DUNGEON - BELLMARE ENCLAVE (BELLMARE MOUNTAINS, PT 2)

[phantasmods]

The shadows are starting to grow very long as you crest his particular ridge - it's not night yet, but it will be soon. In the shadows of the afternoon, with a tall mountain already blocking the sun, lies a snow-covered valley that is different from the ones you've come across thus far in your investigation.

This valley is home to a town, and unlike all the settlements you've seen so far - Incendia, the Telovia mining town, and the manor - it's very much active. There are actual people in the streets, visible from above, going through their days on snow-free streets, bundled up against the cold.

Those of you who asked were told of the handful of people who didn't go into the slumber of stasis as the Fissure conditions of the world grew worse and worse, instead isolating themselves and trying to continue living their lives as they could. Now, it seems, you've found exactly such a group.

Welcome to the Bellmare Enclave, and enjoy your stay.

[[OOC: Welcome to part 2 of the dungeon! For the most part, interaction with the town's NPCs can be handwaved as described on the main information post. Worth noting are the following major things: The Bellmare Enclave isn't expecting visitors, though the people are generally friendly to the new arrivals. They don't know about the time dilation effect of their Fissure - to them, it's only been about eighteen years since the Slumber Plan was put in place and they withdrew from the world. And finally, by a similar token, they have no idea how far the Fissures outside of their own have grown - while it's not uncommon for them to find odd objects from time to time, they'll assume that the characters are just arrivals from other places within their own world, rather than outsiders, until told otherwise.]]

Comments

[fistsofchange]

[Lin nodded and also stood up, ready to follow Seonil. That sounded fine to her. She looked over the four of them that had actually shown up.]

I'm glad. Causing trouble where it's not needed is the LAST thing we want to do.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Honestly, we're excited to find other people who aren't in a magic coma. [He won't mention Incendia. Yet. But boy is he glad to find a town with people and not, uh, constantly on fire.] And excited to talk to someone in charge, too.

[burninglight]

Likewise. We’re certainly not here to start anything undesirable, I don’t think any of us even imagined there’d be a town here in the first place. But it is a lovely bit of civilization, you must be very proud.

Do lead the way, I’m quite interested to hear what you have to say.

[plentyfriendly]

I certainly didn't, at any rate, but I'd imagine we'll all have a lot to re-evalutate when we're done here.

[bellmarians]

I'm glad to hear that. It's not the easiest life up here, but I'm very proud of our Enclave.

[ She leads them into a smallish room, off to the side. That there's just a few chairs surrounding a plain old dining table but it's privacy, like she said. And she's arranged for a big pitcher of ice water to be set on the table too. How professional.

Seonil pulls herself out a chair and sits herself down. ]

Please, make yourselves comfortable. Before you start asking me any questions – and I'm sure you must have plenty – do you mind if I ask where you've all come from?

[burninglight]

In the name of reasonably full disclosure, the longer answer is a touch complicated.

[Ardyn took a chair himself, sitting straight and neatly folding his hands. Best to make an impression of not in fact being the scruffy hobo he appeared.] The short but no less honest explanation is that we came from Keystone Station. We've been working to stabilize the Fissures, and we came here on something of a lead we discovered in one of them.

[motherfucking_ghost]

The more complicated answer is that we all fell through fissures that are apparently reaching through spacetime and ended up here from different universes.

[Church, meanwhile, is happy to give more of a hobo impression, but only in that he's much more casual and relaxed in his seat. He hasn't been shy about dropping the truth so far, he's not gonna start now.]

I mean, we're not all individually from different universes; there are groups of us that definitely came from the same one, or like...close enough, but, yeah.

[bellmarians]

[ Seonil looks like she's got a pretty good poker face – either she's not surprised by this, or she's doing a good job at pretending she's not. ]

... We've found things in the Fissures that didn't belong, but no one's ever found people. How long ago did you arrive, exactly?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Sometime around like...uhhh... [He glances around the table and does some mental math.] March? I think it's been about March, maybe February. We're talking like over 200 days. 250? 2--2-something. Whatever's on the counter when we left, I dunno.

