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  1. - Top - End - #91
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    After a trek across rough cobblestones, June comes to the ruined village. The stone houses are crumbling and overgrown. Red-furred bats roost sound asleep in the collapsing roofs. The air is still and calm, and the daml smells of the jungle drift over the clearing.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  2. - Top - End - #92
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Coast Crawling]

    Yes, but as someone who has never not had legs and who has never been unable to walk or run, the paladin can only really understand them from an outside perspective, which just makes it harder. Most people, at least, have the advantage of being born unable to walk, so they can at the very least relate on needing to crawl to get somewhere.
    Sometimes, being a Paladin* has its disadvantages.

    The drivers quickly obey. The carts with the mertanks start to turn around. The other two drivers help lift the sunglasses guy into the back of a cart - with an apology, since they do respect him a little, still - and last driver helps the pride-shattered labcoat lady into one of the cart's chains. She just mumbles, still completely dazed for having her worldview shattered so completely by a girl, a horned horse, and a dog.

    The carts all start to separate and go their ways.

    The paladin steps away from the people-with-legs, to give them space as the legged people discuss where they should go and so on.
    "They're all physically unharmed, at least," Zophiel tells his daughter. "Seems most of them are from nearby towns and villages and know how to get back there, but there's some of them new to the Nexus. One of the better-off ones said he'd take them to Inside relocation group or whatever it's called, as soon as he informs his family that he's not dead, so it seems like they're going to be fine."

    He takes a deep breath, and looks at the mercarts. He starts to follow them: yeah, there's still one more unresolved thing. Well, two if you count 'the mermaids need to inform the mersoldiers that they're all back and there's no need to keep on fighting' but as long as they get back to the river safely (which they will; nobody's out at this time of night) then that part will resolve itself.
    "That singing river thing, right? If that's not taken care of, then trade for the whole city might dry out." He gestures at the mermaids who are hanging out of the tanks. "You think what they're going to do is going to work?"

    A minor (but possibly important) thing that Anchor's shadow could have noticed is that, first, all the victims of the pale creature thing have been male and - second - the religious mermaid outpost at the mouth of the river was entirely mermaids, with no mermen.
    It's probably just a minor coincidence, honestly. None of the victims were Paladins, anyway, so he's probably fine.



    [Lost Beach]

    Once she gets there, June takes a deep breath and stretches. This place feels so nice. And the fact that they look overgrown looks so cool!

    She honestly wishes she had a camera. Or a phone. Or some way to take screenshots. "How do screenshots even work in VR? or whatever this is," she starts to wonder. "Like, would it save as just a picture, or as a 3D environment? Also..." Selekhael had a quest log, which means there's definitely some kind of UI. "If only I knew the shortcuts for screenshots or whatever."

    In air, she tries pushing two imaginary buttons at the same time.

    Nothing happens, of course.
    "Maybe I just haven't unlocked it yet."
    June shrugs and then stretches.
    Okay!
    There's ruins to explore.

    She goes up to ruined house to look into it, being quite as to not wake the bats. What kind of lives did the people here live? she wonders. Oh, this is so exciting! If only her grandma was here too, she loves this sort of stuff.
    Favorite sports:
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  3. - Top - End - #93
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    June enters the first crumbling building. The rotted, overgrown hulks of what must have once been furniture are strewn about the single room. Shards of pottery poke out of the undergrowth. Bat droppings litter the floor, feeding the vines and small plants that are growing here. Murals faded to unrecognizability adorn one wall, a smear of blue here, a splash of red there.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  4. - Top - End - #94
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    June looks in, without going inside because she hasn't found a good place nearby to wash her feet if she steps on all that.

    So the blue and the red decorations might have to do with the statue she found the other day, she hypothesizes. The red was the bat, and the blue was...was it the fish or the water? she tries to remember.

    And, pottery. Pottery is cool, but she's not really sure what it implies about this civilization.

    June bites her lip and looks at it more.
    Okay! That's cool.
    She turns and looks for a more notable building, this time.
    Favorite sports:
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  5. - Top - End - #95
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    Default [Coast Crawling]

    The unicorn would be so mad if it could hear the narration of the lady's thoughts referring to it as a 'horned horse'. Speaking of horned horses, though, this one has done a lot today. It's time for it to rest. Anchor goes over and places a hand on its neck, and it returns to being a tiny statue of a horned horse instead of a living breathing thing, and the statuette is put away in her pack.

