MISSION: A WASTE TO LIVE

[ximilian]

● ● ● M I S S I O N   1 8 . 1

INTRO • ruin upon ruins • bottomless infinity • FYI

// INTRO. double the trouble  

It is the twilight hours, the time of day when evening blends into night, that the ping of a new mission file finally comes — some of you may have waited for it impatiently, while others have dreaded the now-familiar sound.

// VIVECA

“This is it — we’ve located where the two last orbs are. They’re in a world called Go’ama. The readings picked out both of them, one in the city, one on the plains. So we’ll split you into two groups, one headed for each orb. But… take care. It was very easy to find both of them — too easy. I fear they may be prepared for you.”

With that unsettling piece of news, she falls silent, leaving everyone to read over the file and make their final preparations, whether it is gathering your things, or making sure to spend the night with someone dear to you, before you are separated for the mission.

The next morning, after breakfast, the hum of the teleportation platform starts to grow, signaling that it is time to leave — for the last time. You may feel nostalgic, seeing all the faces around the platform, and take a moment to commit all of them to memory… or maybe you’re just eager to get it all over and done with. Whatever the case, Viveca and Degar will not send you off until everyone has arrived; instead, they stand and wait, pausing to look at everyone in turn, as if they, too, are committing to memory the faces of their teammates.

Finally, when all are present, Viveca nods.

// VIVECA

“Right. Are you ready? Remember, be careful. Expect anything. The orbs — at least one of them — know you’re coming. Don’t let them outwit you.”

// DEGAR

“We believe in you guys. And we’ll be here waiting for you. So… break a leg!”

Viveca smiles, almost despite herself, despite the visible anxiety on her face — but Degar is right. They do believe in this team.

A flash of white, and the platform fades — all there is, is a voice, a multitude of voices, telling you your very last task to do… until something seems to tilt, as if you’re pulled just a little bit to the side, losing your balance, an impossibility in this white nothingness —

And then there’s sand beneath your feet, and a scorching sun above you.

Welcome to Go’ama.

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// PART I.ruin upon ruins  

The air is dry as you breathe it in, the stones of the city streets burning your feet — but wait, stones? Streets? You were supposed to be in the Plains. Not so, it seems, for the Roof bustles around you, people with their head and half their face covered with scarves glancing at you before they move on, ducking into some of the stone buildings, carved into and around the large, half-decayed ruins of what must once have been a great city.

It seems if you were packed and prepared for the wasteland of the Plains, whatever you have will not help you — instead, what you must dive into is the clan politics and the fragile peace between the three clans for the duration of the winter.

1.0   The Roof, it turns out, is a city built on top of a city, one that now lies in ruins — it climbs towards the sky with several levels, stone paths leading up and up and up, houses carved into rock and out of rock lining the streets. The houses have no windows, and the doors are each made out of a strange steel-like material that keeps out excess heat, yet keeps the house itself warm.

Despite what the planet has suffered from everything that happened nearly two hundred years ago, it still has some of its original technology that helps the clans to survive in the harsh climate. Some of it is on clear display in the houses: crystals that trap in heat are kept outside the houses during the day, then moved inside at night to provide warmth, and a round disc in the shower collects moisture from the air during the day, to replenish its supply for when it is time to have a (very, very short) moment to wash.

The first thing you must do, after finding somewhere to stay (an easy feat, as many houses lie abandoned, their once-owners now either prowling the Plains, or littering its surface with their bones), is find a change of clothes — the locals all wear some type of ha’fa, an outfit consisting of a long-sleeved upper part and either pants or a long skirt, made out of a special material that adapts to the temperatures and conserves water by minimising the water loss of the person wearing it. All in the Roof wear the insignia of one of the three clans, too, so you must make your choice of which clan to claim to belong to.

Should you choose Vo’a Mahdin (and yes, you can be a Daughter of Twilight despite being a man — gender doesn’t seem to be a factor for much of anything in Go’ama), you gain easy access to weaponry and can be sent out of the city to hunt or to patrol the streets and catch errant spark-users. If you choose Sen Reuma, you will find it easier to gain political influence in the city, as well as access to all the higher administrative buildings — including watching the prisoners. But if you go for Gal Masen Dai, you have access to all their produce brought to the city — not simply the limestone that inhibits the use of powers, but also everything that is used to make the local weapons, clothes, and a varied selection of food that is otherwise not traded openly.

2.0   When you are sure that you will blend in at least decently, you can take to the streets of the Roof and explore what there is to see. It seems that while the two lowest levels are full of houses meant for living, the buildings on the third level are made for the purposes of meeting and trading.

