Outside 50: Meeting nature halfway

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

"Maybe it's an algae or something? I'd better wash when I get back, and get changed." Maybe burn the clothes, too, but they don't really have enough clothes to afford burning them unless they're sure. Nor do they have much fire, since they've got a limited amount of fires they can start left.

Either way, the girls will carry on and leave the statues behind them, as well as the strange glowing water. Endurance will follow, since he's curious about a community made up entirely of girls. Green and Tristan can follow, or not, as they decide.

Wastelands Campsite

"A... what?" Democracy isn't a word Frigate's familiar with. He just knows that on some, independent, ships (pirate ships, primarily) all the crew vote for the captain and the quartermaster, and if the captain makes a decision the crew vote on it and if they don't like it they elect a new captain. The captain's orders go unquestioned in combat, and he's responsible for plotting their course and deciding if they attack, try a ruse or ignoring a vessel they encounter.

[Ironsmith]

Mellie's Hole
"Nope! Never heard of it!" Fortunately, Kothar has his own ideas. "We going to Inside. He find way from there."
"Oh! That's just a half a day downriver, if you go by boat. Longer on foot. The Guosio take passengers if you need a lift."

[Mellie's Hole]

"The Guosio? What the devil are the Guosio?" Alan asks, finding no reference to anything of the sort in his data banks. The best information he can come up with is that they sound vaguely Italian.

Wastelands Campsite

"A... what?" Democracy isn't a word Frigate's familiar with. He just knows that on some, independent, ships (pirate ships, primarily) all the crew vote for the captain and the quartermaster, and if the captain makes a decision the crew vote on it and if they don't like it they elect a new captain. The captain's orders go unquestioned in combat, and he's responsible for plotting their course and deciding if they attack, try a ruse or ignoring a vessel they encounter.

[Wastelands Campsite]

"We don't actually put it to a vote." Evelyn helpfully informs him as they go back into the cave. Skuld has taken up her old position at the mouth of the cave, in a meditative pose, sitting cross-legged on the ground. The rest of the knights gradually return to their old activities, except they're still armed and armored, ready to spring into combat on the off chance the demo- goblins decide to return. The only exception is the wolf-knight with the harpoon in him, who has since had it removed and is slowly recovering in the back of the cave, by the wicker bars.

"So, master Frigate." Horace pats the ground next to him. "You come from another land, right? What say you we swap stories for a while?"

[Rebonack]

[Volcanic Fields]

"Ah. You united with the humans against a common foe," Sssnek reasons. "That is a just reason. We have no such common enemy. I hope, in spite of this, we may still find peace."

Peace is what everyone wants, right?

Sssnek hopes so.

Warriors fight so that others may have peace.

There are other reason why a warrior might fight, but Sssnek thinks little of those reasons.

Fighting for wealth? For booty? Pah. The earth and the sea below gives enough for Sssnek and his people.

He'll allow Kothar to continue his story.


[Totally Lost]

Khannie really doesn't know different types of rocks.

Her friends at the dorf fort know different types of rocks and have tried to tell her about them before but the knowledge really didn't stick. Black rock, grey rock, kind of swirly pink rock, flattish black rock. They're all just different colors of rocks to Khannie. She picks up one of the pink ones and tosses it at the funny rock with a hole in it sticking out of the lake. Her aim isn't exactly amazing but it isn't terrible, either. She'll gaze out over the lake a little longer, then check out the shack.

This all means that right as she's getting close out comes Seraphina!

"Oh... well, maybe it's so old that Riftline hadn't been built yet?" Khannie reasons. When were the trains made? It was a long time ago, right? She's pretty sure it was before she was born, even.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Tristan is definitely going to accompany them. He had told them he would provide directions to GLoG if they decided that's where they want to move. But hey, who knows? Maybe now that the chavs have apparently been left behind in another world they aren't going to want to up and move?

It is also worth noting that Green will have noted that there was zero microbial life of any kind in the glowing water. This is in spite of the fact that it doesn't appear to be toxic or radioactive in any way. There are no physical attributes to the water that explain why it is glowing or why it could be absolutely sterile. Both of those things are quite strange and if Tristan is made away of the sterility part he'll probably thing it is REALLY strange. Tristan, after all, has a BS degree in marine biology and he's working on his masters! Anyone who knows even a little bit about biology would be aware of just how bizarre truly sterile water found outside a lab is.

So!

Unless something else weird happens it looks like the party will make it back to the girls' camp?

[Ironsmith]

Wrecked Motorway

"Maybe it's an algae or something? I'd better wash when I get back, and get changed." Maybe burn the clothes, too, but they don't really have enough clothes to afford burning them unless they're sure. Nor do they have much fire, since they've got a limited amount of fires they can start left.

Either way, the girls will carry on and leave the statues behind them, as well as the strange glowing water. Endurance will follow, since he's curious about a community made up entirely of girls. Green and Tristan can follow, or not, as they decide.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Tristan is definitely going to accompany them. He had told them he would provide directions to GLoG if they decided that's where they want to move. But hey, who knows? Maybe now that the chavs have apparently been left behind in another world they aren't going to want to up and move?

It is also worth noting that Green will have noted that there was zero microbial life of any kind in the glowing water. This is in spite of the fact that it doesn't appear to be toxic or radioactive in any way. There are no physical attributes to the water that explain why it is glowing or why it could be absolutely sterile. Both of those things are quite strange and if Tristan is made away of the sterility part he'll probably thing it is REALLY strange. Tristan, after all, has a BS degree in marine biology and he's working on his masters! Anyone who knows even a little bit about biology would be aware of just how bizarre truly sterile water found outside a lab is.