    Anchor's shadow thinks it's probably just a cultural thing, where men and maids have different rituals, but come together to fight the humans. The pale creature's victim's are a pretty small sample, after all. And anyway, I'm sure it would understand that the paladin hasn't always been male.

    She starts to walk along after the mercarts along with Zophiel.
    "Oh, that's good news. I'm glad most everyone will be able to go home."
    She gives a shake of the head about whether they can handle it. "I mean, I'm sure they can rebind the monster, but it might not be as easy as during their normal ritual. now that it's been free for a while, and attacking people at that-"
    "It might take a lot just to get things back to normal here."
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
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  6. - Top - End - #96
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    The most impressive structure is still only a single floor, but several times the size of the other ruins and built on a small hillock overlooking the ruined town. The archway leading in is half collapsed and needs to be clambered through. The first room is very overgrown with vines, small red flowers dotting their surface.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
    My Nexus characters

  7. - Top - End - #97
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Coast Crawling]

    Yeah, the shadow's probably right.
    The priestesses didn't even know that the ritual was actually doing anything real so it'd make sense that there's other cultural things passed along. And, in the end, it probably wouldn't matter anyway.

    Speaking of taking a lot to get things back to normal, Zophiel agrees: "I'm sure it'll take a lot of work just to get the two sides to trust each other, too, even if everything else works out." After all, a local slave-trade guild kidnapped some people during a religious duty, and then the wrong people got blamed for it and prisoners were taken and then the military force was brought in on one side to fight and...all sorts of things.

    The paladin thinks about the situation.
    "So, for various reasons, I've gotten a lot of practice at sealing magic and sealing away things. If I get a look at the ritual, I'll be able to tell if it will work and - if it won't work - can tell them what they'll need to do differently to make it work." This sounds really helpful and relevant, actually. "But the problem is that I'm not really fast at doing that kind of stuff yet, which could be a problem if the monster shows up..."

    After much walking, they've gotten back to the city and are going around it. The cliff - and the top of the waterfall - are now in view, and all they have to do is go down the switchbacks.



    [Lost Beach]

    "Ooh! That looks interesting," June says to herself. She starts towards that notable building, while trying to reason out what kind of use the building could be.

    "A religious building? No...that's what the other building I was in was for. Maybe it was some kind of town hall, or something." Hm. This is quite a conundrum. She'll probably be able to know when she looks inside, she figures.

    June walks up the small hill. When she gets to the entrance, she carefully climbs up it.

    She looks around at the first room after getting back to the ground. She walks up to one of the flowers and crouches next to it, so she can get a feel for it and smell it. Y'know, the sort of thing you normally do with pretty wildflowers that you've never seen before.
    Favorite sports:
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  8. - Top - End - #98
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    Default [Coast Crawling]

    "And let's not forget, Briar, you've been a very good dog. Here's a treat!"
    Anchor puts her hands together, half-overlapped, and when she pulls them apart she's holding a large fresh fish, which she offers to the dog.

    "It's more about helping these people. If they can restore peace between the land-town and the mer-town, that's up to them. It'll take time and work, and maybe it isn't even time for trust. I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff going on here. Maybe underwater too. But we can at least give them the chance."

    Anchor is brought to laughter by Zophiel's roundabout explanation.
    "Well, for various reasons, I've gotten plenty of practice dealing with vengeful gods. So I mean, if it does show up, I'll get you the time you need."
    And down the switchbacks she goes!
    Last edited by Recaiden; 2021-01-20 at 12:30 PM.
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
    Echidna by Serpentine

  9. - Top - End - #99
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    The red flowers have a faint sweet scent. Two archways, one left, one dead ahead, lead into other rooms, dark and draped with vines. A lone bat, startled by June's closeness, takes off and flies out of the building in fright.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  10. - Top - End - #100
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Coast Crawling]

    While fish can be sometimes good for dogs, normally they have to be careful with the bones. However, with Briar that shouldn't be a problem: between the decently high intelligence combined with psychic biting being able to hold the bones in place while eating the fish, Briar should be completely fine with it.

    Zophiel needs to get better at explaining things.
    He's just...
    ...
    It's not one of his strong points.

    "That sounds like really useful experience." Seems like it'd come up a lot in practice.

