Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Earl of Purple]

Volcanic Island

The sea-elf has been muttering similar things the whole time they've been here, except when fighting the aroo. It's less accurate to say they have lapsed into insanity, and more to say they lapsed into sanity when threatened.

The rat, however, isn't exactly a threat. Not yet. The elf quietens her muttering, putting the box down and sitting on it as they draw their cutlass in one hand and a brass dagger with their other. The elf won't move, waiting for the rats to approach. If they get within reach, however, the sword will swing first, the dagger waiting for any that close whilst the sword is swinging. The cutlass is enchanted, with several spells woven into it. The first lets it function as a sword without shattering. The second makes it far better at cutting through protective magics, so if the rat has any mystical defences they won't be as useful against the glass cutlass.

[5a Violista]

[Subtropical Coastal Plain]

It's hot.
And humid.
It's nearing the dry season, though, so that's good! No flooding until 2pm! And it'll only last one hour!

Which is good, because the crater will quickly fill in with water and become a pond.

Someone wakes up. Wearing a tight, lightweight black short-sleeve shirt, and...pocketless purple pajama pants. Barefoot, though. Looks pretty androgynous, short red hair, etc, etc, etc. She looks around, trying to figure out where she is and what just happened.

"..."
A crater?
She looks around. Takes a deep breath. Okay. Not injured, but...weird. Okay.
She crawls out of the crater, trying to figure out where she is. Well...there's an ocean nearby. The weather's nice, at least.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

The bow pierces the electrode's placticine hide as it comes ashore. It rolls a few meters away and explodes like its smaller cousins, leaving behind only red and white dust to mix in with the sand.

Beth watches this over her shoulder. She's tense and still as she catches her breath.

The conjured rainclouds disperse, revealing dim images of the moon and stars as the sun has mostly set. The waves start lapping away at the monster dust, now back to their normal, calm rhythm.

"Whew. Well. That was fun," Beth says. "What were we talking about? Adventures?"

[bc56]

Subtropical Coastal Plain

Not far away from where June awakens, there's a building. A marble structure, two stories high, overgrown with vines. A wasp nest is snuggled into the large symbol over its door, an image of a three-pointed star. Three crumbling statues stand in formation in front of the doorway. It radiates an air of mysteriousness and magic.

Should she go inside?

[Lord Magtok]

Moonwell Convergence

Lazarus and Anika

It isn't really pulling Lazarus blade, it's simply holding onto it as she's trying to pull it away. As if it's trying to use the sword as a lever to pull itself out of the fire-tank.

But before she can kick it there is a loud sound of an explosion and the entire ship starts shaking violently. Anika who was preoccupied with mauling the fiends face both fall over. Either landing on the metal floor or on the poor ghoul knight if she doesn't move away in time.

Laz is a bit busy trying to reclaim a sword. Getting out of a large bear's path is the last thing on her mind, so unfortunately-

"Guys, this place is falling apart! We've got to-aughglawsdf!" Unfortunately that happens. At least with her zombie endurance and shiny breastplate, she's not as vulnerable to getting completely destroyed by a tripping ursine the way lesser warriors might be. I think that's only a couple ribs broken, instead of all of them.

[Reinholdt]

[Inside the Octahedron]

Stepping into the room, Leah finds her boot crunching a bone and pulls it back quickly with a grimace. "How utterly macabre."

She shoots Magdalene a quizzical look as well, but shrugs it off. Either Magdalene survived getting shot that many times or she didn't, but got better later. The latter of which would certainly imply a number of things. "I didn't mean bring everyone you've ever heard of. Just meant you. But it sounds like you have a few people in mind so I get it. Enough said." Gotta protect SOME people you care about. Maybe not everyone.

With a shiver she starts picking her way through the room that may or may not be square, ear twitching every time she gets too close to another rat scurrying the other way. "What I DON'T get is this room. People surely can't come in here often enough to feed this many rats. So what are they eating? And who put these bones here? They can't have all died here." Right? "Someone arranged all this. Most of it..." She clarifies, kicking another piece of debris out of the way.

