Outside 51: It's just a weather balloon

[Ironsmith]

[Thrakeld]

Up the stairs bridge!

The upper landing boasts a wide shelf and several thick Dwemer pipes with turbines mounted within them, the sections visibly rotating and emitting steam. A pair of those odd Dwemer gas lanterns sit to either side of a tall, carved door of solid metal. Pushing against said door reveals that it's barred from the inside.

Sure enough.

This is meant to be an exit.

Probably just a wooden beam that's been rigged to prevent the door from opening, given how Fenris can feel the doors thunk against something on the inside when she pushes against it.

"Unfortunately picking a draw bar isn't an option," Fenris reasons as she eyes the door. "However, I believe we may have a forceful option. Albeit one that will invariably announce our presence."

Shouting is never a quiet activity.

[Thrakeld]

"I concur." Yuvan replies, trying the door for himself. "Hm... more resistance one this side, door bar's probably dropped like this." He makes an accompanying gesture with his arm. "Which means if we want to break it, we should aim right... here." He traces an x in the dust with his finger. "Save the shout for when we get inside. This should be more than enough." He draws out his mace, lines it up carefully, and slams it into the indicated part of the door.

Shuttle to L1
Don't panic. If worst comes to worst, I can make you a new body. "I didn't know you cared, my queen," Miranda's body says, "Thank you for getting that nuisance out of my head."
Meanwhile, Miranda will need to get used to being a disembodied mind in Sekhmet's body. Considering that despite her appearance, Sekhmet is a very alien being, this will likely be a difficult proposition. I have a plan. Don't worry. That probably doesn't help Miranda not worry much.

[Shuttle to L1]

Miranda doesn't even know where to begin. She's seeing things, but not with her eyes. Hearing, but not with her ears. It's hot and cold and wet and dry and none of the above in here. She's got no context for any of these sensations at all... they're just weird. She can't even process it well enough to say something to Sekhmet, which means she can't do much for the rest of the voyage, unless Sekhmet can think of somethinf pertinent to ask her, or things start making sense in here.

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
Miranda, I need your help to use the conjuring box. Sekhmet actually does see from her eyes and hear from her ears, but she has senses Miranda wouldn't even be able to describe, her psychic and magical abilities. Not to mention the fact that she can feel what she saw earlier, that Sekhmet's body is practically a blob of flesh mimicking a humanoid. How much time has passed since Miranda's abrupt abduction? It's hard to say, but Sekhmet is kneeling in front of the hotbox. The psychic sense informs her that Lizzie is somewhere behind her. I need jewelry again.

[Ironsmith]

[Shuttle to L1]

Right. From the root menu, you want the following directories: apparel, accessories, jewelry. Look for gracies_diclr_v2.fab, it's what I gave you last time.

Sorry I can't be of more help. I'm having a hard time finding your... well, your anything, really. I've never had an out-of-body experience like this before. Or at all.

Sorry, I'm probably distracting you. Kick her exaggeratedly large butt for me.

[Earl of Purple]

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Room three is not an alchemical laboratory. Nor is it a workroom, or a scientific area. It's a bathroom. There's a very large bath, a shower, a toilet, a sink, and a medicine cabinet, and the walls, floors and ceiling are tiled with small mirrors, every piece of space that isn't plumbing has a small mirror. They break up the reflection quite a bit, so it's hard to see, but something not exactly normal is going on in the mirrors. There are a few larger mirrors- the walls and ceiling over the bath, where a clearer view of the reflected curtains is visible.

Yuvan can see in the reflections four naked people with purple-tinged skin, small horns and long tongues- two obviously male and two obviously female- approach Yuvan and Boada's reflections and start to undress them. The distortions of the small mirrors make it hard to see exactly what's going on, but the reflections of Boada and Yuvan seem to be enjoying it, although he might note they aren't true reflections. They're recognisable as Yuvan and Boada, but anything about Yuvan's body or physique he doesn't like or thinks could be better are improved, as well as a few things Boada's noticed that aren't to her taste- his ears are longer. More notably, the Boada reflection has four large dragonfly-like wings, which vibrate and flap fast enough to create a blur of rainbow colours. Boada winces as she sees them, and tries breaking the mirrors. Also, all six people in the reflections are marked with the same circle and crescents of the dryad outside.

