Outside 51: It's just a weather balloon

[Earl of Purple]

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Ah, but Yuvan, that means you cheated the Shout by plundering knowledge from a dragon's soul you devoured. The draugr who can Shout came by the skill the same way the Greybeards or Ulric did- study, practice and maybe some meditation on the theme of knocking stuff over by yelling at it.

The good news is, the Sphiranx can't straighten itself up properly due to the (comparatively) low ceiling, which also means it can't pounce on Yuvan and try crushing him to death. So it stalks forward as fast as it can whilst it's so hunched over, and doesn't get there in time to pin Yuvan back to the floor. Instead, it lashes out again with a widespread paw, trying to knock him over now he's stood back up. And maybe even knock him into a wall so he drops that mace, that'd be good too.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Testing Grounds]

Karaglen is startled out of her intense stare-down with the tree as G'nichi runs past, but presumes there's a good reason and heads after him.
She is not able to resist glancing back and her eyes widen.
"It wasn't doing that earlier..."

And along that, he makes his kind of off-topic request and she tries her best to comply. It's a little tricky with the given situation, but he's the hero so she tries to clear her mind.
"Um...well they're doing okay I think. Even on a bad day, I don't think Mom lets it get her down very much. Navvy and I haven't been hanging out as much because I've been busy helping some more people lately, but I think he's doing okay too?"

The darkness' chase slows a little, but it's still overpaced compared to before.
The trees are still looping.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds

G’nichi nods. ”Alright. And your uncle, what happy memories do you have with him?” he asks her, his reptilian face smiling warmly as he can.
G’nichi thinks about his childhood memories of his parents. Warm thoughts, of temple meetings by the hearth. When he met Nala for the first time.

[Rebonack]

[Apocalypse Junction]

Victor looks down at the weathered, yellowed, tattered map in his hands.

He squints.

Sticks his tongue out of the side of his mouth.

Turns the map upside down.

And at last glances up at the sign looming above the crossroads.

"Okay I'm definitely lost," he finally admits. Just for good measure he eyes the signs again. Inside, that-o-way. Riverside, over there. Skyside, pointing... up. And a bit to the east. Radiation Gulch (haha, no) yonder. And finally a picture of... Victor thinks it's supposed to be a somewhat abstract picture of a beetle? Sure. Beetle is apparently due south. None of these places are on the map he pilfered out of an old gas station that was over-run with grimers and one intensely unfriendly muk. And a couple skeletons. Not that the skeletons had much input on the situation, being skeletons and all.

Eyes once more to the sign.

Eyes narrow.

"...did those signs just change?"

The 'sides are all gone now, replaced with 'Morning Star Nuclear Reactor', 'Mistvale Valley', and 'The Slump'.

Victor heaves a sigh, folds his map, and heads for an old rusting van on the road. These roads are always speckled with scrap-heaps like a rad-rattatta is speckled with boils. Good cover from the elements. Also a good place for raiders and ferals and Arceus-knows what else to be lurking in waiting. Thankfully the stroll has been peaceful (if confusing) thus far. Maybe he should just wait until morning? Who knows, the sign might have sorted out whatever personal problems it's dealing with and actually provide some useful information by then.

Shrugging off his pack, Victor begins building a campfire for the night.

He's quite a sight, out here in the wasteland. Just another Unovan settler out scavenging the rotting bones of civilization in the wake of the war. His attire is rugged, mostly consisting of well worn leather and denim with a few dented steel plates riveted to the clothing here and there. He pulls off his wide-brimmed hat, sitting down with his back against the van and running a hand through his cornflower blue hair. It almost seems to sparkle in the flickering firelight. He pops a hole in a can of beans with his trusty can-opener and sets it near the fire to begin warming up.

And finally?

He draws a well-worn harmonica from his pocket and rubs his thumb across it, a wistful smile tugging at his lips.

Alone in the wilderness with nothing but the moon and stars to listen, he begins playing a mournful tune.

[Ironsmith]

[Selmora]

Misheard, very possibly.

Fenris is fluent in Dwemer largely due to the fact that she has devoured every scrap of text she can find on the subject. After all, their machines are of particular interest to her. Not the constructs, so much. No, her interests are more in their arts of metallurgy and their penchant for infusing magic directly into the being of an object upon creation rather than layering enchantments onto it after the fact. Many daedric artifacts are, in fact, actually dwemer artifacts.

These objects of power were simply looted after the disappearance of the dwarves.

She didn't go on an extended quest to restore the Tools of Kagranac to their proper power by being ignorant of the ways of the dwarves, after all.

One of the imps gets frosted by the whirl-wind, ice forming on its wings. Which means down it goes which means Fenris' disc scythes through it a moment later. A pretty similar sequence of events plays out with the third and final imp.

Fenris huffs a breath once the last of the awful things is dead.