    So eventually they get down the cliff. There is a place to go straight to the water right under the waterfall, but one of the mermaids quickly brings up that "If you can, bring us farther down the river. There's some things that need to be prepared there." Plus, the littlest mermaid needs to tell her sister that she's safe.

    So, they continue, nearing the fishing docks where the first mermaid still is. The first thing Zophiel does, upon getting there, is helping the mermaids out of the carts and into the water. The first two in the water quickly swim downriver to get some things, and Coralia's sister suddenly gets incredibly relieved as soon as she sees her.


    [Lost Beach]

    It's a nice flower, June decides. Seven out of ten stars.

    She looks back at the bat, but can't see it anymore because it already flew away.

    "Well..." She stands and stretches.
    Okay! Great. "Left or straight." The path straight ahead probably has more branching paths, she figures. More offshoot rooms, so she should save it for last.

    June decides to go left first. She pushes the vines aside and goes through that archway.
    Favorite sports:
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  11. - Top - End - #101
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    The room June enters is even more filled with vines than the last. In its center is a rectangular basin set into the floor. Murky water fills it, lapping at the roots of the plants growing around it. More broken pottery is scattered in this room, with bits of a pattern on its surface.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  12. - Top - End - #102
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    Default [Coast Crawling]

    Anchor has much less experience feeding dogs than confronting vengeful gods. But she figured that, given what she allegedly chose Briar for, that they would like a fish.
    She breaks into a smile just to see the fish bones psychically held in place.

    No, but later on he'll have more practice with explanations.
    One day he'll get it just right.

    "Heh, well, I mean, I'm a little surprised that it kept happening." The first time she almost died, and also the second time even if that was also a great family bonding activity, but the third time, in accordance with the saying, went very well. And the fourth and fifth times, it had become near routine. Not quite, though. Each monster is different.

    Anchor is clearly relieved to see that the first mermaid is still here. What if something had happened to her while they were up outside the town? The whole plan could have fallen apart.
    "We found them."
    She also helps the mermaids out of the cart and into the river. But she's not at all good at it compared to Zophiel.
    Last edited by Recaiden; 2021-01-22 at 12:10 PM.
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
    Echidna by Serpentine

  13. - Top - End - #103
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Lost Beach]

    Oh! This was definitely the right way to go first! is June's thoughts as she first gets to the room. She looks around and takes in the potential places where things could be.

    "Okay, so there's two things to look at here," she says.
    First, the basin.
    There is absolutely something hidden inside that water. Probably in the middle. Some kind of key, she suspects. Unfortunately, in games like these you're not supposed to just reach inside for it. You normally have to find some kind of stick first. It's a dumb way to do it, though. If you can do it in real life, you should be able to do it in games too.

    Second, the pottery...it has patterns, which suggests it's part of a puzzle too. "As soon as I find some kind of glue or tape, I'll have to put those pots together." That can wait, of course. If it's important to put the pots together, there's going to be glue or tape in the other direction.

    She walks up to the rectangular basin, and looks inside to see if there's anything in the water. Anything shiny or obvious or...anything. She doubts it'll be that easy because of the murkiness, but it's always good to visually check first.

    Then, she grabs a vine and uses it to push around the water a little, to see if there's anything she can find that way.


    [Coast Crawling]

    Hopefully it doesn't take too long before he gets decent at explanations.

    Unfortunately, this first mermaid actually isn't all that important to fate and its plans (because it was just expecting her die here in the river, waiting for a clue about her sister), so...once her wound was healed, anything could have happened to her and fate wouldn't have cared. But, fortunately, that mermaid's around. "Oh! Great!" she says, before starting to fuss over her sister.

    ((Not wanting to stick around, the drivers quickly leave.))
    After all the mermaids are back in the water and a couple of them have gone back to the religious outpost, the paladin Zophiel sits at the dock and listens to (and asks) a couple of the mermaids about the ritual and what it's like, and he has a couple of them show some of the movements.
    He turns to Anchor: "Best estimate from now, it will take fifteen to forty minutes - hopefully on the lower end - to improve the ritual to be good enough," he says. One of his eyes is pitch-black, presumably to better see how the ritual affects the world around it. "Also partially depends on how...complex...the creature is." Obviously, being able to directly observe it would be best, but that depends on factors out of his control.

    Once the other mermaids return, they start getting ready to run through the ritual. They put on a couple more things, and replace some of the objects that were damaged by the slavers, and so on.


