Planeside 3

[Recaiden]

[Brefaisil]

What follows the moment of confusion is Marcie running into the spiderweb that appeared so close in front of her. There wasn't even time to slow down.

Where did this come from? And what exactly happened to the Weaver?
Well, those questions can wait. What's important is getting out of this web.
Despite the highly distracting little talking spiders.
Let's try the simple thing, before we have to worry too much about the spiders. Call up motive forces again, and try to tug the edges of the web away from where they're anchored.

[Prison Realm]

With the Hands slowed by the burn wound, Kiun is just able to jump out of the way, flapping her upper wings to take her away from the charging creature.
Then, as it's near the edge of the walkway itself after that charge, she gives it a magical push.
The skull will have to contend with being hit by a lamp on its own.

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

The web is quite a bit stronger than it would initially appear to be; Marcie may recall a certain tidbit about spider silk having five times the tensile strength of steel by weight, and Fraochun is spinning webs from much thicker strands than your average spider.

What's more, this web in particular seems to be partially affected by a temporal freezing effect, rendering it close to (but not quite) immobile. Marcie's probably seen this before; for a given object, external forces can be used to displace it, accelerating it as a function of distance over time. The amount of force necessary to produce a given velocity is also a function of time; the less time used, the greater the force must be, and as the change in time approaches zero, the force necessary approaches infinity. But time isn't passing for this web, or if it is, it's passing very slowly... the amount of force needed to push it goes on into absurdity, most likely.

Marcie might be able to infer what happened now; Fraochun was temporarily displaced from regular time, freezing the world around her. This gave her an opportunity to move unimpeded, but thanks to that freezing effect, she wouldn't have been able to harm Marcie directly, so she's settled for laying a trap instead. She seems to be experiencing a snapback now, being frozen herself to make up for the time she skipped.

Thankfully, that also means Marcie's only concerns (other than smacking into a strangely rigid and unsticky spider web) would be the throng of distracting spiders chasing her. By now, a few will have managed to scuttle up the web and onto her feet, crawling up toward her torso. Unless she's comfortable with self-immolation, setting them on fire isn't going to be an option.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

Magdalene runs up a wide bough, pulling her escort along behind her, and pauses as she reaches the trunk of the improbably massive tree. It's a huge, gnarled, ancient thing. Magdalene releases the Dweller's hand, gouges her own free hand on one of the spikes of her shield, and smears the blood on the ashen trunk before them.

The wood opens up like a hungry maw, revealing a tunnel beyond.

Our rather dubious magical girl hurries inside and the Vault Dweller had best do the same, because the entrance is already closing.

And what she finds within?

A surreal landscape of twisting branches, eerie fungus, curtains of fibrous roots, and a drifting haze of pink dust. Meltwater runs through the hollow in a shallow stream.

Here and there branches twist into naked points of bleached bone. Antlers, maybe? On the still living branches bright pink alien fruits hang, throbbing like hearts, glistening with moisture. They're reminiscent of a huskless orange, if the orange where bright pink, clutched with wooden vines, and the size of a human torso. If the Vault Dweller looks closely she might be able to make out embryonic forms slowly taking shape inside botanical wombs. Veins of pink power run through the vines that grow everywhere. Odd luminous mushrooms sprout here and there, shining with pink light. Leaves abound, shades of rusty autumn red, whispering in the sourceless breeze and coating the floor with a soft carpet.

Here and there bones stick out of the leaf litter.

Magdalene lets out a slow breath that fails to fog.

It's warmer here.

Maybe not comfortable but not freezing like it was outside.

"Okay I guess we're going through the (flowering) root tunnels then," Magdalene grouses. "Ain't as cold as outside and there are more monsters in here but they aren't as (flowering) big. And none of 'em know we're here yet so let's keep it that way, right?"

At that last question she glares at the Dweller.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The Hand is thrust away from the walkway and tumbles into the endless void. The skull, meanwhile, is hit by the lantern, and is unmoved. An electrical charge is directed down the pole and into the Hand of Justice, which shudders and curls up, legs rigid and fingers clenched. It doesn't move, so the Bishop will kick it and start shoving the body off- unless Kiun wants it, for any reason.

