Arrival at Ravenloft Tower
Viridian File 030722: Stardate 16124.2123.03212235
Morriga System - Eldari Space
Star Wanderer Diplomat Nephea, an air genasi member of the Astral Exploration Society, has been assigned to guide one of the new squads being assigned to the Ravenloft Tower facility in Celta Moira. She stops in town to pick up the first recruit: a Zalantis named Ilztzurz (also called "Zs") and his drone B.U.D.D.Y, and together they head to the Celta Moira Spaceport to awate the new arrivals.Tymoran Transport Interplanetary Shuttle 254 drops out of warp and enters the Morriga Prime System. From the window seat, a Togrutan passenger named Zukrom Dyr, Academy Pilot, stares down at Morriga Prime as the shadow of Night slowly approaches Celta Moira. Eager to join a guild that will allow him to explore new worlds and unseen places, he looks out upon a world he has never been when he suddenly jostles as if surprised by something and slightly lost his breath. A nearby child looks over with concern before turning back to her parent. "Attention Passengers, please find your way back to your seats. We are beginning our descent to Morriga Prime. We will be arriving at Celta Moira Spaceport within 15 minutes. Thank you again for choosing Tymoran Transit Authority for your interstellar needs."
Across the Sare Fortuna, Amelia with her small Sun Jelly Morph are travelling via Planetary Shuttle 640 to Celta Moira for the first time after many years of being away. The Togruta is jarred out of her growing trepedation by the high pitched electronic voice of the droid pilot. "Attention Passengers, Captain Rex here. We will be arriving at Celta Moira Spaceport in 15 minutes. Weather is fair and the city is bustling. What brings you to Celta Moira today?" as he points towards Amelia. "Personal reasons." "Ah alright gotcha. How 'bout my friends in the back?" No answer. "Well the city is a place for everybody. Of course I only get to see the Space Port up close but I hear the rest of it is pretty great!"
Celta Moira Spaceport - T'Kara District
Nephea along with new recruit Zs and his Zalanti like Drone arrive at the space port where Nephea sets up a small holo-sign with 3 names along it. "We'll wait here for your fellow squad mates. They should be arriving shortly." As she waits she soon begins to idly look around at all of the advertisements as small clouds begin to form around her and the sign which begins to draw some odd looks by passers by."Alrighty here we are. This is Captain Rex of Transport 640 docking in Bay 3. Celta Moira - Celta Adria Transport. Thanks again for traveling with me. I look forward to flying with you again in the future!" Amelia exits the small shuttle and slowly makes her way to the main concourse to look for Nephea. As she approaches it takes a few minutes until she notices a gap in the foot traffic giving a wide berth to an air genasi with several small clouds swirling around her and some poor Zalantis with a small sign. "Ha! Sucks for the fools who are meeting up with- Oh." and she notices in red letters on the sign in front of the air genasi: "Amelia"
"Attention passengers: we have arrived at docking bay 37. It is currently 2:35 in the afternoon and clear skies. From all of us at Tymoran Transit Authority, thank you for flying with us." The small child gives Zukrom one last quizzical look to which he winks and the child quickly slides ahead and off the shuttle. Once off the vessel, Zukrom takes a few moments to glance around at all of the various signs and welcome bill boards before he continues to the center plaza to look for Nephea and his future squad mates. After a few moments he also notices the gap in foot traffic around Nephea and strides forward confidently. Zukrom: "Hello, I am Zurkom. I am here to be that explorer and be that awesome person to go do things. Yeah. I am here." Nephea: "Ah! Wonderful. I am Nephea, and I am so excited to meet you. We are just waiting on 2 other new recruits to arrive." and she reaches down and dims Zukrom's name from the sign at which point her data pad recieves an alert. "Oh. It seems one of the shuttles was delayed. Your 4th squadmate wont be arriving until very late this evening. We'll rally you all together again in the morning." She deactivates the 4th name from the list. "That just leaves a final recruit. She is also a Togruta and... oh... oh here she is! Amelia! Welcome! Over here dear." Zukrom: "And who might you be?" Ilztzurz (Zs): "Uh, I am Ilztzurz, but most people call me Zs. Welcome to Celta Moira." Nephea: "Splendid! That is everyone. Welcome again to Celta Moira. Once again, I am Star Wandered Nephea, Diplomacy Core, of the Astral Exploration Society and I will be your guide to our facilities here. If you will follow me this way we will head to the rail station." Now that she is focues, the clouds quickly dissapate and she begins pointing out various landmarks and signs as they go. Occasionally she gets distracted by an advertisement and makes a personal comment about it before returning back to tour guide mode. Zukrom notices Amelia lagging at the back of the group and slows to talk to her in Togrutan. Zukrom: "Hello, I am Zukrom. And who might you be?" Amelia: "Hi, I'm Amelia. ... Please leave me alone." Zukrom: "Ah, well. I just wanted to say how excited I am to be on your