The Chained Watcher

Into the Thick of It

~~~

Oh boy. So, for plot convenience, the Hermits are going to be absurdly forgetful with their bracelets. Technically speaking, it's way too early to have given those to them, but it would be a drastic deviation from the character I've been building for Grian to not do whatever he could to keep his friends safe. So yeah. He'll get to be exasperated about it, but it'll happen a lot.

~~~

Stepping through the portal, Grian's grin fades. Even suppressed as he is, he can feel how heavily ingrained Watcher magic is in the area, in a way that only really happens when there's no outside threats like Listeners that would track them down.

Scar also hops through, planning to help build, but he puts a hand on his shoulder and mutters, "Play it safe this time, I need to go scout." The wizard Hermit gives him a quizzical look, but he just takes to the air to scout, climbing up above the canopy of the heavily forested jungle with strong downbeats of his wings. He needs to make sure the immediate area is clear of Watchers, whether by his hand or not.

To the untrained eye, the jungle seems normal. Lots of tall trees and lush leaves, like a rustling ocean of emerald life. Untouched wilderness as far as the eye can see.

He knows better. Patches of the jungle canopy are thinner, a little lower than the rest, the trees newer than the rest. Soaring over a particularly long strip of newer trees, he wonders what petty argument escalated into a fight intense enough to scar the ground and obliterate a strip of trees that wide. The round craters hidden beneath the trees could just be because of a temper tantrum though. Younger Watchers are pretty prone to those.

He finds what he's looking for after half an hour of flying. The bricks are worn down and the outermost structure a bit worse for wear, but as he lands in a heavily overgrown courtyard, his expression turns grim. He starts recording.

The building is large, but with allowances made for normal sized sapients. No wood, that wouldn't last long enough, but the stone is still intact, the ancient temple carrying a sense of weight and majesty that he promptly ignores.

Inside the sanctum, he makes a face at the multi-winged statue occupying the spot of worship. Of course. As much as he wants to wreck stuff though, he instead lets the camera get a good long look at the statue, then the murals on the walls, depicting several Tier 3s as gods, with lower Tiers serving as 'angels'. He should probably narrate.

Clearing his throat, he announces, "And here we have... a problem! Not only do we have multiple Watchers posing as gods, not only do they have lower Tiers serving them, but if we look over at this bit..." He focuses the camera on some carved words. Galactic, of course. "Anyone who's taken the time to study the enchantment table language can probably recognize this as Galactic. You know what it says? It says that the 'gods' descend every thousand years. Whoop de freaking doo."

He's glad that it's not uncommon to know Galactic anymore, at least in its written form. Since the enchantment tables are written in it, some bored players had put in the time to learn it, and now he has a believable excuse! Yippee!

While pointing the camera around to make sure he's got everything important on video, he mutters under his breath, "Here's hoping we came here during the down period..."

He flies back, prioritizing cautioning the other players over collecting more information for now. Even if they're lucky enough to not be here while the Watchers are playing god, making too many waves could draw attention and cause some major problems for all players out and about.

Once he's back at base, he goes to head towards the strategist area, then pauses. The most likely reaction the players will have is to go and vent on the temples. Even if there's no ongoing pantheon at this exact point in time, the appearance of a group hellbent on wrecking anything and everything Watcher-related would undoubtedly draw the attention of whoever owns the planet. He may be confident in his ability to take them out, but he probably wouldn't have enough warning to prevent a few players from dying.