Threads in the Skein of Fate (Thayilli)

[Grognardsw]

The first appearance of a McCaffrey dragon.

[Grognardsw]

Thayilli's healer knowledge came into play as she examined the man with the pulse. From bruises and bleeding at the head, he appeared to have received multiple concussions. Perhaps gained in what was obviously a crash landing for the 'ship.'

The other men had similar wounds but were dead. They were really shaken up. Thayilli wasn't sure why the one survived and not the others.

The other dragonriders explored the cabin. There were many amazed comments.

"These materials... The fabrics on the chairs, the metal here. Is it even metal?"

"Break off what you can so our smiths can examine it."

"The button and levers don't seem to do anything when I press them."

"Where is the ship's wheel? How are its sails activated?"

"Will he live?" Jorone asked Thayilli.

[Imladir]

Barely paying attention to what was going on around her, Thayilli still rolled her eyes as she heard some of what was being said, “You'd rather break something possibly important, or bring back probably useless stuff by breaking the first things you find, when it'd be so much simpler to have the smiths come here and decide for themselves what they want to see?” She shook her head, baffled. Men... While it wasn't done all that often, dragons didn't mind passengers after all.

Since she didn't have any answer for most of the other questions, she didn't comment on those, except for Jorone's. “I don't know.” She was clearly feeling frustrated, “Nothing's broken as far as I can see, but he has a bad concussion. If we were at the Weyr I could make something to help, but I don't have anything here.” And even in the eventuality that what she needed could be found around here, none of the men would have any chance of finding it. “And it's too dangerous to move him.”

She looked around, “On a ship like this...”, she paused, squinting for a second, “Surely they have some kind of Healer's office.” She briefly considered the men, then looked down at the wounded. With a frustrated sigh, she stood up, “Don't move him.” she instructed them, then walked out of the room to look for whatever passed as a Healer's office in a ship like that. After all while she wasn't sure it'd help, it couldn't hurt.

[Grognardsw]

"Yes, yes of course, we can brings specialists here," F'rar agreed.

Jorone looked over Thayilli's shoulder as she examined the unconcious man.

"Can we make him safe to bring back to the Hold?" Jorone replied to Thayilli's comments.

“I’ll go with you,” said Jorone, a look of concern on his face. “What if there are more of the metal men?”

As Thayilli and Jorone moved to leave, F'rar motioned to one of the others to join them. One of the newly arrived dragonriders broke off from the group. It was Toron the Knife, well known in the Weyr for his knife throwing abilities. He had two long straight daggers on his belt.

F'rar order another group of three to also look about the ship, and keep an ear open for any calls of help from the other group.

Thayilli, Jorone and Toron walked down the corridors, passing by open and closed doors, moving down new hallways to left and right, then down ladders to the bottom level. The ship seemed empty. The trio saw what must be living quarters for at least two-dozen; meeting or common rooms; a kitchen and eating area; other rooms of indeterminate use; large chambers with metal contraptions; bays that must have held something large, now empty. Where was everybody?

Finally Thaylilli spotted a room that had the accoutrements of the healer craft. She discovered on shelves and draws a selection of bandages, tapes, splints, metal crutches, a foldable chair with wheels, bottles of pills, salves, and medical instruments many of which had uses unknown to her. Most items were labeled but in a language she did not understand. There was a traditional stretcher as well as a larger one on wheels.

[Imladir]

“Safe, not really.” Thayilli shook her head. “Safe enough… maybe. If nothing else, there's the little problem of the Between, it's not really a safe place to be when you're unconscious.” After all, while it didn't last that long, there was no air to breathe… “Worst case scenario that's what we'll do, but I'd rather avoid it. And if there are more metal men…” Thayilli shrugged, “Maybe this time we can talk before anything else happens.”

“Shouldn't there be more in there than the five we saw?” She asked, puzzled. “It looks like it's supposed to hold at least two-dozen people… Where is everybody? Surely they wouldn't have let their comrades to rot, right?”

