Tapping In.
After tracing the root's our good Baroness Izett did the untinkable, she tried to commune with the roots, she was overwelmed by the power. Sir Taran clod cocked her and knocked her out. The Royal Necromancer took over from there. Taran and I need to /Talk/ about what I mean by protect...anyway this id how it happened.
Quina considers, then says "I should focus some on the horses. Making sure they're not affected by it." She does so, applying her empathy to keeping them, well, themselves.
Emma says, to Taran, "Seems like the hum's coming from the roots. Runs along them, maybe." She lifts a shoulder in a shrug. "Thing reminds me of another root I saw, once."
Taran indicates the roots. "Study the mass," he says. "Liam - do your best to counteract that music. And aye, Quina, if you can keep the horses from becoming enthralled, t'would be a great boon. Milady Emma, Izett, what make you of this? Where has it been seen before, what does it do?"
Celeste ;'s eyebrows lift, "Where?" she wonders to Emma.
Quina does look at Emma though, at the mention of seeing something similar. Then there's a quiet whinny towards one of the horses.
Liam lifts the volume of his humming to help counteract the hum from the roots. It's a very even tone.
The redhead holds up a hand. "It reminds me of it; I couldn't tell you if it's one and the same thing." Emma's brows draw together. "When we first landed in Albion, with the 'Princess' Gwendolyn, we were - naturally - set upon by zombies. Months ago, after the land first rose from the sea. There was a village, and in it a house." She shakes her head, just slightly, a hint of irritation on her features. "And in the house's basement, a root. Big, nasty thing."
Izett glances toward Emma, "I fear I am out of my element with the humming." she offers softly considering how best to address the situation, "Any ideas?" she questions Emma
Pascal starts humming along with Liam, to try to counteract the roots, and improvises his speech in tune, "That sounds, oh Lady, like this, Oh Lady, what did you do that root?"
Celeste's eyebrows shoot up, "Sonofa-.." she growls and there's the sound of grating teeth as she literally seems to chew on her words.
Taran - having nothing to add just now to the discussion - adds his voice to Liam and Pascal's, creating dissonances aimed at keeping people alert.
Quina frowns more. "Celeste. I mean it. Make sure you are NOT touching that root in your bare hand. There's communication within the root."
Izett tilts her head as she looks to the others considering and then back to the root considering Quina's words, "Maybe..that's exactly what must be done." she murmurs softly slowly laying down the root, starting to pull off her gloves.
Emma crouches down, letting her hand fall from her horses' bridle, intent on getting a better look at the roots. "Yes. Yes, there is," she murmurs in agreement with Quina. "I've not seen anything quite like this before, but I wonder if that's what's - Izett, what are you -doing-?"
Liam continues to hum in dissonance to counteract the humming of the root but his eyebrows raise as he realizes that Pascal was correct about identifying ley lines.
Emma suddenly blurts, "The other root sang. Liam, you were -there-. It sang and it was alive, but it reeked of death."
Celeste holds up both hands, now empty, "Tended to, Cousin. Thank you for the warning." she notes, "Tell me of this house, Emma. Where was it? It is an important detail."
Taran doesn't stop his wordless singing, but he does reach down to catch Izett by the arm or wrist. He shakes his head firmly. And pauses long enough to say "If it must be touched then I will touch it. I am more replicable than you in this matter. And if you will not countenance me doing so then it should not be done."
Quina says "If it must be touched, then tough it somewhere else. Not right at the source."
Pascal shakes his head, keeping up his song as he approaches his cousin and the Baroness. "Quina's right. Let's keep going, toward the center."
Izett looks toward Taran and Pascal, "The center is down in the warren. We can't go down without the army. We don't know what is down there and I am not about to face Sir Harold and explain that one." she looks toward the root and considers, "I'm going to touch it..to see if I can't pick up on the communication. Countess Emma is here. If anything goes wrong, she can help. However, if she touches it and something goes wrong, I am ill equipped to help her."
Liam nods to Emma but he doesn't stop humming. Yes, he acknowledges that this was true.
Quina frowns. "So long as someone's ready to knock her out if need be."
Pascal sighs and nods, looking to Taran. "You've got the armor."
Celeste murmurs, "I, for the record, think it's a bad idea but I'm ready to respond in whatever appropriate capacity."