An immediate thing to catch your notice is the fact there doesn’t seem to be any particular currency — instead, things change hands through trades, and nothing is more valuable than water. In its absence, though, you may try and see if you have anything technological to part with, as that is what the locals keep in next highest regard. But whatever it is you want, be it food (mostly some easily grown root vegetables, a few different berries that still grow in the desert, and dried meat, out of rodents, insects and the monsters outside the city limits), new clothes, or some of the local weaponry — spears and swords made of a blue-tinted metal that are activated by heat from the one holding them, turning into a plasma-like substance that cuts through anything and everything — you will not get anything for free… and whatever coins you might have in your pocket have little value here.

If you have nothing to give, you may bargain with favours: cleaning, metalwork, maybe offering to join those digging for groundwater — or maybe you’re confident in your hunting skills, and wager that you’ll be able to brave the edges of the Plains to bring back one of the monstrous creatures that inhabit it.

3.0   On the fourth level, a large, dome-like structure houses not only the relics from times long past, prior to what is known to those living today as the Choice, but also the clan chiefs and their advisors, dealing with everyday troubles under the Roof — and of those, there are many, with clans whose members have many feuds with one another, where the clan’s leadership is only as secure as the strength of the one holding the position… as anyone, anytime, can challenge the clan chief to a fight for the title.

For that, in the middle of the dome, there is a large circle within which duels can be fought — both those that are held in practice, and those that are fought to the death. On the nights when there is no true duel fought, the space is open for anyone wanting to test their mettle; though sometimes, the battle is not fought with weapons but with words, contests of poems crafted to insult, or arguments of logic carefully shredding the opponent’s reasoning. Under the Roof, you can fight not just with spears or swords but with your tongue — and those who succeed in either often gain regard for their clan and themselves.

4.0   Everywhere in the city, members of Vo’a Mahdin patrol the streets, their spears high and faces masked, only their eyes showing as they watch for signs of anyone using the spark, for the telltale glow around the person — but even if it’s not there, anything suspicious, anything unexplained, and you might have an unpleasant encounter with their plasma spears… and, if you’re not lucky enough to be able to outrun them or maybe portal yourself to another part of the city, be sent to the prisons to wait for the next time a batch of prisoners is sent to the plains — in one month’s time.

But the Daughters of Twilight are not the only thing to note when walking the streets of the Roof: it seems that clan members regard those of other clans with suspicion, and sometimes even members of their own clan, hurrying along when they don’t recognise the person looking at them. If you listen carefully, you may hear whispers of outsiders — they’re among us, someone says in hushed breaths, Hahn’s legacy come to destroy us all! We must find them, and kill them, before they kill us.

It couldn’t be that these outsiders mean… you?

And something else seems to be happening, too, that you might find strange: one day, you see a rat-like creature scuttle across the floor of your house, when it suddenly falls over, dead, on the spot. The next day, the heating crystal cracks in half when simply standing still… and wasn’t that thornbush across the street alive that very morning, when come evening it’s withered and dead, as if all life has been drawn from it?

It seems that whatever is happening under the Roof, not all is as it should be — and you, all of you, may be in danger. The only way through is to find the orb that is hiding somewhere in the city.

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// PART II.bottomless infinity  

You open your eyes, and all you see is sand. That can’t be right. Weren’t you supposed to arrive in a city? A city on a desert planet, sure, but a city nonetheless. But rather than civilization, what you see before you are miles and miles of barren wasteland, occasionally broken up by sparse smatterings of flora that look about as tough as the harsh sun bearing down on you overhead.

You check the network and find everything in working order. It seems the groups were sent to the wrong places during teleportation. An awfully inconvenient glitch, but it could be worse. At least everything you’d packed to take with you into the city is still on your person, even if, perhaps, most of those items won’t be of any use to you now. In the Plains, the only politics you’ll have to deal with is the law of the jungle, and diplomacy is left for forging alliances with the strong and the trustworthy.

5.0   After gathering your bearings, there’s nothing left to do but adjust and adapt. Trying to return to the Roof is not possible — the outside of the city is paved with the limestone that restricts the use of magic, and members of Vo’a Mahdin patrol the outsides, so trying to go back is a guaranteed death sentence — which the Plains, though tough, is not. You quickly find that the weather in the Plains is straightforward: long days of clear skies and sweltering heat, and even longer nights with brisk winds and temperatures dropping as low as 0°C.