So!

Unless something else weird happens it looks like the party will make it back to the girls' camp?

[Wrecked Motorway]

Well, there is one thing...

As the group proceeds, they come across a handful of cars that don't seem to be wrecked. In fact, they look like they just rolled out of the factory; the paint is still bright, untarnished and unchipped, and the chasses don't seem to have any of the denting or scratches that would come over years of use. So far, the girls, Tristan, and Green will be able to see five such cars, parked in an inward-facing circle around a campfire. There's about a dozen people there (seven men, five women) who've set up lawnchairs and a few coolers. They're deep in conversation, which is interpsersed with bouts of raucous laughter. They don't seem to have noticed the group yet.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Steelbite Canyon]

So much for helping him. Ah well. They all made their choice. May they show better judgement in their next lives.

"Clean work. And it looks like we have a captive," Calm Reed says to Atreyu. "We need to be quick about getting information out of him."

[Fort Aegis Resort]

"Ah, divine aid. This isn't the first time I've seen dragons using it to get children since coming to the nexus actually." Ambrosia glances curiously at the hatchlings. "Perhaps you could introduce them to us? I don't even know their names yet. They're just so diverse, must be a true joy to see them playing around."

Fort Aegis Resort

Did someone say partially divine hatchling?
No?
Well Heuldra is here anyway.
The little hatchling has tracked her daddy to this particular room and squeezes through the gap he left in the sliding door. Squeaking, the platinum-scaled hatchling totters right up to the pool, hops in, and swims immediately to Sylvess to curl up on his hanging wing.

[Fort Aegis Resort]

The little dragons are more adorable than is entirely reasonable. Thariza has never had a particular appreciation for children but she finds herself charmed by them, particularly the platinum one.

"That does answer a few questions, including some I didn't know I had. For all I knew, dragons are normally multi-colored. Then again Charr inherit their parents' fur and horns, so I don't know why dragons would be different." Now a divine intervention... she's not sure about this one. When her own people sought divine aid against their enemies, it didn't end well for just about anyone involved.

[Steelbite Canyon]

"Yeah, yeah. I- gimme a minute." Atreyu mutters, slipping to the floor with a grunt. "Wounds still don't heal that quick like this, and I don't fancy walking far on this leg 'til it's in a bit better shape. Should be alright in a minute or so." He points over to the vines, "Fella's trapped in that mess. Get yerself over there to grab him and gimme a signal and I'll dismiss them."

Atreyu will wait until Calm Reed is good and ready and in position before he dismisses the vines.

*****

[Fort Aegis Resort]

"Oh well, uh-" Sylvess pauses mid-stutter as he sees Heuldra hop into the water. "A-a-aaah, Heuldra, who let you w-w-wander down here by yourself? Come on, u-up you get!" He swims over towards her, shifting his wing nice and low to scoop his child out of the water.

The other two on his back give little peeps and wander over to sniff and nuzzle at Heuldra, happy to see their fellow sibling.

Uh, yes, w-well I've got three of them here. These are Drassinalrenn, Nasiralrenn, and Heuldranwm." He gives a nervous chuckle, "My mate insisted we keep the names brief. Well, for the most part anyway."

[5a Violista]

[Totally Lost]

It's okay, most people don't know the different kinds of rocks.

Just throwing one rock, Khannie thankfully just barely misses the hole, so nothing happens.

"Yeah, probably," Seraphina says. She gets closer then flips to the back of the book where she found the map. "The train seemed pretty new when I rode it and this shack is really old."

She shows the map to Khannie, pointing out where they are on the map. There's the road, the village down that way, and the map suggests the road they were on is an old smuggler's road. There's a couple minor trails that loop nearby but don't intersect the road (the smugglers didn't want anyone just wandering down nearby trails to find it unless they knew where they were going). There's also a few other smaller ponds and streams and volcanic features around, labeled with names. A few of the trails, when they go off the page, have an archaic distance unit, a number, and villages or farms or whatever in that direction. It includes one called "Caldas da Rainha", which is a mountainside hot-springs resort town that one of my other characters has been to and does have a station, but also isn't one of the closest towns. There's also a couple others that are obviously villages or towns but that I have not come up with a name for yet. Plus, there's one labeled "Dungeon" with a picture of a skull by it, towards the mountains too. Probably not the thing to explore when you didn't pack provisions for dungeon exploration.

"Recognize any of these features or places? Any have train stations that you'd know?"

[Earl of Purple]

Wastelands Campsite

Frigate will sit down, rather ponderously. He's glad there isn't a chair involved- he broke the last one he sat on. And the one before that, but the one before that was fortunately a wooden stump.

"Aye, well. I have many stories. O' places I've seen, people I've met, battles I've fought an' ships I've sailed. I was built t' sail the sea, by a battlesmith turned ship's mage. What kind o' story would ye like t' hear? One o' the Dead Ships, sailin' the deepest dark? One o' crime, an' punishment, an' a legal fate sidestepped by a technicality o' nature? Mermaids, pretty as lionfish an' just as deadly?" Frigate's forgotten these people think of him as a sky-sailor, and hasn't managed to get a job on a flying ship so all his stories are sea-based in nature. And often either end or start with Frigate falling overboard.

Wrecked Motorway

The girls will hang back, keeping out of the light as they examine the people at the fire. They're looking for weaponry, first of all. These people outnumber them, and whilst they've got no guards out that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous- just foolish or confident enough to think they're safe here. And maybe it is, maybe whatever those statues were about is long gone and harmless. Maybe they're preparing an attack on their camp, maybe they've already done so. It's possibly odd that they didn't hear the engines, but there's a lot going on.