Emma's alto turns sharp, "Taran, do -not-. You are no Feldane." She rises to her feet, abruptly, and pushes a hand through her hair, obviously distressed. "It was near the coast. Miranda might know better. Here in Albion." She frowns at Izett, even more deeply, saying in a low voice, "I'll knock her out if I have to. I don't think it's a great idea, either, but Izett's got the right of it, for the moment."
Taran looks from Izett to Emma, then Celeste and Liam. Slowly he nods, and lets Izett go. And puts his gauntlet back on. "I will do so," he says quietly. "If she must be rendered unconscious."
Izett smiles a bit nervously tempering her nerves with a bit of humor as she comments, "So many willing to knock me out. Wow, feel the love." she jokes even as her hand shakes a little considering the root preparing herself for this one.
Emma intones, gravely, "Knocking you out would be the least of the crimes I've committed for the sake of love and family, my lady."
Celeste laughs to IZett, "Better knock her out than take her down. We are at your back and between those present and those we may call on for help, there's are few forces of the universe not at our disposal."
Taran says quietly, "So many willing to put your soul back together if this proves a foolhardy choice. Indeed, feel the love."
Pascal resumes humming with Liam, then lifts his staff like a bat as he looks at Izett, giving her a cheeky grin.
Izett prepares herself taking in a deep breath. Her small hand trembling a little as she moves to reach for one of the roots. Her eyes taking on that odd look about them with a look of seriousness. Finally her fingers touch it ever so very lightly as if it might shock her or harm her in some fashion. Her eyes glaze over as she focuses on the root. Almost instantly her skin goes ghostly pale, her lips part but no scream comes out. A look of horror washing over her features.
Liam's humming skips a beat, and then two, and then several as he stops in shock as the look on Izett's face. "Izett! Someone do something!" is about all he says as he loses the thread of the tone.
Taran takes that as his cue. One pearlescent, gauntleted fist? Meet Izett's jaw.
Pascal goes wide-eyed as he looks over to Taran. "Someone, just pull her away next time!"
Through the link you discover that the root system spreads throughout Albion, and that it centers upon Dralmir (see the Lyonesse wiki for details: http://lyonesse.roadtoamber.com/). Nothing of Dralmir's state can be discerned - but its location is known.'.
"Balls," Emma hisses, darting in to try to jerk Izett away from the root. Taran's faster than she is, and the redhead is left gawking at the knight. "You almost hit -me-!" she sputters, looking severely offended.
Celeste winces, "I need to teach you how to knock someone out, that was unnecessary. Though that reminds me-you are due lessons." she states grimly.
You paged Quina with 'well her horse was going nuts..obvious signs it knew she was in trouble..'.
Taran raises both eyebrows. "My lady, I am no mystic. But I am quite an accomplished knight. I hit what I aim for." He looks to Celeste and back to Emma. "...She is unconscious, as you asked. You can treat...whatever it has done?"
Liam looks a little lost, and then tries to pick up the humming from the root again. "Um, um..." He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, ignores that one friend just punched another in the jaw, and then picks up the tone of dissonance again.
Quina moved immediately to Izett's horse, when she was affected, to calm it.
Emma's hands move to rest on her hips, her chin beginning to tilt stubbornly. "Well, she's unconscious. Now we've got no way of knowing what it's done to her."
Izett was barely touching the root, as she goes stark white, eyes wide in horror though blank as though seeing something far beyond. The punch she has little resistance to, knocked out likely just as she was about to feint. Her horse starts going nuts as she touched the root, once she is hit the horse starts barreling toward her, going nuts over its owner fallen.
Pascal clears his throat, and starts walking over to Izett and the others. "You could try touching it?" he suggests to Emma. "Unless we don't want to risk that, either."
Quina is very focused on Izett's horse, speaking quietly to it in its own tongue.
Emma is distracted from her ire at Taran by Pascal's words. She nods, once, then glances toward Celeste. "I'm willing," she says, simply.
Celeste nods once crisply and leaves Quina to the hose and checks over Izett, "It might be wise to have someone capable of restraining her tend to her incase she comes to." She considers, "I have some experience in Magic, and given Quina and I could sense this before others, perhaps there is something I may Glean. I am more accustomed to...breaking or interrupting magic." She glances to Emma, "I defer to your expertise, lady Emma."
