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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 14, 2023 12:30:26 GMT -5
Izzy whistled a jaunty tune as she made her way through the down-right balmy Lantern Light Wood. Still lying low from her exploits in Zeinav and Frost Gale, Moonglade seemed like the perfect spot for a little vacation-- and to enjoy her well earned spoils of her many, many, wonderful victories. And while she was here, why not expand her circle a little? Her repetoire? Word of mouth was the best form of marketing, the most effective, and Izzy was nothing if not loud.
Her seven feet of height isn't a problem out here, which is great, and the people are a little wary of her, which is even better. She looks like an albino demon, slinking through the faintly glowing trees to get to the spot to meet whoever was fortunate enough to be paired with Izzy on this fine day. The people who wanted help seemed interested in her shtick as a private investigator at least, and that was an easy enough claim to back up when you had some casual observations at hand as well as a bevvy of anonymous clients praising her work.
Whatever was going on with these plants, it was about to get real fixed. Izzy finds a tree to lean on to wait, still whistling as she pulls out and unwraps her cigar, lighting it casually on a match.
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 15, 2023 10:16:23 GMT -5
The woods creaked in the wind as Gwendolyn and her loyal maid Millicent wandered about aimlessly. It was around noon and the lanterns that filled the woods served more to make the pair more lost than illuminated any paths. They had been sent out here by the Consortium to investigate some plant sickness. Truth be told, Gwendolyn knew little of plants and their affectations, only that green was good. She had been instructed to meet up with some investigator that the locals had hired recently, the more heads the better. There was a vested interest in the ingredients made from this affected species that the Consortium could not go without.
Hours spent wandering eventually found a queer scent in the air. Smoke? She looked back at Millicent, whose hand-rolled cigarette ashed thinly around the cherry. It was different than her scent however...more...robust. Looking about, she spotted her. Truth be told she didn't know how she could not spot the albino who stood a foot taller than herself even with her heels on. She approached, wafting at her nose to ward away the scent, apparent distaste on her face.
"Avasha, another one..." a quick pause before she completed her thought, "Smokers, would you both mind? It's hard to concentrate when I'm being choked. Lady Gwendolyn, I assume you're the investigator?"
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 15, 2023 16:15:16 GMT -5
Izzy glanced over as she heard the approaching smart click of heels hitting the ground. She gives the pretty, armor clad, giant mace weilding woman, accompanied by a friend of some kind--
Or, not so much a friend, maybe. Getting the disgusted request, and watching the woman trying to waft Izzy's smoke away from her veiled nose with an irritated look, the teifling's brow twitches. The smile doesn't waver at all, but Izzy's eyes intentionally drift to the large mace that seemed to be leaking a fine stream of pleasantly scented smoke. Her eyes linger there meaningfully for a long beat before coming back to the silver haired woman. The sharp toothed smile lilts upward at the corner, deeply amused. "You first, doll~." Her hand moves the cigar to the side to tap ash off the end of it.
She didn't mind a little hypocrisy, truth be told, she just thought it was a little ironic. Either the woman was genuinely lacked that level of self-awareness, or she straight up dead serious about what kind of scents she liked to have around her. --actually, it made her wonder why the veil and why the smoke at all. Some kind of holy warrior, maybe? Either way, Izzy figured she was some sort of noble based on... well, all of it. But she could play nice. So very nice.
Sweeping a low, formal bow, Izzy flashes another grin, her smoke trailing after her hand. "Issala Arodre, private investigator and apparently plant inspector extraordinaire. And you two aaare...?" prompting the question as she straightens, a thought seems to occur to the tall woman and she casually stamps out the end of her cigar on her bracer, before tucking the remaining bit inside her inner jacket pocket.
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 15, 2023 19:05:05 GMT -5
A frown developed as the woman did not immediately do as she asked. Smoke wasn't that big a deal, better than the scent of rot and feces normally strewn about a forest like this. The insolence however... Whatever.
"You may call me Lady Gwendolyn, this is Millicent, my maid. Please do not interrupt her duties. We are here on behalf of the Golden Consortium, there is a vested interest in these plants that they would like them preserved. Have you found out anything of importance? Or have you just been holding up this tree with your body and waiting for permission?" She said, returning the sneer in kind as Millicent curtseyed politely, before extinguishing her own cigarette. The ego measuring would have to wait however, because guild matters did in fact come before her own. She walked over to a nearby plant to inspect the state of it. Picking it up, it was as she suspected. Green, they were all green, which was good, right? A couple of brown spots, but we can't all be perfect. The concentration on her face hopefully belayed intellect, because she had no idea what she was looking at at the moment. The soft glow of bioluminescence lit her face as she turned it over to inspect the back, only to discover what looked like a mix between cockroach and praying mantis?
