[Log] West Haven

[thequestgiver]

Characters: All on the road to West Haven
Open? Yep
Where: Starting at the gate of Schwanheim, on the way to and in West Haven
When: The 5th of Rebirth's Height


It was a clear morning, a touch warmer than the previous days, a sign that Rebirth was progressing along. For the more superstitious of Schwanheim's residents, it seemed a good omen for the heroes' journey to the unfortunate town of West Haven. Of course with how the weather of Rebirth ran, it might be pouring rain by the time they left the gates but that was Rebirth for ya.

[[OoC: this log will be split into 3 parts/sub threads. You don't have to tag the preparations or travel threads to arrive at West Haven.]]

Comments

Morning: Gathering and heading out

[thequestgiver]

Waiting for the summoned heroes at the gates was a cluster of city residents and royal servants. Supplies, ranging from horses to carefully packed lunches were waiting as were a small gaggle of teenaged girls hovering near the edge, hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the more tantalizing of the male heroes so they could swoon like proper maidens.

OTA

[ex_apaintingdarkly917]

Dark saw the girls ripe for swooning and put on his best 'dashing' look. He flashed them all smiles as he approached the horse that was meant to be his, based on how the stable-boy was gesturing for him to come closer.

[sorcerous]

Loki takes a quiet, shy horse, one that's shivering with energy and dancing on her hooves, nervous and pulling against the servants who hold her. He runs fingers through her mane and murmurs into her neck, low, soothing, until she settles and pushes her nose into his hair.

He mounts her fluidly, with the grace of long training, long experience. Gathers the reins in his hand but holds them loosely, guiding her with touch and urging instead.

He cuts a regal, graceful figure on her. Eat your heart out, ladies.

[for_that_i_run]

“Pretty impressive. You must have some experience with animals like this?”

The ease with which this stranger had managed that horse had not gone unnoticed, either by the ladies who seemed ready to fall at his feet or by Eagle who was standing nearby watching the others chose their mounts.

[sorcerous]

"The horses in Asgard are of better breeding," says Loki, and his tone is dismissive, but his fingers are gentle on her neck, her shoulders. He cares for animals.

His eyes lift to the stranger. "And I suppose you are another of the 'heroes'."

[for_that_i_run]

The gaggle of ladies was smiled at when Eagle stepped out into the open space near the gate, but really the knight standing near the horses was more interesting to him. Clearly the gentleman knew how to control the animal he was standing next to since despite the clamor of the villagers the horse under his care remained perfectly calm while some of the other animals pranced anxiously disturbed by the noise.
Some one with great knowledge over the only method of travel in this land was just the kind of person Eagle was looking for. If the knight found the attention strange the request made by this supposed hero was even more bizarre. Still the Commander’s charming nature was enough to bring the knight around and grant the odd request.
Do true heroes ride double? No matter how funny the natives might find this at least traveling to the West Haven would now be possible.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura near blanched at the sight of the fangirls, shifting to try and hide under his ridiculous white mage hat and anyone else who might want the attention more. It'd been a very pleasant while since he'd had to deal with a fan club... he was not at all in a hurry to gain a new one!

He'd brought his own packed lunch, so all that was needed was to find a horse that seemed gentle enough for his very limited riding experience...

sup people

[a_wider_world]

Odd, how certain things simply didn't change between worlds. As a Jedi he'd had his fair share of warm send-offs and receptions; as a Knight of the realm it seemed he could expect more of the same. At least Boga was waiting patiently in the stables, calm but ready, his Force presence a glow of energy waiting to be released.

Obi-Wan mounted up carefully. There was, he thought, something to be said for carrying a lightsaber at one's hip rather than a sword. Although the sword they'd given him was just as light as his usual weapon, it didn't store quite so easily, and he wasn't sure he could get used to it banging against his thigh or twisting awkwardly when he sat.

Oh well.