"Found your weapon though. Nothing beats a good rock!" Rocks make the most efficient weapon. As far as Leah's concerned. Maybe that's why she's headed straight towards the altar in the middle instead of just passing it by. Plus it doesn't hurt to stall for a bit to let the rats get away so she doesn't have to deal with them.

[Vahnavoi]

[Pyramid on a volcanic island]

The first rat approaches the elf cautiously, but clearly not cautiously enough, for the elf can strike it dead easily before it manages to get a bit out them.

The stench of blood excites others in the swarm and soon, other rats circle around the elf. If they stand their ground, they'll have to hack apart quite a few hungry rodents before those remaining are satisfied with eating the dead instead of trying to get at them.

---

[Inside the Octahedron]

It's almost like Magdalene's blase attitude serves as her shield, because nothing emerges to stop her brisk stroll towards the exit. She can see a few big, eyeless rats as she walks, but they apparently don't feel like pushing their luck and instead scurry off ahead of her. Soon, she reaches the entrance chamber and catches up with the tail end of the swarm making a run for it through the exit. If she keeps pace, she'll soon see the elf outside. The black slate obediently floats behind her through the rooms, but will stop just short of leaving the Octahedron. If Magdalene wants to take it with her, she'll have to drag or pull it through the exit, at which point it loses its ability to levitate and becomes 70 kilograms of dead weight.

As for Leah...

Ah, a sharp rock. Dig the prowess, the capacity for violence. Just approaching it, Leah can feel the urge to pick it up and bash someone's brain out.

Magdalene is close by.

Magdalene has a brain.

How glorious it would be, to strike her dead, to feast on her flesh. To make a cup out of her skull, to adorn a headdress with her antlers, to add her bones to the pagoda.

These intrusive thoughts grow stronger as Leah gets closer to the stone, becoming strongest if she touches it. Hopefully, she can recognize them as such. If she can, they can only suggest a course of action, but cannot generate sufficient impulse to make her go through with it.

If Leah looks up at the face of any of the statues while standing within touching distance of the stone, it will feel like they are all looking at her.

[Rebonack]

[Selekhael's First Quest]

"We're off to kick some goblins for terrorizing a nearby village," Arukhael adds.

The naiad pulls a sour face.

"Eeww, goblins. They keep pooping in my stream even though I've told them to stop. I won't shed a tear over them," she replies. "But... if you want to cross my stream I think I still deserve an offering."

Arukhael gives her a very 'seriously?' sort of look.

"Nothing big! I smell your food. Maybe just toss a few roasted nuts and that dried fish into my stream for the crayfish to eat? I'm sure you can spare a little bit."

Arukhael glances over at Selekhael.

What does she think?

Should they pay the toll to cross the naiad's rocky shallows?


[Inside the Octohedron]

Magdalene's attitude is absolutely her shield against all the horrors she's been subjected to. Deep down she's still that scared, cold, hungry little girl lost in the snow.

"If I could riftgate straight from Earth to here?" Magdalene replies. "Yeah, in a heartbeat. But like I said the realms of the old gods are dangerous as (fl-) uh... fudge. Dangerous as fudge."

Fudge is well known for how hazardous it is.

If you eat too much it'll go straight to your thighs!

"Riftgates are usually like skipping a rock. You ever skipped a rock before? Seems like a thing you woulda done," Magdalena says. Leah does, after all, seem to like rocks. "You just sorta skim the old god's realm and pop up somewhere else. But getting HERE? You gotta dive deep to the bottom of the river."

She keeps heading for the exit, failing to look back as Leah approaches the sharp chunk of flint.

"It's probably that trapped rock in the middle of the room. I'll bet touching it wakes up those scowly statues and then they murder everyone in here."

