We are The Order

Under New Management.

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Sights of the Drow Quarter [closed rp with we-are-theorder]

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“One hopes…She is deserving.” Hurzven said, continuing through the building towards the back. He stopped at a rickety looking flight of stairs and changed the tempo of his song. The invisible workers seemed to change their focus and the stairs began to reconstruct themselves.

“If she will find a place the most likely start is here, Hurzven,” Zeklyn said, watching nails drive themselves into the boards of the new staircase, “I have no doubt you could work a shrine to her in somewhere at the very least.” Zeklyn didn’t worship Eiliestraee himself, but she had her place here, surely.

Hurzven didn’t reply and started up the stairs.

Zeklyn waved the other ahead of him, “We’ve already had inspectors come out. I’m told they couldn’t find anything to complain about.”

“That’s good,” Isaia said. “I don’t think they would have anything to complain about... even if they’re confused as hell by how fast it’s going.” The three of them followed Hurzven up the stairs, still filming.

“If it’s all right,” Xiao put in hesitantly, “we have a Cultural Studies department that would love more than anything to hear about your beliefs. The Order is committed to religious diversity, because rampant monotheism is what caused most of our problems.”

“Mmmm-hmmm.” Tyrone paused at the top of the stairs, focusing his camera to capture the historic stamped-metal ceiling un-rusting and un-warping itself. Where material was missing, matching replacement sections flew up to join with their fellows. “They were super excited to find out that Vhaeraunians exist, they’ll be beside themselves to find out about your Lady.”

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“It is,” Zeklyn agreed, “It’s a shame that bardic music isn’t favored among our people,” There were certain things that did make it less favorable in The Underdark. It was noisy, for example, and most operations in the caverns required some degree of stealth. That wasn’t the main reason, however, “That’s a conversation for later though.”

At the topic, Hurzven had begun playing a little harder than he had been. The new building supplies that had been laying around, still wrapped from shipping, tore open and began to float up and toward the building. The newly repaired windows opened to admit boards, nails, tiles, and other materials, “It’s safe enough to enter now, if you like,” He said, stepping towards the front door, adding, “The lack of acceptance of Lady Eilistraee’s gifts is probably not on your list of things to investigate tonight.”

“Mister, if this is what your Lady can do, I’m sure she’s gonna find a whole lotta fans around here,” Tyrone laughed. 

“I wish I could see the looks on the faces of the city inspectors,” Xiao said, taking some pictures of the perfectly repaired foundation. Local contractors would have had to excavate tons of soil and concrete before lifting the entire building, where Hurzven had serenaded it into fixing itself in a matter of minutes. “They’re not going to be able to believe this.”

“They don’t have to believe it,” Isaia said, in his matter-of-fact way. “They just have to approve it.”

Tyrone snorted. “Who you think basically runs this city now? Boss Lady says ‘frog’ and they’re jumpin’ before she’s done.” With the vampires out of power and the city leaders desperate to navigate a world increasingly saturated with magic, danger, and the unknown, it was not an inaccurate assessment.

They followed Hurzven inside, continuing to document the process as nails forced their way into boards and plaster appeared on the lath, drying instantly. Some floor tiles simply healed their cracks, while others flew in and glued themselves down. 

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Hurzven looked at the smartphone with a small flash of trepidation, but inclined his head, “You may, as long as you’d like to in any case. I will be working for roughly a hour.” He strummed at the strings of his instrument, “I  would offer a walk-through, before I begin, but there is a very real concern about this building’s stability.”

Zeklyn could see through the door, into the building. It had been gutted for the most part, the drywall had been destroyed in this one, in particular, “This is the one that had to be cleared of a demon infestation, isn’t it?”

“Yes, a few load bearing supports were destroyed in the process and some temporary replacements were put in,” Hurzven sighed, “I’ve decided it would be better to push this one ahead in the queue.” He gestured to the buildings around it. None of them were restored, the last completed one was a short walk down the street. 

He began playing his instrument and loud groaning noise could be heard as the building appeared to shift slightly, and the building materials around them began to lift up on their own and move toward and into the building “I will begin with the foundation and structural components, then we can go in through the rest of the process. Just stay close.”