Sylvanas

The Vault-Dweller doesn't resist being dragged along up a branch, and looks around nervously as Magdalene opens the passage into the rootways. The blood magic really helps convince the Dweller that she really isn't in Canada any more, and she hesitates only briefly before ducking through the rapidly-closing hole. She gulps at her new surroundings, and winces at the glower at the end. "I'm sorry! I held it in as long as I could, it's the cold. It just... got really up my nose, you know?" Magdalene probably doesn't, being as adapted to the cold as she is.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

What is this idiot even talking about?

The cold got up her nose?

The cold doesn't make you sneeze it makes your nose run.

What makes you sneeze is a bunch of mushroom dust hanging in the air, and there's a whole (rose)ton of the stuff down here in the root tunnels.

"Whatever," Magdalene replies dismissively. Gods, why does she keep getting saddled with these dead-weight idiots getting stuck in sleeping gods? Usually she doesn't run into anyone down here aside from the odd Touched like herself. After all, only people like herself can create rifts.

Well.

Herself and servants of the sleeping gods.

But they usually avoid coming down here. A cultist of the Hart of the Forest might be a servant but they're still an outsider. They aren't part of this place the way Magdalene is.

She continues forward, shoving a few hanging root curtains out of the way. It isn't too long before their first problem reveals itself. Or, rather, problems.

They aren't that large. Maybe two, three feet tall max. They look like someone crossed a raccoon with a tiny deer. Bulbous, round things covered in livid pink growths. Some are so swollen they can at best waddle around slowly. Antlers protrude from their bodies without pattern or reason. The carrion chewers are busy gnawing at the flesh still clinging to the bones of some carcass left behind by a larger, more ferocious beast.

Magdalene makes a disgusted scowl.

"Scavs," she says, her voice low. "They aren't strong or quick but a bunch of them can be a pain. The fat ones blow up so don't get close to those. I hope you know how to use that (flowering) stick of yours."

Then?

She steps forward and gestures at the ground with a clenching of her fingers, causing a twisted effigy of wood crowned with a throbbing pink mass of flesh caged in woven wood to burst from the leaf litter.

"HEY!" she shouts at the half dozen or so scavs. "GET THE (FLOWER) OUTTA OUR WAY!"

The monsters seem momentarily shocked.

What will the Vault Dweller do?

[Earl of Purple]

Sylvanas

The Dweller's eyes widen at the sight of the scavs, holding her spear somewhat threateningly and adding her own, nervously trembling, voice to Magdalene's. "Yeah! Uh, go away!" She'll jab with her stone-tipped mop handle if any get close, and has at least had some training in how to use the crude spear- at least, she knows how to thrust and put her weight behind it, though her skills are going to be hampered with the literally Neolithic technology used to tip the light aluminium shaft.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

It turns out that the scavs have more aggression than sense due to the fact that they don't run away.

Instead?

With a series of awful howls they rush toward our heroes!

The hungering hart totem Magdalene threw down turns out to be quite useful since it begins leeching vitality away from the scavs and feeding it to Magdalene and the Dweller. It feels... not great. Far from feeling filled by it, the Dweller will feel a bottomless, endless hunger brushing at the edge of her mind. Foul pink eldritch power begins throbbing at the end of her spear, hungering for the flesh and blood of her foes. She should stab anything its flesh will rot as the magic feeds even MORE strength into her.

Magdalene, meanwhile, hurls a gnashing orb of frost and teeth and decay into the approaching horrors before hunkering behind her shield.

The first of the half dozen scavs leaps at her aggressively! Most of the monsters are swarming her while another two circle around to attack the Dweller's legs.

The remaining two, bulbous tumorous horrors, begin slowly trundling toward our heroes.

"Just don't let 'em knock you down!" Magdalene suggests. "Slow long as they don't dog-pile you you'll be good."

