Outside 50: Meeting nature halfway

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorway]

Tristan brightens considerably at the news that it is alright to make a camp fire.

"Oh great! That'll make this all a bit more fun. I brought some camping food with me since I was expecting to spend some time out under the stars tonight. Just... wasn't counting on company. Or zombies," he says as he begins gather wood from some scraggly looking pine trees. Thankfully there are a few dead ones nearby and they provide ample fuel. Once he's got enough stacked up he'll take a deep breath and-

FWOOSH!

Fire started!

He'll dig into the bag on his bike and pull out...

Hot dogs!

He cuts the sealed plastic bag open with his knife and pulls a collapsible hotdog fork out of the pack. The hotdog is speared and roasted.

"I'm going to guess you probably haven't ever had a reasonably fresh hotdog before?" he inquires of Endurance. "I usually like mine with mustard and sweet relish. Do you want one?"

The hotdog will probably be ready quite a bit faster than the soup.

"There are a few robotics shops in some parts of the City, Green," Tristan calls out to the robot. "We can probably see about having someone get that memory of yours checked out. Is that okay?"

Wrecked Motorway

The cars are very dirty. The one Endurance had picked has no body in it, but the paint's faded and peeling, and covered in dust and grime. Moss is growing in the rubber of the window seals, and the car leaks a little so the pleather upholstery is also soggy and slightly mildewed. If she opens the car's boot, there's a rotting suitcase inside. In the engine, there's an old wasp nest, though fortunately no wasps are using it at the moment. This vehicle has been abandoned a long time.

"Yes, please. I've had fresh sausages, but not a hot dog." Endurance still puts the tin of soup near the fire, where hopefully it will heat up. It's been pre-prepared, so it's safe to eat straight out of the can, but it's nicer warm. And of indeterminate age, so cooking it again is probably a good idea to make sure it's not gone off. "Don't have any mustard. I traded my last sachet for the tins of soup and milk. That'll be pudding. It's not a great thing to have opened in the expectation of a meal." Endurance doesn't want to waste it, though. So he's planning on drinking it even if nobody else wants any.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Green perks up when Tristan mentions getting her memory checked out. She wouldn't mind knowing what had happened to her brain, but she wasn't about to prioritize it if Tristan or Endurance needed something else more. "...That would be ideal." She says finally, before resuming her (mostly pointless) cleaning.

[Rebonack]

[Wrecked Motorway]

"Well, you're in luck then since I came prepared," Tristan says as he sticks one end of the hot-dog fork in the ground before pulling out a plastic bag full of hot dog buns, a jar of sweet relish, and a jar of fancy mustard. The relish goes onto the bun first, then the roasted hot dog, then some mustard on top. He'll hold it out to Endurance. "There you go! That's usually how I make them for myself. I probably would have brought some more condiments if I had known there would be company."

Given that none of this food is expired (Tristan picked it up at a corner market on the way out of town) it's probably going to be pretty great compared to some of the things Endurance has suffered through.

While his new friend is enjoying the hot-dog Tristan will begin preparing his own.

Then?

He spots something!

Something up in the sky.

"Oh, right there! See that little star that looks like it's just cruising along across the sky? That's a satellite," he says, pointing toward the tiny glowing light. "They were all put up there for a reason. Would be a waste to put one in orbit if it WASN'T doing something. But I don't know what that one is for."

Communications of some kind, probably.

Tristan is feeling a little bad about Green being left out. Should he? She's a robot and standing over there cleaning a ruined car doesn't seem to bother her any. He really hasn't ever dealt with robots before.


[Thermal Lake]

Warding against poison is definitely a good idea in this fight.

Kothar evades the chomp and supplies some bite of his own! Figuratively speaking, of course. Physically biting this create would almost without question be a terrible idea. It isn't JUST venomous, it's poisonous too!

The axe carves into the beast, but as before it proves to be deceptively resilient. Even still, it isn't very happy about it. The creature decides to express its displeasure by raising both fists into the air before smashing them downward in a bid to crush Kothar with the overwhelming attack! Even if the attack misses it'll still result in a blinding spray of acid that explodes from the beast.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

Kothar leaps out of the way of the crushing blow and grabs onto the creature's flank. Digging his fingers in and ignoring the burning pain from its toxic blood, he tries to pull himself hand over hand until he's perched on its back, where he'll be difficult to reach.