team and working with you. By the way, where did you find this littlew Sun Jelly?" he hands a small morsel of food and hands it to the little jelly. The Sun Jelly looks like it eats it, but Zukrom notices at the last moment that Morph made a discrete move to drop the food after tasting it. Zukrom: to Morph the Sun Jelly, "I can tell we are going to be great friends you and I." shifting focus over to Zs. "Hey Z's, how long have you had that droid with you?" Zs: "This version I finished it a year or so ago." Zukrom: "That's awesome. Wish I had a droid. With all of the exploring I do. That's awesome though doing what you do." Zs: "Maybe I can make one for you some day. Where all have traveled?" Zukrom: "All over, but its been a little difficult just on my own. That's why I joined the guild. I love exploring, like this town: love it. I can't wait to see more." Nephea: from the front of the group; "Here is the monorail station. We'll be transitioning at Downtown Station in the City Center. From there we will take another Monorail to Ravenloft Tower." A dark grey monorail with a thin streak of light blue down the side quickly enters the station. The two cars in front of the loading section Nephea has guided then to has the AES logo on the doors: reserved cars. Upoin entering they find their seats and after a minute or two "Please Stand Clear of the Doors. Por favor, mantengase alejado de las puertas." and the train takes off. Outside in the afternoon sun a sprawling city lies before the party. Small shuttles zoom around the space port as large Starliners loom in the sky above. The streets below have speeders and transports moving about as the citizens go about their business. As the party approaches the city center, sky scrapers reach to the heavens and glimmer in the sunlight. Nephea: "So, for those of you who have not been to Celta Moira before, this is the Celta Moira Monorail System. The Society has 2 cars reserved on all trains that you will be able to use. The monorail is the quickest way to get to the various city districts and is free for Society Members. Once we reach the Downtown Station we will transfer over to the Temaga Line which will take us to the Society's base of operations here: the Ravenloft Tower." The monorail glides into Downtown Station and as it comes to a complete stop, the doors open and Nephea leads them out across a platform where another Monorail is just arriving and they enter its AES cars and are quickly heading North into the Temaga District. After about 10 minutes, a large tower rises in the distance. The gleaming silver tower is inlaid with what appears to be gemstones of onyx and amethyst that form patterns of Ravens and other shapes. It's spires gracefully sweeping around the tower and into the air. From the windows they see a plaza out front with a large glowing blue stone hovering above inlaid Sapphire before the Monorail turns and goes into the tower itself in a large open air arboretum of sorts.
Ravenloft Tower- Temaga District
Once the monorail comes to a complete stop and the doors open, the party emerge onto the station platform and follow Nephea to a section of wall where she holds something up to the wall and an insignia in the stone glows blue, revealing a sliding portion of the stone wall to grant access to the elevator. Once down on the second floor, the party heads across the tower and into a small hallway when they arrive at Chief Rivena's office. Upon beeing told to enter, the party is face to face with Chief Umbedu Rivena, a tall and charismatic Eldari man who is also a Warden within the AES. As Chief, he is the one in charge of the Ravenloft Tower facility. When the party enters, he is seen reading from a large indigo leather tome which he looks up from and closes when he acknowledges the group. Chief Rivena: "Ah yes. The new recruits." he glances to Nephea recognizing only three of the four are present and after a brief non-verbal exhange continues, "I am Chief Umbedu Rivena. I oversee Society matters conducted here at Ravenloft Tower. It is pleasure to meet you all and officially welcome you to our facility. As new recruits, you will be given a probationary rank of Initiate while we evaluate how well you contribute and work together with other society members. That being said, I want to thank all of you for volunteering and applying to the Astral Exploration Society and am pleased to welcome you onboard to our facility at the Celta Moira Ravenloft Tower." The party goes through intros again as he checks off identifies from a data pad. Chief Rivena: "Very Good. Now, while you are here, this will be your squad. You will be working together on various duties as well as with many of our other members. These," and he pulls out an ornate box from his desk, "will be your AES Badges and rank insignias. They will grant you access to areas restricted to Society use as well as act as identification as each badge and insignia is keyed to your bio-signature. Tomorrow morning, once all of your squad is present, you will be given your first mission briefing." Z's: "You dont have any information on the mission right now?" Chief Rivena: "Not at this time. A few details need to be ironed out first. Particulary with the potential mission leader." Zukrom: "Is there any form of training you'll be giving us?" Chief