    The first mermaid asks Anchor, "Hey, is there any way I can help?" Especially since she can't help at all with the ritual, since she isn't a priestess. "Or any way I can thank you for bringing back my sister."
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  14. - Top - End - #104
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    The water seems to be full of muck and slime and a couple feet deep. In the dim light of the ruins, it would be very difficult to see if there is anything beneath its surface, good or bad. Disturbing it doesn't produce anything either. Unless she wants to get wet and muddy, June's unlikely to find anything this way.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  15. - Top - End - #105
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    Default [Coast Crawling]

    How many explanations could it take before he masters the skill? Maybe two or three?

    Anchor hopes that the drivers make like sunglasses guy and find a new line of work.

    "So it might be really a while. I mean, yeah, hopefully it's ready as soon as possible. Don't let me delay you!" She has complete faith that Zophiel can get the ritual working.
    Anchor has been making preparations for dealing with an unknown, murderous creature.
    She's gathered some temporary shadows of objects from the village, and assembled them into a table and a pair of braziers that she's filled with fire.
    On the table she's laid out two swords, and two spears, and one gun, and a little clay pot with a rack of teeth suspended over the opening, and a couple little bottles, and a thin wooden mechanism about a foot long which she's currently sliding bits of chitin into the end of.

    "I mean there's a pretty good chance we end up in the water, if you could help with that somehow. And for thanks, you should send your shadow with me." she suggests.
    Last edited by Recaiden; 2021-01-25 at 12:17 PM.
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
    Echidna by Serpentine

  16. - Top - End - #106
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rebonack View Post
    [Moonwell Convergence]

    Geneva COULD lecture them about how they need to take better care of the communicators. She builds each one of them! And replacing them takes time!

    But now isn't a great time for lecturing.

    Now is a great time for not running into a mountain.

    Thus?

    A pink psychokinetic will shimmer into view around Lazarus, gently lifting her into the air to bob along near Geneva like a ghoul-filled balloon.

    ~Okay, let's get out of here,~ Geneva says, sparing a glance down toward the (ruined?) moonwell.

    She'll follow Anika and Awen out, matching their pace. It doesn't look like they're in any more immediate danger but the situation is rapidly evolving.

    ~What happened in there? Aside from killing the pilot.~
    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Magtok View Post
    Moonwell Convergence

    "More wholesale demon slaughter and instinct kicking in for a while. Awen probably has a better perspective on it. Hey, I don't look inexplicably corrupted by demon gunk or anything, do I?" Saint Laz answers the question with another question. In retrospect, biting into demons is probably not a good idea, and maybe we'll be more careful next time, but at the same time, she doesn't feel like there's a foul evil presence guiding her towards violence and depravity and evil. No more so than she usually does, I mean. So with that in mind, she's probably not tainted by infernal energies. I mean, someone would be asking her why she looks so spiky and why her voice dropped an octave if something like that actually happened, so everything's got to be fine, right?
    Quote Originally Posted by 5a Violista View Post
    [Moonwell Convergence]

    Oh, good! Now Awen doesn't have to figure out how to carry Laz.

    "Mine broke when I hit the ocean," the witch says. Her communicator broke around the same time she broke her legs. "And the healing magic didn't heal machines."

    Between fighting that golem demon thing on the Vigil ship and all the fighting in the demon's ship, Awen is too exhausted and mentally not-okay to cast another big spell to try to stop the ship. (For goodness's sake, she needs to use her hair to hold on to the broom because her hands are shaking too much! All the bruises she has are filling her mind with bliss, making it hard to think clearly!)

    Since it seems everyone has a ride, she flies away from the demon ship and towards the Vigil ship.
    Quote Originally Posted by Arkhosia View Post
    Post Moonwell Explosion Hoedown

    Blanche shoots the foxman a look. "We're here to defeat demons, not pick their bones like a gang of vultures." She watches the ship go down, breathing a sigh of relief as Anika and the rest of the crew alight from the sinking ship.

