Outside 51: It's just a weather balloon

[Rebonack]

[Apocalypse Junction]

Victor, by contrast, has his fingers twitching at the shooting iron on his hip. He isn't sure what's going on with that crutch but considering what the drifter is doing he'll bet good bullets on the thing having a gun hidden in it.

Not a terrible way to hide a weapon.

He isn't sure what to expect here.

Ghouls happen, after all.

But this far out in the desert? You usually find them in the ruins of cities that the bombs wiped out where the radiation could get to them.

Maybe a feral? But it doesn't sound like any pokemon he's ever heard before.

So when a donkey approaches our heroes it's a bit of a surprise since this is clearly not a pokemon. Also disturbing is-

Well.

Basically everything about it.

It looks like it's been split open like a geode full of twisting geometric shapes glowing with impossible colors. It has no head. Merely a fearful, ever-shifting symmetry that makes the eyes water to look at too close.

"What the hell is that thing?" Victor mutters.

The donkey answers by manifesting a beam of raw entropic power and tries to rake it across both our heroes.


[Caldera of Opentop Mountain]

Whoop.

Yep.

That's a volcano alright.

Magdalene waves her arms a bit, trying to maintain her balance on the shifting, loose volcanic cinders that make up the slopes of the volcano.

"Hah, this brings back memories. I had to kick the (rose) out of an avatar of Hyperion one time before he made things like this pop up all over the place," she says, peering down at the caldera.

Also?

She pulls out some random piece of junk (in this case a pair of tattered boots she doesn't need) and just tosses them into the lava to watch them burn.

Because what's the point of having a volcano if you can't throw stuff into it?

[Deathkeeper]

[Riverbank]

The plants are thick and tangled, but Nak's claws can get rid of some of them. Batu joins in, since it's simpler than trying to dissuade Nak. And this isn't dangerous for now. As the two crocodiles clear the vegetation, the machinery will turn out to be a circular platform with metal circles bearing images of stars and planets. Was it some kind of astrological observatory once?

Riverbank

Nak begins wiggling his claws in front of his face. Batu may or may not realize he's miming using a camera. The demigod has an exceptional memory and is likely memorizing the image of this place.
Then he begins swimming around, looking for any mechanisms.
So he can turn them. Obviously.

[Arkhosia]

The Ossuary

Spoiler

Show

The Ossuary

Right. Action time. Pania turned to her partner in crime. Well, maybe what they were doing was a crime, maybe it wasn't. Pania didn't know the laws of the Nexus well enough to determine that. Ah well. "You go right for the woman. I'll keep the skeletons off you." She looked at the mancatcher in her hand. Would that be enough to restrain a skeleton? She didn't really know anything about fighting undead either. It was, in fact, quite alarming to her to see skeletons roaming around. But they were just bones. And she has just the right tool for cracking bones. And as for restraining them? She has other methods for that, too.

Pania waits till the gap when the skeletons turn away, and begins her approach, as silent as she is able. She looks over her shoulder as she does so, making sure Cantata is heading into position to move against the necromancer. She waited for as long as she could, giving Cantata as many of those precious seconds to get ready as possible.

The first skeleton, looking away as it was, was going to be an easy takedown. She swung the club end of her tewhatewha down with significant force, enough to shatter bone and throw a person to the ground before- the force enhanced by a small shockwave of sea-green psionic energy that curled around her hands and weapon. Should the skeleton go down, she would turn to the next one and try much the same. Should she be unable to take down the skeletons as quick as she was hoping, she'd focus all her efforts on bringing one down before moving to hold the other two in place with her psionics- all in service of ensuring Cantata could get to the necromancer unaccosted.

The way Cantata sees it, it's not spiritually crime if you're employed to do it in some manner. She moves forward under her color-shifting cloak, seeming to mutter a word beneath her breath as she gestures with two extended fingers. The very gesture seems to shift her more, and under Pania and Dena's eyes even her skin itself seems to melt into the environment, the outfit of her cloak barely perceptible. She moves closer into position but seems a little wary of the watchful dead - perhaps the strange effect she's caused to further ward her perception isn't effective on them?