Abandoned Battlefield

So... what? They might be able to get it to work and walk off? Unfortunately, they don't know how to control it, since a Valentine is steered by a pair of levers, the gun is loaded and fired manually, and the commander has an electric motor to power the turret ring and a back-up hand-crank. Nor do they understand the principles to repair what's broken, or keep the weapons maintained, unless they take it apart and put it back together again perhaps. But they lack the tools for it, and they don't know enough about the fusion generator to feel comfortable touching that, anyway. Ann-Marie is also aware that more modern vehicles than her own have self-aiming weaponry, so doesn't want to risk firing any of the weapons in case they've got a lock on her tank. Another flaw that she can see is the big 75cm window created by their hastily-fired shell. The girls got lucky, with angle of impact and the mech's materials and possibly even the sheer age of her tank's cannon making it so obsolete the mech wasn't tested against anti-tank cannon shot rather than missiles all conspiring against the pilot, but... Their Valentine's own cast iron and rolled steel plate would probably have thwarted the shot, though there's a few weak points regardless, and is a much smaller target.

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
Sekhmet doesn't really know what that means. Uh, how do I... You guide my hands. Abruptly she hands control over to Miranda. There's no way this could possibly go wrong.

Abandoned Battlefield
The armor on a light 'Mech like the Panther isn't much better than a tank's, especially on the head, and this one was already damaged.
And while theoretically, they could get it upright again, the leg damage would mean it probably wouldn't stay that way very long.

A call comes through the radio of the Valentine from Almoner.
"The Raven got away. I'm on my way back, but we need to get moving as quickly as possible. If this is the same pirate band I was hired to deal with before the accident, their command 'mech is a Marauder, MAD-3R model, too large for me to take down in the Griffin. Their surviving scout will report in and their heavies will come to deal with us.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Aventure

G’nichi isn’t sure what to think about the strange creatures.
”Be careful. Sometimes things look cuddly that decidedly are not.”
He eyes the strange critters.
”Maybe we should just keep going.” he decides. For some reason he’s on edge about these things.

[Rebonack]

[An Improbable Adventure]

He might think they're very blue.

Because they are.

"They don't smell like predators," Fenris points out. "And you aren't familiar with them, correct? By all accounts they appear to be nothing more than curious animals."

Fenris slows Kagranac's pace a bit, partly because she doesn't want to spook the beasts and start a stampede.

They might be harmless enough looking, but a stampede of even moderately sized herd animals can be hazardous.

The beasts will trot right up to our heroes, matching their pace. They reach out with their long trunks to snuffle at Fenris and G'nichi.

And Kagranac, for that matter.

*snorf snorf*


[Thrakeld]

Fenris nods, preparing herself to attack. There's no telling what sorts of horrors the necormantic tinkerer might have waiting for them.

Yuvan smashes the door open, cracking the pull bar on the other side enough that kicking the door in becomes a rather simple matter, which the orc bandit leader does. With a bellowing cry of, "Nobody bests an orc!" he goes running to the chamber which is full of-!

Nothing.

Just a short stone hallway in the style typical of Dwemer ruins, a pair of gas lamps on either wall illuminating the tiny chamber. The only object in the room is a small, elaborate Dwemer cabinet with a fancy urn sitting on top of it.

This all gets a frown out of Fenris.

"Just tiny rooms? I thought there would be Dwarf machines," one of the bandits says as he walks up to the second door and shoves it open.

He's immediately perforated by a hail of massive bolts from the hulking necromantic construct sitting in the room beyond. And these aren't the hand-crossbow sized bolts, either. No, this thing is comparable to a Dwemer ballista, if the ballista were also a skittering horror made from Dwemer alloy and dragon bones. A massive rotary bolt launcher is built into the mouth of the skull and the rate that it's spitting huge armor piercing bolts at is frankly terrifying. The orc takes several bolts in the face and chest, going down just as quickly as his underling. The rest of the bandits seem smart enough to duck away from the entrance.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

G’nichi sighs, really wishing Fenris wasn’t so easygoing about this.
”Shoo.” he waves a hand at the creature, trying to keep it from snuffling about their persons. What if they’re thieving critters? He can’t tell what but he can’t shake the feeling in the back of his head that something is up.

[Rebonack]

[An Improbable Adventure]

G'nichi waves his hand at the weird blue creature!

It responds by sticking its trunk against his hand and sniffing extremely hard.