She yelped as it crawled over her hand to leap off into the underbrush, dropping the glowing gourd with a splash. The heat of embarrassment hopefully hidden by her perfumed veil.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 16, 2023 16:30:28 GMT -5
Izzy's grin just widened further at the vaguely sour look on the veiled woman-- Gwendolyn's face. She loved being right; a lady and here with her maid, no less. Izzy snaps finger guns and winks at Millicent. "'Sup, Millie." Then, she turns to flourish yet another ostentatious bow to Gwedolyn. Completely insincere, but still, so very polite. "The honor is indeed mine, your Ladyship."
The smile is both genuine and gleeful. There was nothing she loved more than someone who took themselves much too seriously. Izzy was nearly beside herself; she was going to be as annoying as she possibly could.
Now, what a noble woman was doing here, slumming it in a forest to look at some plants, was a curious situation as well. Shouldn't she be up in some tower drinking tea and darning petticoats, or whatever? Perhaps that had to do more with her interesting choice of weapon and attire and less about needing coin. Unless... Gwendolyn did need coin.
"Seeing as I'm not getting paid for doing two people's work, I figured I'd wait for your Ladyship," Izzy replies cheerfully, walking over to the plants as well to take a look. She did have a quick scan of the place when she showed up, but didn't see too much in the way of damage. Izzy had a feeling Her Ladyship would be annoyed either way. She bends down to look at the stems. "They do look a little wilted here and there. Maybe--"
Izzy flinches as Gwendolyn screams, the bug skittering off and the gourd gushing all over the ground and Izzy's boots. She snorts a little laugh at the spectacle, smothered around sharp teeth biting into her lower lip. "You alright there, Your Ladyship?" She looks back to what she was gesturing to before. "I was gonna say, maybe something is feeding on the plants inner fluids, and you went and found the culprit! Well done. The Consortium is suuure to be proud."
Recalling what Gwendolyn did, Izzy gets an idea. Impishly, she reaches over to a bed of beettops and brushes them very quickly with her hand, rustling the leaves back smartly.
Several more large cockroach-mantis bugs leap out and away from the tousle of leaves, scattering every which-way. Izzy cackles, delighted by the large bugs. "Oh, hell! Look at 'em go! That's a lot, but... hmmm. Where are they coming frommm...." She ponders this as a bug skitters onto her hand and rears back in a threatening posture. Izzy calmly quashes it and moves on. "Maybe it's the soil? Bugs hide in soil some times."
After a few seconds though, something starts to burn at her palm. Izzy looks down, seeing a faint bioluminescent ichor from the insect smeared there. It doesn't singe her palm, but there is a painful numbing, a sensation rapidly travelling up her wrist. Hm.
"Uh, well, don't let 'em touch your bare skin." Izzy advises, grimacing a little. "Think it miiiight be toxic."
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 17, 2023 1:35:14 GMT -5
Gwendolyn returned the jeer with the dirtiest stare she could muster. Of course, the so called investigator had used all the proper nomenclature in her thinly veiled remark, so there was nothing to actually yell at her about. Annoying. She watches her pull apart the foliage to reveal several more insects that quickly scattered. The skin on the back of her neck crawled as she watched the delight in which the tiefling took in handling the bugs. Once she mentioned the ichor however, checking her hand there seemed to be a small trail of it on herself. "Ugh, Great. The hells is this." She mumbles as she pulls out a kerchief to wipe the slimy bits off of her, before pulling on a pair of white cotton gloves. "You said they could be coming from the soil?" She stomped about a bit in the clearing. While nothing in the immediate area checked any boxes, closer to the brush where Issala had been digging through found a few feet of ground that had a bit of give to it. "Millicent, if you would?" "What do you want me to do about it? Poke the ground with a stick? "Yes" "Fine, but you're gonna have to give me Redolence." "What? No, you don't need my maul to poke the ground with" "Biggest stick around here" "No, just... i'll just do it myself." She mutters quietly as she suddenly hefts the maul to slam into the ground. The smoke and embers fluttered every which way as dozens of flying insects erupted from the ground and began to swarm the party. The scream was ear shattering as the bugs crawled all over them, spreading the burning ichor.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 18, 2023 15:44:11 GMT -5
"Just about," Izzy cannot help but chirp as Millicent comments that the giant, smoking maul-- Redolence, apparently-- was the biggest stick around. There was one other Gwen might have, probably located right alongside her spine from where it resided up her--
Before she can fully actualize her crass joke, Gwen hefts the great maul. Izzy has the good sense to stand clear of the ground where it strikes... but certainly not far enough to avoid the sudden swarm of insects.
As opposed to Gwen's perfectly justfied screams as the burning, softly glowing fluid is smeared on their skin by the incensed (ha) bugs, Izzy cackles, a wild, mad sound. It was painful and it sucked, but at least it was fun and interesting.
