Palladium Quest

OOC: This is the Quest to get the Palladium in Egypt. It is now open for the Questeers. (Keep in mind this Quest is supposed to be secret, so your characters probably didn't leave Camp Half-Blood in the middle of the day.)

OOC: Sorry for posting early guys, but I was just too excited to get the Leilin feels going xD

BIC: Colin slid among the trees, his two duffels bouncing against his sides as his backpack remained firmly in place. It was probably around three or so in the morning, but the time wasn't what he was focusing on.

With every step he took, with every branch he slapped away from his face, one thought echoed through his mind. Leila. Leila. Leila.

Their differing opinions were pretty obvious when it came to the situation with the Romans. Leila didn't want any war, or any deaths, and, in all honesty, neither did Colin. But this was his home, his life. This Camp had accepted him when no one else would, and for that, he felt as if he owed it his own life. And, after all, a war was inevitable.

Still, even through their disagreements, he worried about her day and night. The Warhawks had begun openly expressing their hatred for the Doves, and through leaving her, he wouldn't be able to protect her. What if she got hurt? or...oh, gods...what if she...

Colin ran even faster, leaving all thoughts of Leila and Death behind him. He was doing this to protect her. The sooner the Warhawks ended this, the safer she would be, and the more they could focus on the upcoming conflict with the Romans.

Colin burst forth into the opening at the top of the Hill, nearly knocking himself out on a branch of Thalia's Tree. The moon shone greatly onto his navy blue T-Shirt, and his boots were probably covered with mud by now.

I look out the Athena cabin at about three am. I don't want to leave the comfy cabin and camp. But with the romans coming I don't have chose. The Warhawks are geting crazier and they will probaily start hunting down the Doves. I don't want any part of this but I will do what I must. I run out of the cabin and have my sword ready for harpies and other monsters. I run all the way to the barrier. Certin death here I come.

Rhy goes to the border with his katana in hand. He has a pacp on his back. In it he has 7 sets of clothes, 750 bucks, a plane ticket, and 20 darchmas. He wore leather pants, leather boots, a leather jacket, a red cub shirt, and a ski mask. He wore the ski mask to hide his face. He thought about this quest. He didn't want to hurt the doves hut he had to to defeat the romans. He was at the gate and waited in a tree for others.

Asuna looked at her sleeping brother in the moonlight. He had always been too protective of her. Now she was going away to look for a magical item and she hadn't even been claimed yet. She hoped to be during the quest and couldn't wait for some victory to come her way for once. She left a note to her brother on her bunk and pulled on her backpack. I contained money, drachmas, clothes and enough food and water to survive a couple of days. She stepped out of the cabin into the brisk autumn night and walked until she got to Half Blood Hill. Two other kids were there already. "Who are you?" She whispered.

[ooc: Rhy, can you have your character meet up with the rest of the group instead of going straight to the airport, please?

Also, should we establish a posting order or can we all be trusted not to post too much when the others are not here?]

The moon was high -- the harpies were out, but Meagan had studied their movements and schedules for weeks to find the best time to leave on their mission. (She usually stayed up all night anyway; it was barely trifling for her to lose a few hours' sleep to stalk the harpies.) They had planned it meticulously to ensure that they had at least a few backup plans in case this one failed, but the demititan knew that their cause would be virtually lost if they didn't get this right now. None of the other major demititans supported them: Meagan's twin brother David was with the Doves, as well as Chris Shay, the son of Kronos, and Stella, daughter of Ouranos -- together those three were unmatched in power, especially by camp standards. It would take beings -- or items -- of enormous magical power to even let the War Hawks think they had a chance to go against any of them, even just one.

David would definitely show no mercy against them, even if he were faced off with Meagan; they hadn't grown up together, but had only met a year or two ago and so neither of them could really claim "sibling love." She couldn't expect his mercy. Chris Shay she had only met once or twice, but she didn't like him very much and would prefer to keep away from him. And Stella.... Well, Meagan hadn't seen her often either, but she had heard stories of what she'd done -- murders, mainly... It was despicable, truly, but she had been very, very disappointed and disconcerted to learn that the daughter of Ouranos didn't want to support the War Hawks, despite her obviously violent ambitions. If Stella wanted to be so violent, then now was certainly a good excuse, wasn't it? But maybe she expected a fight, despite which side she was on. Meagan knew that neither the Doves nor the War Hawks would go down without a real power struggle.

But no matter. The Oracle had been very, very kind to give the War Hawks their quests, and Meagan fully intended to fulfill it to her dying breath -- for the sake of the camp.

