Sgt]

John paused what he was doing to take a look at the picture.

''Hmm... I guess it looks, fine so far...?'' He said. He was never one to be interested much in stuff like art, but he tried anyway to give some criticism, which of course would be of no use anyway. Afterwards, he proceeded to finish of changing.

Edited by Acacia Sgt, 18 June 2011 - 07:51 PM.

[Rothene]

Pleased with John's lack of scrutinity of his painting, Ranyin quickly added erratic flicks to the circular edges of the sun in order to normalies the odd spike he made to the sun earlier. In the end, the painting turned out better than he thought, as the long wavy jagged edges of the sun now accentuated it's fiery nature. Chuckling lightly with glee, Ranyin took out another brush with longer and bushier hair. It would add to the finishing touch of shading the sky with lighter patches to indicate the sunlight shining in multiple directions.

Finished with the whole thing, Ranyin placed it near the window to let it dry as he started packing his tools.

[Snowy_One]

Robin stood up and unslung her bow, knocking one of the new arrowheads she had just made, eager to test them out. She had to be careful though. It would be all to easy for her to miss if she didn't take the time and care to aim properly and safely and hurt people. If everything she had heard about the sharpness of obsidian was true, even a missed glance could cut deep into the flesh and cause serious damage. That would make for a poor first day of freedom and being with the group, hurting a bystander and being imprisoned for the danger.

"<Not to mention if I hit something hard I can shatter the arrowhead.>" she reminded herself audibly. Carefully she started to look for a target. The wood on the side of a building? A pile of hay? She was sure that the fortress had proper archery targets for training, but those were far away to say. She shook her head and removed the arrow from the bow. She would not be a danger to others. She would use the proper targets like a responsible, if slightly sleep deprived, human.

Sighing, she stood up and brushed the dust off her before returning to the front of the inn. Stepping inside, she went up to whomever was awake to buy a cup of water for herself before sitting down to drink it. "<Uggg. I hate pulling these all-nighters.>" she groaned, slumping down in the chair.

Edited by Snowy_One, 18 June 2011 - 09:42 PM.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Another false lead...urgh. "Is there anyone we could speak to that might know the names on this list better? I'm certainly not acquainted with many Ursians...if these are even all Ursians. It doesn't help that the contacts don't seem to know much about each other either, at least Vasquez didn't," Veronika remarked.

Lysandra

"Just remember to be careful dear. You might recover more quickly than most, but you are not invincible. Nobody is," she said, taking a small sip of tea.

"Volunteers, hmm? They must be rather special for them to have so much success in battle, though I suspect there were heavily losses on both sides," She sighed, "If only I had been able to persuade Fin to give up his research without so much suffering being involved...but I suppose I never was very good at convincing people not to do things they shouldn't," she said, giving Gabriel a sad smile.

[Acacia Sgt]

Placing the clothes on the bag, John approached the door. ''I think I'll go and get something to eat.'' He said before opening it and leaving the room.

'Maybe I should check on Gil first?' He thought as he walked down the hallway. 'Probably not, he may still be asleep. I doubt he got to sleep that much while we were busy. Still, I guess I could head there anyway, better than having to buy it from the inn. Too bad I didn't brought some food with me to the room.'

[Phoenix]

Quel

"Let's see ..." Raquel said before taking up the list and reading it over again. "Well, we could check some public records and find out who they are that way. Once we know more about them, we'll know where to look ... assuming we can't find any home addresses."

Suddenly Chip came up and snatched the list right out of her hand and ran off before she could react. "Hey! What's with him this morning ..." Well ... I guess we do have something else we need to take care of too that seemed pretty urgent at the time. It's still some days away though. "Well there is one thing. Professor Weyland did say he would do some investigating while we do these missions. Maybe he'll have something for us when we get back. He's got more resources than us at least."

Riel

Gabriel nodded. "There were definitely some casualties on both sides. One group in particular did mighty well though. I was impressed actually. Took care of the bounty hunter that was trying to kill me, beat Dolan, and his dragon, though I'm not sure who set it on fire first. That could have been anyone. That was probably inevitable though. Once the military decided to try and stop me, they found Dolan's hideout. Game over." he said taking another restrained sip himself.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Public records...a good idea though I don't know my way around this city enough to find them. Will we be going back to visit the Professor now, or will we be completing the Fallen mission first? From what Gabriella said, we should be receiving out payment shortly. This Weyland follow seems to have a lot of influence here in Ursium," she remarked casually after giving Chip a sharp glare.

Lysandra

"Dolan was consumed by own hubris then it seems, attempting to conduct experiments right under the military's nose. I'm curious as to how you were let go so quickly though, they must have known you were killing some of the scientists. I'm hoping you used your wit and charm to get out of it rather than your blade at the very least," Lysandra said, her eyes twinkling a little.