Endurance hangs back too. He's seen vehicle circles like this before, though usually they're considerably better fortified, and the cars are a lot more beat up. Maybe these ones still go? Endurance can't tell. He'll hold a hand out to stop Green, because she seems naive enough to go them, but he's checking at what's on the fire. His apocalypse, unlike that of the girls, has led to some instances of cannibalism, especially amongst groups and generally directed towards strangers.

[Murkus]

The Green

Artie nods at the mention of water. She feels like she could drink an ocean. Probably because she hasn't had much to eat or drink since her transformation.
"Hello. You must be a friend of Vivi's? She was helping me with clothes and said you could help. I'm Artie." she introduces herself to the spider.

The Green

"Why, I'm so glad she mentioned me!" says the spider with the rather posh accent. He wears a vest with gold buttons and multiple sleeves. He has a slender (yet still quite round) lower abdomen, exactly like one would expect to find on a spider, this one striped with jagged swipes of yellow and black. "I am Sir Savarins Schul. But please, call me Savarins. A tailor by trade. Charmed, truly, charmed. And you?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

Artie has approximate knowledge of spiders. Some kind of orb weaver, perhaps?
”I am Artesia of House Wadjet. Vivi made this vest for me. But I don’t have anything else that fits me. And while lovely I can’t wear this every day.”
It’s also not something she would wear to class or job interviews. Feathers are for special occasions.

[Ironsmith]

Wastelands Campsite

Frigate will sit down, rather ponderously. He's glad there isn't a chair involved- he broke the last one he sat on. And the one before that, but the one before that was fortunately a wooden stump.

"Aye, well. I have many stories. O' places I've seen, people I've met, battles I've fought an' ships I've sailed. I was built t' sail the sea, by a battlesmith turned ship's mage. What kind o' story would ye like t' hear? One o' the Dead Ships, sailin' the deepest dark? One o' crime, an' punishment, an' a legal fate sidestepped by a technicality o' nature? Mermaids, pretty as lionfish an' just as deadly?" Frigate's forgotten these people think of him as a sky-sailor, and hasn't managed to get a job on a flying ship so all his stories are sea-based in nature. And often either end or start with Frigate falling overboard.

[Wastelands Campsite]

Horace has to mull that one over for a bit. He'd heard of mermaids, of course; malicious spirits that preyed on fishing boats and other small vessels off the coast, dragging their victims to a watery grave. Not even for food, for fun. The idea of one of those sea-devils being attractive just sounded off to him, and he doubted Frigate was going to tell the story of the brave sailor that finally got rid of them. Dead Ships had more appeal, but was a little too close to their current situation for comfort. "How's crime and punishment, then?" He says finally. At least that story was implied to have a happy ending, and he did love a good wily protagonist.

[Rebonack]

[Totally Lost]

That sure is great that Khannie didn't manage to cause some sort of terrible thing to happen by being good at throwing rocks.

Excellent job, Khannie!

Your incompetence maybe saved the day.

After contemplating the map for a few minutes Khannie concludes, "No I don't know any of these places. I don't really get off the train usually before I get to GLoG."

This is the problem with being totally lost. You have no idea where you are or what the surroundings are. That means Khannie really doesn't have any particularly helpful advice about the surroundings or the layout of the land. But what CAN she do? She can make suggestions!

"You said that village over here was creepy," Khannie says, pointing at one location. "So we probably don't wanna go there, right? What about this one over here? All the towns around Outside have Riftline stations usually. We just have to go to one then we can leave from there."

Khannie is pretty tempted to check out the dungeon but she has no idea where they are and doesn't have any of the supplies for exploring dungeons! Just a couple sandwiches for her lunch.

Hopefully they don't get roped into plumbing the dungeon anyway by weird circumstances.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Huh.

Well.

Those people look basically fine?

Did they just drive out here from the City for a fun tailgate camping trip in...

...a blasted post-apocalyptic part of Outside?

That doesn't strike Tristan as terribly likely. Possible, sure. There are some seriously weird people who live in Inside. Or even in some of the outlying villages around Inside. But as far as explanations go that one seems a bit on the lacking side. He's in agreement with Endurance and the girls here. Just give the campers plenty of space and let them keep doing their thing. Worst possible outcome is that they might miss out on a cold drink and a warm laugh but Tristan is pretty sure most of these kids are below the legal drinking age.

Just keep walking, folks.

Just keep walking.

[bc56]

Volcanic Fields
Sssnek is absolutely right. That is why Kothar fights, for peace and safety for others. That is why his goddess chose him.
"It took over a year to explore the great mountain fortress and find the evil within. An eye tyrant, a great creature of magic and cunning, had been plotting within for centuries. We three slew Vox Vorago and took its eyes as trophies. The fortress, we gave to a great silver dragon to govern, we had no more interest in those ruins. And we went out separate ways.
But in that time, the two others: the human mage of fey blood Euclid and the elf assassin Arboreas, they became more than my allies. They became my friends."

Mellie's Hole
"They're beastfolk. Mice, I think. They paddle logboats up and down the river. I can take you to their dock tomorrow, if you'd like." Mellie explains. "They might not be there. They travel around. But it's a good starting place anyway."

[Ironsmith]

Wrecked Motorway

The girls will hang back, keeping out of the light as they examine the people at the fire. They're looking for weaponry, first of all. These people outnumber them, and whilst they've got no guards out that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous- just foolish or confident enough to think they're safe here. And maybe it is, maybe whatever those statues were about is long gone and harmless. Maybe they're preparing an attack on their camp, maybe they've already done so. It's possibly odd that they didn't hear the engines, but there's a lot going on.

