Open Chronicles Disappearances

[Wallace Grimley]

Whoops. Jumped a little too prematurely on the looting bandwagon. It wasn't like, like, ol' Wallace was wrong or nothing though. If everybody was gone and weren't coming back, then all that stuff going to waste would be a real shame. Yeah, real shame. Like that furniture--maybe there was a noble or two or some commoners on the more well-to-do end of things that could make good of a discount dresser or table or chair or what have ya. Ah. Well. Ahem. No lootin' then.

Syvis Valeer. Lady frowned a lot, godsdamn. She could use a discount dresser. Somethin'. Wallace hated to see people down and mopin' around like that.

Except. Wasn't mopin'. Oh shit, she gave him a little bit of the stink eye and asked if he had anything to do with the vacating of the town. Ah hell, and she was a Professor from the College with some pull too? Damn, Wallace was just out here trying to make him and his apprentices some quick coin, not sink his whole ship.

Wallace took his hands off of the lapels of his coat and showed his palms--a minor gesture of innocence. Said, "Hey, hey now, I jusht got here. Mean, you can ashk Clarencish and Ameesh, they jusht got here with me too. I was lookin' fer my buddy Brian, tha'sh what I was doin'. You ever met Brian? You probably met Brian, if'n you ever came 'round here lookin' for some shalmon, 'cause I tell ya, man can fish up shome shalmon alright. Heh heh."

A pause.

"Heh."

The other mage, the young one, came out and informed Syvis of finishing his task. She acknowledged him, told him to fetch another someone named Kara, then turned her attention back to Wallace.

And he said, a little bead of sweat coursing down his brow, "And I was jusht jokin' 'bout that lootin' thing. You know yer ol' buddy Wallish likesh to joke around."

Syvis Adriel Withers Kara Orin

 

[Adriel Withers]

He grinned at the little exchange between the two of them, then nodded calmly towards Syvis' request to find Kara. "I can confirm Professor, our ol' buddy Wallace does like to joke around." Adriel gave a brief wink to Wallace, before hurriedly bounding up the staircase to escape the wrath of Syvis.

He glanced around at the various rooms on the landing. He wasn't entirely sure which one Kara was in, so he began to quickly poke his head around the various door-frames until he spotted the fellow student sat at a desk reading a book.

"The Commander-in-Chief has ordered us back downstairs to see what you've found." He spoke playfully. Loudly enough his voice would carry easily across the room, but not so much that Professor Syvis might catch wind of her new nickname.

"Anything interesting in that 'Private Journal - Keep Out' book?" He said with another grin.

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara continued to read the journal until Adriel arrived. She still sat in the mayor's chair. She looked up from the pages once Adriel spoke.

"Right," Kara replied as she closed the journal.

The student began to go over the words she just read in her head.

"Found nothing I'm sure is helpful," Kara told Adriel as she got up.

Then, Kara would follow Adriel to their illustrious Commander-in-Chief. She would take the journal with her.

Once she caught sight of Wallace, Kara would state blankly at the absolute unit. Wallace's brand was on-point though. Regardless, she could assume who this jolly fat bastard was after a few moments.

As for whether or not Wallace had a clue of who Kara was, that would depend on how wide his business network was in Elbion. If he ever dealt with the Cairou River Trading Company, then he might have seen Kara before.

 

[Syvis]

Syvis slowly narrowed her eyes at the merchant.

She didn't like random people intruding on her investigations, especially when this investigations were taking up time from her own research. She didn't want to be here, but she was sure as shit not going to let some idiot interfere.

"What do you know about this town?" Syvis continued to question the Merchant, clearly intending on wringing every little bit of information from him that she could.

When Kara and Adriel showed back up she glanced at them for a second, pulling out a leather bound journal from her satchel. She flipped through a few of the pages and then presented the book to the both of them.

"This needs to be set out." It was a rune, much larger than the one Kara had Drawn. "As well as whatever objects we've found inside the circle."

She motioned for them to take the journal before returning her attention to Wallace.

 

[Wallace Grimley]

Ah shit, he done said somethin' stupid, didn't he. Either that or Syvis's brow just weighed down her eyes. Well wasn't like she went on accusing him of disappearing the town. Wallace had a couple magic tricks up his sleeve, but damn, that sure ain't one of 'em. At least that other mage had his back--Wallace joked around all the time. All the time.

