balance_logs | Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, Part 1

Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, Part 1

	Are there really no bananas on board this thing?
	NAVIGATION

1. FIRST, YOU DRAW A CIRCLE

Click here for the RNG thread!

A. IT'S TIME TO GET TO WORK

That certainly isn't to say that your previous efforts have not been hard work. But one half of this mission has been fine tuned, a logistical machine of well-oiled cogs, the creative efforts of a man who has so much to make up for.

After the three-hour journey across the sky, you and the three other Reclaimers you boarded the glass orb with will be deposited right in the dead center of Maru, where the Bureau has set up a small camp for gathering, sorting, and sending off supplies. It's chilly, but not unbearably so. The air is thin, but up here, it's probably the cleanest you've breathed anywhere else in Faerun — new and old Reclaimers alike.

Whatever goal you decide to work toward during your stay here, after a quick rundown of how supply gathering will work (it's pretty simple: You bring supplies, the unnamed Bureau members assigned to the base will send them off), you're turned loose to the gnarling wilds of the floating continent.

Because, as the header says, it's time to get to work.

And you most certainly haven't gone unnoticed.

2. USE YOUR PATH ACTIONS WISELY

B. ROWDY RUMBLE

Those of you who aren't quite combat ready might be getting something of an instant crash course in the art of a hostile encounter — though, perhaps in a bit of a lucky streak, goblins, like the pack of three of them that are leading the charge here, are, uh. Well, they're morons.

But these particular three see a bunch of humanoids flying in on what are very clearly cursed globes, and they see a bunch of humanoids wandering the lands and attempting to cash in on their treasure. They were here first, you know! Even if they don't entirely understand why the mine they were here first in isn't exactly on the ground anymore. Or where exactly they are to begin with now. Or ... well, frankly, nothing about any of this makes any sense.

Whether you're back at the base at the center of Maru, or whether you're out in the fields, toeing at the ground for hints of treasure underneath, you, and whoever you happen to be traveling with, will be approached by a rather bold trio. And whatever treasure you may have on your person? They're rather keen on taking it.

What will you do? Fight? Try to reason with them?

For those of you with the combat experience, there are, of course, much bigger fish to fry. Take a look at the YOLO's guide to monsters for a full list of the hostile critters you can challenge to a wrestle during your stay on Maru.

C. NIGHTLY WHISPERINGS

You've probably heard the rumors by now — the fact that nobody seems interested in going to the small lake and waterfall on Maru once nighttime rolls around. Seems pretty silly, right? Superstitious, even. It's a rather beautiful patch of the floating continent, and if your previous expeditions digging through the ground are any indicator, there's a wealth of valuable items to be had underneath the surface.

Hubris might lead you to camping out near the water's edge, for just one evening.

And sometime around midnight, provided that same hubris hasn't put you to sleep, the light of your campfire, or the light of the moon, suddenly extinguishes. It's like being wrapped up in a cloak of vantablack, in very nearly every single sense, not just sight. No rustling of leaves, no sound of the wind passing through every nook and cranny of the continent. No light. No nothing.

If you decide to book it out of there, be careful, lest you accidentally wander into the lake, without a clear sense of where exactly the exit is. But if you choose to hold steady, after about an hour, the silence and darkness clears — and the scenery returns to normal, as if nothing happened.

Something did happen, however. Whether you stayed there for just a moment, you sat through it, or you slept through it, if you were anywhere near the lake at midnight, you'll be subject to a nightly enchantment coming from an unknown source. You may pick one of the following:

○ The next time you are asked a question, whether it's what you had for dinner or whether you're all right, you will be magically forced to answer it truthfully. The effect wears off after one question.

○ When you speak, you'll hear yourself speaking normally. Everyone else will hear you either making an animal noise, or repeating a sentence you've said before, regardless of its relevance. That goes all the way back to your canon! The effect begins at sunrise, and lasts for three hours.