In the healers' room, she looked around for a moment. Holding a bottle of pills, she commented bitterly, “I'm pretty sure what we need is somewhere in there.” After all, while commotions were nothing to sneeze at, they weren't that dangerous or hard to take care of. Surely, people who used a ship like that one would be able to treat it easily. “I wish there was another metal man to talk to…”

She groaned, grumbling “This is the worst kind of useless…” Shaking her head, she finished, “Unless the others found something that could help, I'll have to go back to the Weyr to take what I need.” Which wouldn't take that long of course but still.

[Grognardsw]

Jorone listened to Thayilli.

“That makes sense,” he said.

Toron commented on the missing crew members. “A ship this size would need a bigger crew. Look at the quarters, the kitchen size, the amount of strange equipment. They must have left. Must have had a good reason to leave their comrades behind, or they’re a cold-hearted bunch.”

Thayilli found all of the healer materials intriguing but ironically not helpful. These people came from a place more advanced than Pern. She rooted about the room more.

There were calls from the other search party. Many interesting items were found on the ship; was what wasn’t found more telling? There were no clues the dragonriders recognized as to the whereabouts of the rest of the crew.

Later, when Thayilli met up with the others, F’rar asked about the patient. “Would he survive a dragon ride, or do we keep him here?”

You’re welcome to do personal exploration of the ship if so inclined.

[Imladir]

Thayilli sighed, “Maybe, maybe not. I don't really have a way to know how bad his concussion is. Maybe he'll wake up in a few minutes and be perfectly fine, or maybe he'll never wake up.” The young dragonrider shook her head. “But…” She tapped her lips for a moment, then shrugged, “Well, I guess I can just go get what I need in the Weyr and come back. I'll have to let Sam' feed while we're there,” More to prevent too much grumbling than anything else, “But it's not like I can do much of anything at the moment. And at least that way we're not risking moving him, much less having him fly and should he wake up he might tell us what to do with all that…” She waved at the pills and tools she didn't recognise.

“In the meantime,” She looked around for a second, “Try to see where the rest of the crew went. And…” She frowned, “Tell the others to be careful: they might come back now that it's safe, and they might not react any better than the metal man did when they do. A bit of scouting around might not hurt.”

As she headed to the exit…or, more precisely, the hole…Thayilli called Sam' “Alright, a short hop to the Weyr, I have things to fetch.”

[Grognardsw]

"I'll watch over him while your gone," said Jorone to Thayilli as the dragonrider departed the ship.

Thayilli passed several dragonriders as she left the ship. They nodded to her, some curtly. Even after this long while, there were some who still resented the young girl's method of joining the dragonriders. A healer being in the wrong place at the wrong time was how they looked at it, even if Thayilli saw it as the right place at the right time. She thought back to that special day.

Outside, the metal man was inside the hole not moving.

"It attempted to climb out, but we swatted it back in," thought Sameroth to her rider Thayilli. "Then it slowed down and stopped moving."

Thayilli mounted the gold dragon and took to the sky.



Sam passed in between and the pair were soon back at the Weyr.

[Imladir]

Thayilli nodded to Jorone, “Thanks. I'll be quick.”

Outside, Thayilli grumbled under her breath both at the resentful riders - who didn't have half a leg to stand on considering that they had been the ones to kidnap her - and when she heard that the metal man had been “swatted back in”. Since snarling at Sam' would have achieved nothing at all - she simply wouldn't have understood - Thayilli simply sighed, but it certainly didn't contribute to improve her mood.

Flying over the Weyr, Thayilli shook her head and focused on what she needed to achieve: she had to pick what she needed to treat a cerebral commotion, but… Since she was here, she wasn't going to only do that. “Go feed quickly if you need,” she thought to Sam' with no illusion about how useful it was to add the 'if you need' “I'll grab a few things then we'll go back.”

She lithely jumped to the ground as soon as Sam' landed, then looked for someone who wasn't a prick. Or an ass. And likely to do what she asked. When she noticed one such person, she said, “Hey, can you go to the Smithcraft Hall and ask for the senior smith to come? Or if he doesn't want to come his second or whatever, but he'd regret it. And send someone to do the same for the Harpers please.”

