[Ordelis]

"Wait whos that?" Solar asked out loud as she watched Quisling descend down with the supply crate. Before anyone could asnwer Solar bounded on the box of supplies like a child opening presents on their birthday, picking up various pieces not knowing what some of them did but was always curious. "Ooh dibs on the cool looking knife!" She said outloud giving the Cutlass a few experimental swings, the weapon matching her eyepatch, more and more improving her pirate look. Hmm first aid kits, flashlight wont need that, explosives!...should probably let artillery lady have these she had only remebered Akel's name on the way to their destination. "Hey Capn what're these things? How'd you turn it on like that?" Solar asked Cordell holding one of the Pneumatic supports in one hand and a handful of Glowsticks in the other, her second question reffering to the glowstick. Notcing something else in the box Solar dropped everything and picked up the last item, excitedly she turned to her brand new friend "Akel! Akel! Wear this it'll help you see in the dark!" Solar said holding up one of the eyepatches happily sharing her newfound toys , proud of her discovery with a huge grin on her face. "In fact theres enough for everbody!"

[Siuwa]

"It's nice for me, especially when I play music in my head in the rhythm of the explosions." Infrared commented.

Walking down the forest she recalled what she knew of sea and archipelago adventures from the few books she read and the fan-made thematic overhaul of Remnant: The Game and made a comparison. "Wooden ships and iron man, beating jungles in adventures, and looking for Macguffins. Reality is unrealistic after all, I guess..."

"I'm Infrared."She reached down into the crate, took a backpack as advised and strapped with the back on the front, then searched for useful tools, taking a flashlight, the box of mining charges, and a first aid kit and put them into her backpack."Probably not, since you can't crack flesh like you do on rock. The damage area is small too and the reach is short. Not to mention it's twohanded with weight for one hand." The unknowing Infrared gave her prediction on the combat use of that thermal drill before looking up and saw Rust pointing the thing at her. "Workplace safety buddy. don't ever point an on power tool at something you don't intend to use it on." She reminded him before gears clicked and she made a guess at the seeming hostility of the other Faunus. Her eyes widen and ears instinctively straightened, but do not make any reaction with her hand that would escalate the situation.

[Riven]

(OOC: Skipping Edgey -- 5 day rule.)


" 'Ey, now, let's take it easy." Cordell tried to soothe over the sudden spike of tensions in the group. She looked Alizarin's way with an uplifted eyebrow. "Aye, it'll do plenty o' damage, alright... but ye ain't takin' nobody by surprise with it. Once it gets spun up an' producin' a heat lance it'll melt through just about anythin', but only after about ninety seconds or so, an' while its runnin' it sounds like an old gear box havin' a jolly romp with a dirt bike. Not somethin' worth it's salt in a fight. Besides which, yer plenty deadly without an oversize blowtorch, mate -- we saw that plain as day back on th' beach."

"Now these," She plucked a support strut from the box and gestured to a knob and switch on the side. "Are basically pistons, though only designed t' go one way. Place em' on the ground, turn th' knob, hit th' button. Goes up until it it hits somethin' solid, then stops. Instant roof support." She smiled bemusedly at Solar, picking up another glowstick. "These're simple -- jus' do like so." She proceeded to gently bend the glowstick until it made a faint 'crack' sound, then handed it off to the ram-headed Faunus girl.

Once everyone was finished gearing up, the pirate captain lead the group into the cave. The shallow water sloshed lightly underfoot, stirring up sand with each step, but the ground was otherwise solid. Approaching the wall, Cordell turned back to the group. "Quizy, fill 'em in while I do me thing, ay?" She then placed one hand on the smooth stone wall, closed her eyes, and fell silent.

"Y-yes, well," Quisling, who'd kept to himself until this point, cleared his throat and addressed the assembled adventurers. "Miss Cordell was chosen for this expedition not just d-d-due to her s-s-s-s-ship and knowledge of pirate lore. She's a-a-a-actually got a very useful talent -- a f-form of Aura-based 'radar' that picks up certain types of things. From the documents we studied it b-became clear that the pirates of old who u-u-used this island must have had a way to avoid detection by Mistral's n-navy, who would h-have s-s-s-s-surveyed these islands regularly. We can c-conclude that there must have been some sort of--"

"Gotcha!" A triumphal shout from Cordell interrupted the explanation, the pirate woman rushing over to a particular spot on the wall some feet away. Her hands reached about, as if feeling for something, for a minute or two before they brushed over a spot that started to glow faintly. Pressing her hand onto the spot, Cordell focused her Aura -- immediately, the sound of stone grinding against stone could be heard as a nearby portion of the rock face rose up from the ground, dust and pebbles falling into the water as it did.