○ Whenever you try to leave, it feels as if your shoes are suddenly made with two tons of lead. You will not be able to move away normally. Someone's going to have to carry you out of there.

○ When the sun rises, you will be magically reduced to half your height. The effect lasts for five hours.

3. MINE CART MADNESS

D. I'M ABOUT TO LOSE MY MINE, UP IN HERE, UP IN HERE.

Eventually, you'll probably find yourself down in the mine's labyrinthine system of tunnels and networks that seem to sprawl out in nearly endless directions. Be careful when you turn corners, as there may be an Umber Hulk or a Basilisk waiting for you in the darkness, but as you look down, you do notice tracks that head in nearly every direction. Whoever had initially excavated this area was quite laborious and thorough with the pathing down in its deepest delves. One turn leans to another long corridor, and maybe another turn leads you back in a circle. Mining equipment can be found almost everywhere, left to rust and decay with the passage of time that could only indicate hundreds of years of being completely unbothered.

You step forward, and look to see a path that carves out into four directions- straight, left, right, and back.

And you quickly realize something doesn't feel right. That's true- as you begin to step forward and take a path, you find yourself back to where you started after walking for a little while. Turn back, and you might notice that you're in the exact place you just were as well. Maybe you brought some chalk with you, or maybe you managed to drop something here like a breadcrumb trail to tell you which way you've already headed. Or maybe you don't even notice it until you've been walking for hours, but you're stuck in a loop.

Of those four directions, you'll notice something peculiar if you start to take notice.

○ One direction will always lead you back to where you started.

○ If you listen close enough, down one hall you'll be able to hear the sound of a coastline, weak waves echoing and crashing against the shore. Follow that sound and you'll come to the source of it: a large standing pool of water that sits absolutely still, no tide. You can swim to the bottom of it, not a problem. There doesn't seem to be anything there. But the walls are bio-luminescent, coated with weird fungi that you definitely don't want to eat.

○ When you look on the ground, you can always find baby fire beetles at the mouth to one of the spokes. Follow those markings long enough and you'll inexplicably be sent back to the mine's entrance.

○ One direction is completely nondescript, but unlike the first one that sends you to the beginning of the maze, you enter a new area that doesn't hold any of the signs that you were there previously. You can follow this lead for several iterations, and eventually come to a four-way that has no features noticeable whatsoever: no beetles, no sound of rushing water. But you head down one of them and you're back to where you started.

E. I'LL FOLLOW BEHIND YOU ON RAINBOW ROAD.

Mind boggling puzzles aside, you're welcome to explore the depths of the Lost Mine of Phandelver. One of the more ridiculous, albeit, fun adventures you can take is a mine cart ride through the mine down to the farthest reaches. It starts off relatively bumpy and doesn't seem to smooth out at any given point, but it's the closest thing you're going to get to a roller coaster ride down here in Faerun. Reaching the end is a matter of waiting the cruise- and you eventually come to a dead end.

There's stuff you can mine down here as it empties out into a vast, damp cavern. Iron, several types of cheap gemstones, and rocks can be found pretty much anywhere. If you're looking to rebuild Vista Virs, this is a good place to start. If you're looking to make a little cash on the side, that's possible too. We're not here to judge your moral intentions.

Getting back isn't as fun as it was coming down here, as you're pretty much stuck pushing the cart back to where it was if you want to take things out. Don't worry about the logistics too much; there always seems to be a cart available for you to descend, and oddly enough, it never feels like it's the same journey down and back twice in a row.

F. BEEN HERE ALL NIGHT. BEEN HERE ALL DAY.

There are a few notable places to explore while you're down in Phandelver:

○ An administrative office, complete with desks that haven't been touched in years. Several papers are still there, with dates that go far and wide back into the past. Touching them causes it to disintegrate into dust. For anyone who makes it down there, there is a lockbox to be found that can be opened by smashing it on the ground or attempting to unlock it with thieves' tools. While the contents are up to you to decide, nothing in there should be magical beyond a simple potion of healing, aged... several centuries.

