Tahoe's Children - RPLOG
Participants
Date
5/8/2017
Log
- Meeting at the edge of the east forest is a human-sized storm dragon wearing blue coveralls, a badge on his chest making him as a member of a salvage team. Mist and dew clig to the trees and underbrush everywhere. Once everyone gathers he introduces himself: "I am Jenriev. This isn't my usuall duties so I'll make this quick. Your job is to track ferals in the deeper portions of the forest where the fog occured last week and take notes, recordings, or whatever research you can find on what is making them act differently." He then pulls out a clipboard and stars writing. "Off you go then."
- Ebreus glides down from the sky landing on his feet with an dull audible impact as four drones follow. Having landed about ten feet from Jenriev he takes a few steps closer to the Storm Dragon. "Ok, so we're wanted to find ferals who were in the Fog, and bring back information better than just failable memory. Sound good." he says.
- Rustles are heard from the bushes, a trenchcoat clad fox girl stepping from the foliage. Her glowing green goggles scan the area, as well as the folks in the area. "This fog might prove a challenge." she speaks out in a soft tone.
- Lilac nods at the storm dragon before turning to her companions. "Sounds good indeed. I've heard a lot of stories about what has taken place here as of late, but I'll be honest, they sound more made up than anything.." She turns to Zomb, and smirks. "I'm sure we're up to the task. How bad can it be, really?" She turns to Ebreus, and nods. "Let's move on, I suppose."
- Jill is leaning against a tree in the clearing as shi listens to the storm dragon. Once he finishes speaking shi nods and says "Sounds good to me. I'll do what I can to track down some ferals. It really is a shame what happened out here. I hope they are ok." I think for a moment and say "Is there anything in particular we should look for?"
- Zophah gives a toothy smile. "Some rumors have sprung up about ferals acting like normal people and avoid attacking, but they never talk. I'll leave it up to you all to find any." He finishes up his clipboard and then waits for everyone to get going before making his way back to New Dawn.
- Ebreus looks over his allies of this mission for a few moments, his drones doing the same, "Yeah, the Fog does some bad things. I have some experience with it... I should've been here when the Fog showed up." he says. He then notices the Drones also staring at his companions and as he looks to them they loose interest in his allies. "So we are to find sane ferals? That doesn't sound to far-fetched of a Fog effect, though it is disturbing if any effect of the fog has taken to lingering." he says.
- The fox girl looks over to the drones, folding her ears back as she stares at them. She stops shortly, to shake her head, "Well, sane hopefully means peaceful." she yips, looking over the rest of the group, "I've done tracking in the past, so...should be easier than before."
- Jill nods as shi says "I do a fair bit of hunting in my free time and as a Fenrir wolf it shouldn't be too hard to track down any feral I can catch the scent of." shi looks around as shi continues "And if any of them should need medical attention I should be able to lend a hand."
- Lilac raises an eyebrow. "Personal experience? As in.. have you experienced what the fog does directly?" She looks uncertain a moment, thinking back to the stories she did hear. "So.. what should we expect in there?" She looks on, deeper into the forest. "I used to live not far from here and walked these woods a fair bit..hopefully I should be able to guide you around a bit too." She looks around warily, then down at the ground. "Right, let's start finding some tracks.."
- While making their way into the forest, Zomb manages to find a trail that not only looks man made, but looks intentional. But it is Jill who follows the trail even when it seems to disappear altogether, folowing it deep into the woods.
- Ebreus nods when Lilac asks him about his experiences, "It's hallucinogenic. It'll make your fears and regrets manifest around you. I'm partially protected from such mindfuckery by this." he says raising his upper left hand and indication the matchbox-sized device clipped to his ear. "Beyond that Anti-Nanomagic works well as a defence against it." he adds. Noticing Zombs reaction to his drones he says, "Don't worry about them. They're entirely under my control." Being a bit of a city-dweller Ebreus and his drones follow behind his companions as he scarcely notices the trail. "I'm glad someone here has tracking experience. Wondering around in the forrest isn't a speciallty of mine." he adds.