Endurance hangs back too. He's seen vehicle circles like this before, though usually they're considerably better fortified, and the cars are a lot more beat up. Maybe these ones still go? Endurance can't tell. He'll hold a hand out to stop Green, because she seems naive enough to go them, but he's checking at what's on the fire. His apocalypse, unlike that of the girls, has led to some instances of cannibalism, especially amongst groups and generally directed towards strangers.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Huh.

Well.

Those people look basically fine?

Did they just drive out here from the City for a fun tailgate camping trip in...

...a blasted post-apocalyptic part of Outside?

That doesn't strike Tristan as terribly likely. Possible, sure. There are some seriously weird people who live in Inside. Or even in some of the outlying villages around Inside. But as far as explanations go that one seems a bit on the lacking side. He's in agreement with Endurance and the girls here. Just give the campers plenty of space and let them keep doing their thing. Worst possible outcome is that they might miss out on a cold drink and a warm laugh but Tristan is pretty sure most of these kids are below the legal drinking age.

Just keep walking, folks.

Just keep walking.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Endurance was right; Green is naive enough to immediately want to talk to the people. In fact, she's quite tangibly trying to walk toward them when Endurance stops her, and only then seems to get the hint that Endurance doesn't want her talking to them.

However, for better or for worse, a group of half a dozen schoolgirls is not especially difficult to spot. One of the tailgaters sees them and calls out.

"Hey, hey! We got us some friends over here!"

This is followed by a unified cheer from the group, who all raise various canned beverages in appreciation. One of them, a balding man in a white labcoat, waves them over.

"Welcome to Toby's Corner. I'm Toby. This is my friend, Tobi." The man pats one of the nearby women on the shoulder.

"ToBY!" "Whoo!" "Yeah, ToBIIIIIIII!"

These guys are certainly enthusiastic. Thankfully, they seem friendly enough and don't look to be armed.

Mellie's Hole
"They're beastfolk. Mice, I think. They paddle logboats up and down the river. I can take you to their dock tomorrow, if you'd like." Mellie explains. "They might not be there. They travel around. But it's a good starting place anyway."

[Mellie's Hole]

"...Mice." Alan looks at Mellie incredulously. "...You want us to get a log ride to Inside from a bunch of mice." That sounded like a supremely bad idea. While he didn't quite know what the size difference between them would be, he had a vague idea that it was going to be substantial. Not to mention, traveling on the river as a non-waterproof robot was something like telling him they could reach their destination by lava-surfing.

[Morty]

[Steelbite Canyon]

Calm Reed takes up her position and try to grab the raider as soon as the vines are gone. Her grip is vice-like and her strength is superhuman. And she's quite determined not to let him escape.

[5a Violista]

[Totally Lost]

It's always nice to know when your own personal lack of skills have saved the day. If someone else had been in her position, they would've caused problems, surely.

"The town over that way didn't have a station, either," Seraphina says. Not only was it creepy, but it didn't have a train station. Or any signs that pointed towards one.

She looks at the map. Since the trail doesn't actually connect to the road and Seraphina doesn't recognize any of these distance units, that'll make it hard to find where to leave the road, especially if any markers are as old as this book is. "So that one's the next closest..." She has an idea! The map has the lake on it, and it seems like it's to scale. Seraphina turns towards the lake, lowers her hood until it lines up with the other end of the lake, and then looks at the map again. "So it's one-and-a-half lakes in that direction..."
Seraphina quickly runs it through her mind to make sure she's doing this right, and then starts down the road, using the position of her hood to gauge how many steps a 'lake' is to estimate how far half-a-lake is, and counting out the steps under her breath.

"...forty, forty-one, two thousand five hundred forty-two."
She stops and turns. "Should be straight ahead."

Of course, they'll have to walk through tall grass and past those trees, but if they do that, they'll find the slightly-overgrown trail where one direction goes to the town.

It'll be a pretty long walk, actually.
Very boring.
"If you need food or water, I've got enough for a couple days," she says.

Unless something happens on the trail or they have a weird encounter or something,
they'll get to the town just past nightfall (since it was a little farther than the creepy town).
Notably, in this town, there's no people visible. Definitely evidence that there were people around during the day, but no people. No Riftline station here, either, but judging by things that are still out, they clearly get trade from both Inside and Riverside so there's got to be a train station not far from here. If they could find someone or even just go to a public building, there's sure to be directions to the nearest station there. Or even a phone! Cell service is still pretty spotty around here but there's a payphone booth in town.
Probably the second-most notable thing after seeing that there's no people around is that there's several stone statues around. Looks like they were made to mimic the appearance of people living their everyday life, giving a feeling similar to walking through a nuclear test town filled with mannequins.

[Rebonack]

[Volcanic Fields]

"The camaraderie of arms runs deep. A common threat would surely allow us to make an easier peace with the humans, but the vile fishmen of the lake have not been raiding along the rivers as much as they once did," Sssnek sighs. "I hope the offer of trade will be enough."

Soon enough signs of human settlements will rise into view.

The first and most obvious?

A field of cereal.

It is summer time, so the humans are busy with the process of harvest. Cutting the grass, gathering the grain into bundles to be processed further. That seems to be the human way. They shape the land rather than living off it.

The farmers look a little concerned about the pair of lizard folk walking down the road, exchanging whispers and concerned looks. One of them climbs onto a horse and rides off toward the village.

So long as our heroes are within eyeshot the farmers have ceased their work to watch.


[Wrecked Motorway]

Toby.

And his friends, Toby, Toby, Toby, and some more Tobys.