○ An old room that seems to be barred from the inside, about an hour's walk past the mine entrance. Outside, you can find several skeleton carcasses of humanoid creatures that have long since died down here. If you try to make it into the room by force, you'll be greeted with a barracks that once housed the dwarves who worked down here. You get the sense that a battle happened in these parts, but beyond that, it's kind of hard to tell what went down.

○ A large quarry with a practically neolithic drill in the center of it. It hasn't seen use in quite some time, but be careful as the drop can be upwards of 100 feet. Another prime locale for mining, this area seems to house sturdier metals. Hence, the drill being necessary. Be careful, this is prime Umber Hulk territory.

○ Various storerooms that housed supplies for the workers of the cavern. You'll find wine and spirits down in the depths, and who wouldn't want to try some 300 year old whiskey? The climate down here is particularly perfect for keeping and storing these rare and fine vittles. Drink up, it's on us.

○ One peculiar room that when you enter, you feel a chill sort of feeling take over your body. There's a bed in here, with a storage chest at the base of it. Attempting to open it or touch it or even having an intention to steal/uncover what's inside will cause you to hear incredibly powerful and loud screaming in your head, enough to make you clutch your ears and take psychic damage from it. Hm.

4. WILDCARD

The floating continent of Maru is your world to explore, and your story to write! You may use any of the prompts we've given you here, or you may come up with your own prompts — you can utilize any part of the setting provided in the OOC post.

If you'd like the outcome of a particular thread randomized, or if you'd like to investigate a particular part of the setting, feel free to drop a note in the RNG thread and we'll set up a roll for you.

As always, be amazing. You're two for two on reclaiming Grand Relics, and we can't wait to see what you do here.

blurb code by photosynthesis

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, that's what I said," she responds. It is absolutely not what she said, and to boot, she's giggling a little behind her hand at the terrible french accent. While she's doing that, Nick Junior takes initiative and scorches a little hole in the ground --- a mark for them, later. When he returns to Maya's head, she scratches under his beak fondly.

That being said, as uneasy as she is, she's also herself, so:

"You know, I never asked you about your arm. Is it really cybernetic?"

The stupid questions in the middle of the investigation are a staple of hanging out with her, yes.

"Hey, good job," he tells Nick Junior. Here he was going to make an X in the dirt, but this is even better.

He wriggles his fingers at her question and lifts the arm so she can better see it.

"Yeah, it is. You got people where you're from with cybernetics too?"

Maya comes from the farflung year of 2017... where they have brick Nokia cellphones and VHS tapes. Very futuristic.

"Nope, I've only seen stuff like that in the movies! It's so cool, though!" And because she has little concept of boundaries and no brain-to-mouth filter, she's going to touch it to see what it feels like. Nick junior, on the other hand, is preening. It's about time someone recognized his obvious genius!

".... Did you lose your actual arm in a big ol' dramatic western shootout?"

Again, little concept of boundaries and no brain-to-mouth filter.

The metal is slightly warm to the touch due to all the tech inside heating up from operating McCree's every slight movement. He smiles faintly at her curiosity, but he's not one to be candid about the loss of his arm.

"It's a long story. One I really don't like telling." Not unless he's got a full bottle of whiskey and no sense left in his head.

"But hey, I knew a couple of people with cybernetic arms. One who was a cyborg in fact, so he had a lot more metal parts than me." He's thinking of Genji; the one they referred to as the ninja, because instead of a gun he fought with shurikens and a sword.

"Okay, okay, I get it.... you have a rough past you like to keep under wraps. A rough cowboy past. " Nailed it. Despite the light tone, though, she's content to back off. She knows a couple of other people here who lost their arms and it's probably not a fun subject to talk about.

Still, the arm's cool.

"Like an actual cyborg! That's really cool! Was his brain all computerized, too?"

She does not know how cyborgs actually work, as it turns out.

