Spaceship, Geosynchronous Orbit (Maequoql)

Maequoql's psychic radar detected a series of duodecimal numbers being entered into someone's mind in a way that reminded her of Arilay's brain-computer interface. Distracted, she turned her attention to the two hostile wyverns that were a long hike north of town. The wyverns gave her no cause for concern, the atmosphere up here was too thin to support the beasts' wings or lungs. Just so long as nobody drove either one towards town, she wouldn't need to unleash an Orbital Bombardment. A feather-light touch on the crashed mecha pilot's mind confirmed he'd just fainted. She caught her lower lip between her metallic teeth and nibbled lightly, considering her dilemma. On one hand, Arilay and Shale were counting on her to watch their backs from afar. On the other hand, the pilot probably needed medical attention that nobody else was in a position to give him, and not just because of the wyverns keeping everyone in the vicinity busy fighting.

Maequoql decided to nudge a few of the spaceship's active scanners to point towards the unconscious mecha pilot, to alert Arilay as to what was going on and hopefully get a second opinion.

According to this post, there are two wyverns — the lanceros that tore apart the Spider Mech and the lesser wyvern being hunted.

edited 5th May '18 8:35:45 PM by Miss_Desperado

Smaller river, edge of the forest (Rosalind's Mustang Herd, Inquisitor's Stray Horse, Skvader, Amaranth, Pewter, D'voreem)

For a while there was merriment. The strange rabbit creature—which Amaranth just now read in a Wilderness Guide she had picked up from the city the day before was called a... sky evader? Something like that... well, it and one of the horses had fun tasting the mead. But also mischief, as she caught the split-lip mare stealing an apple from one of her saddlebags. Not that she really minded; she had been tentatively planning to share one or two of the apples with the herd anyway if more trust needed to be gained with them.

And then trouble came. As the group kept moving, all of a sudden some large apelike creatures emerged out of the trees and started attacking the herd. Amaranth immediately faced a deluge of horses scrambling away from the threat. This left Pewter with nowhere to run for a few moments, giving Amaranth just the time she needed to mount her. Once on her back, she watched as a second d'voreem came out to accompany the first, shrieking wildly. This prompted Pewter to run away, following the panicking herd. Unlike Thunder, she didn't have a herd to protect; Amaranth hardly counted.

"Come on Pew... ter... get... back... there..." Amaranth tried to steer Pewter back toward Thunder to join in the fight, but the frightened mare just kept running away. Come on, you just got over your fear of Sakh and now this?

Looking back, Amaranth saw something off about the attack. Being rather well-traveled, she had encountered predators like this before, and even with these ones being foreign to her, the d'voreem were making a lot of unnecessary noise. It was almost as if they wanted to scare the herd away rather than try and kill them...

Her eyes widening all of a sudden, she leaned forward and gave Pewter a quick pat on the neck. "Change of plans. Faster!"

Pewter was all too glad to oblige. Breaking into a full gallop, she ran around the side of the herd, trying to make her way to the front and run further ahead. Atop the saddle, Amaranth started pulling her scythe out, keeping an eye out for any other d'voreem out there. Along the way, she sounded another mock whinny to the herd at large. Watch out! Potential danger up ahead!

Edge of the Forest/Grasslands

As expected, the group of plant eaters started to flee towards the rest of the pack hidden in the trees and long grass.

The first D'voreem to attack put on a burst of speed to panic them into running faster and wearing themselves out and was taken completely by surprise by the one with a golden-brown body and long white tail and mane that didn't run.

The surprise was short lived as the plant-eater's hind feet impacted with the D'voreem's head; bones cracked with a horrible sound and the D'voreem was knocked over backwards to lay still amid the grass. He twitched a few times before all movement - and life signs - ceased.

The second D'voreem was too intent on the prey to pay attention to what was happening to his fellow pack member. The plant-eaters were panicked and running and he gave chase. Suddenly the group in front of him split apart and there was one, a male from its scent, heading right for him.

The D'voreem reared upright on his hind legs; mouth open revealing the wicked carnivorous teeth, human-like hands opened ready to bring his claws into play. The plant-eater, too, reared up on his hind legs, towering above the D'voreem.

Then the forelegs came crashing down with a horrible weight. The D'voreem's right arm went limp and useless as collarbone, shoulderblade and ribs cracked. His left arm slashed out wildly to rake at the animal's undersides with his claws but the D'voreem was driven down by the hard forefoot that crashed down on top of his head.

The D'voreem's vision blurred and darkened, his breathing became ragged and he lay in the trampled grass, unable to move.

The herd was running and there was the smell of blood on the air. One of the nearest D'voreem spotted a sign of weakness: one of the white plant eaters - it didn't smell female but didn't quite smell male, either - stumbled and ran with a limp.

The D'voreem burst into motion, running on all fours to chase the injured plant-eater.

On the other side of the herd, a D'voreem spotted a sure sign of weakness - the dark-coloured plant-eater was bearing a human on its back and was breaking off away from the rest of the herd. This plant-eater was likely to tire faster than the others, so she gave chase.

edited 27th Apr '18 12:00:40 PM by Wolf1066

Author's note: To enhance your reading experience, listen to this song while reading this post.

Lead Mare Flashfoot heard the human's warning, which supported her suspicions. She started gradually slowing the herd and pinned her ears back, ready for battle. Fiddler and Filly Flashfoot quickly flattened their own ears. After a moment's hesitation, Rook and Raven did likewise. The rest of the horses exchanged worried glances, were their Lead Mare and fellow herd members crazy? Nevertheless, they dropped from a gallop to a canter in accordance with the Lead Mare's direction. The skvader was still clinging for dear life to the Tame One's saddle, wings outstretched and flapping for balance.

