Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Island Town

"They prob'ly have a king. Just, one that lives across the beautiful maiden o' the sea. Gov'ner had t' come from somewhere, an' the king's not likely involved. Everywhere's diff'rent. Some places have kings, others are demon crazies, or somethin', where everyone votes on the cap'n. Leadership's important, but so long's they got a guy in charge they've got some." Frigate hires a boat, but not cheap- the swordsman likely finds that a surprise, but Frigate knows his boats and goes to the boat he thinks is sturdy enough to take his weight, and pays what he feels is a fair price and then a bit more, since he might damage it with his weight.

It's a pretty large fishing boat, with a crew of eight. They strictly instruct both Frigate and the swordsman to stay out of their way, though Frigate stays in the centre of the boat to avoid putting too much weight in one area.

Octahedron

The captain doesn't fight getting in the chair, though holds the box tight against their chest. When asleep, or as much as the device manages, their grip loosens. They could probably take it from the sea elf, if they want it.

"Aye, I see you. And aye, this is my vessel. How... Mutiny. Ship's windwitch took my stern hand to rile the crew 'gainst me an' me first mate. This place... It be shaped by me memories? Can I show ye, an' those without?" They seem a lot saner here, confronted by an image of themselves at their peak and without the box constantly reminding them of their trauma.

[Reinholdt]

Octahedron

"Huh." That was a little easier than Leah thought it would be. She's had harder times when managing the unresponsive when her mom got too drunk.

With a quick glance around, it's not hard to note the pink energy doesn't exist. But she blames another reason. "Oh. This guy doesn't have the pink things. That's probably part of why he's insane. Hey Captain, you're missing your pink. Hmm... I think it was right around... here..."

Leah points out the part of the brain representation to Magdalene in case she has insightful brain experience.

It's a bit of a long shot.

[Lord Magtok]

Moonwell Convergence

Spoiler

Show

Moonwell Convergence

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.

[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.

Saint Lazarus reaches out for her sword, uses it to stagger back to her feet, and nearly falls over again because of this stupid ship jolting all over the place. In frustration, she reaches out towards the flame thing that tried to use her sword to wriggle itself free, opens her jaws just a little further than any humanoid should, and tries to bite a chunk of it as punishment for being such an annoying, aggravating little nuisance. Now, obviously trying to eat fire shouldn't work, but nothing about Saint Lazarus's digestive system makes sense. Her compulsion to consume and destroy is more of a supernatural ritual than a biological imperative. It's the idea of eating freshly murdered human flesh that sustains her, rather than the meat itself. So if she can get a chunk of the elemental down her throat, it'll burn horrendously on the way down, but after that, it's just going to be reduced to nothingness. It's not the right kind of material to fuel her regenerative processes, but even weird fire monsters don't usually take well to having an entire arm bitten out of existence.

[Shadowcaller]

((Going to reply to the other scenes later on. Just doing this one for now.))

Bombmercials

The catgirl watches as math occurs, looking a little quizzical. Are productions like this generally so off-the-cuff? "Er, yeah, I can do that. Maybe try a few variations, see what sounds right?"

Bombmercials

"Grand! We'll start up the machine then and run it a few times. We're not going to be filming yet so don't worry too much about saying the line. Just focus on keeping yourself steady, 'kay?" Azil turns to the other goblins. "Okay boys, start it up!" He gestures to them as they nod and push a button.

The prop Blanche is sitting on starts to slowly move forward while vibrating underneath her.

"Just tell me when you want to speed it up. This is like a quarter of the speed its supposed to go at."

"Hang in there, Blanche!" She can hear Anika shout.

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

That's too bad, that Anchor isn't a dog person. All the lizard sells are dogs.

The dog, hidden under the table and in its cage, doesn't want to run while there's a potentially scary person right there. Lots of potentially scary people, actually, all over the street. After the streets get less busy; at this time of night, it's still pretty busy and relatively safe; the really dangerous people won't come out until later, when there are fewer bystanders around. Sure, most everyone here knows that they are probably here for something unethical or illegal, but still they have some standards. They're not as bad as those people who stay here after 11, and so the streets are pretty clear by 10:30.