[Earl of Purple]

Sylvanas

The Dweller stabs the first of the two to approach her with her improvised spear, aiming for its face. She tries dodging out of the way of the other, but she's too focussed on stabbing the first, and it can get a bite out of her calf. She'll stab the second, glancing across at the first to make sure it's stopped moving, but she's bleeding from her leg and that can't be good for anyone- least of all her.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

The improvised spear sinks into the first scav, the area around the wound turning black and freezing as it's consumed by frostbite.

Then the bite gets chomped out of the Dweller's leg.

It hurts, definitely.

But the pain feels strangely... distant. Like it's happening to someone else.

Already the chunk of flesh is knitting itself as her heart begins to beat in tune with the throbbing pink orb at the top of the totem Magdalene had summoned.

Which...

Might be kind of concerning.

Then she stabs the second scav, her simple weapon ravaging the creature's life force and devouring its flesh to mend her wound.

Meanwhile, the monsters assaulting Magdalene are having a pretty bad time. One of them strikes at her, only for a wave of frostbite to detonate on top of them, causing the scavs to whither and freeze. One of the sluggish horrors takes a shield slam straight to the face and shatters like glass, bits of blackened and frozen flesh scattering across the leaf litter.

By this time the bulbous scavs are getting close, one to Magdalene and the other to the Dweller. The creatures begin making a high-pitch keening noise as plumes of pink spores begin pouring out of them.

[Earl of Purple]

Sylvanas

That is a worrying experience, but not as worrying as the explodey things looking to get ready to explode. The Dweller would go help Magdalene, but she doesn't want to get exploded. She jumps backwards, and then continues going backwards- her leg should hurt more, but it doesn't and that is a problem for the future. For now, she's trying to put distance between her and the explosive scav as she adjusts the grip of her spear and throws it like a crude javelin at the detrivore. The mop wasn't weighted for throwing, and the weapon's already really quite primitive, but she's got no better idea to try and kill it before it explodes.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

It should be concerning.

Being fed eldritch power like that has got to have some long-term side effects.

But that's a problem Future Dweller gets to deal with.

There are more immediate issues.

Like tossing the spear at the tumorous scav. Which causes it to explode.

Because of course it does.

The explosion, in turn, causes the other bomber scav to blow up, too. The combined blast is enough to knock Magdalene off her feet and shortly there after the remaining scavs begin piling on top of her. She's resilient and strong, but more of the things keep tumbling out of holes in the walls which honestly isn't great.

Also?

The Dweller's spear got absolutely pulverized by the explosion.

However...

When the monster dies something gets blasted free that was apparently lodged in its body... somehow.

It's a spear! A...uh... kind of cobbled together spear. Though the quality of it appears to be slightly less terrible than the weapon she was using previously. It looks like someone attached a spike from the top of an old iron fence to a wooden haft. For whatever odd reason the end of the spear is glowing a dull red as if it had been heated in a fire for a while. Given that the scavs are all busy savaging Magdalene the Dweller could probably grab the new weapon with impunity.

[Earl of Purple]

Sylvanas

The Dweller winces at the explosion, possibly peppered in fresh bloody innards. She looks around, sees Magdalene's trouble, and runs towards her. She'll spot and grab the new spear on the way. She'll stab one of the scavs, and then use the impaled corpse on the end as a bludgeon to get more off. She's less interested in killing the things than she is in helping Magdalene get into a situation where she can stand back up; killing them one at a time isn't going to help whilst so many more are joining in.

Unless something happens when she stabs the first that makes all the scavs die, then she'll look at the end of the spear, eyes wide in wonder. She really should be more concerned about the long-term effects of that energy healing her- is it radiation? That doesn't usually heal, does it?- but first she needs to live long enough for radiation poisoning- or any other side effects- to kick in.

[Recaiden]

[Brefaisil]

That could be an option actually. Burn the spiders now, get her burn wounds treated later.
But not the best option, for obvious reasons.