More so secure in the thought that some unseen contingent of Elbion guard wasn't going to pop out of nowhere and arrest him, Wallace laid his hands back onto the lapels of his coat. Said, "You know, 'bout as much as I know about any other town, Shyvish. Come around on occashion to meet my buddy Brian and buy up shome shalmon, maybe a few other thingsh. Shpoke with Mayor Richardsh once or twice--not a whole lot, you shee."

The spark of an idea lit up behind Wallace's eyes.

"Well hey, you tryna do some magic shtuff here to figure thish whole thing out, how 'bout thish," Wallace said, opening up one side of his coat to reveal a good portion of his assorted wares hooked to his tunic and inside pouches and pockets lining the interior of his coat. "You need shome reagentsh or shomething, maybe yer ol' buddy Wallish has it. For a modest pricesh, heh heh. Cut ya a good deal shince we good friendsh and all."

It was then that Wallace, glancing over at the other two mages who'd come from the Mayor's front door, squinted a little. Looked more directly at Kara. His chipped tooth on display again when he grinned.

"Hey, hol' on a minute, ain't I sheen you around the Port District? Back in Elbion? That where I know you from?"

Syvis Kara Orin Adriel Withers

 

[Adriel Withers]

Adriel nudged Kara with the crook of his elbow and muttered briefly under his breath. "Got yourself a fan, ain't you popular." He grinned to himself, walking casually down the stairs towards Professor Syvis.

He nodded, taking the illustration of the rune and running back to the room he had cleared out. As he placed the corners of the enlarged rune perfectly across the empty room Adriel was struck with an idea.

Without a care in the world, the young mage bounded out into the lobby and cleared the steps two at a time, before catapulting himself into the interior of the mayor's office.

He returned moments later, clutching a plant pot and accompanying plant in his hands, before leaping down the stairs at twice the speed he had come up them.

Returning the rune, he placed the plant into the middle of the character and begun to assess Professor Syvis' handiwork.

Perhaps... A small alteration wouldn't hurt.

He grinned to himself, producing a small pen-knife and quill. With precision, he slit the tips of his index finger and began to incorporate a secondary rune into Syvis' own larger one.

With any luck, the amendment should animate the plant for a few moments - letting them question it. Or so he hoped.

 

[Kara Orin]

As Adriel viciously invaded Kara's personal bubble with his elbow, Kara took a single step back.

Looking to Wallace, Kara replied with, "Probably, if you've done some business with the C.R.T.C."

With a gesture to herself, she added, "I'm Kara. I'm assuming you're Wallace Grimley? Nice to meet you."

Again, Wallace had a recognizable brand among the Elbion merchants.

Kara did not get a chance to see much of Syvis's rune before Adriel took it and dashed into the foyer.

"Excuse me," Kara said as she followed Adriel.

When she entered the foyer, Adriel already had some of the rune completed. With Syivis's journal still in his hand, Kara could not offer much help.

When Adriel left for the mayor's office, Kara took the time to examine Adriel's handiwork. She also attempted to decipher the purpose of the rune.

Then when Adriel returned to place a potted plant in the rune, Kara raised an eyebrow. The second rose up once the fellow student drew blood.

"Is that part of Syvis's design?" Kara asked.

"And I'd be careful about letting her see how you're drawing that," she added.

It was difficult sometimes to make a distinction between blood magic and "enhanced" normal magic. Since she joined the college a couple years ago, Kara only witnessed a professor draw a rune with blood once. And in that case, it was a healing rune that required the patient's blood.

 

[Syvis]

Syvis narrowed her eyes. "No I do not think that will be necessary."

The professor most clearly did not trust the merchant, even with Kara's apparent trade dealings with himm there was something strangely...off about the man, though she did not exactly know what.

Eventually her more trusting nature got the better of her, and she decided to cease her interrogation of the man. Instinct was all well and good, but it would not do to berate and accuse someone without any actual evidence on her hands. Best not to have the reputation as an Inquisitor.

"You may come along." She told the Merchant. "But do not touch anything."

Syvis turned around and headed for the Foyer, stepping into place to spy that a potted plant had been placed into the middle of her ritual. A frown touched her lips. "Why is there a plant here?"

