The Scar (Ozurr; Jann; Varg; Rosalind)

Ozurr was grateful when the woman stopped freaking out, but kept a careful eye on her. She had said something about "zombie germs." Granted, a corpse could contain any number of diseases depending on how long it had been dead, but that seemed an oddly specific choice of words. What germs would a zombie be carrying that a normal corpse wouldn't?

Apparently, the gore she was covered in was dangerous to humans. Fortunately for Ozurr, he was not a human, and while he wasn't certain, he was willing to bet Varg wasn't one either. Still, that meant she would need to get herself cleaned off quickly, for her own sake if nothing else, and he had no idea how to do that.

Horses, eh? Well, that certainly explained the hoofbeats. And it was good to know that they hadn't been nuckelavees or unicorns. Then she said that she had lost them and was trying to find them.

"Now that I can help you with. Tracked and killed my first saber-bear when I was 83. In a blizzard, I might add. I'm sure a couple wayward horses should be no problem at all." He didn't feel like mentioning that he had never actually seen a living horse before, and could therefore only guess as to how they normally behaved. "Not sure why it's so important to know, but south would be..." He turned towards the sun, measured the angle to the horizon with his hand, and pointed along the Scar. "That way."

edited 27th Mar '18 1:13:26 PM by apocalemur

Town Square -> Notice Board (Alice, ???)

At the edge of the town square, a person no more than four and a half feet tall walked out of a coffee house, raising their thin, dark grey eyebrows with intrigue after sipping at the strange caffeinated beverage called a "latte" they carried out in a metal thermos. It was impossible to tell whether this person was a man or a woman; on one hand there was the long dark grey hair, tied in a loose ponytail below their shoulders, and on the other their chest was pretty flat. In fact, someone from Earth might be paying more attention to the pale bluish-gray hue of their skin, the flat, almost mask-like face, the narrow grey eyes, or perhaps the pointed ears, long as their head was wide and pierced with several little rings.

Their primary garment was a sort of simple blue dress, with very wide and loose sleeves covering the upper arms and revealing snug pants and boots above the knee. They wore a backpack, with some sort of rolled up cloth thing stored on top. What was more interesting, though, was their forearms, both covered with a strange gadget. On their right, a gauntlet covered with a thick metal-and-glass matrix concealing a cylindrical slot for... something. On their left, a vertical strip of crystal positioned between bracelets, with an eye-like contraption in the middle.

Before stepping out into the sun, they withdrew a hat from their backpack and put it on. A hat made of six panels of the same metal-glass-matrix the gauntlet was made of along the brim, and one more on the top of the otherwise white hat. And they slapped a pair of purple-lensed sunglasses over their eyes. As they walked, they looked as though they were lost in thought, frequently muttering things under their breath or glancing about. Eventually they found their way to the notice board, where a group of people had just walked away from woman with faintly childlike features and businesslike attire. Her height was nothing unusual to them, as they were actually a few inches shorter than her.

And it wasn't even the woman's appearance that piqued the gadget person's interest. After waving their left hand across the square, they picked up on a void that seemed to react to and even suck in the magic around it. This included the aura the woman would have otherwise had around her if she were alive. Now even more intrigued, they decided to approach.

By the time they got to her, they were looking her up and down, mouth hanging slightly open in awe. "Excuse me but..." they spoke, in a smooth and airy voice that could just barely register as feminine, "...is that an antimagic field around you? Doesn't bother me; just curious."

Solstice Cafe (Cormack, Carol, Lily, Cas, Peggy, Karl)

So Lily was part of some race with inherent ice magic. Cormack had never heard of such a race in Crownen, nor anything with similar magic, with the possible exception of the diminutive pipsians with their trickery. "Huh, I see. Aren't many races like that in Crownen. That's where I'm from by the way. From the Emerald Valley, where dragons fly^note Those last five words were in fact a Shout-Out to the song "Emerald Sword" by Rhapsody - not sure if you metalheads out there noticed it. and elves and dwarves exchange weapons and woodcraf—"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a second raven swoop down and make a sort of ruckus, which ended in it knocking some food onto the ground and eating it. Cormack squinted their way for a while and looked down at his pet sprite Nettle... but there was no reaction from her. Then he looked over at Lily and Carol. "Oh, those are ravens, not crows. ...I think. My fellow adventurers include a raven, incidentally, but I don't think she's here. Makes me wonder how many more of them are gonna show up..." he muttered as he looked around the square, "...it's just been two of 'em so far."

Hotel Parking Lot (Miron, Kaitlyn, Finn, Aubrey, Pearl, Justin's Demon, Nyceme, Saen)

Nyceme smirked when Miron denied the possibility of sentient undead appearing in the necropolis. "Famousss lassst wordsss. I have a feeling that they will not be ressstful for long."

Then she looked over at Saen, and couldn't help but slither closer when she saw the paper glow. She just barely saw the question about handling mindless undead before the writing disappeared and new writing appeared in its place. At that point, Nyceme realized she was intruding and backed away, forgoing reading the response. But once Saen was finished...

