Outside XII: We number things correctly.

[billtodamax]

Daisuke walks in as well, and looks at Julia's corpse. Seems like it's all over now...

"Yes. Let's go." Susan says, while walking towards them, and attempting to usher them out the door.

She really doesn't want to see what she did to Julia.

[horngeek]

Daisuke looks at the body. I'll make sure she gets buried... even though she was evil, I wouldn't deny that to my worst enemy.

[billtodamax]

"Thank you." Susan mutters under her breath as she tries to leave the room.

She looks very pale.

[McBish]

[Secret Lab]

Val nods and heads out the door following behind Susan with her arms wrapped around her.

[Artemis97]

[Underdark]

Abandoned?

For a whole decade?

Geeze...

"That's going to be quite a bit of cleaning," snerks the Chimera. She looks like she's getting ready to make another comment when her ear rather abruptly twitches. They're getting too far away from the rest of the racket. Time to start being quiet.

"Master! Master, is there good food to eat in your home! I like eating food!"

...or maybe not...

Memzee seems content to be quiet right now.

That makes Raril grin again. "Oh, there's plenty of good food. If there is one thing I've missed about home, it's the food."

Soon, the procession is moving through a low, but well traveled tunnel. More slaves move through this passage, carrying goods back and forth between the grove and their destination, the main compound of House Xar'Cha.

(Better description later, not enough time to write it before class right now.)

[Rebonack]

[Underdark]

"I like food! Food is good and I will eat it because I am hungry from carrying Master!" the Chimera announces cheerfully for everyone to hear. No doubt the drow are starting to find the odd beast's personality somewhat grating by now.

Memzee is presetnly pondering. Being this close to Avatar is frankly starting to unnerve her. She is, after all, exactly what her name sounds like. mZee. And in the mirror universe Avatar wasn't exactly... Nice.

She can tell that this incarnation of the Far Chimera isn't anything like his Aspect of Ragnnora reflection at all. Like... the fact that he isn't dead. That's certainly one clue. But near as she can tell he's honestly kind and considerate. Picked that up during the brief moment of bonding after Continuity's meddling.

It might still be an act though...

[ThePhantom]

[Fields]

The copter heads for what's left of PEACE, flying through the spores.

"These things are annoying. Any idea why there are there millions of spore things?"

[Earl of Purple]

Fields

"Probably a last-ditch defence or something. I'm not a alchemoloth, so I can't say for certain."

And now Nephrim Deadtimes with Harry.

[ThePhantom]

"Well, it a lame one at that."

And so, after reaching PEACE, Gordon deadtimes.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Relim Village]

With his experiments completed at the house of his first victims, the shade has grown pleased and hungry for more.
He has determined that his ability to steal forms works, to a degree, and that he can properly raise and manipulate the corpses of his victims. Both of these will be critical in the following days, he suspects.

The house of the Kenmel family is next door and unfortunately subject to the next step of his experiments, namely to test how many of these raised bodies he can manipulate at any given time.
With a clear goal in mind, he does not waste time toying with the family, merely beating the adults to death with a chair and summarily strangling their two children. From there, he sets about the process of revitalizing them and directing them about on small tasks.
They act as expected and he encounters no problems here, which further pleases him.
These have been a pleasant couple of days.

It takes four more houses of unfortunate civilians before the shade finds that the corpses become somewhat reluctant to obey his orders in a timely manner. He assumes that they are merely becoming backlogged in his current of orders, so he experiments with dictating tasks in a somewhat staggered manner, giving some of the bodies breaks at various times. This proves a moderately successful strategy, so he keeps it in mind for later.

Meanwhile, outside, neighbors have become faintly curious as to the growing silence on their street. This leads one family to risk heading outside to knock on the door of the Kenmel family, where they are greeted by Mr. Kenmel, who looks relatively normal, saved for a far too pale complexion.
"Please, come inside."
They hesitantly agree, something in their instincts notifying them that something isn't entirely right about this picture. Their suspicions are confirmed when the two Kenmel children jump from the nearby bookcase and proceeds to beat them to death with a pair of saucepans.
The bodies are dragged into the bedroom, to await the shades machinations.

Over the course of the next few days, events proceed relatively along the same vein: the shade travels along houses, murdering the occupants and experimenting on their bodies, while foolish neighbors investigate the hell-holes that used to be neighboring houses.

Four days in, the sheriff Francis Poulek is notified by three frightened teenagers that they observed a tentacled monster inside one of their friends' houses.
The sheriff collects the two other men under his supervision and collect their swords before moving on towards the described house.
At this point in the shade's excursion, a significant portion of the population has vanished, leaving the small town significantly quieter than it has been in over a decade.
The small police force had received many concerned inquiries, but until now and decided to give the matter a day or two. Upon reports of the alleged monster, they immediately regret their choice, already knowing what has happened, to a degree.