Her tone was so deadpan it almost sounded like a joke.

 

[Wallace Grimley]

Hey, now how about that. Got some name recognition all the way out here in quiet little Fallinol. Sure it was someone from Elbion, so it kind of didn't count, but didn't it though. Didn't it though. Word of mouth, ya see. Wallace was a hard enough man to miss and he took pride in the fact that he could be picked out of a crowd real easy like (made smuggling a little more difficult, but there were ways). And this was good, yeah, real good. Maybe have some word of mouth spread the Empire way. Always plenty of coin to be made in upstart areas, heh heh. And if'n there wasn't room on the Merchant Council of Elbion, then ya never know, might find a way into something prestigious in God-King Gerra's Empire.

But those were tomorrow plans--harvest plans, ya might say. Today was about, well, today plans--sowing, ya see.

"Tha'sh righ'. Wallish Grimley. Ain't talked much, but good to shee ya around. You ever need shomethin', ol' Wallish'll cut ya good deal on it, you know I will."

She excused herself along with the mage-man. And Syvis, well godsdamn Syvis, with the stink eye again, what the hell did Wallace do this time? Ain't interested in nothin' he was sellin', fair enough; and made sense, suppose it'd be awful dumb of them to come all the way out here and not be prepared. Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it, as the adage went. And if Wallace hadn't made a good sum off of that philosophy, then he didn't even know what.

Wallace held up his hands again and shook his head and said, "Besht I don't be comin' in then, if'n it'sh that shenshitive. I'll jusht shtay out here fer now."

Yeah, sure, he wanted to see to it that his buddy Brian was okay, and to that end he didn't want to mess anything up. They were mages from the College, they had their tricks and their things, they could get it all done. Might as well stay outside and wait for them to do whatever it was they were gonna do. Couldn't really help any damn way.

Wallace strolled back to the street in front of the estate and rejoined Clarence and Ameece by the cart. Said to them, "Them College magesh are gonna try'n figure out what the hell happened here."

And that was...mildly encouraging to the two young apprentices.

Syvis Kara Orin Adriel Withers

 

[Adriel Withers]

Adriel had just finished placing the potted plant carefully over his newly-drafted rune. He'd animated plants before, heck he'd tried his hand at animating most things. The trouble was, doing it excessively drained his magic extensively. Thankfully, his solution was a simple rider-rune added to siphon a fraction of the flow from the greater character and bring to life the plant for a few moments.

He grinned, admiring his handiwork, while he listened to Kara speaking in the background. "Well she doesn't know... exactly, but she never told us not to amend the rune." He turned, grinning to Kara cheekily. His expression fell as Syvis stepped in - seemingly annoyed and flustered about her encounter with the merchant.

"This plant is a prized possession of the Mayor's, he's been pruning, trimming, watering and generally caring for it daily. Until the disappearance that is." He smiled pleasantly towards the professor. Obviously he had decided to omit the fact it was sitting on an animation rune. It was for the greater good, anyway, he decided. Some professors did not enjoy his area of study and research, sometimes it was better to keep his teachers in the dark - particularly when he was unsure where they stood.

"So uh... Should we begin?" He turned, glancing towards Kara and then to Syvis.

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara blankly gestured for Adriel to do the deed.

"It's your work," Kara commented.

She had been slowly shuffling closer to the exit of the foyer since Syvis entered.

 

[Syvis]

She perked an eyebrow, glancing at the two students for a brief moment before letting out a sigh and squatting down in front of the rune.
The drawing that she had given the two students had not been entirely complete. The Rune was a giant one, and complex, but it required a more intricate 'key' rune to actually activate. This was something of her own design.

She'd been proud of it when she'd discovered the possibility. With three quick swipes of her ink, and then an added line that seemed to complete the whole thing Syvis activated the Rune. "Step Back."

Syvis told the two students as an eruption of light burst from the ground.

Her rune exploded into a colorful blast of lights figured. Dozens of people began to appear, walking, wandering. An after-image of the people of this place, a show of just what had actually happened. The Mayor appeared within the hall, three men wearing black masks leading him away.