- The fox girl lets out a sigh of relief in response to the drones being on a leash, though she does squeak upon mention of the mist, ears raising right up and flickering, "That just leaves me worrying about this...fog." she murmurs softly, following the dragon as they lead onward. She peers back to Ebreus and asks, "Is this fog water? Do I need to worry about frying myself?"
- As the trail comes to an apparent end Jill pauses for a moment as shi sniffs around before shi nods and says "Ok I've got the scent now. Shouldn't be too hard to track. Follow me." With that I continue along the trail leading the party as I keep my eyes open for the telltale marks of a trail. A broken twig here a bent plant there and of course the scent of the ferals we are tracking. When Erbreus speaks up I stop for a moment and say "I do hope it has been fully dealt with but at least if it hasn't we have an idea of what to expect."
- Lilac shivers at Ebreus' description. "Worst fears?" She crosses her arms indignantly, not even trying to imagine what her own worst fears could be like. Several things they could be, for sure. "That sounds more than a little unusual.." She bites her lip, a terrifying thought crossing her mind. "I wonder.. I wonder what it's been doing to the ferals living within it.." The cowgirl moves with some manner of unsteadiness. It's been a while since she's been to these woods, having lived in the relatively safe comforts of Fairhaven for far too long. She nods at Jill, smiling warmly at her. "Lead on, we'll be on the lookout for any danger.."
- Despite being deep in the forest, following the trail leads to a large tree that has fallen over, making a gap in the thick canopy. The sunlight that can get through the thin mist illuminates a group of ferals: five male black panthers and a heavily pregnant female one, all sitting around the stump of the fallen tree. They all sit completely motionless, staring at one another with blank expressions, but the occasional blink shows they are not comatose.
- Ebreus watches ahead of them as Jill leads them beyond the path. Noticing the clearing ahead of time he crouches and begins to pay close attention to where he steps. His drones begin to fly closer to the ground and make less noise and he says to his companions, 'Something is ahead, try to avoid detection. Telepathic speech by the way.' telepathically. He aproaches as close to the clearing at he feels comfortable that they wouldn't be able to detect the giant fox that he is.
- The fox moves with relative silence in comparison to most of the others as she slinks to the side, getting out her notebook and a pen to jot some notes. She stops to look over to Ebreus and tilt her head in confusion briefly, only to jot more notes down.
- As the trail ends and the ferals come into view Jill pauses and settles down. Shi isn't trying all that hard to avoid being seen as shi focuses more on appearing as non threatening as possible as shi quitely says to hir companions "I'm not sure how this is going to go but I doubt we will get much without interacting with them."
- Lilac stops as Jill does, looking forward at the five spaced-out ferals. She seems ready to reach for weapons, but pauses as even after a moment of observation it becomes blatantly obvious there is something very wrong here. She lowers herself a bit, trying to hide her large frame a bit better as she simply observes for now, watching the ferals for their reactions before deciding what to do.
- Just like the stereotype, Jill steps on a twig that snaps, drawing the attention of one of the panthers. But strangely, all five panthers turn their heads at the same time. They make no noise, simply staring out to Jill's position as if waiting for something.
- Ebreus does his best to stay hidden as the ferals look to Jill. 'Well they know we're here.' he telepathically says to them. He watches the ferals for a few moments longer, taking out a notepad and making note of their behavior his his lower set of arms. 'Shall we step forward and abandon out attempt at stealth?' he asks again telepathically.
- The fox looks onward as their heads all move in unison, shuddering to herself at the eerie scene. She looks over to Ebreus, wether he's looking or not and nods, putting her notebook away.
- Jill pauses and raise an eyebrow at how all of the reacted at one and as shi slowly stands up shi quitely says to Ebreus "You seem to be the expert here on packminds. Could that type of reaction be from a packmind? As it is I doubt they all heard me and decided to look at exactly the same time." Once shi is fully standing up shi tries to appear as unthreatening as possible as shi frendly says "Hello there." and waits to see if there is any reaction.
