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Wolf Offline OP
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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


[i]Kadri and her pursuers[i]

There was only one direction. And it was down. Down was where Lyric was, where the Pack was, where the Mines and Forges were.

Not only was it known to Kadri, but to the heavy foot pads behind her. As if they understood she had only one direction to go, and that was down and as long as that never changed it didn’t matter how far ahead she and the others got they would, eventually, catch up.

It was like someone had set up a chain of dominoes, pushed over the first one, and was just patiently waiting for things to come to an end. They did not have to see her to follow her.

Just like the stairs just did.

The wooden stairs ended in ruin, broken and shorn as if some heavy weight had hammered down from above, as if someone or something had taken a mighty flail to the ladders and stairs and gear works. There were dark streaks here and there, in wide swaths and drops that had splattered like rain. The light came from dull flames flickering – portions of broken wood must have been splashed with oil when the hanging lamps had been shattered.

Bits and pieces of crystal sparkled like stars stolen from the skies.

Kadri stood on half a landing.

There was the way down, but it was broken. It would be like climbing a cliff or scaling a ruined cathedral. To her right a slender bridge arced across the space, far enough so that its other end was in shadows. To her left there was a short length of hall that ended in a door.

Behind her the footsteps were getting closer, perhaps only a flight or two away.

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Kadri:

"Well the choices here. Bad worse and worst. Which to take."

She briefly considered the door. Then rejected it as too obvious. She just as briefly considered the bridge. But then ... given their physiology, the dwarves themselves were likely lousy at climbing over sheer space.

"Lady, if this doesn't work, it's been one interesting game knowing you."

And she stepped into the void, and climbed, trying to ignore her pain. One way or the other, this would hurt. But hopefully, they wouldn't have trouble following.

"If you can have my back here - while I have no objections to eventually meeting the fair lady Krysta, I would rather it be a bit longer first. A distraction and a bit of time would be nice."

If the dwarves came into view.

"Creatures of the dark, contend with darkness, and may shadow hinder your path."

And attempts to "throw some shade on their path"

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri and her pursuers

It was the downward path that Kadri selected; the one that lead towards her companions, the one that lead directly towards their destination, the one that would eventually lead to Mines and Forges.

She climbed downwards and slowly but surely she was able to inch her way along broken stringers and shattered treads, working through the darkness by feel in the still air. She was skilled at this. But it was a simple, physical, skill.

The air around her was still.

Empty air.

Unfeeling air.

She could not help but remember the how and why she reached Talantal. Because her Brothers had been taken away on a merry chase. They had been goaded, teased and taunted to undertake the chasing of a wild goose. They were lead on a path designed specifically to take them far from their goal – Kadri.

It was a very different running to. Dominic Korie’s running to was not to a place, it was to an idea – that even if he had been eventually caught it would have been so far away from Kadri that her Brothers’ hunt would have been made moot. They would have captured the wrong person. He understood, he lived the power of being prey.

Capturing the wrong person would have made Lady Arilys laugh.

So it was no wonder that there was no shifting of the darkness, no shadows answering her beck and call. She wasn’t a fox leading her pursuers on a merry chase. She had chosen the sheep’s path, to be guided downwards to join the rest of the herd.

The Weasel handlers, the Dwarves, they understood she had only one direction to go, and that was down and as long as that never changed it didn’t matter how far ahead she and the others got they would, eventually, catch up.

Behind her, above her, Kadri heard the Dwarves reach the broken stairs. There was silence, but only for a little while. Then there were sounds of pounding and labor. Of course they would follow. They may be short, they might not be as lithe and fast, but they were Dwarves. They were craftsmen.

They could build things. They could fix things. If the shadows were where a Fox might play, the gears and shafts of their mill machinery was their world.

Relentlessly, they followed.

Last edited by Wolf; Sun 07/05/17 16:45 UTC.
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Relentlessly she thought; they were following expectations - how to break them of that ...

She looked up the wall. It was like puzzle pieces, like a box of pieces spilled on the floor. It would be crazy, to go back. Right? She could go for crazy. let them continue to follow Kadri south as she went southeast.

She pauses and begins climbing in a different direction, looping back carefully. Let them move ahead of her - they were going down. She would come back behind ... and around. They were committed to their path. Moving along the wall, she Slid around, up, and behind them into the shadows and then - the bridge. Slide onto it and move across, try to lose herself in the fog as they moved further down.

"Snap at shadows." she murmured.

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri and her pursuers

There were skills Kadri had, normal skills, such as moving quietly – helpful to avoid Brothers and Fathers in an amber camp – and climbing, for scrabbling about the ruined stairs and broken ladders.

Thus she could slip sideways, find a route upwards, towards the narrow bridge. She hadn’t made it to the bridge when the Dwarves passed her. Not that Kadri could tell very well; for the hiding worked both ways. She could see their shadows move past. They were a swirl of dark grays, as they rebuilt the broken stairs as they descended.

It was definitely some form of Dwarven magic.

There were at lest two, accompanied by one Weasel. The Weasel paused and looked about but a tug from its Masters kept it on the downwards course,

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Kadri

"Shadows, don't fail me now."

To herself - not out loud, of course.

She needed to get to the bridge. And across. Hopefully from there, there would be somewhere else she could go. That was a decision for ... then. First, to the bridge. Then, across the bridge. Then, decision. She allowsm them to move further down the stairs before she moves, silent as a mouse. Or silent as a fox.

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri

Kadri made the bridge, the narrow swaying path across the darkness. She made it without being seen by the Dwarves who had been pursuing her. Indeed, those that were behind them didn’t even spot her. Men and Dwarves followed in force, to quell whatever disturbance they would eventually find.