Then she reaches the exit and the slate stops moving. She turns around to try tugging on it and spots Leah approaching the rock.

"Do you seriously touch everything you find in dungeons?" she asks incredulously..

[bc56]

Selekhael shrugs at Arukael and tosses some of her food into the stream. That should be enough. She starts to cross. Hopefully the naiad doesn't get greedy. That would be bad for her.

[Shadowcaller]

Bombmercials

"No wait, say ten times faster than a cheetah. Or... a hundred times maybe? Anyone know how fast a cheetah can run? Maybe we should go with fifty times? It's not like anyone is going to fact check this anyway."

"A cheetah can run approximately 130 km per hour, but it's not like they can run at that speed for so long so it's a bit of a misnomer."

"Er-"

"-and our long-range missiles can travel more than 5000 meters per second. We could hit a target more than 10,000 km away in half an hour."

"And-"

"-so about a hundred times faster than a cheetah to answer your question."

"Wow, that's really fast! Way faster than me, probably."

"Probably."

"...well, more than a hundred times faster than a cheetah it is then. So wanna start doing a few test runs? Just running the prop back and forth a few times should probably do the trick."

Moonwell Convergence - VIGIL Airship

"I'm okay!"

"Way better than dead, which I thought we'd all be by now."

It looks like Geneva is responsible for making sure a lot of the crew came on top of that one as the rest of the ship, including the crew members she couldn't reach, look a lot worse to wear.

"Looks like we must have hit a weak point or something." One of the rescued adventures remarks as he gestures at the obelisk ship which have started to flicker in and out of it's invisibility cloak while several hatches starts opening up all over the ship.
It looks as if some error has occurred onboard.

The ship is still moving forward however, right towards the island which they all just left behind. Indeed, if it continues on this course it might just crash into the volcano in the middle of the island.

Operation Sea Slug

The dragon seems to have completely tuned out the others for the moment, perhaps trusting that her aura of fear will keep them at bay for the time being.
Neither of them were running directly towards her after all.

But this assumption will cost her concentration as not Titania but Will's laser blasts at least scores two hits on the dragon and it roars in frustration. "DAMNABLE PESTS! I will-"

Then the falling tree slams into her and pins her against the ground for at least a moment. There is now violet magical energy gathering around the dragon which suggests that she might have enchanted herself at some point during the fight.

As for Lannereth there is still no trace and poor Leopold is just standing behind Will and shivers. This wasn't what he had planned at all.

Moonwell Convergence

Awen

That is a good counter-argument, Awen. Apparently the GM forgot that you were on a broom.

Thus, Awen is unscaved by the blasts even as the rest of the ship rocks heavily.
However, regarding the fiend she's possessing, does her spell allow for a second will save or something similar when forcing the subject to make a suicidal action? If so, the demon fails it again when she makes it cut its own throat but when she makes it try to tear out its own heart it finally passes it.

Not that it will do it that much good as while it will most likely survive having its throat torn out thanks to it's regeneration the severe bleeding is going to take it out of commission for at least a minute.

Awen will notice that the control panel is now glowing in all sort of colors which probably isn't a good sign.

Laz and Anika

Bear fur is at least soft, so it's too bad its usually attached to a bear as Laz will now experience when both Anika and the fiend tumble over her. She even gets demon goo all over her armor again as it looks like Anika got the better end of that fight.
The fiend looks as messed up as you expect someone to be after getting mauled by a bear and is bleeding essence all over Laz and Anika.
But in the chaos it does manage to push itself free and starts to stumble away from the two towards the pilot seat, reaching its hands towards the control panel which is now glowing in all sort of colors after Awen made the pilot press all the buttons.

The flame thrower fiend shouts something to its colleague but they're not able to do much, least of all respond, as they just tore out their own throat. It has dropped its flame thrower along with the tank which now has flames leaking out of it that now clearly have taken the semblance of two long arms. The creatures arms have let go of Laz's sword and now presses its hands against the floor in what seems to be an effort to push the rest of its body out of the tank.