The house of the Malesons is the source of the sighting and it only takes them five minutes to reach the scene. The entire street had been utterly devoid of passerby and filled with a peculiar, unearthly cold.
They stand outside the house for a few moments, waiting for anything threatening to present itself, before cautiously stepping up to the door.
"Mr. Maleson? Are you in there?"
There is no immediate response nor a delayed one. Poulek debates for a moment before lightly rapping on the door with the back of his knuckle, somewhat dismayed when it swings open. Doors that weren't latched are rarely good signs.

He slowly leads the way inside, his two subordinates peeking behind them to ensure nothing particularly ugly is pursuing them, holding their weapons tight in their hands.
They were rarely called to do the dirtier aspect of their job, with most of the people in town respecting each other and monster incursions usually nothing more than small food raids.
The smell of blood surrounds them immediately as they cross the threshold, having been held back by a loose layer of shadows they just now are able to see.
The younger deputy puts a hand out to touch the veil and recoils immediately, having been promptly punished by a vicious cold. He shakes his hand and hopes feeling returns before they find whatever is hiding in here.

Poulek takes a breath and advances past the living room, noting the occasional tipped over furniture and ever-present amounts of blood, most of which seems to be leading in overlapping trails between the various rooms.
Footsteps can be heard in all of them.
He motions to his deputies and quietly slides up against the wall adjacent the closest door, before slowly peering his face around to look within.
The green embers of the shade's eyes stare right back, from a chair at the other end of the room.
"Hello, sheriff. I expected you three families ago."

A mixture of rage, at the cold numbering of the dead, and fear, at this strange alien creature, all well up within the sheriff, but he finds he can't act on either emotion, or act at all. That stare has found a grip on gaze and refuses to let it go.
Behind him, he can hear noises, the sounds of a struggle in the room behind and a door slamming shut between them.
Still, he cannot look away.
"I have yet to find a single soul in this little village to offer me amusement. But, I suppose I should not expect so much from what appear to be simple craft-families and farmers. Your purpose was never to offer me entertainment, merely act as specimens for a greater project."
A woman steps out of the nearby closet, dragging a blanket.
"You will be pleased to know that you will not be dying here, sheriff, though I cannot say the same for the poor fellows you brought with you."
The shade rises from his chair and strides over towards the door, never relinquishing his grip on Poulek's gaze.
"You have a much more important purpose. Your authority here should enable you to garner sympathy with another settlement, a much more...aggravating one."
Somewhere behind the shadows, a faint smile finds it's way along the shade's face and a cold feeling settles within the sheriff.
"You have five minutes."

Rather explosively, several tendrils erupt from the shade's back and seize Poulek by the arms and legs, throwing him back into the hallway, against the wall. Just as he finds himself free of the creature's gaze, he feels a terrible pressure in his stomach and swirling violet lights flow through the air around him.

[horngeek]

And I suppose they head to GLoG!

[iElf]

[Underdark] Din is keeping close to Raril, and asks him is it much further to your house ?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Countryside]
It has been a busy time in the lands outside Town.
Shortly after the arrival and rise of the shadows within Relim village, a sharp rise in the natural population of many wild monsters occurred, many afflicted with some form of taint.
Days after a dome of darkness surrounded Relim, a militia from the neighboring town of Hannis marched out and vanished. A dome soon surrounded this town as well.
A bloody conflict raged with little to no warning between the towns of Hern and Poloc, ending with an abandoned silence within both.
Domes appeared over these locations, as well, accompanied by yet another rise in wild monster population. Small black beings with bat-like wings are seen scurrying between the domed towns.

At a location north of Poloc, a once-abandoned keep begins to reveal signs of life. Figures in orange robes move about in the courtyard, often carrying equipment or chanting around the single dead tree there.
Sunlight fails to ever reach the keep, no matter the lacking presence of clouds on any given day. It is surrounded by a perpetual aura of shadows and cold.

The obelisk within the clearing of the forest near town slowly fades out of existence, leaving behind a small opalescent orb. A shade waits nearby to collect it, before sliding out on the gloom.

In the areas immediately surrounding the domes, color begins to leech out of the air and ground, shadows are produced that are vastly out of proportion with their hosts, and many move in ways inconsistent with the lighting.

The cloaked figures initiate construction of some form of monument outside the keep, with the shade's orb placed within it's center.

[Lord Magtok]

AuxCave

A telewarp portal opens up about a foot or two above a large pile of pillows, mattresses, and couch cushions set up by some Magbots earlier. Elly, followed by Magtok, should find themselves hitting that mess of soft furniture, with whatever ill-gotten gains they had when they went through it.