Not that she expected either of the two to know anything really important about what they had just found, but dragonriders too often forgot that they weren't alone and that their position in society wasn't as absolute as some would like to think it was. Coming from one of the Halls, Thayilli certainly wasn't going to forget about it and she had every intention of "playing nice" with the Halls. “Oh and they'll need to be ready for a trip on a dragon.” She knew some of them would be too scared to ride and would in fact rather die there and then than risk it. “For which I'll need a volunteer.” Because while Sam could certainly carry three adults, she'd be a bit grumpy with two let alone three… “Or two.” After all… Why should she make Sam' grumpy, right?

After which, she headed to her rooms to grab what she needed…hoping she had everything and wouldn't need to take a trip to the Healers' Hall.

[Grognardsw]

Sameroth happily fed while Thayilli attended to business. The dragonrider found a reliable runner in Todar, and he set off to find a senior smith and harper.

In her chambers, Thayilli filled a backpack with healer tools and herbal medicines. As a former healer, Thayilli had a good inventory of medical accoutrements. Sometimes she still thought of herself as an active healer, but the responsibilities and training of a dragonrider had disabused her of that thought. The opinion of those in the Healer Hall had been mixed after the surprise of Thayilli's imprinting with Sameroth. More supported her then not.

By the time Thayilli returned to the dragon yard, there were gathered near Sameroth two men and Todar. The runner had been effective. As she neared, Thayilli recognized Samok the Master Smith and Perrin, a high ranking Harper.

"What is this about Thayilli?" asked Samok.

Samok

Perrin

[Imladir]

“Ha, thank you both for coming.” Thayilli greeted the two senior craftsmen, with a nod to Todar to thank him. “You might have seen the falling star two nights ago? Since it was a bit unusual we went to investigate. We didn't think it was Thread related but, well, you know dragonriders. And... Well, it was sort of Thread related but not in the way anyone would have expected.”

She shook her head, “What we found is a sort of ship. A metal one, and it was not sailing any sea I've ever seen. It seems to have been damaged by Threads, which might have been why it crashed. We managed to go in, but only found a metal man and of the four members of the dozen of so crew members left in the ship three are dead, one is injured.” She lifted her supplies, “Which is why I came back. Anyway, the ship is entirely made of metal, and none of us have any idea what to do about it much less how it worked but it seemed to be something a Smith would want to study at the very least. And while I have no reason to believe that there's anything in the stories about things like that, this is probably story worthy in itself. Hence why I asked for you both.”

She looked around for a second, “We'd better get going, I have someone to treat.” And it would avoid spending too much time where someone might ask her what she was doing or worse: tell her to stay where she was...

[Grognardsw]

Todar nodded back to Thayilli, smiled, and lingered at a short distance fussing with dragon saddle lines while Rider, Smith and Harper spoke.

Samok looked intrigued as Thayilli described the crashed ship.

"Aye, that is something I would like to see," said Samok. "Who would think, a people with such metal working skills on Pern. Must be they sailed from the other side of the world."

Perrin smiled and said: "So this means I get to ride a dragon? That alone is worth the trip. 'The Harper and the Dragon' - the words are dancing now in my head. And a gold at that!" The harper was clearly more excited about the ride on Sameroth than the strange ship.

Sameroth had just finished a snack of bovalo meat when Thayilli and the two men approached. Thayilli briefed the men on the experience of going between.

Thayilli felt an emotional sigh from Sameroth. "All three to the crash site?" the dragon thought to her rider.

They mounted, Thayilli taking special care to strap in the Smith and Rider given their inexperience flying. With a mighty flap of wings, Sam launched from her cliff-side den and ascended. Perrin screamed like a girl, then laughed. Samok was silent, clutching tight, trying to keep his lunch down.

They were soon among the clouds and Sam passed in between.

Thayilli imagined what Samok and Perrin must be feeling. She remembered her own first travels between. It was, as described, a place of nothingness. Between was characterized by extreme cold - far below zero - and near-total sensory deprivation. Since there appeared to be no breathable air between, riders who made exceptionally long journeys - may suffer the effects of oxygen deprivation. Because of the extreme cold of between, dragons and fire-lizards deliberately travelled between and back when they came into contact with threadfall, freezing and destroying the organism almost instantly.