"Your-- your mace!" Izzy calls out, still laughing. Her rapier wasn't about to do much against these bugs, and she could feel them in her hair. Ugh, she was going to be picking insect legs out of her curls for weeks. "You either just spooked 'em when you hit the ground, or they like the smell of your smoke!" She backs up a few paces, shaking her arm to dislodge the mantis-roaches there and casts a quick spell[1].
To test this theory, Izzy recreates the scent of Gwendolyn's incense away from them, off to the left, to see if the insects flowed towards it, avoided it, or simply didn't react at all. Some bugs went catatonic or repelled by certain smoke, but some were drawn to it, so it was a toss up. Or, she was completely wrong and neither was true and they needed another plan.
[1] Minor Trickery
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 18, 2023 21:36:00 GMT -5
What?! They liked the smell of her incense? And also, Fuck this hurt. The trails of slime crisscrossing her body sizzled and burned quite painfully, further advancing her annoyance with the whole situation. Not to mention the cackling of this so called investigator furthering it even more. Society deems a lady must be easy going, level-headed. In secret, however, this one's mind speaks of drastic solutions. They like my scents huh? A nice batch of lavender soothes their pains? Lets give them something to hate then. "Millicent, Izzy. Give me your tobacco pouches. Now." She demanded, whilst unlatching the head of her maul, causing it to open up like a puppet. She tilted the still smoldering piles of incense into the dent in the ground as a small swarm began to descend upon it. She grabbed Millies pouch and dumped it into the censer at the center, and held her hand out for Izzies. "I'll pay you back, I just need to take care of these cretins first." She said with a maniacal smile on her lips. Closing the censer and latching the maul-head of Enlightened Redolence, She began to chant. The magic was meant to work with incense as a base, but any smoking plant could theoretically be considered incense right? As the chant completed, she lifted the maul, and released the clouds of smoke that you could only find in the seediest bars in the Ashlands. The strong scent combined with the thick plumes that made sight all but impossible absolutely made her want to vomit. She couldn't even see if it was being effective. Gwendolyn quickly snapped a sight salt under her nose to not only see through the fog of smoke, but to sear her nostrils for just a minute of relief.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 20, 2023 13:49:25 GMT -5
For once, Izzy does not have a back-handed comment to offer, or even a quip. Too busy laughing, too busy enduring the burning numbness of the bare places of her arms and face to bother, she reaches into her coat and promptly offers her half-smoked cigar, and a small pouch of tobacco besides, if she managed to get a pipe. The insects jump off Izzy, Millicent and Gwendolyn, and onto the pile of incense laid into the ground, wings abuzz and a chitter with ecstatic delight at the wonderful smell. Izzy, wisely, takes a step back, tittering still from the fading edges of her laughter. Ow.
But the wide, savage grin on Gwen's face was a new and interesting development, Izzy notes through her tears of laughter. Oh, so she had a sadistic streak? That, Izzy could party on with.
The cloud of smoke now exuding from the maul after Gwen's chant is pungent and cloying-- smells like home, to Izzy. But to the bugs, it might as well be a toxic cloud of death and destruction. Which, to be fair, it is regardless of whether you are a bug or a people, but the insects especially seem to loathe it.
"I dunno what words you just did, but it's working!" Izzy calls out gleefully, hopping back a pace. The bugs under the effects of the smoke become paralyzed, twitching and dying. Those that were not so badly impacted and were trying to escape, Izzy leaps on, crushing beneath her boot so they can't get away to regroup and come back in greater numbers. Making sure to do her part (coughing a little as well), she kicks at the garden bed to unleash any other bugs that might still be beneath the soil.
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 21, 2023 22:33:05 GMT -5
The few remaining scattered into the underbrush with the tieflings kicks as the rest all suffered from the smoke. Gwendolyn herself was doubled over hacking out all the soot and smoke she had inhaled. The grays of her hair grew dark with ash as her and Millicent retreated from the fog cloud. A hoarse word to dispell the majority of it saw the cloud largely dissapate, though the smell lingered in almost everything it had touched.
"*cough* Gods, I'm gonna have to scrub this armour for a month to renew it...Stupid Bugs"
She was glad Izzy was enjoying herself, to be fair a more uptight investigator would not have gone along with such a hare-brained scheme. Not the worst. However, a new problem arose. Out of the soot and greenery that had been stomped and smashed upon, an unusually large lantern plant revealed itself to have broken open. Within, the undulations of a much larger creature made themselves aparent. Though still only about shin-high, this insect was bulbous, and angry. It spat a glob of whatever acidic goop the others had spread directly at Gwendolyn. The hiss of acid against her armour forced her to rapidly doff it, praying whatever it was did not touch her skin directly.
