Ruins of Azlant Gameplay

A couple days into the week, Aisha pulls Jax and Anya aside at a dinner. ”Hey! I was wondering if you two would be able to hunt a few specific things for the celebration. I’m sure I already mentioned to you that people are cooking dishes from their cultural backgrounds, so there’s a few meats that are needed.”

Jax nods, "What are you thinking of, and how much will you need?"

"A couple big fish, a game bird, maybe two if it's on the smaller side, and a boar," Aisha replies. "It's good that ultimately fowl and fish tend to taste pretty similar to one another so these recipes can be used even all the way out here."

"You will have both your fowl and boar," Anya promises. "As for the fish, I believe some others would be more suited for delivering that to you. Rather than having our usual competition, perhaps we should work together in hunting these, Jax?" Anya offers.

"Making sure we successfully hunt everything you need is more important than pride here," Jax agrees. "Shall we hunt the boar first, or the fowl?"

"Let us do a bit of scouting to figure out which we will be wanting to focus on first," Anya says.

Amissa invites Eliza, Perrell, and Carver to a meeting to discuss the future of research into ancient Azlant that will be occuring, all four gathered around a table in the Government House.

Amissa coughs lightly into her hand, before looking around the table. "As the three of you may know, in the near future, my group and I will be taking a leave of absence from the colony to deal with a lurking threat. I'm not sure exactly how long we're going to be gone; as such, given that all of you are interested in ancient Azlant, I wanted to talk with you all to figure out a plan of action for continuing research on the Azlanti ruins in my absence."

She pulls out some sets of notebooks. "These are the notes I've managed to take so far. We have a few different locations that I'd like to either excavate further, or otherwise investigate. First of all, the tower that we found Eliza in." She opens one of the notebooks, revealing a drawing of the structure in question. "Given Eliza's rather traumatic history with the location, if possible, I'd prefer either Carver or Perrell to lead an investigation on the location."

"Secondly," Amissa says, opening another notebook, "the home of the celedons. I imagine this will be one of the easier places to investigate, as it will mainly require maintaining a good relationship with the celedons in question. As long as there's a healthy relationship there, they will likely be willing to answer a number of questions."

Amissa opens the third notebook. "The third major location would be the facility that was repurposed by the aboleth. The island itself also has a number of further ruins and locations that would be worth investigating; the notebooks contain further information, but a brief summary would include a watchtower, an observatory, a set of spiraling pillars, an ancient beekeeping operation gone out of control, and a number of large stone blocks."

She shuffles around some of the unopened notebooks, finding the one she wants and placing it on top of the stack before putting them back on the table. "These notebooks relate to the various other locations we've found on the island so far. The biggest one would be the tower that the sea hag had taken residence in, followed by the centre area with the Azlanti dignitary projection. Finally, there's a cave behind a waterfall and a cave inside of a crater."

Having gone over all the locations, Amissa takes a deep breath and sits back a bit. "I was hoping you three would be interested in leading the research on these locations while I'm away. Does that sound like something you'd want to do?"

"Absolutely!" Perrell says with an excited nod.

"From the sounds of it, the three largest locations are the two towers, and the temple on the other island," Carver notes. "Perhaps it would be best for each of us to take one of those locations for ourselves,"

"Perhaps the celedons would be interested in traveling to the other island to help with the temple?" Eliza suggests. "I'm sure they would have much to say about the religious sites."

Amissa smiles. "Fantastic. Do you need help with getting teams together? I know that working alone can be frustrating, especially when heavy things need to be moved. I can look over the supply of reclaimed constructs as well and see if any of them are workable for helping."

"Given the remoteness of the island and the temple, I think the majority of constructs should be sent to work there," Carver suggests. "With the other two, support from the colony would be easier to get. I'll have no trouble getting a team together. I'd imagine too, that with the colony starting to be on more stable footing that we should expect to see more support for research and archaeology here."

Amissa nods. "That makes sense. I'll make the constructs more largely available to the person who wants to go to the island then. Based on the brief summaries, do any locations stand out as places any of you want to prioritize?"

"Personally, I would rather not have to investigate the temple," Carver says. "I'd certainly do it if I had to, but my experience there was not enjoyable," he says with a grimace. "I think perhaps the best place for me would be the sea hag's tower, given that it's closer to some of the sites described by Durvin Gest."

"Mark me down as the same for the temple," Perrell says with a shake of her head. "I'd like to avoid the water for a healthy amount of time. I suppose that would make me in charge of the other tower?"

"Which would leave me with the Temple," Eliza notes, not sounding displeased with the prospect of working in an isolated location.

"Wonderful." Amissa hands out the relevant notebooks. "For the remaining locations, I'll keep the notes in my abode. I imagine that the two towers and the temple should last you all a good period of time, but in the event that you decide you need a change of pace or something, I'll leave my key with Ramona with instructions to let you borrow it as necessary." She smiles again. "Do you have any questions or concerns before I release you to look over my notes? I'll still be here for a little while yet, so keep in mind you still have some time to ask me about further clarification on anything you read."

"I'll be sure to do that," Eliza says with an appreciative nod, and the others do the same.

As the others leave, Amissa takes Eliza's sleeve. "Hey, um. Do you mind staying behind for a moment? I have another thing I'd like to talk to you about."

"Of course, what do you need to talk about?" Eliza asks with a small smile, taking a seat.

"Um. Well, as I mentioned. I'm going to be leaving for a while, and, I just wanted to check in with you and see if everything was going all right?" Amissa winces a bit. "I won't be around for our regular conversations, and everything, and... I know everything has been cleared up at this point but I wanted to make sure you felt comfortable and everything. And that you'll be okay while I'm gone."

"I'll be okay," Eliza says in a quiet voice, reaching out to hold Amissa's hand comfortingly. "I'll miss you, and I'll wish we could still talk, but I know you have to go. I'll be okay, I promise."

Amissa nods. "Right. Good." She pauses, then sighs. "It's just... frustrating. I don't want to leave just as you're getting comfortable here. I want to spend more time with you, but..." She shakes her head. "I don't know. Emotions are complicated."

"I really do appreciate you helping be to be comfortable here," Eliza says. "I'd probably have been shipped off to an asylum back on the mainland if it weren't for you. I wish we could spend time together here too, so do what you have to do out there, and come back okay? I'll try to leave some research left for you," Eliza teases lightly with a smile tinged by sadness.

Amissa smiles weakly. "Don't take all the fun." She gives Eliza's hand a squeeze, almost absentmindedly. "I'll come back, definitely. Once this is done, I think I might even be able to devote myself entirely to studying. Wouldn't that be something? Actually being able to spend time doing the thing I came here to do without some threat lurking over our heads."

"Mm, I think I've almost forgotten what that feels like," Eliza says, her sad smile lingering on her face. "Once you take care of it, it'll be like such a breath of fresh air. I'll really be looking forward to spending that time studying and researching with you, without anything lurking in the dark to take it away."

"Yeah," Amissa says quietly. "Me too."

That evening, Aisha approaches Amissa as dinner comes to a close. "Hey! Mind if I pick your brain about something for the festival we're planning?"