Tristan's eyes widen as he draws a conclusion about what might be going on here. If it's anything like what he thinks it is, then they are in real and immediate danger. There's no way in hell he's falling for something like this again. He'll raise his voice enough for the girls to hear him, though hopefully not enough to be heard by the Toby swarm.

"Keep going. Do not talk to them. Do not make eye contact with them. Do not take anything they offer you. Do not tell them your name. And for the love of God if they address you as 'Toby' absolutely ignore them," Tristan warns, some measure of fear in his voice.

Do you think they're r-really like the Buttercups?
Hell if I know but I'm not finding out.
Just keep walking walking walking just keep waaaalking~


[Totally Lost]

"That doesn't sound like a very great town," Khannie reasons. Creepy AND no train station? What's it even good for, then? Maybe as a place to beat up some bad guys but Khannie isn't looking for a fight. She doesn't HAVE to fight things to get stronger anymore like she did when she was a pokemon so it's better to avoid picking battles if she can.

Khannie is pretty curious about the map-using method to estimate distance. That's math! Khannie really likes math. "Can you teach me how you knew all that?"

That'll give them something to talk about on the boring walk hopefully it won't cause Seraphina to lose count. If nothing else they've still got Maridia to peek at things from up in the sky. Nothing like a fairy dragon's eye view to help with navigation! Then off through the tall grass they go. Thankfully no pokemon leap out at them.

"I've got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and a juice box," Khannie says as she digs through the provisions in her backpack. "The juice is grape."

Just in case the type of juice ends up being important.

Given how long this walk is (Khannie's legs are feeling a bit tired by the end) she'll have definitely eaten all of her food and shared part of the honey sandwich with Maridia. She's still not getting cell coverage because if she WAS then she could use the map on her phone or call her daddy and then he and Zebes would come get her.

But at least they're at a village, right?

A village with no people around.

And stuff for markets just left sitting outside.

...and statues of people who look like they were just doing normal people things standing all over the place.

"Rule four: No one carves statues of frightened warriors. If you see one, keep your eyes closed and your ears open," Khannie says, her tone suggesting that she's quoting from something. Which she is. Khannie is quite fortunate that her uncle is really genre savvy and as such she is aware of the Mystic's Rules for Dungeon Survival. "There might be a monster or something around that turns people to stone. We've gotta be careful. Let's look inside a few places and see if there's anyone around. But... um... maybe keep your eyes on the ground mostly? Maridia? Stay invisible and look around for us."

The fairy dragon gives a little salute and shimmers out of view.

[Murkus]

The Green

Artie has approximate knowledge of spiders. Some kind of orb weaver, perhaps?
”I am Artesia of House Wadjet. Vivi made this vest for me. But I don’t have anything else that fits me. And while lovely I can’t wear this every day.”
It’s also not something she would wear to class or job interviews. Feathers are for special occasions.

[The Green]

"You don't have anything else? My, my, you really are in need of my assistance!" Savarins chuckles. "Why don't the two of you come inside, have some tea, and we'll see what can be done?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

Artie gives the spider a smile and slithers inside. Due to the length of her serpentine body it'll be a while before they can shut the door behind her.
"Well, I have a few in this size, but they wouldn't fit me now even if this one wasn't covered in juice. Long story." she waves the tied shirt she's been using as a bag. She'll find a nice spot to put it down. The fruits are quite tasty and there's no sense in throwing good food away.

[5a Violista]

[Totally Lost]

"I'll explain it when we find the trail," Seraphina says, not wanting to lose track of her paces or her target. Sadly, that makes this part more boring, but the walk down the trail to the town will be even longer and even more boring. "I learned how to do it when I was about your age." Like, ten or twelve, right?

Once they get on the trail, Seraphina starts explaining. She shows the book: "Well, first of all, this is a scale map, you can tell for sure because of this bar over here." Does Khannie know what a scale map is? Seraphina decides to explain, just in case, to make the later explanations easier. "Meaning, if something is drawn twice as big as something else, then it's also twice as big in real life."

Still walking, she lays her finger next to the map's lake. "See how the lake is the distance from my finger to this knuckle?" She moves her finger to the diagram's road. "So, here's the length of my finger, and..." She moves her finger, lining up the knuckle where the tip was before. "And a half. The distance was one-and-a-half lakes."

They don't need to look at the book anymore, so Seraphina closes it. "But! I can't walk on water, so I don't know exactly how long the lake is, right?" It's true. She can't walk on water.
And walking on water across that lake would actually be pretty dangerous, because of the gases coming out of the middle of the lake.
"As long as you're on flat ground, there's a trick you can do, as long as you're wearing a hat," she explains. "As long as it's flat and you hold your head level," (and there's no magic weirdness or heat distortions going on) Seraphina holds a hand straight out at a very slight upward angle, and then roates it as if she's about to do a salute, and then stops, "something that's the same distance away will be in the same position in your view. So I lined up my hood with the end of the lake, and then when we got on the road, I saw how far that would be, kept my eyes on that spot, and counted how many steps that was until we got there." And then comes the math! "So then I knew we walked the length of the lake, and so I just cut in half how many steps that was and because I knew the trail was one-and-a-half-lakes, I then knew how many more steps we had to take." There! Pretty simple explanation, right? "Does my explanation make sense?"

---

So.
Town.

At first, Seraphina doesn't know what Khannie's talking about: she doesn't see anybody frightened around here.
"Oh. Okay." Seraphina looks down. She's been to enough weird small Outside towns that she recognizes that something is very off and it's best to not stick around longer than they want to. "If we do run into anyone, be sure to not make it obvious where we're trying to get to. If they know exactly where we're going, whatever caused this will know what roads we need to take." And presumably will try to draw them back in before they can get away. Funny, this was just a rule from dealing with fairies in stories, but after going into a lot of creepy towns, she figured it's more universally applicable when it comes to weird situations that you want to avoid.
Then, the more important question: "Was that a quote from something?"

