Welcome, New Scions.

[greatbeasts]

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Here, There Be Dragons

New arrivals: The dream you wake from is an unsettling one that feels like a memory. It sits out of place and too far forward in your mind, yet feels as real and clear as any other could be. It's the shadow of a massive creature blocking out the sun, skyline, or similar entity. A roar that shakes you to the core and and a feeling of dread and loss weighing heavy on you. Whatever the feeling or vision that comes across, it brings with it a sense that your world is no more. A voice, reassuring and almost motherly in nature urges you gently to wake from your sleep. Rise from the ashes, little one, The voice calls in a whisper of wind and crackling fire, There is need of you, yet. As the voice fades and the world of the waking returns to you, you are greeted with the sounds of faint bustling and the bounce of wooden wheels on stone or the sight of Upper Nuren's winding streets and open squares. A cloud passes by slowly near one of the stone pathway ledges and the sounds of nearby Touched and Remnants at work or leisure filter through the calm, cool air. Whatever you had previously been wearing or carrying has been replaced. You might now find yourself garbed in a cloth tunic, pants or shorts, robe, dress or skirt, and sandals or boots if you wore clothing. A sash around your shoulders or a belt at your waist contains a small but weighted purse of gold coins, enough to acquire some materials, new clothing or food from the market and craftsmen in the city. Current Scions: Concern over the mild Winter has begun to spread through the city. The chill air should have come with the nearing end of the harvest, and so far the weather remains only pleasantly cool. The air barely passes the gentle cool of Autumn. Nuren's citizens are spreading rumors that mountaintop ice and snow have begun to thaw, causing mudslides in the mountains. The thaw has displaced the Ice and mountain creatures, leaving them irritable and unpredictable. The sailors mention that the Frozen Shore has also begun to melt, and the waters around the Frozen Shore and the mountain areas have grown treacherous and unseasonably cold. Throughout the city, activity springs to more vibrant life, with Scholars of the Cycle of Life and Scholars of Knowledge claiming that Benra has blessed the city again, bringing more Scions to help protect the great city. The rumors put the city's citizens into higher spirits, and music fills the cool air, spreading from Lower Nuren both up and down the mountain.

The Heart of Nuren

After waking, a pull starts from within your chest, growing stronger with each passing moment until it becomes the only focus. It tugs insistently once, then twice. A need to follow the pull curls around and through you, urging you toward a wide and torch lit staircase that leads down into the heart of the mountain. The steps are wide and sturdy, and the further down them you travel, the clearer the call becomes until you can almost hear it. At the bottom of the steps, the large cavern beneath the city is revealed. The floor beneath your feet is warm to the touch, and the magic in the air calms your mind and fills you with a strange sense of safety and peace. No magic or harm can be done within the cavern. The cavern's floor is covered in circles of runes carved into the stone that surround small depressions in varying sizes, from a coffee cup's rim to that of a small circular table. Some of the depressions contain dormant dragon eggs of various colors, shapes and sizes. The runes surrounding them glow faintly with a magical light. Only the Scion who is bonded to the dragon within the egg can pass the runes.

Upper and Lower Nuren

Once you emerge from the cavern, the strange spell that fell over you fades. The bond between you and your egg or hatchling remains but your command of your own decisions and actions return and you are now free to explore, question and move about. The streets of Upper Nuren are sparsely populated with Remnants, Touched and other scions with their eggs or dragons. Questioning any of the citizens leads to a variety of answers. You are a Scion of the Great Beasts. You were brought to the city from the ashes of time and space by the Great Phoenix known as Benra and the Great Serpent known as Mouros. Pressing for more information will reveal that there are five Great Beasts. They are Benra the Phoenix, Chelba the Stone Giant, Renzu the Griffin, Mouros the Serpent, and Lysheu the Chimera. They are said to represent Mortality, Order, Knowledge, Time and Chaos. You are in the great Mountain City known as Nuren, and its people are the last remaining vestige of civilization on this wild and dangerous planet. The Touched and the Remnants share an alliance and work together to keep the city protected and its citizens alive and fed. According to these citizens of Nuren, you are here to help them defend the city, unite the remaining races and restore balance to the elements. Soon after the first Scions awake, the city begins to buzz with the news and gossip that more scions have arrived. The curious and braver citizens make their way to Upper Nuren to get a look, and the rumors spread like wildfire through the city that Benra has come again.