What Marcie does is try to sweep the spiders away with the edge of her wings, throwing them off of her, and follow if with pillars of fore moving downward, to squish them against the floor.
How long does it take a spider-person to spin a web like this? She needs to get out of this and ready before Fraochun unfreezes. Although since it's not sticky, she should be able to just move her hands and foot carefully back...
Don't worry about any spider bites. You have plenty of blood to spare.

[Prison Realm]

Kiun has no interest in keeping a dead Hand of Justice.

• They're like dogs
• They have hands
• They're very rude

That's three strikes right there.
Good riddance, let them fall into the void, as far as she's concerned.

"Good work, everyone. Just keep that up and this will be easy."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

Hands are useful!

Unfortunately, as they pass the cell the Hands left, a meteoric iron bucket attached to a strange-looking machine of bone gears and ticking pendulums tips over. Two more Hands of Justice fall out, both carrying flails. After they leave the barrel, it tips back upright and the machine's ticking gets faster. The Burning Bishop reacts fast, sending a wave of flame into the cell.

[Recaiden]

Too useful. It's unwholesome.

Kiun reacts - not as fast, busy being puzzled by the machinery.
But a moment after the flames fly by, she uses her telekinesis to try to shut and latch the cell door. No matter how many Hands pour out of the bucket, it won't matter if they're stuck inside the cell, right?

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The gate on this cell doesn't seem to have a latch, which would make sense if the machine is creating the prison's guards. The machine also seems invulnerable to the flames of the Burning Bishop, or at least highly resistant. Some of the metallic parts glow, and the bone chars slightly, but it all steadfastly refuses to be destroyed by fire. The bucket doesn't seem ready yet to disgorge more guards, however.

[Recaiden]

Oh. Well, that is reasonable of them.
Maybe she could hold the gate shut for a while, even if it didn't lock?
They would really need to hurry, though.

Instead, Kiun uses her power to grab the discarded flail from the first set of hounds, and maneuver it into the cell, specifically, to where it catches in the gears.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The door can be held shut, and throwing the chain of the flail into the device's workings does grind it to a halt. It shudders, some of the gears still trying to turn, but unable to move through the steel chain. There's a crack, the machine shudders, there's a snap, and shards of bone ping out of the clockwork as one of the gears shatters under the pressure. They can open the door now, or continue onwards, or go inside to try and find out more about how it works and see if there's anything that could be learnt or used from it.

[Recaiden]

Kiun is uninterested in scavenging over the Hand-bringing machine. Gears and machinery are unwholesome, the work of humans and other individual creatures. More importantly, she personally finds them confusing and boring. There's no excitement, no depth of feeling. Just measurements, tolerances, maths...

"Let's keep going. They'll know what we're attempting by now, right? Shouldn't waste time."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The other two nod, or the skull bobs at least, and follow. The skull would like to have a look at the machine, but it's broken and so probably worthless. There's no more cells on the way, and the walkway eventually ends in another room suspended in the void, sturdy stonework and a wooden door. The door's closed, but not locked, and on the other side there's a large chamber. There's a lift on the far side, which is probably their best bet at escaping the prison, but between it and the two escapees and their liberator, are two ogres. They're large humanoids, with thick orangey skin studded with patches of thick black hair. They stand nearly three metres tall, although they're sat at the moment, and are naked, though they lack any indicators of gender. Their heads, however, are different; they look to be children's heads, six or seven years old, both girls. The one on the left has black hair in pigtails, green eyes and pale skin marked with a smattering of freckles. The other shares a complexion, but her eyes are blue and her blonde hair has a ponytail. They don't notice the escapees immediately; they can't fit through the only door, and the elevator to leave would be cramped with just one inside.

They're sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, playing pattycake. "Patty cake patty cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Pat it and stab it and mark it with zed, put it in the oven with my severed head."

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

Kiun did not have a childhood filled with classic rhymes, and here in the prison, she lacks a telepathic connection to get the context from someone else.
This is just a bit of bizarre and macabre nonsense.