Xiao and Isaia stood a bit apart from each other, behind Hurzven, recording from two slightly different angles as they had been trained to do in the field. Meanwhile, Tyrone unobtrusively snapped HD photos with a high-sensitivity camera.

It wasn’t like normal construction was a quiet process, but this was just so bizarre, like a demolition in reverse. The building groaned, broken materials shuddered and then began to fly toward their original places as if magnetized. Little clouds of dust particles flew up, filling in cracks, which then healed themselves over like new. 

Tyrone silently mouthed the words “holy shit”, and Isaia shot him a look of agreement. Sure, they’d all seen things like Liridele mending the broken spine of a book with a few words, or Tania magically restoring one of her lavishly decorated nails. The Boss Lady even fixed dings on her fancy Benz that way. But this... this was on an entirely different scale.

Soon, the historic stone foundation had settled itself firmly into place, mortar filling itself in from where it had fallen out. The temporary supports had melded themselves seamlessly into the load-bearing frame of the gutted building. The busted window moldings leaped back into place, followed by glittering bits of glass jumping up to re-assemble themselves into panes.

“That is... amazing,” Xiao murmured when there was a lull, checking the footage she had captured.

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“I’m sure Hurzven wont disappoint you, Xiao,” He paused a moment, “We can also go into one of the buildings that was completed early. One already set up as apartments,” He could take them through to his own apartment to be exact, but he spent so little time there himself that it still didn’t sound right to him.

“Of course there’s also the underground marketplace,” He offered, “I’m glad the merchants arrived in time, with even more goods to choose from than last time,” Zeklyn looked at Tyrone in the rearview mirror, “Of course that means they brought their riding lizards.”

The light turned green and Zeklyn gave Isaia more exact directions to the place they could park safely. From there it would only be a short walk to tonight’s construction area. 

Hurzven was sitting on the front steps of the building, tuning his instrument strumming tight strings and winding some even tighter. He was young, but still older than Kalantar, with obsidian skin and his long white hair all in braids and pulled together behind him. He looked up as Zeklyn and their guests came close enough to hear come up the sidewalk.

He strummed the strings of his harp-like instrument as they came close to him, a soft glow ran through the strings. Then he spoke with a formal courtesy, in English, “Good evening. Shall we begin, or are there questions?”

“Oh yes, I’d like that very much.” Xiao chuckled and glanced at Tyrone. “Maybe not as exciting as the giant riding lizards... but Kat really wants me to report back on it.”

“Damn right I’m excited to see giant riding lizards!” Tyrone was almost bouncing in his seat in his enthusiasm, like a kid about to meet a real-life dinosaur. 

Isaia executed a very smooth parallel park, and they all got out, following Zeklyn down the nighttime streets. Here and there, they passed drow about their own business, regarding the four with only mild curiosity. 

The building that was their destination was definitely the worse for wear. It had visible cracks, broken windows and moldings, and - despite the dangers of demons - assorted vandalism. The members of The Order politely introduced themselves to Hurzven. Both J and Kat had been quite clear that anyone interacting with the drow newcomers was to be on their very best behavior.

“May we record the process, so that our superiors can see it, too?” Xiao asked, holding up her smartphone. “But if you would rather we didn’t do that, we’ll just inform them verbally.”

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“We should stop somewhere soon. There’s a good place one more block ahead on the right,” Zeklyn said, “We had an incident when someone got curious and drove through,” He laughed, “It spooked one of the lizards and there was some scrambling trying to get it back.”

It had turned out better than it could have. The frightened creature ran down the street and into the nearby subway station, turned marketplace, and had refused to leave. It was decided that it was probably for the best to have them down there anyway, so a quick pen was put up for them. Something more permanent was in the works now.

Better safe than sorry though.

Zeklyn continued, “We’ll meet with Hurzven first. He’s waiting for us.”

Tyrone’s eyes went wide. “You mean those big-ass riding lizards? Like the pictures? Oh man, I wanna see one!” A couple of pictures had leaked, nobody knew from where exactly, but they showed the Boss Lady on the back of a giant gecko-footed lizard, with Kalantar De’tlar at the reins. They had sparked mingled admiration and hilarity, and a minor rumor that there was something going on between the Boss and the drow patriarch.

That rumor had died down quite a bit when she left for the dragon world with Sasagani, but you always had your die-hards in the office betting pool.