Readying her stun baton, Cantata watches and waits, ready to strike when - there! As Pania surges in and brings her tewhatewha down in a pulverizing blow, pulling the focus of the skeletal soldiers, the saboteur springs into the fray and goes for the summoner. She attempts to slip through and strike her target in the side from behind, activating the weapon and holding the end down hard against her. If she manages to knock Cantata back before the surging electricity incapacitates her, she'll go for a followup strike to the skull.

[Earl of Purple]

Apocalypse Junction

The drifter has no idea what the donkey is. The moment she sees it, she barks out a word. "Malus!" A black orb that sucks in light shoots out of the end of the crutch, aimed at the odd donkey. If it hits, it'll pop and release a burst of black acid that will eat away at it.

Unfortunately, the drifter doesn't get a second shot as the donkey's enervation wave is blasted at her, so she lurches to one side and topples over. She's caught slightly, her clothing starting to fall apart as it ages. She's lucky in that mostly she's covered up in rags and old clothes, so the brief exposure doesn't get to skin.

Caldera of Opentop Mountain

"It's very warm here." As she speaks, Harriet works on the zip at the front of her vault-suit, unzipping it from the collar down to between her breasts. She watches as Magdalene throws the boots into the bubbling caldera below. They catch alight before they hit the surface, bouncing on the surface of the viscous molten rock before slowly sinking.

After, she glances at her PipBoy, clicking across to the map screen. "I can see a road, down that way. But... uh, I don't see my Vault on here." She points down towards the ash-coated trees, trying to figure out where a city might be on the map that doesn't yet show any icons representing interesting locations.

[Ironsmith]

[Selmora]

It looks like one of the gems is here on the second level of the mines with the other is deeper down in the third level.

Which means our heroes will probably have to deal with some agitated kwama warriors.

Which...

Won't be fun by any means.

Upset kwama can be a pain. And chances are their employer would prefer if they minimize the losses to her livestock.

So! Fenris can feel that doom-driven tug in two directions, one further away than the other. They may as well start with the closer of the two, right?

"There's a good chance the soul gem will be hidden somewhere," Fenris says as she begins picking her way through the tunnels. Before long they'll find themselves looking down on-

Goodness.

That's a sight.

A cavern serving as a grazing ground for the kwama with wide pillars holding up the roof and occasional shafts streaming in sunlight to feed some of the strange subterranean plants. Usually they would be met with a peaceful view of feeding kwama workers and scribs tussling around in the grass. Instead there's a pitched battle going down between the insectile livestock and the imps. The kwama are definitely on the losing side of this altercation, but they're putting up quite a fight considering that there aren't any warriors around. No doubt they're deeper in the den protecting the eggs. It is, however, only a matter of time before pheromone signals attract them.

Also the quest marker now indicates an area indicating that their objective is in the cavern somewhere without actually pointing directly to it.

Wonderful.

There are several areas that look like they might be a prime spot to hide the gem.

A cluster of pillars on the east side of the cavern overgrown with brush. A rather ferocious looking kwama worker is there, guarding a collection of scrib. Searching there would almost without question result in the kwama attacking.
A waterfall flows down the west wall, sending up a thick spray of mist as it drains into a rocky pool. Several imps appear to be taking turns zapping the water to cry a group of kwama huddled there.
A pile of loose stones is heaped up near the northern end of the cavern. It looks like they may have been put there recently. A pitched battle has been joined nearby by six kwama and four imps.

[Selmora]

The solution seems semi-obvious at first; kill the imps, placate the kwarma. The first part is even likely to go off without a hitch, since Yuvan can throw bolts of lightning at them even from here.