"Impresssive. I have never ssseen a ssspell like that before. A long dissstance telepathy charm, I presssume? Alssso I could not help but catch your question about warding mindlesss undead—do forgive my rudenesss. While I did not sssee the resssponssse, I should tell you that Sssindar alssso hasss a way of... I wouldn't sssay warding, more like..." she took a quick glance at the fairy, "...bending mindlesss undead to hisss own will. I can do that asss well with a different method." She spoke these words loudly enough so that Miron and the others could hear them. "Ssso not to worry - we have sssome methodsss of protection should we find the dead do not ressst." She quickly glanced back at Saen. "...You found one asss well, I gather?"

And then the more mundane-looking woman approached her and asked her if she kept her soul in a jar. Nyceme flashed a smirk. "A jar? That would be an... interesssting sort of container. But no, I keep mine in thisss." She gave a small wave of her scepter. "The downssside isss that sssince the sssoul isss what keepsss our bodiesss alive, my body decaysss in itsss absssenccce asss if it were dead. But sssome consssider that a sssmall priccce for great power and more importantly, immortality." She sighed, which came out more like a hiss; the expulsion of air carried an even stronger whiff of perfume than the rest of her form. "Not exxxactly sssomething I sssought out, but eh, ccc'est la non-vie." She faintly remembered the bard in her adventuring party mentioning that saying^note well, minus the "non" in a song in a strange otherworldly language called "French".

And then the demon, who on one hand was getting on what remained of Nyceme's nerves, especially with how he lashed out at Miron, apparently taking his words as a threat. However, the fact that he referred to himself as a wrath demon explained some things. On the other hand, what he said about "better spells" and "perfect vampires" interested her.

Rising to his eye level, she said, "Vampiresss with unparalleled ssstrength and ssspeed, yet alssso with a rare massstery of magic? Who do not disssintegrate in sssunlight and who melt away anything holy? Who feel and act asss if they are alive and keep their sssoulsss sssafe in their bodiesss? Who can rapidly regenerate, even from a sssingle ssspeck of their blood?" She lowered herself down again. "Where I hail from, sssuch a being exxxissstsss only in legend. And heh, of courssse a demon would know far more about ssso-called 'better' magic than beingsss of material origin. Asss for pleasure... why? I do not even posssesss the usual physssical appetitesss a mortal or a vampire would. My pleasuresss are in the mind, the sssoul—the sssame ambitionsss that drove me in life and then sssome. You need not pity me for what I do not care to feel."

She glanced over at the witch, noticing that Sindar was still talking to her. If the demon had offered to provide a spell himself she might be more wary, but presumably mortal or faux-mortal witches on the other hand... "I think I might like to have a word with your missstresss. I have no desssire to hurt thossse who may be helpful."

edited 22nd Apr '18 1:05:20 AM by ladytanuki

The Scar -> Downstream (Mustang herd)

Under the watchful eyes of rotating guard shifts, each herd member got a chance to drink from the river, roll in the mud, and have a few nibbles of grass. Lead Mare Flashfoot and her daugher tested the deepest part of the river, which was too shallow to swim in, to their slight disappointment. On one hoof, those two loved swimming, on the other hoof, a river deep enough to swim in would probably have too strong a current anyway.

The wind began to shift, from one direction came the distant smell of fresh blood^note Nothing too important to the plot, just ecosystem happenings — causing snorts of alarm among the herd — and from another direction came the smell of sea salt. At this smell, Lead Mare Flashfoot raised her head and pointed both ears downstream, starting to step in that direction. The horses looked where she was pointing and kersplooshed out of the river, falling into position behind her. The mares were in the center with Fiddler and Filly Flashfoot close to the front, the geldings were at the edges, Raven and Rook tried to shove into the center but were shoved back to the edges as befitted their low rank, and Guardian Thunder watched for stragglers in the back. Lead Mare Flashfoot flicked an ear to briefly point behind her, acknowledging the formation. The herd walked downstream parallel to the river, far enough away from the banks to avoid stepping in more mud than was strictly necessary.

edited 13th Apr '18 2:15:48 PM by Miss_Desperado

-DISREGARD-

edited 26th Mar '18 10:16:27 AM by Yomegami

Ask in this other thread, please. edit: 'd

edited 26th Mar '18 10:29:44 AM by Miss_Desperado

[Hotel Lobby to Notice Board/Henry]

After a while Henry was done reading the pamphlets he got up and put on his trenchcoat to head outside. He walked past the group standing outside of the hotel putting on a pair of clubmaster sunglasses as he did and started to head to the notice board. He figured that it would be a good place to start to find what he wanted here.

As he walked up to the board he notice that the group that was there originally was gone and replaced by two others. One was a woman who dressed like his wife would if she was born in the early 1900s except with more color to her outfit. The other person was more unusual with bluish skin and blue dress, he really couldn't even tell what gender the other person was if the other person's race even had genders like he thought of.

He straightened his tie and cleared his throat. "Hello there! The name's State Senator Henry A. Safon the second. I was wondering if you two were explorers. I'm trying to explore this area and realized that doing so on my own would be a bad idea. I have a vehicle that we can use if you're interested."