[Morty]

[Wastelands]

Alright, these people are willing to take Frigate along to help them. This is... potentially good. The four goblins remain hidden, ready to follow the caravan once it sets out. If Frigate keeps up the act, he'll be able to extract some information, but they need to be ready to come to his help when needed. This will be tricky.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

Endurance also has tossed his sleeping bag onto the car's back seats, and it does indeed have lice in it.

Endurance takes the hot dog quite eagerly, taking a large bite and making a very happy noise. "Yeah, I see it. Moving star, huh. Wonder if that one's got any zombie seeds on it. I hope they stay up there, if it does." He frowns at the satellite, just in case it's the same type as the one that may have doomed his Earth.

Wastelands

Frigate does follow, his rolling stride adapted to stay steady on the deck of a ship, constantly in motion. His hands play over the volleygun he holds, though he doesn't raise it or try firing it- he's loaded it, so firing it would make a loud noise and put a hole in something. More accurately seven small holes, all overlapping a little. "I know not th' name Lord Absum. He the deity ye're pilgrimaging to?" And Earl is surprised pilgrimaging is a word.

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorway]

"Well, you're in luck then since I came prepared," Tristan says as he sticks one end of the hot-dog fork in the ground before pulling out a plastic bag full of hot dog buns, a jar of sweet relish, and a jar of fancy mustard. The relish goes onto the bun first, then the roasted hot dog, then some mustard on top. He'll hold it out to Endurance. "There you go! That's usually how I make them for myself. I probably would have brought some more condiments if I had known there would be company."

Given that none of this food is expired (Tristan picked it up at a corner market on the way out of town) it's probably going to be pretty great compared to some of the things Endurance has suffered through.

While his new friend is enjoying the hot-dog Tristan will begin preparing his own.

Then?

He spots something!

Something up in the sky.

"Oh, right there! See that little star that looks like it's just cruising along across the sky? That's a satellite," he says, pointing toward the tiny glowing light. "They were all put up there for a reason. Would be a waste to put one in orbit if it WASN'T doing something. But I don't know what that one is for."

Communications of some kind, probably.

Tristan is feeling a little bad about Green being left out. Should he? She's a robot and standing over there cleaning a ruined car doesn't seem to bother her any. He really hasn't ever dealt with robots before.

Wrecked Motorway

Endurance also has tossed his sleeping bag onto the car's back seats, and it does indeed have lice in it.

Endurance takes the hot dog quite eagerly, taking a large bite and making a very happy noise. "Yeah, I see it. Moving star, huh. Wonder if that one's got any zombie seeds on it. I hope they stay up there, if it does." He frowns at the satellite, just in case it's the same type as the one that may have doomed his Earth.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Green isn't offended. She's used to being more or less invisible; when she worked back home, it was usually in the background, if it could be managed, with a few obvious exceptions. Besides, this was a meal. She didn't exactly have the necessary commonalities to bond over it.

She does, however, take interest in the satellite. To the other two, it would just be a pretty light in the sky, but to her, it was (potentially) a wealth of electronic communication. She begins sorting through various signal formats, trying to determine whether it was active and what it was transmitting. GPS? Television? International Network? Any of those could be useful.

[Wastelands]

Alright, these people are willing to take Frigate along to help them. This is... potentially good. The four goblins remain hidden, ready to follow the caravan once it sets out. If Frigate keeps up the act, he'll be able to extract some information, but they need to be ready to come to his help when needed. This will be tricky.

Wastelands

Frigate does follow, his rolling stride adapted to stay steady on the deck of a ship, constantly in motion. His hands play over the volleygun he holds, though he doesn't raise it or try firing it- he's loaded it, so firing it would make a loud noise and put a hole in something. More accurately seven small holes, all overlapping a little. "I know not th' name Lord Absum. He the deity ye're pilgrimaging to?" And Earl is surprised pilgrimaging is a word.

[Wastelands]

Skuld doesn't reply immediately, seeming to take offense at the question. When she does finally answer, there's a touch of surliness in her voice. "Of course the natives of this forsaken place don't know Absum." She grumbles, more to herself than to Frigate. "Yes, he is our deity. The Great Not. One of the Lovers that watch over my people. And yes, we are pilgrimaging at his insistence. That is all I will say on the matter."

[Rebonack]

[Thermal Lake]

Kothar the salamander rider!

The beast leaps and thrashes and twists and turns and does everything in her power to dislodge the paladin!