Anika starts getting up to chase the fiend but it looks like she took the brunt of the fall when the two fell over as she landed right on the ghoul. She will at least manage to not sit on Lazarus anymore this round.

[Purple Eagle]

[Workout Beach]

The bow pierces the electrode's placticine hide as it comes ashore. It rolls a few meters away and explodes like its smaller cousins, leaving behind only red and white dust to mix in with the sand.

Beth watches this over her shoulder. She's tense and still as she catches her breath.

The conjured rainclouds disperse, revealing dim images of the moon and stars as the sun has mostly set. The waves start lapping away at the monster dust, now back to their normal, calm rhythm.

"Whew. Well. That was fun," Beth says. "What were we talking about? Adventures?"

[Workout Beach]

"Yeah, adventures." Karasu says, after watching their foe get run through and disappear. She's also panting in an attempt to catch her breath, tense as she scans the area to make sure that all is well.

Despite the danger, she's smiling and livelier than usual. That was clearly very fun for her, in hindsight. "Thanks, Beth, for having my back. You're okay in my book, now." She says, nodding genuinely. Nothing like a potentially life-threatening situation to let you know the worth of someone else.

She gestures with her head, wordlessly asking if Beth would like to walk-and-talk. "So, adventures." Despite probably proving to be more open when talking about things that interest her, current events have boosted her opinion on Beth, and it shows. "My brother spent 3-4 years living as a lesbian girl. Magic gave him boobs and 'everything'! Got a firsthand experience on the sort of things we go through, like periods and all." All of a sudden, she remembers Beth's reaction when she mentioned 'ninja police'. "What came to your mind when I said 'ninja police'?"

Let's see how close to (or far away from) the mark she gets!

[5a Violista]

[Moonwell Convergence]
Awen

Even flying on a broom, though, the ship suddenly jolting will still crash her into the nearest wall.
Sure, she's still upright and not crashing into the floor, but walls still hurt sometimes.


Ordinarily, the spell won't allow its host to make any actions - after all, they're completely unconscious and asleep and, arguably, their life force is completely disconnected from the body, and will remain so until the spell ends, is canceled one way or another, or the host body dies. After all, it's not a kind of spell where Awen's coercing or forcing the subject to take actions - she's in the pilot seat, taking the actions herself.
But the telepathic connection might allow something weird to happen. Awen wouldn't know; she's never tried this spell or anything like it on something that has a constant telepathic connection with others. Or if the body has weird reflexes that stop it from harming itself. Or...well, there's a lot of complications that could happen to stop something from happening, but the host regaining control without special circumstances isn't one of them.

With the control panel glowing in different colors...she doesn't really know what to do with it. She's already tried randomly hitting buttons. That didn't work.
Because of whatever those telepathic connections are saying, she doesn't have enough time to figure out what all the control panel says. And besides, didn't they do some weird locking thing? At this point because of that, she's not sure she can end the spell herself without killing the host body. And they have minutes, not hours! She can't just wait for it to wear off.
She can't speak to warn the others, because she already used suffocation magic on herself. Plus the whole throat thing!
The only thing she can do, it seems, is hope this body dies as quickly as possible so that after going back to her own body she can tell the others what happened. And, given this regeneration, she's not sure that's not going to take a long time.

She racks her brain. There's very few useful spells she can cast with the suffocation magic active, or with a torn throat, and with this body instead of her own. Are there any at all that could end this situation? Killing the body, ending the spell, she doesn't care, this whole thing was really unplanned and had too many unexpected variables.


[Subtropical Coastal Plain]

Oh!
A building!
Of course she should go inside. Maybe there's a map or something to tell her where she is.

June stands up and brushes the sand and dirt off of her. Only looking back at the crater once, she walks to the building.
...
Carefully, of course. She is barefoot and doesn't want to step on any glass or nails or sharp rocks or...whatever.
June walks up, looking at the wasp nest. "Sorry, don't mind me," she says to the nest.