[Edge of Town — Layi, Koyel, Vrask]

"Shame," Koyel said. "Them folks looked like they'd be handy to have on a wyvern hunt, and it's always nice to have more folk to share tales with. Y'know?"

"More folks to share spoils with," Layi replied, "and while that big guy seemed decent folk, I like the idea of getting the drop on the quarry. Not gonna happen with that... giant, 'specially given how easy he spooked last time." She gave Vrask a terse nod and said, "less you want to try to recruit them others, I say it's high time we get moving."

"True," Koyel said, "either way, I ain't fond of lingering on the edges like this." Then he glanced at Vrask's weapon. "Fancy trick," he said, "how'd you do it? Don't look like any magic Iveya told me 'bout... biodisel, maybe?" Koyel's actual experience with magic was — like those of most from his world — pretty terrible. But he was also the sort of man to put stock into old Xayusa teachings, to believe there were other kinds of magic out there, perhaps lost in an ancient age or hidden away, that could be more benevolent than the bleak spells he'd encountered personally since finding that damn hand.

Move them at your leisure, to either pursue the others or head for the wyvern.

[Notice Board — Henry, Alice, ???, Jean?]

Alice studied the short elf-thing, eying the curious gadgets and hat quizzically, before saying, "'anti-magic'? That's one way of describing it. I've had a lot of trouble with magic-users in the past — no offense — but it turns out there's ways to keep their powers at bay with just training and the right mindset." The 'no offense' wasn't entirely a lie. She was deeply leery of any magic, but was willing to regard its users as... well-intentioned, perhaps.

Then she nodded at the state senator. (As she recalled, one of those cost less than some of Hadia al-Filasteeni's outfits, and they were quite worth the price. Alice understood abstractly that things like favorable local regulations were important to Western Amalgamated's bottom line, even if Sigmund and Hadia usually handled the details on those sort of delicate operations.) "Nope," she said, "not an explorer, just a financier. Won't lie, I'd love to out riding there myself, but," she rolled her eyes, "I got kicked upstairs long ago. Now I'm just doing management work; looking to pick up some odds and ends out here, see."

There was a certain eagerness — after all, maybe she could source the essence herself. Been a while since she'd killed something worth the killing with her own two hands. A simple joy she occasionally found herself nostalgic for. Suffice it to say, she could be convinced, if anyone cared to try.

Then, to both, she introduced herself. "Alice Winters." A pause to see if Henry recognized the name — he didn't, it seemed. "Chief Security Officer, Western Amalgamated Industries. Pleasure to meet you, Henry and...?" she turned to let the stranger introduce themselves.

There was also the matter of the woman with the guns, but she had not yet introduced herself in any way; for the moment, Alice let her tend to her own business.

edited 26th Mar '18 8:45:16 PM by KillerClowns

Town Square ~ Notice Board (Jean; Probably-Not-A-Cave-Elf; Henry; Alice)

Jean stopped in her tracks at the sound of someone introducing himself and asking about explorers. "I'm not exactly a professional explorer, but close enough to one to count," she said, turning about face to face the group gathering at the board.

She gave each member a brief glance. There was the formal looking senator, Henry A. Safon. Then there was the youthful woman, Alice. Finally, there was the individual who reminded herself of a cave elf, sans their trademark skintight bodysuit and crystal weaponry. "Jean Westinghouse, antiquarian," she said, extending a hand.

"I, myself, am in search of evidence of an ancient beast that was said to have been revered as a god," she said, "which has brought me here; my most recent lead has pointed me in the direction of the nearby forest." She tilted her head towards the noticeboard, "There's a group headed that way, and I was planning on joining up with them."

The Scar (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

Jann hadn't heard the word "zombie" before, but the gore covering the poor woman did look - and smell - quite vile, and it was hardly unusual for corpses to be infested with all kinds of nasty diseases and micro-devils.

"I might be able to assist you with that," he said and held out the orb of magic in front of him, tracing out some simple binding sigils in the air around it with his other hand. "Please stand still, madame."

With a few gestures, mumbled words and focused thoughts, Jann shaped the raw magic into a spell he'd learned during his earliest days back at the Academy. It had first been designed to clean dusty bookshelves, but the basic principle should be the same, or so he hoped.

"...And there we go," he said with a triumphant smirk on his face as he released the spell. The orb in his hands burst into tendrils of distorted, flickering air that flew outwards and curved towards Rosalind before dissipating. If all went as planned, she would feel a gentle warm breeze flow over her body as all the blood and gore came loose and effortlessly fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Varg looked up at Ozurr, raising a thick eyebrow.

"You're pretty spry for your age," she said matter-of-factly, before turning to Rosalind.

"We should head back to town, get some supplies and maybe some mounts or a thaum-cart. Jann and I have a trip planned, but I guess we could help you find those horses on the way out."

Jann smiled, twirling his mustache. "Is there a finder's fee on them, by any chance?"

Varg glared at him, letting out a quiet sigh.

