[PRP] Into the Fire (Caliban & R'mor)

[DruidTigeress]

Masterharper

My turn to post something unnecessarily long, lol sweatdrop You can just skip to the last paragraph.

It was Neri who'd set the whole thing up.. (How many of his worst stories always started like that?) She was the one who'd sent the letter to the Weyr, the one who arranged the meeting. If it were up to her, she'd be the one going there to negotiate as well, but that's where Cal had put his foot down.

Work had been slow for them recently. Over the long and largely peaceful summer, their business had more or less ground to a halt. That was partially his fault, since he'd been insisting they lie low and keep from advertising their dragons too widely. Though he was itching to get back to work, Cal had been intentionally holding his tongue, knowing what Neri's suggestion would be..

"We know the problem, and we know the solution. We can fix this ourselves! We just need.."
"More firestone. I know." Cal said, having heard this rant a dozen times before.

He understood her point. As long as ships were afraid to cross the open ocean, trade would be reduced. But even if things were slow now, the group was hardly hurting. In fact, they were doing fine. Most of what they ate they caught themselves. And the local holds were generous about sharing, knowing the next time a loved one was lost at sea, it would be their dragons and Cal's ship out to look for them. In addition to the not insignificant fee they were paid to escort rich Northern trading vessels between continents, Cal had made a small trading business on the side, the money from which he usually sent to his family, but he'd been saving a small amount of it as well. They had plenty of time and plenty of supplies to just stop and wait out the storm. He didn't see why they should risk doing something that could get them all killed.

"We have to be careful, Neri. We can't let the Weyr know what we're doing."
"Why not?"
"Because they can make you fly thread! They can force you to stay there. Is that what you want?"
"I want to keep us together!" she finally snapped. Her voice was higher and more desperate than before. "Don't you get it, Cal? The dragons want to fight! How long before their riders start giving in? If it's not with us.. It'll be with them."

The worst part was, she probably wasn't wrong. Since the creation of the group, few things had divided its members as deeply as their reaction to threadfall. There were those that said they ought to pack up and go back to the Weyr completely, those that said screw the Weyr they could fight thread on their own, and those (like him!) who would rather they leave off thread fighting entirely. This, he guessed, was supposed to be a compromise. And as loathe as he was to go to the Weyr, there was no way he was going to let anyone with a dragon risk getting anywhere near it.


On the day Cal and Finbar set off for the Weyr, Neri came to see them off. "Promise me you're not going to sabotage this deal." she said, putting her hands on her hips and frowning at him.
"I won't sabotage the deal." he grudgingly agreed. "I get it.. I'm not happy about it, but I get it. If you don't fly thread with us you'll do it with them."

So no pressure... He thought, looking up at the tall cavernous walls of the Weyr as they were led through to where they were told they could meet with someone. Only the lives of all of the riders in their group on the line here. What's the worst that could happen? You know, besides getting all his friends sent back to the Weyr against their will and inevitably killed in threadfall..

The woman who had been leading them stopped outside a small office and asked them to wait as she went inside. Cal turned to his younger companion. "Finbar, stay here and wait for me to come out, okay?"
"Yeah... Sure..." Finbar muttered, without looking at him. A sure sign that he wasn't listening. Or was, but wanted plausible deniability when he ignored him later.
"Fin, I'm serious.." he started, trying to sound threatening, but the next moment the female dragon rider came back and ushered him inside the office. And all he could do was glance over his shoulder and hope he didn't get himself into too much trouble.

 

[Masterharper]

DruidTigeress

Sorry for the lame start. I wasn't sure how much R'mor would know, or how this wound up getting set up.

The dark haired man looked up when Caliban entered, rising so he could properly greet the stranger. "Come in, come in," he greeted, gesturing to the chairs in the office. "Have a seat. It's Caliban, yes? I'm R'mor of Junenth." While R'mor prided himself in having a fair deal of knowledge to those his Weyr served, this name wasn't one that was familiar to him. All he knew was that he was a Captain, and he had needed to talk to R'mor about firestone, or coverage, or some sort of business. Honestly, he didn't know exactly what the man wanted, but that's why he had carved out a portion of his afternoon.

