the wild hunt (closed)

[notsocommon]

WHO: Helen Magnus
WHERE: The village, the forest
WHEN: 25 November - 11 December
OPEN TO: Jo Harvelle, Riza Hawkeye, Helen Magnus, Cougar Alvarez & Mark Watney
WARNINGS: mentions of death, some forensic investigation
STATUS: Ongoing

---

It had been a while since Helen had been part of a proper investigation but the discovery of Karen's body at the harvest feast along with all the animal deaths that had plagued the village over the past weeks led her to believe that possibly an Abnormal was behind these attacks instead of an animal. Very few animals would leave a body unmolested, truly, and the harvest feast accounted for all the people in their village and ruled out any sort of human involvement.

There were suspicions, naturally. It was only human nature to suspect one another in times of distress and Helen had been alive long enough to know the signs. Being trapped in such a small place, corralled and toyed with, it had an effect upon the population that wasn't entirely positive. She'd felt it too, over time, and even her cooler head didn't always prevail. In this instance, her cursory examination of the body led her to the conclusion that what was behind the attack was neither animal nor human but something different entirely. In this, at least, she'd be in her element.

After some discussion, she'd elected to follow the trail of blood back into the woods in an attempt to track and neutralize the culprit. She was one of the doctors in the village but with Ravi staying behind, should something happen to her he would be able to continue on with her work. Cougar, too, had been a natural choice as a tracker and hunter, as had Riza. Mark had come along as a fellow scientist and Jo, intrepid as she was, rounded out their team.

The lot of them made good pace through the woods and to the southern edge of the canyon, making it in a few days with only some minor weather delay. On the evening of the third day, decisions would need to be made as to how to continue on - Helen's experience was that climbing the canyon meant only frustration. Still, there seemed to be some sort of cave or alcove above them, just deep enough that a creature might reside there. Was that the nest, possibly? It would require a climb, yes, but she felt the five of them were more than capable of that.

"We should have a meeting, I think," she said, calling them all to attention. Helen tipped her head up toward the canyon wall and voiced her suspicions. "I vote we climb. Those depressions in the cliff face might be caves."

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo scanned the canyon wall in question. The edge to the cage that made up this place and the thing no one seemed to have been able to successfully climb in months. The chill had set in with the animals and cemented itself in Karen's death, wire tight and warning, sing still in her bones, but she pushed back the scarf made of pelts that covered her nose, and ears, and mouth.

"Agreed." She adjusted the bow in her hands. She'd known how to use one since the childhood gift from her father, but it had taken the event with Karen -- or rather what was left of Karen -- to finally force Jo's hand, personally, about the weapon's from months early. To choose the necessity of right this second, and all their lives in the next one, over what could come of it weeks or months from now. "We've no idea from down here how deep some of them might be."

[hawkeyesniper]

This certainly took Riza back to her time in Manhattan. She'd just gotten used to the idea that she wouldn't be hunting creatures here, but apparently that dream had been short lived. At least this time she didn't have to go down into any dark sewers or subway tunnels. Not that the forest didn't have its own dangers -- obviously -- but she'd take trees to sewers any day.

She was traveling light, but had still packed the bag she'd arrived through the fountain with some necessities. She was also carrying one of the used harpoons that had been in the storage area with the other weapons. Her training in bow and arrows had been cut short with the disappearance of Clint Barton, but she was still fairly determined to make herself useful in a weapon other than the gun. The harpoon seemed like it would require the least amount of skill while still allowing her to utilize her keen aim if necessary. Besides, if this thing could rip up a human then she certainly didn't want to engage with it in close quarters.

She turned her own gaze on the canyon, peering at the spots Helen had indicated. "Looks doable--but haven't others had trouble scaling the cliffs in the past?"

[thecatinahat]

It's strange for Cougar to do this in a group. Groups mean decisions like this and slowing down when he wouldn't slow down otherwise. He's used to going through the woods tracking down people, but he's on his own and he runs fast. Usually only Jake can keep up with him, but in this case, he's happy for the help. He peers up past the brim of his hat, whistling low and long to get an idea of the echo they're dealing with. He crouches down to pick up some dust and lets that help his decision as he notes the wind speed (which will also help later if he has to end up shooting something).