There will come with that sniff a feeling of almost metaphysical suction as the creature strips every single magical effect from G'nichi and anything on his person.

Artifacts are, thankfully, not impacted by this. So his Heavenly Arms will be fine. But if he has any magical gear on him? That probably won't be. And there's a good chance it'll hoover up the effect of a certain long-lasting potion, too.

Fenris is getting sniffed, too, but given the nature of the enchantments on her gear she probably won't notice right away that they're suddenly gone. The most obvious magical object she has is her aetherial disc, of course, but that weapon is of artifact level. Like all Dwemer artifacts its magic is innate and disenchanting it is largely ineffectual.

Thus, Fenris laughs when the creature begins snorting at her hair.

"Hah. I'm sorry, friend, but I don't have any thing very appetizing on me."

[Ironsmith]

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Room three is not an alchemical laboratory. Nor is it a workroom, or a scientific area. It's a bathroom. There's a very large bath, a shower, a toilet, a sink, and a medicine cabinet, and the walls, floors and ceiling are tiled with small mirrors, every piece of space that isn't plumbing has a small mirror. They break up the reflection quite a bit, so it's hard to see, but something not exactly normal is going on in the mirrors. There are a few larger mirrors- the walls and ceiling over the bath, where a clearer view of the reflected curtains is visible.

Yuvan can see in the reflections four naked people with purple-tinged skin, small horns and long tongues- two obviously male and two obviously female- approach Yuvan and Boada's reflections and start to undress them. The distortions of the small mirrors make it hard to see exactly what's going on, but the reflections of Boada and Yuvan seem to be enjoying it, although he might note they aren't true reflections. They're recognisable as Yuvan and Boada, but anything about Yuvan's body or physique he doesn't like or thinks could be better are improved, as well as a few things Boada's noticed that aren't to her taste- his ears are longer. More notably, the Boada reflection has four large dragonfly-like wings, which vibrate and flap fast enough to create a blur of rainbow colours. Boada winces as she sees them, and tries breaking the mirrors. Also, all six people in the reflections are marked with the same circle and crescents of the dryad outside.

[Pixie Grinder's Compound]

Yuvan finds himself agreeing wholeheartedly. He's not sure if these are the kinds of mirrors that actually affect their reflections or if they just have a variable appearance like the portrait in the hall, but either way, theh have got to go. The altmer inhales sharply and chooses a more efficient method of glass-breaking:

"FUS... RO DA!"

The resulting shockwave will travel down the surface of the mirrors and, if they're at all as fragile as they'd appear to be, shatter them. If all goes well, the reverberations should ensure no mirror is left untouched, though the broken glass would make this place quite unusable.

"...I should shave." Yuvan remarks idly to himself, stroking his exposed chin.

Shuttle to L1
Sekhmet doesn't really know what that means. Uh, how do I... You guide my hands. Abruptly she hands control over to Miranda. There's no way this could possibly go wrong.

[Shuttle to L1]

Guide you ha- okay, I guess this is one of them? I still can't see, but... let me think about this.

Whatever is going on between Sekhmet and Lizzie will proceed uninterrupted for a few minutes, before Miranda finally has a solution.

Which she'll express to Sekhmet in the form of a series of involuntary hand twitches, her middle and pointer fingers coming together to flick at the air. This is the exact sequence of movements she would use to call up the aforementioned fabrication file, so if Sekhmet has her hand on the touchscreen at the time, she'll find herself operating the machine more or less instinctually.

That should do it. And I think I've found one of your eyes... left, maybe? Let me see what's going on.

[Thrakeld]

Fenris nods, preparing herself to attack. There's no telling what sorts of horrors the necormantic tinkerer might have waiting for them.

Yuvan smashes the door open, cracking the pull bar on the other side enough that kicking the door in becomes a rather simple matter, which the orc bandit leader does. With a bellowing cry of, "Nobody bests an orc!" he goes running to the chamber which is full of-!

Nothing.

Just a short stone hallway in the style typical of Dwemer ruins, a pair of gas lamps on either wall illuminating the tiny chamber. The only object in the room is a small, elaborate Dwemer cabinet with a fancy urn sitting on top of it.

This all gets a frown out of Fenris.

"Just tiny rooms? I thought there would be Dwarf machines," one of the bandits says as he walks up to the second door and shoves it open.