 

[Adriel Withers]

Adriel held his breath as he watched Syvis inspect the rune - unaware of his meddling in the structure. He almost grinned as the eruption of light happened. While he hadn't feared his work would fail, he had been concerned he was a bit rash and perhaps his efforts would overload the magic.

Thankfully, none of that happened and as the group were focused on the projection Adriel slowly slid around the duo. He moved carefully towards the now twitching plant that lay set back from the rest of the display.

One of the drawbacks with animation - and one that people often forgot - was that you brought an object to life as it is. Some mages had funny ideas about eyes appearing, appendages forming or mouths enabling speech. It simply wasn't true.

He pressed his hand against the living plant, reaching deep within its conscience and begun to decipher snippets and snatches of reality that had been ingrained in the organism. It had grown fond of its carer and the mage could sense genuine concern for his safety.

He breathed. Opening himself up to the natural flows around the plant at the time of the disappearance. It was like going back in time, in a fashion. He could sense the magical flows that bounced harmlessly through the leaves.

It was a strange sensation. Reading the flows of magic and trying to determine what or how they were made and directed. It was intoxicating, he found the magic enticing and before he knew it the young mage stood up and made a start for the door.

His teeth came down hard on his tongue. Blood dribbled from his mouth, his hand glowed white and he severed the link between him and the plant - rendering it intimate yet again.

"They have a relic... Or something... It's addictive, intoxicating, the magic becomes a drug." He looked deathly pale, despite his brief exposure he could feel a sense of withdrawal creeping over him. Adriel shuddered, trying his best not to vomit.

 

[Wallace Grimley]

Clarence looked to him. Said, "So what do we do in the meantime?"

Wallace chuckled. "Nothin'. Not a damn thing we can do."

Ameece, less of a nervous wreck now that everyone that they had met so far was ostensibly friendly, said, "Don't you know some magic of your own, Mr. Grimley?"

"I know how ta shummon a rock man to beat shomeone's assh, but that ain't goan help nobody out with nothin' right now. And come on, 'Meesh, you already know what it is: you can jusht call me Wallish."

"S-Sorry, Mr. Wallace. Wallace."

"It'sh a'right."

A flash of light came from the Mayor's Estate then, as if there was a strike of lightning or two inside the confines of the manor. All three of them turned to look at the brief lights. The mule wasn't very bothered; just shook its head and kept lazily swatting at its flank with its tail.

"Shee?" Wallace said. "They doin' shomethin'. You know. Mage thingsh. Couldn't begin to tell ya what, though. All that wishy-washy shoft magic shtuff didn't make no shensh to me. Man, if it ain't shomethin' like 'do your mumbo-jumbo and use thish reagent thing and BAM you got a Rumbler to fight for ya,' then I didn't follow."

"Well, I hope it works," Clarence said. "Whatever they're doing. It's...how does a whole town disappear like this? That's..."

"...scary," Ameece whimpered.

Wallace clapped a hand on Clarence's shoulder and said, "How 'bout thish. If that thing they doin' don't work, then we ship 'em off to one of those dishcount Allirian mage academiesh, ha ha haaa haaaaaaa! Tha'sh a real knee-shlapper!"

Syvis Adriel Withers Kara Orin

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara, unmoving, watched apparitions of people appear. She saw the men with masks taking Mayor Richards away. The black masks themselves could not be an identifier for the abductors unless its design was distinct enough.

Pointing at the vision of Mayor Richards, Kara declared, “That’s the mayor.”

Looking around for other people appearing in the apparition, Kara caught a glimpse of Adriel’s twitching plant. She remained far away from all of that.

While the apparitions remained, Kara moved her gaze on to take in as much information as she could – seeing if any faces beyond the mayor’s were familiar and what they were doing.

 

[Syvis]

Syvis turned her head. "Did you?"

The question died on her tongue as she watched one of the apparitions with a mask stop in the center of the room. He moved for a second, ushering the other three away before he pulled something out of his robes and began to fiddle with it.

The other two Masked men and the Mayor headed out of the apparition, disappearing into the nothingness as they stepped out of the Estate.

It was the remaining masked man that Syvis focused on though. He fiddled with something in his hand, pushing his mask half up his face as he brought whatever it was up to his face and then suddenly threw it down. The object rolled, falling beneath one of the floorboards.