What he can't do is herd angry animals, nor would he allow himself to stoop to usong Illusion magic to do it for him. Which could cause problems for him here in a few moments.

Pixie Grinder's Compound

The house's internals burn quite well; the floors are wood, as are the rafters and most of the door/window frames. But the walls are brick, and the basement and underground garage are concrete; the frame of the house will remain. There's occasionally a pop as something left inside- supplies used in the production of pixie dust, or alcohol- explodes, and the windows crack and shatter. Boada will stand and watch, as will the leprechauns and the released sprite. The actual pixies have disappeared, zipped off back to wherever they came from.

[Pixie Grinder's Compound]

After a conspicuously long time, with the house's frame being buffeted by shouts of fus ro dah and its interior thoroughly burnt up, Yuvan finally emerges, dusting off rubble and ash. "Now, then." He begins with a little sniff. "Let's go see this Fairy Godfather."

[Shadowcaller]

The Ossuary

Right. Action time. Pania turned to her partner in crime. Well, maybe what they were doing was a crime, maybe it wasn't. Pania didn't know the laws of the Nexus well enough to determine that. Ah well. "You go right for the woman. I'll keep the skeletons off you." She looked at the mancatcher in her hand. Would that be enough to restrain a skeleton? She didn't really know anything about fighting undead either. It was, in fact, quite alarming to her to see skeletons roaming around. But they were just bones. And she has just the right tool for cracking bones. And as for restraining them? She has other methods for that, too.

Pania waits till the gap when the skeletons turn away, and begins her approach, as silent as she is able. She looks over her shoulder as she does so, making sure Cantata is heading into position to move against the necromancer. She waited for as long as she could, giving Cantata as many of those precious seconds to get ready as possible.

The first skeleton, looking away as it was, was going to be an easy takedown. She swung the club end of her tewhatewha down with significant force, enough to shatter bone and throw a person to the ground before- the force enhanced by a small shockwave of sea-green psionic energy that curled around her hands and weapon. Should the skeleton go down, she would turn to the next one and try much the same. Should she be unable to take down the skeletons as quick as she was hoping, she'd focus all her efforts on bringing one down before moving to hold the other two in place with her psionics- all in service of ensuring Cantata could get to the necromancer unaccosted.

The Ossuary

The way Cantata sees it, it's not spiritually crime if you're employed to do it in some manner. She moves forward under her color-shifting cloak, seeming to mutter a word beneath her breath as she gestures with two extended fingers. The very gesture seems to shift her more, and under Pania and Dena's eyes even her skin itself seems to melt into the environment, the outfit of her cloak barely perceptible. She moves closer into position but seems a little wary of the watchful dead - perhaps the strange effect she's caused to further ward her perception isn't effective on them?

Readying her stun baton, Cantata watches and waits, ready to strike when - there! As Pania surges in and brings her tewhatewha down in a pulverizing blow, pulling the focus of the skeletal soldiers, the saboteur springs into the fray and goes for the summoner. She attempts to slip through and strike her target in the side from behind, activating the weapon and holding the end down hard against her. If she manages to knock Cantata back before the surging electricity incapacitates her, she'll go for a followup strike to the skull.

The Ossuary

As the two moves out, Dena activates the function in her armor which turns her invisible and then retrieves a crossbow from one of her pockets of holding.
Then as they move forward she moves to the side to get a good angle on the necromancer without risking hitting either of her allies. She trusted that Cantata would take her down but in case she didn't she couldn't afford a spellcaster to get off a spell which might kill both the recruits.

Though for now she pays more attention to their surroundings. If reinforcements came wandering into the scene or something else unexpected happens she could give them a warning before they were taken with their backs bare.

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

What?! Mimi can't be outpaced! It's time to fight dirty. Mimi flings her arms open and a fine dust scatters on either side of her, then it erupts into pops and crackles and flashing lights. That outta throw Anika off as Mimi speeds ahead!