Xiao put away her smartphone, now that they were out of traffic. “Hurzven is the one in charge of the rebuilding, yes? Now that’s what I’d like to see.”

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“Rilkacha and the rest of her brothers should be returning sometime this week,” Zeklyn said, his ear twitched thoughtfully, “Having a set date is difficult, due to the dangers of traveling through The Underdark, make arrival times unpredictable.”

“There is always Szzarolin’s shop. He has been making some ready-to-wear clothing items and accessories,” Humans generally being larger and with different proportions than drow was the challenge, obviously.

He smiled, “I’ll make sure to give a good tour though.”

“I’m sure you will.” Kat smiled in turn. “Thank you, Zeklyn. We’ll aim for Saturday night. If we’re lucky, Rilkacha’s caravan will make it before then - but if not, we’ll still get a first-hand look at the construction progress.”

~//~

“Man, you got way more patience with these city drivers than I do.” Tyrone laughed from the back seat of the Range Rover, one of The Order’s small fleet of vehicles. Next to him, Xiao was looking intently at her smartphone. She hated traffic.

“You’re just used to portaling everywhere,” Isaia said, his eyes on the road. “Anyway, it’ll clear up after we get past Chinatown.” The nightclubs of Chinatown remained a popular Saturday night destination - even the former Jade Pavilion had since been bought up, totally renovated, and re-opened under a new name.

True to Isaia’s word, the traffic quickly dwindled as they approached Old Town. This area had always rolled up the streets when it got dark, and moreso now that demons often roamed the nearby Exclusion Zone. But the city’s latest immigrants were not at all bothered by darkness... and not bothered much more by demons.

Isaia eased the vehicle to a stop at a red light. “Hey, Zeklyn, should we park around here and walk over, or just drive straight up?” City parking often dictated that anything within five or six blocks was ‘walking distance’.

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“That shouldn’t be a problem at all.,” Zeklyn could come and go from the area as he pleased. The place was under construction, but some buildings were ready to go already. That might be a good place to start for a tour. He could show them one of the apartments while they were there.

 “Maybe on a Saturday night? That’s when large parts of construction are done.” Hurzven had been hard at work learning building code and fixing the existing buildings. His construction method was interesting though.

“Should I ask and see who wants to come?”

“That sounds perfect, actually - everyone’s so curious about the construction.” Herself included... but maybe she could go see it in action after the Un’Lein expedition returned. “Two would do, just to have corroborating reports. Probably no more than four, counting yourself. I don’t want to make a huge deal out of it.” It was standard procedure to have at least two sets of eyes for observation work, since one might notice what another missed, but a curious crowd could be disruptive.

She had briefly considered sending Rooibos along. While the little pseudodragon would not be able to give a realtime account from a few miles away, the memory would remain in her familiar’s mind. But in the end, Kat preferred to just see for herself later on, with the ability to use magical sight if she chose. 

“If any shops are up and running yet, we can send some funds for ‘discretionary spending’. Then we’re not just showing up to rubberneck without bringing any business.” Kat chuckled. Trade was the foundation of this venture, after all.

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Zeklyn stepped through the open door and took the offered seat, “Good morning, Kat.” It was a strange thing, the top people in this organization seemed to prefer the most casual sounding forms of their names. It felt almost disrespectful to not be formal, but if it was their preference that was their business. He nodded at her curious familiar as well.

“That’s alright. I can pick up where I left off later,” The perks of his memory. It was useful that he never had to sit back down and wonder what he’d been doing, and the only worry about lost notes was social, rather than a hindrance to work.

“I’d be happy to help with that. Answer any questions you have,” He’d been right about this being about the Drow Quarter. Since The Order had invested so much into it, of course they’d want to keep an eye on things. They wouldn’t be turned away if they wanted to go check on progress occasionally though, “If you wanted to see for yourself how the work is progressing, that can be arranged too.”

“I wish I could go myself,” Kat said, a little wistfully. “I’d love to see it. But with J gone, I just have too much to do.” 

That was the other thing she missed - being able to leave once in a while. J tended to stand out wherever she went, in part due to that raging aura of hers. But Kat was skilled at making herself seem unremarkable when she wished to be, only vaguely remembered when she went out and about. It came in handy... but not today.