He's immediately perforated by a hail of massive bolts from the hulking necromantic construct sitting in the room beyond. And these aren't the hand-crossbow sized bolts, either. No, this thing is comparable to a Dwemer ballista, if the ballista were also a skittering horror made from Dwemer alloy and dragon bones. A massive rotary bolt launcher is built into the mouth of the skull and the rate that it's spitting huge armor piercing bolts at is frankly terrifying. The orc takes several bolts in the face and chest, going down just as quickly as his underling. The rest of the bandits seem smart enough to duck away from the entrance.

[Thrakeld]

Ooooh, right, this was probably the post-boss loot room. Or at least it would have been, if the new occupant hadn't cleaned it out first.

Which meant the next room would be the boss room. Of course.

"Stand back!" Yuvan orders. "Keep out of line-of-sight from the door!"

As it stands, they aren't getting through that bottleneck without taking a few more casualties, and Yuvan's not about to waste his already-paltry reserves on that. Besides, climactic battles like this one was intended to be usually involved a dozen or more minions, usually aggressive and of subpar intelligence; he intends to use the door to bottleneck them and thin their numbers before taking on the big one. Assuming it wasn't mobile enough to come through the door itself, in which case they'd still be ready for it with a positional advantage.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

Amusingly, G'nichi only bothered carrying a single magical item beside the necklace and bracelet which are certainly artifacts.
The end result is that G'nichi is SMOL again, sitting in his ill-fitting clothes, and both him and Fenris are showered by an explosion of treasure as his magic bag ceases being magic.
"FENRIS" he shrieks, proceeding to punch the creature ineffectually with his tiny arms.

[Rebonack]

[Thrakeld]

"I could try the burn undead shout on animunculus," Fenris offers, her back pressed up against the wall on the ledge. There aren't any more bolts launching out of the hallway, but the construct can still be heard nearby, hissing and clanking. "It is a rather large foe, so it may not destroy it outright. But it will, at the very least, leave it crippled and disoriented momentarily."

Fenris could use Bane of Undead right now, but those pesky walls are in the way. If she tried popping around the corner to cast it she would be met with an unfriendly greeting.

Or maybe Yuvan has a good plan for assaulting the well defended room?

Whatever the plan, it will hit a snag before it even starts.

One of the bandits is quite abruptly wreathed in waves of smoky red magic, his eyes glazing over with rage. "YOU NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE!" he shouts at one of the other bandits before drawing his sword and attacking his fellow.

Fenris catches on immediately.

"We're under illusionary attack," she says, manifesting a ward to defend herself and casting her gaze about, trying to discern the source of the magical assault.

The only clue is a brief flicker near some bushes a good two hundred feet away from the prominence the ruin is built into. The glimmer of an invisibility spell activating.


[An Improbable Adventure]

Oh no, G'nichi is smol.

At least he fits on the horse better now.

Fenris isn't totally sure what just happened there. G'nichi shrunk and she got pelted with coins, gems, and other baubles. The treasure explosion appears to have startled the beasts and they all turn tail to run. Without any active spellwork going on they have no further interest in the travelers.

Rubbing the back of her head and peering at the tiny lizard person, Fenris asks a very reasonable question. "What just happened? Why are you tiny?"

And also a lizard.

Truly, his anatomy has been completely rearranged.

Some sort of transformation trick on the part of the beasts?

But why was she unaffected?

[Ironsmith]

[Thrakeld]

Yuvan sighs and throws up a ward of his own. Great. So now they're fighting on two fronts, with a delusional bandit breaking up their ranks. He'll have to re-think his tactics at this point.

So, who to handle first? The clockwork crime against creation, or the elusive illusionist?

"Get that door closed!" He orders the bandits, indicating the one with the automaton on the other side. It probably can't open the door again on its own, and it definitely can't hit anything it can't see. This should help buy them some time to deal with their other attacker, and create room to escape if they need it.

That would just leave the illusionist and the bandit. He knows from experience that he can't afford to get hit with one of those spells; he might be able to resist them, but if it turns out he can't, it could screw over the entire party. So that particular task is getting delegated to Fenris. "Flush him out!" He calls, pointing to the general direction the spell seems to have come from.

And the bandit... well, he's sorry to say he only has one cure for that.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

Indeed. G'nichi has returned to the cruelest state of all:
being unable to digest diary products.