The Scar (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

Ever since she'd woken up from fainting, Rosalind had felt the subtle shift of the shadows, and knew the sun was rising. Watching Ozurr find the directions from the sun, Rosalind heaved another sigh of relief — whatever strange new world this was, at least the sun still rose and set in the directions she expected. Now she had an estimate of which way her horses had disappeared off to — south, probably within or closely parallel to this strange concrete furrow.

Rosalind tried not to flinch or shudder as the wizard prepared what was presumably a cleaning spell. When he cast the spell, she was pleasantly surprised by its warm breeze as it stripped away every last diseased speck of muck to reveal her soft red hair, tough black leather boots, and raggedy denim clothes that had faded from black to a sad shade of gray. Her flesh quickly soaked up the heat from the spell, no healthy human flesh at normal human temperatures could do that. She wondered if the wizard would notice.

Inspecting herself, she noticed the spell had also removed the layers of dust and long-embedded horse hairs from her clothes. She quickly felt for the tools in her numerous pockets, inspecting each with her fingertips. She noted the specks of rust on the ones prone to rusting had been removed. This spell was more thorough and much faster than the decontamination procedures she'd been hauled through. "Okay, I'm seriously impressed. Thank you, sir."

Listening to the who's-that^note Varg, whose name and species has not yet been revealed to Rosalind and the wizard, Rosalind silently took note of the wizard's name. She perked up at the mention of town. "There's a town nearby? Maybe I can put up "missing" posters!"

Regarding Jann's inquiry about a finder's fee, Rosalind looked briefly worried as she revealed, "I don't know the local currency, and my nomadic lifestyle doesn't leave me with much wealth or material possessions, especially after the financial collapse that happened where I'm from."

She offered, "However, I do have valuable knowledge and skills pertaining to wilderness survival and tool-making, which I can quickly adapt to this strange new world, and I do collect flint and steel stones for those who need them. The simplest I can offer is you help me and I help you — you mentioned you had a mission of your own to do? My horses and I are very self-sufficient, we won't be a burden on your supplies." Hesitating, she added, "Also, I haven't needed any sleep for years. If I take every night watch, the group as a whole can spend less time resting and more time being productive."

edited 27th Mar '18 1:05:24 PM by Miss_Desperado

The Scar (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

"I'm actually only 199," Ozurr said to Varg. "I know, I'm going prematurely silver. It runs in my family, apparently."

He too was seriously impressed by Jann's cleaning spell. In all his life, he had only ever seen magic used to hurt and control, although Thassilae had spoken lovingly about a friend of hers who was adept at using hydrokinesis to heal, and that this was somehow related to said friend ending up engaged to Thassilae's oldest brother. If he ever saw her again, he'd have to ask her to tell him the whole story.

He felt a twinge of sympathy when the possibly-human, who Ozurr now noticed had not actually told them her name, mentioned that her homeland had suffered a financial collapse. It seemed he had found a fellow refugee.

"I think it's worth a shot," he said to the others. He did notice her line about not needing sleep in years, but where he was from, that was on the low end of the weird biology spectrum. Then, he paused. "I'm sorry, I just realized you never actually asked me to come with you on your mission. Um...could I come with you on your mission? I'm going to have a lot more free time on my hands nowadays, and I could use something to do. I eat a lot, but I'm really good at hunting my own food." He looked at Rosalind. "At the very least, I'd like to help her find her horses."

The Scar (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

Rosalind silently noted the giant's use of the word "hunting." Did he eat his prey raw and bloody, or did he discard the blood of his prey, cook the body, and then eat it? She dared not ask, a question like that was likely to be offensive to giants. She had no desire to get squashed flat or chopped in half.

edited 27th Mar '18 5:18:21 PM by Miss_Desperado

Coast of Chills (It Came From The Sea)

Waves crashed upon the shore, seaweed washing up upon briny rocks. A large clump of seaweed stirred, slowly taking the inexplicable form of a horse and its rider as it rose upon its legs. Or at least... a grotesque mockery of a horse and its rider.

The man had impossibly long arms that touched the sand with clawed, grasping fingers, a lolling head with empty eye sockets, and, most curiously, lacked legs, instead being fused directly with his steed.

The horse, built like a Clydesdale, had finned legs and a skull like visage, an eerie fire glowing inside its head, and a gaping maw from which foul mists billowed forth.

Most noticeably, neither rider nor horse had skin, as though they had been flayed. Black blood dripped from self-inflicted wounds, red muscles spasmed, and bone moved and creaked in ways bones shouldn't. Truly, it was someone's worst nightmare incarnate.

By either the oversight of the Merciful One, or divine Will, or the machinations of Fate, or a combination of the three, the beast was freed from its maritime prison, and allowed to freely roam the countrysi—

Its spastic gaze fell upon a piece of flotsam; a glass bottle which had come to rest upon a section of sandy shore further down.

Letting out a shrill scream, the beast broke into a gallop, quickly covering the distance, grasped the bottle with a clawed hand and squeezed.

The glass shattered in its grip, causing black blood to spray, but the beast didn't stop there. Raising its arm, it slammed the remains of the bottle against the ground, over, and over, and over, until the bottle was but shards of glass, which the beast shook free from its hand.