[fistsofchange]

Better part of a year, anyways. From your point of view probably only, like...two-three months?

...You did know time is going faster outside this fissure, right? Just making sure.

[bellmarians]

... Outside this what, I'm sorry?

[ HMM 🤔 ]

[fistsofchange]

The fissure.

[Thoughtlessly repeating herself. She must have mumbled.]

[burninglight]

....Youuuuuuuuu didn't know this was a Fissure.

[Fuck.]

My dear lady Seonil, forgive what I'm sure is an absurd question, but would you be so kind as to explain to me what you know of the world outside this town?

[plentyfriendly]

If you don't actually know much that's fine too, if it helps. I've been there.

[The "wait, what year is it now" club, that is.]

[bellmarians]

[ The businesslike expression on her face has soured a bit – she's not outright scowling, but she's very clearly a bit unsettled. ]

If you know what Fissures are, then I assume you also know the state of things – all the magic running haywire, all the powers people manifest because of exposure, all the danger. Everyone else is in stasis and we're here. We're the handful who didn't want to sleep through the end of the world.

But what does that have to do with a Fissure? What's happened out there?

[plentyfriendly]

The difference in the speed of time had to be pointed out to us, too, though at least I had something of an idea that it was a possibility. Since you had no points of contact it makes complete sense you wouldn't have known, and we didn't suspect it since none of us have experienced a Fissure opening where we already were.

[Phi isn't especially rattled; it's been extremely important for her to stay calm in the past, and most of the times she didn't, well...]

As far as I know, ours is the only group of people active outside of this one. Like Ardyn said, we've been using technology developed by the androids stationed at Keystone to suppress the influence of active Fissures and in the process investigate why they might have appeared and whether there's a more permanent way to deal with them.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Look, it's...this mountain range seems to be part of a Fissure where time passes, uh, slower, than outside of it. Like, we were only in the area a couple days when people back at the station were like 'holy shit you've been gone a whole week without contact', and it was just--uh. So that's what's happening here.

Plus that other stuff, and trying to figure out what's making the Fissures and, like, finding the fragment of some primordial being that keeps ripping open spacetime looking for it in the first place that should maybe be around here somewhere in the mountains. [Just y'know set aside there.]

[bellmarians]

[ Seonil doesn't answer right away. She takes her glasses off, rubs her eyes and then pushes some of her hair back from her face in a pretty blatant "this is a bombshell so let me re-calibrate" tell. ]

... How long has it been, out there? Since they were all put to sleep?

[fistsofchange]

About a hundred years.

[bellmarians]

A hundred.

[ Seonil makes a shape with her mouth like she's about to say something else, but no words come out. Instead she just rubs her eyes again and then shoves her glasses back on. ]

Please tell me you haven't spoken to anyone else about this.

[burninglight]

What, around here? Likely they’d think us mad if we tried. So far as I’m aware, no one else knows.

[And hey, if Ardyn looked slightly more tense it’s probably because ‘have you told anyone else’ ranks high on the list if ‘things said before shit goes down’.]

How long had you estimated it to have been?

[bellmarians]

About eighteen years? Give or take a few months either way. Good God, I don't want to imagine what sort of panic this could cause if it gets out.

That information doesn't leave these walls, do you understand?

[burninglight]

Sensible enough, though I don’t think it a secret easily kept forever.

[plentyfriendly]

At some point it's going to have to come out anyway. That being said, if anyone's going to be able to tell them that without making them panic, it's you, someone that already has their trust.

And... let's just say it's not the worst circumstances you could have to explain that in. As I implied, I've been through this kind of revelation before, just on the other side.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I haven't said to anyone about a hundred fucking years, god damn. [Even he didn't really uh realize this.] Haven't said anything about any of the time...thing. [Honestly that one's mostly because he was too busy internally screaming about the possibility of missing time to want to bring it up. Yay, trauma!]

But she's right. Could be worse. Incendia makes like its namesake every night and then reverts back to how it was that morning, every day, on a loop. One place took away at random a sense, or like, kept you from speaking, all of that. One turned people into mermaids! That was a fine how-do-you-do.

[is any of this helping]