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

At first Anika thinks there's more demonry afoot when things start to crackle and pop and slows down to see what in the world was going on.
Yet she couldn't see any demons, least of all those metal ones they had encountered earlier.
All she could spot was the tiny shape of Mimi dusting of...

That little bitch.
She did the demonry!

The saber roars and dashes after her at full pace. That dirty cheatbug wasn't going to win by playing things underhanded!

Meanwhile, Mimi gets closer to the all too big buildings and she can see what she might recognize as a metal fence enclosing a wast part of this flat grassland next to the big-people house. But no matter how big this fence-enclosed space seems to be its still completely packed with these huge horned quadrupedal animals that are either munching on grass or are staring at her from the distance.
They don't seem dangerous despite their sheer size but there's a lot of them and it looks like they barely have any space to move and that is usually a good way to frustrate an animal. So surely these creatures are just bursting with rage at their confinement in this space.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

And so G'nichi resumes his quest for sweet gains, until the call of sleep overtakes him.

~The Next Day~

The night was quiet and morning just as so, which mostly just seems to imply that the walls here are sound-proofed.
Upon waking, that hulking slab of metal calling itself a sword graced with moonlight can be seen leaning against the side of the bed nearby.

Also for a briefly moment, all the corners of the room get fuzzy, and one of them briefly seems to have something vaguely dog-like visible through it, glaring at him.
But then they all snap back to normalcy.

So! What's on the docket now, hero-turned-bodyguard?

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi sleepily slides himself off the bed- and shakes his head as the room wavers and snaps back to reality.
This has all gotten distressingly normal. G'nichi picks up his "sword" and slings it over his shoulder. It...might be hard to carry without dragging it on the floor. Luckily he can summon it to his hand so he doesn't actually have to carry it around. He can leave it in the hall if it becomes a problem.
For now he goes into the hall and starts looking for other people. If he can't figure out where everyone is he'll just go back to the main area.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Out into the hallway G'nichi goes!
His monster-murdering sword seems somewhat tense here, but there's a million obvious reasons for why that should be, so maybe not worth G'nichi being immediately concerned about.

The path to others is marked by the scent of breakfast: somewhat has busted out sausage and bamhacon.
True to likely suspicions, this will take our scaly hero straight back downstairs to that main area.

Here, Xeni seems to have tossed on an apron while he sets about cooking a fairly large amount of the aforementioned meat products, and a pan off the side is autonomously preparing pancakes.
He seems much happier today, whistling some sort of jaunty little tune to himself while he works in the kitchen.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi looks around but Kara doesn't seem to be here. She must have slept in.
"Good morning, Mr Xeni. You seem to be doing well today." he says as he sits down in a nearby chair. This does certainly seem like a change from yesterday.

[Rebonack]

[The Ossuary]

There comes a brittle crunch as the psion's weapon smashes into the first skeleton, crushing its skull to dust. The dark magic that's animating it seems to react violently to this damage, deep purple cracks surging through the necrotic construct before it bursts in a cloud of magically charged bone-powder.

The cloud of powder gets absolutely everywhere.

Imagine how much dust you could make by completely grinding down a skeleton then scattering it in the air.

It's quite a bit!

And given how easily it gets in the nose and eyes it probably won't be pleasant, either.

The second skeleton gets the arm its holding its weapon with shattered, but it's still standing. It pulls out a tactical knife and tries to shank Pania with it. The third skeleton, meanwhile, is wheeling around and bringing its rifle to bear. In a few bare fractions of a second it is going to begin firing at the psion and that is likely distinctly unhealthy for her. Most people are allergic to bullets, after all.

All this commotion gets the attention of the necromancer in a hurry, the sparkly purple cloud of bone dust avoiding her personal space as if there were some sort of barrier around her. "What the-" she manages to mutter before getting jabbed with the prod. Her muscles seize up and down she goes! Before having a chance to recover that BONK!er is brought down on her head and she's out like a light.

Good job!