"There is something dreadfully unusual about these imps. These creatures are typically of animal intelligence. They absolutely should not be possessed of sufficient intellect to set traps like that."

Nor is there any report of them being able to cast such advanced magic. Normally they're limited to obnoxious but largely harmless bots of electricity. Only really a threat when they have large numbers.

[Selmora]

"Indeed." Yuvan concurs. "Much like dwarven spiders are not typically warded and poisons do not typically corrode away enchanted gear, nor are orcs necessarily barbaric nor trolls intelligent."

The Nexus seems to be full of oddities like that. He fully expects to see a Cliff Racer try to sell them jewelry next.

"Perhaps we will find an explanation for that discrepancy." He concludes, putting the ward back up. "But for the moment, I expect that question will go without an answer, unless that doom-drive leads us to one."

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Ah, but Yuvan, that means you cheated the Shout by plundering knowledge from a dragon's soul you devoured. The draugr who can Shout came by the skill the same way the Greybeards or Ulric did- study, practice and maybe some meditation on the theme of knocking stuff over by yelling at it.

The good news is, the Sphiranx can't straighten itself up properly due to the (comparatively) low ceiling, which also means it can't pounce on Yuvan and try crushing him to death. So it stalks forward as fast as it can whilst it's so hunched over, and doesn't get there in time to pin Yuvan back to the floor. Instead, it lashes out again with a widespread paw, trying to knock him over now he's stood back up. And maybe even knock him into a wall so he drops that mace, that'd be good too.

[Pixie Grinder's Compound]

Oh, great. A stunlock.

Aaaaaand a disarming ability.

Joy.

Yuvan stands and faces the creature, his hands emptied for the moment. The sphrianx still hasn't done much to actually hurt him, granted, but even these little scratches are going to add up if he doesn't find a way to get a counterattack in. His armor is only going to make it so that battering him to death will take hours instead of seconds, which is hardly ideal.

Wait.

Yuvan growls at himself for thinking so rigidly. He's acting like he's still in Tamriel, where the rules of engagement are inflexible and strategy strictly orthodox. He can and should be more creative here.

The next time the cat takes a swing at him, Yuvan's going to swing back; his goal is to use his supernaturally-enhanced strength (particularly as it applies to punching things) to snap the creature's wrist, thereby preventing it from swinging again. Maybe.

[Rebonack]

[Selmora]

"I certainly never imagined I would get to hear a troll define pessimism," Fenris admits.

This place has without question been a learning experience for her.

It tugs at the edges of what is and isn't possible.

Maybe the best course of action is to just accept the oddities and face value and be flexible enough to adapt to them?

Our heroes solider on!

As the round a corner they will discover something rather concerning. A large crack in the wall, large enough for an imp to slip through but much too small for men or mer. Eerie flickering red lights an a low ululating sound flow from the rift in the stone. In front of it a pair of imps appear to be standing guard.

This time around our heroes are approaching from a direction the imps can't see quite so well. No ambush lightning flying their way just yet.

Fenris narrows her eyes at the hellish glow, the hair on her arms standing up. "I believe we may be near an Oblivion gate. That livid light and the whiff of brimstone, it's just like the gate the resurgent Crimson Dawn unearthed."

This must be another one of those events that happened in Fenris' version of Nirn that are, for whatever reason, absent from Yuvan's.

[Morty]

[Riverbank]

Assuming something will be boring is the best way to make sure that it is. And that's awful.
Nak swims for the hole in the tower regardless of the very real possibility that there's nothing there.
Because what if there isn't?

Inside the sunken building, Nak will find machinery, long eaten by rust and overgrown with plants. But it had to be very complicated and delicate, once. What could it have been used for? The little crocodile likely can't guess. Batu, who swims in after him, looks as surprised as his charge, for now.

[Ironsmith]

[Selmora]

"I certainly never imagined I would get to hear a troll define pessimism," Fenris admits.

This place has without question been a learning experience for her.

It tugs at the edges of what is and isn't possible.

Maybe the best course of action is to just accept the oddities and face value and be flexible enough to adapt to them?

Our heroes solider on!

As the round a corner they will discover something rather concerning. A large crack in the wall, large enough for an imp to slip through but much too small for men or mer. Eerie flickering red lights an a low ululating sound flow from the rift in the stone. In front of it a pair of imps appear to be standing guard.

This time around our heroes are approaching from a direction the imps can't see quite so well. No ambush lightning flying their way just yet.

Fenris narrows her eyes at the hellish glow, the hair on her arms standing up. "I believe we may be near an Oblivion gate. That livid light and the whiff of brimstone, it's just like the gate the resurgent Crimson Dawn unearthed."

This must be another one of those events that happened in Fenris' version of Nirn that are, for whatever reason, absent from Yuvan's.

