Outside 50: Meeting nature halfway

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

Suspects one and two are right here. So...any reaction to either of them?
"No, I can't let anyone touch her right now. I'm trying to do some basic forensics here and I can't have everyone muddling the scene. Listen, go into town and get the proceedings started, okay? They're going to want to get the, you know, started, and I'd like to get pants on and not be splotched in blood when it does. It's not a great look." He did manage to keep himself mostly clean but there's some spots he needs to wash. If he'd been wearing his shirt and pants it would have been bad.

[Murkus]

The Green

Artie does seem reassured at the very least.
"Well...if nothing else I don't suppose I can rush you on the clothes issue? I think I'm boiling in this thing. I have to remember that I don't sweat anymore." That's what the wings are for.
"And I don't really understand my own position very well either so I'll settle for a rest for now. Climbing down a mountain was about as hard as I expected. At least I don't have ankles to break..." That had indeed been a concern of her mortal self when it came to rocky terrain.

[The Green]

"Not a rush at all, dear! But what would you prefer?" Viviana smiles. "In the clothes department I mean."

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

"Oh. Um. Well. I don't really know much at all about lady's clothes. If you're giving me a choice um, do you have something that might go with my scales?" Artie asks.
Given that her scales are shimmery and green and gold that might be hard. "Oh and no sleeves." She pulls up her sleeves a bit to show that she has wings on her arms as well, currently crammed into the sleeves of the sweater.

[Ironsmith]

Wrecked Motorway

This old, abandoned stretch of road is marked with potholes and rusty old cars, leading into the Nexus from a variety of worlds that fell victim to man's hubris or natural disaster. Currently, perched atop an old van with a ladder bolted to the back door is a dirty young man with long, unkempt brown hair, weather-beaten tanned skin and pale green eyes. He wears an old urban camo army jacket, the worn material patched with material cut from other clothing, none of it appearing to be of military origin. On his legs are a pair of denim jeans, though they've also been repaired several times. A pair of canvas basketball shoes are on his feet, the soles worn smooth and using garden string as laces. He's also wearing some improvised armour; a pair of battered cricket shinpads, a roller skater's elbow-guards and a dirty white hard hat. Resting on the van's roof next to him is a claw hammer and a mostly empty rucksack.

He can't easily get down, as seven zombies surround the vehicle, all of them desiccated looking corpses with vines growing around and through their torsos, bright yellow flowers decorating the plants. Nearby, a large shopping cart has overturned, spilling a fold-away tent, a half-empty plastic jug from a watercooler, a sleeping bag and a box of deodorant across the cracked road surface. Also of interest nearby is an old car with faded red paintwork, a boat-trailer complete with boat hitched behind it; a yellow snowplough that has shoved a lot of vehicles out of the way, partly clearing the road for traffic before finally being abandoned after breaking its axel and a dark green sports car on the back of a flatbed truck.

It kept up its steady march toward civilization, the sun shining dully off its plastic chasis. It still hadn't found what it was looking for. There were a few things around here which pinged on its bioscans, but nothing human; the pulses and thermal imaging results were all wrong. Still organic matter, though; the logical conclusion was that they were corpses, despite their moving around. They left it alone, too, for most of the same reasons they hadn't bothered tearing apart the wrecked cars.

>BIO-SCAN RESULTS: 0
>BIO-SCAN RESULTS: 0
>BIO-SCAN RESULTS: 1
>INITIALIZING CLOAK (#00-0F)

A human. That was good news. It also meant it was time to throw up the cloak. The air around it shimmers as it projects an image over its plastic endoskeleton. The default option programmed into it was a woman in her mid twenties, brunette, with brown eyes and pale skin. She runs her gaze over herself, visually confirming that the cloak was indeed working.

Oh. It seemed the programmers had forgotten a minor detail in making her look inconspicuous.