Just need to prevent Pania from getting perforated by a knife and some bullets here in the next few seconds.


[Selmora]

First thing first.

Zap ALL the imps to draw their attention and oh hey now there are twelve imps glaring at our heroes.

"I, ah, I believe it may have been more wise to work our way through one group at a time," Fenris mutters as lightning bolts begin zinging up from the cavern toward our hero's perch. Thankfully the overlook they're standing on provides at least some cover from the withering hail of lightning bolts flying their way. Fenris quickly throws up a ward with one hand and casts a paralysis rune with the other, the green glyph detonating as a pair of two imps get a bit too close to it.

She's blocking as much as she can here, but ten imps is a whole bunch of incoming hostile magic and she's pretty sure her ward won't be able to replenish itself faster than the imps can blast through it. She's already gritting her teeth from the magical strain.

Thankfully our heroes aren't totally alone in this battle.

With the imps focused almost wholly on the pair of dragonborn the besieged kwama begin assaulting the awful little daedra from the flanks!


[Apocalypse Junction]

Did the drifter just shoot a ball of acid at that... whatever it is?

Victor really doesn't take much time to ponder that as he opens fire on the creature, three rounds slamming into it and blasting off chunks of meat that seem almost crystalized. The thing just fractures and the bits remain floating in the air nearby, spinning in circles from the force of the bullets.

The acid seems to work a bit better, dissolving through the monster's unnatural flesh and eating holes in its crystalline form.

And yeah.

Doom beam.

Victor swears colorfully and drops flat to the ground, letting the beam rake across the van behind him. Where it touches the metal is turned into rust, which is turned into powder, which blows away into nothing. The process releases an unpleasant amount of heat as well.

Sadly the attacks thus far don't appear to be quite enough to slay the donkey, though they definitely cause it to do something.

It kind of...

Folds in on itself.

Limbs and flesh snapping and crunching as it implodes into a donkey-textured octahedron with drifting triangles that appear to be two dimensional. The octahedron splits at the middle and the triangles begin to spin as a pitch-black orb rimed in a violet unlight begins growing at the center.

"That looks like a charge attack," Victor idly observes as he's scrambling back to his feet with the intent of getting the hell out of the way before that thing fires.


[Caldera of Opentop Mountain]

"Probably 'cuz it isn't around here. Got any volcanoes next to your vault?" Magdalene asks as she eyes the steep slope in front of them. "Hey, you want to get down the fast way or the slow way?"

The slow way is probably walking.

The fast way is probably harrowing.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Not something that G'nichi would know, but Karaglen pretty much always sleeps in if she doesn't have immediate morning plans.
So this is probably an accurate assumption.

Xeni waves a spatula in greeting, tossing a piece of bamhacon straight from the pot into his mouth. Evidently the heinous temperature of the boiling oil doesn't bother him?
"Morning, G'nichi. Sleep well? No issues with the room?
Also! How much of this do you want? There's a lot and we should probably not give Kara an excuse to eat all of it."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

”Ah, I’ll take a few of those if you’re offering. I’m a growing boy you know.” he jokes but he really is. He’s been feeling funny on the back of his head recently. It’s probably just the memory of his horns. He can tell his kettle-bell makes him have more GAINS than he should have in such a small timeframe. Even if twice as fast is still months or years.
He kind of misses being able to devour four portions of food at once. It was killer on the finances but it let him try a bunch of things at once.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

"Cool, eat what you want. Don't feel bad about leftovers, we've got magic here. Any drinks you're partial to?"
He tosses a bit of everything onto a plate and slides it G'nichi's way, and acquires an empty glass.
If he is supplied with a drink option, he's planning on magicking it into the glass and offering that as well.