“Would it be all right to send a couple of people out with you to take a look? You could take some of your coworkers, if you like.” She smiled. “I know I can trust Crypto folks to report back accurately, and I’m sure they would jump at the chance to see it.” Then IntOps could consolidate the reports for their own records and for presentation to J when she returned - a tidy solution that left Kat free to tackle the mountain of paperwork that regularly dogged the leader of The Order.

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Taking the elevator down to R&D, below The Order’s HQ, wasn’t really that uncommon for Zeklyn, or his co-workers. Cryptography and Analysis working alongside R&D or IntOps was fairly standard. It was being called to speak with Kat that was new. 

He was curious about what she wanted with him personally, as he stepped off the elevator and proceeded down the corridor. If they’d found something they’d have probably told Mr. Stratton the situation…The most logical reason was that she wanted to know something about the slowly growing drow district down the road…Even if it wasn’t the most exciting reason.

Zeklyn was currently the only drow on the payroll after all.

He stopped at the door he’d been directed to and knocked, waiting for a response.

After three weeks in the shoes of the Leader of the Order, Kat was more than ready for J to come back and fill them herself. The other department heads were all very helpful, and so far only one of their outside contacts had given her any real grief, but she missed her research and her office being quiet. Rooibos, too, missed being able to just curl up on a stack of books and sleep.

J will like how you handled the nasty one, came the pseudodragon’s thought, making Kat chuckle. Since becoming her familiar a scant month ago, Rooibos’s natural but limited telepathy had expanded into a strong empathic link between the two of them, over which she could now express the full complexity of her ideas and feelings. She often preferred this to speaking aloud.

If only I could spook away all this paperwork the same way I did that jerk, Kat thought, and sighed. At least her next meeting promised to be more interesting.

At the light knock on her door, Kat gave a gesture, and the door opened itself, revealing the young drow. She had seen him in passing, sometimes in the company of Lorandin or of other London Office employees, but this was their first formal meeting.

“Good morning, Zeklyn,” she said, with a smile. “Please, have a seat.” She gestured to the empty chair nearby, and the door closed itself behind him as he entered. Rooibos snaked her head over Kat’s shoulder to peer at the drow with interest.

“I’m sorry to take you away from your usual work, but I was hoping you could assist me with something. You see, I’m looking to put together a detailed report on the progress being made in the new Drow Quarter.”

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Zeklyn thankfully hadn’t gone into the nice dark room, before the light came on in there too. He did enter afterwards though, and looked around Tyrone when he expressed disappointment with their find. The mostly empty room was a little disappointing, he tried to sound optimistic though, “Well…It’s got to be something right? Who would go through all this trouble if it wasn’t valuable in some way?”

He walked in, trying to look around to see if there was anything along the walls that was hidden, “Maybe there’s something hidden…” The walls looked solid, so he turned toward the one obvious thing in the room, and crouched down to examine the pedestal, “Jalbol? Anything at all?”

While feeling around, Zeklyn felt a groove in it and pried at it with his fingernail a moment before it popped open, “Tyrone, I found something else.” It was a little compartment, just big enough to hide the book that was inside. He carefully pulled it out and turned it over while Tyrone continued taking pictures.

The cover was leather, but it was flexible and looked like it’d seen some wear and tear. Zeklyn flipped open the front cover and paused, squinting at the page. It was a little bit faded, and it looked like the thing had been damage by water at some point, but at the bottom of the first page was:

                                     Property of Roderick A. Cross

He stood up and looked at the object in the glass, “I think we should call this in, Tyrone. Roderick Cross was an alchemist,” He looked around the bunker again, “And probably something a bit more.”

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“It’s true that they bring in a whole lot of weird stuff to study,” Tyrone agreed, getting an image of the display from every angle. “Might be worth something to somebody, right? Especially if it’s weird magic stuff.”

Trying to get a good close-up of the object, one of Tyrone’s pinky fingers just barely brushed the glass of the display. He jerked his hand back instantly, fearing the worst as weird symbols lit up all over the glass.

But nothing happened, the symbols quickly fading away, and he started to breathe again. A warning, maybe? Forget a detailed close-up... R&D could come down here and play poke-the-magic-thing themselves.