Angel, limping along further and further behind the herd, screamed as he spotted a third D'voreem about to pounce on him. Guardian Thunder swerved to attack the D'voreem's side, aiming his nastiest chomps at the soft flesh between the D'voreem's hip and ribcage. The situation was slightly different than his last two attacks. Because this predator had already targeted a specific herd member, Thunder needed all four hooves free for maneuvering as he tried to force the predator to switch targets.

Lead Mare Flashfoot's suspicions were confirmed as the third and fourth D'voreem showed up. Usually relay tactics were used by humans, but the D'voreem were definitely using such tactics this time. Our Watcher had taught her the best counter for such tactics was moving in unexpected directions. Most horses on the run wouldn't have thought of that, even if they'd been previously trained to do so, but Flashfoot was descended from smarter bloodlines than that. She could think on her feet.

Lead Mare Flashfoot turned the herd away from Pewter in a 270-degree loop, but Rook turned the opposite way and split off to go after the D'voreem hounding Pewter. Rook had no idea what he was going to do to play hero to Pewter, but he figured a good first start would be to roar a challenge to the D'voreem.

As the herd went back for Angel and Thunder, they encountered the second D'voreem that Thunder had just disabled. The callous horses (Fiddler, Raven, and the two Flashfoots) trampled the D'voreem, the squeamish horses (all the rest) hopped over the body.

The Purple Fez Tavern, Men's Bathroom (Jann, Rosalind)

"I... uh, took care of that," Jann answered, dismissively waving a hand towards the door. Realizing that he had somehow ended up in an unflattering position on the floor, he quickly got up, dusted himself off, and glanced up at the spot in the ceiling where Rosalind had been just a few seconds before.

"I didn't know you could do that," he continued. The sudden display of inhuman abilities had definitely caught him off-guard, but his startled expression was starting to give way to a fascinated smirk. How much weight could she carry without falling down?

Jann blinked a few times, refocusing on Rosalind herself.

"We'll have to find another solution then. Especially if we're going to travel together. How do you... usually handle it, back home?"

The Purple Fez Tavern, Outdoor Tables (Ozurr; Varg)

Varg looked up at Ozurr's face for a while, contemplating his words. Then she grabbed a bowl of cheese cubes and began to shovel them into her mouth.

"No schleep-killingsh on my watsch," she mumbled between bites. "I'll ask her some questions once she's back."

After quickly finishing the cheese cubes, Varg turned her attention to a large tankard that smelled like some kind of ale, not too different from the mushroom brews she was used to from home.

"That 'third eye' stuff you mentioned sounds like a mage thing to me, by the way. Might wanna ask Jann about it. Cheers!"

Restaurant (Leone, Gwion, Kris, James, Diantha, Nora)

"Ah," Leone replied in response to Kris, "Where I'm from, that would be something I'd call 'kin.'" Then she glanced at Diantha. "I...don't know what I'd call what Diantha speaks of."

After that, she fell quiet once again and focused on her food while the others chatted.

Town: Restaurant - outside seating area

Gwion nodded. What Diantha said was closer to what he understood by 'homunculus': an artificially-made human-like creature, according to the folklore.

When Leone spoke, Kris stared at her in disbelief, momentarily lost for words.

Gwion's scalp prickled a little as what Leone said sunk in. "Y'mean that, aside from the 'hair' thing, y'c'n change y'r shape t'resemble your prey in order t'get close enough t'kill?" If that were the case, it certainly explained a lot of what she had said earlier about being able to feed herself.

James had been wondering the same thing and figured that would explain the clear lack of hunting weapons. There seemed to be two shape-shifters at the table, neither of which were anything like those described in any of the folklore of which he was aware.

Gwion had already asked the question Kris wanted answered so, instead, she turned to Diantha and Nora. "I can't see any problems with shape-shifters that're on 'our' side. It's the ones out there that aren't that bother me."

The Purple Fez Tavern, Men's Bathroom (Jann, Rosalind)

Rosalind glanced curiously at the door, guessing at several different magical effects that could have been used on it, before dismissing that train of thought as not worth the time. As long as whatever spell Jann cast worked to keep people out, she could afford to take the proper amount of time to think out a minimally embarrassing exit strategy.

She contemplated the ceiling as well. "I didn't remember I could do that. Haven't been around many ceilings lately." In hindsight, some of her patchy memories of escapes, details lost to the fog of panic, could be strung together into a much more coherent timeline once she accounted for that ability.

At Jann's query, Rosalind answered, "I drink from my horses. Like needles from the vet, they don't like it but they've learned to put up with it." She looked briefly downcast. "Obviously I can't while they're missing." She walked over to the sink and started carefully manipulating the sink faucets until the spigot was dripping with a fast cadence. She flinched a little each time the water flowed out faster than a drip. Throughout the adjustments, she elaborated, "Usually every evening I pick a horse I haven't bitten in a while and drink no more than they'll miss, maybe a little bit extra if I've picked a misbehavin' horse with too much energy." Rook, for example, was now at the age where he would either pick a fight with Thunder or go off to start a harem of his own unless loss of blood left him with no energy to do either.

There, the fast drip was now tolerable. It took a bit longer for her to lather the soap this way, but at least she didn't have to deal with a second wave of nausea. She added, "Yesterday I had to euthanize a very old mare who broke her leg. I couldn't let her blood go to waste, so I got a lot more blood than I usually drink."

While she was scrubbing, she examined her reflection for any hint of transparency. There was none, which meant she'd managed to hold on to the fuel from yesterday. "We have roughly five days and four nights to figure something out, assuming I don't get badly hurt in a fight or something." She got an idea. "Now, if I recall correctly, human hunters discard the blood from the critters they kill before cookin' 'em, right?"