He'd already checked the saddlebags and made certain he had everything he needed, so all that remained was to ride out into the yard to check on the whereabouts of his sons and potential companions. Which he did, with a grateful smile to the stable's grooms and a solid pat to Boga's neck.

[loyalbeyonddeath]

Fakir, on the other hand, seldom had a warm send-off. They tended to be frantic, spur of the moment, and often self-initiated. To be wished well and fawned over a bit was a pleasant change even if he found it a little difficult to get accustomed to.

Fortunately the business of riding was quite easy to remember even after a couple years of relative inactivity.

He became somewhat anxious upon seeing Ben already in the yard when he rode out, wondering if he'd started too late and kept him waiting. He raised a hand from Hussar's reins and awkwardly waved.

[a_wider_world]

Ben's smile broadened when he caught sight of Fakir.

"Good morning," he said cheerfully, shifting in the saddle to face him more fully. "I take it Valiant's still asleep."

[sorcerous]

Loki's horse moved quickly and lightly, commanded more by gesture than by the reins. His eyes flick over the knight's posture, of the way the horse moved.

"He trusts you," he said. "And how did you manage that? You don't know horses."

The Knight was the de facto leader of the expedition, and, therefore, the one on whom Loki would focus. He wanted to know if this man was a warrior. If he was worthy of even Loki's fickle alliance, or his capricious obedience.

oh hai trickster god :3

[a_wider_world]

"I know animals," Obi-Wan replied pleasantly. "Place your trust in them, set aside your own fears, and take the lead, and most of them will follow you."

Of course, being able to nudge at his horse's emotions through the Force didn't hurt.

"It's Loki, isn't it?"

[schrien_die_raben]

Rue was later than the others in arriving, looking flustered and irritated as she made her way towards the gathered crowd, a flock of crows inconspicuously following overhead. After being told no one would drive a carriage out there she was quite unhappy, considering she had never ridden a horse in her life. Still, she needed to get rid of those birds, so, swallowing her nervousness, she approached what she deemed the friendliest-looking mare, grabbing a hold of its reins with an uneasy look.

[loyalbeyonddeath]

Fakir noticed the crows before he noticed Rue.

"Ah, there's our princess now," he said.

On the Road

[thequestgiver]

The road to West Haven wasn't especially long, but it wasn't especially short either, and the long stretches of barely touched countryside between Schwanheim and the village were rather lack luster.

However, it wasn't too long before there was a sign.



And a short while later, another.



[[OoC: Use this for any complaining about the road or random encounters!]]

ALSO OTA

[ex_apaintingdarkly917]

The whole way there, Dark fought his horse for control of their route. From time to time the horse would swerve off the path seeming just to annoy him. Often they stopped so the horse could chew some grass, no matter how Dark protested.

Finally, a little more than halfway there, Dark seemed to have nudged his horse in just the wrong place and with a whinny it bucked, throwing its rider, and raced off at a canter.

He would have made some snippy comeback, but he landed flat on the back and for the moment had the wind knocked out of him.

[for_that_i_run]

Just the kind of thing Eagle sought to prevent happening to him by enlisting the services of the knight he had met at the gate. Such a heavy fall… the boy was lucky the hooves of that creature hadn’t caught him on the way to the ground.
“Are you alright?” Eagle asked as his the knight guiding his own mount brought the animal to a stop near where Dark had landed.

West Haven

[thequestgiver]

There was an almost unsavory aura as the group approached the ill fated village, the horses becoming more and more reluctant until only the more experienced riders could urge them onward. A thin wisp of curling smoke snaked out wards along the cobblestone roads, brushing by the gray brown weeds that had clawed up from the gaps between them.

It wasn't an especially large village, a few well tended cottages, a small store with its faded sign and weathered siding, a tall spindly church with towers trying to reach the sky, an inn with an open door, empty water troughs next to an abandoned stable and a well almost perfectly in the center with an empty bucket laying on it's side next to it, as abandoned as the rest of the town.