Zeklyn seemed occupied with searching the pedestal, so Tyrone took a panorama of the chamber, just like he’d been taught... though it was just going to be a 360-degree view of concrete, concrete, and more concrete. The secret compartment that Zeklyn found seemed more promising... he came to take pictures of that, too, and of the worn book found inside.

“Wait... you know this guy? He famous or something?” Tyrone looked at the phone - obviously, it had no signal here. They had no signal much of anywhere out here, even above ground. “Think you’re right, though... we’re gonna have to call in some backup here. Too much mojo going on here for my pay grade. You and I can go report back, and Isaia can hold the fort so they don’t have to play Tree Simon like we did.” He shook his head, then laughed.

“Pretty exciting for a first day, though, huh? Way more exciting than mine was.” Tyrone grinned and then turned to lead the way back out of the bunker, to where Isaia was waiting.

~ To Be Continued in Not Just A Curio ~

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Ciphers and Secrets (closed RP with pattern-assassination)

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Zeklyn found a place to lean against the wall, while he let his eyes recover a little from their ordeal, and listened to Tyrone work. He heard the young man take something out of his pack after saying he was going to pick the lock and shortly after that the light sound of metal on metal, as he began the process.

It didn’t take long, but it had given Zeklyn enough time to regain his sight to a usable level. He uncovered his face and looked around tentatively, still squinting a bit. There was still some blurriness, but he could identify Tyrone as he opened the door and backed off from it as a precaution, “After all of this, that lock didn’t stand a chance, huh?”

He rubbed at one eye as he reached into his pocket to get his sunglasses back on. No more of this surprise blindness today, “Whenever you think it’s safe to go in, Tyrone.” It was a bit of a switch from earlier, but being temporarily blinded did have a humbling effect.

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Carbon dioxide seepage, radon buildup, black mold... there were all sorts of reasons to let an underground chamber air itself out before you went inside - even when it was just an old basement, much less what looked like an airtight bunker.

Zeklyn was blinking and squinting but no longer hiding in his hoodie, the pupils of his yellow eyes squeezed down to pinpricks. Poor guy. Luckily, he still had his sunglasses handy.

“I was expecting some more magic, or maybe a trapped lock... but nah. I guess whoever made this eventually wanted to get in it themselves.” Tyrone laughed. "Though I guess havin the ring in the lock up top might be doin something, too... you just never know. Shit gets weird when magic is involved.”

After giving a few minutes for the bunker to air out a little and for Zeklyn to get his vision back, Tyrone led the way through the door. The chamber beyond was dark, but his flashlight soon became unnecessary. This place also lit itself up, as soon as he crossed the threshold.

“What the... all this for that?” Disappointment colored Tyrone’s voice as he went to examine the lone stone plinth that stood in the center of the small, concrete-lined room. On top of it was a wooden stand, a lot like a small cake stand with a glass bell jar covering it. Inside, a chunk of silvery-white metal rested on the kind of little stand his granny used to display her plate collection. The chunk was flat, slightly curved on one edge, roughly trapezoidal, and somewhat bigger than his hand.

Dutifully, he started taking pictures of the barren concrete room and the weird item. The Boss Lady wouldn’t be pleased if they didn’t document it all.

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Zeklyn was currently blinded by the sudden brightness, pulling his hood up and over his eyes was the best he could do though. He certainly couldn’t climb back up. The sound of scraping against concrete from above, followed shortly by the sound of boots meeting the floor, announced someone getting there. The question confirmed Tyrone had joined him in the bunker.

He tried to peak out from his hood, everything was just too bright still, his eyes still reeling from the sudden assault, all he saw was a blur where Tyrone was, “I’ll be fine in a few minutes.” Zeklyn groaned and pulled his hood forwar to hide his face again, “This happens once in a while.”

“There’s a door over there though. I didn’t get a very good look at it before the lights came on.” He added, trying to deflect from his current problem. Damn it all, he should have just kept his sunglasses on.

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“All right, man, take your time. Since Isaia’s staying topside as the lookout, I’ll be the one documenting down here.” Tyrone stooped to collect the worklights - tough little things, they were scuffed but still operational. He turned them off and shoved them in his pack. “I’m gonna take a look at the door.”