Town Square

To Chitara's mute horror, the battle continued escalating. It was not something that could be ignored. Both harpid watched in horror as columns of dark and fire and horror rised up in the sky...

And then, just as that, they vanished. As if it hadn't happened at all.

All the old crow could muster was a befuddled: "...Huh." She barely acknowledged that she had been paid, and picked up the money. Or that the people around were having a conversation around. But at this point enough is enough. "Welp, that's it. I'm out of here. Boy! Get ready, we're leaving!"

Naiolo came back to his senses at hearing this. "Really? It's still early. We just came here today."

"You want to stay here with a possible demon?" Chitara countered, and Naiolo paled at the thought. That seemed a response good enough. "Besides, we can always come back later. We're not low on supplies."

"And where are we going then?"

Chitara shrugged. "Oh, just someplace I felt like visiting. It will be fun."

Naiolo sighed and moved his harp back inside the wagon, while Chitara saved up the money earned and started carefully putting all her wares in a few different sacks. While this happened, a creature that looked like a cross between a human and a snake appeared around, asking for willow branches.

"Willow branches? I think I have a few around. Wait a moment." Chitara answered, perhaps a little brusquely, while she shoved a talon down a sack, and pulled out a bundle of thin branches, which she offered at the woman. "It will be a little more costly, if you don't mind. Willow is a little rare from where I come from, so it's hard for me to come by." Chitara sighed, and scratched her head. "Oh, sorry for dismissing you like this, though. I'm in a bit of a hurry, seems this place is not the safest around right now. Hope you don't mind."

As she said this, Naiolo came back out and moved the table back inside, with some considerable effort. "We'll be heading to a necropolis near here." She went on. "Maybe you are interested? A few more here also seem to be, and we could use some travelling companions. After all, who knows what awaits at the road." She said this not just to the newcomer, but to everyone else around. In truth, Chitara was not really afraid of bandits, but perhaps there were more sinister things outside these walls, and the more around, the better they could defend themselves.

Anyone willing to join them better speak up now before they lift camp and leave.

Town Square ~ Restaurant (Diantha, Nora; Leone; Gwion, James)

Nora paused to tilt her head as she thought about what had been said. "Huh," she said, "I never thought of doing that to hunt food; then again, I usually don't hunt. I do fish, sometimes," she mentioned, "I can even make my own fishing rod!"

Diantha crossed her arms, "But if you could look the part, could you act the part? I don't exactly see you as a very compelling sheep," she told Nora, "Animals are pretty good at noticing when something is wrong."

She then turned towards Kris when she stated her concerns, "Well, we probably shouldn't be terribly worried about it, otherwise we'll view everything as a potential danger. We should trust our instincts; if something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't."

Chitara's Wagon

Plague Doctor

She lowered her finger and sighed at the raven's normal cry as opposed to the eldritch shriek she expected it to give. The corvid gave the avian version of a shrug and with a hop and a quick snap of wings perched on Pearl's shoulder as it noticed them approaching the cart.

"I suppose I will have to test your reflexes later, with a more competent instigator." The raven cawed in clear contempt and went back to preening it's wing feathers. The doctor nodded and maybe made a gleeful hop or two as the group listed their qualifications.

"Yes! Yes! Earth magic will come in much use!₁'' She said to Finn.
"Excellent, global war is good preparation. Death and horror is often around the goals I seek!" she said to Pearl.
"Stamina and courage, yes, yes. Always of use." she said to Aubrey.

"I am Jamie Castell of the Royal Apothecary Society, or was perhaps. I am an alchemist of some renown searching the Necropolis for a rumored set of formulae that could prove most useful for my work. If you seek adventure all the better for me. An expedition needs...associates and if you are as competent and stout as claimed, you will do nicely. And hopefully not stab the vestal in a fit of maddened fervor. Again."

She scoffed at Chitara's worry. "You do understand that you are proposing traveling to a necropolis, correct? A necropolis with secrets? Secrets don't stay secret unless there is peril or disinterest, and to judge from the interest in the location it is certainly not the latter. What you may find there could be far worse than a mere demon. I have seen specters revive the corpses of slain comrades to fight their own, amalgamations of flesh that freely morph into teeth, claws, and bone at an insane rhythm only it could hear. Massive corvids with beaks large enough to tear cannon shot sized holes in those that intrude on their domain. If you lack courage you will find little in such places." She felt the muscles in her face spasm as sensory memory returned each of the incidences to clear memory, sights, sounds, and of course, pain.

Something flew up to her, a small creature of bones and mushroom. The words it spoke wouldn't come through the cacophony running through her head. The fairies appearance caused her to violently pull away and stumble backwards. More pain and a snapping sound as she fell on her back, half-blind she pulled something round out a pouch. "And the weald folk worst of all!" she shrieked. "Automations so infested they do nothing but spread spores until death by blade, fire, or magic frees them! Never trust a mushroom!"

Ulf

He smiled at the notion, "I wouldn't mind a trip to the forest, glad Gwion's here too, he knows his way around a tussle and it'll be nice to not have to worry about children tagging along."
He held his head at the mention of time. "Please, no more temporal topics. My head hurt enough on the space liner."
He gave a sly shrug at the last line, "You say no, but denying it this much makes me think otherwise. It's okay, we all have things we need to practice for." he smiled again.

The woman was going on some long grandiose speech, but he was glad whatever had been happening in the middle of the town seemed to be either resolved or somewhere else. Jamie's voice became more and more frantic until something startled her enough to fall on her back. The crunch sound was odd enough but she pulled out something apple sized. He sniffed and reflexively shoved Sophia and Teri back as he stepped forward.

"Doesn't smell right." he leaned forward slightly, alert.