The horse head let out a billowing plume of mist as its rider threw a cloak of seaweed over its body. Breaking into a trot, it headed east, in search of civilization. It would have its vengeance on mankind, just like it did so many, many years ago. Of that, it was sure.

edited 27th Mar '18 6:28:04 PM by WillDeRegio

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

Leone simply nodded in response to Gwion before refocusing her attention on the restaurant ahead. She gave James a nod of appreciation in return for his courtesy as she stepped inside and took in the place.

As she looked around, she couldn't help but be reminded of the old diner back in her hometown. Of course, it seemed this place was in better condition than that place ever was. Granted, she never complained about the food there, and she doubted she would have anything to complain about here either. It'd been a long while since she found any food worth complaining about, anyway.

She took her time looking over the menu. In fact, it took her quite a while to look over the menu.

"...Well, I hope there's no price limit here," she eventually commented, before she ordered the biggest plate of breakfast steak and eggs the restaurant had to offer. Then she stepped aside to let anyone who hadn't already ordered do so, assuming she wasn't the last person to order.

[Edge of Town -> Toward the Sun-Dry Sea - Vrask, Layi, Koyel]

Vrask glanced at Koyel, "An old friend made it for me. He was a cleric and a good blacksmith and I trusted him with my life," Vrask looked away rather wistfully, "But anyway, we should head toward killing that wyvern. I'm frankly itching for a hunt."

Vrask picked up their maul and slung it over their shoulder, and began the walk to the Sun-Dry sea.

"So," they said to the two, "Now that we're heading toward the prey, we can discuss how to take it down."

At the Mouth of the Smaller River (Mustang Herd)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the landmass where they couldn't possibly hear the Nuckelavee, the mustang herd had arrived at the coastline. Filly Flashfoot surged ahead of the herd and gleefully plunged into the tiny waves, frolicking and splashing her mother. Wheezer sneezed, which got mistaken for a snort of alarm. The herd stopped, looked for danger, glanced at Wheezer, then resumed their activities. Lead Mare Flashfoot joined her daughter in the water, both of them swimming in semicircles to test how deep the water was at various points. The rest of the herd wandered in and out of the waves, sampling the salty seaweed and leaving Road Apples all along the beach.

Lead Mare Flashfoot needed this break, but wouldn't let it last for long — after all, it might take the rest of the day to explore this strange new world enough to find a safe place to sleep for the night. Already she was planning to take the herd upstream.

Notice Board (Alice, Henry, Jean, Nui)

The elfin gadgeteer listened with keen interest at Alice's explanation of her anti-magic field, showing no sign of distaste at all. Particularly on the part where she spoke of ways to keep mages at bay. Before they could reply though, an older-looking man^note Comparatively speaking; Alice looks kind of young compared to him approached the two and asked if they were explorers, to which Alice replied no. Then a fourth person came along and mentioned something about a god-like beast in the forest. The gadgeteer took special notice of the metallic, roughly cylindrical objects at her hip, guessing that they must be some sort of projectile weapon.

And then they realized they were the only one who hadn't had their name mentioned so far. "My name is Nui. I am a professor of electrical mechanics at Setsunadri, a university on the planet Orenya." One of the first things they had noticed upon arriving at this place was that the sun and the sky looked completely different than what they were used to, and that there were none of the surreal signs associated with a dream or an alternate plane, so they concluded that they could not possibly be on their home planet.^note From another planet... then why aren't they in Space Liner? "Do quite a bit of exploring in my off time though... and I'll admit this is the farthest I have ever explored." They spoke rather fast, as if eager to not bore the group as they let out the multitude of words they could come up with.

"You said you had a vehicle to provide?" they asked Henry. "Of what sort? Of course depending on where exactly you plan on going, I would be glad to join you. I am used to traveling alone, but could use a few new perspectives in a new land."

They turned to Jean. "I can't say ancient beasts interest me - I have far more of a penchant for things that can be created over things that are found in nature. But may I ask what those weapons are, assuming they are weapons?"

They looked over at Alice. "So, you seem to come from a place where magic is uncommon and/or feared. Interesting." They shrugged. "I take no offense at all, and in fact I've dealt with troublesome mages as well. I've actually been searching for a way to suppress magic without using magic to do so - I make progress, but inevitably not enough. So I must ask: how did you create that field?"

Town: Restaurant

Gwion, Kris and James exchanged glances, impressed with the size of the meal that Leone ordered.

Gwion stepped forward and ordered himself the nearest he could to what he would normally order in Café Catacombs - or most of the other eating establishments he frequented: a platter of fried sausages, eggs, tomatoes, onion, bacon, mushrooms and hash browns - with a double-shot latte.

Kris gave him a cheeky grin. "Stocking up for the journey, are we?"

Gwion chuckled. " 's the price'v functional immortality; I've got meself 'n' a few million hungry nanobots t'feed."

Kris, like Diantha, just ordered a black, sugarless coffee and James did the same.