If they look in any of the houses, they'll find there's also statues in there. Most of them are just doing normal every-day things, but one-in-four houses have one statue interacting with another statue, but not in the way one person would interact with another person; instead, more like someone would interact with a statue that they think is important, like holding a rag and cleaning it, or dusting it, or laying a (long-wilted) rose in front of it.
It's weird.


Meanwhile!
Actually, Maridia will be able to notice something.
On the other side of town, there's a young man who is not a statue. He's looking at the statues.

[bc56]

Mellie's Hole
Mellie seems a bit insulted by Alan's outburst. "They're normal sized, like me. And if you don't like it, you can always walk!" She hmphs and looks away from Alan.

Village Fields
Kothar doesn't respond to the humans. It doesn't see especially important to him. He'll wait to talk until he reaches the town proper or someone tries to stop him.

[Ironsmith]

Mellie's Hole
Mellie seems a bit insulted by Alan's outburst. "They're normal sized, like me. And if you don't like it, you can always walk!" She hmphs and looks away from Alan.

[Mellie's Hole]
Alan clunks up to Mellie and wordlessly puts his hand to the top of her head, then brings it over to himself, demonstrating that Mellie's idea of "normal sized" was still a little over half his height. He then brings his hand over to Kothar, tapping it to the lizardman's side to demonstrate an even more radical size difference.

"...I think we'll walk, thanks."

[Chaotic Bob]

ABAJ - Day 4

"Sorry, Eiko. But you can't pull that one on me. I already know my sources are reputable." he shrugs.
"But I know all of you have had enough of hearing about my magic that I can't prove. Let's go on facts: why would Yuu and Atsushi go after Mari and Hana, their friends, first? Sure going after one might make them avoid suspicion, but why would they eliminate everyone who would easily side with them? That only makes their lives harder. Of course, I can't explain what insane logic you're going on. Mari, Hana, and now these two. I would have never figured that you hated teenagers so much. And why would Hana be lying about being the Raven."

"And for the record, no, there aren't any spiderwebs in my room. I was visited by a very much living spider which promptly vanished without a trace. Do you really think props you can find outside mean anything? Look, I can use irrelevant props, too! Since I can't prove most of the magic I use, say hello to the good townsfolk, Shar." he gently holds up his mace, giving him permission to speak. Might as well prove that he does actually have magic.

It's a special sort of madness, from the perspective of the devout, to be so blatantly hostile towards their priestess in this fashion.
And yet, no one is really getting in the way. Most of them are watching with rapt attention.

Hana seems to have connected a dot or two in here, and her rage is twisting into something more resembling horror, and Atsushi looks highly stressed.

"I bear no grudge towards the people of this town, G'nichi. However, pre-existing grudges need not necessarily apply. Perhaps removing one's friends from the situation first would be a dark form of mercy."
Lady Eiko seems inclined to address the other points he's presented, up until Shar speaks.

Its (his?) voice booms out, commanding and deep.
"Hark, bewitched villagers. My wielder is likewise a mouthpiece of the gods, but comes only with the desire to rescue you from this game of death."

This is another form of lunacy, one which seems to have left most of the group open-mouth flabbergasted.
Except for Lady Eiko.
"You seem to possess many interesting artifacts. Many which seem like to help you break the rules of our confinement."

[Rebonack]

[Totally Lost]

"I'm almost thirteen," Khannie helpfully clarifies.

Then?

She'll learn about using scale maps. She finds all of this information very fascinating and makes a point of remembering it since being able to read a map is definitely an important thing that an adventurer should be able to do and of course she's going to be an adventurer when she grows up just like her daddy was.

There can be no other fate for her.

"That makes lots of sense I'll remember that."

And she definitely will!

Even after many grueling hours of walking.

So.

Back to town things.

"Yeah it's from Mystic's Guide to Dungeon Survival," Khannie says as she walks along watching the ground a ten or so feet in front of her toes. "It's a little pamphlet with rules about not doing dumb things in dungeons. I found it between the pages of one of dad's old books."

The pamphlet lives in her room now and she reads it every now and again to make sure she knows all the rules for the next time she goes to a dungeon.

As our heroes continue to explore the town Khannie grows increasingly uneasy. Nothing but statues. And they all looked like they started being statues while in the middle of doing things.

...including cleaning other statues.

"These are all people turned to stone," Khannie concludes. "They gotta be. But it didn't all happen at once, though. See that guy? He was cleaning off that other statue when he turned to stone, so that other one must have turned into a statue first. And! Oh no! The one with the flower!"

That one is probably the saddest.

"We should get outta here fast in case the statue making thing is still around," Khannie suggests moments before she gets some info from Maridia. "Oh! There's a person on the other side of the town! He doesn't look like he knows what's going on either, we should probably warn him that he should leave before he turns into a statue, too. He's this way!"

Khannie starts off in the indicated direction.


[Village!]

Our heroes don't reach the village.

Not yet.

Mostly because the town militia will meet them a healthy distance from the town.

They're all armed, but their weapons aren't drawn.

Yet.

That's at least a little bit comforting.