[Selmora]

Now it's Yuvan's turn to demonstrate intimate knowledge of the curses of a long-dead tongue; Falmer, in his case. "If that's what we're looking at, we don't have much chance of properly reclaiming the mine." Yuvan laments. "We would have to enter to close it from the other side, which does not seem to be viable. Even if we slay all the imps, there will still remain a means of them crossing over whenever they like." He turns toward Fenris and gives a mirthless little smirk. "Unless that expanded grimoire of yours contains a convenient gate-closing spell, that is."

[Rebonack]

[Selmora]

Fenris really hasn't spent a great deal of time studying the language of the snow elves, but there are enough similarities in the related languages that she gets the general gist.

"Language," she softly chides, a ghost a smile tugging at her mouth behind the helmet. "There are options, yes. Closing the gate would require removing the sigil stone on the other side. Alternatively, if we collapsed the chamber it's located in I suspect that would have much the same end effect. The essence of Oblivion might still be leaking over, but daedra would be unable to cross since manifesting into a chamber full of rubble would do them little good."

She pauses for a moment, considering options.

"It's possible that this is an unanchored oblivion gate. A longer lived version of the transient gates that daedra typically manifest through, but still lacking the metaphysical hooks that would allow it to remain open indefinitely. Such gates are easier to open, but also easier to close. However, to learn precisely the sort of gate it is I will need a better look at it."

Which, of course, means that some imps need to die.

A few seconds pass.

"I don't have a gate closing spell as such. However, creating a milestone anchor inside the gate's threshold would likely cause the the liminal bridges to interact with each other violently. That may close a greater gate without us having to remove its sigil stone, however I have strong doubts that we would survive the magical backlash of such an interaction."

[Shadowcaller]

Spoiler: Quoted posts

Show

The Ossuary

"Blue works as an 'I don't know' or a 'maybe', sure why not. And the first part of the plan at least sounds solid." The latter part she wasn't so keen on. Even just pretending to take someone as a slave brushed up against some memories she'd rather keep buried. That being said, she'd probably still do it if it came to it.

---

Although now that they had pushed forward, and found the necromancers, Pania was less sure if waiting was a good idea. One hand unconsciously strayed to the hilt of her tewhatewha while her other gripped the distasteful slaver weapon tight. Her whole body looked tense, as if she was eager to spring forwards. "Are you still sure you wanna wait?" she whispered to both Dena and Cantata in turn. "Whatever she's doing, she looks distracted. We could take her down now, easy." She was at least trying to be a team player. Just to look good on her first proper job.

The Ossuary

Cantata pauses for a second, and Pania may get the impression that she didn't read her gestures correctly - but the woman shrugs a little, nods and turns her wrist-comm towards her to display a green light. It's not quite on the mark, but it'll work for her just fine. She hands over the mancatcher with a brief shiver, letting it go and drawing her hand back like it had been covered in some ugly slime.

------

The group enters the ruins and Cantata takes up the middle, her footsteps as silent as the grand graveyard they've entered. Her eyebrows raise as she spots the trio of tactical skeletons - it was certainly better equipment than she expected to see on them. She would have expected such cheap undead to be considered far too disposable to equip in such a manner, and even beyond that all the lacking of muscle and motor control cannot be good for controlling the recoil on firearms. Regardless, it just means she'll have to be that more cautious on approach. She wasn't used to dealing with undead constructs, but it was likely the same issue she found came up with mechs - no brains to deceive in there.

Stepping forward in a crouch, the cloaked woman turns her head towards Pania, looking for her to take the lead. She will hang back and stay hidden unless otherwise directed, finding what cover she can to blend in with.

[Temple Site]

Nathan studies the map for a while.
"Are all of these these fey groves connected to these angels? Or at least suspected of it? Or are there all different kinds of fey marked on this map?"

They don't sound disappointed or anything; their voice has some tone, but not very much unless they really try.
"We'll also be investigating the angels's numbers and disposition right away. I hope we can count on information-sharing there?"

[The Ossuary]

And so our heroes (I'm going to keep calling them that you can't stop me) move into the necropolis proper, weaving their way between the bone-built mausoleums that dot the landscape like boils on a plague-riddled corpse. The air is still here. Deathly silent. Even the birds and the insects seem loath to break the hush that hangs over the Ossuary.

Finding the necromancers doesn't prove to be too terribly difficult.

There's one of them now with her back turned to the party!

She's standing in a circle traced from bone dust, her hands raised above her head and cloaked in a greasy black miasma of magic. She's definitely chanting something, but the words are difficult to make out from a distance. A similar cloud of greasy darkness is hanging over a nearby mausoleum with its doors open. No doubt her buddies partner is inside checking for the remains that the necromancers are searching for.

Also surrounding the necromancer?

Three skeletons.