[EleventhHour]

[AuxCave]

Thump! Elle lands on the matresses and things, still trying to rub her neck and getting over the sudden change in view, the sudden fall and landing. With Magtok, free flying bills and the sacks landing around her. "That was fun. Let's not do it again. Unless we're doing it without the "hero". Then it's okay."

[Lord Magtok]

AuxCave

Magtok lifts himself up, removes the sash Anshu tried to restrain him with, and dusts himself off. He tries not to think about how he had to fall into Elly in order to make that escape, as that falls under the Icky Thoughts file of things that don't need to be dwelt upon.

Agreed. Except for the 'okay' part. This is like, the fifth or sixth time or something we've been out of MagCorp turf somewhere, be it GLoG or KNAVES or a mountain or wherever else, and each time, something happens and you nearly die or get shot out of a cannon or a creepy fish-man stares at us or you get werewolf powers or jump off a mountain side.

From now on, we do safe things. Like knocking over liquor stores, or climbing small hills during times without apocalypses, or go swimming with an armed escort.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Faded Keep]
The shade slumps in a roughly carved chair within the wall of a smaller room, off to the side of the main hall. It's been a rough couple of weeks and he's been left more drained than he's been since his disastrous attempt at completely harnessing a Spire.
His experiments with the humans in the surrounding areas have been more taxing than he cares to admit and the four rifts he's torn into the reality fabric, along with the construction of another spire and the latest brood of Vihn'les have been almost more than he should have tried. The efforts of left him a granite gray color and moving has become more of a chore than it really should be.

"Still so much to do...still have time. Calm. Without a direct assault, that excuse for a settlement will not interfere. They are too preoccupied with themselves to look outside their windows, let alone their walls."
He rubs his forehead and stares at the opposite wall, taking the first moment of relaxation he's had since his arrival on this plane.
"We have all the time we need."
A shuffling sound grows outside and a figure in an orange robe appears at the doorway, a faintly reptilian creature of a bluish scale color.
"Three of the Relims have collapsed."
"Too be expected. I can't keep a grip on all of them like this. Keep an eye on the ones still moving, have the others taken to the lower levels. I'll get to them when I can."
"As you wish. Yapne wishes me to inform you that the Spire is nearing completion and that we can expect operational status within two days."
"Excellent. Finish what you can and then see to the rifts. I want to know how they are progressing as well."
"Of course."
"Unless there is more news, you are free to go."
"Nothing more."
The figure bows its head and leaves, leaving a small trail of dust in its wake.

The shade smiles and leans back into the wall.
"We don't need you anymore, Ryu..."

[Artemis97]

[Underdark]

"This passage leads into our compound. It's not far now." Raril replies.

Indeed, soon the tunnel passes through a large gate, its doors flung wide, and opens into a lare cavern. From here, the wall of the cavern can be seen rising up behind them dissappearing high into the darkness. In the immediate area, there are quite a few low stalagtite mounds that have been carved into buildings. Most seem to be workshops of one sort or another. Huts have also been errected, built from simple materials. These are dwellings, inhabitend by the poor slaves who gather materials and do the grunt work for the workshops.

Beyond the workshops, visible over a high wall, is a trio of pillars. Once, they were simply cave formations, but now they were masterpieces of drow architecture. Every inch was decorated witch inlays and sculpture. The artwork was highlighted with magical, everburning faerie fire in hues of purple, blue, and green. Bridges connected the three to one another and to nearby stalagmites, similarly decorated.

Raril looks up at the sight and sighs. "I'm home."

[Rebonack]

[Underdark]

Wow.

No, really.

Just wow. That's impressive to say the least. Memzee hasn't seen anything like it before. Spectacular. Amazing. Beautiful. But she needs to keep up the harsh draigloth exterior and so she just replies with a rather subdued, "You have not disappointed me with your stories, male. Most impressive."

...yeah.

That's it.

Avatar, however, is quite free to be exuberant.

"Wow! It is so pretty Master! I like it! It is a nice place with lots of nice shiny colorful parts!"

No doubt the creature's comments draw some attention. Probably snickers as well. The beast certainly wasn't trained by a drow.

[EleventhHour]

[AuxCave]

She slowly gets up kicking a sack to the side in a shower of paper. "...We do tend to draw a lot of fire from... the world in general, huh?" Elle frowns, pushing a pillow back onto the pile, and playing with a wad of bills. "...Actually... We have terrible luck, together... Pff. What's up next?"

[Lord Magtok]

AuxCave

Magtok thinks things over.

Hm...Well Cal's dead, Kale's not actively trying anything yet, the MagSat shows that Affy's been relatively inactive, nobody's trying to take over the world right at the moment, and I can't think of anyone else, aside from Brendan and Ashna of GLoG, who'd have any sort of motive to go after us.

What if we head back to Inside, and start laundering some of this money by impulsively buying extravagant, useless, and ridiculously silly stuff that looks interesting at first but will probably just sit in a closet somewhere and never be seen again?