The horse calms some, though stays right by Izett. Quina continues to work on keeping it more calm.
Taran blinks at Emma, puzzled now. "Well...a bit of water should rouse her," he says slowly. "If that is best. She did not seem to...react well to the root." He bends down to pick Izett up. "Mine the fault for misunderstanding. Let me take her out of the way, where Celeste and Quina may see to her without risk to you?"
"Celeste? Don't let Sir Taran punch me," Emma says, summoning up the barest of smiles. It's a fleeting thing, before she crouches near the root. There's a moment of concentration, and the faintest bit of a cool breeze stirs at the air. Her complexion pales to a near-deathly white, and she reaches for the root.
Pascal nods, watching Emma. "I think... to be honest, Celeste should probably be here to look after Emma. I must admit, I'm not sure I trust myself to be able to handle her if things go... oh, never mind." He settles into a position near Emma, to try and pull her away if necessary.
Celeste inclines her head, "Our Patron would have my ass if I did." she assures with a grin.
Izett is actually fairly light, even as dead weight as Taran picks her up. The bruise already forming on her jaw from the strike. Though it is difficult to say if she remains out as the affects of his punch or the affects of the root.
Taran remarks mildly, "I do not walk about blithely punching people, my lady." He finds a clearest patch free of rocks and horses to lay Izett down. He stands over her, watching Emma take her turn.
Liam slowly tapers off singing with the root, since he's not sure it's doing /anything/. He pulls on Rutabaga’s reins once.
Quina needs to focus more on Izett's horse, and leads the animal over to be near Izett again.
Emma's eyes close, and she sways on the balls of her feet as she grasps the root. After a moment, her eyes fly open, revealing irises that have shaded to silver, their gaze focused on nothing in this world. For a moment, the woman struggles, and finally hisses out the word, "-Enough-." Her gaze focuses once again, and she says, "It stretches through the land entire. Albion. All of it. Threaded through the soil, like arteries wind through flesh..."
The woods remain oddly silent, eerie as Emma focuses on the task at hand. Izett's horse is rather disgruntled trying to nudge Taran away from Izett, whinning and likely Quina might be able to repeat such meaning in a lady like fashion as the horse tries to stand guard on its own over her fallen owner.
Pascal nods to Emma, stepping away from her now that she seems to be in control, toward Liam. "Feeding?" he asks.
Liam says quietly to Pascal: "Ley Lines. Running through all of Albion. Lines of communication. For who and to who..." He shakes his head.
Celeste sniffs, "It must have grown or been crafted via the blight some how. You say so long as this necromancer lives, destroying this will serve no purpose?"
Emma shakes her head. "Not feeding. Telling," she says, her voice still low, and her features still exceedingly pale and irises silvered. "Dralmir." She carefully begins to withdraw her hand. "What's Dralmir?"
Quina, meanwhile, has to also keep some of her attention on making sure the other horses stay alright, too.
Pascal gives Liam a shrug. "Killing it might buy us some time, at least," he says. "Though, if it isn't feeding, a poison to spread might not help either."
Celeste 's eyes narrow, "You suppose it's the name of the necromancer, or the name of the...er..sentience behind this?"
Through the link you discover that the root system spreads throughout Albion, and that it centers upon Dralmir (see the Lyonesse wiki for details: http://lyonesse.roadtoamber.com/). Nothing of Dralmir's state can be discerned - but its location is known.'.
(to Emma)
Emma very slowly begins to climb to her feet. "Aye," she says to Taran, nodding. "That seems right to me - the sense I got from it." She takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes.
Taran takes a deep breath. "Well. We know where to go. And it will indeed take an army. We had best report to the Grand Master. Thank you, my lady, for the risks you have taken tonight."
Izett remains still where Taran laid her. Horse standing over her with Quina as Taran stands nearby. The bruise darkening to a nice purple along the side of her face.
"Then perhaps it is time to go /find/ an army," Liam says quietly and mostly to Pascal. "Or at least supplement one properly."
Pascal frowns thoughtfully at everything said, before walking to his his horse. "Time to be going, then?" he asks. "How will we transport the Baroness?"
Pascal looks aside to Liam and nods slowly.