Thinking he has a new customer (the ones at the store are "higher quality, of course"), Chenth gives Anchor proper instructions how to get to the dog store - go this way then turn at that street, then this way over here, and make sure to avoid that alley because the bouncers are to make sure only members go that way by the back entrance, and members always have a very peculiar mask on while going there, because blackmail material is best avoided if nobody can actually see your face.

If Anchor follows the instructions, she'll get to the dog store where an elf is in charge of it. And lots of caged dogs. They aren't given very much space. Meanwhile, the nearby streets are starting to clear, and she'll have also passed an alleyway (twice! going through it would have been a shortcut but the instructions said to avoid the alley) with an unusually large number of people wearing black birdlike masks.


The ghost admits he was embarrassingly killed by a mermaid. The first casualty of the whole fight, actually, even though several other people were struck in a sneak attack first.
Actually, though, he's glad to have died so quickly because then something terrifying showed up. He couldn't really see it from down here, but he could hear it and he could see the merpeeps fleeing from it, and how it lured both mermen and sailors alike to it and devoured them.
First time in his life that he was glad he was so cowardly and also dead.

Lost Beach

This looks like a pretty normal beach. Nothing to see here. Except anyone who passes by will hear steady, deep breathing from a large rock nearby. Anyone who looks up there will see... Something. She's like a lioness, and a harpy eagle, and a ring, and a coral reef all rolled together. But right now, she's asleep on top of the warm rock with all the serenity of a cat basking in a sunbeam.

[Lost Beach]

June, after a while of 'exploring' the beach and finding a place to sleep, eventually keeps on exploring. She sticks by the beach, of course, because going inland would give her the highest chance of being lost and unable to find her way back.

She spots a...lion?eagle?thing? asleep. It looks terrifying and pretty dangerous, so June kind-of wants to keep her distance from it.

Actually, this is a huge relief! If there's a lion-thing here, that means there's at least some direction here. Either she has to fight it as part of a tutorial or whatever, or she has to tame it. Actually, if this was part of the tutorial, then this is a pretty poor open world tutorial because it gave no direction at all and had her do a puzzle dungeon without even explaining what the whole thing was for. So, more likely, she has to figure out how to tame it.

June runs off.

...

About an hour later, she returns, with a dead rabbit - holding it by the ears -, a dead wild chicken - holding it by the feet in the same hand - and a caught fish, also dead and attached to some random rope she found. In addition, she's got a long stick in her other hand, ready to feed it to the lion-thing in case that helps tame it the best. She's not really sure what its favorite kind of food is, which is why she spent additional time getting three different kinds.

She carefully approaches - not directly in front, but from the side. Once she's close enough, she stretches out, to prod the lion-eagle-reef in a leg with the stick.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The creature is poked! Its paw reflexively bats at the stick, knocking it aside. Then it rolls over onto its other side and mumbles something.
"Nooooo... It's nice and warm here..."
Apparently it's a talking lion eagle coral ring thing.
Does this change everything? What are June's thoughts on taming talking... Animals? Is this thing even an animal? Whatever it is, it can talk, and apparently complain about being awoken.

[5a Violista]

Lost Beach

Of course this changes everything! If the taming fails, then she could maybe convince it not to. Benefits of trying to tame a talking animal.
It definitely is some kind of animal, after all. Obviously. It's not a tree or a rock.

June reaches down to grab the stick again, since it was swatted out of her hands.
Once she has it, she tries to poke it again in the same spot. "Hey, do you like fish, chicken, or rabbit better?"

[Rebonack]

[Octahedron]

"I don't think the pink stuff is the problem," Magdalene replies as she holds up one hand and focuses, a writhing mass of pinkish colored eldritch power snapping and twisting above her palm. It looks like it's full of icy teeth. Geeze it's creepy. Normally she would have just hiked her shirt down to show the beating mass of eldritch energy in her chest but she figures Leah wouldn't like that.

Or at least like it less.

"Thinking the pink stuff is just the magic from the Hart. I'm full of the stuff."

Very full of it.

Practically overflowing!

Wait-

Magdalene instinctively waves one hand above her head a bit.