    Bombmercials

    Things start to get rather difficult for Blanche as things carry on, clutching onto the prop-bomb tightly. She takes a relieved breath as it comes to a stop, before pausing as she processes Azil's newest direction. "A-a few more times? I, er, dunno if I'll be up to that in just a single setting," she answers hesitantly.
    Quote Originally Posted by UncleWolf View Post
    Operation Seaslug

    Once the act is done and the violence fades from her eyes, Titania falls back onto her elbows with a thunderous crash as she takes it all in with a daze. The dragon vanished, there was a sudden height to her viewpoint she'd been unfamiliar with, and an incessant buzzing that sounded much like a particular lich. When the daze finally fades, she takes a look around followed by a second and third look, as well as a look down at herself. Despite having nothing to show(that she knew of) apart from chitin and bits of metal, she closes her legs for sake of propriety. "...well make me a yuppie and call me Allison Hayes, I think I'm fifty feet tall. Now all I need is a fur bikini." She finally says, keeping her voice low considering how loud she'd be otherwise. "Is everyone okay?" She asks, leaning over to take a look at Will and the others. She works on getting up to her feet, taking it slow and careful to make sure her large feet and hands don't crush anyone.
    Quote Originally Posted by Deathkeeper View Post
    Operation Sea Slug

    Will is not terribly strong but doesn't want a repeat of his previous escapade of being the size of an ant so he puts up with the gnoll's madness. For now.
    He's quickly left without much else to do. His giant key fizzles out of existence with a soft hiss like a griddle.
    "You know, you talked a lot more sensibly this morning, you pervy old bag of bones. I hope you can make Titania normal size again before the gnolls at the library think she's a demon trying to eat them and start shooting. Titania's getting all the cool magic from you today." Such favoritism! How could her plucky sidekick be so left behind he had to get his own magical miracle?

    "WE'RE GOOD, TITANIA. JUST DON'T STEP ON ANYTHING FRAGILE!" He calls.

    [Moonwell Convergence]

    Going to do a short summary of the rest of the events to finish this up.
    The boarding party manages to get back to the VIGIL ship but as Blanche isn't trying to save the obelisk ship it's going to crash into the volcano but doesn't explode. It simply gets lodged into the mountainside with loud crash. It does start to burn however and it's likely dangerous to investigate the wreckage.

    There are no more demons in the area. The moon well laying still and silent, almost as if the demons had never been there at all. They did take all their corpses with them, even from their golems and their weapons. Leaving no physical signs besides the fallen trees and torched vegetation of the bomb that went off nearby.

    So now VIGIL could either try to start to salvage the ship, investigate the moon well for clues or just head back to base and let other members deal with it.
    "So what was up with that dragon? Anyone knows? Since that seemed to have been the whole reason they were even here right?" Anika inquires as they're considering their options.

    Operation Sea Slug

    "Pervy? Why, I never! I had never imagined a human could be so rude!" Lannereth proclaims as she climbs down from Will.

    Leopold has brought up his big book from his backpack and is currently quickly flipping through it, seemingly looking for something, while Lannereth is stretching her back. "And I am perfectly fine, unlike you two. Do you have any idea what you were up against? You should be grateful I came here to investigate, young human. That dragon is... unbalanced at best which is why we're very fortunate she decided to retreat and not try to take us out in some suicidal spellery."

    She then turns to look up at Titania. "DON'T WORRY, YOU WILL SHRINK DOWN IN A HOUR TOPS, GOLEM LADY!" Lannereth then lean towards Will. "What does she mean by 'fur bikini'? She's naked for the goddess sake. You might want to suggest clothing once she shrinks down."

    [Gale Spire]

    The two will appear inside what seems to be a store together with the drone. It could have been confused with a cloth store in the sense that there are holographic images of attractive humanoids in trendy clothes everywhere where one might see cloth racks. However, with no cloth racks there are no clothes at all inside the shop and it probably isn't too much of a reach to figure what's going on.

    The clothing isn't for sale, the looks of the people in the clothing is. This is essentially a beauty enchantment shop that is far more commercialized than any surgery in the same business.

    Furthermore, there are no ethereals in sight which is odd considering this is supposedly their city. Instead there are the exact same humanoid customers that the marketing seems to be focusing on that are wandering about the store. Gnolls, goblins, humans and the occasional boarfolk.
    "Welcome to our Gale Spire store." The drone proclaims. "If you follow the yellow line on the floor it will take you to our transformutator. Just access the panel there and feed in the cupon code. That will show you how much credit you have to work with. Then simply step inside the booth and it will guide you the rest of the way."

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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Lost Beach]

    June really hates it when the protagonists of hidden-object adventure games don't just reach into the water. It's obviously safe and there's no reason not to, so why waste time looking for <insert random object here> when you can just outright get the key?