Outer Nuren

Although those rumors make their way to Outer Nuren, the citizens there show far less interest in making the long trek up to Upper Nuren. The unseasonably warm winter has done wonders for the fishing in the bay, and the docks are alive with intrepid fishermen and ship crews interested in making extra gold while the fishing is still good. The taverns fill with activity and the markets are livelier than ever in the hopes of selling more of their wares and merchandise before Winter's chill catches up with the passing seasons.

Evening

When night settles on the city, the taverns, inns and squares fill with curious citizens hoping to meet the new Scions or catch a glimpse of the Scions they have already managed to glimpse a few times before. Food is offered freely, as well as blankets to guard against the cool night air. The night sky fills with beautiful displays of magic from the Fire, Light and Energy Mages, the Osaaru equivalent of fireworks, though far quieter. Several Scholars in bright and colorful robes can be found approaching the new scions and older ones alike, offering to tell them more about the city, Osaaru and the Great Beasts. Mages of similar garb guide scions to the cavern homes, and help where they can in making the scions more comfortable. Small comforts of food, pillows, decorative crafts and other small tokens are offered to visible Scions by the citizens of Nuren in hopes of earning their favor and friendship.

Notes

Please direct Introduction questions to the Plotting Post Q&A As a Reminder: Bahemait is not one of the Great Beasts openly discussed or mentioned by the Citizens of Nuren who believe the Great Dragon is little more than an old legend. We would also like to emphasize that the Spirit energy within every resurrected character is required to use all magic in Osaaru, even that which is brought from their own world. The drain of powerful or excessive use of magic will lead to exhaustion.

Comments

Jasper | Steven Universe | Current Scion

[stompadour]

I. The Heart of Nuren
The influx of new Scions has Jasper curious. What she's seen of the others so far hasn't impressed her... although she is, of course, biased by the fact that the only gems are herself, demonstratedly a failure, and Rose Quartz's defective pearl. In her eyes, if that's the best this place can do in terms of the most competent race in the galaxy then the rest of the Scions can't be worth much.

Still. If these are who she's going to have to work with...

With her still days-old dragon scurrying behind her, Jasper makes her way to the staircase that leads to the Heart of Nuren, watching for new Scions emerging with their eggs. Some of them will come back above ground to find her scrutinising them with intent yellow eyes.

She gives a curt nod. "You're new."


II. Lower Nuren

Jasper's dragon is still relatively small – the size of a toy dog, stumpy-legged and extremely round. In comparison, Jasper is over eight feet tall with a Jem and the Holograms-esque mane of hair and arms and legs like orange tree trunks. Consequently she looks kind of ridiculous chasing after the baby dragon who's currently running down the street with her jaws clamped around a loaf of bread as big as she is.

"Hey!" Jasper barks, grabbing for her and missing as the little dragon charges between someone's legs and trips them up. Jasper literally picks them up and moves them out of her way. Sorry if that's you!


III. Wildcard
Hit me up if you wanna work out something else – or just surprise me it's all good

[terrifyingrenegade]

Contrasting Jasper's fat little sausage dragon, Pearl's dragon is a scrawny little fuzz clad tangle of awkward limbs, the wings at its back sporting short little nubs of future flight feathers. Presently Pearl has the hatchling tucked up in the crook of one arm, from which it is peering out at the world around it with uncertain eyes.

As she's strolling along, lost in thought, a streak of movement catches her eye, immediately identifiable as a baby dragon. All day long she's been watching her fellow Scions struggle to keep their rambunctious new partners under control. Hoping to nip a potential disaster in the bud, the gem springs into action and scoops the little creature up as it runs past, restraining it in her other arm opposite her own dragon.