Skeletons armed with modern tactical gear rather than the typical corroding chain mail and rusted iron swords.

This pair of necromancers is one of three two-person teams searching the Ossuary.

Will our heroes wait and watch and trail them?
Or attack the lone necromancer casting the spell?
Or assault them when the second necromancer finishes whatever they're doing inside?

Or maybe something else?

Stay tuned to find out!

[Temple Site]

"All kinds of these 'fey', but the angels are connected to them. We know this much. In fact, we believe they're the same kind. Of course, with the nexus being what it is we cannot be sure."

A pause as Jaccalish seems to consider Natha's last offer. "Actually, this is not entirely true. Not anymore at least. Since you mentioned information sharing we do have an offer to you. An device which might prove useful. Might not. It has a rather specific application but... we are digressing."

Jaccalish raise their arm again and a orb-like device made of a black material appears.

"It's a device that can track planar origin. It can detect exactly which plane a being is from and can potentially connect to it. This would make us able to tell which beings that are from the same plane which at least will be useful to us. We are not sure if you would feel likewise but we should be able to mass-produce it now and right now we are offering it along with the promise of information-sharing regarding these potential angels."

The Ossuary

Dena had not expected to find a lone necromancer out here. Looked like they were in luck.

She nods to Pania and murmurs. "Go ahead, but knock out the necromancer before she can see you. Don't kill." This place had enough of them already and if they were slavers they wouldn't just kill a valuable spellcaster like this would they?

She'd go in herself but while Pania and Cantata were relatively unknown she was basically one of the most well-known faces in MERC so she couldn't afford to be seen by them if they were claiming to be slavers.

[Earl of Purple]

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Yuvan's fist meets the Sphiranx's paw and there's a crack of breaking bone and a yowl of pain. The giant three-eyed monster lunges in response, mouth opening wide to try its magically-enhanced teeth against Yuvan's armour. Simultaneously, it reaches into Yuvan's mind to try and paralyse him with fear, forcing him to relive the memories that had him most scared. That only lasts so long as all three eyes can see the high elf, however, and he might be ready for the kitty to play with his mind again.

Apocalypse Junction

There's more than the moon and starts listening. There nearly always is, even in Apocalypse Junction.

Right now, the harmonica is drawing somebody else to the fire. They seem to be injured, dragging their left foot behind them and leaning on a battered aluminium crutch, rags wrapped around the bottom to replace the original ferule. They're also wearing battered old clothing; denim dungarees and an old military jacket, hanging open with too few buttons to close it, mismatched gloves on their hands and a battered trainer on their right foot. Their left foot is wrapped in rags and tape. Most of their head is concealed behind a headwrap made from dirty towels, only pale blue eyes and the occasional tuft of red hair visible. Their size and stature suggest human, though their movements are tired and awkward, dragging the foot and burdened by a green duffle bag. They aren't unarmed, a knife visible in a sheath at their waist, and one side of the jacket flaps more than the other, suggesting something weighty is in a pocket. "Ho, stranger! Got space at your fire for company? I have meat for the cookin'. Dog, I swear it." The voice is tired, but quite clear. This individual, whomever they may be, is probably a woman.

[bc56]

Abandoned Battlefield
Ah, Almoner recognizes that sound, the sound of all Hell breaking loose.
Fortunately he's an experienced commander. "Sniper!" he shouts, "Everyone get to cover!" He has no weapon of comparable range, so he ducks behind the rubble where the guard fell and checks what sort of weapon he had. If it's any sort of rifle, it will come in handy now.

[Ironsmith]

[Selmora]

Fenris really hasn't spent a great deal of time studying the language of the snow elves, but there are enough similarities in the related languages that she gets the general gist.

"Language," she softly chides, a ghost a smile tugging at her mouth behind the helmet. "There are options, yes. Closing the gate would require removing the sigil stone on the other side. Alternatively, if we collapsed the chamber it's located in I suspect that would have much the same end effect. The essence of Oblivion might still be leaking over, but daedra would be unable to cross since manifesting into a chamber full of rubble would do them little good."

She pauses for a moment, considering options.

"It's possible that this is an unanchored oblivion gate. A longer lived version of the transient gates that daedra typically manifest through, but still lacking the metaphysical hooks that would allow it to remain open indefinitely. Such gates are easier to open, but also easier to close. However, to learn precisely the sort of gate it is I will need a better look at it."

Which, of course, means that some imps need to die.

A few seconds pass.

"I don't have a gate closing spell as such. However, creating a milestone anchor inside the gate's threshold would likely cause the the liminal bridges to interact with each other violently. That may close a greater gate without us having to remove its sigil stone, however I have strong doubts that we would survive the magical backlash of such an interaction."