The disgust she felt shook her at the knees, and an involuntary shout threw all perception of strength out the window.
"IZZYYY KILL IT"
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 22, 2023 14:19:25 GMT -5
Even Izzy coughs as the smoke dissipates, snickering to herself gleefully at the sheer chaos that they had collectively caused. "Yeaaah, I recommend vinegar. My sister mixes it with lavender oil." She does not add that her sister sprayed Izzy down in this mixture every time she came to visit, but does smile wider at the thought of walking all the way back to Zeinav like this and tossing herself on her sister's couch. Could people's heads explode from indignance?
Her idle musings are interrupted as a lantern plant splits, and something truly horrible flops out of it, roiling like a pustule of insect jelly. It looked. Mad.
She hops to the side as it spits a gob of gross nonsense at Gwendolyn. The sound and smell of sizzling metal is almost worse than the smoke, and Gwendolyn's panicked scream spurs her into action.
Her sword flashes out of its sheath, and she performs, with proper from, a fierce lunge, her considerable height and length lending to the distance of the stab. She pierces through the bug at its center, and it... pops The acid contained within gushes out over the end of Izzy's rapier, immediately able to hear the potent acid dissolving her steel.
Before she has too much time to mourn her sword, Izzy then hauls the blade over her shoulder and flings the horrible grub, as if launching a piece of meat that was stuck on a skewer, into the air. It lands on the ground some feet away with a splat, while Izzy discards her partially melted sword to the side, quickly finds and grabs a large rock. Hauling it up to her chest height, she approaches the spot where the insect writhes, hemorrhaging acid and smashes the rock down on top of it, a dull sound as stone mashes into earth, punctuated by another, final, pop.
For good measure, Izzy gets up to stand on the rock, jumping on it a couple times to make sure that horrible thing is good and dead. "What in the hells are they eating to get like that? Leyline shit?? Friggin' nonsense bugs, is what that was," Satisfied the creature is good and smooshed, she hops down and gives Gwendolyn and Millicent a broad grin. "Ta-da~. That was some fine bug murder, friends. ...so, we're gonna ask for some extra compensation for that nonsense, right?" She gestures to her melted sword and Gwendolyn's melted armor. "And the acid burns, we probably need treating for that, huh..." She eyes her arm skeptically, and then looks to Gwendolyn, who had taken the huge amount right to the chest.
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Post by Gwendolyn on Feb 22, 2023 17:42:44 GMT -5
Millicent pours a bit of her wineskin over the bits of cloth still dissolving with acid. Several angry red splotches and lines dotted Gwendolyns body as she winced each time she moved.
"Yeah, I think a bit of extra compensation is due indeed. This was a bit more than some kids busting lamps. If it is indeed Leyline shit, I'm sure the guilds would be quite interested to hear about it. Here, take some of this water for your wounds"She says, unhooking her own wineskin to toss to the Tiefling. "I, appreciate your assistance. Always hated insects, so Im glad you were here." She mumbled, looking awkwardly away as the side-lined compliment came out. It wasn't often she admitted she needed the help, shes sure she would have been able to take care of this...eventually. Not without her maul becoming irrepairable. Regardless, she grabbed one of the bugs with two fingers and manipulated it into an air-tight jar. A sample for the Golden Consortium to find whether this was going to become more of a problem than it is right now. "Be seeing you..." She said, walking away. Millicent turned to go with her, offering a quick wink on her way out.
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Post by Issala 'Izzy' Arodre on Feb 23, 2023 16:53:14 GMT -5
"I am suuuure they would," Izzy nods absently. For her part, she was going to keep note of this information for... whatever people did with the kind of information she sold to people. This was bound to be of interest to someone. She pats herself down for her cigar, only to just then remember that she gave it to Gwendolyn to smoke out the insects. No smokes, no rapier, and covered in acid. Izzy almost sighs in irritation, before the airborne wineskin draws her attention. She grabs it from the air, and blinks. Huh. She honestly had not expected a gesture like that from the noble. In fact, she had expected VERY little, so this, and the reluctant compliment that followed, was a pleasant surprise. Izzy wasn't quiet sure what to do with it.
So, she upends the wineskin over her head and tosses it back to Gwendolyn.
"Ahhh, thanks. And it was a pleasure to be able to assist," Izzy grins, appearing ever so smug. Only appearing, though. For once. "You had the exact tools needed for the job. I am glad you and fair Millie were here as well."
As Gwendolyn and her maid start to head off, Izzy sweeps another bow. "UNTIL NEXT WE MEET, FAIR LADY! Later Milliiie!" Izzy catches the wink with a wide grin, and blows the maid a cheeky kiss. Once the pair are out of sight, Izzy makes her own way out. Time for her to find one of those recruiters to shake down so she could get her money's worth out of losing her sword.
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