No matter which extreme, the harsh temperatures can sometimes have an effect on the mind. Mirages or hallucinations can suddenly spring up without warning, making a person believe they are in their most treasured or safe space. It will take more than just a splash of water or aggressive shaking to snap a person out of their delusion; intense feelings of ecstasy or pain are the only known successful solutions.

NOTE: There are potential themes of noncon/dubcon associated with this prompt. The severity of a character's lack of agency during these hallucinations is entirely up to player discretion. All threads with content warnings should be marked as such.

6.0   While most days can be uneventful, every now and then a sudden sandstorm rips through the area, kicking up sand and detritus and anything else light enough that hasn’t already been weighed down. The sandstorms are brief but powerful, utterly rearranging the landscape of whatever area they formed in. Here’s hoping you had other ways of mapping out your journey!

7.0   Speaking of journeying, you’ll definitely want to watch your step. Quicksand is an ever-present and almost undetectable threat, and some of the local flora prey specifically on travelers who aren’t paying attention. Maw traps (CW: mouth and teeth imagery) like to hide within the cracks of red rocks and sediment, snapping open to feast on any poor creature that happens to skitter past. Though they may only be about a foot wide, their grip is vice-like and more than capable of damaging flesh and tendon.

It is strange, though. No matter what direction you walk, you’ll always be able to see it: a lone, tall tower, nothing more than a smear of black against the horizon. Looking at the tower for too long will start to feel wrong, and before you realize it you’ve already looked away.

8.0   You have other things to worry about. The wildlife, though limited, can be a danger all on their own. Fruit flings are small but make up for that by being incredibly annoying. They travel by the dozens, swarming anything even remotely resembling a food source. Bioluminescent sand salamanders like to swallow up heat sources and burrow into bags or pockets. Bonekits are ruthless and solitary scavengers, known to sometimes follow stronger predators to then lay waste to whatever prey they may have fallen. Chameledons are massive herbivores who use their individually rotatings eyes to seek out vegetation and snatch them up with their whip-like tongues. While the desert devils only feast on the bleeding, able to sniff out a single drop of blood from over thirty miles away. At least they’re all, in their own way, edible.

9.0   Don’t worry, not everything about the Plains is unforgiving. Discover a cave in one of giant rock formations scattered throughout the Plains and you’ll find the refuge you’ve been looking for. These caves seem to hold all the humidity that’s absent in this desert planet, lit entirely naturally by bioluminescent fungi along the floor and ceiling. In here, it is easy to take a break from the harsh realities of the Plains, and even enjoy a nice soak in the crystal clear waters of a cave pool.

10.0   But don’t forget: you and your crew aren’t the only ones out here. On top of the beasts and the plantlife, you will also have to share the Plains’ finite resources with the others who have been banished there. Many have formed groups out of pure necessity, making it easier to ambush lone wanderers or smaller groups for a chance to rob them of their goods. Remember that these people were sent here to their deaths after showing evidence of the spark, and there are no laws here to keep them from using it to their advantage. If these ambushers don’t attack you with homemade weapons, they’ll use their spark to fling you aside, rip your own weapons or goods out of your hands, send shockwaves through the earth that will have you falling flat on your face, or even hit you with an invisible force so hard it steals the breath out of your lungs. The attacks are always quick, messy; the only real warning you get before someone uses their spark is a sudden glow around their person, but by then it could already be too late.

One such group is one you’ve already been briefed about. It would not be very long until a member of the Dai’a Svar hears wind of your arrival. As the most prominent — and thus the most powerful — group formed under the banner of magical liberation, the members are always eager to seek out new followers to help them with their cause. Identifiable by four intersecting lines carved into the apple of their cheek, these devoted followers are happy to answer any of your questions… you need only follow them to speak with their leader, Garam, first.

But don’t let the treacherous Plains distract you from your real goal here: somewhere within this dangerous wasteland is an orb, and the sooner you find it, the sooner you get to go home.

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F Y I

• The events in this log take place during the month of January.

• If you have questions about any of the prompts or the mission in general, please direct them HERE.

• To explore a specific location or speak to any of the NPCs, please submit your search request HERE.

• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪

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Comments

SEARCH REQUESTS.

[ximilian]

Speaking to an NPC? Exploring any of the locations? Poking around for information? Tell us what your character is doing to gather information and we'll let you know what they happen to find out.

To limit the mods' workload, each character has one (1) search request. Please remember that multiple characters can combine their search requests and form a mini-team to be able to search areas or speak to people that one character would not be able to. For those doing a search in a group of 4+ characters: in case that the search will yield no results from the start, you will be given a chance to re-do the search.