[Selmora]

Yuvan gives her a look in response to being told to mind his language. Not a disapproving one, exactly... he seems caught between "I guess I deserved that" and "oh no you didn't". "I expect we won't accomplish so much as you think by collapsing the chamber." He says, pointing to the gate. "You see how it's embedded in that crack? I suspect our miners, such as they are, unearthed this gate accidentally. It fits too well into its surroundings to have just happened." Which of course, means Yuvan believes it to be a permanent gate. "If they dug it up once, they may do so again. Particularly if they get careless with the surrounding pile of rock and rubble. And even if they don't, that would still leave the option of the daedra digging themselves out. If we are to solve things here permanently, we will need to close the gate." He gives a joyless chuckle. "We just need a method that won't kill us in the process."

Pixie Grinder's Compound

Yuvan's fist meets the Sphiranx's paw and there's a crack of breaking bone and a yowl of pain. The giant three-eyed monster lunges in response, mouth opening wide to try its magically-enhanced teeth against Yuvan's armour. Simultaneously, it reaches into Yuvan's mind to try and paralyse him with fear, forcing him to relive the memories that had him most scared. That only lasts so long as all three eyes can see the high elf, however, and he might be ready for the kitty to play with his mind again.

[Pixie Grinder's Compound]

As the Sphiranx is going to quickly discover, angering and frightening the altmer, followed by exposing its mouth to him, is a good way to end up with its teeth knocked out. Potentially. It depends on how easily its teeth actually come out.

That's not to say that Yuvan is unaffected by

While you were away, we came to visit your lovely new house. Taarie made us feel right at home. In fact, we liked her so much, we took her back to Knifepoint Ridge with us.


If you want Taarie back, come see me. Bring 5000 gold and I'll discuss letting her go.


Rochelle the Red

The guard shoves Yuvan to his knees, twisting the altmer's arms behind his back as his confederates start pulling off his armor and steal the mace from his belt.

"You're going to rot in there, do you hear me? No-one escapes Cidhna Mine."

The guard gives Yuvan an emphatic glare as he pulls the pendant from Yuvan's neck and bindings wrap around his wrists, leaving him the same squishy ex-thalmor who nearly got his head cut off hours after entering Skyrim.

"No-one."

"Hello there, sweetie. Aren't you precious, killing some of the minions. Want the mistress all to your self, do you? Well, tough, poppet. You're allll mine."

but Yuvan has much the same reaction now that he had then; unyielding rage. Nobody is going to make him feel small and powerless again. Nobody is going to hurt the people he loves. Nobody.

Yuvan lets out a howl of rage and strikes again, this time aiming for the roof of the Sphiranx's mouth, to punch up into its brain. He's had enough of this thing's mind-games.

[Rebonack]

[Selmora]

Yuvan absolutely has no one to blame but himself for that quip.

"And likely collapse a large portion of the mine in the process, yes," Fenris agrees. "The first order of business will be accessing the gate itself. If past experience with problems such as these are any indication, there is likely another entrance into the chamber aside from the fissure those daedric imps are guarding. Unfortunately I lack spellwork for tunneling through solid rock. That must be accomplished in the traditional fashion."

That is to say, hitting the rock with a pick to make the hole bigger.

"I believe our course of action is clear, then? Dispatch the sentries and search the area for an accessible entrance. Investigate the gate to determine whether or not sigil stone removal is the only means of closing it. If that is our only option, then I suppose one more escapade into Oblivion is not too much of a detour from our humble goal of collecting alchemical reagents."

The mer can likely hear the smile behind Fenris' words, there.

This is exactly the sort of doom-driven nonsense the Divines constantly insist on tossing into their laps.

You set out to accomplish something relatively simple and encounter half a dozen world shaking stories all tugging your attention in other directions along the way.


[Apocalypse Junction]

Well would you look at that?

Nothing like a crackling campfire and some lonely music to attract a stranger or two, Victor reckons.

He looks the stranger up and down. That crutch. The leg. She's looking a mite banged up. Not really any business of his what happened to her, though. Not unless she decides to share. There are plenty of ways a scavenger could get mangled out in the Wastes. Plenty of ways to get killed, too. When someone blacks out waking up at the nearest settlement with half their money gone is about the kindest thing that could happen to them.

Lowering his harmonica, Victor gestures at an old tire he rolled up across from himself at the fire just in case a visitor decided to roll in.

"There's always room for a friendly face around the campfire. Would be awful un-neighborly of me to turn you away, specially on account of that bum leg. Take a load off, toss on the fire what you can spare. I ain't got much, but I'll share what I've got," Victor says, straightening up and rolling his shoulders a bit to limber up just in case. The weight on his hip is a reminder that his shootin' iron is ready.

The law of the Wastes.

Be neighborly but keep both eyes open.

"You out scavenging 'round these parts and run into some trouble? Not that I've got the foggiest where these parts is, mind. Map I found a few miles back ain't doin' me a lick of good."


