Log:The Beast That Haunts: Echoes Lament

The Beast That Haunts: Echoes Lament
"The bats are friendly..."
Participants Aaron, Oliver, Nana, Tristan and ST	2017.05.15 Autumn goes after the pages that were located in Echoes Lament. Some blood is offered for them. Part of the The Beast That Haunts plot.
Location Echoes Lament
The Autumn Court as a whole has been sent to recover a few pages from the journal that was found via one of their older members. No, not Nana! Echoes Lament is one of the more stark places in the Hedge. The thing to remember when going through this path of stone and spikes is that the stones hunger for blood. So it's not the easiest thing to work in. The book pages from the journal that the Autumn Court was looking for were said to be in one of these off shoots. There's a little bat that is fluttering above the group as they gather at the appointed time. Oliver enters the scene dressed in his usual long black vinyl rain slicker, but no tophat today, just a black cowboy hat. He has a pair of wellies on his feet too. Sheathed on his belt is his longsword. The dark skinned gargoyle looks very serious. His dimly glowing milky blue irises search the area for other courtiers. Nana is a gadgeteer of no small repute, and as such her gadgetry tends to make her life a little easier. (Which makes up for the fact that being old has made her life harder in so very many respects.) As such, she's in her personal transport, WEELS, a segmented bulb which she can ride in that is, as it happens, capable of flight. Hovering flight, even! She's bobbibng in the air, overhead of the group, up and away from those blood-hungry spines. She's wearing her oversized aviator goggles and silk scarf to really top the look off. All of this clashes with the tin and copper Yorkshire terrier that she's holding in her lap. Because of course. Tristan is, perhaps surprisingly, not in one of his finely tailored suits to go wandering through the jagged rocks. Instead, he is in a pair of close fitting black jeans with boots laced up to his knees, a black turtle-neck shirt with long sleeves, and gloves, looking not unlike a black alien-eyed cat-burgler. He has a small pack over one shoulder, but carries little else with him. He's making no particular attempt at being stealthy at the moment, just walking along with, or below, the others as they make their way into the pointy pokey bits. The bat that flutters above them is joined by a second bat. A much much larger bat. Different species. There's a chitter from one bat to the other and then the big one dips down to bop Tristan on the head with a wing and then the large bat flaps off with the little one. Oliver arrives where the others are standing and waves. "Hi. I'm Oliver DeSoto. Call me Olly. I'm one of Byron's recruits in the Harvestmen. Nice to meet you." He watches the bats do their thing. "Friendly critters." he remarks. "Yanno, bats are a primary carrier of rabies-- I can only imagine what hedge rabies must be like. Probably make your brain melt and dribble out of your ears, or make you eat your own limbs." Nana puts this rhumination to the others as he craft bobs overhead, right up there with the bats. "Plague rats with wings is what they are, and don't mind me saying so. Eat their weight in bugs? Oh, sure. Where do you think they get the diseases from?! As the bat gets closer to Tristan, a very large, very ominous looking raven circles closer, and closer, and it stares at the bats with a decidedly piercing and unsettling gaze. Seeing as a head-boop is hardly life threatening, however, the bird does little more than come to roost on Tristan's shoulder and remain there, staring at everyone in turn. Tristan dips his head to Oliver and says, "Tristan Darrow." He then glances up at Nana. "Did you know that armadillos carry leprosy? At least they're not hedge armadillos." The two bats flit off towards one of the cave openings. From the bop on the head, it would appear that one or both the bats knew Tristan. So maybe they should follow the two furry rabies carrying sky rats! Oliver takes rearguard, being the least familiar with the territory. He moves with one hand on the pommel of his sword, his volcanic glass horns gleam in the moonlight. "Looks like we need to get to that cave up there." he tells the others. "Oh, because there's a good idea, let's follow the strangely behaving bats towards their cave. I'm sure this isn't a trap, or anything," Nana complains as the bats go flitting off again. She's not volunteering to go first if that weren't obvious. "It's Ashe's bat," Tristan says with a slight shake of his head. "The little one." Then he's moving in the direction of the bats, Harrow once more taking flight once Tristan begins to move -- because flying is cooler, and Tristan is slow. The bird wings off in the direction of the bats, and doesn't even try to poke either of them. He's showing considerable self-restraint. Tristan shoulders his bag and goes first, not seeming to mind doing the scouting. Aaron arrives some time later than the group. He's dressed in hevy denim and t-shirt. Accompanying him as always within the parts that only Changeling dare to go, is his ghostly sister. Upon seeing the group, he offers a nod in greetings. Oliver shrugs. "We'll put the fear of god into any enemy we find up there then, friend." He flashes a bright sharp-toothed smile and moves out as well. Muttering under her breath, Nana reluctantly steers her craft towards the cave, following along after the others. As the group heads towards the cave where the bats disappeared, they'll notice that there is a pathway that looks easy to go into. There's no painted signs stating 'Stop', 'Don't Go This Way' or 'Certain Death Ahead!' so that's good, right. The path is easy for everyone to follow into the cave. Except for Aaron. Aaron almost misses the entrance completely. Tristan follows the bats, up and into the cave with little difficulty, though whether he would heed any posted notes or placards if there were any is debatable, as he spends little time looking for them. For the moment, he seems to be willing to trust the bat to take him where he needs to go. And so in he heads, into the cave, Harrow once more coming to roost on his shoulder once inside. Aaron is distracted in looking around, seeing the sights, dodging bats, and mummuring to his spectral-made-kinda-flesh-sister. So distracted that he damn-near misses the entrace. Thankfully, he sees the others and adjusts his movements to accompany them. Oliver moves into place behind the Darkling called Aaron and mutters a quick introduction to him. He touches the brim of his black cowboy hat and returns his hand to