Note that not every search request will necessarily yield a point of plot relevance, and some of these search requests will wind up with dead ends. Despite this, the mods take care to try and give everyone something to work with. In the event of a search request yielding no further results, the mods will clearly explain this during the search request exchange.

More info on search requests can be found HERE.

Search requests will remain open till JANUARY 19, 6PM GMT.

[lostdestiny]

Shinn figures that the biggest group in the plains has to know something that will be useful for finding the original orb and the new orb – about Rehil Hahn and the apocalypse that happened two-hundred years ago, why the city people hate magic so much, if anything weird has happened recently, what that tower is. Also the Dai’a Svar sound rad and can probably give the plains crew shelter and supplies that will help them stay alive.

So the second time he makes contact with a Dai’a Svar member, he agrees to follow them and talk to Garam.

[ximilian]

When Shinn is taken to the cave complex that the Dai'a Svar use as their base, he is led through multiple tunnels, each entrance to a new cave watched by at least two people. Finally, when he makes it to Garam, he'll find the man in the largest cavern he's been to, so far, standing in front of a stone table.

"A new recruit?" When the soldier escorting Shinn nods, Garam tugs the cloth that covers the lower half of his face down, revealing a sharp grin.

"Hope you can do something for us, kid. We don't run a charity. To join, you've got to bring something to us - power, skills. And you need to be willing to use your spark if you have one."

[mienai]

STEALTH GIRL, BACK AT IT AGAIN!

Hagakure might as well put her 'spark use' to work, since it's on 24/7! She will be patrolling the streets as an invisible girl, looking especially hard for any spark users who don't realize they have company and that she can see their 'illegal' activities. She will use her ability to also warn them of any patrols that may come up at an inopportune time, to win favor with them!

Basically, looking fo spark users to get a foot in the door, when it comes to information that could relate to the orb. Anywhere that may be of interest? Perhaps someone that seems like they're trying not to be noticed?

[ximilian]

The people of the Roof have learned to be more than discreet when it comes to spark use. Even without the constant presence of the Vo’a Mahdin patrolling the streets, it is not uncommon for a citizen to turn in another, and for people to get brought in for questioning even if there isn't more than mere suspicion to their name. That's why it's only through Hagakure's unique skill that she even stumbles upon them — a small group of spark users ranging from age eight to forty-two. There are eight in total, at least on the evening that Hagakure finds them, gathering together in the backroom of a long-abandoned shop on the Roof's third level. There, she will find the group's main purpose appears to be helping newer spark users control their powers so as to continue to avoid suspicion. Of the group, the older ones appear to be far more cautious, while the younger of the crowd seem eager and curious about their "gifts."

The group hasn't yet noticed her, but doesn't seem to intend to meet for very long. What will Hagakure do?

Vo’a Mahdin Squad

[chilloutdickwad]

Yes, team. Uncle Bob has decided to become a Daughter of Twilight.

Quite effortlessly, too. He wants access to weapons, he is good at patrolling, but more than that, he would like to engage with the people who are in the group and see if there is anyone of interest to speak with. His focus will be on any ongoing conversations, which he hopes to hear even more clearly with his somewhat more advanced cybernetic hearing, or by actually. Like. Making 'friends'. However humans and other sentient life does it.

[ximilian]

He will find that Vo'a Mahdin — a smaller clan almost by half than the other two — is formed of close-knit groups they call "septs". Uncle Bob is assigned to the ninth sept, one that is often sent out to the edge of the plains to hunt. By listening in on conversations, he will overhear:

- Two members of the ninth sept (called Hjia and Javal) discussing the fact that the well on the west side of the city seems to have dried up overnight;
- The clan's second-in-command, Bahare, having a quiet conversation with Kalen, the unofficial leader of the ninth sept, warning them of the fact that there are rumoured to be outsiders in the city and that any strange behaviour should be watched for;
- Griwa, a member of the ninth sept, whispering with Laivi, a member of the seventh sept — their conversation is so quiet that even with Bob's enhanced hearing, he can only catch the words "the limestone", "a way to" and "impatient".

Which one conversation would he like to try and join in on / focus on trying to listen to more carefully?

[legalcy]

When the crew is ambushed at some point, Minimus is going to try to capture one of their assailants, using his heightened durability and strength to subdue them. He'll interrogate them about the local area for practical survival knowledge and request (politely and threateningly) for any recent unusual sightings and local events. According to Minimus, the Plains group are recent exiles from the city and want to know what's out here.

