the little one stops to shut the gate :: [OPEN]

[baedalites.livejournal.com]

Who: A whole lot of ants and YOU!
What: Exploring houses overrun by giant ants! Interacting with ants!
Where: Three specific ant hive houses have cropped up in Baedal.
When: The ants become visible late Sukkardi, so any time after Shundi will do.
Notes: To organize expeditions into the ant hives and to see what your characters will find there, please see the OOC post. NPCs, general GMing, and mod guidance are all available upon request.
Warnings: Bugs! Possible horror. Will update as needed.

When the ants come out of the ground it happens very quietly and it happens at night. Baedal wakes up to chitinous sound of insect labour. At first there is some panic - memories of strange creatures emerging from below to attack the city fresh in everyone's mind - but it is soon evident that the ants, while curious, pose no immediate threat to the City. They seem content to work and live inside the houses they have occupied; houses no one has noticed or cared about for years.

Soon, the ant-occupied houses begin to change. The ants are building something on the rooftops, something like towers, stretching towards the heavens. Birds that fly too close to the buildings quickly disappear.

Comments

[suninhades]

Good man.

Integra makes a brief missive through her CiD to the Hellsing channel, informing the central command that they're off to do this - in the event they never return or become trapped, it's prudent someone know where they are - and then puts the device away and reaches out to open the door.

Inside, there's a room not unlike the one they're already in; abandoned, unkempt, though ant-free. She steps inside and looks around, slow and careful. "I can't even see any spellmarks," she observes. No engraved words, no chalk or blood marks. She holds the handle up to the doorframe, checking closer.

[ofminastirith.livejournal.com]

The abandoned room comes as something of a relief, although he's still a little suspicious. Boromir purposefully looks up (...not that the ceiling is high, and he is ridiculously tall) and into the dark corners for any unwelcome presence. Nothing. He slides his sword back in place, content for now.

"Perhaps they're built into the walls? Although I can't say I know much about wizardry."

[suninhades]

"I've no witch's knack," she admits. "But it's been in my upbringing, like a science. It's used far too often by our enemies." And so she needs to be able to recognize it, counter it - break it, if needed; she doesn't consider alchemy magic (because it isn't), so she doesn't bother to mention that she practices that, spells aside.

There are two doors in this new room, though, both at the back of the room, on opposite walls. Integra passes by them to look at the doorknobs and listen, though she doesn't open either just yet. Instead, she paces back to the original door, and looks out at the ants, who've carried on as if they're now invisible to them. Perhaps they are. She closes the door halfway, and stops to look at the mark drawn on the back. For a while she says nothing.

"This is the same mark that was on the creatures that attacked us in weeks past."

[ofminastirith.livejournal.com]

Magic and science have an odd place in Arda, entangled and inseparable for now (and later on, because Eru Iluvater's spirit really is at the centre of everything). The general rule is don't use either for evil purposes, and you should be fine. Not that anyone other than elves or Maiar could really use magic without some dreadful trade-off. And even then.

Boromir eyes the mark on the back of the door. "I remember it." He makes a sound that is caught between a loud exhale and a weary sigh, before voicing the obvious. "This doesn't bode well."

[suninhades]

"No." Her voice is wry, and not pleased. She opens the door all the way up again and walks briskly back outside to pick up a handful of dirt. When she comes back into the hidden room, she leaves a coating of dirt in the doorway. It's not the best trick to see if anyone follows them or goes in and out while they're in deeper rooms, but this isn't a James Bond outfit.

"Left or right?" Time to go into the next room.

[ofminastirith.livejournal.com]

Clever. It's not the first time he's admired his employer's thinking, and it probably won't be the last.

"Right," he says, sounding rather decisive about it, too.

[suninhades]

Right it is. Integra goes first, pushing the door open easily and still holding her candle, as much for light as for making sure that this whole place doesn't dissolve around her or leave them trapped in a wall.

There's nothing immediately alarming in the next room - a mirror on the wall, a dresser on the opposite with a number of innocuous items, papers in boxes, abandoned. She begins to look about, seeing what she can read.

[ofminastirith.livejournal.com]

Boromir does likewise, holding his candle as steadily as possible and trying not to squint in the dim light. At the dresser he picks up and dusts off what looks like a pamphlet. One word in particular stands out. "Candlelighters. Hm." He does his best to flick through it one-handedly.