Also in theory there might be some very minor magic that were in the magic bag's pocket dimension like the potions they found. Some of those might still be active since they technically weren't in this dimension when the bag was broken.
"Those things ate the magic in our gear and my dragon-potion. That effect is irreplaceable! The alchemist he's- he's-not practicing anymore." he shakes his head.
"You're going to have to carry the treasure, Fenris. What are we going to do? It's not like there's places to help people be big dragons on the side of the road!"

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
Sekhmet didn't have her hand on the controls, unfortunately. "What are you even doing, my queen?" Oh look, there's some auditory input. "You should be working on turning this craft around so we can both go back home," Lizzie sneers. "You may have saved your friend's mind, but I can still kill her body whenever I want." Uh, if you want to go back to being human in a, uh, reasonable time, we need that body. Making a human body, uh, from scratch is something I can do, but, uh, it would take a while, and I'd need to, uh, get back home to do it. On the other hand, I could, uh, make a succubus body for you to inhabit very easily, but that, uh, comes with some side effects.

[Ironsmith]

[Shuttle to L1]

Which means we don't absolutely have to save it. Miranda points out. Don't worry about not hurting my body. The priority now is stopping her. Oh, hey, there's the screen.

A few blips later, Sekhmet will have a necklace ready to go.

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
Okay, I, uh, need my arms back now. Sekhmet retakes control and begins wielding her magic against the necklace. This time, however, Miranda will be able to feel the flow of power, energy pouring from Sekhmet's/her hands and pooling into the necklace, manifesting as fiery glyphs on its surface. "Making an anchor, really? We both already have one, so that's worthless, and you should know you can't hold a human soul in one. You're a sorry excuse for a succubus, but we both know that's your choice. You should consider changing, it would make your company much more agreeable." Sekhmet's thoughts turn increasingly irritated at Erzsébet (she doesn't call the rebellious succubus "Lizzie").

[Ironsmith]

[Shuttle to L1]

Right. All yours. Obviously. Miranda... thinks she can see where this is going. Liz- no, sorry, Erzse... Erseb... no, nevermind, Lizzie's just easier. Lizzie didn't seem to have much of a sense of irony. It looks to Miranda like she's going to get the anchor she asked for after all.

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
"Maybe I wasn't clear," Lizzie adds, "Shift to your succubus form. Now, or your friend's body gets it." Sekhmet inwardly sighs. I hate this, but I have to keep pretending to be unwilling to hurt your body for this to work. Her body changes shape, but equally alarming is the shift in her mind; as her body becomes voluptuous and alluring, her mindset shifts to match. Luckily her enchanted clothes still fit. "There, happy?" "One more thing. Kiss me, my queen." Sekhmet shudders. Even in this state, she still hates that idea.

[Ironsmith]

[Shuttle to L1]

Ugh. That's disgusting. Bad enough she's holding "me" hostage, what she's making you do here is just... ugh.

...Are you okay? Your brain's gotten kind of... weird. Is- oh. That's a shapeshifter thing, isn't it? It feels like a shapeshifter thing. Can you still do what you need to do?

[Gullara]

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

The saber nods in response and starts to move in a wide arc around the rightmost metal demon as they get out into barren field the creatures have left in their wake.
As they get out in the open red lights on the demons side, perhaps the fiends bizarre eyes or some foul magic it has started to conjure, start to illuminate the field around them and it suddenly screams out in a horrific cacophony.

It isn't even clear where the sound is coming from as its maw is still preoccupied with devouring everything in its path. Horrifically mangling all vegetation between its scythe-like teeth.

That infernal blaring sound makes even someone as confident as Anika slow down simply to see what was making it. But one glance at the beast simple makes her run faster and soon they start leaving the two monstrosities behind as despite all that ruckus they make no motion to pursue.

That of course begs the question if the creatures had cast some kind of spell on them or if they simply considered Mimi and Anika not worth their time.

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

"See, I told ya. They're super slow. They couldn't even hope to catch me." Mimi boasts once they can actually hear one another again. "The bigger you are the slower you are. That's just how it works."

[Rebonack]

[Thrakeld]

Yuvan applies his ensorceled bandit curative to said bandit.

This is, of course, a terminal case of mace to the face.

There's a sickening crunch as the man's skull in caved in and his body flops lifelessly down the cliff face.

The remaining three bandits are looking quite worried at this point and quickly yank the doors shut. At least the construct isn't shooting at them now.

As for Fenris?

She has...