She goes up to the door, and tries to open it.

[Recaiden]

Zophiel finds it a little weird to be back around, too.
Actually, nevermind, he found it really weird to be alone. Comparatively, being back isn't that weird.

Upon noticing how far back Anchor is, he slows down so she can catch up, and then keeps to her pace.

After a while, they get to a pretty wide river. The kind of river that looks like it could frequently have decent-sized boats traveling up and down it. Definitely deep enough that you can't wade across. The water's not moving too quickly, either, so it could easily be the kind that would have a town upriver.

"So...I'd guess that there's a trading center up there," the paladin says. "It's where I'd build one." And, a trading center probably not only has maps, but it probably also has a main road that goes right up to Inside.

Anchor smiles upon finally catching up to the paladin.

"Oh." is all she has to say upon seeing the river, though. What a vast and colorful expanse of water! After Marlick Bay, it's downright beautiful.
Up the river they go! Surely there's a good reason they haven't seen any boats yet.
"Yeah, I bet there is."
"Have you built any towns before?"

[bc56]

The door is old, wood swollen with damp and rotted with time. But luckily, it's a push door, so even though the corroded handle breaks off in June's hand, even though one of the hinges snaps as it turns, it still opens. Beyond is a room lit by shafts of sunlight from slits cut into the marble walls. The same three-pointed star symbol makes up a mosaic on the floor, with each point a different color, red, green, and blue. On the other side of the room are three archways: one leading to stairs going up, set with blue tile, one leading to stairs going down, set with red, and one leading to a passageway along this level, set with green.

[Earl of Purple]

Volcanic Island Pyramid

The captain does stand their ground, on the box. Refusing to stop touching it, and equally against letting the rats touch it too. Even if these are weird rats. When they close, and the sea-elf's hands are busy, some of their dreadlocks start to twitch, before lashing out and attacking. Not all the dreadlocks are, in fact, dreadlocks; some are lampreys, growing from the sea-elf's head. The boneless parasitic eels lash out with their many-toothed circular mouths, biting at the rats and trying to suck out juices. Some of the dreadlocks, however, are merely dreadlocks.

Once dealt with, the elf stands, sheathing the brass dagger after wiping it clean, and picks up the box to move elsewhere. If the remaining rats finish eating, the marooned sailor will at least get some warning before they attack.

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

The reason why there aren't any boats is probably because it's after-lunch naptime. (After-lunch naptime lasts until late evening, obviously, since it's already either late afternoon or early evening (depending on how you count it) and there's still no boats.)
Or maybe the fishermen plan their departure and return based on the weather upriver combined with the tides.
Or maybe the river's haunted, as evidenced by the moon's reflection on it. The moon rose at some point while they were walking.

"No," Zophiel replies. "I've never..."
Then, he pauses, and makes a simple correction.
"I don't remember ever building a town. Really, though, the only town nearby was a succubus village and I can't imagine myself being involved with that." So, he corrects himself again, by finishing his first thought: "So, no, I've never built a town."

After a short walk, the river becomes some somewhat large falls.
At the bottom of the falls, there's a dock. It's well-maintained and actually has boats docked there of various sizes (some trade boats, some seafaring boats since the river's wide and deep enough for them to go up, some fishingboats...).

However, there's no people present at the dock, which supports the after-lunch naptime. After-lunch naptime is sacred and nobody would dare violate it.
There's also a wide trail that goes up the cliffs to the top of the falls. There's even a couple filled trader's carriages, a couple shacks, and so on.


[Subtropical Coastal Plain]

June looks at the handle in her hand.
...
If the door shuts behind her, that'd be pretty bad. She should try to keep the door open, then.
She opens the door as far as possible, and then places the handle under it like it's a doorstop, hoping that's enough for gravity or elasticity or a breeze or whatever to close the door behind her.