1. She doesn't understand "rocker" and assumes he's some sort of earth magic user.

edited 30th Apr '18 12:20:11 AM by Slysheen

Smaller river, edge of the forest (Rosalind's Mustang Herd, Inquisitor's Stray Horse, Skvader, Amaranth, Pewter, D'voreem pack, Glamorous Lion)

The d'voreem setting up the ambush ahead of the horse herd were not alone. Another creature was walking through the grass. Another predator... a lion. A male lion, a rather large one at that, with an unusually well-groomed caramel-colored mane and bright golden-yellow fur underneath. Not only that; he had some ribbons and flowers tied into his mane, and his ears were pierced with ruby studs. He also had some sort of satchel tied around his neck, with a wooden lute painted with many colorful patterns attached to it.

He was just casually passing through, until he smelled some unusual apes in the vicinity. A whole group of them. Waiting for something to happen, apparently. Finding this rather odd, he decided to stand next to them, waiting to see what exactly they were waiting for. He couldn't care less whether the d'voreem would react negatively to his presence, even though back home, lions like him would certainly hunt apes like these if given the chance.

As Pewter raced toward the front of the herd, one of the d'voreem spotted her relative solitude and decided to give chase. Amaranth, who had been on the eye out for more of those large apes, spotted it quickly enough. As she slipped her scythe out, she caught a glimpse of one of the horses at the back of the herd limping, but Thunder seemed to be doing a good job of protecting them. So this d'voreem was now her primary concern.

The horse who had approached Pewter earlier was now running out towards them. Pewter acknowledged Rook's presence, but ignored him rather quickly. She didn't need his help; she had seen enough battles to know that Amaranth could cover for them both, even without the rest of her adventuring party around.

Fortunately it was just one d'voreem, for now at least. After a quick neck pat from Amaranth, Pewter began to feign tiredness, slowing to a canter and moving back toward the herd. Hopefully the d'voreem would take the bait and gain on her. Once it did, Amaranth tugged on the reins she had wrapped around her arm, suddenly slowing Pewter down. As Pewter leaned back slightly, Amaranth gripped the scythe with both hands, spun around on the mare's back, and and gave it a good hard swing at the d'voreem. If she was lucky, she'd lop its head right off; if she was slightly less so, she'd at least make a deep gash in its neck and/or torso. After the swing, Pewter followed up with a quick backward kick with one of her hind hooves.

Chitara's Wagon (Chitara, Naiolo, Teri, Alpha/Sophia, Aubrey, Pearl, Finn, Jamie, Ulf, Saen, Sindar)

Sindar asked a perfectly innocuous question about the plague doctor's raven... and she responded by freaking out, shrieking about infestation and how mushrooms were not to be trusted, falling on her back with a strange crack, and taking out an apple-sized object of some sort. This left Sindar confused. He was no stranger to people freaking out at his presence, but most of those cases were due to his skeletal hands or (especially) displays of his magic. Jamie, as she introduced herself as, seemed more concerned with his association with mushrooms.

"...I beg your pardon? I'm not infested, and I'm certainly not an automation. I'm in control of the mushrooms, not the other way around. I'm a fairy. An embodiment of an aspect of nature." Then with a hint of embarrassment he added, "In my case, decay."

Put off by the woman's reaction, he instead flew over to Naiolo, having overheard his interest in the necropolis. "Oh, I'm also interested in the necropolis," he mentioned, "as is Saen here." He gestured over to the snake woman. "I'd introduce myself, but first, there are a swordsman and a sorceress at the hotel who are also interested in coming. Neither of them were the source of the commotion back there though. Let me fetch them real quick."

And with that he was off.

Hotel (Sindar, Nyceme, Miron, Valerie, etc.)

After a couple minutes of absence, Sindar flew right up to the two most undead members of the crowd. "Nyceme! Miron! There's a group gathered at the wagon in the square who are about to head out to the necropolis right now."

Nyceme, who had just finished raising an eyebrow at the slug girl's muteness, meaningless clicks^note Nyceme doesn't understand Morse code, gesture she took to mean "keep away from me" (a quite expected response to an approaching undead snakewoman), and especially the large dog-not-homunculus showering her with affection, turned to look at the fairy. "Now? They are not ssstopping for sssuppliesss beforehand?"

Sindar shook his mushroom-capped head. "If we don't hurry they might leave without us."

Sighing, Nyceme turned back around to face Valerie. "Apologiesss, while I would much enjoy visssiting your shop, it ssseemsss I am being called to adventure. ...Though, I don't suppossse you're interesssted in the necropolisss asss well?"

edited 30th Apr '18 2:09:11 AM by ladytanuki

Restaurant (Leone, Gwion, Kris, James, Diantha, Nora)

"...Well, I suppose they're my 'kin' in the sense that my abilities come from the same place as they do," Leone explained further upon seeing Kris's and Gwion's reactions, "But that's not quite what I meant. 'Kin' is simply what I call the creatures I fight back home. They're called 'kin' because they're kin to...something. Something that is better left without a description." She shook her head. "Don't think about it. Such curiosity can be lethal...if you're lucky."

Then she turned to Gwion. "I don't transform in the same way Nora or these 'homunculus' creatures do. I possibly could, if I ate enough, but I normally don't. What I normally do is a little more...visceral." She frowned and shook her head again. "Again, don't think about it...if only because we're still eating. Chances are you'll see for yourself, if the wilds truly do live up to their name. In fact, I think it would be a wonderful idea to change the subject."

Solstice Cafe

As Kaitlyn's asked which century Cas came from, she closed her eyes and thought of her lessons about citadel or major station's orbit, and her knowledge of their dialects. "Century" was an ancient term, from when all dates in a system were to be set by the movement of a single planet. Without inhabited planets or true unity, each corner of the Flower defined time by its cycles, and let machines handle conversions. Which station Kaitlyn's accent was from? It must have been one of the bigger ones, for her to not specify which kind of century she was from, unless...