Just as an added note, he's doing all this while wearing a hard-light hologram of Wei Wuxian to fulfill his personal goal of impersonating someone else.

[ximilian]

Minimus manages to apprehend a young man who calls himself Ahkbarl, seemingly caught off-guard by the strength (and weight) of a man who had looked so disarmingly frail in comparison. That soft human flesh definitely hit a lot harder than Ahkbarl anticipated, which explains why he's now at one end of an interrogation, abandoned by his small party of attackers.

"Whaddaya even talkin about?! Are ya sun-fried already?! There ain't no survivin here!"

And yet, as he says this, yellow eyes skitter past Minimus to glance off towards something in the distance... a particular tower, its image wavering under the sun's immense heat.

[drawsblood]

Joric will join the Gal Masen Dai clan and will focus on produce and digging for ground water. At first he won't say much to others he's working alongside and will just listen for rumors but after the strange events start occurring (the dead rats, bushes, broken crystals), he'll start asking his coworkers what he thinks is causing it and (pretending he's been in the city all his life) will say he can't recall if it's happened in the past but then again, he's never been any good at paying attention.

He'll try to lock down if these recent events are restricted to a certain part of the city, certain clan maybe witnessing these things, etc. If it's an orb causing this, he privately wonders what deal was made that would make things worse for these people.

[ximilian]

Joric, finding a trio of other Gal Masen Dai members to quiz about the strange happenings, finds that they don't really have any explanations for them. In fact, all three will state that things like that just happen — sometimes more frequently, sometimes less so. It seems that the events aren't restricted to any particular part of the city, as one member, Gahij, tells him that he's heard of some Vo'a Mahdin members report these happenings on the Plains as well, and they keep happening in the part of the planet where Gal Masen Dai spends the other eight months of the year, too.

[astudyinviolet]

Sherlock, struggling with his personal mission of not meddling in other people's business for one month and worried about what happened on his last mission's investigation, decides to try an "investigation" of his own. Without telling others because that's how a Holmes rolls.

He's going to stare as much as he can at the tower as he attempts to walk towards it, stubbornly fighting against how wrong it feels as much as possible despite how much such a feeling will effect him. As soon as he realizes he's turned away, he makes himself look at it again. He's gathering as much data as he can as they can never fully escape its presence on the plains. If something happens to him, so be it as long as he can pass along any information to others.

[ximilian]

Sherlock will, after several failed attempts and many times finding himself having turned astray from the path leading towards the tower, finally make it closer. It seems that is is possible to approach it — though, of course, a walk there is a trek of several days.

Will he continue on towards the tower? And if yes, will he make any adjustments to how he goes there, with what or with who?

[greenpower]

Ivy isn't supposed to help the local plant life as her personal mission, but she can't ignore it when she notices a bush here and there go from as healthy as any of the scrubby, desert flora to dead in a matter of hours. She notices the plants first, but once she's looking, she notices other creatures apparently sudden deaths.

Maybe she's not in an entirely useless place after all?

She'll try to learn what she can about these strange deaths, investigating the dead plants and animals she might be able to collect. If there are any locals around when she sees the rodent die, she'll ask if that's common—there's not a plague around here or anything, is there? That kind of thing.

[ximilian]

It seems that the locals don't think much of it all — strange things like that just happen, and have happened for a long time, now, so the people have grown used to them happening. They will tell Ivy that it isn't due to any kind of a sickness — it's impossible to tell when and what is going to happen, or how often it will happen. An animal might seem completely healthy and then suddenly keel over; a plant might have been growing beautifully and then suddenly wither away.

Wei Wuxian

[singlelogbridge]

Grateful that there aren't any windows in the homes, Wei Wuxian is going back to his "I see dead people" roots and pulling out his good old faithful flute. He will lock the door, set silencing talismans on the walls, and get to business.

He plays to call any spirit he can find to himself, but he has a specific goal in mind. If anyone appears to him, he will ask them about Hahn's choice, shared by Shinn in a baton pass. He will also ask what they know about the limestone. He will speak to as many ghosts as he can (if there are any) in his efforts to find information on these items, or anything else they bring up that catches his attention. He will play for as long as it takes to find someone, even days, unless he senses that there aren't any spirits here.

[ximilian]

The first thing Wei Wuxian will find, upon calling to spirits, is that the entirety of the Roof seems to be teeming with something that is not quite the same as resentful energy, nor ghosts — echoes, perhaps, of people long dead, their deaths as tragic as they were unfair.