>APPENDING LAYER JGST_GRN

A simple, grass-green jogging suit materializes over her as she walks up to the van, looking up at the freshly-discovered man sitting on top of it. She tilts her head quizzically as she looks over the small crowd of zombies congregating around him, quickly drawing the conclusion that they intended to hurt him.

She couldn't have that. She could not allow a human being to come to harm on her watch. So she does exactly what is expected of her: she grabs the nearest zombie and flings it bodily away from the van, such that the man on top is out of its reach.

[Rebonack]

[iDungeon]

Jeany definitely kept her launcher out.

She levels the weapon at the huge monster and fires!

The projectile splooches straight through it and smacks into the wall behind the amalgam, sending barbed tendrils creeping everywhere.

Well.

That didn't work great.

Meanwhile, Linus doesn't have enough power for another sword blast! He'll have to absorb more force from blocking monster attacks.

Lucky for him, the monster just lifted one of its huge legs and tried to smooth him!

How fortunate.


[ABAJ - Day 3]

There is one stained with guilt, yet not here. There is another, but the trail leads to the shrine of the usurper god. The stench of forest rot obscures the voice of Mari's blood. If either of these two were guilty, I can no longer say. But one murderer is certain. Follow the path I set for you. Seek the face of the killer. Ensure that Mari's blood is avenged.

Oh that might be an issue.

Tiamat can find one of the killers now but that may not be the case forever. And burying Mari will take time. G'nichi should be able to see two ethereal trails of blood, one leading off toward the temple and one toward where Nemeth had spent the night.


[Found a Fortress]

Inside the chest are some offerings for the dead! A few coins and grain offerings. A couple hand made pieces of art. Not really worth much.

"Maybe? I'm definitely not a how magical fantasy metals workologist," Pepper admits.

She definitely isn't.

She's good at being an adventurer and making tasty pepper-based foods. Not great at knowing how weird metal things work. She doesn't even know how her armor works! It just does it's job and that's fine with her.

"Well, I live in an apartment in the city of Inside," Pepper says as she trots over to the cave entrance. "Spako lives at a really nice fort with his husband and a bunch of... servants?"

Pepper glances over at Spako to see if 'servants' is the right word.


[Mountain Peak]

"Lake it is," That Guy replies with a nod. "You are definitely too big for me to carry, so unless you've got a short cut of some kind that'll mean getting back down the mountain the old fashioned way."

Via walking!

It's a good workout and you get to see neat things along the way. Like maybe wildlife! And wildflowers! And wildmonsters!

The lake and forest are on the seaward side of the mountain, offering a temperate climate and plenty of rain. The volcanic field and desert are in the mountain's rain shadow and are quite a bit hotter!

"You just hiked up here today. Are you sure you're up to trekking down again? Or do you want to take a rest?"

There is, after all, shelter in the shrine.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Well would you look at that.

Someone is riding a bike down the road, weaving around vehicles as he goes.

As one does, of course. Slamming the bike into a car would do no one any favors.

From a distance nothing odd here. Denim pants, a plain grey shirt, and a light jacket. He's got a backpack lashed to the bike, the sort someone might take hiking. Some sturdy boots round out the look. He's something of an unusual looking fellow when considered up close, however. For one, his hair is both blond and brown, shot through with streaks of rusty red. His skin tone, likewise, isn't really that even. Splotchy shades of tan and pale. Eyes don't match, either. One a vibrant green and the other tawny brown. He cuts a pretty androgynous figure, all things considered.

What's he doing out here, anyway?

Riding toward trouble?

What a weirdo.

Oooh, hey, we've got a knightsel in distress up ahead!
...knightsel?
Yeah! Like damsel, right? Except a guy! Since a dame is equivalent to a knight.
I don't thank that's a real word, Drakania.
It is now! We'll make it one!
You two are both dweebs. So how we doin' this? Just dive off the bike and torch the zombies?
We should probably ease off the fire and brimstone a little. We don't want to scare the-
Knightsel!
-guy on top of the van.
Yeah, I GUESS, if we want to be lame about it.
I still think we should do a dramatic dismount at least! JUSTICE CRASH!
Kickass. I'm for that.
Fine, fine, we'll do the anime thing.