If she manages to buck him off it might take her a moment or two to cease her flailing and realize that the lizard man isn't on her back any longer.

But if Kothar manages to keep his grip?

Then he'll be in the perfect position to line up a killing blow.

It's just a matter of maintaining your grip, Kothar. Keep hanging onto that salamander! Ride her like the wind!

Or. You know.

Get tossed on your face.

It's up to you!


[Wrecked Motorway]

It's too bad Green doesn't have any delousing protocols.

"Probably no zombie spores in that one. Satellites all got put up there by people. If they zombies came from falling stars then those weren't anything put up there by humans," Tristan reasons.

Then?

Something very important happens.

From his pack he removes a box of graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows, and some chocolate bars.

"You ever had smores before?" he asks as he sticks a marshmallow on the end of his roasting fork.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

As we have established, Kothar is strong as a giant, and he has some skill in riding too. This salamander is one of the more large and ferocious beasts he's wrangled, but he can handle it.
His biggest disadvantage here is that although he has the strength to hold on, he lacks the mass to pin the salamander in place. So instead he grips with his legs and hacks wildly at the creature's back with his axe, over and over again, trying not to be flung off.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler: [ABAJ - Night 3

Show

]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

There's a noncommittal hand wave from Syncope towards his first comment.
"You dying wouldn't be a straight line to their victory from here, not with this arrangement anyway."

Right around when the people in the monitor get to the voting portion of the Banquet, the screen turns into a wall of static.
She sighs.
"I was watching. Having Tiamat's interjection was an unexpected benefit here. I hadn't accounted for you already breaking the basic foundational enchantments of the bracelet, but it's working out for us.
I'm not going to be entirely vague with you here, I have some genuine advice for you, if you're interested."

Which is presented briefly as an opportunity for him to accept, but she doesn't give him the actual time to make the choice.
"Logic is a valuable tool, but it's not going to be your greatest ally here. If it was, I would be playing this game instead of you.
I think you got a piece of it there with your decision to protect that Hana girl, but you need to look at this from an emotional angle. The targets may have legitimate reasons to be targeted, but it will be incidental until you give them no other choice.
My associate wasn't drawn into this game for the opportunity to spill blood. They can do that anywhere. They were drawn here for a unique opportunity to break hearts and scar souls in an enclosed environment."

ABAJ - Day 3

”Well, I guess I figured something out then.
And for the record. Your associate. It’s the kid, right? Showed up right before the game, and the turquoise sword was absolutely terrified of him. Well, him or Eiko. Atsushi is going to tell me which one tomorrow.” He sniffs.
”At this point I could tell Jeb to use their xenophobia against them to take him out but it would be hard to go for a child. And more importantly, if Atsushi tells me Eiko is the demon I won’t be able to get them to go for anyone else. So tell me straight: do I have any actual chance of stopping him without the structure of the game?”

Syncope seems thoughtful about his theory here, before giving a small nod.
"A position of spiritual power or an unassuming child, seems a little obvious in hindsight, but if they were thinking they were just playing in a closed system of fools..."
Someone was being arrogant.
"Interesting."

Her fingers are tapped along the armrest of her chair while she stares into space thoughtfully for a good five seconds.
"Such as you are now, that is a fight you would almost certainly lose. Theoretically, a couple of the Arms could at least keep you alive, but I would not foresee winning. They are...difficult to terminate."
One can easily get the subtext here of either she's already tried that, or witnessed someone else trying that.
"I am hoping the specific nature of this little game will circumvent some of their particular defenses. Otherwise, at the minimum, they will be denied their original goal here.
This is all being vague again, I apologize, but ignorance is a shield for you at the moment."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Night 3

G'nichi shakes his head.
"Well there is one problem. Atsushi is the Hound I have set upon our last Demon, and he has only two suspects. There are two targets but only one I'm capable of acknowledging. If Eiko is the demon and he identifies that, then there's no way I can convince them that they need to kill a child first. And if she's not, there's no way I will be able to convince them to kill her first. I've done my best to minimize casualties, but that means I don't have any real way to get them to take out your associate. I'm afraid that's going to be your problem."
G'nichi looks strangely unbothered at the prospect of this being getting away. Why?
Because he still has no idea if she's telling the truth about any of this. For all he knows Ran really is just some kid and Syncope is simply trying to goad him into killing people as part of her own scheme. She's been quite up front about being a terrible person.