[The Ossuary]

The necromancer is definitely distracted; arms held above her head and greasy magic oozing from her outstretched fingers like oily black fog. Definitely some sort of spooky magic going on here.

The three skeletons are, however, quite alter looking. They constantly pan their heads to and fro in distressingly exact, stereotyped motions. They always shift themselves in exactly the same way at exactly the same rate. Programmed behaviors. Which means that there's a brief window every fifteen seconds or so when all of the skeletons are looking away from where our heroes are hiding.

If they time their strike right, they could probably flatten the skeletons before they react and then go after the necromancer before she has a chance to respond to their assault.

A risky option?

Maybe.

But it should work.

Alternatively, they could try setting up some kind of distract to draw the skeletons away from the necromancer.

Or something else?

Sounds like it's decision time.

[Deathkeeper]

[Riverbank]

Inside the sunken building, Nak will find machinery, long eaten by rust and overgrown with plants. But it had to be very complicated and delicate, once. What could it have been used for? The little crocodile likely can't guess. Batu, who swims in after him, looks as surprised as his charge, for now.

Riverbank

Nak makes a series of high-pitched noises that Batu will find he understands baffling well as indicators that Nak is very excited and wishes to investigate more lower down.
Which he attempts to do by going to the base of the machinery and trying to get past the plant life with his sharp little claws.

[Chaotic Bob]

Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds

G’nichi nods. ”Alright. And your uncle, what happy memories do you have with him?” he asks her, his reptilian face smiling warmly as he can.
G’nichi thinks about his childhood memories of his parents. Warm thoughts, of temple meetings by the hearth. When he met Nala for the first time.

You are casting your efforts in the wrong direction.

It is cryptic and still not entirely helpful, but when held up to the vajra's previous comment, it does seem like it's offering advice of a sort.
This is, unfortunately, supported by the fact that the darkness continues to not stop (but neither does it speed up).

This is somewhat a shame, as Kara seems rather happy to talk about that time her uncle brought by a rather beautiful flower-plant that sang when you watered it, with different pitches depending on the lighting and temperature. They had tried to make of game of getting it to replicate music.
"I bet if I found another one, we could do it again."

The darkness slows. Just a little.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds

G'nichi nods sagely.
"And what other things do you want to do with your uncle when we find him?" he asks her.
Really, he's doing this for her. He just wants to see Kara get what she wants and smile. That's good enough for him. It's the least he can do after what she's done for him.

[Ironsmith]

[Selmora]

Yuvan absolutely has no one to blame but himself for that quip.

"And likely collapse a large portion of the mine in the process, yes," Fenris agrees. "The first order of business will be accessing the gate itself. If past experience with problems such as these are any indication, there is likely another entrance into the chamber aside from the fissure those daedric imps are guarding. Unfortunately I lack spellwork for tunneling through solid rock. That must be accomplished in the traditional fashion."

That is to say, hitting the rock with a pick to make the hole bigger.

"I believe our course of action is clear, then? Dispatch the sentries and search the area for an accessible entrance. Investigate the gate to determine whether or not sigil stone removal is the only means of closing it. If that is our only option, then I suppose one more escapade into Oblivion is not too much of a detour from our humble goal of collecting alchemical reagents."

The mer can likely hear the smile behind Fenris' words, there.

This is exactly the sort of doom-driven nonsense the Divines constantly insist on tossing into their laps.

You set out to accomplish something relatively simple and encounter half a dozen world shaking stories all tugging your attention in other directions along the way.

[Selmora]

Yuvan sighs and hefts his mace. Hopefully, these imps weren't going to be too much of an obstacle. Especially since they're primed to get the drop on them. Unless these are some kind of super-ultra-mega overfiend deathimps that are inexplicably more powerful than their already suprisingly-strong bretheren, a couple of well-placed destruction spells should help make short work of them.

Like so.

fwoooooosh

[Rebonack]

[Selmora]

Like some sort of boss imp?.

Well that would just be absolutely contrived.

There's no chance our heroes will encounter such a thing.

So!

These imps?

Not nearly as bad as the last situation.

They're briefly staggered by the explosion from Yuvan's spell, though not slain outright. Fenris follows up by hurling her disc at one of them, neatly bisecting the foul creature. The other imp seems pretty shocked by this development and decides that our heroes should be shocked, too!

Which means it begins channeling lighting at the pair of dragonborn!

But Fenris?

She has her hands free.

Which means that lightning is flatly denied as it splashes impotently off a shimmering wall of magic.