Rivena: "I prefer a trial by fire appraoch. The best way to evaluate explorers who brave the unknown is to see how they react to thinking on their feet. But don't worry, we wont be sending you into extreme danger on your first outing, nor will we send you without aid." Zukrom: "I like that style." Chief Rivena: "If you would like though their are training rooms, excercise equipment, and various similar opportunities here in the tower you can use. I expect you will want to find your quarters first and then you are free to explore the Tower's facilities at your leaisure. The first floor does house a food court free for members and I do recommend it. but if there are no other questions, I will leave you to explore our facility while I return to my duties. Your mission briefing will be at 8:00 in the morning in the grotto briefing room." As the party goes to leave Amelia looks back to get a glance at what tome he picks back up as he begins to read it and read a different datapad. The indigo volume has in silver letters on its spine: The Shadow Chronicles Volume 3: In the Dark of the Night.The party exits and goes to find their various quarters on the 5th floor. After freshening up and taking a breather, Amelia goes to look for a reading nook on the Second Floor in the arboretum. While reviewing a directory panel Amelia is curious about the unmarked rooms on the first floor. Amelia: "What do you say Morph? Should we go exploring or hang out here?" Morph, who was playing in a nearby waterfall pool splashes around and then floats up and joions Amelia. After making her way across the arboretum and to the elevator she and Morph step out on the first floor in a hallway behind glass doors that restrict this part of the floor to Society members only. Looking at the directory again, she notes the Foyer, the Cobalt Harbor which is the eating area, and near where she is are several unmarked rooms. Quietly, she and Morph explore and find a water pump and filter room, a generic conference room, and a storage closet. One room though has a small glass cubicle with another door, concrete floor, and a drain. Stepping in lights turn on and she notices this is an underwater conference room and a small portal opens in the roof to one of the pools on the second floor. Finding another hallway, Amelia and Morph see a door and hear some shuffling behind it. They slowly walk towards it and listen at the door. They hear whistling on the other side. Amelia: "Up to you Morph. What should we do?" Morph goes for the handle. Amelia opens the door to a large lit room. There are boxes and crates stacked around, but it loks like someone is setting up a store. A human male walks across the backside of the room with a box in hand whistling when he turns to see Amelia in the doorway. Man: "Ah, I did not plan on having any visitors before I opened up shop. Please do come in." upon seeing Morph enter with Amelia, he says "Interesting. I have only heard stories of Sun Jellies. Now, who might you two be?" Amelia: "uh well... my name is Amelia and this is Morph... so... this is a store? I was not expecting this." Man: "Amelia, what a pleasent name. Ah, I see you are an initiate. Welcome to the Astral Exploration Society! and welcome to the Supply Depot... well what will be the Supply Depot that is. I am Elian Tarrack, and it is a pleasure to meet you." Amelia: "So... just a plain and simple suplpy store?" Elian Tarrack: "Of course. Here for all of your adventuring needs." He looks down at a pad, "Actually, you were not due to come in until tomorrow morning." Amelia: "Oh... I was due to come in at all?" Elian Tarrack: "Yes. I believe your squad will be given its first mission tomorrow. I have requisition for standard supllies for you and 3 other individuals. Not all who volunteer have... 'refined' taste in asthetics or the means of protecting themselves. We cannot let members of our society go around in rags with no equipment now can we? We do have a repoutation to maintain." Amelia: "Uh... sure. Yeah. Makes sense." Elian Tarrack "However, I do like a person who shows initiative. One who goes to explore areas that are not quite what they seem." he reaches under the counter and pulls out a small vial. "For my first patron, a minor health stim for you. It can be our little secret. After all, we cant have just anyone wandering in and getting free supplies. But I look forward to doing business in the future." Amelia: "Yes. Uh. The store looks great and... have you seen the water rooms over there. Pretty crazy." Elian Tarrack "Oh yes. A rather unfortunate mishap when I first arrived. They did no tell me what room to set up in and let me tell you much of this merchandise does not do well underwater. Also most of my clients cannot hold their breath that long and a shop thrives on browsing you know. This space is much more suitable." Amelia: "Yeah I can see how that would hinder business." Elian Tarrack "Yes. It would put quite the damper on things so to speak. But I must get back to setting up to so I might welcome more adventurers to my humble shop." Amelia: "Yes, uh Morph say goodbye. Be polite." As she leaves, Amelia gets a gut feeling something was a little off. He appeared human but something just did not seem... what it appeared to be. Though she cannot put her finger on what it was.