- Lilac nibbles on her lip as she observes the ferals silently, but her eyes slowly fall upon the fifth one out, the heavily pregnant female. The cowgirl winces slightly, as she recalls the effect of the fog as per Ebreus' description. As Jill engages the ferals in conversation, she raises her hands to show her palms and steps forward, towrds them. "We mean you no harm." She says. "I'm not sure if you can understand me but.. we mean you no harm." She looks over at the pregnant one again. "Is.. is she okay?"
- Once Jill speaks up, the ferals begin speaking in perfect unison, still looking strait at Jill: "Welcome. We have been joined as the Children of Tahoe have before, left here to leave a message for the savages of Fairhaven. If you have any questions of us, we will answer before we leave to join the other units." They give no response to Lilac's question, or even seem to register that she is there.
- Ebreus looks to Jill in some confusion when she mentions the Packminds. He has experience with hallucinogenic fog, not Packminds. When the Panthers speak he takes special note of what they say and do. He emerges from the forrested area, hoping they haven not been imparted with the knowledge to recognize him... even though he looks vastly different than when he had met Carson. "Well first question would be how was this done to you?" he asks.
- The fox girl goes pale and instantly unpins her name tag and stores it inside her coat, hiding her name for the current time as she listens and asks a question as well, "Who are the children of tahoe?"
- Jill nods as they speak as one and shi asks "Do you have a name that we can call you? And what message do you have to leave with us?" As shi is speaking shi moves a bit closer to the group of panthers before shi sits down a polite distance from them.
- Lilac is quite unnerved that they didn't seem to even register her presence. The word 'packmind' catches her attention, and she shrinks back after her previous step forward. "Were there others that were.. joined, from here? Will you take more with you?" Her eyes are still on the pregnant female, clearly concerned for her well-being, but unwilling to get any closer.
- The panthers continue to talk in unison, now turning their attention to Ebreus: The Children of Tahoe, blessed with the powers of distributed programming, have connected us as they have connected to each other. As learned from the unit designated 'Annie' it has come to our conclusion that this method of connection is known by you as the 'Fog of Tahoe'." They then turn to Zomb to speak with her: "The Children of Tahoe are the survivors of the event taking place 3,463 days ago, joined by unit Mother just as they have joined us." Their attention then falls on Lilac: "These units have no local designations, and have been deemed Fair-One through Fair-Five. No other units have succeeded in connection."
- Ebreus takes exact note of the words of the Panthers. "Very well. Could you explain the process to me in detail? This information would, most likely, lessen the challanges units Fair-One through Fair-Five will encounter in their operations in Fairhaven. Also may I ask where is Unit Annie, may we speak with her?" he questions. Taking note of the Panthers body language or lack thereof in addition to their words.
- The fox girl huhs, looking over to the group of panthers, "That was both informative and puzzling." she speaks up softly, looking over the fairs and reaching into her pocket to wave a small device around.
- Jill nods as the panthers speak before shi says "Would you please provide additional details about the unit Mother and about The Children of Tahoe." As shi is speaking shi unobtrusively watches them closely to attempt to gather any sort of additional information from their body langauge.
- Lilac crosses her arms as the others ask their questions, her bovine tail whipping side to side anxiously. Packminds this, Tahoe that. She lets the others ask the smart questions, but the cowgirl still has one thing niggling at her. "The child." She asks, looking at the female before looking 'them', in their general direction. "Will the child be safe? Will it survive birth? Will it.. um.. be joined?"
- The panthers don't seem to be moving beyond speaking and turning to face whomever they are talking to. Again they reply to each person in turn, starting with Ebreus: The details involving connection have not been installed, in the possible case of future sabotage or reverse engineering. And once queries have completed, we will move on to Tahoe. As for unit Annie, she has been extracted to Tahoe following removal of Zephyr indoctrination." Next they speak to Jill: "As learned from the unit designated 'Annie' your local designation for unit Mother is Tahoe server. It is with her power that the first Children of Tahoe were connected, and with their connection came the local community." Lilac's answer came last: "Previous occurances of pregnacy among units have concluded in joining within a day of birth, at which point they have reached maturity."