The conversation, all internalized, takes only a moment. As our hero approaches he stands up on his bike and begins pumping faster!

FASTER!

SPEEDING RIGHT TOWARD THE ZOMBIES!

And right at the last moment he LEAPS off the bike, letting it plow into one of the botanical cadavers while he aims a flying drop-kick at another!

"JUSTICE CRASH!"
Hahaha, yeeeeessss!

[Purple Eagle]

Spoiler

Show

Blackheart Woods

Ankhs are a sign of life, when the right way around. This one has been inverted. The egg is very large; the egg of the extinct Madagascan elephant bird.

"Surprised you don't know that. It's a... not quite a soldier's trick, but, well. There's a saying, amongst soldiers. Somewhere out there, there's a bullet with your name on, and someday it'll find you. Or so it goes, amongst soldiers. I'd guess someone either carved that name in the bullet because they wanted her dead, or maybe... maybe she did it, so that the bullet that would find her has done so already, and she'd be more likely to survive. Just a saying, mind, and I don't know how accurate it is." It's something Natalie picked up from one of her father's friends, quite a long time ago. "I dunno. I didn't see the lock, where was it?" It could be the key to anything, really- or it could not be.

Natalie takes a closer look at the pen, grimacing at it. "I think this pen's reservoir here has bloodstains in it."

[Blackheart Woods]

Natalie doesn't get far in her explanation before Karasu facepalms. "Duh, Lami!" She smiles sheepishly at her partner. "Knew that, of course. Somehow, thought you knew who she was." She points with her head toward the bullet. "Mere inaccurate superstition, to me... but we're in the Nexus. Anything's possible."

"T'was at the entrance, unless I'm misremembering." Once blood is mentioned however, she stops trying to analyze the symbols and rushes to Natalie's side. "Say what, now? Hmm... either the ink was blood, or this is a murder weapon. Purely speculation at this point, though. What do you think, Tali?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

Yuu looks very thoroughly disappointed that he is not allowed to look at the body.
He gives a big dramatic sigh, immediately perks back up, and promptly runs off towards the village.
Surely there won't be any unfortunate consequences to that.

Somewhere around there, Hana seems to re-register where she actually is, focuses her eyes on G'nichi and then back to Mari's door.
"...Mari was my friend."
It's a simple, heavy statement. One that is implying something, but not something Hana elaborates on before slowly backing down the stairs and leaving.

[Deathkeeper]

iDungeon

Linus' shield probably couldn't handle being smashed by fifty bugs in the shape of a tree-trunk so Linus jumps out of the way instead because oh gosh I don't want to get flattened. He makes his best swing at the leg as it passes by next to him but he's not really expecting his sword to be able to cut it since well, it isn't actually solid.
"What do we do?" he calls frantically.

Found a Fortress

"They're our neighbors who are also our employees. And I also live at the Wizards' Tower with Cleo. Kinda depends where is closer on a given day and if Sylvess is busy or caught up in Lucy things." Spako doesn't really stop to elaborate on what that last part actually means, gently closing the chest and moving on with the rest of them.

ABAJ - Day 3

"For what it's worth, Hana, I was hoping she'd be mine too if we all made it out of this. I'm going to lay her at the graveyard. After the proceedings I will not stop any of you from seeing her. Just...not right now. I promise you'll understand soon. I'm not letting her killer go free for a minute; she deserves that much." G'nichi does his best to quickly wash the blood off of his hands, pull on his pants, bag, and weapon sling, and carry Mari (and his new sword) into town. He follows the spectral blood-trail. It's just barely enough in the direction of the graveyard that he has plausible deniability.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

There is a moment of frisson, as the large sword is finally touched. An antsy sort of excitement preluding a great undertaking.
Anxiousness and a righteous fury mix amongst themselves in the back of G'nichi's mind.

This sword does not appear to speak, but it is certainly not being shy with how it feels.