Once that's done, she looks around the passageways.
"Helloooooo?" she calls out, not too loud to not disturb anyone, but hoping that will call anyone down.
Judging by the state of the door, however, she doubts there's anyone here.
So, she gingerly steps forward to the middle of the symbol and looks down each route.
...
Going downstairs seems sketchy.
Going upstairs probably seems sketchy too.
And!
Staying on this floor is green. Green is obviously the best.
She starts to walk down the green passageway. "Is anyone here?"

[bc56]

Subtropical Coastal Ruin

Silence. Nobody shows up. As June continues along the passage, she'll find it opens out into a larger square chamber. A short flight of stairs descend into the pool of water that fills the entire floor of the room, neck deep. There's a door on the other side, but it's completely underwater. The whole room beneath the surface is covered in mosaics depicting different underwater creatures: dolphins, jellyfish, schools of tuna, and lobsters. Green patterns like waves decorate the upper section.

[Recaiden]

"How do you have a whole village of succubi? I mean, isn't their whole thing blending in with other people to seduce them?" Doesn't sound like it would last very long without unusual measures.

Anchor comes to a nervous stop as they approach the falls.
"Do you think we've found our second ghost town of the day? I mean, what are the odds?"
She walks towards the docks carefully, looking for any signs of when people were here last.

[Reinholdt]

[Inside the Octahedron]

Magdalene DOES have a brain. It would feel so good just to bash it into pulp with her own two...

Magdalene's pointed question makes Leah dart her hands behind her where they clasp innocently at the small of her back. Leah doesn't indulge in what would feel good just because something tells her so! Even if that something is a rock. In fact, she usually insists that something feeling good is the exact reason to do the opposite. "What? No! Of course not!" She suddenly moves around the altar and keeps heading for the exit.

Not admitting how comfortable that lingering feeling of bloodlust was.

How familiar the violence.

"I mean... I don't think so anyways. I guess this is my first real dungeon, huh?" All the practice ones Mom set up didn't count. Unfortunately Leah missed a lot of what Magdalene had to say, which is a shame because it was interesting. Maybe just not as interesting as that particular rock at that particular time. So Leah just goes with a neutral response of "Sounds rough."

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

"It kind-of is," Zophiel responds, about the village, "but...the world I'm from, it basically came this way a long time ago. Before...whatever. End of the world, all the routes closing off, whatever."

He looks around as well.
"Maybe? Well...Marlick Bay only became a ghost town earlier today, right? But, thinking about it, pretty high chances actually: when I asked around yesterday, I believe someone mentioned the sea was getting less plentiful everywhere except directly around Marlick Bay itself, probably due to whatever monster was out in the ocean."... Right. They never actually dealt with that, right? It was Sekhmet who dealt with that thing. "That'd affect all the nearby towns."

As they look around, the clues for what happened start to pick up pretty quickly.
First of all, it looks like everyone left in a hurry. They didn't just vanish, they fled.
The fresh food and fish that was on some of the traders' carts and boats looks like it's only starting to spoil: like it had been left out in the sun for a two or three days. The smell of fish and spoiled tomatoes is pretty strong.
And, possibly more importantly, there are signs that there was a battle, centered around the river. Some of the boats have damage, some ropes have been cut, there's some dried blood on the dock and in a couple of the boats. It looks like the battle didn't really stray far from the river, though.

Also also, if they choose to check in one of the shacks after hearing some breathing coming from it,
they'll find a child hiding in there, holding a pet cat pretty tightly. The cat looks unhappy, from being squeezed too hard. The boy's pretty scared and definitely looks both hungry and thirsty - he's been there for a day and a half, after all.


[Subtropical Coastal Ruin]

"Well, this is a deadend," is June's first thought.
Figures it'd be flooded, though. This is close enough to the water table that falling into ruins would probably make it flood easily. Especially if it rains a lot around here, which she assumes to be true.