Not many options, really. Not when it comes to flushing things out. Her sun spells are the only things that would be useful for such a task and she can't very well employ them at the moment. Thus, she takes a deep breath, twists the little silver wolf-head ring on her finger, and takes a running leap off the edge of the cliff.

She transforms in mid-air, taking on werewolf form in the span of a heartbeat as she raises both paws above her head. A pinprick of incandescent light blooms between her claws and rapidly balloons in size as she descends, reaching its full size of roughly three feet across right as she lands and smashes the tiny sun into the earth.

Whereupon it promptly explodes.

The surroundings are scoured with searing light, blasting loose objects and dirt away from Fenris while anything undead (or alive, or even animated) dissolves in a spray of glowing ashes.

And, while not reduced to ashes, a nearby invisible figure gets knocked head over heals by the explosion and wreathed in pale flames. He gives a cry of alarm, swatting at the solar fire, only to find himself pounced on by Fenris a heartbeat later. She gives him a good shake, revealing none other than a Briar-heart clad in some heavily enchanted gear. He responds to Fenris' presence by stabbing her in the thigh with his sword.


[An Improbable Adventure]

Fenris is... well.

Mildly annoyed, really, to find out that her enchanted gear has been rendered mundane. The only things she has that are important are all aetherium artifacts and as such quite immune to being disenchanted since their powers are innate. She can simply conjure up an enchanting table and empower her gear again.

G'nichi's issue, it would appear, is more formidable.

She slips off her mount and begins gathering the various spilled objects which she'll stow in her Deep Storage spell once she's certain she has everything.

"I take it this is your natural shape, then?" Fenris asks, peering up at the tiny lizard person.

He really doesn't look much like an Argonian at all. The shape of his face, body, tail, limbs, everything. Reptilian, yes, but clearly unrelated. An actual lizard-man. As opposed to a motile manifestation of the Hist, as some have speculated the Argonians are.

"Is it imperative that you be returned to your modified state?" she asks. How big of a priority is the resolution of this development?

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
I know. But I've got to play along. Sekhmet glares at Erzsébet with venom in her eyes. "...Fine." I'm going to take advantage of the, uh, mortal nature of your body. There's a chance that this will, uh, kill it. Sorry. She drifts over to the other succubus, and against her better judgement, embraces her and locks lips. Gently, she hangs the newly made magical necklace around Lizzie's neck. The engagement goes on for quite some time, when Lizzie finally releases Sekhmet. "For all your reluctance, you really enjoyed that, didn't you?" Sekhmet didn't, but only Sekhmet and Miranda know that.
Despite Sekhmet's warning to Miranda, nothing appears to happen.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

G’nichi is a very fancy arboreal lizard. It’s a shame he doesn’t like himself much.
”It’s the shape I was born with. And given the alarming frequency that I get pushed into near-lethal situations yes, I consider it imperative.”
His gaze momentarily snaps to his chakram, as if answering an unspoken statement. G’nichi hasn’t moved from his seat out of fear his clothes will fall off.

[Ironsmith]

[Thrakeld]

Yuvan shields his eyes as the solar-powered attack flares out, momentarily blinded by its sheer brilliance. When he recovers, he has new orders for the bandits.

"Bows out! Give our 'sabre cat' some support!" He barks, running down the line with some castings of Heal Other to clean up any friendly fire that might have resulted from Fenris's attack. He'd throw in an attack or two himself, but his more powerful Destruction spells come with an area of effect and he won't be able to avoid hitting Fenris. Arrows will only hit one target; it's not much, but better than nothing. And he can heal Fenris if she gets injured by mistake.

While they're busy with that, he'll turn his attention back to the door. He's sure the automaton can't come through, but it might have brought friends who can.

[Shuttle to L1]

I'm not exactly thrilled to hear it, but if it'll stop Lizzie, do it.

Miranda mentally rolls her eyes and waits for the inevitable delayed effect.

[Rebonack]

[An Improbable Adventure]

"Is there something wrong with your current shape that makes martial combat impossible? Are you crippled?" Fenris asks, looking honestly quite puzzled by the panic G'nichi seems to be displaying.

Is he just worried because he's small?

Is that the only problem?

"Because if I'm weighing the weapons you have thus far employed, I don't believe they would have been any more or less effective in this or your previous shape," Fenris points out. "The staff especially. I doubt it would have been more potent had it been wielded by a strapping Nord warrior. In fact, I do believe the sheer embarrassment manifested by that outfit would have inhibited any combat prowess."