"Growing boy...yeah, I heard about that. Sounds like you're hopping back and forth a bit, huh? Don't imagine it's fun doing the muscley yo-yo impression."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G’nichi nods, only asking for water. Other things don’t sit well with his delicate lizard stomach. Being able to eat and drink almost anything was another big dragon perk.
”I very much enjoyed being my large dragony self, yes. I’m making progress on building myself back up the old fashioned way. But I admit that you’re right; I’d rather have stayed that way instead of going back and forth.” But cheating does have its downsides, like being dispellable.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Water is a pretty basic and easy one. Almost disappointingly so.

After another minute or so, Xeni leaves some sort of charm on the kitchen area so that it can finish cooking what is presumably Kara's portion while he sets himself across from G'nichi again to eat his.
"Old fashioned way isn't going to get the dragon stuff back, I should point out."
A vague gesture is made with a piece of meat, in the vague direction of G'nichi's head. Maybe a reference to the missing horns?

"You're gonna need a little extra for that."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G’nichi concedes, tilting his head back.
”Well, yes. If I want that back I’m going to have to fall back on magic. But Yurioc isn’t going to be making me any more potions, and my more…reckless previous attempts have taught me to be wary of cheating.”
Actually he would get the dragon back the old fashioned way thanks to the kettle bell, but he doesn’t know that. It didn’t come with a manual. And it would take a very long time anyway.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

The mention of Yurioc seems to diminish Xeni's good cheer every so slightly, which he takes a couple bites of breakfast through to fix.
Doesn't seem to hold it against G'nichi, though.

"Hmm. Mind telling me how you lost it this time? Kiddo was a little light on details."
Even if G'nichi had thoroughly explained it to her, it was unlikely she would have retained it all.
"Sounds a little like you've got some...structures out to inhibit you, which can probably be worked around."

Goodness knows what that means.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

He was a very good mouse.
”A disenchanter ate the magic from Yurioc’s potion. Apparently it was permanent but still a magic upon me that could be dispelled. Odd technicality there but I’m certainly not going to complain. It was astoundingly effective in all other respects.” of course G’nichi looked up what the beast was afterwards.
So he can dislike them forever.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

"The odds of you running into something like that, that could strip down that potion, are so laughably low as to be painful."
He eyes a piece of his sausage for a moment, during which it seems to actively cook itself further upon his fork. After a moment, he appears satisfied and resumes eating it.

"The witch that made your bracelet had thoughts on things like that. I imagine her daughter does to, if she spoke to you at all."
Syncope talked about a lot of weird, largely nonsensical things. Hard to tell if what he's talking about was one of them.
"Weird question for you: do you find the events of your life realistic? As in, likely to actually happen the way they're happening?"

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi shrugs.
"Not really, no. But I'm told as bearer of the bracelet I'm just pushed into places where I'm needed. It was made to make its bearer a troublesome do-gooder. So I know that I wind up in places entirely contrived by its magic."
He seems surprisingly unbothered by this.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

A little nod and some more thoughtful chewing.
"Right, so there should be some fateful pushing to make you the beefiest cake around, yeah? And yet, we keep seesawing back to what you've got now. Supposedly."
He doesn't really know G'nichi, just what Kara's said.
"There's a couple ways around that. Well. Three. Well. Two and one slightly experimental but probably more interesting way."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

"Seesawing makes it sound like it happens a lot. I've been big once, and lost it once. It's not like it flips every Tuesday." Unless there's something he's forgotten about. Playing with his memory hasn't happened yet but he wouldn't be surprised. How would he know if it did?
"And I assume the first way is the old fashioned way, which I've fallen back on as I said. But sure, tell me the other ways."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Xeni stares over at the stairs, perhaps wondering if Karaglen was going to come bounding down about now.
After she proceeds to not do so, he shrugs and continues.

He holds up three fingers and starts ticking them down in sequence.
"Simplest way: we can get you something that beefs you up on command, but not all the time. A little toggle, of sorts. Still being your smaller self sometimes would probably dissuade some of the more problematic elements of fate from getting too nosy.