Wait. She is from the same planet as Peggy and Karl, isn't she?

"I... I think I am from much later. Too far to have a number. Sorry.", she said, feeling shocked by how surreal that exchange was. Were those really people from the old home? Or were they simply from other, stranger system?

Then she looked at the strange long eared child, who left to talk with a... flying mushroom person? Confounded, she merely nodded and told him and those who joined him "Stay safe out there. I heard there are many nasty things beyond the wall."

Then she finished her meal and turned to Peggy, Karl and Kaitlyn, asking "So... you three are part of a big group that plans to spread through the ruins, right? Can you tell me what kind of help you need in each place, so I know where I can make myself useful?"

Outside Hotel Door (Arilay, Shale)

Shale heard the mushroom fairy warn everyone of the wagon's imminent departure and turned her gaze to Valerie, also awaiting Valerie's decision. Meanwhile, Arilay got off of Shale, still keeping herself in between Shale and the serpentine lich, and tilted her head as if listening to something off in the distance.

Spaceship Cockpit -> Spaceship Corridors (Maequoql) -> Sick Bay?

Arilay initiated a telepathic conversation with Maequoql. "If the medical emergency is bothering you that much, go ahead and deal with it until it isn't a distraction anymore. I'll get Sick Bay ready."

With one fluid motion, Maequoql stood up and fled from the cockpit, navigating the twisty corridors with unerring speed. "Way ahead of you."

edited 30th Apr '18 3:46:23 PM by Miss_Desperado

(Chitara's Wagon- Saen, et al.)

"Indeed," Saen commented as Sindar flew off. "I am interested in any sort of magics they would have there. Now, let'sss sssee if I can remember this ward." The lamia twisted the branches into a shape rather like a horizontally bisected letter Q, whispering a chant as she did so. The willow bark started to give off a soft silver light, showing that the ward was indeed active.

"That'sss better. Between this and the specccialistsss we have in undeath, we should not have to worry about any roaming corpsesss or skeletonsss."

The Necropolis (It Came From The Sea; Wanderer; Crazy Hungry Lady)

Slowing to a trot, the beast glanced around at the variety of graves it passed by. Humans, they show their dead all this dignity, but cannot do the same for nature. Irritable wretches...

Its face quivered for a moment as it considered desecrating a tombstone with a well placed kick, only hesitating when it considered the numerous ways this could easily come back to bite it in the hindquarters.

At this point in its survey, another creature decided to make its presence rather vocally known. The beast whipped it head around to stare at the charging loon brandishing some form of saber or cutlass. By all appearances, it appeared to be a human female, which irked it to no end, but right away the beast could tell that all was not right with her, in more ways than one. First of all was the fact that it was running towards it, rather than away. Second was the fact she declared her apparent intent to eat it. Third, there was something positively feral about her.

The beast tilted its head and gawked, before letting out a screech and breaking into a gallop once the woman got too close for the beast's comfort, reaching with one of its long arms in an attempt to grab the woman by her head when it passed by.

Purple Fez Tavern, Outdoor Tables (Ozurr; Varg)

Ozurr picked up a tankard with his thumb and forefinger to return Varg's toast. He tossed the contents of the tankard into his mouth and made a face as it went down. He wasn't sure what he just drank, but he would definitely be sticking with mead in the future.

"Oh yeah, it's definitely magic. Next to Glamour and Enthrallment, it's textbook Mind Magic." He paused for a second. "Speaking of, I get the feeling that Jann's hiding something, too. I didn't say anything at first because I thought he was just being coy about...you know..." here he gestured at Jann and Rosalind's empty seats "but now I'm thinking maybe there's something else." He looked in the direction Jann and Rosalind had run. "I wonder..."

[The Sun-Dry Sea - Vrask, Koyel, Layi, Very Angry Wyvern]

So this wasn't going according to plan, though Layi did get a better shot on its wings — and a shallow gash on her back from the claws. "Piss on your mother's grave," she snarled at it as she dove for cover.

Koyel cringed. Dead gods, ma, you took a risk there! You planning to meet your ancestors today?!" The wyvern was'' finally grounded, though. Behind the same rock as Vrask, Koyel took a few shots at the beast, aiming for the head. Mostly to distract it before it could turn on Layi, now separated. He added to that a taunting cry: "you'll make a fine pelt, beast!" It seemed to work; the creature was now focusing on Vrask and Koyel. "Hope that hammer's ready," Koyel said to Vrask with a curt nod.

And then there was the Terran-looking ship. Well, that could wait, not getting killed by a wyvern was a priority.

edited 3rd May '18 6:31:41 AM by KillerClowns

Hotel

"Have I ever even said that I serve a goddess?", Míron said as the demon used amateurish sarcasm as a crude attempt to divert attentions from the matter at hand. "This creature can't even distinguish reality from its paranoia and narcissism-induced delusions. How are we supposed to believe it won't set this city on fire sooner than later?". Yes, he could be said be a servant of a goddess, but someone properly educated on the Epistemonicum would know that both servant and goddess were extremely misleading terms, and the demon's assumptions were foolish at best.

Then he gritted his teeth as the girl holding Vindex mmoved away, and reached towards her to stop her movement... then stopped halfway, as an acute whistling sound, imperceptible for most humans, called from outside, and was followed by a longer one, then two shorter ones. Turning his back to the witch and her servants, Míron passed by Alice, the woman with the unnatural buzzing, and extended his hand.