Meetings with Hold and Craft folk weren't uncommon for the Weyrleader. While he worked primarily with riders and the continent's holders, he often took meetings with sea crafters, holdless, and traders of all sorts. The meetings could cover all sorts of things, from Holders complaints, to Holdless concerns about coverage during Threadfall. Some Lord Holders wanted their own protection, and others demanded the Weyr do this or that. Honestly, much of R'mor's day consisted of listening to others... and it seemed that he would do much of it with this Caliban.

"Please, take a seat. What brings you all the way to the Weyr?" He settled back into his own chair, hoping he didn't come off overly stodgy. He might be Weyrleader, but he wasn't a bad guy, and he wasn't there to intimidate anyone. It was Hestia that was the spitfire between them, not R'mor. With luck he could handle this situation himself, and not need to bring the Weyrwoman in.
 

[DruidTigeress]

Masterharper

No, it's great. ^_^

"That's right. Uh. R'mor. Nice to meet you." he said, a little awkwardly. Was he supposed to salute? Call him 'sir'? Shake his hand? He probably should have asked one of the dragonriders in their group about the etiquette before he left, though since most of them had never trained within a Weyr, there was a good chance they wouldn't know either. He stepped a little further into the room, letting the door close behind him. The female rider who'd shown them the way had already left. "Thank you for agreeing to meet." he started diplomatically. The Weyr was overwhelmingly large, but so far the riders seemed surprisingly normal. He was expecting something more... Military-esque.

"So.. Uh.." he went on, not sure what to say. He'd imagined this conversation a dozen times already on the journey over (though admittedly, in his pessimistic mind, most of them had devolved into an argument of some kind), but now that he was actually here, he was running a blank. His eyes scanned the room absently as he tried to think of something to say. He had started to move towards the chair R'mor offered when he caught sight of a map on the wall and changed his course, gesturing to it first as though to ask for permission.

He'd always liked maps. Granted, there were few people of his profession that didn't, with only a few exceptions (Neri being one of them). Seeing the familiar spread of continents and islands helped to focus his thoughts. "Do you know how long it takes to get from here to Northern?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the Weyrleader before looking back to the man with a wry half smile. "It's a trick question." he admitted. "It depends on the route. This way's the fastest." He placed two fingers on the map, one on the long arm of Tillek and the other on the Eastern most tip of the Western island. "Maybe a seven day." He shurgged. "But almost no one goes that way anymore. Most people follow the coast like this.." He traced a finger down past Ista and along the Southern continent before zig zagging back up through Western's southern islands. "That takes 18 days, at best. Twice that, if you have to waste time docking."

"And that's not the only problem.. It's hard to hit a ship on open water. Well... harder. You can see them coming and its more difficult to guess their exact route. On the coast, all a pirate has to do is camp out in a secluded cove and wait for an ambush."

He looked at the Weyrleader again, pointing back at the narrow band of ocean between Tillek and Western. "You know why no one goes this way anymore?"  

[Masterharper]

DruidTigeress

R'mor watched as Caliban went over to the map, curious as to where this conversation was headed. He gave the other his full attention, letting him speak and question him, letting him explain about routes. On the one hand, R'mor didn't know too much about the Seacraft. He knew a little from conversation, and a little more from concerned ship captains after Thread returned, but overall his primary focus was keeping the Western Continent safe.

It wasn't easy.

There was only one Weyr to protect all of Western. This included the small island and archipelago chains. While it was easier to protect them and meant his riders didn't usually have to fight the entire swath of Thread, it did mean his riders put in long hours. Add to the need for a natural firestone vein, for more local shipments, and R'mor knew his riders were spent.