He chuckles and shakes his head no. Maya's always full of questions, it seems, but for some reason he doesn't really mind it.

"Nah, he didn't have any upgrades there. I think if he did, he would've taken to it easier. He had a rough time adjusting to his new body."

"Huh... I guess that would be tough.... " She hasn't thought about it like that. Unlike in the movies, in reality it would be pretty rough to have to deal with losing body parts and having them all be replaced by metal. Or, well, his reality, things like that don't exist in japanifornia yet.

"You sure know a lot of interesting people, though, Mr. McCree."

"Yeah, it's 'cause I worked for an interesting group. They brought in people from all over. Scientists, soldiers, a giant talking gorilla—" He pauses to smirk. "Oddities. That was a word that was sometimes used, when someone didn't fit the other categories." McCree was more a... criminal gang leader sharpshooter cowboy, so oddity was just shorter to say.

Poor McCree will never be free from her asking questions at this rate, her eyes light up at the mention of a talking gorilla. "A talking gorilla? Seriously? That sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie!"

Just like cyborgs, and pretty much everything he's told her so far. It'd be surreal if she wasn't currently living in what she'd describe as a fantasy movie. But, compared to some people's lives before this, hers seemed so plain and boring. Including the spirit channeling, kidnapping, getting framed for murder, and assortment of near-death experiences.

Also:

"Can I ask you something?"

She says, like she hasn't been asking questions this whole time.

"A gorilla who's a scientist," he adds with a smirk. Sometimes he wonders why fate saw fit to throw him into the mix along all these characters.

He glances down at her, resisting the urge to point out that she's never held back before with her questions.

"Yeah, shoot."

"Huh... sounds like some real planet of chimps dealie. You better watch out, or you might end up stuffed inside the Statue of Liberty."

That's definitely not how the movie goes. But, she sobers up a little bit.

"Do you mind if I call you Jesse? That's, um, what I heard Mr. Jack call you."

It's probably not the question he was expecting.

It definitely wasn't. He expected something to do with gunslinger adventures or hanging out with cyborgs. This question is sort of out of left field.

"Well, yeah that's fine by me." It's not like he hides it, unlike Jack who's trying to be mysterious. Back in Overwatch there were people who called him by his first name all the time.

"And, um, you don't have to call me "miss" either... 'cause we're friends."

It's ended up being kind of a cute nickname, though, but some Reclaimers are formal with her and she doesn't want McCree to be one of those. She flashes him a big grin, though.

"We could do some cool code---"

Maya's nonsense is interrupted, however, with sudden rumbling under their feet. Something's coming, and big.

"Whoa!" McCree finds his footing and places a hand on his gun holster. It sounds like an earthquake, but also kind of like something's moving and creating that sound.

Whatever it is, he can't imagine something that big stops to have a chat, so he grabs Maya's hand and starts moving.

"C'mon, we gotta get outta here." Where to, he doesn't know, but somewhere they can hide and let it pass, or an exit to the mine itself would be preferable.

Maya squeaks loudly (sorry, McCree's ears) at the noise, and lets him pull her along, scrambling to keep up with him.

"But.... where is "out", exactly...?"

This mine hasn't exactly been forthcoming with the entrances and exits. That being said, as they run, there's an opening up ahead, potentially taking them out to freedom --- but as they run towards it, the ground underneath them erupts, and out comes the basilisk.

Maya's eyes flicker between the creature and McCree. "What do we do?!"

"Uhh," is the only response he can come up with before he unholsters his gun. "Get running the other way! I'll be right behind you."

He can't imagine this creature is friendly, but he won't start shooting unless it advances on them. Because what if it's just lost or out of sorts from being flung up in the air on this bit of dirt? Its day would just get worse if someone started shooting at it.

Of course, the benefit of the doubt doesn't work in McCree's favor today. The basilisk definitely has ill intent as it advances on the pair of them.