[Rebonack]

[Thermal Lake]

Kothar brings the axe down on the salamander's neck.

Again.

And again.

And again!

Each strike creates a retaliatory spray of caustic blood.

But then, at long last, something gives way within the monster and its head splashes into the shallow water.

That isn't the end, however.

Its body begins thrashing violently, spraying poison and acid everywhere! What an awful beast this creature was. Eventually, though, its death throes will end and it will fall still, rapidly rotting away into nothing and leaving a single toxic claw behind. The curved digest still sizzles with acid and a bit of bone at the base is about the right size for a hilt. Though it is questionable whether Kothar would want to wield such a savage weapon.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

It's dead. And it left a blade behind. Kothar picks it up, getting a feel for its weight, then slides it into the slot in the cage holding the amulet key. It's time to end this puzzle and move on to the next one. The volcano, maybe?

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Night 3]

Ah, a delightful little logic problem here.
Particularly the part where G'nichi has decided he doesn't seem to care about it.

"For the first part of your problem: I would recommend lying. Or you could try trusting Atsushi with the situation and convincing him of your plan before he says anything one way or another.
As for the second part of your problem: it will not be my problem."
There's a silvery shimmer across Syncope's face and she seems a little older in its wake. Harder features, longer hair.
Emptier eyes.
"This is the extent of my ability and desire to contain this problem, for reasons I will elaborate on later if you are still alive. If it fails, then everyone dies and I'll move on. Mother left quite the backlog of potential catastrophes, I certainly don't expect to stop all of them."

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

"Only according to the Mennonites. Fort Halleck an' the Blackfeet both said the plants were on satellites that were the meatier shower. Boyo weapons or something." So zombie plant seeds could be on that satellite- or worse, the dysentery that afflicted the survivors of the green shooting stars, or some other less obvious bioweapon or engineered plague.

"Not since I was a lad have I had smores. Mum made them, my fifth birthday party I think it was." And the crackers were stale by then, the chocolate had bloomed and the marshmallows... were still fine.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Night 3

G'nichi's eyes darken again.
See, the problem here is that Syncope simply told him he had to terminate all 3 targets. At no point did she specify he had to do so during the game. So he had been going this entire time on the assumption that she would set him up with a chance to hit his last target after it was over.
"Wow, it's almost like if I had been given more information at the start I would have actually known what to do! I understand that telling me about your associate would probably fry my brain or something. But would it kill you to at least give me some info on how much they're going to know? I didn't tell Atsushi anything because I was under the impression even hinting it to anyone out loud would compromise the whole thing."
He slumps into his seat with a breath.
"I know the usual. You can't explain what the entity you're protecting is nor how not killing The Third One somehow kills everyone. I don't care. Just tell me this: if I somehow succeed and I take out your associate, be it Ran or Eiko, do you think they will still influence the remaining Demon's decision? If I kill them can I tell the villagers the truth, since they will obviously know I lied if we kill them and the game doesn't end?" Guessing the demons' logic has already been a coin flip. With the mastermind gone, would the remaining demon choose more logically? Would they simply go for him to survive? He does not know.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Night 3]

One can almost see the calculus going on behind Syncope's eyes before she speaks again.
"It wouldn't melt your brain, they would likely detect that you were aware of their nature and become aware of the trap."

Her fingers steeple in her lap.
"How confident in your emotional control are you? Set aside the other concerns for a moment."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Night 3

G'nichi shrugs.
"If the last three days has shown anything, it's that the answer to that question is 'not as much as a paladin ought to be.' Why?"
Yeah he's....
He's been pretty mad the last few days.
And he hasn't been very good at hiding it.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Night 3]

"The honesty is wise. Your answer is why I must be vague. As far as your adversary is concerned, you are an open book."
There's a couple dots to connect here.
The adversary is going out of their way to provoke pain and distress and having poor emotional control is informationally dangerous.

A hostile empath of some nature.

Syncope immediately pivots away from that topic, evidently satisfied that she has imparted as much as she can deem safe.
"As for your concern about influencing the other Demon: they shouldn't be able to, no. Not by my understanding of their capabilities. The Demon should be isolated and left to their own capabilities, such as they are. They will still be a threat, however. They won't become 'cured' and friendly."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Night 3

G'nichi nods, though it's an answer he also dreads.
"Which means if it's Eiko, I'll have to contend with her own actual logic in her victim, and if it's Ran, I'll have to deal with the unpredictability of a child." Neither one is quite as easy to predict as "which will anger me the most."
Then again, even so it would likely be a struggle tomorrow anyway since he would have to decide whether or not to change protection.
"But either way, there are two suspects. Even if they lash out and kill me while I'm protecting someone else they will still be caught by Atsushi the next day." By some account, if he can actually take out this being, he will have won. But of course, even Syncope has only given him a 'maybe' on if that will do anything.