"... secret door." Quisling, stunned, adjusted his glasses as he stared at the now-revealed entrance.

"Floatstone!" The captain, exuberant, explained. "Th' clever ol' bastards. Floatstone! Veins o' th' stuff're runnin' through th' whole mountain! Ye don't hear much about it these days, since Dust tech has basically replaced it, but wars used'ta be fought fer control o' good Floatstone deposits way back when. Some'a th' first airships are thought t' have used it -- a naturally found meldin' o' low quality Gravity Dust with common quartz. This much Floatstone would'a been a huge help t' Grimshaw assemblin' his fleets; explains a lot, honestly."

She peered down the tunnel, switching on her flashlight as she did. It was large enough for the group to travel comfortably, dry, and partially lined with old wooden slats. "Hellova thing... can't see how far it goes. Right then. Rust, Infrared, yer up front with me in case we need that drill or th' charges. Quizy--"

"M-miss Cordell, please don't think to have me stay with the ship!" There was definite fear in Quisling's voice, but also excitement. "This is the discovery of a lifetime, already! I can't just--

"--Was gonna say, b'fore ye interrupted me... you're behind us, with Solar an' Akel. This is all hands on deck, so stay close an' don't blind anybody with yer flashlights." She looked around at those assembled. "It ain't lost on me that so many o' ye are Faunus. Know that I got full respect for yer people an' what ye can do, so if'n anybody's got night vision or anythin' special as'll be useful in caves, by all means speak up. We've no right idea what we're gonna find past this point so every possible advantage counts."

Spoiler: Floatstones • show

[Floatstones]

Floatstones, more scientifically known as clathrates or cocrystal clusters of gravity-aligned Dust embedded into common quartz, are among a handful of methods used for the construction and propulsion of antique airships. Floatsone-using airships were, in fact, often built around the stone that would empower it, as the size and shape of the crystal were important factors in determining the layout of the ship's control systems. This was always a case of employing a single crystalline mass -- engineers of the age couldn't figure out the complex mechanisms that would be needed to guide two Floatsone cores at once, and by the time science and engineering were up to the challenge Floatstones had long since been replaced by more modern, more reliable forms of aerial conveyance.

Floatstones are curious objects. Typically possessing a low Dust-to-quartz ratio, the stones are not particularly valuable on the modern market but will occasionally be incorporated into novelty toys, interactive artwork installations, and other such fancies. The greater the concentration of Dust, however, the longer and higher a Floatstone can levitate. This made unusually large or rich crystal clusters effective for the airships of centuries ago; many fortunes were made and lost by those who prospected for Floatstone deposits, and history records several battles that were fought to control the largest of these. Use of Floatstones, however, has always been a bit tricky -- thus why not all ancient airship designs relied upon them. The stones themselves are incredibly stable and reliable but the directional thrust they grant, even in the best of cases, is rather paltry, making them more suited for long distance travel than fast maneuvering. Additionally, some stones have been recorded as having what scholars call an 'Aura bond', harmonizing with one or more particular individuals over time and use... but becoming unusable to others in the process. This made it hard for airship captains whose ships had a bonded stone to relinquish command; some cases have been known, often among family members, but the mechanism behind "transferable imprinting" isn't clearly understood.

Among the methods of controlling a Floatstone used throughout history, arguably the best was known as the 'conduit method'. Predating the discovery of circuitry, a Floatstone control conduit nonetheless resembled it in a primitive way. A dozen braided ropes, each infused with Dust in their weave, were attached to the ship's Floatstone core; these then ran throughout the inner workings of the ship (to ensure that they would not all be easily damaged or destroyed, sending the ship groundward) and converging at the ship's helm where the ropes were carefully knotted through the wheel's center and then wound tightly around each rung. With this method it became possible for a captain to both steer the ship physically and guide it by carefully exerting their Aura.

One notable modern use of Floatstone is its incorporation into the design of the grand Amity Stadium, where the single largest Floatstone cluster of modern times works in tandem with other systems to suspend the floating island high above the ground.

[Ordelis]

A cloud hung over Solar as she was ignored by her attempts to share the eyepatches. Mmm...no one wants it she thought sadly.
She was brought out of her momentary sadness when Cordell passed her the lit glowstick. Huh, How does snapping it like that make it glow? What was that cracking noise? Whats this water in here that glows? She wondered, shaking up the fluid inside the stick looking at it with one eye. She was distracted by the glowstick fiddling with the illumination device, in fact she took it upon herself to crack another one. She mindlessly followed the group completely ignoring Quisling's explanation.
It wasn't until Cordell's discovery was she brought out of her stupor.