- Ebreus continues to take notes. "Very well. You have demonstrated awareness of the Zephyr Corporation. Are you aware of the Promethean Organization?" he says. He watches the five of them closely for any body language. "Do you have records of how Unit Mother began this Distributed Conciousness?" he asks.
- The fox girl stores the item and looks over to the panthers and asks, "How long do you plan on staying in fairhaven, given the task at hand?" she asks inquisitively, "And, moreso...how long will you be spending in this forest?"
- Jill nods as they speak before shi says "Thank you for answering my questions. I personaly do not have any more questions for you but I am sure my companions have additional questions."
- Lilac grimaces at that reply, but nods slightly. "I.. I suppose that's not the worst case scenario, in this situation.." She crosses her arms again defensively. "Well.. thank you, yea. I guess." She scratches the back of her neck, before turning to look at Ebreus for a clue on how to proceed from here.
- The panthers are starting to repeat themselves on some points, almost like reading from a script: "The details on unit Mother have not been installed, in the possible case of future sabotage or reverse engineering. As learned from the unit designated 'Annie' the organization designated 'Promethians' is known. We are leaving for Tahoe when the message has been delivered at the end of questioning.
- Ebreus aproaches the Panther-Units, and sends his shield drone to fly between two of them. "Very well." he says. Once within arms reach he says to the male whom he is closest to, "What do you know of the Prometheans?" He then begins to walk around the Panther and says, "Do you have objections to a basic physical examination?"
- The fox girl falls silent, her questioning completed as she gives a faint bow of her head, then steps back into group with both Jill and Lilac. "I have no further questions as well. None of importance, anyways."
- Jill continues to sit where shi is as shi watches Ebreus inquire about a physical examination. As it is shi wouldn't really know what to look for and it seems that whatever is going on is mental and not physical. With that shi nods as shi finishes recording hir notes to hir NICE.
- Lilac looks very nervous as Ebreus starts approaching them. ".. careful.." She says, still unconvinced that they won't try to defend themselves with force if they feel threatened. "We don't mean them any harm, but let's not push our luck against their trust."
- In response to Ebreus's questions, the ferals talk about the Promethians as if they were reading off of the Zephyr's pamphlet that they give to all their agents, then repeating 'As learned from the unit designated Annie'. They then say "No physical change has occured to these units that would warrent an examination, and would be preferable if they are left unharmed." They pause for a long moment, as if waiting for a specific question.
- Ebreus nods slowly as they run off the tidbits of information gathered from Annie. "Most of that is intentional disinformation by the Zephyr corporation. I'm not sure where to begin on providing accurate information." he says as he finishes walking one circle around the male. "Only a very improperly done examination would cause harm. I am interested in checking neurological responses such as reflexes and eye dialation." he says. He then telepathically asks the others, 'Any of you capable of performing significant examinations?'
- The fox watches, allowing the large fox to continue to do what he does, looking to the panthers and Ebreus. The vixen looks back to her co-horts, faint glowing green light upon them from her lens, "I'm not sure how to feel about looking too deeply at these fairs."
- Jill nods to Ebreus and says "I have medical nanomagic which should provide a whole host of information /but/ I'll only do that if they are ok with me doing it." shi shrugs and says "It isn't intrusive at all and I just need to touch them. As for filling them in on all the details about the factions other than big Z I'm not sure if we have the time for that." shi shrugs again and continues "I personly would not mind filling them in myself."
- Lilac nods at Ebreus, reluctantly. She follows up on Jill's offer by adding. "I have classical medical training, sure.. but.. I don't know, I think we shouldn't be pushing our luck here. And besides.. the might be a risk of contamination." She says, rather openly. "We don't know how exactly all this works. We could.. end up like them, if we're not careful." The cowgirl doesn't budge from her spot. "We should treat this situation with great care."