But, with Thread back, all of Pern was on guard. This was what their life's purpose was, was it not? They may not have known it when they Impressed, but with the great Enemy's return, they had to heed the call. If Pern were to survive then they had to fight, and save those that they could.

"Mmmph," he gave a small grunt when Cal asked him why nobody traveled the quickest route. "I'm not sure, but I suspect you're going to tell me. If I had to hazard a guess I'd imagine pirates, or concern of Thread." He knew both were big concerns for the seacraft. Pirates were a big issue with the Western Continent, especially their islands; and Thread was still a terrifying prospect to many. He was curious to know what Cal was here for -- a request for riders, a request for support -- something like that, he surmised. This didn't sound much like a desire to do business, but who knew... maybe he'd yet be surprised.
 

[DruidTigeress]

Masterharper

Cal gave a nod at the R'mor's answer. That was it, of course. He wasn't trying to be convoluted. Though perhaps maybe he was failing in that..

"You can say it's unlikely to hit, or quote some statistics, but one horror story does more to convince people than a dozen rational arguments, I've found.." He lifted his shoulders. "I wouldn't risk my crew on it. And I couldn't ask anyone else to do the same."

His hands moved absently as he spoke, an anxious habit, and he took a few steps back towards the Weyrleader. "It might not seem like a dire issue to you, but not everyone has the luxury of popping between whenever they need to get somewhere. Look.. I know it's unreasonable to expect you to protect the entire ocean. I know it's hard to fly over open water where the wind and weather are unpredictable, and even harder to fight thread when it's difficult to see it. And believe me, as a sailor, I know how practically impossible it is to predict how thread will fall in those areas. But.. I'm not asking you to."

Deep breath. Here goes..

"I.. represent..." he chose the word carefully, not wanting to overstate his connection to the group in case things didn't go well. "...a group of riders who think they can help. They know these waters, they've been flying them for the past eight turns. And they already have a network set up for just this kind of thing. Before, it was used for natural disasters or to alert people of a pirate attack, but they could just as easily do the same if a ship was caught in threadfall."

"All they want, is for you to let them."
 

[Masterharper]

DruidTigeress

R'mor watched as the man made his case. The more he spoke, the more the dark haired man had a better idea of where this conversation was going. It was one of the unusual circumstances about Pern's unique situation. Threadfall was never supposed to have come back. Their ancestors had promised that Thread would be no more, that ancient technology had saved them.

Delayed generations of pain and horror was more like it.

The fix didn't work. The great feats of their history hadn't been enough to keep the Red Star away. Honestly, sometimes R'mor wished they never would have attempted such a thing. To have the silver rain fall on the unsuspecting and decimate the planet had been horrible; to see his riders --good, reliable men and women -- still get scored, grounded, and killed, as they tried to learn how to best fight the stuff. It was heartbreaking. New complications had arisen over the Turns, and there were sill many riders out there who had no desire to return o the Weyr and do their duty.

This Caliban seemed to represent them, and R'mor wasn't sure what to think.

He said nothing as he considered the others plea. "So what exactly do these riders you represent want from Western? Access to our firestone? Training? Notification of our Fall forecasts and predictions?" The past Turn had been fruitful in coming up with maps over Western. It was difficult to map out exactly where Thread would fall over the ocean, but the Dolphinhall was actually proving quite helpful on that front; it wasn't always the most reliable, but the creatures had been helping them come up with ideas of when Thread would fall over the open sea.

The shippping industry needed those maps, even if they weren't the most accurate.

"How many are in this group of yours?" R'mor asked. "And have any of them actually fought Thread before? I'm not talking during the First Fall as we scrambled to save ourselves; but to go up in it and face it. How much Thread and Fall knowledge does this group of yours honestly have?" This was important. While he understood there were many unaffiliated riders out there who tried to get access to fire stone, who wanted to flame freely, and fight freely, Weyrs be damned, R'mor . . . had strong feelings about such foolishness.