She's trying not to laugh while remembering that outfit.

Really.

She's really, truly trying.


[Thrakeld]

Thankfully Fenris landed far enough away that the ledge was outside the kill-zone of Purifying Sun.

If she hadn't then there would probably be more dead bandits.

The briar heart, meanwhile, rolls away from Fenris and brandishes his swords. "First you, then all the Reach!"

Which is about the time he gets hit by an arrow from one of the bandits. Another projectile shatters on a rock while another sticks into the dirt. That staggers the man. Just briefly. Which is more then enough time for Fenris to dart forward, catch the briar heart's head in one of her paws, and then slam him head-first into the earth with most of her body weight behind it. Searing light blooms from her claws, spreads through the half-undead's body like cracks in pottery, and blasts him apart in a shower of disinitgrating ashes.

That's one problem solved.

Problem two is the dragon-skull construct opening the door.

Apparently it has a two pairs of little skeleton hands augmented with Dwemer metal for the purpose of fine manipulation.

In a display of not-so-fine manipulation it opens fire on the bandits with a pair of swiveling bolters mounted on its flanks. Thankfully it doesn't have quite enough space to bring its main weapon to play on this narrow le-

Oh.

Wait.

Never mind, it's shooting the ballista at Fenris.

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

”My other weapons are a rapier, a net, a stick with a bunch of locks, a spear, a greatsword, a gladius, a mace, and another, bigger greatsword.”
Most of those are improved by having upper body strength, no matter what D&D manuals tell you about rapiers.
”And relying on my weapons is going to get me killed. My fire breath saved my life at least twice.”
G’nichi is clearly trying to bite off the inevitable argument before it starts.
Why don’t you just get over it G’nichi?
Why don’t you just work out? It’ll only take years to get strong, and there’s no chance that say, you might get dragged into the problems of other people and get shot multiple times in the chest or have to solve problems without your weapons.

[Rebonack]

[An Improbable Adventure]

"Your fire breath is, at best, equivalent to a novice level destruction spell. Nearly anyone can learn such magic with a minimal investment of effort. Or a spell tome."

Oh hey look.

Fenris just pulled a spell tome out of her storage spell.

One of those weird blue beasts perks up at the smell of the book, its long nose twitching in the direction of our heroes.

It isn't approaching just yet, though.

Not just yet.

"They work akin to a scroll. The magic representing the spell formula is stored within them. Reading the tome imprints the spell formula upon the reader's mind. A useful application for one pressed for time."

Which they are if G'nichi is to be believed.

"Given that no one appears to be present to make you 'a big dragon' I would suggest we address the issue of your self defense with the means available to us while we travel."

[Deathkeeper]

An Improbable Adventure

G’nichi takes the book and flips it open. Somehow reading it takes under five seconds.
”This still requires a hand free. Which would not have helped me when I had to keep a grimoire of death from a horror while also fending it off with a sword I couldn’t afford to drop.” he’s rather insistent. This also happens often.
No, G’nichi it doesn’t matter what you bring up about the practical matters of your situation you don’t know what you’re talking about just do this other thing that isn’t as good it doesn’t matter what your priorities are or how you feel about what shape you’re comfortable being in.
At least Nala is honest about the reason she likes his birth shape.

[bc56]

Shuttle to L1
Unfortunately, the delayed effect will take around 20 minutes to become apparent. In the meantime, Lizzie continues to harass Sekhmet with insults.
But as time passes, Lizzie begins to look sick. She loses the gusto with which she was tormenting Sekhmet and begins to appear nauseated. Then, unfortunately (given the microgravity environment,) she throws up. It's at this moment she realizes something is actually wrong. "What? Uuugh..." Sekhmet's mind lights up in triumphant glee. "You should know better than to kiss a succubus, Erszébet. Your lusts got the better of you this time." "You poisoned me?" "There was nerve toxin in my spit." "It doesn't matter. You wouldn't kill your friend's body." "I wouldn't?" It's clear now that Sekhmet has regained the upper hand in this situation, although the plan hinges on Lizzie fleeing Miranda's body (whether that body survives the severe poisoning Sekhmet gave it or not) into the anchor Sekhmet so helpfully gave her. She's not sure how to get that to happen without making it clear she wants it to happen.