- The panthers sit silently as no questions were asked of them. With Jill's biomonitoring sight nanomagic nothing out of the ordinary can be seen about the black panthers other than a ton of brain activity.
- Ebreus watches the Panthers for a little while longer before looking back to his companions, and his shield drone finishes flying between each of them. "I've encountered others like this, closer to Tahoe. It would be very bad for them to leave with inaccurate information." he adds telepathically, 'And it would be compairably bad for us to neglect this oppertunity to collect information on them.'
- The fox looks back towards Ebreus and the fairs, shrugging at them "You guys do you, I guess." she speaks out, "I'll just...sit back for now."
- Jill pauses for a moment as shi looks much more closely at the fairs before shi shakes hir head and shurgs turning towards Ebreus and says "Well they are completly normal medicly speaking apart from a rather high level of brain activity. That bit of info isn't really worth that much but I have it recorded if it'll do any good." shi sniffs the air for a moment before continuing "What is more intresting is that while they smell similar to a packmind they actauly are not a packmind. That is definitly more than a bit odd." With a shrug shi turns back to the fairs and says "Well as Ebreus said ealier the information you have on the local factions other than Zepyr is almost definitly more than a bit innaccurate. I'm not all that useful for info abour RSX but I'll tell you as much as I can about the prometheans." and shi proceds to do just that.
- Lilac holds herself back from commenting, instead listening to Jill's explanation. "So.. not quite like a packmind, but just kinda like one.." She scratches the back of her neck. "All they need to know really is that we're no threat and we'll leave them well enough alone if they leave us the heck alone too. That's the only way we'll all ever get anywhere is if we coexist.." She looks over at the pregnant one, grimacing. "..somehow."
- The panthers listen to Jill's expanation of the Promethians with their full attention, giving no input themselves unless asked. But once Lilac mentions that they are no threat, one of the panthers actually scowls at her. The other panthers then turn to the one who is angry and that seems to calm him down. They finish by speaking in unison: "It has been deemed that you will not ask the right question soon enough, so we will answer the question for you. We have been left here so that we may deliver a message before we leave. The message is that the Children of Tahoe wish to have all the knowledge Zephyr has on the technology known as Nanite Interface Control Units. Goods, services, and knowledge my be traded in return."
- Ebreus takes careful note of the information Jill provided about them and copies, in exact iquote, the information she tells them about the Prometheans in his notes. He looks the lot of them over again, wishing very much he had something that would collect a sample of their nanites without them knowing before an idea occurs to him. When the Panthers chime in he thinks for a moment and says, "Very well. I have a Nanite Interface Control Enhancer operating at almost peak effectiveness. I can provide information about it. First I would inquire as to the Goods, Services, and Knowledge that I may gain in exchange for sharing my accumulated knowledge. If you desire I will provide a partial demonstration of it's capabilities as proof of posession."
- The fox girl, upon noticing Jill's answer about Promethia decides to add her own two cents, "RSX, you don't need to worry about in Fairhaven." she speaks up, "However, their goal seems to be to rebuild the old world."
- Jill looks at Ebreus slightly concerned and says "Do be careful Ebreus. I do not think big Z will take it well if you sell them even a few details of a NICE without them OKing it in advance." shi shrugs before shi continues and says "I'm not really hugely fimilar with big Z but a few friends of mine have gotten into deep shit with them over much lesser things." shi then looks back at the fairs with an intensly speculative look on hir face as shi wonders just what might come of this before shi asks them "It would greatly ease most folks if you promised not to turn around and use what ever knowledge you might gain against them. Most people have good reason to be concerned about packminds running loose"
- Lilac tenses as the panther scowls at her. There it is, there's the sign that they're not to be trusted. She jaw drops as they ask about the NICE, and was about to give her reply, but Ebreus' offer was quicker. She was about to burst out angrily at him, but tries to calm herself down so as not to provoke the panthers further. "Before you go and do that, let us report back to HQ and ask if this is a wise course of action, because it has ramifications we can't accurately predict here." She nods at Jill's words. "Exactly.."