He gives the others a curt nod of his head. "Riza is right," he says, searching for notches in the cliffs that will give them a chance to get back down. "But so is Helen." Either way, they go up. Up means the cave, with little fire, few weapons, but it means a good vantage point.

"Maybe someone goes up on our backs and gets a good view? See if the rest can be pulled up?"

[markwatney]

"There's been trouble trying to climb out, yeah," I agree with a nod, my breath hanging opaque in the chilled air. "But we've come this far, so we might as well try." Who knows, maybe today is the day something finally gives, and personally, while I agree with the effort to hunt down whatever it was that so ruthlessly murdered Karen, the opportunity to explore a system of caves is one I can't pass up regardless. There could be answers in there, or even a way out.

"We need someone who's light and capable of defending themselves alone," I say, and look instinctively to the ladies. Even if I weren't back up to fighting weight, I don't think I need to be the first line of defense against whatever it is we're hunting.

[tobeclosetohim]

"Rock climbing has never been a forte of mine," Or something she's even had to consider doing before here in any truly normal sense of the idea, Jo comment reaching up to rub her nose with one of the pelts. The cold getting so fast deep into every part of her uncovered. Even the smallest amount of time. "But I can do it, unless one of you--"

She let the last three words drift as an unfinished question looking to both Riza and Helen, because she could likely defend herself from anything long enough for people to get up to her, should it be needed, but she would be just as fine backing up one of them going if they did have scaling the strange charaded sheer face of a canyon wall in their backpocket just waiting to be used.

[notsocommon]

"I could climb it," Helen said, looking up at the cliff face. She'd climbed similar before, honestly, but her unwillingness to do so now was less rooted in her ability and more in practicality. She had practical experience in this sort of investigation. Risking her neck needlessly was likely unwise, considering there weren't others who could continue her work here in the village.

"But this death, the manner of it - it reminds me of the more violent Abnormals I used to track before I came here. I wouldn't want to risk injury or death and be unable to continue research, especially if we did find the creature responsible. I am willing to climb it, naturally, but it may not be the most logical choice at this juncture."

[thecatinahat]

Cougar glances to Riza and gives her a silent look of communication that says that given those responses, she's probably the best to do it. If she's anything like him, she has experience climbing to high places and would be able to hold her own. "What if we send up someone and I climb?" he suggests, eyeing the footholds and thinking that it wouldn't be the worst rock face he's had. "Report back and maybe, if something goes wrong, you can break my fall," he jokes.

"If we are doing recon, why not two snipers?" he points out.

[hawkeyesniper]

Riza had been having thoughts similar to Helen's. If she were being honest with herself, she was likely the most expendable member here. Mark was needed badly for farming and plants; Helen was one of the few doctors they had; Jo was experienced in multiple situations similar to this multidimensional mess plus her general leadership capabilities; and Cougar had valuable hunting/tracking skills plus an important person to return to back in the village. Riza accepted this and had already made the decision when she agreed to join that they needed someone who could...well...take the fall if it came to that. Riza wasn't suicidal, but she'd assessed her value as one did in situations like this. She'd had to make such calls before--although usually they'd worked out in her favor. She hoped that would continue to be the case.

So she nodded to Cougar and stepped forward, swinging the harpoon with its strap onto her back so she'd have free hands to climb with before directing her attention to the rest of the group, first addressing Helen. "You're right. I can manage this," she glanced at Jo, "and I probably have more experience climbing -- I was a sniper before this all happened, heights are a specialty."

She gave them a reassuring smirk, "Besides, I've held my own against monsters before -- even immortal ones -- so as long as you all are coming up soon I should be able to manage." Riza decided not to share the fact that she'd nearly died most of the time she'd fought said immortal creatures -- but she'd survived a year in a monster-infested New York City so it about evened out in her books.