Once everyone had ordered and remembering that Diantha wanted to sit outside, Gwion headed out through the doors and selected a spot at one of the tables that gave him a view out across the park and from where he could see the hotel without difficulty.

He could see Wolfe over by the hotel; Teri and Sophia over near some sort of large wagon; Kaitlyn, Finn, Pearl and Aubrey with the rather eclectic group near the hotel and, if he turned his head, the café into which he had seen Peggy and Karl vanish with another cyborg.

As James headed towards the door, he turned to look at Diantha. "Any idea how long it will be until your companion turns up?"

Kris took her coffee and looked at Leone. The young teen didn't look particularly impressive or imposing, yet she had 'signed up' for a trip out into the unknown wilderness without a concern in the world. It was interesting that her 'sort-of boss' had sent her here unarmed, casually attired and without any provisions or means of buying any. Assuming the boss wasn't completely insane, stupid or uncaring, that had to mean that Leone had abilities and talents far beyond just being able to feed herself. "We're probably gonna get additional equipment 'n' supplies before we head out. Is there anythin' y'need us t'get for ya? Clothes, equipment 'n' stuff?"

Hotel

Hearing Sindar's comments about his demon, and why he's a familiar... Both Justin and Valerie look uncomfortable, both for different reasons yet the same motivation: Feeling he got something wrong they don't want to correct him about. However, before either could properly process his other words...

Wincing at the distress his demon caused, Justin glances down at the ground in shame. Still, upon hearing Amy's cheerful voice the blonde familiar focuses on her. Yet the moment she hugged Valerie, Justin suddenly clutches his chest. His young master, on the other hand...

She froze, the young dark haired witch seeming like a terrified child- Precisely because her body nor expression portrayed any emotion. Yet whilst outwardly she seemed like a still doll, her very soul was screaming. To at least Justin, it was clear: "Let me go let me go let me go!"

Nonetheless, her internalized terror rapidly evaporated as Amy ended the hug. Justin, upon being hugged, blushed slightly and looked away in pure embarrassment. He soon felt, for a split second, something teetheing and angry from Valerie. However, he couldn't make out it was a flash of jealousy mixed with fear, as Valerie actively denied letting him feel the wholeness of her emotions just then.

What finally caused Justin to startle, was when Amy offered to hug his own demon. Valerie, for her part, couldn't help cracking a little chuckle and smiling amused- Her sudden fear nothing more than a faint echo in her soul.

The shadowy demon, however, looked incredibly confused in an almost pained way. Hearing Maya 'calling' out Amy simply made the demon even more painfully confused. To that end Justin's demon really just hovered in place very awkwardly, like he doesn't even know what to do.

Still, things kept moving on, with Nick addressing the witch Valerie. Being told she didn't have to teleport them, caused Valerie to pout and throw her arms out behind her in annoyance. She brightened up immediately though, as Marie corrects her friend- Causing Valerie to smile cheerfully and lock her hands together.

Sindar finally speaking once more, Valerie tilts her head inquisitively at his invitation. Justin, mainly just raised his eyebrow in slight confusion. Nonetheless, it is only the familiar who looks at Nyceme, whilst Valerie remains focused on Sindar.

Rocking back and forth on her feet, Valerie hums thoughtfully before breaking out into a cheerful grin. Playfully pointing at the fairy, the dark haired witch chirps "Sure! Though if you're going in your master's place, she should know she can't teleport into the shop. So you'll have to buy and carry everything yourself!"

Justin's demon, still very much perplexed by the hug offer, has mostly not been properly listening to the others. It is only when Nyceme reacts to his comment about perfect vampires that he starts listening again- His expression becoming displeased and questioning.

Once she asked to meet with Valerie, the demon looks at Nyceme rather intensely- Bit excessively, as if he's trying to forget about the hug. Snorting, he finally speaks    "Truly, you must be vain if you only care about being alive purely to be alive. I'll never understand you ridiculous creatures, who so casually dismiss the one purpose to life like it is trash. Really, shouldn't you be content with a body that just won't rot?"   

Shooting Miron a brief glance, the demon refocuses on Nyceme before waving dismissively.    "Speak to Mistress Valerie if you want, I won't stop you if your intentions are truly pure. She is no lich nor master of the dead, so don't assume she has the same knowledge as you."   

Letting out a sigh, Justin's demon decides to look back at Amy- And suddenly looks rather conflicted. Still, rather jerkily raising his arms, the demon speaks in a rather self-demeaning way.    "If you really want me to hug you, t-then fine... Stupid human, wanting to hug a demon..."   

With that the shadowy demon lightly yet awkwardly hugs Amy. For a few moments nothing really happens, save for the fact Justin looks utterly horrified. Once the demon pulls away though, his face splits into a sickening grin as he starts crackling in utter derangement.

The demon's laughter doesn't stop, and instead steadily intensifies. Justin suddenly collapses to his knees, panting heavily. Looking over to his demon, the shadowy being starts horrifically distorting- Body twisting unnaturally, right arm bent backwards, left leg unraveling... It is like the demon is breaking down.