However, there are some spirits that answer his call: two older men who say it has been only a few years since they passed and know nothing; a beautiful alien-looking woman who seems to only be able to cry; and finally, a young boy, answering to the name Crilm, who unfortunately has little answers for him regarding the limestone (he only knows it was used to curb the use of powers, and he seems incredibly pleased to have been able to answer at least one question, somewhat!) or Hahn's Choice — but he will tell Wei Wuxian to wait so that he can fetch someone who does know something.

And so, eventually, he will return with another spirit.

"You shouldn't be doing this," she says reproachfully, brows furrowed, seeming to mean his use of powers. "But if you must, be quick. I am Jaima Bryn, the first chief of Vo'a Mahdin. What is it you need to ask me? The boy kept insisting, so I am only doing this as a favour to him."

Akakin and Aleksander

[cruelyethuman]

Posing as members of the Vo’a Mahdin (Aleksander) and the Gal Masen Dai (Anakin), they want to find out more about the limestone. Both of them notice the absence of power when near them and are not happy about that.

They will start with coworkers in both factions and compare notes, paying special attention to 1) where does the limestone come from, and 2) who found it / implemented the use of limestone against spark users ('such a clever idea, really, to take it from them').

[ximilian]

They will easily find that the limestone is mined by Gal Masen Dai, in the parts of Go'ama where they spend the majority of the year. The limestone is then refined and imported from there, and used especially to confine those using the spark to the Plains, and in handcuffs, prison cells etc.

Most people they speak to simply say that the limestone has been used for as long as they remember, but further digging reveals that some of the eldest clan members believe it's been in use ever since Hahn's Choice — so for the past two hundred years. Much was lost during the Choice, so they're not sure if it existed before then, but it has proven convenient in enforcing the ban on using the spark.

Vash and Clarke

[rootlessly]

Vash and Clarke are going to join the Gal Masen Dai to quietly poke around the supply lines and see if there's anything suspicious about them that might imply orb influence, and when the Strange Occurrences start happening, they'll reach out to the clan leader Lei Bajh with the suggestion that it might be ~someone using the spark~ and offer assistance with finding who's responsible. Would she give them any leads?

[ximilian]

Before proceeding with this request, please confirm the following: Lei Bajh is the leader of Sen Reuma, not Gal Masen Dai, so do Vash and Clarke want to join Sen Reuma in order to speak to her, or are they joining Gal Masen Dai and in that case speaking to Sorima Laivar?

[servesyouwright]

After what Shinn found out, Phoenix takes it upon himself to go talk to Manaia. Since he doesn't really have much resembling magic himself, he's careful about even hinting that he has anything to do with the spark. Instead, he'll focus on surviving the desert and talk about how after spending a while out there he couldn't help but notice the tower, and he's heard from a ~little birdie~ that she knows something about it.

[oiorpata]

andy is going to ✨ challenge Jial Bryn ✨

she joined the daughters of twilight and is a natural at Weapons, though her preference for duty tends to be hunting on the outskirts above patrolling. she always brings back the goods, even with the weird food issues happening around the roof. all the more reason to bring it back fresh!

however before she initiates the challenge, she will look into how it happens and where it happens, as well as asking mostly locals about jial bryn herself and how long she's been leading. also what happens/happened to all people who lost? she will trade for this information with food she's hunted.

she's not particularly interested in winning if/when the time comes so much as seeing what happens should the event play out and wondering how the same family has kept control for so long.

6 PhDs in action again

[groupiedrifter]

Let's do this one last time!

Newton will be donning his Nerd Robe again (the metaphorical kind... but also will probably get some robes to protect from the heat and cold), and will be using his time in the plains to study the flora and fauna. Much like he had done in Ankata, he wants to observe the natural world here and find any eccentricities that could be related to the orb's influence! Or at the very least, try to find someone who is just as invested in this sort of thing as him out here, so that he can collect vital backstory to the world from them if he can swing it.

(He will especially be visiting those caves with the bioluminescent fungi, because are you KIDDING him, that place is like Heaven.)

[coordination]

Following up on Shinn's search, Yzak will have joined the Dai’a Svar too and his focus will be likewise carving out a place to gain some trust. (as a spark user since he still has his magic)

His focus will be the higher-ranking members in hopes to hear something about their plans, be it trying to be friendly with them OR just ... ya know, spying/eavesdropping and toeing the danger line. If that helps sorry this is so short I'm squeezing in last sec!