A few months ago, Maya would have done just that. Even now, she considers it -- more to secure a route of escape, than anything. But when she did that with Hibiki, he'd gotten attacked by one of the enemies, had turned on her and attacked her. And there's an even worse possibility than that -- that McCree will get hurt while she runs away. She's not up for that.

"It's not a good idea to split up! Either we go together or we stay together!"

He has her back, so she has his. That's how it works.

The basilisk, on the other hand, is definitely hostile -- it's immediately spitting acid in their direction.

It's not the answer he wants to hear right now, but he can't argue either because the acid comes flying at them and he turns his back towards it so he doesn't get splashed in the face. Luckily the acid falls short and McCree gently pushes on Maya's shoulder to encourage her to start moving.

"Together, but I need to be between you and it so I can shoot it."

"Well... I need to be able to see it to shoot it, too. " As she says that, she seems to be concentrating, and the basilisk seems confused for a second, thrashing at nothing.

She starts moving, though, letting him get his shots in. Even though he could totally just shoot over her head, gosh.\

"Okay! Let's go!"

At least she's sort of listening.

"I don't know what you just did, but if you could keep doing it, that'd be great!" He's running at her heels after firing two shots at the creature's head, but he can't tell how much damage it's done.

"What is this thing anyway?"

It's hard for her to concentrate on spells as she runs, but Hideous Laughter seems to be distracting it-- for the moment, slowing it down enough for McCree to get his shots in. But she isn't going to be able to maintain it long.

"I... I don't know! Some kind of rock monster!"

She'd heard about them, but she wasn't actually expecting anything like that here.

"Well let's get the hell outta Dodge before we see what it can do!" McCree figures a creature like this probably gets by underground by feeling vibrations, so he doesn't know if shooting it in the eyes will help, but it's worth a try. Turning back, he lines up a shot, but just as he's about to pull the trigger, the creature looks right at him.

And that's all it takes. Immediately, McCree's entire form turns to stone, arm still outstretched to fire his gun. And while he doesn't know what's happened to him, he knows it's bad. He can't see anymore, or even move. He tries to shout, but can't. In fact, the only thing he can do is listen.

It takes her a second to process what's happening, because it happens fast and it's frankly a little unbelievable. One second, he's turning to shoot it in the face, the second he's stone. For another second it's all she can do to just stare --- and then she's running over, putting her hand on the statue, trying to use Necromantic Touch in reverse to undo it somehow.

"Jesse!"

He'll be able to hear the note of desperation in her voice as she tries, and tries, but nothing happens. Then---

Then, she goes quiet. The creature cants its head around, trying to get a sense for where she is, to get her too. On one hand, Maya's never really been into the fighting. As it turns out, fighting is a lot more brutal and scary in reality than it is in TV shows, and she doesn't like it after all, no matter how much she puffs her cheeks and clenches her fists and blusters. She's always avoided it if she could help it. On the other hand? Up until recently, Maya felt like had nothing else in the world to lose. Now, she has two people left. And McCree's one of them. So.

"Bring him back," she says, quietly, with a note of steel in her voice that McCree has never heard -- the closest is back when they were with the Spider Queen. But this is new. "Turn him back right now, you big stupid lizard, or I'll make you pay!"

One hand crackles with black magic, while the other is pointing her spear -- which extends, it's a dumb weapons -- straight at it. The basilisk roars in her direction as a response, and charges.

"Fine. You wanna do this the hard way? You asked for it."

Is this even Maya? That's her squeaky anime voice, for sure, but the cadence is so off.

And all McCree can do is listen to all this. It's the most terrifying thing in the world to be trapped in his own unresponsive body, and now Maya is threatening the thing that just turned him this way. He can't do anything, and he's never felt so helpless in all his life. A young girl is doing something that could get her killed or turned into this, and he's completely useless.

Field Mission 3: Brushing the Sun, Part 1

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if u dont mind i'll bring the basilisk in like the next tag or so!

sounds good!

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1/2

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