The length of time it took for a dragon to travel from one location to another via between was generally eight to ten seconds - or, as various dragonriders described it, "between lasts only as long as it takes to cough three times" - but this could vary, depending upon how far away the destination was.

Failing to envision a destination properly could result in a dragon and rider failing to emerge from between and perishing as a result - as happened to Marco Galliani and Duluth during the First Pass. It can also lead to a dragon and rider emerging from between, but arriving in the same place as an existing object instead of near it - as happened to D'lin and Aseth during the Third Pass, when they became entombed in the rock of Benden Weyr, killing them both instantly. And tragically, if a dragon sustained fatal injuries or believed that its rider was deceased, the dragon would go between forever - by not envisioning a destination.

Very soon Sameroth popped back into the Pern skies above the crash site.

The number of Pern people and dragon/riders is adding up. I've been meaning to do a list to help our memory, but time has prevented it. Would you like to take that on? It'd just be going through and cutting/pasting the info and related pics if any into one post. Once done, it'd be easy to add to it on an ongoing basis.

[Imladir]

Sure, I can do something about it. Let me see what.

“I'm not sure it's a ship to sail on the seas.” Thayilli answered Samok. “Or maybe it is, but I would think a metal ship would be too heavy, right? Plus, it came from up there,” she pointed at the sky, “So...”

“Uh... I suppose.” The young Queen rider commented about Perrin's enthusiasm. Not that she didn't share it, but it wasn't really why she had called him. On the other hand, well... He certainly could write about more than one thing after all this was done, right?

“Yeah, sorry about that. At least it'll be quick, just a short hop and we'll all get down.” she finally apologized to Sam' as she had half expected another rider to take one of the two with him. But maybe there was already too many of them at the site, so it might not be a bad idea. Plus, they'd be able to return with someone else after all. Assuming they ever wanted to come back, which might be a real question. As far as Samok was concerned anyway.

As soon as they were back at the crash site, Thayilli instructed Sam' to land near the crashed ship, while she commented for the other two: “I have to go to the wounded, but feel free to look around or ask questions. You'll probably want to see the metal man first though.”

[Grognardsw]

Perrin the Harper was escatic about the ride. "It was as thrilling as I thought it would be! And to think you get to do this everyday! And talk with the dragon! What was she thinking on the way over?"

He leapt from Sameroth and waved at the dragon's face. "Can - you - understand - what - I'm - saying?!" he slowly yelled to Sam.

"Is the man unsound?" Sam queried Thayilli.

Samok the Smith was quieter, looking a little pekid after dismounting, but he brightened upon seeing the crashed metal ship. "Ah yes, I see what you mean, that could not sail the oceans. And we're many miles from the sea!"

Samok started examing the hull of the ship, reaching into his backpack of tools, as Thayilli left him.

Thayilli went back through the rended hole into the ship, up the ladder to the second floor, and down the corridor into the room with the wounded man and the dead. As she walked through the ship she saw different dragonriders taking stock of each room. A pile of small items from the ship were outside the hole, apparently to be brought back to the Weyr.

F'rar was in the control chamber, confering with others and delegating tasks. "Welcome back Thayilli. We are cataloging the ship's items and making notes on the rooms. We'll present to Council and determine next steps."

Thayilli saw wounded man was breathing somewhat steadily and did not look worse than when Thayilli had left. The ex-healer-turned-dragonrider drew forth her medicinal supplies to treat him (roll 4d6 Int. check for healing ability.)

Ship Map

[Imladir]

Witnessing Perrin's enthuasiasm, Thayilli smiled gently “I'm not going to get tired of it anytime soon, that's for sure. As for what she was thinking,” She shrugged, paused, then smiled, “It's probably better if you don't know.”