[tobeclosetohim]

"Okay," Jo nodded, watching them pair up, and it was good enough place to start, without leaving those on the ground entirely unbalanced, if anything should happen down here, while they were climbing up. "We'll be right here. Anything happens in one of those, or you need us up there, for anything, just shout down, and we'll be right behind you?"

She was restless for some kind of action, of answer, a hint, a clue they were headed in the right direction, between the stretching tension of the exacerbation of this problem from small animals, through large, to one of their own, and the days they'd already spent at this. Not knowing how anyone in the village was, or if the same thing had happened again, to another of those, worried at her bones over the days, making her want to get this on with.

Something. Some way. To not just sit waiting while whatever it was picked them off one by one.

[hawkeyesniper]

Well she'd committed herself so best not to back down now. She stepped forward, wiping her palms on her pants, despite the fact she was wearing gloves. It was probably a force of habit, because she certainly felt like her palms were sweating. There was no way of knowing what she might face up there -- but she wasn't going to show fear or step back now.

Riza eyed the wall of rock stretching up hundreds of feet in front of her. At least it didn't look very slippery despite the snow. It was going to be difficult, she hadn't actually climbed a surface like this in years. However, she was already spying foot and hand holds she could grab on to and use to pull herself up. She traced a path as far up as she could from this position and then reached up for the first hand hold. It took a grunt of effort but she started to climb. The key was to keep going and to not look down. She had a keen focus on top of a keen eyesight so that wouldn't be a problem. The problem would be if her upper body strength was what it used to be and if it could get her up that cliff face.

Riza's pace was slow but steady, it would take her several minutes but so far it was looking like she might make it to the first of the caves without incident.

[thecatinahat]

Cougar shrugs as he slings the bow and arrows over his back, settling his hat on his head a little tighter as he follows, moving spry and fast like he's climbing a rig instead of a canyon face. He finds himself slipping every few feet, having to readjust his hold, but he swings with it to give himself leverage, getting to the top without much damage apart from scrapes and the callouses he's going to have for weeks.

Truth be told, he's missed callouses, so it's almost nice to have them back. Standing at the top, he longs for a rifle scope, but he turns to the cave before searching the distance around them. "What do you think?" he asks Riza.

[hawkeyesniper]

Upon reaching the top, Riza wastes no time. While she'd love to enjoy the view and the accomplishment, that isn't what they came here to do. Riza swings the harpoon off her shoulder, just in case, and approaches the entrance of the cave. She notes that there is more than enough room to call the others up, but first she wants to make sure they aren't about to be attacked as soon as they all gather.

She isn't about to explore the whole cave herself -- but it should be enough to scope out the first few paces into the cave. It certainly goes deeper than just a few feet and it looks like it might narrow a bit as well, though by how much is hard to say. She examines the area at the entrance though -- checking the ceiling and even feeling the walls for any obvious signs of a trap. So far though the coast appeared to be clear.

Riza turned back to Cougar, "Looks like we're dealing with more than just a hole in the wall. I don't think there's anything that's going to jump us here at the beginning, so let's get the others up here."

She moved back to the ledge, leaning over to wave down at the others, "Clear!"

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo had been torn between watching them as they climbed the wall, and every direction behind them, that teamed forgotten in their distraction and focus elsewhere, which made it seem almost more dangerous for its forgrantedness. The necessity to be certain, and the second when their people vanished a minute, two, checking something out. Far out of sight, and how far out of hearing. Would they know if whatever it was got them already.

But then Riza calls over the cliff, and she looks to the other two, and the cliff, and that ominous forest, with its forever creeping chill, promising things just out of sight and sound, just a beat. "Go on. I'll keep watch as you go up and start up when you're about halfway."

Which she did, even if she hated having to take her hands off her bow, needing to put it across her body to use both to climb up. Ignoring the sharp and solid jutting rock biting into her palms, focusing on finding each next foothold and hanging, clinging close to the rock when one or another slipped from her right when she thought she could place her weight there. Counting the distance getting shorter until it was dozens of feet.