"You intrigue me. Give me your card so we may meet once I deal with an... urgent matter.", he said, with his eyes still turned to the hotel's exit and his face expressionless. Then, after she gives him a business card, if she does so, he dashed out of the hotel and turned to the city's south, gasping crowds opening way so they wouldn't be tossed aside by his sheer momentum.

edited 3rd May '18 11:03:07 AM by EternaMemoria

Town: Restaurant - outside seating area

Gwion gave Diantha a smile. "I've survived over 75 years, mostly by viewing everything as a potential danger. When it proves not t'be, it's a pleasant surprise, 'n' if it turns out t'be, at least y're not caught off guard."

He nodded at Leone, understanding and agreeing with her assessment that changing the subject would be a good idea. He'd seen and handled - and occasionally caused, if he were to be honest - a number of dead or injured bodies and wasn't squeamish, but there were some things you didn't dwell on at the dining table.

James pondered Leone's explanation of what she meant by 'kin'. It certainly wasn't what he - and, he suspected, Gwion and Kris - had understood it to mean. That she fought shapeshifting creatures back home and had been prepared to take on the nightmarish abomination that had been outside the hotel was impressive - proof that strength and ability took many forms and came in all shapes and sizes. "Before we head out, we need to determine what, if anything, everyone needs."

Town 'Square': Chitara's Wagon

Pearl was surprised when the strange multi-eyed raven chose to settle on her shoulder. She gave it - out of physical necessity, given its position right beside her head - a sidelong look. "All right, you can sit there - but if you shit down my back, I'm going to end up with a mask like your mistress has." Not that she actually would harm the raven - or even expected it to understand the implied threat.

Aubrey struggled to keep his face impassive. On principle, he had to disapprove of Pearl's choice of words but it was hard to show disapproval when he was fighting the urge to laugh and having difficulty with the fact that he found such a crude thing funny to begin with.

The 'plague doctor' sounded pleased enough with what they had said, if her enthusiasm was anything to go by. She introduced herself and was apparently - at least formerly - a member of a rather prestigious-sounding society - though some of what she said about a vestal being stabbed, presumably by some 'associate' in maddened fervour, gave Aubrey cause to wonder exactly what sort of society it was.

Aubrey was too intent on what Jamie was saying to pay much attention to anything else but was vaguely aware that the strange old bird-woman was hastily packing up and getting ready to leave - apparently due to the fracas at the hotel.

Jamie clearly noticed and commented on it. Some of what she had to say had Aubrey wondering if it had been a wise idea to come here at all - the visit to the necropolis was beginning to sound less and less like wandering around an old graveyard or visiting the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and more and more like the sort of thing that Joshua was used to dealing with.

Finn found it ironic that just after telling the wagon's rather unusual-looking owner that she would need courage to face the potential horrors of the necropolis, Jamie should be completely caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of the wee Sindar - to the point of falling down.

Teri wondered what Ulf meant about children tagging along. He couldn't possibly be referring to the Not-Chaos-Hunters, so it had to be some reference to something she wasn't aware of.

Sophia nodded. Gwion had told her about the two children that had been involved in the fight at the mall in Capital City - though, from what he said, the children had been more in need of restraining than protecting.

Teri barely had time to notice that 'Jamie' had something in her hand when Ulf pushed her back and took up a defensive pose. She wondered if the not smelling right was literal or figurative, as she noticed nothing.

Sophia would have taken umbrage at Ulf pushing her back but realised that he was being protective and reacting to some threat that he had detected. He had no way of knowing her capabilities in defending herself - and, to be fair, she had no idea what the threat was and whether it was something she was capable of defending herself against. 'I can look after myself', would be horrible last words if it turned out that the threat couldn't be beaten with fists or 115-grain jacketed hollow-points.

As the mushroom-clad fairy took off to notify those at the hotel that departure was imminent, the snake woman made something out of the willow branches she had just purchased and what she said about not having to worry about roaming corpses and skeletons gave Aubrey some comfort.

The fact that the branches now seemed to glow suggested some sort of magic, which was problematic as Aubrey had no idea if the source of the magic was good or evil - but then, Kris had always said that there was no 'good' or 'evil' magick - with a 'k' - and that it was how it was used that was important.

Surely, he reasoned, that magic - with or without a 'k' - used to protect oneself from malevolent animated corpses and skeletons was, by definition, 'good' and the less time spent thinking of the source of the magic, the better.

Town square —> Solstice Café

Kaitlyn turned at the mention of her name. ''Wait. What? Nah, sorry, I'm not going t'the warpfields, I just brought th'group of teens here t'make sure they found you 'n' got here safely.

That was all she had time to get out before the short elf was up and off to the hotel and before she could properly turn her attention to the others, there was a loud cry and the sound of a hefty whack. She turned to see that someone else had turned up while her attention was focused on the other goings on and had apparently accosted and thumped the one with the strangely-coloured hair. From the clothing, she was part of the same quasi-semi-demi-hemi-military outfit and apparently was annoyed at being ditched with some 'pervert' and having to spend the night in jail - it sounded like 'just your average Friday night' for a significant percentage of Hamilton's population, to her.

It was clearly none of her business so she turned back to Cas, wondering how far into the future you had to go for centuries to have no meaning. Unless she was from some sort of interstellar empire or federation that had so many planets with different orbital periods that it was deemed irrelevant what century it was on Earth - rather like those old science-fiction vids on the 'net where they had 'star dates' or some such shit.

Peggy took a thoughtful drag on her vapouriser before answering Cas' question. "Well, we've got one group goin' to an old abandoned town that's become overgrown with for— uncultivated plants and filled with wild animals; another group is venturing into a wilderness of uncultivated plants, also filled with wild animals; another group is heading out into an area where no plants have grown in centuries as the soil is sterile and another group is going to what's basically a huge graveyard filled with monuments to the dead and buried or preserved corpses. We're hoping to find, somewhere in the ruins in those places, some clues as to how spontaneous interdimensional or interstellar travel can occur by natural means, so we're basically wanting extra eyes and hands to help with the search and to help keep a look out for danger - and help deal with it if it arrives. It's not like you need a degree in archaeology or anthropology to do the work - we none of us are a 'Howard Carter' or anything remotely like him."