As he leaves the dormitory, the anxiousness gives way to cautiousness. Not fear, but the need to think and consider.

Tiamat's non-temple-bound blood trail leads off towards the woods, somewhere behind the temple and pretty bluntly not in the direction of the graveyard. It veers off soon enough that he can probably head that way without being seen by anyone at the temple or dining building, but it is still fairly close to the population center.

Following the trail leads directly into the treeline, an area of already-troubled visibility made even worse by the fog. Thankfully, he won't have to go very deep in, perhaps only a minute or so, before the trail arrives at a veritable wall of brambles. It's hard to believe it's a natural formation, given how tightly coiled around the surrounding trees it is, and how part of it is ringed by thick vines in the shape of an archway.
It is to this blocked arch the trail leads.

[5a Violista]

[Found a Fortress]

Speaking of pepper recipes, June recommends putting garlic, tomato, onion, and chicken with the pepper in a blender. Don't purée it, but just blend it enough to make it halfway between shredded and a paste. And obviously don't use too much pepper unless you don't care about your mouth being on fire.

Of course, she finds 'the City of Inside' to be a strange name for a city, but she imagines they just have strange naming conventions here. They probably would find her naming conventions weird, too. "Huh," she says. She's sure she would understand it all if she knew who all the people and places were. "I see. Makes sense."

She, too, leaves the cave. "By the way, are Wizards' Tower or the City of Inside far from here?" Now that they're no longer in danger of bandits or falling off into the sky or ethnofacist soldiers or clownrobotzombies or dragons or anything else that might show up here, June finally decides to start wondering where they are and what's around.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

G'nichi sets down the body and examines the archway.
See, if he was making a social call or trying to be sneaky he would knock gently or try to quietly release the woodland magic on the archway.
But G'nichi has lost most of his ability to be subtle when he became a 300 pound dragon-man and his friend was murdered six feet from him.
G'nichi takes his sword, grips it by the handle and blade and knocks very forcefully upon the door with the pommel. If it actually opens that's not his problem.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

G'nichi smacks the pommel of his big sword into the dense bramble barrier that definitely looks like a door.
It jams part way through some of the spinier branches and catches a bit, but the plants do not magically part for him.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

Huh. He had expected an answer.
Well, he has a murder to solve and he isn’t really feeling patient so to hells with this. Our hero takes his sword simply moves to cut the plants around the door-hole if no one is going to answer. It’s not really built for this sort of thing but it seems sharp enough.

[Rebonack]

[iDungeon]

Linus maybe be surprised here. The sword slashing through the limb appears to have killed several meyetes, considering that they just toppled out of the leg dead to the floor. The leg quickly rearranges itself to fill in the gap, however. So hacking at it does work!

Though there's a downside to this action.

Slashing the limb also causes a shotgun blast of dead meyete bits to be sprayed at our hero. That's probably more of something his shield and/or protective barrier can handle.

Jeany, meanwhile, seems to have concluded that her armor piercing weapons aren't going to be doing her much good here. She casually tosses the stranglethorn launcher and draws her glowbug gun, blasting a salvo of larvae into the side of the huge beast. THAT works significantly better. The iron-headed bugs penetrate the outer layer of the Megameyete before gooshing their corrosive insides all over it, eating away at the behemoth.

It reacts to this by blasting dead meyete chunks covered in acid back at Jeany.

Rude!

"Try to blast it in the eye! That's probably a weak point!" she yells as she tries her best to avoid the monster's counter attack.

Speaking of counter attacks!

The Megameyete raises its front limbs skyward and bellows! More meyetes come pouring out of the walls and skitter toward our heroes with the intent to nibble at them!


[Found a Fortress]

"They're kobolds," Pepper says, adding some additional clarity. "Kobolds like serving dragons."

She avoids mentioning that this has only really been a thing since Third Edition since before that kobolds weren't really dragony. That would be awkward since the world Spako came from probably always worked the way it did. Edition changes are really disruptive.