Taking his smartphone out of his back pocket, he went to investigate the door that Zeklyn had seen. It was a big, heavy steel thing, windowless. Probably an off-the shelf vault door, not the custom meter-thick bank sort. There weren’t any runes on the lock, at least... small mercies. All the same, he reached out to touch it very gingerly.

Nothing.

“I’mma try to pick this lock,” he said, so that Zeklyn would know what he was up to. He took a little leather roll from his pack, containing a very finely-machined and comprehensive set of lockpicks. He’d come a long way from the days of homemade tools.

He studied the lock for a bit, then selected a couple of tools and got to work. It was a little bit disappointing how easy it was to open... but he guessed that the real security was all the hoops they’d jumped through just to get here.

Tyrone held his breath and pulled the door open, stepping back to let whatever was beyond the door air itself out... and to check and see how Zeklyn was doing. 

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Zeklyn looked down into the now open entrance, he could easily see all the way down to the bottom, “It’s clear, as far as I can tell, and I don’t hear anything either.” It wasn’t terribly surprising, this place looked like it’d been sealed shut for a while. Unless there was another way in somewhere, there wasn’t likely to be much inside, alive anyway.

He looked at Tyrone and Isaia, “Since I don’t need a light to see, I could go down there first and take a look around.” Zeklyn looked down into the hole again, “If either of you have a lantern or work light i can take it down there so you know what kind of climb you’re dealing with.”

The drow accepted a couple of lights and put them in the front pockets of his hoodie so he could start going down the ladder. Once he felt it was probably dark enough to warrant a light he stuck one to the metal, careful not to blind himself with it. He did this two more times before reaching the bottom and placing one more light on the floor there.

Zekyn took a quick look around, the way down seemed to just lead to a tunnel that went a little way off and ended at a door. He looked back up the way he came down, placing a hand on the wall as he called up to Tyrone and Isaia, “It looks safe down here, there’s a do-XSA!” As Zeklyn placed his hand on the wall, the tunnel suddenly lit up, blinding him.

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Tyrone traded a look with Isaia that said, is this guy for real? But the drow was right; he was the one with the ability to see in total darkness. They coughed up their sets of magnetic pocket lights and watched Zeklyn descend into the hole.

As he went, leaving the worklights spaced more or less evenly, they could see that it was a more or less featureless tube of concrete going some 12 feet straight down before finally revealing a floor. A further tunnel at a right angle was just a black hole from their viewpoint up at the hatch.

Tyrone had begun to climb down himself when Zeklyn cried out, and the tunnel lit itself up like a Christmas tree. It was very easy to see the drow at the bottom, scrambling to pull his hood up over his head. Tyrone skidded straight down the rest of the metal ladder, using his hands and hiking boots as brakes. The worklights got knocked off, but Zeklyn was on the other side of the tunnel and they wouldn’t fall on his head.

“You OK?” It sucked enough getting your night-vision dazzled, Tyrone could only imagine what it did to darkvision. Hopefully it hadn’t done any permanent damage.

Isaia peered down from above curiously, his broad face lit up by the light of the tunnel. He would stay up there, just in case - it was standard OP to keep one person topside in these scenarios, to keep watch and to be able to get help if needed.

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Zeklyn stood and went over to the third tree, which was opposite to Tyrone, “Yeah, I’m watching.” He touched the tree and the sequence began again, “Whoever hid this place, had a sense of humor.”

The ‘game’ continued on for a while. The three young men dashed around the clearing trying to keep up with the growing sequence. Not knowing what might happen if they didn’t complete it was now the issue. Zeklyn, personally didn’t want to risk the lock self-destructing and leaving the hatch permanently fused shut, or the whole contents just blowing up. Honestly he probably should have thought of this beforehand, but there was no stopping it now.

After 21 different parts of the sequence, all the trees lit up at once and remained that way. Zeklyn looked around at the sight before looking back at the lock in the middle, “Let’s see if we can open it, before it changes it’s mind.”

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“A sense of humor like that, who need enemies?” Tyrone touched the nearby tree again in the next sequence.

But they didn’t get to stay stationed at one tree for long; there were a dozen of them, and all of them eventually came into play. Even with each person covering a section of four trees, there was much dashing about. Finally, the bizarre game stopped, the entire circle of trees glowing gently.

