{Ore Drakes} The Expedition Outpost | OPEN

[Country]

Relieved to see help arrive she gratefully replied, "I am in no rush at all, I'm just happy to see you!"

[Midnight Phantom]

Ree lands finally and waits for chirp who gives him an annoyed look before climbing onto his shoulders, her intent clear.


"Oww.." he muttered and waited though, taking a deep breath as he moved North, not risking a swim alone with his wings.

[SeaCrest]

Sorry about the wait, everyone!

Ember
The black and gold drake eyes you for a moment before slowly pulling back a wing to reveal a pink, red, and white hatchling curled in a protective ball, a set of nasty-looking scratches visible along its ribs. Do you...

• Reach out to examine the hatchling?
• Offer both parent and hatchling something to eat? Requires 1x fruit, mineral, or ore.

YourLoveOnly || YLO
You decide that it would be best to take the seed back to Dr. Wong or Barnaby for identification. You're no botanist, after all. Do you...

• Call Barnaby for pickup now?
• Save the seed and continue exploring?

Midnight Phantom || Ree
You head north, over the water, but soon an irate drake appears, scolding, and a half dozen more soon follow, all of them darting at you and trying to drive you to the ground. It could be an attempt at defense, given that they don't have large, flying creatures here. Do you...

• Head down to the sand?
• Go for a swim?
• Try to outfly them?

Saturnalia || Shaydra
You sit for a bit, eyelids drooping as you start to get sleepy. Perhaps a brief nap is in order?
Do you...

• Take a snort nap?
• Climb down and continue exploring?

Ryuukokoro || Ryuu
You head south, back into the forest. After a while, you stop, looking at a tree stump that you could have sworn you passed earlier. Do you...

• Continue walking?
• Continue walking, but leave yourself trail signs?
• Try to go back the way you came?

Country
Tea hums to herself as she pulls bundles of herbs from her various pouches and pockets, apparently none of which are suitable. Eventually, she unearths a rough clay jar sealed with wax, which she pops open, wrinkling her nose at the smell.

"Sorry, this is a bit pungent," she tells you as she smears some of the black paste on the stone around you. "Don't touch it, now." That done, she closes the jar and draws some glyphs in the paste with the end of a branch, squinting at her work. The stuff really does smell, and you fight the urge to sneeze as Tea locates a bundle of herbs and pulls two stems from it holding them between her teeth as she hunts for something else. She comes up with a lighter, which she uses to set the herbs on fire, waving the smoking, quickly burning stems above you. You try to stand up, but you're still stuck fast.

Tea scowls. "Oh, all right," she mutters. "I hate it when this happens." She digs in yet another pocket, and comes up with a small white egg, too small to be a chicken or drake egg. Perhaps something like a quail? She smashes the egg on the stone, making a satisfied noise as it immediately turns black and starts to smoke. Using her thumb, she takes the ash from the burned herbs and draws a circle through the smoking egg remains, and as she closes the circle, you feel a great rush, as if something is shoving you to your feet.

"There," Tea announces, grabbing you before you fall over. "They usually don't mind me, but you're a newcomer, so I s'pose they think it's funny."

Do you...

• Thank her and move on?
• Ask her who she means by "they"?
• Ask what she did, exactly?

Midnight Phantom || Ree
Please wait for a response before posting again! This ensures that replies are processed smoothly. Thanks!

[Country]

Country rights herself and turns to look at what she had assumed was a rock, obviously she was mistaken, "Thank you for helping me. What or who are they exactly?" Country asks Tea.

[YourLoveOnly]

Let's call Barnaby for pickup now. This seed seems really odd and I don't want anything to happen to it!

[SeaCrest]

Country
Tea taps her fingers on her belt thoughtfully as she considers her answer. "They're...well, I guess you'd have to call them sentient rocks?" she says, somewhat hesitantly before nodding to herself. "Yes, sentient rocks, although they can move, too, so they're a bit like little rock trolls but without eyes, hands, feet, mouths, and so on. They don't really talk, but they sort of...hum. The drakes seem to understand them a bit better than I do. They're quite curious, and you'll sometimes find them in odd places around the island because they like to explore. Mostly, though, they kind of just...sit there. I'm not sure if they're actually sentient or if they're leftovers from some great spell. Dr. Farrowstead seems to have an idea, but since they're not malicious she's let them be for now."

Do you...

• Thank her and move on?
• Ask what she did, exactly?

YourLoveOnly
You radio for Barnaby, who instructs you to strike out west so he can meet you past the edge of the forest - by his reckoning you're only an hour or two away, and he can't reach you in the truck where you are. He still beats you there, and you find one of Dr. Farrowstead's drakes swooping through the trees to peer at you before Barnaby meets you halfway. He takes you back to the truck, and listens as you explain the strange clearing and the seed you're carrying. Barnaby doesn't seem to know what it is, but he tells you that if Dr. Wong doesn't know either, they'll contact Dr. Farrowstead and Tea, to see if either of them have an idea.

As it turns out, Dr. Wong doesn't know what it is, although she's heard something about it; she instructs you to hand the seed off to Dr. Farrowstead when you return to the mainland. In the meantime, it's rather late, and the next plane won't be coming until tomorrow, so she sets you up in one of the temporary lodging rooms for the night.

Expedition complete! You have gained 3 expedition EXP!

You may now apply for another expedition!

[YourLoveOnly]

ADVENTURER'S PERMIT APPLICATION
Name: YLO
Drake(s): 009 - Poi

[SeaCrest]

YourLoveOnly || YLO
After Dr. Wong has given you your map, as well as checking over your supplies, she sends you out to meet Barnaby, who shuttles you out to one of the expedition areas. After all, if everyone is exploring right next to the Outpost, there won't be much by the way of discovery, will there?