Also?

Pepper has zero issue with her mouth being on fire. BUT she does need to be mindful of others who aren't quite so resistant to overwhelming levels of capsicum oil.

"It took us a few hours to get out here. But the Nexus is pretty weird about-"

Our heroes step out of the cave and Inside is literally right there.

"-distances. Like that."

Huh.

[Deathkeeper]

iDungeon

"I don't have a charge!" Linus calls back, as he summons his barrier to not get blasted in the face by tiny bodies.
Which now poses a question: how much does it take to get a charge?
Linus swings around at the meyetes around him, using his barrier when he can. It takes a while but after a few hits he should have enough to raise his sword and blast the giant behemoth with his super beam thingy!

Found a Fortress

Zebes would have you know that the world he and Spako are from have had good dragony kobolds since its first edition and never had lame doggy ones.
But he will not discuss second edition because its kobolds are gross.
"Work for us! They work for us they're not our servants we pay them!" Spako protests.
Of course servants are also paid but Spako has a limited understanding of how these things work, just that he doesn't like when people assume he's stereotypically lording over innocent kobolds because of cultural biases.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Steelbite Canyon]

"These bandits are as yet unaware we struck here and killed their leader. We can strike and take them down in the confusion when they find out we did," Calm Reed suggests.

[Steelbite Canyon]

"Arright." Atreyu growls quietly. "Reckon I can manage one of them easy enough. On your signal?" He asks, hand already faintly glowing with druidic magic.

[Morty]

[Fort Aegis Resort]

"And I'm Thariza. Ambrosia's friend and research assistant," the very large cat-woman introduces herself. "Which in this case involves dragons, but we poke into all sorts of things."

[bc56]

Mountain Peak

"I am ready to go." Kothar's already on his way out the door and towards the bottom of the mountain. He doesn't seem tired at all, but maybe he's just good at hiding it. Anyway... To the lake!

[5a Violista]

[Found a Fortress]

"A kobold's some kind of fairy, right?" June asks. It doesn't really matter whether it's a fairy or dog or gremlin or dragon servent or whatever. She's just trying to figure out what it is, in case it ever does matter.

In the end, though, it doesn't really matter.

She blinks, looking at the sudden city. "Looks pretty metropolitan." Massive, she means. "Kinda makes some sense. It's like how i was at home then we were in a snowy mountain trail and then in the sky and then the place before again?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

This sword is stupidly huge. Even with his musculature, G'nichi should not be able to wield this thing with any degree of finesse at all.
In a way, that remains somewhat true. It's certainly heavy and a tad unwieldy, but more in a "you just need to practice with this" sort of way.
G'nichi might find that mildly interesting.

He'll find this part very interesting.

That sense of righteous fury wells back up in the back of his mind as he arches the sword up and begins its descent. Moments before it impacts the plants, it blazes with a radiant blue light (moonlight he knows) and tears through the plants with only the very barest sense of resistance.
In its wake, much of the radiance blazes out from the blade in a terrible wave that carries past the brambles, briefly illuminates a previously darkened entry hall, and carves a gash into the steps of an ornate staircase.

The sword retains some of its glow as the strike finishes for a few moments, before it fades away once more with a slight sense of satisfaction.

Before the light of the wave faded, he was able to see that the building beyond this bramble was large. It looked like the entrance to a mansion lies beyond the brambles.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

You know, the fact that the blood trail leads here is probably enough to indict Nemeth. But G'nichi needs to see. He needs to see it before Nemeth has a chance to properly cleanse himself of the mark. And if he goes to the temple for the Banquet Tiamat won't be able to see it on him anymore. He has to know. He cannot leave even a shadow of doubt if he is to suggest putting this man to death.
So despite his trepidation about breaking and entering, and leaving poor Mari's body on the stoop, he follows the trail up the stairs. At least he's polite enough to sling his sword over his shoulder again.
He'll have to make sure he tells the townspeople about this place. They'll be able to make much better use of it than this killer. Unless it's one of those Magnificent Mansions and it will poof when the caster is dead.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