Karl nodded. "Just a bit of poking around in old abandoned buildings."

It occurred to Peggy that Cas, coming from some sort of artificial environment, probably wasn't carrying any of the things that she considered "standard equipment" for survival outside of the average dwelling. Whatever was in that huge pack, it was probably safe to assume it didn't include tent, sleeping bag, plates, pots or cutlery. "I'm guessing we're going to need to get you some equipment. Exactly what will depend on which place you decide to go to. At the very least I suspect you will need bedding and some means to prepare and eat food, possibly shelter as well. We can get all that for you - we've been given an equipment budget - and any weapons if you feel you need some."

Edge of the Forest/Grasslands

Bearing down on the strange not-female-not-male plant eater and focused on the chase, the D'voreem was caught completely by surprise as something huge and smelling of D'voreem blood smashed into his body and hard teeth bit into the soft fleshy bit of his side.

He shrieked in pain and alarm, borne down by the weight of the attacker. He had anticipated dealing with an exhausted and weakened prey as part of a larger group of D'voreem, not being alone and attacked by a large, strong and healthy animal. He lashed out wildly with his claws, hoping to fight off his attacker but he was off balance, falling to the ground.

Some distance away, the second D'voreem, that had been struck down by the forelegs of the big male, lay insensible in the trampled grass, unable to sense the approach of the herd let alone move out of its way before being trampled underhoof by four of the plant-eaters. He died without regaining consciousness and the rest carefully stepped over the bloodied mass of fur and pulped flesh.

Out ahead of the herd, the rest of the pack could tell that something was wrong. The prey was no longer heading towards them in blind panic and the smell of blood on the air was that of pack-mate, not plant-eater.

Belatedly, the pack stopped their forward movement and turned back, the furthest ones moving at a slower pace than those nearest the herd, in order to conserve their energy for the fight to come.

Another meat-eater entered the area and got close to one of the D'voreem. The close proximity of a competitor or scavenger was not welcomed and the D'voreem reared up on his hind legs and screeched, showing off his razor-sharp teeth and claw-tipped hands, hoping to scare the interloper away.

The intruder was too big to fight off alone, so the D'voreem limited himself to aggressive displays and screeches to intimidate and summon assistance. Other nearby D'voreem heard and three of them approached, shrieking and screeching to drive off the unwanted intruder.

The dark coloured plant-eater with the human on its back seemed to be tiring and the D'voreem pursing it put on a burst of speed. The plant-eater itself was too big for a single D'voreem to handle alone but she had killed numerous humans and knew they were easy prey.

As she neared, the plant-eater slowed abruptly and turned and the human was nearly within reach. The Dvoreem leaped but before she could get her claws and teeth close there was a searing pain.

Blood gushed in a fountain towards the horse and its rider.

The D'voreem tumbled over and over in the grass before lying still and staring up at the sky, the sounds of stampeding and screeching all around her. She tried to roll back to her feet but her body didn't respond. She glanced about, unable to even turn her head, but could see nothing either side but the long grass and then she became aware of a feeling like being smothered; she desperately needed to breathe. She tried to gasp for air but there was no relief from the feeling; she couldn't even muster enough breath to whimper in fear, let alone screech in rage. Her vision greyed and blurred as the lack of air took its toll.

A few metres away, the D'voreem's body finally finished twitching and evacuating its bowels and the rhythmic spurts of blood died to a trickle as it stopped moving.

edited 5th May '18 8:53:17 PM by Wolf1066

Grasslands (Rosalind's Mustangs, Inquisitor's Stray Horse, Skvader)

Poor Rook stared in astonishment, his ears leaving their battle positions to point straight ahead, as the human decapitated the D'voreem before he had the chance to attack. How was he supposed to impress Pewter now? One of his ears then rotated backwards as he checked on what the rest of the herd was up to behind him.

Angel stayed out of the way as best he could while Guardian Thunder fought. Thunder's bites had done more than distract the D'voreem, he'd managed to knock it off balance, too. Thunder dodged the wild flailing, causing most of the flails and some of his continued bites to miss. A set of claws raked the side of his cheek and another wild flail swiped across the bridge of his nose. Thunder could see and hear his herd changing direction and approaching, which meant Lead Mare Flashfoot had come up with a clever plan.

Indeed, Lead Mare Flashfoot did have a clever plan. While Guardian Thunder kept the D'voreem busy, Lead Mare Flashfoot summoned Rook and Angel over and signaled the herd to stop running and organize themselves into a defensive ring.

Angel limped over as best he could, with Rook catching up in no time flat. Speckles and Ripple exchanged nervous glances, unsure of what to do now that they were in position. They weren't experienced fighters, and Ripple was trembling. The skvader was still frozen in the Tame One's saddle, nearly catatonic with terror and confusion, but with just enough presence of mind to continue clinging to the saddle for dear life. As the youngest member of the herd and heir in training for the Lead Mare position, Filly Flashfoot was in the exact center where she would be well-protected.

While Guardian Thunder kept the D'voreem busy, Lead Mare Flashfoot approached the D'voreem from behind and carefully lined herself up to aim her ancestral-signature fast hind-leg kick at the back of the D'voreem's neck. On her signal, Thunder disengaged and darted backwards as she kicked.

Mouse pricked her ears as she heard screeching in the distance.^note This would be the D'voreem attempting to drive off the lion, but she has no way of knowing the purpose. She squeaked, There's more of them!

