Scars/IC
On May 19th, 2007, things had continued on from previous events. Douglas Sharper had announced he was going on another trip to Negilahn to hunt down the predator killing the creatures there, and would be accompanied by Nick White, who had recently been fired from his role as a D'ni translator for the DRC. That same day, some seismic activity had been detected in Ae'gura, resulting in a small crack forming in the corner of a wall in the Kahlo Pub. Michael Engberg's daughter, 14 year old Willow "Wheely" Engberg, and her friend Rosette "Rose" Taylor were in the cavern running Marker Missions. Explorers had been cautioned to not investigate the crack, and they similarly advised the two girls to not go to the Kahlo Pub for their Marker Hunt despite similarly wishing to see it out of concern over the teenage girls lives.
Wheely and Rose seemed to heed this advice, for a time.
May 20th, 2007, the crack in the Kahlo Pub would widen, and while Explorers would stand guard around the Kahlo Pub to prevent Wheely and Rose from examining it, the girl's curiosity got the better of them. Using a DRC KI trick, Wheely concealed the location of herself and Rose as being at the Library before declaring the existence of a fake crack in the Library of Ae'gura, that they were supposedly investigating before vanishing. The guarding Explorers, concerned and panicked, headed to the Library, leaving it exposed. Other explorers, upon hearing of a new crack in Ae'gura, went to investigate, flooding into the city and causing some confusion. A few other explorers, however, realized this meant the Kahlo Pub could be unguarded and the Girls may head there instead. Few made it during the rush of explorers linking, not before tragedy had already transpired.
The DRC were called in to investigate, and search the city, which was locked out of the Nexus to aid in ease of searching. Nick White would hear about this and return to the City, using Explorer aid to sneak through a Yeesha-modified linking book back door into the city. Nick convinced the DRC to allow the Explorers to help search the city, and so limited access was granted. However, nothing would be found of the two girls until their KI devices were brought back online through a remote hack on May 21st. Their KI signals were located the next day beyond the crack in the Kahlo Pub wall, now collapsed and filled in with debris and rubble.
As we would later find out through talking with Wheely, she and Rose had climbed through the widened crack and found themselves in what was described as a room covered in glowing icons and symbols- a Bahro Cave. Rose had touched one of these symbols, triggering a Bahro Scream, and a cave in of the wall, which killed Rose, and trapped Wheely. It is unknown if at that point a Bahro was inside the cave with them, or if it appeared in there later. However, at that point, Wheely's Relto Book was disabled much as the books tend to be within Bahro Caves.
During all the time since this incident had transpired, Bahro activity had spiked within the Cavern. People were hearing more frequent screams, as well as seeing them on rooftops in Ae'gura and occasionally in various other areas (Unconfirmed Reports).
The DRC began digging down through the Kahlo Building's roof, going down floor by floor, trying to reach her. They would dig for a day, non stop. During that time, it was discovered that either one or two different Bahro were within the cave with Wheely. It was never confirmed how many, as Wheely only ever saw one at a time. In theory, it seems most likely that there were two, based upon actions taken. One Bahro would help Wheely with issues of thirst when she drew the Bahro Glyph for 'Rain.' The other... It grew agitated as the DRC dug down through the building until they reached the final floor above them.
According to Wheely, the Bahro began chanting something starting with the word "No." It is generally assumed that the Bahro was saying the word "Noloben," name of the Age where a mad D'ni man tortured Bahro to learn how they linked.
Finally, the DRC breached the floor, having to dig through a mysterious Bahro Glyph that refused to appear on camera. A drawing of a zig-zag line with circles on either side- a symbol Nick had seen carved into a tree on Negilahn.
As the floor and roof was finally breached, the Bahro attacked, and Wheely was murdered by the Bahro on May 22nd.
May 23rd, Sharper returned from Negilahn with a terrifying story. He had tracked the predator after it killed an Urwin before his eyes, dragging its head off into the distance. Sharper followed, walking into a trap. He discovered a swarm of Bahro, waiting in the trees, ready to kill him, when suddenly another group of Bahro appeared to fight the other group. Sharper saw it with his own eyes- the Bahro were at war with each other, and had two Bahro not saved his life, he, too, would be dead.
Finally, on May 24th, the DRC released the age of Minkata as originally scheduled. The Age's name, according to Nick, meant "Heavily Scarred." A fitting memorial for the events that had transpired.
Michael Engberg would also go missing soon after, disappearing under appearances of looking for someone, and last being seen in Descent- effectively abdicating his position in the DRC for the foreseeable future.