This place is fairly dark, in a "you can sort of see but stubbing your toes is a real possibility at any point" sort of way.
The staircase veers off to the left and right, off into little balcony-style hallways that wrap around the entire upper level of entry all, meeting just above the main door at a big window. (Said big window is completely obscured by trees and fog, but it does exist)

Tiamat's trail leads off to the left side and a door set into the left (we'll say West from now on, regardless of what an actual compass may say) side of the upper floor.
There's a little bit of light shining underneath that door and somewhere beyond it a door can be heard slamming and some not-quiet grumbling approaching the door.

"Transients must finally be revolting, how vexing."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

G'nichi makes the rather sudden realization that just because he knows Nemeth is a killer does not mean that getting caught here will be even remotely okay with everyone else and will probably only damage his already paltry odds of convincing anyone.
So while he can make as many excuses as he can think up, they would probably be rather obvious. So rather than resort to that G'nichi decides to cut his losses and scamper out (he's surprisingly nimble actually) grab the body and head back to the graveyard like he promised he would be doing before he gets cornered and has to explain this.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

Oh, hey, a lady came to help. And she's wearing a complete set of clothes, which all goes together and are clean. And then she single-handedly flings a zombie away, and they aren't interested in her either. That's odd, for sure.

The man on the van is distracted enough by the lady he doesn't notice the cyclist also approaching, though one of the zombies does and turns towards Tristan, getting hit by the speeding bicycle and falling over as he leaps for the next, which hasn't noticed him and cracks against the side of the van before collapsing. It didn't seem too sturdy, its desiccated flesh crumbling and revealing that inside the zombie's torso are more vines, and some flower buds that have kicked a cloud of pollen airborne.

The zombie Tristan kicked isn't getting up, but isn't fully dead yet- the legs twitch, and the arms are still clawing at the side of the van, it's just that there's basically nothing between its lower rib cage and hips except powdered flesh and vines. The one thrown has hit a car and dented it, and is struggling to extricate itself. The one hit by a bike has fallen over with the bike on top and is pushing the bike aside to stand, though one of its legs is limp and broken. There's four others, one at the bottom of the ladder the knightsel used to climb to safety, two next to the gynoid and paying her no heed, and one advancing on Tristan, aiming to grab and bite and puff spores in his face from close range.

The knightsel looks around at both sides and leans down to take up his hammer. "There's a spear, it rolled off as I climbed up! Thank you, both of you, thank you for helping me!" The spear is a school javelin, made of aluminium and sharpened to a point on both ends, and it lies under the van near the robot.

Blackheart Woods

"You said it yourself, they were studying death here. To them, it wasn't just a superstition." Natalie proffers the pen to Karasu so she can have a closer look; the staining is all in the well. "The ink was blood, I think. That's... that's diabolism, I don't know much about that. Enough to know it's dangerous, more dangerous than any other branch of magic, especially to the inexperienced beginner. And... and I say that as someone whose mother was an experienced elementalist until she blew up." Natalie knows all magic can be dangerous. Teleporting herself could lead to her not reappearing at the other end, if she loses concentration on the way- it's why she's never teleported herself.

And the first door they found had a lock and a key in it; they could try the key in that, when they leave. But they've already unlocked that door. Might be worth checking anyway, in case the key is magic.

Steelbite Canyon

The orc with the carbine is rather nervous and jumpy, and can't see through the fog. He sees something which startles him, and he fires a burst of bullets in that direction; the opposite direction to where Calm Reed and Atreyu lurk.

The sound of gunfire makes the lady biker jump, but she's not moving yet. She only hears one gun, which means either everything is fine or everyone is dead. She's got an uncomfortable feeling it's the latter.

[Ironsmith]

Wrecked Motorway

Oh, hey, a lady came to help. And she's wearing a complete set of clothes, which all goes together and are clean. And then she single-handedly flings a zombie away, and they aren't interested in her either. That's odd, for sure.