Meagan's group had been tasked with finding the legendary Palladium, while her fellow demititan Alex, son of Lelantos, had been tasked with finding the Sword of Peleus. With those two artifacts, they could properly challenge the Doves and have at least a chance to match their side's demititans in power, although she wasn't so sure about how secret their quests would be. People would notice they were gone, they would note it, and maybe, just maybe, the elder demititans would find out and go after them before the questers had even reached their destinations. Then that would certainly be quite the dilemma, wouldn't it?

Half Blood Hill was, at this moment, unwatched and unguarded, except for Peleus the dragon curled up around Thalia's tree -- but Meagan knew he didn't truly care about the presence of campers unless they approached the tree too closely. And so, the overly-large lizard had barely bat an eye or even let up in its sleep when Meagan materialized at the foot of the hill, her kilij on her hip and her backpack of provisions and clothing slung haphazardly over her shoulder. She could see the shadows of about two or three other people on the hill, but she knew who they were -- vaguely.

Scaling the mighty hill, she examined her new teammates closely as she approached the tree and the gleaming scales of the dragon around the tree.

"Are we all here?" she asked them softly, glancing around. "We'll need to leave fast."

"I think this is all of us," Colin stated, standing a bit straighter and approaching the demititan's side . What was her name? Megan? Meredith? No, Meagan. That was it.

"So, how are we planning to get to the airport? I mean, we could take my truck, but it probably won't hold all of us. I'm guessing taxi?" Colin asked, his mind racing to focus on as many questions as possible, though her name still pounded through his head.

I'm Colin, by the way," he said, awkwardly pushing up his glasses after he realized how out-of-place that was. Maybe now wasn't the best time for introductions. I mean, they'd heard each other's names before, and maybe caught a glimpse of each other's faces to go with it, but that was about it. "Son of Serket."

He shrugged his bags onto his shoulders, offering to take the others in his free hand. "What all did you guys pack?" He asked, going through his mental checklist of necessities. Oh, right. These were Greeks. They probably brought drachmas.

In all honesty, Colin didn't mind Greeks at all. In fact, he typically liked them more than Egyptians. But Greeks were kind if confusing. He could learn the stuff over and over, and it never made sense. And drachmas? They were the most confusing. Well, besides griffins(which should be either Egyptian OR Greek, but, you know, let's just it griffins in both. Whatever).

On second thought, he bet they also brought ambrosia. Oh, gods, he hated that stuff. It was pretty much completely tasteless, or tasted like the trash he and Astaria used to pull out of garbage bins. In all honesty, he preferred natural healing. He'd only ever used ambrosia once, and that had been when he was unconscious. But, hey, each to his own.

OOC: I like the posting order idea. I haven't been on as much as I used to so it'd be great to incorporate that so I wouldn't miss anything.
BIC: Asuna looked over as a girl walked up to the hill. Meagan, maybe? She didn't have time to remember names. "Yeah, we are. Let's go." She said and turned to the boy. "I'm Asuna, and I packed clothes, drachmas, food, water and nectar and ambrosia." She said. "How about you?"

[ooc: Since this doesn't seem to active, I think we can hold off on a posting order. If we develop problems with keeping up we'll use a posting order with, say, a 2-day time limit before we move on to the next person.]

"Do we have time to order a taxi? Grey Sisters' probably... isn't going to be too comfy. Too loud, at least." Meagan was readjusting the watch on her wrist, checking its face -- a little later than midnight. If they waited too long a harpy would most definitely see them and, obviously, they wouldn't be able to go through with their plan too well -- or at all. After a moment of thought, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and glanced around at the camp, the empty commons area and deserted pathways.

If they failed, who knew what the Romans would do to camp? They were more militaristic, were probably more capable to battle than the Greeks -- and she didn't know if the Romans had their own demititans, which would probably make it a lot worse for the Greeks anyway. They'd have to get the first move and major advantage over them, even if it cost them a few lives.

"I can try teleporting us by the earth?" Meagan suggested quietly, glancing around at the group. They looked like a rag-tag bunch, but... this would have to do. "Never tried it with too many people before... but we can probably get to an airport pretty fast."

Ooc edited earlier post and this one.
Bic
Rhy sees others have arrived and climbs down. "Who are you all?" He has fire in one hand and his katana in the other. He was ready to fight .

[ooc: Rhy, could you please just have your character be at camp with the other questers? I don't think IM-ing them from an airport bathroom would be a very good idea, and Landlord's Daughter and I agree that you'd have to know who you want to talk to -- as in their faces, at least -- instead of something general like just "War Hawks".]