the pommel of his longsword. He steps carefully over the path moving to the cave with the others. Nana's craft flutters its way into the cave and mercifully ceases to fly once it reaches the entrance. That cuts the sound down considerably. Still, she's not one for going about things like a normal person, so she promptly steers the now landed walker over towards the wall. Like a big fat clumsy spider, the vehicle walks up the wall and then over onto the ceiling, dangling overhead once again. There's a bit of clunking and rattling as her cargo adjusts, and probably a loose screwdriver and some pocket change dribble out. But the lady and her dog remain strapped into place. Inside the cave it's much colder than the temperature outside. Once they make it inside there's a good amount of room to move around. There's a certain silence that hangs in the air though when people aren't speaking. Tristan and Oliver can see that there's three paths that are normally used in this place. Not that hard to make out. Nana however notices from her perch on the roof that there's a fourth trail in the cave, one that's not seen movement in many weeks...maybe years. Tristan takes a look around the cave, moving in the darkness with the comfort of one who belongs there, letting his gaze drift along the walls and floors, marking out the three main paths that have seen the most travel, but not quite noticing the fourth from his vantage point on the ground. Harrow ruffles his feathers and shakes them out before smoothing them once more, but offers no insight of his own. Probably due to her unique vantage point, Nana somehow manages to spot what the younguns with their 20/20 vision and original sets of teeth are missed. She begins walking forward across the ceiling, following the trail less traveled by. "It's this way, dears, if it's anywhere." Oliver crouchs and peers into the gloom with those dully glowing eyes. "I'm making out three paths through here." He looks over at the others on the ground to check with them what they see. He stands up and rifles through his pockets until he finds his pack of smokes and lighter. With a metallic clack of his Zippo he has one of them lit. He looks up at Nana when she speeks and nods. "Good eye." Aaron seems to head into a direction. In his eyes he seems to be curious about the direction. Where does it go? Does it lead to treasures? Death? The lands of Milk and Honey. Suddenly, he hears the voice of Nana, then looks over to her. Respecting one's elders is key, right? He changes route and follows. Down the stone corridor the path is covered by thick cobwebs that need to be cleared away as the group goes down it. No spiders fall onto anyone though. Once the cobwebs have been cleared they can head into a small room. In the middle of the room is a pedestal where an old skeleton is stuck in a kneeling position. Their hand is caught in what seems to be a rock enclosure. In the middle of that enclosure and in the grasp of the skeletal hand are a few of those pages that needed to be collected. Now it's time to figure out how to get them out. For the time being, Tristan merely makes his way into the room, taking note of the position fo the skeleton and its entrapped hand with the pages. He glances toward the others and then moves around just a little to take a look at the room, perhaps as though to see if there might be any booby traps or other nastiness waiting for them if they approach the pedestal. When faced with this particular conundum, Nana walks across the ceiling and down the wall a ways. Low enough that she can pull out her knitting bag without its entire contents spilling out. Once that's done she fishes around for a particular skein of yarn and begins to work at the knots. Or a particular knot, in any case. She uses a single knitting needle to tug at one end of the knot, then rather carefully aims it towards the box containing the papers. One final tug and... there's a very palpable breeze, apparently out of nowhere. It travels across the room and begins rustling the papers under the skeletal fingers. Oliver watches Nana do her thing with interest, curious about the magic he hasn't seen before. He steps in and draws his sword, making to sever the skeleton's arms at the wrists so it can fall away. Aaron looks about here and there, but directs most of his attention to Nana and her mystical yarn. He flexes out a hand, ready to do what Razorhands do--cut someone into a series of paper-dolls if need be. The gust of wind manages to rattle the bones of the skeleton. It dislodges the papers as the finger bones slump open. The pages seem to get caught on the inside of the stone prison. The wind was a definite help...but the process of getting the pages out still needs something else to make it work entirely. Tristan moves toward Oliver when he draws his sword, sliding past him and then giving the blade an odd sort of handshake, dragging his palm along the blade near the tip, cutting his palm open. Once he reaches the pedestal, he holds his hand a good distance above it and lets some of the blood from his palm drip down onto it, prepared to step back should the hungry stone prove hungry for more than his meager offering. Oliver flinches as he "wounds" someone he didn't intend to. More magic is coming he deduces and waits to see what happens. When Tristan's blood drips down over the stones there's a bit of a shiver that runs through the earth. That's before the pedestal crumbles and the pages get blown into the air, settling on the ground safely away from the blood and the skeleton of the dead person that tried to either get them here or take them. One may never know. Once the pages are freed, Tristan says a quiet "Thank you," to Oliver, for the use of his blade quite without permission. He then takes a step back to allow someone else to gather and take custody of them. Aaron looks between Tristan and Oliver. "You should probably get that looked at," he offers with a light smirk. He makes to collect the pages--unless someone moves ahead of him. Oliver tugs a bandanna from his pocket and wipes the blood from the steal then hands the cloth to Tristan to wipe his hand. "You're welcome. Usually it's me that thanks people for letting me hurt them." He laughs shortly and winks flirtaciously. He starts moving to the exit but pauses. "Maybe you'd like to tell me more about the pages over a beer later?" The earth stops shivering under their feet and sure enough it's time to get out of the cave. Nothing decides to follow them out, but when they get outside the cave those bats are there and there's little chirps of what sounds like congratulations to the group before they fly off.