Gritting his teeth, Justin grabs at the air next to his left thigh like there is a scabbard- And as he motions drawing a sword, his demon swirls into his right hand to become a sword of darkness bound by fire. Standing up to his feet, Justin frowns as his demon sword spikes unstably.

Valerie looking very concerned, she hides her face as Justin breathes deeply. Grasping the sword with both hands, Justin impales himself with inhuman speed. Though no blade pierced his back, flickering embers of darkness start sprouting over his body.

Leaning over in restrained agony, Justin calls out in a pained voice "Sorry... About this. He, he can't... Be fixed by master, s-so..." Justin curving his spine as his arms stiffen, his body suddenly becomes very limp as his hair turns into the same shadowy black.

Only a few moments later, Justin stretches out his legs and holds his arms above his head. His face resembling someone who is waking up, it quickly becomes clear three unnaturally white lines mark his face and even hair a little. Upon closer look, one could tell those are claw marks, but not from any known animal.

Finally, Justin(?) moans almost... Sensually, as his eyelids open to reveal fire. Glancing over at his young master, Justin(?) smiles a small yet sadistic smile. "What's the matter, you're ashamed of me my mistress?"

Valerie shivering at his sweetly cruel tone, Justin(?) looks over everyone rather dispassionately before waving dismissively. "Trust me, there's no reason to get worked up. I simply had to become whole, you know how it is right? My darling little mistress won't let me play. Of course..."

Holding his left hand palm up, a ball of burning darkness before Justin(?) rather musically speaks. "There are those of you, who want to hurt her or me. I'll be willing, to play with you... So who, wants to, be loved by depravity? I'll be willing to play, with you and you and you..."

As he sang his little 'song', a demented little smile flashed as he pointed from Sindar to Wolfe to Miron. Then, Justin(?) spoke faux-sweetly. "I do love getting to play with those full of hate and anger. Let us be best friends yes?"

edited 28th Mar '18 6:06:16 PM by Kkutwar

[Hotel-On Route to town]

Amy smiled as the demon hugged her back, even if it was a little awkward. It seemed that despite everyone's fear, it wasn't a bad guy. Scary, but not...evil.

This feeling lasted for about five minutes.

When the demon laughed, a chill went down her spine, her eyes widened in horror, and she stepped back. It got even worse when it fused with Justin, and she held her mouth from screaming.

No one said anything. What could they say? All they could do was watch in mortified silence at what just happened, and wonder what on earth did they walk into.

Nick turned to his friends, all color drained from his face. "...All in favor of hoping on the 'get the fuck out of here' train raise your hands."

Everyone did.

Nick then turned to Will. "Okayseeyawe'releavingnowBYE!" Without waiting for a reponse, the six teengers darted out of the hotel, and didn't look back.

You'll see them next page, lol.

edited 28th Mar '18 6:44:51 PM by Masterofchaos

Town: Parking area on way to hotel —> Hotel

Wolfe watched Henry leave the hotel and head to the notice board then he turned his attention back to the hotel to see what Sindar was doing - just in time to witness Justin's strange contortions.

The hair on the back of Wolfe's neck stood on end and a cold chill ran down his spine. All he could do was stand transfixed and stare throughout the strange spectacle of Justin seemingly impaling himself with a shadowy sword then getting to his feet.

An icy cavern seemed to open up in Wolfe's gut as he noted the creepy sing-song voice and the fiery light in Justin's eyes. This is so above my pay grade!

The initial primal horror was short lived and quickly faded as Wolfe slipped into survival mode. It was creepy as fuck, but the danger was no more or less than what he regularly faced 'back home'. The big difference was that he knew how to deal with bears and lynxes, while this was something alien.

The Not-Chaos-Hunters seemed to take some sort of hasty vote as they raised their hands briefly and then came bursting out of the hotel at speed, apparently heedless of anything but making their escape; Wolfe had to step sideways quickly to get out of the way of their headlong rush.

Fuck this shit! It was bad enough that the little witch was emotionally unstable, without Justin going all The Exorcist as if possessed by... the demon that the others had apparently been able to see and hear. What Justin had said earlier about homicidal tendencies now took on a whole new dimension. It was a damn' good thing that the Not-Chaos-Hunters had got themselves to safety.

Wolfe looked beyond Justin and the others towards the check-in counter, wondering what the staff were thinking of all this. He had planned to go inside and check in but Valerie and Justin's unfolding drama kept getting in the way. Fuck it! Their problem, not mine.

He stepped forward, opened the door and walked past Valerie and Justin without a sideways glance and approached the counter. He gave the clerk a bright smile. "I'm here to check in on behalf of my group."

Wolfe and the clerk spoke quietly a while then the clerk's voice was clearly audible to any others in the room. "I'm sorry, I don't seem to have a listing for O'Grady."

Wolfe smiled. "Nah. Ó Brádaigh. Capital O acute, space, capital B for bravo-R-A acute-D-A-I-G-H." He switched to a passable Irish accent. "Bejayz, learn t'spell a civilised language, will ye."