    It's okay. She's okay with her hand getting wet and muddy.
    From what she could tell from the vine, though, it's pretty deep. She's not sure if she could actually reach all the way to the bottom with just her hands.

    After debating about whether she should reach with her hand or her feet, she ultimately decides her feet. It's pretty deep, after all. Like before in the last 'unfinished' puzzle building, she takes off the purple pajama bottoms to keep them from getting wet. She also takes off the apron, and sets them both down carefully on the ground.
    "Okay."
    She puts her feet into the basin and carefully lowers herself - in case there's something sharp down there, like pottery shards or a crab or something. She starts to feel around with her feet for something notable.


    [Coast Crawling]

    It might actually have to be something that he'll have to powerlevel.
    The paladin places his swords on the ground so that they don't drag him down when he gets into the water. Most of the ritual performance is underwater, so he has to get in there to see most of it. Jeez, there's been a lot of wet adventures recently, between here in the river and also the rain and the ocean and that cave and everything last night.


    "Oh, of course, I'll do anything I can," the mermaid says to both of those suggestions. She thinks about what she actually can do to help. "I could make it so you could breathe underwater for about an hour. Or...if you do get into the water, I can probably swim faster than you so I could help you get out or around or something."


    Speaking of water, there's suddenly the sound of dripping water.
    And a really light fog starts to roll down the river.


    [Moonwell Convergence]

    The witch Awen definitely needs some space to calm down and let the spell she cast on herself wear off.

    Of course, instead of being on the Vigil's ship or on the ground or whatever, she is instead on her broom in the air, because she feels like it gives her the appearance of more space.
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    There is something in the water, and June was right to be careful. More pottery shards litter the bottom of the basin, and might cut her feet. If she's really intent on putting the pots back together, she should probably find a way to get them.
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Lost Beach]

    Good thing she decided to step in here, then! The pottery shards are obviously important. Even if there isn't a way to put them back together, the pattern they have on them has to be some kind of clue that'll be important later.

    June carefully moves one of her feet to a shard and adjusts it so it's between her toes. Then, she bends down and reaches (sure, her arm - and sleeve and maybe even a lot of her shirt - is going to get muddy and a little slimy, but it'll be worth it) to grab it. If everything goes as planned, she lifts it out of the slime and mud and sets it on dry land. Then, she carefully moves a foot around, feeling until she can find another one and repeats over and over and over and
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    Lost Beach

    Slowly and surely, June picks the large pieces of pottery out of the water, although there are many tiny fragments left. All of the bits look like pieces to an earthenware pot or jug, with the washed-out remains of red, green, and blue patterns on them. A long time submerged has not been kind to the images, which are unrecognizable.
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    Quote Originally Posted by 5a Violista View Post
    It might actually have to be something that he'll have to powerlevel.
    The paladin places his swords on the ground so that they don't drag him down when he gets into the water. Most of the ritual performance is underwater, so he has to get in there to see most of it. Jeez, there's been a lot of wet adventures recently, between here in the river and also the rain and the ocean and that cave and everything last night.

    "Oh, of course, I'll do anything I can," the mermaid says to both of those suggestions. She thinks about what she actually can do to help. "I could make it so you could breathe underwater for about an hour. Or...if you do get into the water, I can probably swim faster than you so I could help you get out or around or something."

    Speaking of water, there's suddenly the sound of dripping water.
    And a really light fog starts to roll down the river.
    It's a shame when skills are like that. But surely a paladin will be up to the task!

    "Perfect. Help me get back to shore if you can, and let me breathe underwater. This should all be over in less than an hour." Anchor agrees, stepping away from her table of gear and over towards the mermaid. Actually, it might be starting already, judging by the sound and the fog.
    "Other than that, just keep yourself safe."
    ~Inner Circle~
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    Once that's all done, June decides she needs to take a rest - by getting out and sorting all the like-colors and like-textures and patterns together, including all of the ones that were on the ground and not in the water.

    It's a good way to dry herself off, too, since she's covered in gross mud stuff and doesn't want to get her only clothes ruined by hetting them messy too.

    While she does this, she hums a random made-up tune while also tapping out a beat to it.

    . . .
    But, jeez, there sure are an awful lot if pot pieces. This reminds her of her grandma's puzzles. Doing this by herself, she doesn't think she'll be able to put all the pieces together in time, so she's hoping that maybe if she sorts it all, she could see the overall pattern and that would be good enough for whatever purpose all these fragments have.