Lead Mare Flashfoot's suspicions were confirmed. Why do you think I had you organize like that?

Chitara's Wagon (Chitara, Naiolo, Ulf, Jamie, Teri, Sophia, Finn, Aubrey, Pearl, Saen, Sindar, Nyceme)

After a couple of minutes, the mushroom fairy returned, with another snakewoman following him. One who, unlike Saen, had a fully human upper half and did not exactly look healthy... and smelled strongly of perfume. Both of them kept a wary eye on Jamie as they passed by her; on the way here, Sindar had informed the lich about the alchemist's reaction to his presence.

Gathering around so everyone, particularly Naiolo, could see them, they introduced themselves. Or, well, Sindar did. He began with a sigh.

"Well, unfortunately, the swordsman I thought was interested completely ignored me and ran off; guess he's not coming after all. However, there are at least the two of us. I'm Sindar, Fairy King of the Underwood. This um, fragrant lady here is Nyceme; she's the sorceress I mentioned. She's very skilled with offensive magics, and knowledgeable about its darker flavors. This includes—"

"Be niccce, Sssindar," said Nyceme, gently pressing a claw against his mouth. "But yesss, both of usss have sssome exxxperienccce with the dead, and ssseek knowledge and arcane sssecretsss that may dwell in the necropolisss. Sssindar essspecially; fairiesss like him embody forcccesss of nature, which in hisss cassse is death and decay. He'sss more powerful than he looksss, but alssso not as malevolent asss he ssseemsss. And makesss for a good messsenger."

Sindar scowled at her.

"Ssso I believe thisss isss all of usss?" Nyceme looked around at her new adventuring party. "And for the record... the sssituation at the hotel wasss mere sssmoke and mirrorsss. The inssstigator very much resssembled the sssort of religiousss fanatic people where I am from would ss—"

"Be Niccce-eme, Nyceme," said Sindar, gently pinching her flicking tongue between two bony fingers.

It was Nyceme's turn to scowl.

edited 6th May '18 2:33:25 AM by ladytanuki

[The Lobby]

Regarding Vindex's offer, Alice shrugged and said, "sure, you could buy magical stuff. If you're willing to trust magic; ask a lot of questions." Then, her tone ominious, "philosophical ones, especially. Magic is a living thing, and like all living things, its first interest its survival and spread." She left the implications for those clever enough.

To Nui, Alice shrugged and said, "a lot of this is theoretical; magic and antimagic back in my native world are, uh, cantankerous." That was an understatement; the only known source of magic where Alice came from tended to destroy the sanity of anyone who did not undergo rigorous, special forces grade training, and even they tended to accumulate mental illnesses at a rate unacceptable to Western Amalgamated. And even anti-magic users tended towards eccentricities, unless (like Alice) they were already dissociated from ordinary humans. "Short version, the 'merging' version. There's some way, through intense mental conditioning," She rubbed her head at the memories of the drills the Mauros priest-commanders had put her through, to say nothing of the Graveyarders, "a human mind can destroy magic." She considered name-dropping mentats — the theory was similar, training one's subconcious to beyond the supposed limits of the human mind — but she then figured nobody would catch the reference. "I can also un-see optical illusions," she added. "Pretty sure that's significant."

"Past that, the reason this crazy brain-training helps isn't clear." To say the least; it was not a mystery whose answer would be revealed this day. "A gift from some supreme god, matching sheer willpower against the will of magic, knowledge beyond human comprehension that makes magic go away in a Puff of Logic, a weapon wrapped in imperceptible spaces outside our familiar four dimensions, an effort by magic itself to commit suicide, and those are just the theories I remember off the top of my head." Alice was fond of the willpower version herself, but could not honestly claim any special knowledge. Even the few Dead Gods able to hold a conversation for any length of time couldn't say with confidence, though they favored the hidden knowledge or hyper-dimensional weapon versions." She shrugged, then added, "what is understood is that it's conneceted to..." she bit her lip. "Something sleeping. I'd hate to be the one that woke it up."

"There's also certain crystals we can grow that, despite not being able to think, project a field of the same effect. They lose their juice after about two weeks, a few days if you make crystal-core rounds out of them, but," she nodded at Wolfe, "guessing you're not here for long enough for that to matter if they're fresh? And then there's AMON, a sort of gas that screws up the brain's ability to think clearly enough to cast magic." She smirked and added, "also gets people kinda buzzed, mage or no, so a gas mask isn't necessary for non-mages, but helpful." And the final question: "back where I come from, my powers usually just obliterate magic outright. Out here, there's been a lot of suppressing we don't see any of at home. I think it's because this nexus is patching together realities, and is permitting me to bring my abilities, with restrictions, for its own ineffable reasons?"

With a curt, respectful nod, Míron was given a business card, Alice ensuring her field did not touch Míron.

That left open the question of Sophia.

I'll finish a bit later today in a separate post, but I want to give the rest. I hope I didn't miss anything for Alice, aside from Sophia, to come, please inform me if I did. At any rate, Wolfe and Justin's party are now freed up.

edited 6th May '18 9:31:55 AM by KillerClowns

[Cafe-Outside on route to the supply store that I instantly forgot the name of]

Even with the weapons Jackson made, they might still need more supplies. More importantly...they probably needed some snacks.

"So," Nick said, "You want to meet us there? Sounds like a plan."

Amy felt sad that Kaitlyn wasn't joining them, but she understood. They were going to be pretty crowded, and plus she wanted to be with her friends. She knew how that felt.

"Bye-bye!" she said, giving Katilyin a quick hug, "Good luck! See you later!"

Ciao. Maya signed.

"Be safe!" Marie said.

Jackson and Adam waved, and with that, everyone headed out the door.

They're open to anyone else who wants to talk to them now.