Returning to examine the hatch, the runes, too, were glowing, but no handle was in evidence. The edges of the metal were flush with the concrete, with nowhere to try and pry at it to lift it up. There was no way that little ring could be strong enough to act as a handle... but all bets also went out the window when magic was involved.

“Well, this lock seems to be all about touchin things, so...” Tyrone reached out and ran a fingertip over the runes, clockwise - the same direction they looked like they would have been read in.

There was a slight creaking of metal, and then the hatch began to lift itself from one side, in a rather ponderous motion.

“Get back,” Isaia warned. “Might have stale air.”

Tyrone hurried away from the hatch, everyone standing back to watch the spectacle. It seemed that the hinges were hidden away underneath, so that the top was flush... but whatever was moving the hatch was not at all visible to the naked eye.

“Creeeeeeeeepy.” Tyrone tried to get a look inside, but all he could see was a black hole... and what looked like the top of a utility ladder, leading down. The trees around them had ceased to glow.

[j-has-a-nephilim-problem]

Ciphers and Secrets (closed RP with pattern-assassination)

[pattern-assassination]

“I can live with that,” Zeklyn laughed, helping to clear more of the area and tossing the little skeleton out of their newly dug hole, “That’s what these ears are for.”

Zeklyn sat back on his heels and looked at the little circle of runes around the lock. They could look around some more and check to see if there was anything else relevant to the hatch…If it was a hatch at all. If they didn’t find anything else, they could just be wasting their own time. Even if the runes were a trap, the drow knew, from experience, that he could take a magical hit…Usually.

He took out the carved ring, and looked at it closely, comparing it to the lock, “It could also just be as easy as putting it in.” His ears twitched while Zeklyn considered the possible consequences again, “I’m willing to give it a try, if you two take a couple steps back.” 

When the others stepped out of the hole and backed away a little, not without complaint and warnings. In spite of the, valid, objections, Zeklyn just slotted the ring into the lock, and fiddled with it a moment to see if it turned or was supposed to be pushed in, but no painful response came, thankfully. The ring did turn, surprisingly well, for all the dirt and decaying matter that had been removed from it. After a quarter turn the runes surrounding the lock lit up and Zeklyn let go of it.

“I’m not entirely sure what that did…” He looked up and paused as one of the trees on the edge of the clearing lit up briefly before fading again.

[we-are-theorder]

“Are you serious?” Tyrone said, but began backing away from the circle of metal all the same. ”It’s your funeral, man, I can’t stop you.” Isaia didn’t say anything, just shook his head slowly while retreating several paces. They watched with no small trepidation as Zeklyn placed the ring into the lock - what were they going to say to J if their newest team member got himself fried on his first field mission?

A tense couple of seconds while the drow figured out which way the lock went, and then it turned... but nothing happened. Tyrone let out his breath, not realizing he’d been holding it - and then one of the trees started to glow with an aura of light, quite visible in the overcast afternoon. It dimmed, but nothing else happened.

He and Isaia looked at each other. Then the tree did it again, brightening and dimming. “See? Freakin magic.” Tyrone shook his head. “You think it’s like a KICK ME sign?”

Isaia was closest to the tree, and went to go inspect it. As he reached out tentatively to touch it, the glow returned, then died out. A second later, it lit up again, followed quickly by a tree at a relative 3 o’clock position, farther down.

“Oh, you gotta be kiddin me,” Tyrone said. “It wants us to play Magical Simon?”

“Think so,” Isaia said. “Go get the other one, I dunno if we wanna see what happens if we don’t play.”

Muttering a curse, Tyrone went to the second tree while Isaia touched the first tree again. Tyrone touched the second... and a third sequence lit up. “You watchin this, Zeklyn?” he asked. “My memory’s good... but it ain’t like yours.”

[j-has-a-nephilim-problem]

Ciphers and Secrets (closed RP with pattern-assassination)

[pattern-assassination]

Zeklyn nodded and watched Tyrone’s demonstration. They’d do a simple systematic search in a grid pattern, looking for anything out of the ordinary under the leaf litter, “We’re probably looking for something the ring would fit into, so we could be a while.” 