She frowned a bit when he yelled in front of Sam's face though. “And don't do that. She can understand you just fine, and she won't like it if you talk to her as if she were retarded. And she's a Queen: you do not want to be disliked by a dragon, but by a Queen most of all. It's a very good way to get in trouble with a lot of dragons.” And he had likely lost any chance of Sam' talking to him directly, but then again, dragons only talked to humans they really liked so it's not like he'd have had a lot of chance there anyway and there was no point saying it.

Satisfied that Samok found things to do by himself, Thayilli went back in to treat the wounded. “Alright,” She nodded at F'rar, “I've brought back a Smith and a Harper,” she waved vaguely in the direction of the 'entrance', “You might want to talk to them... Well, mostly Samok anyway. If someone has some light to shed on this thing it'll be him.”

After which she left him to get to her patient, put her backpack on the floor and started to pick what she needed to treat him.

Heal check (15) [4d6]=19
Damn it. I didn't get a single good roll when making the character and now when I don't want that I get a 19? Tss...
I guess Thayilli's rusty...

[Grognardsw]

Attending to the unconscious crewman,Thayilli dribbled herbal extract liquid into the man's mouth and applied a poltice on the forehead. She felt no broken or dislocated bones. Only the head showed bruising. The ex-healer made a neck and head brace to keep it stable during the flight back, be it sooner or later. While Thayilli was disappointed she couldn't revive him, she was fairly confident he was in a stable condition and would eventually recover.

The dragonriders continued to examine the ship, mapping it out, taking notes and drawings, gathering small items. Several hours had passed. Samok the Smith was busy gathering samples of all materials he could secure, including some of unknown nature that were not metal but not wood.

Perrin the Harper was making sketches of the ship and the apparently dead metal man, and interviewing dragonriders on how they felt when they first saw each.

"Thayilli, I would like to interivew you about the metal man," said Perrin. "I would learn of your brave confrontation with the creature, and of your perilous retreat to the safety of your dragon. I'd also like to interview Sameroth through you, as I understand she slew the metal menace."

As the sun was setting, the dragonriders gathered outside. F'rar addressed them.

"We have made some observations," said F'rar. "The ship’s crew likely numbered several dozen, judging by the quarters. There were empty slots and sections that make us think equipment was taken out. There are people from this ship out there on Pern!"

"The mechanical section, with what looked like some sort of gears, was damaged by Thread, likely causing the crash. There were no signs of Thread fall nearby. As we all know, its not due for some time. Where the ship encountered Thread we don’t know."

"We will present out information and samples to the Council, and map out our next moves. We will leave a rider and dragon here tonight to monitor the site, and relieve him tomorrow morning."

[Imladir]

Having done whatever she could, Thayilli sighed, then shook her head and stood up, determined to go exploring a bit: she had after all seen little of the whole ship and she particularly wanted to study more in depth the doctor's office. Or whatever it was called here.

She didn't go far before she was intercepted by Perrin however. “There's not much to say: there was no 'brave confrontation', I just ran as fast as I could from someone who thought I wanted to hurt the crew. Or what remained of the crew anyway.” She sighed, “As for Sam', she won't talk to you, and all she'd say anyway would be that she didn't like the metal man and felt it was dangerous to me so killed it.” Which she wasn't happy with, but part of it was her own damn fault: she should have taken the time to do...something.

“If there are people from the ship on Pern, it'd be too dangerous to leave only one rider and dragon.” Thayilli disagreed later as F'rar presented his conclusions. “Look at how the metal man behaved, he might not be an isolated case. And someone capable of building and using a ship like this,” she pointed at the wreck, “has got to have some kind of weapons we can't even begin to imagine.”

“We should all leave for the night, and bring more people tomorrow. Soldiers from one Lord or another, they're sort of used to this kind of things.” Or at least they trained for it, and if something happened... Well, it wouldn't be a good thing, but it wouldn't endanger a dragon which was something she definitely didn't want to see: she felt responsible for all of them. Part of being Imprinted by a Queen she suspected, even though Sam' would likely be much more pragmatic than she was.

“One way or the other, we should probably try to find the missing crew quickly, before any kind of accident happens.” She winced, “If they find a village before we find them...” She shook her head, “Who knows what could result of it.”