After Barnaby leaves you, you look around. You're on the bank of a wide river, which flows down from the mountains north of you. The river flows west. Do you...

• Head north to the mountains?
• Head downriver?
• Head upriver?
• Cross the river?

[YourLoveOnly]

I don't really fancy a climb, so let's head away from the mountains and head downriver.

[Midnight Phantom]

((ah sorry! I check every few days and just saw the response and not my own post XD yeaa need to make an icon...eventually::facepalms ::  ))

Ree backed wing in alarm, taking a moment to realize a drake had tried to divebomb him. "Hey... " he started softly trying to calm the drake down as Chip flew up and started scolding back. "It's okay.......No, Itss not okay ... not okay at all" he muttered spotting 6 more drakes coming and moving to bombard them.

"Don't think that is going to work" he said urgently, plucking his own drake out of the sky and and diving only to slide his wings out again after a second or two and tried to use his momentum to gain speed as he tried to escape the mob of drakes. Out-flying them was his first thought as Chirp squirmed in his arms, still scolding. "Shh" he muttered softly, feeling a few burning scratches and hits on his side and back from where some drakes did manage to score him.

[Ember]

Ember freezes when the drake reveals the hatchling it was protecting. "Oh the poor thing," she says. "Can I- I don't want to hurt them, but those look bad and I'd need a better look?" She's sort of asking permission as she reaches out to examine the hatchling. Rhea and Andromeda coo quietly from beside her.

[SeaCrest]

YourLoveOnly || YLO
You head downriver, cognizant of the gentle slope of the terrain as you move further away from the mountains. The riverbank is populated with tall reeds and cattails, with the occasional cluster of some yellow-gold flowers with small petals and spiky leaves; in some areas, the bank is nonexistent, flattening out into a muddy stretch before it meets the water.

As the river curves gently, you spot something that doesn't seem like it belongs here, something uniformly square. Do you...

• Investigate?
• Continue downriver?
• Head south?

Midnight Phantom || Ree
Your greater wingspan works in your favor, and you manage to outpace the attacking drakes and flee. They give up once you're away from the beach, but now you're not quite sure where you are. Do you...

• Land and try to navigate on foot?
• Try to look for a landmark?

Ember
The black and gold drake eyes you keenly, but shifts enough that you can gently pick up the hatchling to examine it. The scratches aren't insignificant, but they're probably not deep enough to require stitches. They are covered in dirt, however, and should be washed.

Do you...

• Use your water bottle to wash off the worst of the dirt first?
• Go for your first aid kit?

[YourLoveOnly]

Investigate!

[Ember]

Use the water bottle to wash them out first!

[Country]

"Interesting," Country says more to herself than anyone else. "What exactly did you do to get them to let me go?"

[Saturnalia]

Shaydra is, after all, part leopard. She decides that, comfy as she is, wedged nicely in this tree, it's as good a time as any to take a short nap.

[Midnight Phantom]

Ree finally slowed and looked back when he stopped hearing the sound of wing beats other than his own. He stared and slowly moved to a hover waiting a little longer before starting to laugh, somehow he should have expected that but really he didn't.

Chirp did as her name and made a sound almost like a chirp still squirming before lightly biting his hand and looking up waiting.

"No." he looked down at her and shifted her grip so she could cling to his clothes as he held her one handed. "Let me find where we are first " he said with a grin still plastered on his mouth as he went up higher and a little back along the island looking for a landmark.

[SeaCrest]

YourLoveOnly || YLO
You move closer to investigate, finding yourself staring down at something dull brown and square embedded in the mud. Or perhaps not embedded, merely covered...

Do you...

• Wash off the mud?
• Continue downriver?

Ember
The hatchling squalls at you as you pour water on it, but the dirt comes off easily. You can see the scratches better now, and note that the hatchling's blood appears to be golden in color, rather than the expected red. It turns to try and lick its own wounds, nearly rolling itself out of your hands.

Do you...

• Offer it some food? Requires 1x any ore or mineral, 1x sunfruit, or 1x rissica berry
• Disinfect the wounds?

Country
Tea smiles as she packs up her things. "I'm not actually sure. Dr. Farrowstead developed the recipe and the process, and taught it to me. I had a...different way of dealing with them. Less pleasant. This is much better for the both of us, but when they get stubborn I have to use an egg. Something about sealing their power, I think? That's what the herbs are for, and the circle."

You thank her, brushing yourself off as she waves at you cheerfully before disappearing into the trees. Eyeing the rocks warily, you consider your options.

Do you...

• Continue north?
• Head west?

Saturnalia || Shaydra
You take a quick nap to refresh yourself. When you wake up, there's an egg in your lap that wasn't there before.

You have obtained 1x Wild Egg!

Cradling it carefully, you look around, but there are no drakes to be seen. Is this a gift?

Do you...

• Take the egg?
• Leave the egg?

Midnight Phantom || Ree
There's a large lake to the west, and mountains to the east. You could also head southwest towards the beach.

Do you...

• Head to the lake?
• Head to the mountains?
• Head to the beach?

[YourLoveOnly]

Wash off the mud!

[Country]

Keeping a good deal of space between myself and the rocks I decided to continue heading North.

[SeaCrest]

Hi guys, I have an important update here:

I have to shut down the expedition thread for the foreseeable future without finishing the current ongoing expeditions. I'm really sorry guys, it's been so long that I don't remember a lot of my intended story paths for the existing expeditions & I'm struggling to keep everything straight in my head. I'm going to be redoing the system & writing predetermined story paths so it's more like a Choose Your Own Adventure game & I don't have to think up entirely new responses to everyone. There'll also be an actual map for reference, with coordinates. Everyone who has an ongoing expedition will receive a randomly drawn Silver Ore, Gold Ore, or Wild Egg. Again, I'm really sorry!