He looked over at the other end of the clearing, “Maybe I should start from the other side.” At the very least it would keep him and Tyrone from tripping over each other. It would also let them cover more ground faster, since it was probably a rather small thing they were looking for.

As he crossed the clearing to go find a spot to start looking the sound of the ground changed as he stepped on one spot. A hollow metallic sound, muffled by the leaves and dirt. Zeklyn paused and lightly tapped his foot on the ground again, the same hollow sound, “I’m sorry that I can’t try your method, Tyrone, but I may have found something already.” He stooped down to start moving the leaves away from the area.

[we-are-theorder]

Tyrone looked up curiously as Zeklyn paused. He cocked his head, frowning slightly. “Dang, already? You hear something?” Isaia looked over from where he was examining the trees and taking pictures with his phone, documenting any irregularity.

Tyrone went over to where the drow was clearing leaf litter, stooping down to help. Isaia left what he was doing to come document this instead.

The dead leaves formed a thick layer, and beneath it was a layer of damp, decaying organic matter - dirt in the making, basically. They came across the bare skeleton of some tiny creature, a shrew or something. This place hadn’t been disturbed for a long, long time.

And then they reached something that definitely wasn’t dirt. It was metal, galvanized steel by the look of it. 

“God damn, Zeklyn,” Tyrone laughed. “You’re on listening duty from now on.” He pulled his pack out from under his rain poncho, rummaging in it until he found a small folding camp shovel, using it to clear more dirt.

It didn’t take long to clear a circle about a meter or so in diameter - after that point, the steel gave way to concrete. “Jeezus, this looks like somebody’s bunker. Maybe it’s an old fallout shelter?” Tyrone laughed. He took a stiff brush out of his pack, used it to clear dirt from an irregular indentation in the center of the metal plate. Closer inspection showed it was surrounded by a circle of etched runes.

“That looks like our lock,” Isaia remarked.

“Yeah, but it also looks like magic might be involved,” Tyrone added. “What if it zaps the first poor fool who just tries and stick the ring in there?”

[j-has-a-nephilim-problem]

Ciphers and Secrets (closed RP with pattern-assassination)

[pattern-assassination]

“I’ve been told that The Underdark is like a worse version of Australia.” Zeklyn smirked, “Australia doesn’t have oozes waiting for you to trip into them, so they can dissolve you alive, or living stalactites waiting for you to pass under them so they can eat you, though.” He could go on, but that was probably more than enough for an example, “I’ll listen out for squirrels for you, if you like, though.”

Zeklyn noticed that while Isaia was mostly quiet along the way, Tyrone seemed to rather there not be any dead air at all. This was fine by the drow, he didn’t mind listening to someone else talk, if they wanted to. He’d answer the odd question when it was directed at him, or point out a passing squirrel, like he said he would. It was a nice walk in any case.

“I don’t usually have trouble with getting lost.” He said after a little thought, on Tyrone’s last question, “I’ve spent a lot of nights wandering around the city at night, I’ve only gotten lost a couple times, usually inside larger buildings. When everything looks the same.”

[we-are-theorder]

“Remind me to very politely decline if anyone ever invites me to The Underdark,” Tyrone muttered, ducking under a branch. It had gone safely over Zeklyn’s head, but threatened to slap him straight in the face.

“Ain’t nobody gotta listen for squirrels... they’ll start screamin at you for no damn reason at all.” Something rustled overhead, making him glance up - just a bird of some kind, perching in a tree. “Dante said something about an ooze once, though... like it ate his boot? Or tried to. Now he hates Jell-O twice as much.”

Isaia gestured suddenly, cutting off Tyrone’s natter. “This is gotta be it, up ahead.”

A small clearing stood before them, looking perfectly ordinary in every way. A few toadstools raised their distinctive spotted red caps under some of the trees. They were quite common in this area, though... nothing special.

“Looks like we’re the first ones here in a while,” Isaia remarked. The leaf litter was thick and appeared undisturbed. “Dunno what we’re looking for... but we’d better start looking. I’ll check the trees around for any marks.”

Tyrone scuffed a little at the leaf litter, prodding the earth with the toe of his hiking boot. “Alright, Zeklyn and I’ll check the ground for anything suspicious. We’ll go in a grid - I’ll show you how we do it. On-the-job training.” He grinned.