Okay yeah good. Her antlers didn't grow out here even though they grew in the dream thing.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The creature bats at the stick again, then slowly opens her four avian eyes and blearily stares at June. "Uh, what?" Her tawny wings spread as she stretches and yawns. She sniffs the air. "Uh, the fish, I guess?" She gradually stands. Her front legs are between paws and wings, while her back are more leonine. Rings of coral and feathers drift around her. Coral growths stud her body where her bones are close to the surface. "Why do you, uh, ask?"

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

The stick gets knocked down again.

Yes! Fantastic! It answering means she has no chance of accidentally giving the wrong thing and making it mad at her!

"I'm asking because..." June grabs the fish and separates it from the other two. She tosses the fish up to the rock. "...because here." Fish.


"..."
How will she know if the taming works properly? Is there supposed to be some sort of signal or something?

[bc56]

Lost Beach

The creature takes the fish in her paw, then in two bites, devours it. "Uh, thanks? It was good," she says to June. "Who are you? I'm Selekhael." She seems to fold in on herself, until she's a human woman. Pale skin, chocolate brown hair, a slim build, wearing a long blue dress decorated with spiraling ribbons.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

June blinks.
'Folding in on herself' looks really weird.
...
Does this mean the taming worked? Or is she more of an NPC that changes after a successful taming? Or...something. Not really sure. The genre of this beach seems to be all over the place.
She blinks again.
No, it must have worked. Probably got some synergy bonus or whatever. No idea what the mechanics even are, but there's got to be some weird mechanics that came into play.

"June," the redhead (who is really just wearing a shirt as outerclothes) replies.

...
Oh!
She hadn't even considered this, but if she can talk then she probably knows what's around, what sort of objectives she's supposed to have, or where to go next. "Um...do you know where we are?"

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"Uh, no? I'm lost." Selekhael replies. "I've been, uh, looking for my home. It's at a camp called GLoG." She seems apologetic about this, but it might be the first real indication of a quest June's been given this whole time.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

"Oh. You too, huh?" June looks down.

She thinks.

Yeah, this probably is the hook for the main quest. All the side-quests and exploration are probably fun and all, but she really just wants to get back home. Completing whatever the main quest is supposed to be is likely what would make that happen.

June runs her fingers back through her hair, and looks up again. "Okay! I accept your request, then. We just need to find a really tall mountain or some local farming village or something." And maybe some shoes, too, for June. Climbing a mountain barefoot is probably not the best idea.

She stands on her toes and looks around, to see if the extra little height gives her view of a mountain or chimney-smoke or something. Sadly, the dunes and the hills and the trees tall relative to just standing on her toes. "Hey! From up there" on the rock "can you see any mountains or farms or towns or anything?"

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"Uh, no?" Selekhael looks around again. "I don't see any landmarks, or, uh, things." She shrugs. "We could, uh, just keep walking along the beach. That's, uh, what I was doing." Before she climbed this rock and dozed off, anyway.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

Huh.
Weird.
Are they on some deserted island or something? Washed ashore after a shipwreck, need to find their way out and get rescued. Maybe there's some sunken ship they can loot nearby, or some mystery that needs to be solved, or...something. Anyway, this seems to be progress. "Does it look like we're on an island? Or is it too big to tell."

Or, she supposes, maybe they're on some sparsely-populated coast in some random country. Talking lionbirds are from the savanna so maybe they're near that kind of place.

Regardless of which of those two options it is, walking along the beach probably is the best idea. Plus, thinking of herself, June would much rather walk barefoot on the sand than on some sort of rocky pathway that they'd no-doubt encounter if they went interiorward.


She starts walking in the same direction she was originally headed, away from the puzzle building and the crater that she woke up in. Walking backwards so she can still face Selekhael, she points in the other direction: "I came from that way. There wasn't really anything except for an abandoned dungeon that had a bunch of bats and its basement was flooded, sort-of."

[Recaiden]

Yeah, she was really unfortunate in the person she picked to talk to.
Or, she would be if she had been hoping for a trained animal in any actual capacity.

So, Anchor follows the directions to the dog shop. The black masks are intriguing, but probably not related to her mission.
Once there, she explains her situation, needing semi-amphibious dogs who can handle mermaids and sea monsters. The shopkeeper should have a recommendation for that.