"Gotcha!" A triumphal shout from Cordell interrupted the explanation, the pirate woman rushing over to a particular spot on the wall some feet away. Her hands reached about, as if feeling for something, for a minute or two before they brushed over a spot that started to glow faintly. Pressing her hand onto the spot, Cordell focused her Aura -- immediately, the sound of stone grinding against stone could be heard as a nearby portion of the rock face rose up from the ground, dust and pebbles falling into the water as it did.

"Woow! Cool! Betcha there are traps everywhere like you step on a rock and arrows shoot out of the wall!"

"--Was gonna say, b'fore ye interrupted me... you're behind us, with Solar an' Akel. This is all hands on deck, so stay close an' don't blind anybody with yer flashlights." She looked around at those assembled. "It ain't lost on me that so many o' ye are Faunus. Know that I got full respect for yer people an' what ye can do, so if'n anybody's got night vision or anythin' special as'll be useful in caves, by all means speak up. We've no right idea what we're gonna find past this point so every possible advantage counts."

"Oh come on Capn can't I be in front too?" Solar complained childishly, her excitement taking over and ignoring the fact Cordell intentionally placed the older, more experienced members of the group up front. "And plus if it's nightvision you want I got you covered!" She said joyously as she at last removed her eyepatch and slid it on her head, a proud grin on her face that said 'wanna know a secret?'.

Taken:
1 Cutlass
5 Collapsible pneumatic Supports
10 unused glowsticks (2) lit up
1 first aid kit

[EdgeyReyes]

"I've for night-vision." Pointing to her headset but not daring to take them off (Let's just say Akel grabbed a bunch of light, non-breakable gear). "Awww, you want to abandon me so quickly?" While Akel took the eyepatch placed it above her right eye and just allowed it be covered by her bangs. Listening to her companions as she just followed behind, she walked backwards as they entered the secret door, keeping an eye out if anything were to come from behind.

[Siuwa]

"That's every faunus. Which is apparently all four of us." Infrared pointed out at the mention of night vision.
"I'm also pretty sure whatever that substance is, it isn't plain water. Either some Dust mixture or mundane chemical solution, seeing that it helps our sight". She tried to look up with her scroll exactly what those are. No signal, of course.
"Wearing an eyepatch would probably hinder that though."
She walked with the group and silently watched the gate to the cave open. Her guess was jossed at the explanation of floatstones, hoping for a mechanical gate rather than Dust. She flicked on her flashlight and observed what is in there. "Well does bouncing off whatever was shot out of a trap count?"

[arcus_gray]

"Guess I'll get the chance to find out soon enough." Alizarin responded to Infrared as he put the drill in his bag. Then Cordell interjected. "There's no such thing as being deadly enough. In our line of work especially we always need to be getting better at getting something before it gets you. But I see your point on using it as a weapon. Shame. could've been fun."


"You got it boss. Or captain I guess." Alizarin walked to the front of the group and shook his arms out slightly. phsyching himself up for whatever was to come.

[Riven]

Spoiler: PROGRESS MAP • show

Cordell found herself both sighing and smiling at Solar's enthusiasm -- one thing the younger woman was never lacking in. "But who'm I gonna trust t' watch me back if everyone's in front, aye?" She added a telling wink on the end to let the ram Faunus know she understood her eagerness before addressing the rest of the group. "So, low light vision be a given for Faunus? Ehh, one more fer th' list o' things I should'a known, I guess. Right then, that'll definitely help -- an I'll be extra sure not t' aim me torch at anybody's face. No idea if there be traps like that, but let's go carefully juuuuust in case, aye?"

"If it's a-a-a-all the same, miss Cordell, I'll let you and t-the others handle any such things."

Cordell shrugged. "Figured as much. Just keep yer eyes peeled an' try not t' wet yerself, Quizy." After a brief chuckle at the historian's expense, Cordell gave parting orders to Delayahe to set the ship down on a nearby island and wait for contact -- it was likely, after all, that they'd be cut off from communications once the group entered the tunnels. As the ship turned and departed Cordell waved her fellow adventurers on, leading the way into the tunnels...