Harder way: we could fundamentally change what you are. Yurioc did a physical restructuring, per the more standard shape-shifting magics made alchemy, I would guess. But that doesn't change that you were still, at your core, what you are at birth. If we...hm...rewrite your universal definition a little, you wouldn't be getting dispelled from it in the future.

Lastly: we can try to address what you dream of being and see if we can pull some energy about that. I've been experimenting with something called the Dreamheart recently and it offers some interesting possibilities in that regard.

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi doesn't know what several of those words involve.
"Well, I certainly won't say no if you're offering to help I suppose, but I don't know how much of a difference easy and hard is for magic. I'm not much of a wizard." He seems incredulous on one point, though.
"I don't think I want to get injected with energy straight from the realm of dreams. It sounds too mercurial. Especially if it's the same one the Buttercups talk about from time to time."
G'nichi did a lot of volunteering after the Buttercupacolypse so he spoke to a couple of nymphs. Enough for the word to get dropped once.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

"I can't say I know a Buttercup. If they're familiar with the Dreamheart, maybe I should meet them..."
That from-nowhere notebook makes a very brief reappearance.

"Uh, anyway. That's fine, a dream-alteration would be...tricky. I think I have the general theory down, but I haven't done a huge amount of experimentation yet.
The other two are more stable. Putting together a a little artifact to alternatingly shift you from one form to the other is pretty straightforward enchantment.
But if you want the really permanent solution, I'll have to get to know you better."
A pause.
"Full disclosure, Kara asked me if I could help. Your problem seems straightforward enough, though, so not a huge issue."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

”Buttercup is a fae who curses mortals into copies of herself if they respond to being called by her name. Many of her victims live in Inside after an outbreak, though their contagious effect has been somewhat nullified. You’ve been away from the city a while.” he shakes his head.
”Get to know me better? Implications of phrasing aside, what do you want to know? The G is my family sound, I’m seventeen, my family work for the Temple of Bahamut. I’m seeing someone, I’ve had the Bracelet of Celestial Arms for two years now, and Kara saved me from near death after getting it and about a day afterwards. But um, you’re not looking for trivia are you?”

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Xeni very barely stops himself from muttering "fascinating", as the brief Buttercup description. He'd noted a certain degree of "contagiousness" with the dreamstuff, as evident by the odd structures outside, but not an active form of it like that.
There is an idle note that this particular mechanism could probably also give G'nichi what he wants, but it remains unspoken.

"Heh, Kara's been trying to save people since the day she hatched. The world didn't deserve her."
Past tensing error on purpose, or accident?
"And no, sadly trivia doesn't cut it. I need to get a feel for your place in the universe, which is a...esoteric process that I probably shouldn't even try to explain. Look at it this way: I need to find your article in the universal encyclopedia, then we would just erase the 'lizardfolk' line and replace it with 'dragonfolk' or whichever specificity you would prefer.
Not something that can be done in a day, I would have to observe your life for probably a week or so to get a solid feel for things. You wouldn't have to be here for that though, don't worry. I can give you a little trinket that funnels data over to me. You'd have to try not to get into anything particular fate-defying in the meantime, though."

Upstairs is some loud thumping that sounds an awful lot like tiny feet running down a hallway.
"Ah, someone's finally awake."

[Deathkeeper]

Uncle Quest - The Garden

G'nichi doesn't want to be a fairy! He especially hasn't heard of any buff dragon faeries!
"Well, a week isn't that bad, timeline-wise. I- oh. Good morning Kara." he calls, waiting for their third to arrive down the hall.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Uncle Quest - The Garden]

Kara skids her way off the stairs, sliding across the floor in her evident hurry to get downstairs.
Seeing G'nichi and Xeni brings a quick smile to her face.
"Good moooorning!"

"Morning, kiddo. Got some breakfast for you over here."
Xeni waggles a finger and a plate places itself on the table for her, heaped with more food than should really fit in a girl her size.

"Thanks! Hey, did you know your house is haunted?"