November open log

[emet_sulk]

🧙 WHO: Emet-Selch and anyone!
⚔️️ WHAT: Having lost yet another close bond, this alchemist is running quests and collecting dangerous ingredients to distract himself
🕒 WHEN: Throughout November
🗺️ WHERE: (See individual prompts)
⚠️ WARNINGS: The Obsession(TM) quest may or may not verge towards sexual content depending on preference. There are also spoilers for FFXIV Shadowbringers 5.0 in the fourth prompt.


1. Lettuce Help You 🗡️ (Knight) or 🛡️ (Arcane Mage)

On the outskirts of the city, Emet-Selch is trailed by several bobbing heads of flappy lettuce as he forages for herbs and other alchemy reagents. The oddly-shaped creatures gently rise and fall with the thermal currents, creating something of a comical sight as he crouches in the grass to inspect some flowering plants. His familiar is accompanying him as well, keeping a more alert eye out. Should anyone armed approach, she will straighten, bare her teeth, and growl softly.

Emet-Selch glances over, wary, when he notices someone coming close. If you're a known face, his frown eases and he will nod. If you are unfamiliar, he will remain wary and ask, "Can I help you?"

...The more observant or rash types will notice several molted leaves in his basket from the creatures. He only has them because they've fallen off naturally from the creatures, but someone could easily leap to the conclusion that he's a poacher. Especially with the gunblade strapped to his back.

2. Be Nimble, Be Quick

How to obtain basilisk venom from a creature which can paralyse with one stare? Emet-Selch ponders this very conundrum as he steps carefully through the Forest of the Felled, searching for the flower to create the antidote to its stare. Most serpentine creatures are venomous in his experience. Venomous or with ample coils to throttle their prey with. They were created that way. Their use in a poison goes without saying, but what positive applications could it be used for?

Lost in thought, he fails to notice a vine loop on the forest floor. As soon as he steps into it, the noose tightens around his ankle and yanks him down.

"Argh!" He hits the ground with a painful thud. Above him looms a giant slime, ready to drown him in its gelatinous body.

"Oh, by all the gods," he curses quietly, trying to kick the thing back. Unsuccessfully.

3. Toxic 🛡️ (Arcane Mage) (MIGHT BE NSFW)

Emet-Selch makes sure he is thoroughly prepared to meet the Gancanagh before he sets out. Gloves, mask, sleeping potion - the works. He has no idea whether the warnings given in the shady request are exaggerated or not, but he would not have survived for as long as he (nearly) did by being reckless.

Getting to the spot is a trial all on its own but he manages that without too much fuss. Crouching well away from the thing, he carefully observes its movements from afar.

Perhaps if I toss the sleeping draught at its head? While he's dithering however, he notices someone else approach. Maybe towards him, or maybe towards the Gancanagh itself, not realising that he's there. How he reacts will depend on what happens next.

4. Amaurot (Extreme) (Sleep paralysis demon)

Fire rains from a dark and seething sky. The air reeks and tastes of smoke, ash, and charred flesh. Around you, towering buildings of some unidentifiable stone crumble to a horde of terminus beasts who pursue fleeing figures and slaughter them mercilessly. The largest ones fire beams of harsh light from their maws, slicing entire towers from end to end. Another explodes after grossly inflating itself and blows out the domed ceiling of a theatre.

Far below the once-elegant walkways, the sea roils thick and red. One would think the smell to come from all the death around them, but in fact the seas themselves are boiling blood. The sun looms too close and its heat is oppressive; the air is stagnant and offers no reprieve. The deep cracks in the earth seem to have no end.

The planet is dying.

A short distance away, a figure dressed in the same dark grey robes as all the rest stands resolute against the carnage. A red mask (left) covers the upper half of his face. Even as his brethren flee from the beasts, he faces the oncoming calamity: clenched fists trembling yet the line of his mouth determined to somehow make things right.

All of a sudden there is a thunderous crack. He swivels, eyes growing wide with alarm behind his mask as he thrusts out his hand towards you. "Watch out!"

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Comments

[luciing]

A nod to the first statement. There are no fae in his world, but he's learned by now that those here aren't to be so easily trusted.

"Aye. Or have our mentalities tampered. They do not care much for the off-worlders' well being."

Odd, considering that they're here apparently to save their world and others.

[emet_sulk]

"Such is the way of the fae. They abide by their own rules but abide by them quite strictly. 'Tis not so difficult to understand."

In some ways, Emet-Selch prefers them to the vague, changeable moralities of men. Though the fae are dangerous to cross, they are exceedingly fair and honour their side of a bargain.

As he speaks, some of the flapping lettuce start to drift off, heading to who-knows-where. Emet-Selch keeps idle pace with them, scanning the ground more often than he scans the trees. He IS originally out here for a different purpose after all.

"Would you like some of their 'leaves' to take home as well? I'm sure more will fall off as they go."

[luciing]

Somnus makes no other comment about the fae, instead turning his head to watch as the other surveys the ground.

"The leaves that molt or fall are still delicacies, are they?"

He nods, walking a few steps behind. Using kinetic magic, he levitates a few from the ground, turning it over for inspection. "For stew, perhaps."

[emet_sulk]

"So I hear." He sighs deeply as the bobbing creatures pause by a bush and nibble at some flowers. Giving them a small berth, he inspects the flowers himself to see if they may be useful.

"These creatures are poached for those very leaves. I cannot fathom why 'tis so difficult to keep and farm these things in a sustainable manner."

[luciing]

Emet has a point, to which Somnus nods in agreement.

"Indeed. While they appear to be migratory, that should not prevent the fey from domesticating these creatures."

A pause. "Lest, of course, they are sacred in some manner."

But looking/i> at them and how they so ungracefully flap their leaves in the air, that's rather difficult to believe.

[emet_sulk]

"Sacred in the sense that they mustn't be interfered with? I suppose they could be."

It is rather dull though - and frustrating - to keep an eye out for poachers. Were it not for the coin, Emet-Selch would be looking for other meaningful uses of his time.

Plucking a few flowers carefully, he tucks them into his basket and straightens with a low sigh. "I do wish they would migrate faster."