Then one, and then, only a few feet and there were hands to pull her the last bit, too,
before she was up, rubbing chill and bruised numb palms and fingers on her pants.

[markwatney]

If I ever have the occasion to go on another one of these expeditions, I'm bringing some kind of rope. Most of the others have weapons, and obviously that's important if we run up against whatever it was that drove us out here in the first place, but as I stared up the side of that cliff face, I was thinking that despite my pack filled with supplies, I should have planned better. You'd think being an actual astronaut would have helped with that.

Fortunately, Riza and Cougar had picked out the best handholds, so really it was just a matter of not looking down and reminding myself that I once rode a rocket without a roof into outer space.

Once I'm up, I bend to help haul Helen and Jo up after and then turn to peer into the cave we've put all this work into getting into. To be honest, I'm surprised we got this far, but I'm not looking the gift horse in the mouth. Beyond the cave entrance, it gets pretty dark pretty quickly, and I sling my pack off my back.

"If anybody's got something we can use as a stick, I've got some fabric and grease we can use to make a torch."

[thecatinahat]

Without a word, Cougar hands over one of the carved arrows that should provide enough to hold onto, though it'll be a slim torch. Better than nothing, though, and he's carved enough that he should be fine to at least stun something. He heads into the mouth of the cave and inhales the air sharply before taking another pull. "It's not stale," is what he says, which doesn't mean that it won't come to an end, but it's not just a shallow cave.

"Do we have something to leave? Breadcrumbs," he suggests, remembering what happened with Kate and Margaery.

[notsocommon]

"No, but I'm not against leaving fabric. Who has the brightest color among us?" Helen scanned the group - two in grey, one in green, one in black, one in blue. She looked at the tail of her scrub top and ripped it, leaning out of the mouth of the cave to leave it flapping in the wind.

"There. If it snows again, that should show among all the white. Too bad we didn't think to bring someone who wore red with us, hmm? That would have been entirely too much forethought. I don't mind going first, if we're going to draw lots on who's going to be brave about going deeper. Who wants to bring up the tail?"

[tobeclosetohim]

Chalk. She should have brought the chalk, or even some of the sharpened charcoal sticks she used for writing, but they were so rare and so few, that she couldn't think about wasting any of it. The ability to write. But next time she'd bring one or two. She hadn't thought about cliffs and caves when they set out. Not for someone big enough to take down an elk, and not, if she was being serious, because she'd expected to find any sort of beast really.

Something. It was something, but she didn't know if she believed it existed either. Even though she needed it to now, too.

"I'll stay up front with you," Jo says, not as worried as she maybe should be at offering, given the long dark caves, but definitely aware of how much Helen, especially, as the one person who could handle any of their injuries best, shouldn't be left out in the open of that. "One sniper in the back, and one near the front, so that if we're attacked from either end we have the ability to get at it from the furthest distance first and we aren't left vulnerable to an attack on either end?"

[hawkeyesniper]

Once everyone was up Riza stood to the side, keeping alert for any movement in the cave or problems on the ground. It seemed like they had not prepared as well as they should have for this mission, but Riza knew they could make do.

"I'll take the rear," she offers. It is the more vulnerable of the two deemed sniper positions. Not that Riza feels much like a sniper carrying only a harpoon.

That leaves Cougar near the front and Mark somewhere in the middle. That is a good layout in her book. She looks over to the men, "Got the torch ready to go?"

[markwatney]

The torch is a little flimsy, but it'll work. I've gotten really good at lighting a fire with a bit of flint and steel, so it only takes a moment once I've got the fabric coated and secured around the end of the arrow.

"Good to go," I say, and pass the blazing torch ahead to Jo so that they can see where they're going up front.

If we do get attacked, nothing about this ideal, but then, what about this place as a whole ever has been?

[notsocommon]

"Jo, if you will hold the torch I can lead the way?" With the light of the torch flickering Helen started to head deeper into the caves. It wasn't the first time she'd been into a cave system and there was no way of knowing how deep these were. Had she been back home, she might have tried to use radar or something to get an idea but even still, the nature of the rock might have left her just as blind as she was at the moment. It was cold comfort.