The thought occurs, that if the ogres can't fit through the door, letting them know they're here isn't much of a risk, as long as they don't go through that door too early.
"Hello! We're done with our tour of the prison, and will be heading back up now." she calls out to the ogres.

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

That could be an option actually. Burn the spiders now, get her burn wounds treated later.
But not the best option, for obvious reasons.

What Marcie does is try to sweep the spiders away with the edge of her wings, throwing them off of her, and follow if with pillars of fore moving downward, to squish them against the floor.
How long does it take a spider-person to spin a web like this? She needs to get out of this and ready before Fraochun unfreezes. Although since it's not sticky, she should be able to just move her hands and foot carefully back...
Don't worry about any spider bites. You have plenty of blood to spare.

[Brefaisil]

As a small mercy, these spiders seem to be as squishable as their mundane counterparts. However, Marcie might note after landing on their remains, they seem to have difficulty staying squished; the spiders affected are already pulling themselves back up and together, messily regrowing severed members where needed.

Fraochun has moved, but not much; she seems content to leave her web up, even as it becomes obvious that Marcie won't stay restrained. Her flashing from pose to pose implies that her being un-stuck from time was not a one-off effect. With her patrolling her side of the web, which is still stuck, it seems unlikely Marcie is getting out that way. She may have to go further into the Weaver's lair to find another exit.

More pressingly, some of spiders here seem to be of the jumping variety. Three of them are hopping onto Marcie now; on her left shoulder, right hip and left knee, respectively.

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

The ogre-children turn to look at Kiun and her companions. The blonde one smiles wide; she would look innocent, were it not for the brute of a body her head is attached to. "Oh, already? OK, you can go. The other two can't, though."
"Yep! They've been very, very naughty. They still need to sit in their naughty boxes. That one tried to kill a god, and that one burnt down a church filled with families. Nobody survived, not even the babies." The brunette nods as she speaks.
"At least the other two stayed where they are. They eat people. Will you go back willingly, or will we have to break you first?" The innocent smile remains, even as she cracks her knuckles.

The Bishop's turned to the skull with wide eyes; he didn't know the skull's crimes, after all.

[Recaiden]

[Prison Realm]

"I think they've learned their lessons." Kiun says, lying like a rug. If there's one thing the prisoners here have in common, it's being completely unrepentant for their terrible crimes.
"If I bring them back out, under supervision, they can do some good to make up for any of that destruction. So, please let us all through?" She give the horribly-proportioned guards a sweet smile.

"Burn them through the doorway if they don't agree?" She suggests to the others. "I'll swing it open from a distance."

[Earl of Purple]

Prison Realm

"Nuh-uh! Not the way these things work. They gotta stay in their naughty boxes for another eight centuries, regardless of if they're sorry or not."
"Yeah, that way even if they aren't really sorry there's nobody still around who put them in here, so they can't get revenge." Both of the child-headed ogres nod at this.

The Blazing Bishop does as Kiun requests, lighting the room with flames. Both of the ogres scream and recoil. The air is filled with the stench of burning hair and cooking meat. The flames are kept up, but the blonde one roars and storms forward, slamming into the door and frame, reaching out with her massive hand and groping out for the source of the pain- or whoever's standing closest to the door. That might be Kiun, or the Bishop. The skull is able to dodge out of the way.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

The insides of the scavs are...

Well.

They're less bloody than one might expect.

More like getting peppered with goopy bits of mushroom. There's a sponginess to the material that doesn't seem very consistent with flesh.

So! A scav gets stabbed and then smacked into a second monster, bowling it over. The first is... not having a great time. The searing end of the weapon is cooking its flesh and the influence of Magdalene's totem is making it rot. The rancid smell of burning rotting meat is not a fun aroma.

But, thankfully, that gives Magdalene enough breathing room to make it back to her feet.

She reacts to this dreadful situation by howling. Howling pretty loudly, as it happens. Like a cross between a wolf's howl and a reindeer bellow.

Now, normally, howling really wouldn't be very useful here. But this is a magical howl. One filled with death and supernatural terror. It rips through the scavs, causing them to scatter in blind panic as their flesh begins to freeze and rot.

