>>21998074>>22164660>>22164973>>22165210>>22165241As the harsh boreal winds brush against his face, the man could only ignore the stinging sensation as frost begins to grow on his heavy moustache. Jovial scans the plains for any signs of movements, be it the slightest as the grass swaying by the winds. There! North-west! A shape moving amongst the rocks!
"Xohildr! Is that you!" he shouted. A minute passes, and not a reply. The shape struts forward. A boreal goat. Merely a local wildlife, curious to see the being that called to it.
"Damnit!" he sighed. Stomping his foot down, venting pent up frustration.
It was a week since his party of adventurers suffered their loss. Yet he cannot let it go easily.
Their mission was simple enough. The Capital of the Holy Life Generalgouvernement had assigned them to investigate a mysterious anomaly somewhere in the Far Northwest of the Holo Continent. Locals mentioned a huge hamlet sized Citadel crashing down to the surface, inhabited by men in steel suits, glass helmets, and aided by pastry wolves. The rumours were intriguing. Not far-fetched for Admiral Jovial, Captain of the 1st Kronissiah Flotilla. He had seen his fair share of exotic anomalies in his travels. From the gladiators of Holofightz, to the golems of RBC. His experience in these situations made him the likely candidate to go on this mission.
His crew consisted of multiple Vtubium enhanced individuals from regions close to his homeland. A wizard from the Phoenix Kaiserreich, A markswoman from the Vispo Stratocracy, and a priestess from Matiyotl. Quite a bizarre composition of adventurers but he made it through multiple battles with them. As he and his crew arrived in the Republique Owl, his intuitions were right. The locals have made contact with the bizarre visitors that landed in the North.
According to the Hoomans, the visitors were famished of resources. Their home, the steel Citadel as they called it, crashed with all its advanced functionalities broken. As part of setting up a base, the men of the Ctiadel helped built a local bakery. In hopes of improving diplomacy and gathering manpower and resources. Not quite the strategy Jovial would've thought of yet it worked. The Citadel was able to be brought up, out off its crater, and landed on the tundral plains perfectly as intended. Not long after, they sent out diplomats to the Capital in hopes of getting more help.
However, they had fall silent since. Upon visiting the bakery, it is currently being run by one of the pastry wolves, or bread dogs as the locals called them. When Jovial asked the quadruple gluten canine on the situation of its masters, the bread dog merely whimpered in sadness.
Without any proper leads, the party stocked up on supplies and headed North.
Luckily for them, it is not winter. Even in the middle of the taiga and tundral plains, there were barely any snow and the air is bareable.
Unluckily for them, it is hunting season for the schizotrolls.
It took a day's worth of travel into the far North when the party was ambushed by a horde of schizotrolls. They growled and howled, they snarled and barked, and the tongue they spoke in brought stinging pain into the hearts of every crew member. The schizotrolls attacked Jovial and his party, screaming deranged nonsense in an eldritch tongue. Lenz, the Phoenix Wizard, was troubled the most. As he fought a troll, all they could say at him were "k̸̫̮͊Ḛ̶̛̻-̶̻̿K̴̀ȉ̴̩͕́ ̸̫̂͜h̴͇̬̐̾I̷͕̽I̷͉͆m̴̦̣̋i̷̺̜̓Ȩ̶́͠".
Lenz did not understand the language of the schizotrollls, but he felt the mental and spiritual attack from their words. As if they were personal.
It was among this confusion that a schizotroll tackled Xohildr, the Matiyotl priestess. Struggling, she could only scream as the trolls escape into the mountains. Faster than even Kaya could target them.
For several days the party travel, looking for their missing companion. Planning their travel in-between winds while the sun is up to evade any schizotrolls along the way. Jovial looked up into the hills. Thin layers of snow, grass, rocks, and several goats and oxens. Not a sign of Xohildr. Jovial gave a signal to Kaya and Lenz. It's time to go. As they travelled further North, Kaya found marks in the snow. Adjusting and inserting a chuubanite infused lens into her goggle, she's able to see tracks in the snow. Footprints. They are not of the priestess. But they are a sign of life. The Citadel must be close.
And so it is. It only took a few hours for them to see the structure of metal and glass above the hills.
"By the Kronissiah..." the Admiral spoke in awe. "We're here!"
To his right, he saw a couple of men in suits sitting in a makeshift camp. One of them is reading an oversized tome. A copy of the Imperial Bible. The man turns his head up and looks at the Admiral. "Oi! You mates mustve been from the Capital innit?"