It wasn't a game. Those who tried to play hero often paid the price with their lives, or the lives of those who believed they could save them.

Still, R'mor was not an unreasonable man. Caliban's concerns were one of the loopholes of Weyr protection. While the Weyr fought over the islands and ports, and certainly fought Thread over shallower water to ensure ships, crafts, and anyone stranded closer to shore was safe... they did not often fly over deep water. Some rescues had been attempted, but R'mor didn't have the manpower to keep the ocean's safe. No Weyr did.

Maybe the could work out a deal.

But R'mor needed to know their riders were trained to fight it before he'd release them on the world. Pern didn't need any more dead dragon pairs, or armless, legless riders. If he'd work with those runaways from High Reaches, he didn't see why he couldn't work with this group...

But there would have to be compromise, and understanding. He'd see what this Captain had to say about it soon enough. The more lives saved, the better, after all.
 

[DruidTigeress]

Masterharper

"All they want from you is the opportunity to buy firestone, and a promise that you're not going to find them and force them to go back to a Weyr." he said. "I think you know all the firestone coming into the continent is being diverted here. Of course, there's other, underhanded, ways of getting it.. But they'd prefer to do things through official channels." Well, most of them anyway.. There were some others that were firmly in the camp of bypassing the Weyr entirely. But little as he wanted to work with a Weyr himself, turning to smugglers and racketeers was against his ethics too.

Cal paused before answering the man's next question, watching his face to try and get a read on his motives. He was more than was a little reluctant to give up any detailed information about his group. Especially when, to his mind, R'mor's questions had all the markers of one preparing to launch an assault against them. But he'd promised Neri that he'd try his best to convince them, and so far he wasn't going a very good job... He hesitated a moment, afraid this was a trick to get them to admit they'd been flying thread already without the Weyr's permission. "We've.. fought thread before." he said, deciding to be vague about it. He wouldn't say with whom, given the answer was 'no one', and he could only hope R'mor wouldn't ask.

"A lot of these riders came from Weyrs previously, so they know what thread is, and how to fight it. This isn't just some random group of drifters." he said, a little offended by the implication. "We run drills, fly formations. The focus might have been different before now, but the result is the same. They're just as capable, and just as willing, to do this as you are." And he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying more. He had some strong feelings himself about the Weyr's supposed authority over all things dragon-related. There were dozen, maybe hundreds of dragons outside the Weyr. Who decided they got the final say on everything?

This was a bad idea. He wished he'd been able to convince Neri and the others of that..
 

[Masterharper]

DruidTigeress

R'mor listened the other man, with Junenth periodically sending him waves of calm as he considered the other man's words. The bronze rider had his own feelings about riders that did not return to the Weyr, though he understood that many had never guessed or suspected the old enemy would return. The Weyrs needed every rider they could get, and he would fight tooth and nail to get every rider her could back to the Weyr.

But he also knew what he wanted would likely be an impossibility. Too much time had passed between the 9th Pass and now, and too many had seemingly forgotten the reason dragons were here on Pern. Pern was dead without its dragons fighting Thread, and they needed to be together to fight it successfully.

What Caliban was asking sounded like suicide. Sure, they might only need to defend an area, but with how many dragons? How many healers? There would be a high risk, especially as Thread started falling more and more frequently.

"So they all came from High Reaches then?" He asked. The only riders out there who had been keeping up with old fighting habits had been the mountain Weyr. "Honestly, it doesn't matter what they were taught, when they were taught, or by whom they were taught. What you're asking sounds like a suicide mission for your rogue group. You say they're already fighting Thread, and running their own drills and formations. How many are in this rogue group anyway?"

How many dragons were out there who were needed in the Weyrs but out wanting to play hero elsewhere.