She sighs, and looks into the water. Then, looks back the way she came. "Well, I've already come this far," she says. "Might as well check what's behind the door, first, before going back." Besides, the downstairs path is probably flooded, too, so she'd eventually have to come back here anyway.

June looks down at her clothes. Her shirt's fine, it's lightweight, doesn't hold water, and dries off pretty quickly. But, from washing it so many times, she knows her pajama bottoms absorb water like a sponge and take forever to dry. And, at least she doesn't have to worry about shoes, right? Those are a nightmare to dry, and if she swims then she won't have to worry about stepping on anything.
She drops the pajamas and sticks her toes in the water.

"Okay." She carefully walks down the waterlogged stairs into the pool, looking down to make sure she doesn't accidentally step on anything. Once it's deep enough, she dunks herself completely to finish getting wet - luckily, her hair's short enough so she doesn't have to worry about that - and tentatively opens her eyes underwater.
And then,
underwater,
swims over to the door, to try to open it.

[Recaiden]

"They didn't leave here just on account of the fishing getting worse." Anchor says, pointing to the bloodstains on the dock.

But then, more importantly, a faint sound from the shack!
"There's something here. I mean, something alive."

Anchor carefully tries the door, and then keeps a safe distance from the cat and the kid.
"Hey, don't worry. We're not going to hurt you."
"What happened here?"

[bc56]

Subtropical Coastal Ruins

The door is already open! Isn't that lucky! It leads to a flooded passageway that ends in another large room a good distance beyond, but a swimmable distance. It shouldn't be too hard to reach if June is a good swimmer and can hold her breath for a good amount of time (or breathe underwater).

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Workout Beach]

"No sweat," says Beth on the subject of having one's back. "It's what you're supposed to do, right?"

She pulls along the boat for the walk along the beach, having earlier agreed to put it back in the boathouse before leaving. She snorts amused at Karasu's sibling story. Beth's own relationship with puberty is arguably pretty complicated, but she never really thought of it as such.

"Oh, well, the first thing that comes to mind is a police force that's all in scarves and gis," she jokes, "but there's also the gatekeeping angle, so they're obviously mostly concerned with whether anyone else is allowed to be a ninja or not, and with what does or does not count as official ninja canon."

[Vahnavoi]

[From the Octahedron to the volcanic island]

Eyes of one of the statues turn and follow Leah when she walks away from the pagoda. But nothing else happens. The armory falls quiet as Leah leaves it, the last of the rats having fled elsewhere before her.

She and Magdalene finally reach the exit back to the volcanic island. They can see the mess the sea-elf made of the swarm of rats, with some of rats still present, nibbling at the corpses. Some rats can be seen scurrying further away from the Octahedron, to seek food in other parts of the island - probably in vain.

And of course, Leah and Magdalene can see the sea-elf, and the sea-elf can see them.

[Rebonack]

[Selekhael's First Quest]

"Ooh, tasty, thanks!" says the naiad as our heroes cross the stream.

That...

Went pretty okay?

Maybe it was a good thing that the villagers gave them those supplies after all. Wasn't like they were carrying any food with them to begin with.

Regardless, Selekhael and Arukhael will soon come upon another interesting sight.

A pile of stones and bits of old iron with an animal skull perched at the top. There are, in fact, several of them. Nearby is a large, flat, bloodied stone.

One of the pillars looks like it was kicked over.

No doubt that was what the children were referring to.

The forest here is still, though Selekhael will get the distinct impression they are being watched.


[Volcanic Island]

She sees sea elves by the sea shore?

"Hey," Magdalene calls out to the elf. She's still lugging the slate with her. Considering how heavy it is and considering how tiny she is this is honestly an impressive feat.

"Don't go in there it's weird," Magdalene warns.

Honestly she isn't sure what else to say to a crazy looking person sitting in the middle of a bunch of dead rats.