Syvis frowned as the rune burnt out and then suddenly Adriel seemed like he was about to vomit on the floor. "Oh dear."

She stepped over to him, patting him on the back.

"Kara, check under that board." Her eyes fell onto the young mage ill mage. "This is why we don't change spells, dear."

Syvis' voice was stern, but she didn't seem too angry.

 

[Kara Orin]

“Yes,” Kara replied after Syvis told her to check under the floor.

As Syvis began her lecture to Adriel, Kara walked over to the floorboard that the unknown object rolled down. She placed a hand on her sword’s hilt and waved the other one over the floor. With a snip a small rune formed and activated. The floorboard snapped in half.

Kneeling down, Kara then grabbed one of the broken halves of the floorboard. College Mages may have the reputation of being pencil armed bookworms, yet Kara proved this was not always the case by violently yanking part of the broken board out. She lived on a farm for the majority of her eighteen years since birth. Having to help the family as soon as she could resulted in a hardy body for a girl.

In addition, other have noticed that Kara regularly exercises even since her family moved to the city and became Elbion citizens.

Kara tossed the broken wooden plank aside. She gave a slight hiss as she looked at a splinter embedded in her hand. Fortunately, she had enough length in her nails to pull the splinter out in a few moments.

Looking into the dark hole, Kara spotted a glint of light. She reached into the floor and pulled out an empty glass vial.

After standing up, Kara silently took the time to examine the glass vial – to see if it was just a blank, generic bottle or if it had any markings on it.

Then, Kara brought the vial to her nose and took a sniff. She was no alchemist or drug lord. She would be limited to recognizing any fragrances that a normal College student and citizen of Elbion would experience.

Once finished with that, Kara turned to Syvis and presented the vial to her.

“I found this,” Kara told her.

 

[Adriel Withers]

He breathed deeply, feeling a flow of life channel back into him as he severed his connection with the animated plant. Adriel nodded mutely towards Syvas as she spoke, the colour and vitality quickly returning to the young mage as he shook off the sensations he had felt.

After a few moments, his smile returned and the young mage felt as if nothing had happened. He glanced around, watching Kara find the potion under the floorboards as Syvis instructed.

He glanced at the figures innocently, remaining silent. There was very little for him to add further to this discussion, he was intrigued to see what the professor would make of Kara's discovery.

 

[Wallace Grimley]

"What are we going to do if they..." Clarence had a hard time finishing the question, but he powered through it, "...can't help?"

"Like, there ain't no gettin' Brian back kind of 'can't help?'" said Wallace.

"Yeah."

"Well then we loot the placesh."

Clarence looked as though he'd been socked in the gut, and Ameece went pale--paler, somehow it was possible--with anxiety.

But Wallace just laughed and waved it off, saying, "Aw, come on, you already know how it is. I make jokesh all the time. Tha'sh righ'."

Alright, so he said that particular "joke" twice now, but opportunity was a fickle son of a bitch. If everybody in Fallinol was gone--as in, gone gone--then what the hell was gonna happen with all of this perfectly good stuff? Wallace was still on that point. Yeah, he wanted to see his ol' buddy Brian come back from whatever nasty business caused all this, but he was thinking about both the good ending to this and the bad ending. And the bad ending didn't need to be so bad for everybody. Kara would understand.

But not that mage Syvis. She wasn't so keen on all the goods in town being, uh, "requisitioned" (that sounded better than looting) but that was okay. She didn't need to see none of it. Besides, not like Wallace could get all of it anyway with one lousy cart and mule; he'd need to hire a hell of a team back in Elbion.

Well, this thing was going to go one of two ways: Either them College mages were gonna figure all this out, or Wallace was gonna need to get some plans in the works to salvage all these goods before some damn scavengers or raiders came along.

Syvis Adriel Withers Kara Orin

 

[Syvis]

Kara would smell the sickly sweet scent of half a dozen different ingredient, though one was only metallic in nature.

Syvis patted Adriel on the back for a moment, ensuring that he wasn't about to fall down on the ground before she gently turned about and walked over to the other student. Taking the vial a frown touched her lips, and she quickly repeated the same process as Kara.

"Honey Powder, Dragon salts, Vex Spore..." Syvis began to list off some ingredients, her lips suddenly tightening as she reached one she clearly did not like.

