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

[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]

[burninglight]

[Ardyn sighed quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation at the situation more than anything else.]

The point being, tempoal displacement is firmly on the safer end of the scale of Fissure effects we’ve seen.

[bellmarians]

I suppose not. But– you said you'd developed some sort of way to stabilize Fissures? Is that why you came here to begin with?

[burninglight]

Yes and no. We’re looking for...essentially a contributing factor to the issue at hand. There’s something in need of our help, and it pointed us in this direction.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[That's Church perking up.] Yeah! That, yeah, okay, okay, if you know of like...a cave somewhere up in the mountains? Something...powerful that might be there, we definitely need to figure out where that is...

[bellmarians]

[ She visibly tenses, sitting up a little straighter in her seat. ]

Why do you ask?

[burninglight]

That's the place we were shown--the two of us, and one other that's not here at the moment. We came here in search of it.

...Is there something wrong?

[motherfucking_ghost]

It's really...it's really important that we find it. We want to help it.

[bellmarians]

[ Seonil doesn't say anything, for a long and pretty telling moment. But then; ]

How do you know there's something in the mountains?

[ This is the second time, now, she's answered a question with a question. ]

[burninglight]

...

[Ardyn frowned slightly, watching Seonil so carefully as to almost be looking through her--scanning for some flaw in the poker face or clue to her thoughts and intentions.]

We had a brief encounter with it in the last Fissure we traveled to. It showed us that location itself, and seemed to be seeking help. If it's not there, then something it wants us to find is.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church, meanwhile, looks like he's about to say more, but...glances to Ardyn and settles a bit back in his seat, waiting to see where this will go. Politicking is not his thing.]

[bellmarians]

[ She's been keeping her expression carefully guarded but that gets a look of genuine surprise out of her. ]

Hold on... you encountered it? As in, it managed to speak to you? It actually managed to tell you to come here?

[burninglight]

'Speaking' is pushing the definition, but essentially yes.

Why? What is it you know that we don't?