The imp isn't very happy about this. Probably will be less happy with whatever Yuvan does to it in the next several seconds.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Battlefield

The guard did have a rifle, an automatic rifle with an integrated underslung grenade launcher. If Almoner pats the guard down further, he'll find she's got a spare magazine and a pistol, but no grenades for the launcher. The fleeing labourers also dive for cover; despite not fighting back, they have a good sense of where and how to avoid sniper fire. Of course, more importantly one of the labourers is also behind this pile of rubble, holding a chunk of concrete and raising it over the unconscious guard's head.

Pixie Grinder's Compound

The punch lands within the Sphiranx's mouth, and sends a shudder down its body. There's a crack as the telepathic monster's head is knocked back into the ceiling, hitting a steel support beam under the concrete floor of the basement above. It crashes down, goo leaking from the broken bone of its hard palate, and isn't breathing. It's dead, and the memories of terror retreat back into Yuvan's mind.

The replacement of his wife by the Sphiranx may, however, be more permanent.

Apocalypse Junction

"Much obliged." The woman throws the duffle to one side and slumps down gratefully, settling on the tyre with her leg stretched out and rag-wrapped foot pointing straight up. She rummages into the duffle bag and pulls out some aluminium foil wrapped around cuts of meat- the promised dog, most likely. She'll toss them on the fire, to roast as they can. "Leg's a bit more'n bum, truth be told, but it's not new. I don't have a map, not written down, but... I was in a settlement, week or so back. Probably less travel for you, that way. Got a way 'cross the river. Call it Faithbridge. It was a proper bridge, once, with three pillars holding it up. The middle still stands, and they've built up on it, but the rest's collapsed. Strung out some rope bridges, though they're awful rickety. Or you could shell out to the ferrymaster, and cross in a rowboat. I did, the bridges made me nervous. The war got 'em bad, though, so they ain't allowed in town." Presumably a ghoul, or something analogous to one- if Victor's familiar with such things.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

"Pfft, easy. I'll show you the meaning of speed." Mimi turns in the direction indicated. "Readysetgo!" And she's off with almost no warning. She's absolutely very fast and it takes her little time to get up to speed either. Anika better hurry.

...Never mind that Mimi doesn't know what a kow looks like.

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

Anika waste no time for words either and shifts into her saber form once more and starts to bolt in the same direction as the pixie.
She wasn't sure where they were going exactly, other than forward, but that was good enough for her!

She seems to easily be able to keep up with Mimi for now. But it isn't long since they can actually see what seems to be big-people habitation up ahead and that's when Anika starts increase her pace...

[Rebonack]

[Apocalypse Junction]

Not new?

Well, that's something else then isn't it? As harsh as the Wastes are an injury like that's not going to do a scavenger any favors. Folks that's banged up usually stick close to the settlements on account of how often a man's got to leg it from trouble. What are the chances this gal would last against some determined raiders? Or ferals? Not too good, Victor's reckons. Must be one of those sorts with the good fortune to find a few balls that still work in spite of the radiation. Someone with a trained pokemon can just toss them down and hobble away while bandits or monsters or whatever else is occupied.

"If you've been limpin' around the Wastes on that leg a long time I don't know whether you're lucky or unlucky. Maybe a bit too much of both," Victor chuckles. "But the best make their own luck, they say."

He listens to her tale of settlements nearby, rubbing his stubbly chin thoughtfully.

"Faithbridge, hm? Don't know that one. Ain't on the map, neither. For all the good that map has been so far. Wouldn't be so sore about if the gas station weren't over-run with ferals. At least I got a few snack cakes out of it," he sighs. As he speaks, he fishes a pair of little plastic wrapped gas-station pastries out of his pack. One a pair of little chocolate cupcakes and the other yellow bars. He offers the cupcakes to the other traveler.

"Ruined bridge and a ghoul ferryman? I'm sure I would have heard of somewhere like that. I'm out of Sandy Hollow, a two day journey east."

[Chaotic Bob]

Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds

G'nichi nods sagely.
"And what other things do you want to do with your uncle when we find him?" he asks her.
Really, he's doing this for her. He just wants to see Kara get what she wants and smile. That's good enough for him. It's the least he can do after what she's done for him.

Now this seems to work out much better.
Karaglen pretty happily babbles about future plans. They seem to involve an amount of hugs, brownies, story telling, possibly more hugs, and showing off some of her new sculpture works.

The darkness' advance gutters to a halt fairly swiftly and even seems to reverse off into the distance.
Kara doesn't notice though, she's busy talking about more fun things.

Why, she barely notices when they walk right out of the trees and to the edge of a big, purple-tinted pond. It's eerily still and one could mistake it for glass. Maybe it is glass.
The pagoda she described is on the far shore and seems to be a fairly standard building style, everything seems like it's made of normal, not-weird wood, with some very normal, not-weird wooden doors on the front. It seems pretty big, taller than most houses, though perhaps only slightly wider, but nothing ridiculous like the size of a castle.