[bc56]

Selekhael's First Quest

Selekhael looks the towers over. "There's, uh, more going on here than the, uh, kids said." That's definitely a sacrificial altar, and it's thankfully not clear what sort of blood was used. "Should we rebuild it? Or destroy the rest?" Both are options, but which is better? Destroying it might enrage the goblins more, but rebuilding it might help them do other terrible things. It's a bit of a conundrum.

[Earl of Purple]

Volcanic Island

As Leah and Magdalene leave the pyramid's hole, the sea elf stares at them. They get up and pick the box up, taking a step back and hold it tight against their chest. "My box! Keep away from it. My box, I'm in it. Nobody else's box, just mine. And my first mate. He's in it too. Don't trust mages. Never trust mages. I'll feed her eyes to the rats!"

The sea-elf has blue-green skin, an orange eye and purple-black dreadlocks that cascade down their back. They wear a red leather greatcoat, black silk pantaloons, a black eye-patch, and buckled black shoes. They hold a brass-bound chest close to their chest and holds a glass-bladed cutlass.

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

The bloodstains are a pretty decent argument against the slow decay of the area.

Zophiel approaches the shack as well, and almost goes closer - but, seeing Anchor stay back, realizes that, yes, angler-fish-type-monsters exist.


Seeing someone else, the kid sniffs and starts crying.
Just when it almost looks like the kid isn't going to stop bawling, between all the sobs he manages to say, "My daddy told me I need to stay here and that he'd be right back for me." He might know what happened, but it seems like you'd need to coax it out of him more.

Zophiel asks, "Was - Does your dad drive a boat?" to which the kid nods and squeezes the unhappy cat tighter.


[Subtropical Coastal Ruins]

Unfortunately, breathing underwater isn't one of the things June knows how to do.
She looks down the flooded passageway. Yeah, the end of this hallway looks like it'll have air. It looks a little far, though...
She surfaces, and tries to decide whether she could make it or not. With the pajamas on, she definitely doesn't think she could make it. Luckily, those are off, though.

She exhales completely, breathes in, and then goes underwater again.
Not swimming, just holding herself down using the doorframe, and counting.
She goes up again. Okay...thirty seconds? Yeah, thirty seconds, before it gets a little uncomfortable. Probably could do longer than that, though. After breathing and descending again, she gets a second look at the passageway. She hasn't really done a lot of cave swimming, but swimming underwater is easier than swimming on the surface. Just guessing, it looks a bit far for thirty seconds, but it doesn't look that much farther.

Okay, last breath. She ascends again, and psyches herself up. Deep exhale.
Inhale.
She dives under and pulls herself through the door. Then, planting her feet on the wall next to the doorframe, she kicks off and swims as fast as she can to the other side.

[Rebonack]

[Selekhael's First Quest]

"Hmm," Arukhael hums. "If we destroy them that might draw some of the goblins out. I can practically feel their eyes on the back of my head. But then again, we don't know if what those children did actually upset the goblins. Sometimes goblins just get mad for no reason."

And so?

He plants his foot against the side of one of the stone pillars and shoves it over, sending the fox skull perched at the top rolling across the forest floor.

There is.

Almost immediately.

Awful shrieking.

Well!

Seems like that answered a question, didn't it?

Selekhael will be able to hear the sound of things crashing through the underbrush toward them.

[bc56]

Subtropical Coastal Ruins

June swims. Just as she starts to get out of breath, she reaches the end and surfaces, finding herself in a flooded, circular chamber lit by shafts of sunlight. In the center is a statue of a bat in flight, its legs outstretched and grabbing onto a fish. Both animals and the splash of stone waves have several empty sockets on them, a few of which are filled by small colored stones, red on the bat's fur, green on the fish's scales, and blue on the waves. There don't appear to be any other exits from this chamber.

Selekhael's First Quest

Selekhael draws her sword in an instant and moves to stand back to back to Arukael. It seems likely they'll be surrounded in a moment. If only she had some sort of weapon that could hit many enemies at once.