---

Was the terrifying thing singing? She has to ask this.
Then she invites the ghost to come along, and the mermaid shadow too. Safety in numbers.
But more than that, they need to go find the other mermaids for information.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"I, uh, got teleported into the woods a way over there." Selekhael points. She follows June. "I'm, uh, really lost." They could be anywhere, as far as she knows. "A dungeon? Was there anyone there? Maybe if we look around back there, we might find someone?"

[5a Violista]

[Coast Crawling]

The elf directs Anchor over to one corner of the room. Cages line the wall with all sorts of dogs. In the corner that Anchor is directed to, the wall is decorated with waves to suggest they are water-themed dogs.
The elf has some paperwork she needs to finish first, so she lets Anchor look at the dogs herself first. She says she will be right over in a minute or two to help her decide.

There are several kinds of dogs that would fit her qualifications of semi-amphibious dogs who can handle mermaids and sea monsters.
Attached to each cage is a detailed list of the capabilities of each dog, and their strengths and weaknesses and specialties. There's a swift swimming one that uses its magic to agilely move around and it will not let go after biting. There is a slower one that uses sonic waves to stun, one that can create air pockets underwater and with creative instructions could be really effective, another that can swim well and make psychic bites, and a few that use pack hunting techniques underwater.
Not to mention, if she looks for one with a very specific skillset, there likely is one of those.



The ghost says that it was not really singing even though it sounded like that, because it felt more like screeching.
The ghost doesn't want to leave its body, but with a little bit of coaxing could be fairly easily convinced.

The mermaid's shadow volunteers that she knows where they can find all the other mermaids. Their city is pretty far off the coast, but they also have a much closer outpost nearby, in cliff caves just past the river. She has a couple of friends who are there, too, since she was staying there earlier in preparation for a religious holiday. But, yeah, there are a bunch of other mermaids there.



[Lost Beach]

June shakes her head. "I explored it pretty thoroughly," she says. "Didn't look like anybody had been around in a while."

Then, she shrugs. "Not really anything there, I think. Couple of statues, that's it."

Not wanting to just let silence hang, she says, "So! Tell me about yourself. How is...life?"

[Recaiden]

The dog that can create air pockets underwater seems invaluable.
So that's the dog Anchor is focusing on. What are its vulnerabilities and other strengths?

---

Screeching to people already in the water, maybe? Or could this indicate that Gregson isn't that reliable?
Shouldn't the mermaid's shadow have mentioned something like that? She was right here, wasn't she? Anchor's will ask about that.
But as for the ghost, it's going to suggest that the monster might stay here, and fish are definitely going to come nibble on their body. So it's best to come along on the trip to the mermaid outpost!

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"Uh, very strange." Selekhael replies. "I'm uh, an apprentice blacksmith. But, uh, I accidentally visited this town and, uh, found some artifacts and, uh, now I'm an angel of some sort?" She looks bewildered. "And I did some sort of, uh, tutorial, uh, for angels, but I still don't understand anything and it uh, also teleported me out into the, uh, wilderness."
Oh no!
June, what if you're an NPC in this person's story?

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten island town - on a boat]

"Hmmm... demon crazies doesn't sound so good. What is there across this sea, anyway?", the swordsman wonders. He's staying close to Frigate and doing his best to stay out of the sailors' way, being largely useless in running the ship.

---

[Inside the Octahedron]

"Yes. Focus on it and it will happen" , the captain's duplicate answers. If they do so, they can hear footsteps and talk from behind them. If they turn, they can see crewmembers of their ship, as if they'd been there all along, performing their duties just as they did on that fateful day. Clouds move backward, lighting and weather change to what the captain remembers.

The captain can be sure that duplicates of their first mate and the windwitch will soon arrive as well. Once the stage is set, like actors in a play, the duplicates begin re-enacting the captain's past according to their memory...

[Earl of Purple]

Forgotten Island Town

"Most pirate ships elect the cap'n, like demon crazies do. Just on a smaller scale." Ah, Frigate... you mean 'democracies'. "Th' isle with the cove an' the door the pirates say be haunted. 'Least, that's across this bit o' sea. What's across it depends on where ye be, an' where ye be goin'." They should arrive soon; it's not that far away.