    Coast Crawling

    At least it's not one of those systems where you can only get better by paying a trainer, because then he would have to grind for money first.

    The mermaid promises that she will. As long as she stays far enough away (but close enough that she can still see what's happening) she should be fine, is her assumption. Pretty decent assumption, too.

    So, as promised, she gets as close to Anchor as she can, and once they're close enough she gives Anchor a kiss.
    Mermaid kisses can temporarily make people breathe underwater, as Anchor's shadow witnessed earlier.


    The fog keeps on rolling in, getting thicker and thicker. It just continues and continues. For a while, it seems like something ought to have happenes by now, but still...nothing.

    At some point, the fog has become a song. Or, rather, the song has been playing this whole time, except it looked like it was a fog. This whole time, it hasn't been a fog, but it just appeared to be a fog. Instead, it was a discordant song - sure, it sounds beautiful, but from the right angle the fog sounds like a screech: and the thicker the song gets, the more angles you can see it from at the same time.

    Then there's the drip of water again.

    Standing on the water in the middle of the river, there's a woman. All in an unearthly white, like a forgotten void, with a triangle-shaped white crown on her forehead.
    Last edited by 5a Violista; 2021-01-29 at 12:41 PM.

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    How fortunate for Zophiel. It doesn't seem like this quest has much of a monetary reward, after all. How would he afford the trainer's fees?

    Anchor's shadow didn't fill her in on the details of the prisoners' water-breathing, so the kiss takes her by surprise. She doesn't have any complaints, though.
    And then the mermaid is retreating to a safe distance, the others are working on the ceremony, and there's nothing to do but wait as the fog rolls in.

    Should she do something about it? No, not yet.

    And then all of a sudden the perspective shifts, and all the strange things they heard about this monster make sense. The everpresent void of sight, sound, color, surrounding, is all one phenomenon. The more of it there is, the more it turns from beautiful song to awful screeching. There may be something to that.
    Anchor has to think, for a moment, that there are certain other people who would be better at handling this.

    Anchor's shadow stands resting by the table full of tools.
    Anchor herself steps up to the edge of the river.
    "Hold, lady. Why have you come here? By what right have you done these things?"
    ~Inner Circle~
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    There are pieces to probably two or three different pots here. More fragments are green than blue or red. The pieces that stayed dry still have recognizable pictures on them. One looks like part of a red bat's wing with specks of green, and the other is blue with wavy green patters.
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Coast Crawling]

    Unmoving, the lady stands still in the river. She looks over at Anchor, but doesn't respond.

    There are ripples in the water, like an invisible somebody walking on the water, approaching Anchor - from the lady and moving towards the edge of the river. Each step comes with the sound of dripping water. As the ripples come closer, the woman's face seems to get replaced by emptiness, as if it's missing something crucial. The fog-song becomes one of terror, growing stronger as the ripples grow closer and closer.

    Then,
    Behind Anchor - between Anchor and her shadow - there's the sound of three more drips of water (it sounds like water dripping into water, even though it's dry land there).
    And then,
    A wave of force, punctuated by three ribbons of water and moving like claws (originating from where those three drips were), tries to push Anchor into the river and then drag her down.

    From the shadow's position, the shadow would be able to notice that the wave of force came from outside the fog (and away from the river) and 'blew' the song away from it.
    To be honest, it's in incredibly minor detail that probably doesn't matter or change anything, or even mean anything. At the very least, it'd be useful to tell where the attack's coming from - but the dripping water seems to have been good enough for that.


    [Lost Beach]

    Between the colors and the distinguishable fragment images, June has a realization.
    "Oh! That's pretty clever," she says. She stands up to look at them from afar, and puts a hand on a hip. "There's this puzzle here but if you've seen that statue in that puzzle dungeon I was in, then you can just skip it." It's probably the same image as that gem-covered statue. There's a bat that's red. The fish was green? she thinks, and then there was the water, which was blue, if she remembers correctly.

    And!
    She doesn't even have to put it together! The red and green together symbolizes the bat eating a fish, and the blue is distorting the green fish. Or...maybe she has two of the colors mixed up. "Whatever. I've got the gist of it, now." And now she can probably skip a really annoying puzzle to find the glue, and save a lot of time by not putting together the pots.