A tall, bearded man with some burns on one side of his face steps forward. "What's your business here, lizards?" he asks in a gruff, no nonsense tone.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 4

G'nichi nods.
"I have many artifacts. The one that led me here like an idiot. The one I had on the first day, which told me that Jeb and Fudo and Atsushi meant every word they said to me. Yesterday's, which led me to Nemeth's house so I could confirm the scrying and accidentally blew up his door. And today's. Thank you, Shar. You're very helpful." He sets Shar back down at his belt.
"If I tried hard enough, perhaps I could have escaped on my own. But Lord Shimono entrusted to me the role of the Spider. That means it was His will that guided me to protect these people. So I have obeyed the will of this god, something I suspect is an endeavor you abandoned ages ago. Or perhaps you're simply playing your part to the letter? Regardless, I have not risked leaving, since even if I didn't die horribly it would be condemning others to death.
I failed to save Mari. I thought for sure you'd go for someone everyone trusted first. But instead you went for the girl who was nice to me. And then Hana, who I got to know yesterday.

You have made an excellent point, Lady Eiko. I have many ways to cheat this death game. And I have used them. So isn't it funny that both victims and one of the people you accuse all happen to be people who would be likely to side with me on the vote?"
And the best part?
G'nichi has spoken not a single lie.
"Uh, sorry, Yuu. We haven't actually talked much." he shrugs rather sheepishly for a mere moment.

[bc56]

Mellie's Hole
Mellie doesn't respond to Alan's demonstration. She just looks indignant. Kothar seems a bit annoyed himself. "You both very rude. Stop," he says, firmly and forcibly.

Village
"We here to speak peace." Kothar holds out both open palms in a peaceable gesture. "We bring no harm." Even unarmed, the small militia force is no real threat to him, but he doesn't need to advertise that. However, he doesn't seem cowed by their superior numbers at all.

[Ironsmith]

Mellie's Hole
Mellie doesn't respond to Alan's demonstration. She just looks indignant. Kothar seems a bit annoyed himself. "You both very rude. Stop," he says, firmly and forcibly.

[Mellie's Hole]

Alan sighs and sits back at the table, arms crossed. "Hmph. She started it." He grumbles indignantly. Granted, she technically did, but he clearly wasn't well-versed in diplomacy himself.

[5a Violista]

[Totally Lost]

Khannie's already thirteen and she doesn't know this stuff?
Well, better late than never.


Seraphina has never heard of that pamphlet, but "Sounds pretty useful."

Seraphina tries looking for a pattern in what the statues are doing, but... can't really find a consistent one. Whenever she starts seeing a pattern, a counterpoint shows up. Really, the best 'pattern' she can see is that the statues who were interacting with other statues are almost always inside, but she's not sure how relevant it is.

"It would be nice if we had a way to help them," Seraphina says. She's never reversed petrification before. Seeing that one is sad, but so are seeing the child and baby statues, knowing that they're all people. Or, even worse, seeing the (thankfully rare) broken statues that presumably broke after falling off something.

Seraphina follows.

When the guy notices Khannie and Seraphina approaching, he looks pretty surprised to see them walking around: "Oh! What are you two doing here?" he asks.

[Earl of Purple]

Wastelands Campsite

"T'were when I did sail th' seas aboard th' ship Blade o' Montmersy. She were a good ship, fast an' sleek, wi' twenty cannon. Her cap'n be a nasty cove, a raider an' marauder most foul, named Amadeus Bloodbeard. But he be successful, an' he led th' ship an' crew t' success an' wealth, raidin' the sea lanes o' the Iceni Archipelago. I joined 'is crew t' get off a fleaspeck island after I were marooned by a wreck, but that be another story. We'd plundered a rich merchantman, a spicer from th' far ends o' the world. We needed water, too, fer th' fleshier crew than I. So we sailed t' the freeport o' Far Dorring. A naval vessel sailed in behind, an' we found ourselves under arrest. Th' nation o' Great Mercia be merciless where it comes to pirates, an' the gov'ner- a poor lubber tryin' his best fer his town, who couldn't stand 'gainst the navy, did sentence th' crew to die, bar three. One, Rogar th' powder monkey, he be spared for age, eleven he were. Gunner Nansy, she be spared for the belly, carryin' as she were a child. And finally another o' the crew, miss Boudika Sassonen, who it turned out be a runaway countess. She go back to 'er landlubber husband. I know not what 'appened to 'em, after that." Frigate, it should be noted at this point, was not spared, and was sentenced to hang. "I be locked up fer three days, an' on th' mornin' o' the fourth, I be sent t' dance the hemp fandango, an' so I climbed th' gallows. A noose were affitted about me neck, an' the hangman did pull the lever. The rope snapped, so they did try again, wi' two loops o' the noose. It did snap once more. So they went t' five strands o' rope, the strongest they had- an' once more, weren't enough fer me weight. So they took an anchor chain, an made a loop o' that, and put it about me neck. The chain didn't break, so I did hang. They let me down at dusk, t' ready the gallows fer others. I went t' the docks, t' seek another ship, an' haven't been caught a pirate since." Caught, so it's possible Frigate's committed acts of piracy since his failed execution. Frigate survived because he doesn't need to breathe. Most of the people who witnessed the 'execution' knew he'd survived, but the punishment was hanging, and pirates provided a lot of the freeport's trade, so the governor wasn't particularly pleased at being forced to hang the people that paid docking fees and spent money in his town.

Wrecked Motorway Although to reach the girls' campsite, they'd have to leave the motorway at some point.

"We're just passing through, sorry. Don't mind us." And then Tristan tells them not to talk to them! Well, too late for Fred, maybe. She's spoken to them. Though she's probably the one least at risk of faeries stealing her name.

Steelbite Canyon

The biker is grabbed, and firmly. "Don't care what you do or say t' me, I ain't talkin'. I'm no grass." He struggles, but he doesn't have superhuman strength, and he's also old and permanently injured- one of his legs hasn't healed properly, it's why he limps.