What a fun time.

[Recaiden]

[Brefaisil]

Ah, yes. The upside of the curse.
It works surprisingly fast.

And the time-effect that Fraochun triggered keeps happening. And the spiders are jumping. A new strategy is needed to get out of this.
At least she's gotten out of the web-wall.

Marcie speeds herself up for a few moments, becoming a blur that strikes spiders out of the air, one-two-spin-around-three!
Then she flees, running deeper into the Weaver's Web.
She'll want to keep an eye open for stairs leading back up...

[Prison Realm]

"They'll be dead in eight centuries too."
Kiun flares her wings out and adds her own stream of flames to the bishop's.
But she does move back enough that the Bishop is closer to the ogres than she is.
Wouldn't do for something disastrous to happen to her.

[Ironsmith]

[Brefaisil]

With the sheer ease with which Marcie knocks the leaping spiders out of the air, along with how she casually escaped their mistress's web, it quickly becomes evident to these creatures that, in a direct assault, they're something of a non-threat to Marcie. When she goes to run through them, they scatter, clearing a way for her but remaining in pursuit, in case an opportunity to entrap her rose.

Going further into Fraochun's lair reveals that it sort of... isn't. The hallways leads down into an open square where a number of homes are carved into the rock, though they're dilapidated and covered in cobwebs. They follow a series of spiraling staircases and ramps along the edge, which make landings on every floor. The ground here gives way to a large glass or possibly crystal surface, so that if Marcie looks down, she'll see that this pattern continues for what looks to be miles, with as many more floors below as above. Other halls branch off from here as well, leading into other districts.

A wicked wind swoops past Marcie when she enters the room, but neither Fraochun nor the spiders are coming anywhere near her.

[Earl of Purple]

Sylvanas

Now that Magdalene is standing up again, the Dweller kicks the rotting and burning scav off the end of her new spear and move to stab another. She's getting quite into killing them, and she's smiling as she does it.

She'll chase the scavs, unless Magdalene stops her or they manage to escape her- or she runs into something worse than the scavs, anyway.

Prison Realm

The child-headed ogres continue to scream, although one has grabbed the front of the Bishop's horsehair shirt, and pulled him up and towrds the room. He's still throwing out fire, although it stops after his head cracks loudly against the top of the door frame. The monster that grabbed him retreats further into the room, whilst the other lurks jus inside the doorway, sheltering behind the wall where she's hoping it's harder for Kiun's flames to hurt her.

[Rebonack]

[Sylvanas]

Magdalene shoves herself to a kneeling position, lashing out with one arm to send a stream of icy-toothed vines chomping into the back of several of the fleeing scavs.

They get messily devoured, mending the chomps and gashes they had chewed into her.

"Okay they'll probably rot out before the fear stops eating their brains so-" Magdalene begins only to watch the Dweller go running off ahead after the fleeing monsters. "(Flower.) Hey, hold up don't get too into the bloodlust thing!"

Was it the totem?

It was probably the totem.

Getting exposed to the Hart's hunger like that can mess with people's heads.

Magdalene is use to it. She feels it all the gods damned time. It may as well be like breathing to her. Hopefully once this idiot runs out of the range of the totem and the bloodlust fades she'll be able to think straight again. The totem only reaches like, what, twenty feet or something? Big enough to comfortably fight around but not huge. That gal will just run ahead a bit then she'll realize how dumb she's being.

That's when the floor suddenly groans.

"(Rose) that's dry-rot! Don't stand there it'll-"

Collapse.

The floor collapses, dumping the dweller into another root tunnel.

This one, thankfully, is a smooth-walled slope that will send her sliding deeper into the roots.

Less thankfully it'll dump her into into a swampy chamber full of fibrous curtains of rootlets, glowing mushrooms, and knee deep water that's distressingly pink. The fungal haze drifting in the air is even thinker down here. The tunnel appears to widen out up ahead, filled with an array of unearthly lights beyond the typical shades of pink that appear to dominate the root tunnesl.