    Okay!
    She picks up her purple pajamas and the apron, and looks around. Yeah...looks like that was everything here.
    She brushes off as much of the partially-dried mud and slime as possible, and leaves the room. There was another direction to look at, after all.
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    Lost Beach

    June enters the other room. It's in a similar state of disrepair as the first two. A stone pedestal holds a simple gold diadem set with three stones, one red, one blue, and one green. Worn carvings around the pedestal depict a person passing through various trials: exploring a cave, swimming, and jumping across narrow platforms. Damaged gold ornaments flank the pedestal. Perhaps this was a shrine of some sort? There are two doorways out of the room, but they both lead outside, the chambers they once connected to now collapsed.
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    [Lost Beach]

    June immediately goes up to the notable part of the room.

    She looks at the diadem - red, blue, green, like the puzzle. And the carvings...Yes! This whole thing was a clue to lead her back to that puzzle-dungeon. Probably you had to go here, and then in order to grab the diadem you had to follow the clues - and the pot probably was a map leading to that building - and then once you finish it, you can come back here to grab this.

    "Yes! I knew it. Those statue gems definitely meant something. They probably should have included more clues over there to come here, in case somebody - like me - went there before coming here." June shrugs, and reaches out to the diadem.

    "Guess that's just a danger of open-world games." Since she finished all the puzzles and got everything done, she puts the reward on: she grabs the diadem and puts it on, then spins around. It probably looks pretty good, she'd like to see what she looks like.

    She crouches by the damaged gold ornaments, trying to see her reflection in them. She tries rubbing the damaged gold ornaments to see if she can make her reflection visible in it - and if that's not possible, she runs back to the other room so she can look into the water.
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    Lost Beach

    Does June feel a bit... Itchy after putting on the diadem? Maybe around her ears and her back? A bit on her feet too? I'm sure it's nothing. She can wipe off the ornaments and take a look at herself. In her distorted reflection, it looks like her ears are larger, pointier, further up on her head. The blurring even makes it look like they're getting furry.

    Perhaps unbeknownst to her, the combination of the blessing she received in the temple and the enchanted diadem she just put on are transforming her. Soon it will be more obvious, as her feet become claws ideal for climbing and hanging upside down, as her hearing sharpens with new batlike ears, as red-furred wings grow from her back. She is becoming fully blessed by the bat goddess this culture once worshipped, and will be part bat herself.
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    Default Re: Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

    [Lost Beach]

    June looked at the ornaments for a bit, but it was too blurry and distorted, so she decided to go check it out in the water.

    She runs back over to the other room, but (partially thanks to her feet becoming claws, and partially because of her weight being thrown off) she trips and stumbles a couple times...which is when she notices her feet.
    And then her wings.

    Wait!
    Can she fly now?
    Ha! Take that, Selekhael! You're not the only one who can fly.
    June seems to have unlocked some kind of...class change? Secret race change? Something like that.
    She takes off the diadem, just to check whether or not it only applies while wearing it or if she unlocked it for good. And puts it back on afterwards, since it's easier to carry it on her head. And then - much more carefully, carefully pushing past the vines and going over the uneven ground - gets to the dirty pool, to look.

    Ears!
    Wings!
    She can see them better in the water reflection.
    Well...okay, this is kind-of neat. Maybe, like Selekhael, she can pull up a quest log now? She tries doing that, but obviously fails. June pouts: Looks like lion-angels still have that as an exclusive. Is it going to be hard to learn to fly? Can she hear things better? These are batlike, right? Can she sleep upside-down now? "Echo!" Is echolocation an ability that she has now, or does she have to unlock that one? She flaps her wings slowly. "Flying's going to be a nightmare to learn how to do, isn't it?" Crashing...doesn't sound fun. She'll have to ask Selekhael for tips. And her feet! Maybe that's why she didn't have shoes, since something like this was going to happen. And her wings! They're so cool! And they kind-of match her hair, too.
    Last edited by 5a Violista; 2021-02-02 at 12:36 AM.
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    Lost Beach

    When June takes off the diadem, nothing happens, but she does get the sense that maybe she could use the diadem to shift back and forth. She can indeed hear better, and even echolocate, the clicking sound comes naturally to her when she tries. As for flying and sleeping upside down, she'll have to try before she knows if she can do them. But Selekhael seems able to fly well, and didn't she say she was human before?
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