☠  M U S I C A L ~ S H I F T  ☠
Dark Ambient Playlist
by (Various Artists)

Uncomfortably dark and dry, the tunnel wove, dipped, and climbed beneath the skin of the world, a path of shadows broken only by the beams of light and echoing footsteps that the treasure seekers brought with them. This was a place that no living soul had ventured in hundreds of years, and it gave off a distinct impression of not wanting visitors. Less than a dozen feet inside the group would find a rugged iron torch-holder bolted into the stone walls, though it was conspicuously empty. A hundred feet onward there was another... and after that they started finding the bones.

Those Faunus in the group with particularly keen senses of smell were likely to have sniffed out the scent of dry marrow and rust long before seeing the first skeleton. It lay up against the wall, seemingly untouched since death and allowed to rot away. Lodged between its lower ribs was an ancient looking steel cutlass, still showing the etched face of a Beowolf on the flat of the blade -- the mark of the Iron Wolves pirates. Quisling made a fuss about taking images of it with his Scroll before letting the group move on, but as it turned out that wasn't the only grisly specimen to be had. The further along the group went the more such ancient corpses they found, most with swords, shields, or flintlock-style pistols somewhere near at hand. It was hard to tell whether these were the weapons they'd been slain by or ones they'd died fighting with, but signs of the battle from long ago still remained: old fashioned bullets lodged in the stone or laying among the wooden floor slats, scorch marks on the walls and ceiling, gouges in the rock that looked like they'd been made with a blade, and distinct cracks and crevices that suggested brutal impacts. The dusty silence that accompanied them to each discovered scene seemed to lay heavy in the air, an almost palpable pressure...

"At least we know we're in th' right place." Cordell whispered as they trudged past what had to be the fourteenth or fifteenth pile of bones.

[Ordelis]

"But who'm I gonna trust t' watch me back if everyone's in front, aye?"

"But I..."

"Awww, you want to abandon me so quickly?"

"What no! I just umm..." Solar panicking looking back and forth between Cordell and Akel, Akel's sarcasm lost on her Solar thinking she legititmately hurt her feelings. "Fiiine I'll be in the back" Solar said in defeat, she slowed down to wait for Akel and couldn't hold back her grin when she saw her wearing an eyepatch just barely poking out behind her bangs.

"That's every faunus. Which is apparently all four of us."

This comment confused Solar, there was the cat? Faunus with the black tail whos name was lost on her, there was Infrared who was obviously a rabbit faunus, there was her, sooo "Whos the fourth faunus here? Wait is it glasses over there, is he a mouse faunus?" Indicating Quisling, she asked Infrared in a whisper slightly embarrased she wasn't able to tell by herself.

Upon reaching the bones she couldn't help but ask too many questions, perhaps louder then the situation called for "Woow! What happend here? Was it a mutiny between the pirates? Was it a fight between two different pirate groups? Wait if it was two pirate groups how did the second group find this place? *GASP Maybe the second group betrayed the first one!Or the other way around? Why were they fighting here of all places? Seems pretty dangerous to be settting off explosives down here, was there a reason they fought here? Doesn't look like a good place for an ambush, and why did the winners here leave behind their weapons? - Oh! Cool! An old pirate pistol! How the heck does this thing work?  she asked outloud picking up one of the rusted flintlock pistols that were no doubt beyond repair.

[Siuwa]

"Who else could you reasonably group into 4 out of us?" Infrared pointed at the girl with the headphone.

Along the way Infrared kept her silence, only commenting once, preferring to watch the terrain ahead. "We're better off leaving them be and let the group of experts worry about them after we've finished this."

[EdgeyReyes]

"Well thank you for deducing that miss... artillery? I'm sorry but I can't recall your name." Akel tapped her headphones, particually the part which covered her bat ears in particular. "We talked about this earlier, remember?

[Riven]

(OOC: Skipping Arcus -- time to move the story along.)


"My, such an i-i-i-inquisitive young miss!" Quisling crooned at Solar's battery of questions and speculations, chuckling softly to himself. "All very g-good questions. You have the makings of a h-h-historian, perhaps!"

Before he could say anything more, Cordell stopped suddenly and signaled for the group to stop. Just ahead the tunnels opened into a large cave that stretched back into darkness -- sweeping it with flashlights revealed what looked like a miniature makeshift village of rough-hewn wooden buildings, more than half of which were nothing more than piles of timber collapsed from the passing of the ages. Barrels and crates lay littered about, the faint smell of what may once have been provisions wafting in the air, and here and there could be spotted yet more skeletons in various states. The Faunus in the group, if they strained their senses as far as they could go, would just barely make out that further back in the cave lay a large structure of some kind, though details from this far away just weren't possible -- it was a rough silhouette in the dark, nothing more.