Some rival store to MagMart opened up, we could poke around and see if they have easily exploitable weaknesses like slightly higher prices, a habit of donating profits to charity, or mob connections or something. So long as we don't make a fuss, we shouldn't have to worry about you dying in some freak accident this time!

[EleventhHour]

AuxCave

"I dunno Frivolous random things isn't all that great... Maybe something shiny?" Elle laughs, throwing the money back at the pile of it. "Competition? ..and wouldn't donating to charity not be all that much of a bad thing..." She shrugs, and happens to look down. "Bleh. This dress is ruined." As if on cue, it starts slipping off one of her shoulders. "Mind if I go get changed while you figure out what to do?"

[Lord Magtok]

AuxCave

Magtok shakes his head and tries to keep a straight face. Years of experience make this awfully easy.

No Elly, I'm going to pointlessly insist that you stay right here and deal with the dress as it is, because I'm a strict and mean and irrational employer like that.

He then gestures towards the nearest room suitable for changing in.

Just go without asking next time, silly.

[iElf]

[Underdark]

"This passage leads into our compound. It's not far now." Raril replies.

Indeed, soon the tunnel passes through a large gate, its doors flung wide, and opens into a lare cavern. From here, the wall of the cavern can be seen rising up behind them dissappearing high into the darkness. In the immediate area, there are quite a few low stalagtite mounds that have been carved into buildings. Most seem to be workshops of one sort or another. Huts have also been errected, built from simple materials. These are dwellings, inhabitend by the poor slaves who gather materials and do the grunt work for the workshops.

Beyond the workshops, visible over a high wall, is a trio of pillars. Once, they were simply cave formations, but now they were masterpieces of drow architecture. Every inch was decorated witch inlays and sculpture. The artwork was highlighted with magical, everburning faerie fire in hues of purple, blue, and green. Bridges connected the three to one another and to nearby stalagmites, similarly decorated.

Raril looks up at the sight and sighs. "I'm home."

Din looks up at the buildings in awe. Inside has nothing on this It's..... It's ..... beautiful. and terrifying at the same time

[Artemis97]

[Underdark]

"I am glad you are pleased, Mistress." Raril replies to Memzee, playing his part as well.

In response to Din, he mutters "You have no idea how right you are."

[EleventhHour]

[AuxCave]

"If you insi-" Elle was half way through dropping the dress, then grins at him, and heads on into the indicated room. ...A few minutes later there's a knock on that door and she peeks out around it, blushing. "...Could you get me some clothes?"

[Lord Magtok]

AuxCave

Elly's supposed to be some sort of hyper-competent and some sort of crazy black-ops supersoldier catgirl thingy, right? And you're supposed to be some sort of eccentric genius with a successful corporate empire and the mad scientist who invented SuperCancer, correct?

With all that supposed greatness and awesomitude and such between the two of you, how did a guy with a magic shuriken and a weird costume manage to mess things up so badly? And why in the heck are you retrieving clothes for her now? One's supposed to grab something to change into when they step into a changing room thingy to change clothes, and-

Wait. Was she about to take the thing off, just before you told her to go without asking? Holy fudge, I think she was. That could've been weird. Let's try to avoid saying anything that could even come close to leading to that sort of thing in the future, kay?

Magtok stands up, and sticks in arm into his sleeve, reactivating that (expensive and inefficient) clothes generator that'd created the now-ruined dress just before the robbery.

Any particular thing or things in mind?

[EleventhHour]

[AuxCave]

"Whatever's appropriate for messing up the competition." She smiles, "A jacket, for the extra pocket space, would be nice, too." Elle ducks back in the door, to mutter quietly to herself. "Taking a break seems to have a lot in common with everyday stuff..."

[Rebonack]

[Underdark]

This isn't an easy part to play.

Especially for someone like Memzee.

Even as corrupted as she is from what she was her bubbly bouncy personality just can't take much more of this stern coldness. At the moment she's trying really hard not to imagine funny faces in the patters of fairy fire. Which, frankly, is hard to do.

Because the more she tries not to imagine it the more that pillar over there looks like a giant clown nose.

Memzee coughs slightly to disguise a giggle. Works decently, to be honest. "And I suppose your family's house is nearby?"

Avatar is presently jabbering cheerfully at a nearby drow walking down the street in a bid to strike up conversation.

[Artemis97]

[Underdark]

"Well, you see those three pillars?" The big ones that got the pretty description earlier. They were rather hard to miss. "That's it. The lower levels are mostly servants quarters, but about a third of the way up it's all drow. The highest levels are strictly reserved for my family."

The drow, a worker carrying a half dozen or so tablets marked with what looks like braille, gives the chimera a very confused look and slowly starts to change his course to get away from her.