Meanwhile, Zukrom reviewed the directory outside his room and looked to find a way to reach the top of the tower. Interestingly, the map shows a layout of the top floor but has a large section unmarked. He finds his way to an elevator and heads to the Rooftop Terrace, the 46th floor of the tower. The tower spires and walls are beginning to cast shadows on the terrace as the sun begins to descend towards the horizon. Small gardens and waterfalls spread across the terrace while rec areas for tennis and basketball courts occupy the back side of the terrace and small picnic tables are scattered around. What draws his attention however is a well kept manor house of dark wood sitting on an elevated spot to the Western Side of the tower that seems to chill his blood temporarily. A light fog seems to float above the grass near the house and maroon roses create a perimeter as an oak tree grows at the top of this tower by the house. Something about this house seems off. While definitely somewhat out of place there is something else about it. A familiar sense of somber or sorrowful air that reached out and seemed to strike a chord. Avoiding the shadows Zukrom wanders a little bit longer before heading back downstairs. On the elevator down, Zukrom attmempts to dial his squad mates using the holocommunicator on the badge. Amelia is the only one who answers as a hologram of her and morph appear over the badge. Amelia: "Can I help you?" Zukrom: "How's it going?" Amelia: "Seriously?" Zukrom: "Yeah seriously?" Amelia: "Well I found a room full of water. That was weird." Zukrom: "Mind if I join you?" Amelia: "Morph thinks your kinda cool so I guess." Zukrom: "Where are you?" Amelia: "First floor. Where did you go?" Zukrom: "I went to the rooftop. There was an interesting mansion..." Amelia: "Oh that's ironic... wait backup. Did you say a mansion? On top of the tower?" Zukrom: "Yeah. It is unlisted on the map. Curious." Amelia: "Wait did we both go looking at the unlisted rooms? That's pretty cool. I have some more respect for you now." Zukrom: "Yeah. I don't know what it was, but it sure looked... not a part of the normal facilities." Amelia: "Weird. Well, Nephea really talked up that pudding earlier so now I wanna go eat. Wanna meet at the elevator and grab some dinner out front?" They meet at the first floor elevator behind the glass doors. As the enter the foyer, the aesthetic shock hits as they seem to stumble into a medieval style tavern but with modern tech. The stone floors are heated and kept comfortably warm. The welcome desk is a dark wood desk that seems handcarved with a single live raven perched upon it. Several bookshelves sit behind it and various paintings decorate the wall under mounted wings of bone. A crackling fire roars in a double sided stone fireplace off to the right where the sitting area of the Cobalt Harbor is. Memorabilia and trophies are scattered across the eating area and slowly as you get closer to the outside door the room gets more and more modern. They approach and load up their plates and find a seat near the fireplace. On the mantle they see small photos and trinkets like "First Place Society Retreat Fishing" next to a photo of a Goliath and Dwarf holding a huge eel like fish. News paper clippings and similar items. Soon after the begin eating, both of them sense a temperature change. Looking up they see a tall tiefling in black and purple robes, blue skin, and long purple horns that sweep back behind the head of long dark hair with some streaks of grey. When he turns his eyes are solid blue. He walks in normally and no one seems to react out of the ordinary and he says hello to a few as he passes. He spies the 2 Togruta and walks over to their table. Tiefling: "Hello, would I be correct in assuming you are some of the new recruits who came in today?" Zukrom: "That's right. I am Zukrom and this is Amelia. And this is Morph." Tiefling: "Zukrom. Amelia. And Morph. It is a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Ravenloft Tower. I am Vosaara Lachlan. If there is anything you need, please dont hesitate to ask." While he talks the Raven flies by and whispers in his ear and flies back to the desk. "Good luck on your mission tomorrow." and he withdraws and goes to get his own food. While talking, Zukrom got the same sense of sorrow he saw / felt at the rooftop terrace. Morph goes over and lounges in the coals of the fire while the others eat. Zukrom: "Where are you from exaclty?" Amelia: "Oh are we talking about ourselves now? I am from Celta Moira. You?" Zukrom: "Triellian of the Trielli System. Though I have explored a few planets before coming here. Perhaps you have heard of my father, Vukrom. He was an explorer. I'm very proud of what he did. I try to follow in his footsteps." Amelia: "Oh... yeah... following in parent's footsteps and stuff." Slowly... a sun jelly tentacle reaches over the table and swipes something from Amelia's plate. A few seconds later, another one reaches from a different side of the table for Zukrom's plate. Zukrom: "Is there something you want in particular?" The tentacle hastily retreats. Amelia: "He's a thief. You just gotta put it on a plate and let him think he's stealing it." After more conversation and a minor illusion to mess with Morph people have now drawn eyes as this adorable jellyfish is floating around and stealing food. Some nearby tables also put aside a small plate getting in on the game until Morph is full and returns to the coals. Amelia reveals Morph was supposed to be a graduation gift that she got early. Amelia: "My parents were explorers too. They're out there... I think." The two finish dinner and return to their rooms to prepare for the briefing in the morning.
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