That hedge-maze off to one side of it seems a little weird, some of the walls seem to rhythmically twitching, but that's about it for immediate oddities here.

There's a pretty clear path to walk around the glass(?) pond.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds

G'nichi doesn't have any desire to walk on weird purple glass so he points Kara towards the obvious path which is obvious.
"The forest was magic so the 'water' doubtlessly is. Let's avoid touching it for now. But maybe there's nothing to worry about. I just hope the front door isn't locked." he muses.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - Testing Grounds]

"I don't think Uncle Xeni has ever locked his doors before."
At least, not during the time periods where she's been around.

As they begin to move around the side of the pond, Kara casts a curious glance behind them and blinks.
The warning sign is right behind them, with no sign whatsoever of any of the other environments. It's as if they just started.

"This place is a little broken, maybe."

Uneventfully on to the pagoda!
They go up a few wooden steps (it seems well taken care of, still neatly varnished), and are faced with the two sliding doors that serve as the entrance!

Do they just barge in? Knock? Yell real loud? Leave this peculiar misbegotten region of the north?

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - Pagoda

G’nichi knocks on the wooden paneling and steps back.
”Its all you from here out, Kara.” he tells her warmly. He’ll let her take the lead on this one.

[Earl of Purple]

Apocalypse Junction

"Unlucky, I reckon. And Faithbridge is a tiny community. Twelve people, plus the ferryman who ain't allowed in. But they got a river crossing, and they're well defensible." The woman takes a snack cake and lies it down, before rummaging back into her dufflebag and pulling out a syringe, which she'll align with a large hole in her dungarees on the left leg and inject. She winces a little as it goes in, so whatever the medicine is it hurt. "I haven't heard of Sandy Hollow. Two days away, you say? Hm. I'll make it three, I reckon. Faithbridge like old books, they burn 'em but they'll give supplies if you hand some over. Mayor's a nutjob what thinks knowledge caused all this, an' without knowledge we won't do it again. They won't have maps for you, none of 'em can read. Ferryman's alright, though. Decent sort if you don't mind the smell. Might have a map, too, he's literate. How about Sandy Hollow?" The Mayor of Faithbridge is probably right that without knowledge it won't happen again, but for scavengers like the limping lady and Victor, well... They make their living exploring the ruins for knowledge, so they might not trust Victor much.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

It takes a moment, but the doors slide open and a figure made of crudely hewn, person-sized stone stands on the other side of the threshold.
Where the thing's face should be, someone has stapled a picture of a wryly smiling man with white hair.
Someone also taped a little name tag onto its chest that says "Hi, my name is: Richard".

"Hey there, guests. Guess you didn't read the sign-oh hell, is that you kiddo?"
It sounds very convincingly like a normal human male.
It bends down onto one knee and holds its arms out for a hug.
"Got a hug for Uncle Richie?"

Karaglen looks...perplexed. She stares at the picture for a good several seconds, before her better nature overrides her and she goes to give them a hug anyway.
"Ummm, is it rude to say you don't look like I remember?"
"Ah, well. These things happen sometimes when someone plays with too much weird magic."

[Rebonack]

[Apocalypse Junction]

Victor winces at the sight of the shot.

Self medicating?

He's done the same, from time to time.

Usually just a quick potion or antidote injection on account of running afoul of something unfriendly. But that syringe looked more like the ramshackle sort. Not one of those salvaged injectors from the ruins. The pre-war stuff might be old, but it still packs a kick and does its job. The things whipped up by the chemists, though? Cheaper for sure. More likely to make your leg rot off, too.

"They burn old books? Sound like a bunch of lunatics," Victor scoffs, pulling dented metal flask from his hip and waving it at the wanderer. "I reckon you could say knowledge did us in, but if ya ask me it had more to do with those bastards in Kanto launching the nukes."

Victor takes a swig from the flask and grimaces.

"At least we gave as good as we got. And Sandy Hollow's a settlement built above some old ruins. Real old ruins, if you catch me. Older than the war. Pretty deep. We aren't so far from Castelia City and they got nuked pretty hard, but Sandy Hollow's far enough and the ruins were deep enough that the folk there avoided the worst of the fallout. It's a good place. Maybe five hundred souls? There's an aquifer running through the old ruins. All manner of nasty ferals nest down there in the depths, but the water's clean of radiation," Victor recollects. He pats several of the large water jugs lashed to his pack. "So we trade in clean water for other supplies. Guns and ammo, mostly. Need to be well armed to fight past the ferals to get at the water. I was heading for Castelia City myself, but I managed to get turned around in a sandstorm."

He gives a snort, looking frustrated with himself.

"Ain't never had that happen before. I've done this run a good three dozen times; know it like the back of my hand."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi is...um.
Weren't they looking for a guy named Xeni?
"Um. What kind of magic?" he asks quietly.