The bridge led past the central hub, where bearings kept the main axle aligned. It continued on to the far side of the gate tower shaft, ending in a small balcony. From there a ladder lead upwards and a black metal grate, as tall as Kadri and just about as wide, was set into the wall. It looked into its own unlit shaft, from which came a sound of ‘whumf-whumf-whumf’.

Next to the grate was a door with a heavy latch.

Last edited by Wolf; Sun 21/05/17 17:03 UTC.
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Kadri's eyes latched on the latch.

Down. She had to get back to the others - they might need her, and there was no way she was not going to get to them.

Reaching out, she lifted the latch, opened the grate, peered through - and if there was no immediate danger, looked out and down.

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri

The latch was lifted and then, then the door was able to be pulled open. It was different than a normal door, like one made for easy passage. Instead it was more like a panel set into a wall so that what was set within could be observed from time to time.

And what was in was a smooth stone shaft that vanished into darkness above and descended into darkness below. It was perhaps two handful feet in diameter and within the shaft was a stiff breeze, as if the air was being drawn into it and downwards. It was from below that the steady ‘whumf-whumf-whumf-whumf’ sound rose, a repetitive beat.

Against the interior curve of the shaft were set metal loops, about a foot or so apart and going in both directions; up and down.

They were ladder like.

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Down. They went down.

First, she sent her point of view down, down, down the shaft - and unless what she saw was unpassable, she herself went down as well.

(Can't remember the spell name and hard to look up on the phone. Will editi it in later)

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
To the Mines
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri

Kadri’s small dark star plummeted into the depths of the shaft. Eventually she saw, far below, the oddest mechanism. It was hard to tell exactly what it was, that far down and illuminated in the frail black blue light.

It was strange Dwarven machinery. It looked, as best she could tell, like someone had turned a set of windmill vanes on their side, so that they filled the entire diameter of the shaft. They spun fast enough to blur in the pale light, the blades neither sailcloth nor wooden lattice work but black metal.

It was also very opposite a windmill. It seemed like the close-set vanes were not pushed by the wind, but perhaps making it.

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Just to look, she also tried looking up the shaft ... and unless there was something there, she would have to investigate the door that she left behind ...

(Unless something brilliant comes to mind that's all I've got.)

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HWD: Lady Yurisdotter’s Quest: The Rescue –Kadri

The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
In the Keep
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri

Looking up the shaft, sending her dark light up that-a-way saw only more rising cylinder with its metal hooped ladder. It probably lead up to the big rectangular slots set into the side of the sluice gate towers.

Backing away, away from the airshaft, left only the retracing of her path. That path led back over the narrow bridge that arced to the central axle, around its bearings and then to the once broken stairs.

Kadri felt alone, so very alone, there on the stairs. Even her dark light sputtered, like a glass once filled now slowly becoming empty.

It was what she felt, but it was not a physical truth. She could, and should, pause halfway along the narrow bridge. For the physical truth was that she was no longer alone in the tower’s depth.

They were there, the Keep’s reinforcements. She saw several handful of Dwarves, some odd, ancient humankind too – one dressed in blue, the others in red and gold. About them swirled gray shadows, their Weasel accompaniment. It was hard to count how many Weasels they had brought with them, because the evil critters moved within the their ranks in a pattern that only made sense to their own feral kind.

They had not seen, not noticed her yet.

They were bound for the bottom of the tower. They looked as is they were determined to end whatever ruckus was going on in their Forges, in their Mines.

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Kadri

"Lady mine, I could use some distraction so because I plan on being extraordinarily stupid momentarily. Because I think those below may be sorely in need of a distraction."

She backs up on the bridge a bit to be closer to the far end than the close and past the obscuring mists and then ... howls. Makes a long wolfish sound at the top of her lungs into the vast spaces hoping for echos to mask the exact location. And then moves and tries to hide and cloak - and make for the room with the shaft. Once there, to go in, pull the grate behind her and head down, hoping there is escape at the other end.

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The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Halls of Man
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick


Kadri

The air was completely still as Kadri whispered her words, as empty as a big pewter beer stein that had been thoroughly drunk. That did not hinder her actions, however, because they were simple, something anyone from a street urchin to a runaway noble woman could do.

She easily backed off into the darkness, along the bridge, until she was indeed closer to the other side. And when she howled it did indeed echo up and down the tower, in and among the stairs and ladders. What sort of response it had she didn’t know immediately, she was too busy in turning around and running to the shaft. To once again manhandle the grate open. This time not just to look but to pass by, to observe, but to enter. And that she was able to do – the latch, after all was a simple device, lift and the grate swung open; close the gate and the latch could be set back into its place.

Then it was the climb down.

That was easier said then done; tunics and surcoats were never the best for climbing down any ladder let alone one made of metal hoops set into stone walls. It didn’t help at all that the breeze in shaft was anything but weak. Her choice of direction was down, down towards the spinning blades of the dwarven contraption. Several times she slipped, barely catching herself from falling.

And that was the least of her problems.

Above something hit the grate. It could not be seen, but something was definitely hitting the metal grate again and again and again. Kadri could hear both the hit and the metal grille rattle in its hinges. Once, twice, thrice and more; it was a random pattern. Sometimes the pounding was rapid and strong, sometimes it was tentative and light.

And either the happenstance of repetition came through or her luck had finally run out.

Hit a gate enough times and eventually the latch would pop.

Above, silhouetted in the light from the grate opening, a large furred head poked. It was then accompanied by a second. She had, at the least, attracted the attention of two Weasels. If there were handlers, they’d still be behind the Weasels. The two critters shouldered each other, as if daring each other.

It obviously was a very serious thing for the Weasels.

After a round of growling, one of them did the completely unexpected.

It jumped.

It jumped into the shaft, barreling down after its prey.

The Weasels were definitely fierce.

It was the last thing Kadri ever saw.

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Awww... sob


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