"Honestly," she mutters disapprovingly to herself, before straightening up to look around for the owner.

[stompadour]

A few seconds later Jasper comes into view – her eyes narrow immediately when she sees where her dragon is. For her part, the fat little creature is squirming in Pearl's arm, extremely disappointed at having dropped the bread.

"I'll take that back, thanks," she says flatly.

[terrifyingrenegade]

Pearl catches Jasper's eye and grimaces, taken aback by the larger Gem's unexpected appearance. Her dragon immediately picks up on her displeasure; she trills unhappily, long neck raised, head turning back and forth as her attention flits between Jasper and the unfamiliar dragon being held opposite her.

"You," says Pearl, more than a little surprised. "This is your dragon?"

[stompadour]

"Yes," says Jasper, scowling, and reaches to grab her dragon out of Pearl's arm with one hand. Slightly defensively, she adds, "She only just hatched, they're supposed to grow."

[yuruse]

Though Itachi has seen many unique individuals of varying size and shape, he's admittedly never seen a woman quite as large as this one. Or as orange. He blinks, easily questioning his own poor eyesight for a moment before he comes to the conclusion that they aren't fooling him in regards to her size.

He stops on the stairs, keeping his posture relaxed even as he considers his options for escape. Fighting isn't something he could manage right now, especially with this egg in his care. Currently he holds it close to his navel with both hands.

"I am, yes."

[stompadour]

She nods again, her eyes on the egg he's holding. "Human, right? Do you do anything special, or what?"

[yuruse]

Does he do anything special? There's an interesting question. He does have techniques that are particular to his eyes only, as is the case with most individuals with the mangekyo sharingan, but he's in no shape to be using those right now.

"That depends on what sort of 'special' you're looking for." He says this knowing full well that most people hate this type of response.

[stompadour]

Yeah, Jasper definitely looks irritated. "Anything normal humans can't do. Can you fight?"

II. Lower Nuren

[waterfight]

Unfortunately for Jasper, her little dragon has scurried through the legs of an even bigger dragon who stares blankly at Jasper for a moment while the hatchling peeks around her front legs. As Jasper reaches out to try and shove her way past, Tsunami lifts a leg and gently nudges back. She's not swatting the gem away, but nor is she letting herself be moved.

"Don't you scavengers have any manners?"

[stompadour]

Jasper frowns, putting a hand on Tsunami's talons to push them away. "You can talk, huh? Go figure. Hey," she nods at her dragon, who's started to gnaw on the loaf of bread, "get back here. I didn't say you could take that."

[waterfight]

Tsunami seems a little surprised by Jasper's strength as her talon is pushed away. She supposes the orange scavenger is bigger than normal, so that must account for it.

"Aw, he's probably just hungry..."

[stompadour]

He? Don't put that SJW nonsense on her dragon, Tsunami

"She's always hungry," says Jasper irritably, trying to reach past Tsunami for her dragon – who squeaks excitedly around her mouth full of bread and stats running again. "Hey–"

II we're gonna get kicked out of the city

[mithrarin]

The moment Dust felt a hand grabbing onto him and his feet lifted the ground, training and instinct took over in a second. Dust snapped one hand back to grab his aggressor in turn, using her grip and his as leverage to flip his body off, kick off a nearby wall, then twist around to use his strength to haul her off the ground and over himself into a fairly dramatic slam. The move was fluid and intuitive, so hopefully Jasper could appreciate its skillful execution and the power behind it?

[stompadour]

She certainly could – it's more than she'd honestly expected from anyone she might run into on the street here. She only had time to reflect on that for a split second, though, while she was sailing through the air. The next moment the full bulk of her form was being slammed against the ground, and the fact that it was technically an artificial projection of light energy sure didn't make any difference to how hard it hit.

She was up quickly, though, recovering enough to haul herself back to her feet far sooner than a human would. With a shimmer of light, she summoned her helmet, eyes narrowed behind the visor of it as her gaze fell on the individual who'd attacked her.