Fingers tightened.

"Where is that Merchant?" She ground her teeth. "Kara, your locating Rune."

Syvis offered the vial. "Use it on this."

"Adriel come with me, we need to have a conversation about ingredients with our merchant friend." If what Adriel said was true, then Syvis was beginning to understand what was happening here.

 

[Kara Orin]

After Syvis took the vial, Kara looked over to Adriel. As Syvis verbally listed the ingredients she recognized, Kara examined her pale peer.

Then when Syvis called out to Kara once more, she snapped her head toward the professor. She took the vial back.

“… yes,” she replied to Syvis.

Kara moved to an undisturbed portion of the foyer. As before in the mayor’s office, Kara touched the hilt of her sword and waved a hand over the floor. With a crack, the same rune that she used in the mayor’s office appeared. She then placed the vial horizontally on the rune and activated it.

As Adriel and Syvis would go off to find the merchant once more, Kara watched the vial spin for a bit until it spontaneously locked into place. Just to double check it, Kara used a finger to spin the vial. Once she moved her finger back, the open end of the vial snapped back toward the same direction as before.

And with that, Kara would go to find Syvis and Adriel to tell them, “I have a bearing.”

 

[Adriel Withers]

"If you're looking for ingredients, I'm not sure Wallace will be much help - Unless you need a lot of salmon." He grinned at the prospect of the fish. While he was certain it had been fresh when he last saw it, he wasn't certain how long the product would last - perhaps in exchange, Adriel considered, he might use his magic to freshen it up a bit. It wouldn't be hard, pausing the natural rotting process. He shrugged.

He neglected to mention the fact that he could grow any plant-based ingredients they may need. While it was certainly possible, he knew it would deplete a lot of his stores if he had to grow anything exotic and, therefore, unsustainable in this climate.

Adriel walked calmly with Syvis, feeling significantly better about the whole ordeal. In the distance, he could see Wallace talking to his apprentices and called out towards the man.

"Wallace my friend! Professor Syvis here wants to talk to you about ingredients!" He grinned, waving madly as he called to the merchant.

 

[Wallace Grimley]

Wallace turned about once he heard his name being called by the manor's front door. What's this, now? It was the mage-man and, oh, how 'bout that. Syvis done came around on those reagents, heh heh. That's how it went sometimes, you could only be so prepared. And that's where a buddy like Wallace came in.

He told Clarence and Ameece to wait a minute by the cart--which, naturally, they had no trouble doing.

Wallace grabbed hold of the lapels on his coat and came strutting down the path toward the manor. Damn if it didn't bring a grin to his face every time he just stumbled into a demand market rather than a supply market. Almost too easy to make some good coin in such a market, and hell if Wallace was complaining about that. Had enough thin days and weeks to relish whenever a sale just fell right into his lap like this.

He stopped before the pair of the mage-man and Syvis. Said, "Well now lemme tell ya how much yer in luck there, Shyvish. I been around the Elbion oncesh or twicesh enough to know shome of them more popular reagentsh and ingredientsh and what have ya. Good chance I got what it is you lookin' for on me right now. Guessh I besht hope sho too, or elshe my buddy Brian might be left in a bad way."

Syvis Adriel Withers Kara Orin

 

[Syvis]

"Wurmroot." Syvis said the word so quickly that it was clear she didn't particularly care about anything else.

Most of the ingredients that she used in her magic came directly from Elbion College. It was very likely that they procured some of their things through Wallace, but right now that would hardly matter in the least. Her focus was on the people in this town.

"Have you sold a large quantity to anyone as of late?" She asked. "Or someone you might know."

She knew that Merchants sometimes spied on one another in order to gauge what to sell and where. Wurmroot had been in that vial, she was sure of it.

The ingredient was incredible rare and valuable. One could only gather it from the Ixchel Wilds, and even there it could only be found in the darkest depths on trees that faced South.

When Kara stepped outside Syvis half turned. "Excellent. Which way?"

The professor asked as she waited for Wallace to answer.

 

[Kara Orin]

Kara pointed the vial in her hand toward the direction that it pointed to. She picked up the vial just before she left the mayor's house.

"That way," Kara replied.

The girl added nothing else to the conversation about potion ingredients, for now.