networkinthenight | [audio] @kingofwei

I come bearing some unpleasant news, which Commander Rosinante, Grandmaster Kuai Liang, and I discovered within the last day. Before I begin, if there is anyone with better medical training or healing abilities who can help the two of them, it would be much appreciated. We encountered a violent spirit who did quite a lot of damage.

That said, we went to look into a strange phenomenon the Grandmaster found while looking for torches, and ended up at what they have said is the 'radio tower.' I believe this is where the modern sorts managed their communications, Daylight explained some of it to me some time ago. There are many smaller details which any of us can relate to you but I take to the network to report some incredibly dire news, and to ask if anyone can recognize or translate part of a message.

[it takes some rather obvious fumbling to get the tablet to play a pre-recorded message while sending this one, pity his awkwardness, but then this message begins to play clearly. Kuai got a good recording of it to share.]

I confess I had thought that the reason the Night Market did not visit earlier this month was much more mundane. Flood damage, perhaps, or a loss of communication with Master Rastus. This...is far worse. I do not know the timing of the message, when it was first sent, but the fact that nothing has come up from the bottom of the lake to destroy us yet...well, I don't think I can say what that means.

There is also this, if anyone is capable of translating...

[a shorter recording, now that he's got the hang of it. Morse code if anyone has the chops to tackle it!]

I do not know if we have the resources to actually mount a rescue or do anything about it, but I feel our last remaining chances at survival may slip away if we do nothing at all. World Eater aside, it may be that the portal itself and our ability to resupply will be cut off if we cannot reach them at all. Your thoughts?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If whatever killed Pluto is still down there at the station, we need a plan to deal with it. The message said they thought it was a young world eater and whether that's true or not, it's obvious it was tough to deal with or they wouldn't be asking for our help.

I'll be going down there once we figure out how to get the submarines to us. But if anyone has ideas on how to tackle something like that, let's talk about it before we just jump in face-first.

How far down is it? If it's not too far, and it's a little one, I could shift and try to take it on. Or at least distract it while someone else goes for a kill strike. I'm pretty big, and I've fought large monsters like that before.

Don't know. You were the one who visited it in a dream, right? How much do you remember?

I don't want to take the whole "underwater tunnel that turns around on itself" thing too literally for distance. Though it does seem like it was far enough that normally, I could hold my breath that long. Maybe not long enough for a fight on top of the swim, though.

If the thing's outside the station, if someone or something could tug me down, I could probably still fight. If it's inside, then I'm out of luck. I won't fit shifted, and I'm useless in groundling form since I faded.

Right. Then we'll have to find out ourselves what the situation is unless someone can contact any survivors down there. We'll see what happens.

You know you have me and my sword, for whatever both are worth.

Thank you. It's worth quite a lot.

I suppose this is where we find out whether swords are of any use at all.

That said, I feel like I miss having a tactician at hand now more than ever. We have lost so many intelligent resources who could plan a raid in seconds flat. Now we will have to work for it.

It's hard to make plans with no information. Even your best tacticians might be at a loss in a case like this one.

Hm, true. We know nothing of the terrain or the enemy, only that it's the underwater station and they have already suffered terrible loss. Anything and everything is on the table, really.

How is the arm? Do your bandages need changing?

Arm's all right, considering. I can handle it.

I don't know what firepower we have left here that we can take with us, but we'd better bring it all. Hopefully the station's built solid enough where we won't have to worry about puncturing the walls with stray bullets, but something like a bomb is probably out of the question.

Yes, I think this would most likely not benefit from major firepower. But then, the first step is setting out our goal. Given the message, I think we should genuinely concentrate on finding any survivors and escaping with them, first and foremost. Secondary, perhaps checking to see what of the technology is salvagable and whether the portal is still functional. Fighting the beast should be a last resort.

Optimistic thinking. If this is really a world eater, even a young, small, and now injured one, it probably isn't going to let us wander around the station untouched, and we don't want to show it the way back to Beacon and the bonfire.

I see where you're coming from, but in this case I'd prioritize trying to get rid of it. Finding survivors helps if they can tell us more about what they tried, but I'm not sure we'll have much time to spare.

If only we had some way of getting close and detecting them from the outside. I don't suppose any of the magical folks have an ability like that?

I would be far more prepared to go in ready to fight if we knew there was a reason to be there ahead of time. Even just a return message will help.

Don't know. Not anyone who's left that I know of, but some of the magical types have all kinds of surprising abilities I might just not be aware of.

A return message would be nice but if they're holed up somewhere and unable to get back to us, we might have to take a risk. It's that or leave them to their fate, and that doesn't sit well with me. They asked for our help.

At least it's something we can do, or at least attempt to do, before launching our rescue. A finishing stroke of the brush on the final letter, so to speak. The rest is just hopeful thinking out loud, in the off chance there is someone listening who can offer their help.

Yeah. I'll just hope some of them have found a way to keep themselves safe down there. Wish we knew how long that message had been broadcasting. If it hadn't been for the flood, Robin probably would've received it the moment they called for help.

[audible frustration on his end, a little stormy noise under his breath]

The flood has already cost us so much, I hate to think that it might have cost us everything in the end.

We're dead on a dying world whose death throes seem to try and prevent our success at every step. It's going to be an uphill battle no matter what. A year here has proven that much.

I am beginning to truly see why the Wild Hunt arrived at their point.

[his dry tone is the only assurance that he still disagrees with them. No shade on the poor folks who strung those nooses in the tower after watching the nuclear blast, but still not going down that way, no sir]

It's too much for some people to take. Won't argue that. It's why we have to stick together as much as possible, so the people who find it harder will have others around them. We've seen over and over again how important morale is here.

Indeed. I will wait until after we have solved this particular problem before I push for a morale boost, however.

...which reminds me, I should test the efficacy of the discovered portal and try to get some wine for such an occasion.

Smart. I'll see if there's any especially good stuff listed in those old keeper's notes.

Great minds always do think alike.

[audio] @kingofwei - backdated to June 23

@silent | voice because yo let his arm rest thanks

@ Stone, audio

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