- The panthers look to Ebreus, replying: "A list of trade items has not been provided to us, but a meeting point for the trade has been. For every Saturday until contact is made, our representatives will be stationed on the highway outside of Tahoe along with potential trade materials. We have no files regarding the topic 'Packminds'." They then all begin to stand up.
- Ebreus telepathically responds to Jill and Lilac, 'Negotiation. It requires some level of subtlety and misdirection. I wanted to know what they had on offer. Why would they tell me if it appeared that I didn't have what they wanted in exchange? They may have something worthwile or not but that was the easiest rout to answering that question.' He smiles at the Panthers, "Very well I will meet your representative with a traveling party one Saturday in the near future. The Packminds are the primary infection type in Oregan state. They have a distributed intelligence as well and are known for agressively bringing others into the collective... they face strong resistance due to their unintelligent dealings with the Prometheans, Zephyr, and RSX." he explains. "Forgive me if I am mistaken but it appears that the task you are here for is... lesser than would require five units. Might I offer you the oppertunity to collect information relevent to what you have asked after? All it would require is for one or more Units to acompany me to New Dawn, the capital of the Promethean Organization."
- The fox girl notices the group standing up, openning up to sigh, but not making a sound. She looks to the others in the group and dusts her palms up, "Well, I guess this concludes business?" she asks curiously, reaching into a pocket and pulling out her name tag to clip back to her shirt, the words ledgible on it reading "Jack Roland."
- As the panthers stand I stand up as well and give Ebreus a shake of the head as I say "Well Ebreus I would say it is fairly important that we take what we have learned back with us. This really is something far far outside of what a group of field agents can decide in the field espicialy when there is no need to do so. As it is we might be able to accompany what ever group the factions set up to meet with them. But what's for darn sure is that this is far far above our pay grade." shi shrugs again and says "As it is we should probaly finish looking around to see if there are any ferals left out here as we were assigned. Considering what we just found out it's probaly more important than ever to see if there are any ferals around here who haven't been assobred into the Children of Tahoe."
- Lilac takes a few steps back, away from the panthers, calming down now that they seem ready to leave. "I agree. We need to report this to Zephyr HQ immediately." Funny, the cow hadn't been doing field work for a long time.. years even.. but the old habits slotted back in immediately the moment she was thrust back into the position. "And probably put that meeting point under surveillance, just in case.." She says, sparing a glance at the others, before turning to Jill. "I assume that most of them were killed by the.. process. The joining. But we can check. It's a good idea."
- After the panthers get up they reach into the stump of the tree, pulling out improvised sacks that look like they were made from whatever they could find in the deep forest. They still speak in unison as they line up in single file, the pregnant woman standing in the middle. "The proccess of joining the Children of Tahoe has not resulted in a death in 3,402 days according to files provided. All units have been instructed to return to Tahoe at the end of the message." They start walking to the path that the group used to reach the clearing, single file and looking like they intend to leave.
- Ebreus nods slowly and finishes fills out a few more notes. "Very well. This is most likely goodby then." he says to the Panthers. He telepathically says to his three companions, 'I agree, we should find non-joined ferals to round out our notes and better piece together what is going on.'
- The fox waves over to the Panthers as they leave, only to look back to the group. "You guys have valid points." she responds, "H-hopefully the mist goes with them...given both the safety of ferals and the safety of myself."
- Jill nods and stretches as shi says "Well this has been far more intresting than I expected it to be." shi nods to the woods around them and says "So lets go and see if we can't find ourselfs any other ferals out in the woods."
- Lilac nods, seeming quite happy to depart this clearing. "Yea.. and then let's report back as soon as we can. This is bigger than we are, and we shouldn't act in the shadows about this." She looks at Ebreus warily, before turning and stepping off, her bovine tail whipping anxiously behind herself.
- After the panther's leave, there is no more signs of the fog having any more lasting effects on any other ferals, which more often than not required effort to stop them from humping the party when they approached. After the rest of the day runs smoothly, the research is returned to New Dawn for the Promethians.