After several hundred feet (or so it felt), the cave began to narrow. "I don't know that we will be able to go on completely abreast. The caves seem to narrow here. Mark, this rock formation appears to be igneous, yes?"

The walls of the caves were slick and black and the air stale; this portion of the world hadn't seen the light of day in a long time.

[markwatney]

"It is, yes," I agree from behind her in the line, although it's already difficult to see. "That's not really surprising, if we're in the area of the country it looks like we're in." Or made to look like we're in, anyway, in which case our captors have a real eye for detail.

"The amount of obsidian is interesting, though. I'd come across some of it, but I didn't realize we were this close to a flow." Not that this means much to me without any context.

There's plenty of granite in here, too, and both are good at reflecting the light; I almost don't notice the flicker of the flame off something distinctly non-rock-like.

"Hold up," I say, and point, squinting into the darkness. I can't tell what it is from this distance, but the shape of it is far too perfect to be anything but man-made.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo took up the torch, wrapping her fingers carefully but solidly around the thin body of the carved arrow turned makeshift torch. She took up a position besides Helen, with her arm out to extended the light as far as possible, especially once they got in further and further and the light from the entrance receded, with that entrance, behind them.

The enclosing space was as unsurprisingly as it was uncomfortable to feel pressing in. She wasn't claustrophobic in the smallest, but each step in the darker and smaller space felt like one into a thin, stretched maze, made by these tunnels they walk through. She watches the edges, and the fire, but it's a lot of darkness and rock walls to her, making it almost relieving when Mark speaks up again.

There's a glance over her shoulder, and then in the direction he was looking. "You got something?"

[thecatinahat]

Cougar drifts out of the formation, so used to scouting the front of things. He doesn't mind leaving people behind, so long as he trusts them, and ends up squinting in the dark to see the shape of something that looks like a man-made structure. More than that, it's something that he hasn't seen in this place. He holds up a hand to tell them to hold as he drifts forward, canting his head to one side.

His vision has always been excellent and it's not lying to him now. "There's something here," he says, hand sliding over the pod. "Here," he summons the rest. "It's something."

[notsocommon]

"This is man made," Helen said, pushing forward into the area. It was sleek and modern, completely different from the rock around them or the village below them. It was undoubtedly some sort of scientific research facility from the looks of it but, unfortunately, long abandoned.

There were a few banks of computers; she touched a few, looking for switches, but none appeared to work. "The power seems to have been cut. It worked, at one point, but it's gone now. Still, there's other things here. Let's take a look, shall we?"

This was the first real break she'd had in discovering the motivation behind this damned place and she couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement in her blood. Were the answers going to be here? Could they find a way out?

[markwatney]

What I'd spotted glimmering in the firelight had turned out to be some sort of enclosure hiding behind a blind. The moment I get a better look at it, my mind instantly labels it a HAB. The shape of it -- Rounded, a short neck connecting the main pod to the door -- is a lot like the astronaut habitat I'd lived in on Mars. This one, though, is smaller and more permanent, made of a sleek silver metal, and when we step inside, it's clear this is strictly for research. Nobody's been living in here.

What little dust had made its way inside before the pod had been sealed off has settled across the consoles, and it's clear enough that none of this has been touched for quite some time. It's all antiquated tech -- Or at least my idea of antiquated, which may seem futuristic to some of the folks in our party. It's harder to pinpoint an era without any power, but I'm guessing 2000s.

My brain's already off and running -- This is concrete proof of... Well, maybe not concrete proof of anything, but it's leaning that way, and it's definitely an indicator that all the theories about magic and the afterlife can go out that window. I don't know how reassuring that is, but there's definitely one question that stands out for me.

"So if someone was up here observing, which would seem to be the purpose if there's a blind, who were they watching? Because it wasn't us. Nobody's been in here for months, at the least. Maybe longer." Maybe a lot longer, actually, if the pod was sealed well.