The man on the van is distracted enough by the lady he doesn't notice the cyclist also approaching, though one of the zombies does and turns towards Tristan, getting hit by the speeding bicycle and falling over as he leaps for the next, which hasn't noticed him and cracks against the side of the van before collapsing. It didn't seem too sturdy, its desiccated flesh crumbling and revealing that inside the zombie's torso are more vines, and some flower buds that have kicked a cloud of pollen airborne.

The zombie Tristan kicked isn't getting up, but isn't fully dead yet- the legs twitch, and the arms are still clawing at the side of the van, it's just that there's basically nothing between its lower rib cage and hips except powdered flesh and vines. The one thrown has hit a car and dented it, and is struggling to extricate itself. The one hit by a bike has fallen over with the bike on top and is pushing the bike aside to stand, though one of its legs is limp and broken. There's four others, one at the bottom of the ladder the knightsel used to climb to safety, two next to the gynoid and paying her no heed, and one advancing on Tristan, aiming to grab and bite and puff spores in his face from close range.

The knightsel looks around at both sides and leans down to take up his hammer. "There's a spear, it rolled off as I climbed up! Thank you, both of you, thank you for helping me!" The spear is a school javelin, made of aluminium and sharpened to a point on both ends, and it lies under the van near the robot.

That's two humans. According to her directives, she was now responsible for both their safety, at least for the time being. Seeing one going for Tristan, she steps on its heels, aiming to knock it off-balance and summarily crush it underfoot. "You really should dismount more safely." She scolds. "Jumping off a bike can result in contusions, lacerations, broken bones, and in extreme cases, death. Please observe proper safety measures the next time you go riding. I would also recommend you wear a helmet, in the event of a crash." As soon as she had finished her PSA, she grabs a rock from the ground and flings it, overhand, at the zombie at the base of the ladder.

[Rebonack]

[iDungeon]

The Megameyete gives a bellowing roar as the blade blast hits it straight in the eye, causing it to topple over sideways! Its bellow suddenly slides open, revealing an even bigger, even fancier, even more glowing eye inside!

No doubt that's the actual weak point!

Go thwack it a whole bunch before the monster can recover!

That's definitely what Jeany is doing. Out comes the sword! Hack away, Jeany!


[Found a Fortress]

"Yes," Pepper replies to June. "But also no."

That probably isn't a terribly helpful reply.

"Some kobolds are little dragony people who are employees of Spako."

Not servants.

"Other kobolds are little faeries. Or goblins. Or other things! Like me, I'm from the Dreamlands. The kobolds from there are a type of elf. A spirit of civilization! As opposed to a spirit of nature like me," Pepper explains. "But the kobolds who work for Spako aren't like that at all. Wowie, that's all pretty confusing, isn't it? But yeah! It's like how we were in one place then another place then a different place! The Nexus is all sorts of different things all jumbled together. It gets confusing but it's really exciting."


[Mountain Peak]

Yes, to the lake!

That Guy pulls the club back out of the pedestal, allowing the stone vines to cover the cover the amulet and its altar again. The club will be buried in the snow near the shrine. He really doesn't feel like carrying the thing with him and he doesn't want anyone to gank it while they're away.

Not that it should be likely that anyone else would come up here.

But then again, Kothar came up here at the same time just by chance so better not to take any risks.

"So! What are you doing hiking out here in the middle of the wilderness?" That Guy inquires as they begin heading down the mountain.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Tristan immediately back-peddles away from the drifting cloud of spores released by the kicked zombie.

Look at those spores. They're... um... they're probably infectious.
No big deal. Just barf fire if we huff 'em.
Why do you think they aren't going after that lady in green?
I'm putting my money on robot or golem. The only thing zombies ever know is who's edible and who isn't!
M-maybe she's already infected?
Neeeeeeeh... maaaaybe. Don't think so. I bet she would be coughing up more yellow if she was.
Heads up dweebs, zombie incoming.