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorway]

It's too bad Green doesn't have any delousing protocols.

"Probably no zombie spores in that one. Satellites all got put up there by people. If they zombies came from falling stars then those weren't anything put up there by humans," Tristan reasons.

Then?

Something very important happens.

From his pack he removes a box of graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows, and some chocolate bars.

"You ever had smores before?" he asks as he sticks a marshmallow on the end of his roasting fork.

Wrecked Motorway

"Only according to the Mennonites. Fort Halleck an' the Blackfeet both said the plants were on satellites that were the meatier shower. Boyo weapons or something." So zombie plant seeds could be on that satellite- or worse, the dysentery that afflicted the survivors of the green shooting stars, or some other less obvious bioweapon or engineered plague.

"Not since I was a lad have I had smores. Mum made them, my fifth birthday party I think it was." And the crackers were stale by then, the chocolate had bloomed and the marshmallows... were still fine.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Green looks up when Endurance mentions that there could be zombie seeds on the satellite. "That seems unlikely." She says calmly (though to be fair, she could hardly say it any other way). "I am receiving an audio stream from the satellite. It does not sound like what a bioweapons platform would transmit. Would you like to hear it?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Night 3 -> Day 4, Morning]

"I would prefer you didn't die, so let's operate away from that presumption.
If you are quite certain these two are the threats, and I see no immediate reason to question your judgement on this, then my advise it to convince Atsushi however you are able, so that he can either lie or be creative. I suspect he has a better-than-most grasp of his emotions, if you warn him appropriately."
She holds up one of her hands and an image of something vaguely akin to an overly complicated clock briefly flickers into view.
"This is Good work you're doing, G'nichi, even though it doesn't feel that way. A lot of lives stand to be saved. Good luck."

And if he has nothing else to say, he'll wake up back in his little dorm room with the faintest wisps of fog retreating under the door frame.
Next to his bed, something that looks like a double-sided mace sits on the ground. Each "head" is rounded with not-quite-sharp ridges running vertically from the tip down to the handle.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 4

G’nichi wakes up, puts on his clothes (they’re getting quite dirty) and picks up the mace.
Terribly sorry for the rush, friend, but we are on a very tight schedule. If you have a preferred name let me know, otherwise tell me what you can do on the walk.
G’nichi heads immediately to Atsushi’s place. Or at least where he’s fairly sure it would be. He doesn’t really have an exact idea of which one is his but there’s not many residential buildings in this place.

[Purple Eagle]

Spoiler

Show

Blackheart Woods

"No. You summon a demon, ask it for a boon. The demon will want something in exchange for the boon, and you need to negotiate with it. If you word things poorly, you could lose your life, your soul, or release it onto the world. Then you seal the agreement with your blood. If it works, you could get something powerful- project hellfire from your fingertips, or you stop ageing, or whatever. But you have to do what the demon wants, or else the deal's broken, you lose the boon and it takes a price from you. Life, soul, etc. Diabolism is the one type of magic Dad didn't tolerate in the university. Every thing else, Dad could point you at someone to teach you." Even necromancy, though that'd probably be Benedict Beaulieu, who actually has dabbled in diabolism.

"Not the knife, I don't want to touch that whilst it's in that chalk circle. Rest of it... Yeah, I think so. Maybe leave the leg here for when we leave, so we're not lugging it around everywhere, or the egg. Breaking that might be bad." So that would be the skull carved with symbols of mortality, the three tallow candles, and the silver salt-shaker. Plus, of course, the tortured brass key, possibly the bloody pen, the coins (which are no longer legal tender, so one pound, three shillings and thruppence ha'pny may be equivalent to £1.38p, but don't add up to that) and the research on death energy.

[Blackheart Woods]

"Demonic and occulctic stuff is cool, I think, and that's the extent you'll find me engaging in any sort of religion." Unless Natalie has one and has managed to talk her into trying it out. "Even so... just goes to prove once again that dark magic isn't a toy... duh." She addresses that last sound at the pen, as if reprimanding its previous user.