The clerk's laughter cut through the air and he handed Wolfe a stack of plastic access cards. "Here you go, then, Mr Wolf-with-an-E."

edited 28th Mar '18 9:27:47 PM by Wolf1066

Outside Hotel

Míron's lips pressed into a thin line as the non-being assaulted his ears with its idiocy and he shook his head as it wrought untruth upon untruth, ranting furiously about things utterly irrelevant to who the Mother truly was.

"If you breathed this air, you would know better than to waste it.", Míron whispered. "Less than half of what you said approaches the truth, and what does is not what you may think. The bleeding mother has created monsters, but none as arrogant and foolish as you."

Still, there was something of interest in that non-being. Or, in what seemed to draw most of its interest to the group. With a calmer expression, but curiosity flickering in his eyes, Míron approached Nyceme, trying to capture as much as he could of her dialogue with the "demon". It was a strange experience, to attune his senses to her even as he was smothered by her poisonous perfume, yet curiosity compelled him. As he overheard the last bits of her conversation with the demon and it disappeared, he too a more formal posture and bowed to her.

"Pardon me for my intrusion,", he said with a glint in his eyes, "but I couldn't help but notice who you were communicating with. The gifts it promised... are too powerful gifts for one to be willing to share, if they are more than lies, and the world is full of people out for your flesh."

Then he felt a ripple of change, like the snapping of a strand of silk in a spiderweb. Almost faster than the eyes could see, his body jerked towards the disturbance, and his face contorted into a snarl. One of the youth he had seem before buried a sword of shadow in his own chest, contorting like a puppet that had all its strings pulled to the wrong directions and then collapsing like they had been cut.

Míron had quenched greater flames, and silenced darker hungers, but that creature... perhaps he underestimated it as much as it underestimated him, and now it was the time to put it to the test. "It is time I take my leave. We will meet by the city walls, if the Fates are kind to us.", he said to the group, before dashing towards the possessed Justin.

Hotel

With the speed of a panther, Míron reached the hotel, and proclaimed to the demon "Leave your dance for those who can match your steps.". He drew his sword as he spoke, and raised it above his head, its silvery, slightly curved blade shining like a mirror under the light of the sun. "You say you only wish to protect your mistress, but I smell your thirst for bloodshed. I will indulge you, if you swear by the bones of the earth to leave that body after the battle is won."

As he made his challenge, he lowered his sword and pressed the thumb of his left hand against the blade, making a superficial cut from which a single drop of blood escaped and fell to the ground, as commanded tradition. "We will duel until blood stains this earth again, if you accept."

A mystically attuned individual would feel something ominous about Míron's offer, something binding. If the duel started, there would be consequences for whoever broke the deal.

The Scar (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

"It worked!" Jann exclaimed with a wide smile, before quickly straightening up his posture and clearing his throat. "Um... It's done, I mean. You're welcome."

The young woman had indeed been freed from the gore she'd been covered in - and turned out to be pretty decent-looking, as Jann was quick to take notice of - but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was still a bit off. The comment about not needing to sleep only further enhanced that feeling. Whatever the case though, she seemed to be alright for now.

"That sounds like a good arrangement to me," he responded to both the woman's and Ozurr's proposals. "A party of four then... That's actually what we're used to anyway."

Varg was still looking up at Ozurr, something that despite her own impressive height was beginning to put a strain on her neck. Only 199?

"You should know what you're getting into," she added, glancing between the giant and the human woman. "We're here to track down a dangerous artifact, and we're probably not the only ones."

Varg began to walk back towards the town, her tail swinging gently from side to side behind her. She looked back at the human woman across her shoulder.

"We should get you a weapon. And you still haven't said your name by the way. I'm Varg."

Hotel

Wolfe deposited the key cards in one of the pockets of his vest with one hand as he extracted his vape from another pocket with the other.

While he had been busy checking in, things had got interesting behind him and a challenge had been loudly issued. From the words, the speaker clearly believed that there was some sort of being inhabiting Justin and was directing his comments to that entity.

Wolfe turned and leaned against the counter - as best he could with a bulky rifle slung across his back - to see how things would progress. He vaped quietly, holding the vapouriser in his left hand, and tucked his right thumb into the top of his trousers so that his hand rested casually on his hip.

The speaker turned out to be the red-uniformed man that had been talking with Pearl and the others outside; his sword was drawn and he didn't look like he was mucking about.

Will write for the group outside later

The Scar -> West Gate (Ozurr; Jann, Varg; Rosalind)

Rosalind placed her hands on the edge of The Scar and effortlessly vaulted herself up and out. "A dangerous artifact, you say?" Rosalind mused, catching up to Varg, "As much as I hope this won't be the case, there's probably going to be a squabble over who gets to keep it. Do you know what kind of danger the artifact brings?" Hesitating, she introduced herself, "My name is Rosalind. Nice to meet you, Varg, Jann, and, uh..." she waved at the giant, "I think I missed your name in all the excitement." On second thought, keeping her name a secret would only invite curiosity. But if she could keep what she was a secret, most of everything would be okay.

If anyone tries to shake hands with her and they're not wearing gloves, they'll note her hands are as cold as if she'd washed them in a sink that failed to heat the water.