[Grognardsw]

Perrin seemed crestfallen at Thayilli's true account of the encounter with the metal man. "Oh, I see... well, you won't mind if capture the spirit of the threat? Speaking from the heart to move the mind. You know, putting a poet's touch of drama..."

F'rar listened to Thayilli's opinions. "Yes, one dragon and rider may not be enough if their crew returns. But I don't want to leave no one. Let's make it two dragons and riders. I agree about bringing soldiers to establish a permanent camp. Let's discuss a search strategy after the Council has been briefed."

With the patient stabilized and brought out on a stretcher to Sameroth, Thayilli explored the ship further. Between the levels and different sections of the ship, it was quite large and packed. The dragonrider could see areas where equipment or whatever it was had been removed. There was a large empty bay with yellow lines that reminded Thayilli of a landing space, like when ground was cleared and marked for safe dragon landings. Was there another craft here that was now out somewhere on Pern?

Thayilli found what she strongly suspected was the quarters for the ship's healer. There were reclining tables, cabinets with bandages, bottles, needles, much of which she didn't understand. There were metal crutches, a chair with wheels, and other implements that she had a vague idea of.

[Imladir]

Oops, sorry, I got busy and closed the game's tab so it kinda slipped my mind for a few days...
But I'm still here and interested if there's any doubt

“I don't mind no, be my guest.” Thayilly answered Perrin. Which wasn't exactly the truth, both because she was pretty sure the sort of distortion he planned to inflict on the facts should be regarded as criminal, but also because she wasn't particularly eager for everyone to hear how she had fled as fast as she could in front of the metal man. At least Perrin didn't know she had wet her panties doing so: no matter how gifted he was, there was no making that 'heroic'...

She recognized however that there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Granted, had she insisted she might have prevailed but... She wasn't here to tell him what to say about anything, and she certainly didn't want to start about something as trivial as that.

When F'rar made his proposition, Thayilli nodded to acknowledge it: she had said her piece and as much as she'd want for it to be otherwise, that sort of things wasn't her responsibility, it was his. Plus, she had her patient to take care of, that would have to suffice for the time being.

She did mention the fact that it seemed likely to her that there was another craft somewhere on the planet, which would mean that warning the other Weyr about it would likely be a very good idea. But hopefully that would be the decision taken by the Council so she didn't really push the subject.

She spent more time studying what she could of the ship's healer's quarters, but she quickly came to the conclusion that if she were to learn anything about it she'd need quite a bit of time, time she didn't really have at the moment. As the sun went down she exited the ship, checked on her patient to make sure nothing had changed, then took steps to insure he was going to be brought back to the Weyr. Something she also did for Perrin and Samok as Dragonriders would be likely to simply forget about them...and she didn't want Sam' to carry anyone but her on the return trip. “Alright, let's go home.”

[Grognardsw]

Clouds were gathering in the sky as Thayilli prepared to leave. It had been a long day.

Perrin nodded at Thayilli's response. "The song will honor you."

The dragonrider of the Queen gold made sure her patient was secured properly. His unconscious body was on a hard stretcher, the body and head strapped securely so there would be no movement during the journey in-between.

"I'll make sure he's safe," said Jorone.

F'rar listened to Thayilli's opinions on the likelihood of another craft loose on Pern. "Yes, we noticed the conspicuous absence of what was probably a ship in the bay. We'll alert the other Weyrs to be on the lookout."

Wishing she had more time to study the medical bay of this strange ship, Thayilli gathered up small items in her pouch to examine more closely later.

Mounting Sameroth, Thayilli vaulted into the sky. She could feel that certain quality of crisp air, and almost smell the moisture, that foretold rain soon. The gold dragon passed into the between. Freezing cold and darkness enveloped them.



Thayilli counted the seconds and on the 16th second the darkness exploded into light and warmth. Arolos Weyr spread below them.



As Thayilli landed, she saw K'ressa sitting with her young green.

"How did it go?" she asked. "Rumors are already flying. Did you really fight a metal man?"