"Asuna" she replied nonchalantly. The boy looked ready to fight, and Asuna quietly pulled out her sword.
OOC: sorry for the one-liner. There was nothing more to say.

Colin noticed the approaching dude, and held his hand up in a universal sign of please-don't-hurt-us-we're-on-your-side. "Woah, man, we're cool. I'm Colin, and we're on the quest. I'm assuming you are, too?" He asked. So far, tje kid didn't seem very Dove-ish.

"Not doubting you or anything, but if you're not certain you can get us all thrre, I'd take a cab. But, hey, if you can do it, go right ahead," He responded to the other girl. Okay, a lot of questions to be answered at once. But, hey, two down, one to go.
"Oh, you know. Weapon, clothes, money, the usual things," He answered the other girl. "I can take that bag if you want," He iffered once again.

"Oh." Rhy extinguished the flame in his hand and made his sword turn hack into a watch."I'm rhyolo. Also I got a cab coming."

"Cabs make noise," Meagan said curtly, shaking her head. She could already tell she wasn't going to enjoy interacting with these people one bit, but it might have been because they were so disorganized. Alex and his group had probably already left to get the Sword of Peleus, but Meagan would make sure her group would progress fast once they got to the airport. "It's better if I just teleport you all there, even though I might not be able to walk very well. Any of you a bit claustrophobic? Afraid of the dark?"

The wind rustled the leaves of the trees and the grass; the demititan shivered slightly and looked around. They needed to get a move on before the harpies came by -- judging by her watch and her observations from the past few weeks, they had five minutes to decide how to go before a harpy swung by.

"OK so what are you waitn' for. I don't want to be harpy feed." Rhy shivers. He thinks of almost being eaten by one.

Meagan tilted her head to the side, giving the boy an annoyed look out of the corner of her eye. Impatient one, he was. She'd need to fix that, or else they wouldn't get along very well; as for the rest of the team, she couldn't tell as of yet. This was too stressful, but alas, it was for a too-compelling purpose. "Waitin' for you all to say yes. I can't do it to you if you're struggling; you might pop up in, say, Montana or Alaska if you struggle."

"I'm ready. We need to go as soon as possible, before any campers see us or Peleus picks up our scent." Asuna said with more courage than she expected.

"I'm ready whenever you guys are," Colin replied, though he wasn't completely sure of it. Violence might break out while they were gone. People could be hurt. She could be hurt.

Colin noticed the look and took a small, barely noticeable step away from the two. Gods, tension seriously bothered him. Usually, he would step in or something, but he really had other things on his mind at the moment. Besides, the kid was getting a bit annoying.

OOC: Can we try to pick up the posts? I get it, you guys are busy, and so am I, but the other quest has gotten a lot farther than us.

"I'm with Colin. I am as ready as I will ever be." Rhy slicks back his dreads. He looked at the girl and made a look saying sorry, don't kill me.

"The let's go already." Asuna said and looked at rhyolo like, Sorry, I'm annoyed and no one is getting a fu(k!ng move on. Does that explain anything to you?
OOC: hey I was wondering if we should have a plotting topic. Would that be a helpful accessory?

I look at the others. "I'm Crystel and I'm ready as I'll ever be." I shoulder my backpack."But we should cheak our stuff. It would
be pretty smart to do. But we should hurry. I already know I have everything."

"Well then. Get ready." And anticlimactically, Meagan clapped her hands together -- the earth shifted underneath her feet, a slight tremor but nothing that people would freak out over, and there opened a large fissure on the hillside, enough for the five of them to fit in comfortably. It was deep and dark in there; over the year or two she'd been at camp, Meagan had gotten used to travelling this way. The same could not be said for her teammates; if any of them were claustrophobic or deathly afraid of the dark, she had no idea how to help them. "Hop in, fast -- it might take more than a minute for this fissure to shut when we're all in. We'll basically travel underground -- move the earth under us so we're travelling fast, make sure it comes back together behind us so nobody falls into a tunnel. Good stuff."

Rhy jumps in the fissure. "Whohoo!!" He shouts. He genuinely thinks this is fun.

Colin shrugged and slid into the dark opening, hitting the base on his feet. "Come on, guys, its fine!" He shouted up, bracing himself to help one of the others down.

"Pretty useful skill you got here, Meagan," He stated as he observed the fissure. It was dark, alright. He could hardly see his hand in front of his face. He turned on the glow function of his watch, checking the time. They should probably hurry up. They didn't have long.