Inside the Octahedron

The crew are entirely made up of elves, both male and female, and a few where it's hard to tell. They continue working, and the captain sinks to the floor, muttering with their eye closed. The deck moves about underneath them, as the memories continue onward. The captain's voice rings out, though they don't stop muttering. "Steady the mainsail! Keep on course, there's plunder ahead!" Despite the sea-elf's continued exhortations, the crew slow their work and stop, as emerging from belowdecks another figure emerges. An elf like the others, but a wood-elf, with bark-brown skin and bright green eyes, long hair the colour of pine needles, and wearing a sky-blue dress covered in clouds that move across it.
"We've had enough of yer tyranny, Athiniel! This be a mutiny. Don't resist, an' we'll leave ye unharmed." The witch smiles coldly, ice in her eyes.
"My tyranny's been productive for all the crew. This be not a mutiny by the crew. This be a power grab by ye, Ashinelle Stormherald." Despite the captain remaining muttering and sat on the deck, briefly they appear standing, facing the witch down and drawing a matchlock pistol from inside their greatcoat, lighting the match with a flick of their fingers and preparing to fire. Another elf, a tall and muscular shirtless man with snow-white skin and long, icy blue hair braided down their back. Neither get an opportunity to do much more before the witch reaches out and black light gathers about her outstretched hand, pulling it roughly back holding a spectral lamprey, which is quickly thrust into a familiar box held nearby, in the arms of a faceless and amorphous elf- the captain didn't pay attention to them until it was too late. The captain collapses to their knees, a look of horror on their face. The witch repeats the process for the muscular elf, pulling back a similarly spectral snow-hare, putting that in the box too and closing it. "Put 'er in the jollyboat, remove the oars an' rudder, give 'er the box. Mebbe someone will figure out how to put 'er soul back, without openin' the box an' killin' Choushand. Put 'im in me quarters, I'll keep an eye on 'im." The crew jump to it, obeying the witch's orders. One of the crew tuck the captain's glass-bladed cutlass under the seat as the captain's set down on it, next to the box containing their soul. The ship might just fade out, as the memory continues, and... The captain won't snap out of this memory alone. They need some prodding.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

What? No. That's ridiculous. If you were an NPC then you would know it. That's how it works, clearly.
No, this is actually evidence that they're in some sort of VRMMORPG that's some kind of open-world survival genre with partially-developed features, like that puzzle dungeon. It was clearly unfinished: there was no reward, no boss fight. There were clear clues - the kind that aren't in your face, the kind that are great in open world type games and generally are evidence of the kind of game design that June likes, without cluttered UIs or being overly dependent on 4th wall breaking objects - but the ending was kind of disappointing. It's clear that there was meant to be something, but maybe funding ran out or they got distracted or the higher ups said to work on something else.

"Oh. You're so lucky," June says. She gestures with her arms, as if to show them off. "I'm just a plain normal human, I think, so they must have thought there was no need for tutorials. Super-boring. I mean, I kinda like it that way, with sort-of a natural tutorial that just feels like normal play, but..." Her voice raises to shouting at the sky. "At least give me a map or some kind of directions!"

June laughs and twirls around.
"I'm so glad to have run into someone else though," she says. "Was starting to wonder if I was all alone or something."


[Coast Crawling]

The dog that can create air pockets is poor at determining when the best times or ways to use its magic. Besides, you need a backup plan because this dog is a little obstinate and may try to resist instructions for a while. However, it is very determined and won't give up when fighting.

The elf notices which dog Anchor is looking at, and starts going through paperwork to find all the information she has on it.


The ghost is definitely convinced. Don't leave him alone, please. He will come with.

The mermaid's shadow says that there was some screeching, but that she and also her mermaid had fled after the counterattack by the sailors. Something came by that she didn't really know exactly what it was, and hours later she came back because her sister was still missing and wanted to see if there were any clues left behind or anyone to interrogate.

[bc56]

Lost Beach

"Is it, uh, a game for you too? For, uh, most people, it isn't. Just, uh, angels. I'm new to, uh, all this." Selekhael shrugs. "I, uh, guess I could look for, uh, quests nearby. That might, uh, find someone." It might find no one and be utterly useless. It sounds like Selekhael doesn't think this is a videogame. She might not even know what a videogame is. She has a strangely timeless air to her.