"Looting time, then!" Karasu declares, flashing Natalie a smile before they get to work adding it to their stuff. "Breaking it might give us a new kid who thinks we're its mommies, too... you never know." Though it depends on how destructive said baby creature is.

"Should keep looking, find out what the key opens." She says, once they're done.

[Gullara]

[A Hunter must Hunt]

"A loner? Huh." Anika scratches her head. "I had hoped to get cubs or something. But I've seen hunters, they can tame just about anything so it shouldn't be a huge issue." If you had ever asking if Blanche actually was that kind of hunter perhaps, Anika...

"You just watch me wrestle that cat into submission, Mimi. I've done it plenty of times before!" Then she will turn back into a Saber and head straight for the opening!

[A Hunter must Hunt]

"Uh huh." Mimi sounds a bit skeptical. But if she can get that dang cat out of here, well it's worth a shot. right?

As Anika enters the small cave, she can quickly spy her quarry. It was watching the entrance as she approached, and now that she's just waltzed into its den it's on its feet in an instant. It bares its teeth at her and hisses threateningly. Back off.

[Earl of Purple]

Blackheart Woods

Natalie does not have a religion. She has a very basic understanding of the various entities worshipped in her version of the United Kingdom, as well as a few in France, Ireland and Germany, but doesn't actively worship any of them.

"Oh, I'm a fool! That might be a skeleton key, that'll magically open any lock. Hang on." Natalie holds her hand out to one side and gestures, a padlock appearing in her hand with a swirl of red symbols. She'll take the key and try locking the padlock, which works, and then unlocking it, which doesn't work. "...Oh. It's not a skeleton key, it's a gremlin key I think. It fits any lock, so long as you want to lock it." Which is less useful, but still potentially handy.

Natalie leads the way, through the metal blast door to a narrow and short corridor, ending with a wooden door. Natalie tries to move it, but it's stuck; water has swollen the wood, and rusted the hinges shut. If both girls push together, they can force it open, the hinges snapping and the weight of the door bringing it down. This is, in fact, not entirely a good thing. The room beyond is bare and empty, except for symbols similar to those on the skull daubed in rusty brown across the concrete floor, walls and ceiling, some of which are glowing to illuminate the room. There's a portcullis on the far side, with another corridor leading away. In the centre of the room is a large dead scorpion, at least a metre and a half long plus a fat and muscular tail, the chitinous exoskeleton marked with chalk symbols. The dead monster rises up as the door falls, and snaps its relatively small pincers menacingly.

[Morty]

[Wastelands]

The goblins follow the caravan and Frigate, keeping their distance and staying out of sight. Seems like these people are some kind of religious cult. Whether or not they're dangerous is yet to be determined...

[Rebonack]

[Thermal Lake]

The weapon is placed into the pedestal and the cage peels away, leaving the amulet free to be collected.

It doesn't...

Do anything.

No magical powers or anything of the like. The key is just a key.

Just a very, very shiny key.

It can be grabbed without issue.

Should Kothar decide to leave at this point he'll discover an even dozen fishmen waiting for him outside the room.

They all watch him expectantly.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Endurance will receive the first smore as with the hot dog while Tristan begins fixing a second one for himself.

"Yeah, I've got to agree. Putting zombie spores on a satellite doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Just in general. It takes a lot of energy to put something up in orbit so typically you need a really good reason to do it," he says as he begins roasting a second marshmallow. "Sure! Let's hear the feed, Green."

Hopefully it's some classic post apocalyptic oldies.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

Kothar grabs the amulet and puts it with the other one. Then it's out and below... Where did all these fishmen come from? Again, he won't fight them if they don't attack. He just wants to push past them and swim down to the exit and out.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Hunter must Hunt]

Wow, such hostaility. Dealing with a real loner here, huh? Maybe it had cubs? Or wounded?
Either way, Anika had had actually spent enough time with sabers to actually look around the cave before she starts doing anything else. Just looking for signs that any of her theories might be correct.

But if it was just simply alone she's going to start baring her own teeth. Trying to provoke an attack from it as it would be difficult to fight while it was backed into the cave like that.

[Morty]

[Dimensional Troubles]

Thariza shrugs her shoulders and tries to straighten up a little, pretending to be more confident about the situation than she really is. It's not working. She'll follow the drone when it's time.