"...By th' gods!" At first, Cordell could scarcely manage a whisper, flashlight going to and fro as she took in the pirate outpost. "This... this must be it! Has t' be! Grimshaw's base of operations, hidden down under th' mountain!" She turned to look at the others, her grin absolutely beaming. "If'n there's anythin' t' be found, it'll be here. Let's get --"

A sound echoed through the vast cavern, where nothing ought to be moving... a dry scraping sound, accompanied by what sounded like wind. Even though it wasn't loud per say it seemed to cut through the air like a knife, stopping the pirate mid thought. In the breath-held stillness, the sound repeated... then began to grow, both louder and closer. Whipping out a pistol, Cordell turned to survey their surroundings with an anxious urgency, trying to find the source with both her flashlight and her Semblance at once...

... until, unexpectedly, a pinpoint of orange light rose from behind one of the buildings. The flashlight focused on it at once, revealing what looked like a round bone-hued mask with a single glowing eye in the middle of it. The very air seemed to quiver around the thing, and the darkness grew thick as ink even where the flashlight shone. Cordell's next word put voice to the threat that now presented itself.

"GEIST!"

Tendrils of unnatural dark power materialized around the Grimm phantom, launching off into the shadows as it let loose an echoing screech that resonated throughout the whole cavern. Trying to seize initiative Cordell dashed forwards, firing shots as she went, but she didn't get far. The color of the Geist's eye suddenly shifted, becoming a deep purple, and in the next instant a bolt of energy like lightning lanced from its gaze and hit her dead-on, sending her flying into a building. The wooden structure, weakened after so much time, collapsed on top of her.

At the same time, the scraping sounds from earlier were becoming more numerous -- and getting closer. From out of the shadows came the reanimated dead, skeletons given motion and violence by the Geist's malevolent powers. Bony fingers picked up swords, clubs, pistols, any weapon that was lying about, even grabbing up broken bits of wood where nothing else presented itself. Their empty eye sockets glowed the same unnatural amber hue as their master, and with a silent rallying cry the skeleton army charged the explorers who'd dared trespass this ancient tomb.

"From b-behind! T-t-they're coming from behind!" Quisling, terrified, pointed his flashlight back into the tunnel as the sound of bones scraping stone reached him, and not moments after the first skeleton stepped into the light with a cutlass in hand.

Culling the Grimm on the beach had been a good warm up, but there was no support to be had here. The adventurers would have to fight for their lives.




TARGETS:
▪ BOSS: ANCIENT GEIST ▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉▉
▪ Reanimated Skeletons (various weapons) [36 / 36]

[Ordelis]

Solar couldn't help but smile, this was another obstacle she had to overcome before she could reach that place, she had to get stronger then she was yesterday, and tommorow she'll get stronger then that, and then the next, and then the next. She watched in fascination as she watched Cordell get easily knocked away, gauging just how strong and fast the creature could hit.
"Alright come on!, Bring it!" Solar roared, she took a modified runners stance with one hand on her weapon outstretched to her right side. Her body glowed orange for as long as possible before the skeletons could reach her. 10 second charge... FIRE!
Solar fired off like a human rocket straight for the Geists mask, the most obvious weak point.

[arcus_gray]

With the appearance of the Geist and skeletons Alizarin made a few quick assumptions. The Geist is probably controlling the skeletons. So If I kill it the skeletons die. With any luck they may rid me of some of the cannon fodder in the process. With plan firmly in mind Alizarin clamped his hands together as the blades on his right arm attached to his left before fusing together into his arm mounted chainsaw. With his semblance Alizarin flung himself straight at the Geist. Coincidentally arriving at about the same time as Solar. Alizarin swung his chainsaw wide hoping to cut horizontally across the mask.

[EdgeyReyes]

"Guess I'll be protecting Quisling then." Akel looked at Solar and Alizarin with discontent, seeing them rush off at the first sight of a large grimm. Granted it was controlling the skeletons but putting some thought into who or what you're protecting amd given roles. Letting the weapon transform into its scythe form she moved back and placed a hand on Quis "Don't stray from me and you'll be fine, all the guns should be rusted beyond use and their melee weapons won't be much to deal with. Just don't run away."

Akel begun her little dance, hitting the skeletons at their torso with the blunt side to scatter their bones all over the place so they hopefully wouldn't just come back to life. The length of her scythe made it easy to stay out of reach of the skeletons whilst keeping them away from Quis, although she did wish she someone would check-up on Cordell to make sure she wasn't dead. "Is the captain alive?! Anyone with an idea?"