"How many actual dragons do you intend to send up to fight Thread? What's the color ratio? Is it just your group, or are others joining in?" He grimaced. "While I understand the desire to go out and fight Thread over locations a Weyr might not know about, or cover ships who were unable to make it back out to sea, I am hesitant to risk rider and dragons who aren't prepared. You say they've been fine, and maybe they've lucked out, but how long do you think that's going to last? What happens when they get caught in a night Fall, or the winds pick up on the font of a squall? What happens when a mistake gets made and your dragon's wing gets frayed and they go tumbling down with no queen's wing to catch them?"

He sighed and rubbed the bridged of his nose. "Sounds to me that this isn't much of a request or allowance, and that your group is going to do what it wants regardless of what Western Weyr says. If they've already been fighting it, then why come now and ask for our permission?" He looked hard at the man, mouth grim.

"That said, it's my job to try to make sure Thread kills as few people and dragons as possible." He heaved a resigned sigh, leaning mentally into Junenth as he considered his answer. "I think you bring up a valid point that the Weyrs of Pern can't be everywhere. The oceans of Pern don't get much love because the vast majority of the population lives on the continents and more populated islands. Uncharted islands, or ships that get held up and caught in the cross-hairs are often in a bad spot. Dolphineers have helped in keeping causalities of life minimal -- but property is another story." A dolphin pod could rescue men and women in the water, or warn ships ahead of Threadfall, but even the pods couldn't reach everyone. "We can sell you stone, and I can guarantee its quality... but only if you at least let us help bolster your groups numbers, if they're running ragged or low, and if your group at least makes itself known to us. I need to know who you're working with, and they may need to check in periodically so I can at least ensure they're in fighting form. I'd rather we work together than be at odds; I won't command them back to somewhere they don't want to be -- I don't have time to chase down riders who have no desire to work in a Weyr. But I also don't have a desire to see rogue groups getting in the way of the other Weyr's, or even Western's, way."

Part of R'mor knew he shouldn't be doing this...but, he'd rather be privy to what was happening out there than not.

"Furthermore, if you get too big, I can't guarantee other Weyrs aren't going to have something to say about it or try to break you up."

~ ~ ~

((OOCly: Because I can't remember what we all discussed. :3 Assuming Cal takes R'mor up on this offer, you just need to let me know who is actually fighting in the Sea Guard. For plot purposes, you could allow some Western riders sent over to work with them, especially if they're low in certain color numbers. The Western Riders would still report back to Western Weyr -- but could help them cover whatever needs to be covered, or are kept on "call" in case something comes up and they need aid.

Western would also work out a trade deal to get them firestone, and the riders could come and go to Western as needed for certain supplies and likely get a pretty good deal/fair shake.

Because Threadfall was meant to be a Weyr Affiliated perk, for the moment, we do ask you refrain from running or hosting Threadfall Games or PC Threadfalls with the Sea Guard. You can have RPs take place before Fall, or after Fall, and talk about injuries or heroism in the last fall, or plot out what happened during some Fall, but right now we're uncomfortable with unaffiliated thread fighting groups having PC Threadfalls or Threadfall Games before we've even given them to our Weyrs. Sorry!

Your group is kind of an anomaly so we're kind of erring on the side of caution. Give us some time, though, and we can see how things play out. We could loosen restrictions as the shop settles in. :3

One final thing to note, though, is that this group doesn't get to become like some new Weyr or anything. xD I don't think that's your intention, I just don't want to assume anything. If they do get too big or attract a large population of riders, other Weyrs may start to notice, and other Weyrleaders might have something to say about it.

R'mor is willing to work with them and aid them how he can, provided they don't do anything stupid or start defying the terms. :3 His healers are their healers now, so if any of their dragons do get injured, he would encourage them to come back to the Weyr just so they can get patched up. He doesn't suspect they will, but if it's a serious enough one..well, sometimes you need a lot of people to care for ugly wounded dergs. He's willing to be an alliance and will likely have Junenth check in periodically, again, to make sure the riders and dragons are healthy and in good shape, and good form.))