Ruins of Azlant Gameplay I

The rest of the group heads with Kaimana to see Soren, who's in relatively good health, if a little sunburnt and dehydrated. "Well, I was out fishing, and the sun was nice and warm so I took a bit of a nap," he explains. "Next thing I know, I'm waking up, out in the middle of the sea in a freak squall! I managed to get the boat under control, though, and eventually found my way back."

Kaimana shakes his head. "I can't even imagine. Guessing this wasn't your first time napping while fishing, right?" he adds with a small smile. "And it must not have gone this badly before..."

"Hah, yeah, that's true," Soren says, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

As Kaimana talks with Soren, Amissa's eyes briefly glow blue as she looks at Soren. After about fifteen seconds, she turns to Aisha and pulls her off to the side. "There's magic on him," she says quietly. "Divination magic, it looks like. Someone might be using him to gather information, whether he's consciously aware of this or not."

Aisha nods and purses her lips. "Hm. Not sure what we can do about that. I doubt it's his fault and he probably doesn't even know about it. We should bring it up to Ramona later," she murmurs back.

As Soren talks, Jax's eyes scan over his body, noting the sunburn and checking for other injuries. Suddenly, Jax tenses up, his hands darting to his spear. "What are you, and where is the real Soren?" he growls.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Soren says, looking scared by Jax's outburst.

Kaimana, who had been happily hearing about how Soren was benefitting from Lyra and Anya's survival classes, freezes at this. "What, Jax?" he asks after a moment, more than a little confused.

Aisha immediately pulls herself away from Amissa to interject herself and run damage control against Jax's lack of subtlety. "Sorry, Soren, we ran into a shapeshifter out there a little while back and sometimes they were known to abduct and replace people, Jax has been on edge ever since," she lies. "We know you're fine though, it's not hard to tell when they don't act like you. There's a methodology to it that we'll have to teach Jax later," she side-eyes Jax when she says the last, hoping that he caught the hint that this absolutely isn't an imposter and they'd explain later.

Jax stares Soren down, allowing Aisha to speak. "This isn't Soren." he repeats. "The skin on his neck changed unnaturally, and he's lying about being confused."

"It's just a sunburn!" Soren protests. "What's going on here?"

Kaimana looks between Aisha, Soren, and Jax, confused, and looks at Soren's neck as well. To him, it just looks like a sunburn, but what reason would Jax have to lie about this? Still, he doesn't reach for his sword, and simply looks back to the others in plain confusion.

"I'm not sure about an imposter, though it's not out of the realm of possibility..." Amissa says with a frown. "There's definitely a divination spell on him though, so it's possible that someone manufactured the storm to plant the magic on him." She glances around at the others. "Although I would've preferred to handle that without causing a panic."

"Jax, I'm inclined to believe you, but I can't tell anything. Soren, if this really is you, I'm sorry, but we really have to be certain. Jax, what exactly did you see on his neck?" Aisha asks, speaking slowly, brow furrowed with confusion.

"Of course it's me! Who else could it be?" Soren says, some fear creeping back into his tone.

Jax glances over to Aisha, then resumes focusing on "Soren." "It looked like a whorl of shifting, leathery skin. It vanished back into looking like human skin a moment later."

Kaimana rubs the back of his neck, troubled as everyone else looks equally confused by that description. "Soren, don't worry about it for now," he says eventually, giving the fisherman a smile. "Doesn't seem like anyone's sure what that means right now, but if there's something odd going on, we'll figure it out together."

"I'll be back in a second," Aisha flashes them all a tight smile, then quickly walks out, breaking into a run as soon as she rounds the corner to find Ramona, Anya, Lyra, or Carver to try and bring some help into this situation.

She goes to Ramona first, figuring that she should get read into all of this first of all. Unfortunately, Ramona's not sure what's going on either, and advises Aisha to keep it quiet and to make sure Soren stays in his home, and to try Eliza, Carver, or Perrell for help. First she heads back to the house and addresses Soren, but makes sure that the other three can hear and understand what she's really saying, "Soren, we think you might be sick and contagious, that could be what Jax saw on your neck, and we really don't want it spreading, so you'll need to stay here for now. These three will stay with you to make sure it doesn't get any worse and to make sure that we don't get anyone panicking. In the meantime, I'm going to ask some experts for advice on how to properly get you some treatment," Aisha lies again, emphasizing certain words to make sure the others got the hint that they're to stay here, tell anyone who asks that Soren's sick, and to not let him leave, then she dashes out again, this time to Eliza.

"Sure, we'll stay here! Hopefully one of the experts knows exactly what to do," Kaimana answers brightly, entirely unaware that Aisha's lying.

After hearing the situation from Aisha, Eliza opens her mouth as if to say something, then closes it abruptly with a look of confusion. She does this a second time, then smacks her head with both fists. "There was something there, something that's gone now, erased," she says, eyes welling with panic. "Nine hells, it's happening again, this is how it begins..."

Aisha rushes over to take Eliza's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay, it's okay. I'm here, you're safe, don't worry," she insists. "Take deep breaths." She doesn't know what's going on, but she's been through enough panic attacks herself to recognize similarities.

Eliza takes Aisha's advice, squeezing tightly to her hand, and starting to breathe more slowly.

Aisha emulates it with her own breathing, slowly, in through her nose, out through her mouth. "You're still you. You're safe with me," Aisha murmurs, squeezing the hand back. She wants to know what just happened, but she doesn't want to press Eliza until she's certain she's back in a good place. Getting an idea, she speaks in a low, calm voice. "Eliza, I'm going to cast a spell on you. It will protect your mind and make sure that absolutely nothing can influence your thoughts except you." With her free hand, she casts the spell while murmuring the incantation, making sure that Eliza can see and hear her.

"Thank you," Eliza murmurs as the spell is placed on her. Taking another deep breath, she gathers up some resolve, and gives Aisha a strained smile.

"Of course. And if you ever feel this way again, come to me and I will help," Aisha replies, returning the smile. "Now, I'm not asking you to try to remember that time if it's hard for you, but if you know anything from before, something you've studied or read once maybe that might be relevant here, that would be very helpful for making sure this colony stays safe."