"You," she growled, one hand curling into a fist as she stormed towards him. The other one reached to grab at him again, but if she succeeded this time she'd be pulling him up off the floor to her own eye level.

[mithrarin]

A fierce stomping signaled Dust's dragon backing up abruptly, wings spread and head lowered in alarm. A few startled yelps behind him came up from the people his flanks were shoving out of the way.

Dust didn't wait for her to close the gap -- as soon as he saw that arm coming towards him, he half-dove, half-rolled backwards, coming up to his feet a few yards away. "Why would you just -- grab someone on the street?!" he demanded, still half-wondering if he'd been in the wrong and reacted too hastily. He was starting to think that wasn't the case, though.

[archdeviant]

(( Hello! Just checking in before I jump in, is it okay for Nemesis to pull his psychic disguise on her? ))

[stompadour]

(Absolutely!)

I

[archdeviant]

"That makes a nice change from being called old," is the reply of the calm 'Mr Smith', alien in disguise. Though from her perspective, disguised as an entirely different sort of alien, appearing to be a tall, good if plain looking man. The sort of guy that's equally easy to notice as miss. Though leaving a few gaps for her mind to fill in that imply 'tough' at a glance.

Under it all, he's eyeing Jasper up in amusement, but it comes across as a friendly little smile on lips that don't exist. "I take it you're from the advanced guard, then?"

One arm cradles his dragon's egg, in reality a frogspawn like blob, in his disguise equally as plain as his appearance. Like a big ol' chicken egg.

II

[highstandards]

"WHOA - "

Well, that's one way to stop someone from falling. It's not an unfamiliar feeling - Undyne is a fan of lifting and surprise attacks - but Papyrus would still appreciate a warning. There's a rattling sound as he kicks his feet in the air, almost swallowed by the excited squeaks of his dragon, who loses its grip on Papyrus' wrist and falls to the ground.

"You're very strong," he says once he scoops up his dragon despite its squirms and protests (as far as it's concered, it was a fun ride and they should do it again), "but perhaps an Excuse me, can you please move will work better next time!"

[stompadour]

"I'm in a hurry," Jasper snaps, still holding him up in one hand as she scans the street for a sign of where her dragon went – she doesn't put Papyrus down just yet because he doesn't weigh all that much.

[highstandards]

Whoops, guess he's still up the air. Papyrus gives her a disapproving look.

"Then a short excuse me would work just as well - HEY!"

His hatchling has noticed something; it squirms out of its scion's grasp and climbs down the bones in an impressive speed before landing awkwardly of the pavement. It's only a moment before it trills happily and runs off to climb over a low stone wall, where Jasper's dragon has settled to munch on the bread. Food and a new friend! How exciting!!

LOWER she's lifted worse than tiny dragons I swear

[tsuyuirihero]

[It's something of an automatic reaction, trained into her in part from the semi frequent interruptions of class trips by villains in recent time where she's from-a habit trained both for protection and for perhaps other reasons entirely-but between the shouts and the bolting dragon, her tongue snaps out, and grabs, appendage wrapping right around whatever limb (or even body, if she strikes middle) possible.

...This is probably very far from what the bread thief ever thought possible, really.] Mmm...

[So she supposes This just happened, yes. Best to be presenting this dragon back over to the one shouting for it at least.] ....Are they yours? [she asks, apparently unhindered in her speech despite her tongue literally being stretched out and wrapped around something.]

[stompadour]

[Jasper stares down at her with minor disconcert – then reaches to take her squirming, startled dragon from the... tongue... of the human (???) offering it to her.]

... Yes. Can you... let go of her?

[tsuyuirihero]

Of course. [Naturally she can-and Jasper will probably be (slightly less disgusted) pleased to find that the dragon doesn't have so much of a drop of anything wet or sticky on them. FROGS.

They probably don't work like that.

But there they are-and if they still have that bread then that is one stubborn little beast.]