And incoming it is!

Tristan doesn't have any weapons. Not as such. And while he's confident he would be able to burn off any infections he's worried using magic might freak out the knightsel. At a glance, he's guessing the poor refugee didn't come from a world where magic is a thing.

Well.

Except maybe whatever magic is letting these zombies move around. It's possible that these vines are serving as replacement musculature? Maybe he can poke at one once they're all dead.

"Don't sweat it!" Tristan calls up to the fellow atop the bus. He takes a few hopping steps away from the approaching zombie right as Miss Definitely a Robot just stomps the snot out of the thing. That puts him in a good position to drop into a crouch and aim to smash his foot into the knees of another zombie. The kick easily carries enough force to break a healthy person's kneecap. Considering how fragile and desiccated these zombies are that'll probably do a number on them. "Hey! How infectious are the yellow spores?"

Tristan feels like that's a pretty important question to have answered.

Also?

The lady in green is given a look.

Hahahah! Totally called it! That was a REALLY robot-y thing to say.
I guess it was a little robot-y...
You nerds know we could just ask her, yeah?

"Thanks for the warning?" Tristan pipes up, his tone suggesting equal parts confusion and amusement. "But hey, now I know more about bike safety. And like they say, knowing is half the battle!"
Geee eeeye joooooooe~

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

While the sword seems very slightly disappointed, there was a Just target to be had here, it does seem supportive of his tactical appraisal of the situation.
As he scampers out, there's a faint glitter of that glowing moonlight in that fairly sizeable gash it carved into the stairway.
A last little "maybe find an explanation for that" warning from the sword, perhaps.

Mari's body is where he left it, so away he goes, with the sounds of Nemeth yelling something incoherent inside.

The graveyard!
It is precisely as creepy in the fog as it has been the last two days. Graves stretch out across this slightly hilled area, in almost concentric rings around a massive, mostly-dead-looking tree at the highest point of the area.

[Deathkeeper]

iDungeon

Well, Linus isn't going to say no to that. He sprints over and tries to give the eye a few good pokes before the monster can recover!
Of course it would make more sense to try to pull it away from the monster so they can wail on it uninterrupted but that's just not how these things are done.

Found a Fortress

"Well um. Pepper. You said you're from a city back in your home world, remember? You're not from the Dreamlands." Spako reminds her.
Yeah Pepper, have you ever even been to the Dreamlands? Remember your backstory! It involved world-hopping a bit.

[ABAJ - Day 3]

Okay, That was a bit close and he'll have to come up with some explanations but G'nichi is not being arrested at the moment. For now he settles with laying down the body near the entrance to the graveyard where Mari can be properly buried without forcing anyone to go into her blood-covered room to extract the body. At least that's what he'll tell them, since it was also partially to keep anyone from touching Mari's blood until he had properly followed the trail to its end.
This done he heads back into town since people are going to presumably want to get the Banquet started sooner or later.

[5a Violista]

[Found a Fortress]

More words and terms that she doesn't know! Also some that clearly mean something that isn't how she understands it. No point in bogging down the conversation about them, since it's pretty clear that she should just roll with it.

June still comments on part if it, anyway. "To be honest, this whole place so far feels like it could be a dreamland," she says.

If they haven't already started towards the city, June does that and turns around, leaning towards them but with her hands counterbalancing behind her, walking backwards so she can still talk to them while walking. "So what do you guys recommend I do?" she asks. "Since I'm not really sure, myself."

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

Thankfully for G'nichi, this entire process hasn't taken that long. A perk to the village being fairly small and him deciding not to dally in Nemeth's mansion much.

That being said, it does seem that most everyone is already loitering around just inside the temple.
Most everyone. Minus Nemeth. And Mari.

Also Jeb.

Fudo is currently standing sentinel at the temple's open entrance, with an understandably troubled expression on his face. His expression is only going to tighten when he sees G'nichi, though he won't make any attempt to get in his way if he wants to enter.