[Vahnavoi]

[Forgotten island town - on a ship]

The swordsman blinks a few times and quirks an eyebrows. "I'm confused. Who are these 'demon crazies'? A particularly large group of pirates?" It seems he's not made the connection and might be imagining a group of lunatic cultists ruling over the world.

---

[Inside the Octahedron]

As the Black Mangrove fades into the distance, the dream world around the captain fades into silvery mist. It's just them and the boat now - not that Leah and Magdalene are likely to get a good look, if the captain is reduced to lying on the bottom of the boat with their box.

Then, two shadows fall on the captain, as if two persons are standing besides them. "Your soul is a black lamprey? Really? Are you sure you deserve to be put back together?" , the voice of the windwitch's duplicate speaks from the right, somehow both innocently wondering and subtly mocking at the same time.

"I don't think there's much else to do, beyond opening the box" , the captain's duplicate replies from the left. "Worst thing that could happen, is that their and their first mate's soul become ghosts, escape and you will have to hunt them down. I don't think a mindless soul can escape the Octahedron."

[Reinholdt]

[Inside the Octahedron]

Perhaps the eldritch energy is supposed to be creepy, but it's not as creepy as a dinner date with your dad in a revealing dress. "Huh. It's like you're filled with Cotten Candy!" The eyeless apes too! That was a thing. Leah's kinda numb to it right now.

Not numb enough to ignore what's happening on the screen though. The whole soul being in the box was about expected, but the Guide Goo wants to go a step further. "Whoa whoawhoawhoawhooooaaa! No. No no! I know you're used to being a multi-intellect pyramid goo, but when a sea witch warns you that opening a box will kill a Thousand, you take that warning very seriously and DO NOT open the box." Touch a murder rock? Sure. Stab yourself in the head, why not? But you do not mess with sea witches, no sir and/or madam!

"We're better off taking this box to some actual experts with soul magic. I believe Merc dabbles with curses and souls." They've had a warlock in most timelines Leah's visited at any rate.

[Rebonack]

[Inside the Octahedron]

Magdalene, likewise, watches the goings on, reaching up to touch her antler numbs every now and again.

Having had them grow in while in that dream thing was weird. Nothing good ever comes from letting her antlers grow. Especially when their are other people around.

Maybe.

MAYBE when she's alone.

But no other time.

"I don't think she said a thousand," Magdalene point out. "That was just the other elf's name? But yeah we probably want to find someone who knows soul stuff."

Because Magdalene sure doesn't. Pay no attention to the fact that she's got some spells for ripping out and devouring animus. That definitely wouldn't help here.

[Earl of Purple]

On a Fishing Boat, to Pirate Cove

"Nay, they be the citizens of Riverside, a city on the side of a river. Not wide enough for true ships to visit, so I've not been. Others, too. People who choose their king by votin' for him. Process is called demon crazy." That might help the swordsman connect the dots.

The ship continues on its journey. It'll arrive soon, it's not that far.

Inside the Octahedron

The sea-elf rises as the duplicate witch appears, glaring with her eye. "That be a representation of me soul, not the whole soul. A shape assumed so ye could hold it one-handed, witch. Forget the rats- I'll eat yer eyes meself." Without reaching for her cutlass or the pistol inside her coat, she attacks. The lampreys hiding amongst her long dreadlocks activate and whip forward, several aiming to wrap around her arms and head. Two will aim to latch their horrific lamprey-mouths of teeth over the duplicate witch's eyes and start to bite and chew.

In the chair, the unconscious captain's own hair twitches, the lampreys within waking up.

[5a Violista]

[Lost Beach]

"Ha," June says.
She waves dismissively. "Everyone's an angel, darling."

She spins around once more. So far, she knows of two 'races' in this game. There's...human? And angels. Which are apparently shape-shifting catbirds or something. Okay, that works. Kinda makes sense, too, maybe, if she wants to think about it for a bit first. Maybe it's some sort of...ancient middle-eastern-inspired setting? Or something. "Oh, you have a quest tracker already?" she says.

June slows down and moves to the side so that she can be walking next to Selekhael - still backwards, though. "Yeah, use it. Worst-case scenario, we have to catch, like, five wolves or something." And they could use the dead chicken and rabbit that she's holding as bait.