[Rebonack]

[Village]

"Speak peace? You damn lizards keep attacking travelers along the road!" the bearded human replies. He doesn't sound very happy.

Sssnek looks over at Kothar and says in draconic, "We only attacked to pay the blood price as justice demands. The price is paid, so there does not need to be any more bloodshed. Does the human know of our eggs being stolen?"

It's possible that Kothar was right, that the humans here know nothing of the thieves that took the eggs.

Or maybe they're totally in on the gem harvesting plot.

There's only one way to find out, right?

Hopefully, whatever the answer, the humans don't react with hostilities.


[Totally Lost]

Khannie lived the first half of her life in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon world and the second half in the middle of a huge city.

She really hasn't had a great deal of time to learn wilderness tricks. Especially since her phone comes with an interactive map program.

Either way!

She's happy to learn this great new trick.

"I don't know any ways to turn someone back from being a statue," Khannie says doubtfully. "Maybe some of the priests at Inari's Temple know how? But they probably weight a whole bunch and carrying one all the way home would be hard. And... lots of the people inside look like they turned to stone when they were around other statues so maybe being close to them for too long is bad."

Khannie really isn't sure one way or the other.

Better to find a way out of town and... a cave to sleep in. Or something.

Sleeping in this weird statue town would be creepy and might get them all petrified.

"We found this spooky town full of statues because we were... umm... walking," Khannie says without saying where they were walking or why.

That's safe, right?

"What are YOU doing here?"

[Ironsmith]

Wastelands Campsite

"T'were when I did sail th' seas aboard th' ship Blade o' Montmersy. She were a good ship, fast an' sleek, wi' twenty cannon. Her cap'n be a nasty cove, a raider an' marauder most foul, named Amadeus Bloodbeard. But he be successful, an' he led th' ship an' crew t' success an' wealth, raidin' the sea lanes o' the Iceni Archipelago. I joined 'is crew t' get off a fleaspeck island after I were marooned by a wreck, but that be another story. We'd plundered a rich merchantman, a spicer from th' far ends o' the world. We needed water, too, fer th' fleshier crew than I. So we sailed t' the freeport o' Far Dorring. A naval vessel sailed in behind, an' we found ourselves under arrest. Th' nation o' Great Mercia be merciless where it comes to pirates, an' the gov'ner- a poor lubber tryin' his best fer his town, who couldn't stand 'gainst the navy, did sentence th' crew to die, bar three. One, Rogar th' powder monkey, he be spared for age, eleven he were. Gunner Nansy, she be spared for the belly, carryin' as she were a child. And finally another o' the crew, miss Boudika Sassonen, who it turned out be a runaway countess. She go back to 'er landlubber husband. I know not what 'appened to 'em, after that." Frigate, it should be noted at this point, was not spared, and was sentenced to hang. "I be locked up fer three days, an' on th' mornin' o' the fourth, I be sent t' dance the hemp fandango, an' so I climbed th' gallows. A noose were affitted about me neck, an' the hangman did pull the lever. The rope snapped, so they did try again, wi' two loops o' the noose. It did snap once more. So they went t' five strands o' rope, the strongest they had- an' once more, weren't enough fer me weight. So they took an anchor chain, an made a loop o' that, and put it about me neck. The chain didn't break, so I did hang. They let me down at dusk, t' ready the gallows fer others. I went t' the docks, t' seek another ship, an' haven't been caught a pirate since." Caught, so it's possible Frigate's committed acts of piracy since his failed execution. Frigate survived because he doesn't need to breathe. Most of the people who witnessed the 'execution' knew he'd survived, but the punishment was hanging, and pirates provided a lot of the freeport's trade, so the governor wasn't particularly pleased at being forced to hang the people that paid docking fees and spent money in his town.

[Wasteland Campsite]

Horace nods slowly, taking his time picking through the various quirks and idioms that made up Frigate's speech. "I see. Well. You weren't lying." Though this knight didn't see escaping a just execution for piracy as anything to be particularly proud of. "A quirk of nature, indeed." He pauses, mulling that over for a minute.

"Would you consider yourself an honorable man, master Frigate?" He asks finally.

Wrecked Motorway Although to reach the girls' campsite, they'd have to leave the motorway at some point.

"We're just passing through, sorry. Don't mind us." And then Tristan tells them not to talk to them! Well, too late for Fred, maybe. She's spoken to them. Though she's probably the one least at risk of faeries stealing her name.

[Wrecked Motorway]

Toby.

And his friends, Toby, Toby, Toby, and some more Tobys.

Tristan's eyes widen as he draws a conclusion about what might be going on here. If it's anything like what he thinks it is, then they are in real and immediate danger. There's no way in hell he's falling for something like this again. He'll raise his voice enough for the girls to hear him, though hopefully not enough to be heard by the Toby swarm.

"Keep going. Do not talk to them. Do not make eye contact with them. Do not take anything they offer you. Do not tell them your name. And for the love of God if they address you as 'Toby' absolutely ignore them," Tristan warns, some measure of fear in his voice.

Do you think they're r-really like the Buttercups?
Hell if I know but I'm not finding out.
Just keep walking walking walking just keep waaaalking~

[Wrecked Motorway]

"Well, we'll give you a lift." Toby says with a smile. "We can save you a few hours of walking."

"Yeah!"

"Road trip with To-BY!"

They're already packing up, folding up the chairs and hauling the coolers into the trunks of their vehicles. Apparently, they weren't about to take no for an answer. If their intentions were hostile, they wouldn't have any trouble following the group in cars that were an order of magnitude faster than the girls could run.