There were no signs of life anywhere, even the birds seemed to be avoiding the area, only the periodic faint "caw" of a distant crow and the creak of the a sign's weathered chains as the wind swung it back and forth given any sound at all. The thin grey smoke that had welcomed the heroes to West Haven also curled around the edges of the buildings, faint and wispy, but stubborn against the wind.

[ex_apaintingdarkly917]

Dark is more than happy to leave his horse behind on the outskirts of town. He walks evenly, hands in pockets, for all the world like there's nothing wrong, but his eyes never stop moving. The aura of the place has him on edge. He wanders toward the center of town, searching for the source.

[thequestgiver]

There doesn't seem to be much that could be called a source, the feeling of wrongness, like the scentless smoke, seemed to permeate the entire village. The smoke seems most concentrated around the base of the well, however, as if gathering there.

Re: West Haven

[sorcerous]

Loki dismounts (though he could coax the horse further); he leaves her loosely tied, and closes his eyes.

It is more difficult than usual to summon another form -- something, again, to do with the weakness he's felt since he arrived. Hawk, he thinks, eagle, falcon, a bird of prey, and he twists his fingers, wrapping his form in magic-feathers.

He flutters into the air as a swift. Not what he'd meant, but it would do.

He hops onto the road, flaps his wings to sweep up to a horse, a shoulder. To listen to what is being planned, if anything.

After this: a flurry of his wings, and he takes to the sky.

[thequestgiver]

The view from above isn't much more illuminating than that from the ground. West Haven is a plain, dull village with nothing to recommend it. A rather sleepy town even before it was emptied, the wooded area around it is almost indistinguishable from the rest of the bland, generic country side the group had passed by to get to it. There didn't even seem to be any farms near by.

[for_that_i_run]

The horse became fidgety as they neared West Haven until even the gallant knight began to have trouble with the animal. That was as far as they could travel together. Eagle decided and slid off the horse as it once again pranced and half-reared, though some how he still managed to land on his feet and turn his attention to the village just ahead. The horses could wait here while they went in.
Eagle glanced into the windows of the deserted house he passed but there was no sign of life at all. In fact there was every indication that the people here had just been pulled away, or scared off, right in the middle of whatever they had been doing.

Re: West Haven

[a_wider_world]

He could feel the horse growing skittish under him as they approached; rather than try to coerce him into moving down the main street, Obi-Wan simply let Boga come to a stop and then dismounted. A low tree branch became a makeshift hitching post, and once he was certain Boga wouldn't try to run, he set off himself towards the center of West Haven.

The smoke was the first thing that caught his attention. There was something wrong about it--certainly it was too low to the ground, more like a heavy gas, but that wasn't what bothered him. It was something vague at the back of his mind, a tugging feeling that he was forgetting something simple.

He took a breath and reached into the Force. It could not show him the past or future (he had never had those gifts in his own world, so he hardly expected them to carry over to this one), but it could give him a sense of how West Haven felt: perhaps what its inhabitants had been thinking or experiencing in the moments before their disappearance, or perhaps how their daily life had proceeded before vanishing.

And the Force returned only emptiness.

There was life around the village--the tiny pricks of light and warmth that were animals and plants, the current of the living Force moving through the world. But this place was empty. There was no energy here at all.

The smoke, he realized with a start. It has no smell.

There was more missing in West Haven than its inhabitants, that was for certain.

[for_that_i_run]

“This fog is strange.” It was one of the most obvious signs that something bizarre had occurred here. “The wind doesn’t seem to move it at all.”

Once again Eagle found himself wishing for even the smallest piece of technology that his home world of Autozam could have provided him with. Scanning the smoke for data might have given them a clue as to what had really happened here. Even the animals seemed to understand more of the situation than they did. At least they knew enough to stay away from the town.

“Its too bad we can’t ask the horses what they are so afraid of.”