Outside 51: It's just a weather balloon

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

G’nichi turns out to be very good at multitasking while under the protective influence of both swords. As the two of them advance he slides Gladius back into his belt to heft his larger, green sword.
”Mari, the book is trying to do something funny with my brain as I rip its core out so if I suddenly turn on you, you have my permission to cut it out of my hand. Don’t touch it.” G’nichi growls as he mentally struggles with it.
But he also has to see what Green Sword can do on a real target: not a defenseless door. He brandishes it before him and makes a wide swing at the Crystal as soon as they get a clear view of it. He doesn’t know the range of its beam attack but he might as well find out now.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

Multi-tasking is a valuable trait. It helps further when you have multiple minds bound together in tandem on the task.

The greatsword first:

As they run down the rest of the ramp into the flat base-floor, the fog begins to aggressively swirl up almost immediately.
One of the robed figures previously witnessed from above jerks its way out towards G'nichi, but Mari does the first useful thing in awhile. She darts around G'nichi's side and snaps that little silver rod of hers straight into space where the figure's head should be, which results in a sharp jerking in their entire body and a splatter of pink blood as a silver spiral tears out the other side of the head. She follows the body down as it falls, pulling the rod out and ramming it in again.
"Just zombie things, keep going!"

She is buying him space to do what he actually wants to do.
Which his sword is all-to-happy to indulge. The green light swells around the blade and soars forth with his swing, carving apart the fog and slamming into the large crystal pillar with the sound of a large crystal bell.

The sound reverberates through the chamber, despite the muffling effect the fog is having on every other sound, and a large crack runs down the side of the structure, large enough for someone to fit themselves into.
Immediately subsequent to this, the veins leading away from it and up the stairs begin convulsing wildly.

There is another core of energy within that pillar that G'nichi can sense, as soon as the crack is made. This one is much larger than the one within the book, but far more unstable.

And back to the book:
That background howling swells until all the other chorusing voices disappear. Louder and louder, as if G'nichi's mind was in the middle of a tornado.
It doesn't actually seem to be doing anything though, other than being wildly uncomfortable.

The book's soul slips slightly in its magical bonds and the book physically reacts by jolting, trying to tear itself from his possession.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

G'nichi roars as the book jolts, his claws barely managing to hang on. He stops for only a moment to put down his sword, ripping the flaming remains of his shirt and wrapping it around his hand and the book.
"You're not going anywhere 'til I've torn you in half, you [expunged]!" His left hand cargo secured, he takes up the greatsword again and continues his charge. His mind continues to wrench at the book as his body advances towards the crystal and its crack. G'nichi sends another bolt of energized moonlight at the crystal for good measure, unsure if he's done quite enough damage to the vessel just yet.

[Earl of Purple]

Walking (Should that be 'running'?) to GLoG

The first of the kyldren around the corner is shot, collapsing backwards as the pellet is projected into their face. It looks to have hit their eye, and they've collapsed. Their body is quick to decompose, black goo leaking first from the injury in the eye and then the rest of the corpse, as pallid white maggots eat their way out and start wriggling away from the corpse. The kylder larvae aren't intelligent, and lack the empathic abilities of their mature state, so they aren't coordinated in their departure. When they leave the paved footpath, they're going to start digging into the leaflitter and soil to pupate.

The better news is that Miranda now knows they can die, and they're all exactly the same height. If she keeps her pistol pointed where it is, she'll be able to kill the next one, too. But if she does that, most of the larvae will escape to mature...

Wastelands Campsite

"We can't leave 'em here t' eat th' next travellers t' come along, Horace. An' what'll 'appen tonight, they'll be free t' scatter an' go where they will. How did Lady Skuld an' th' others keep 'em contained, can we do what they did?" Not that Frigate actually has anything to worry about directly, he was still built to protect people. Admittedly, one specific person who is now dead. But the drive is still there.

[Ironsmith]

[Running to GLoG]

For all Miranda knows, she's just stumbled onto a reserve for these creatures. She's not going to kill any more of them than she has to, nor will she vindictively pursue them if they flee. The primary issue she has with them is that they're trying to eat her; once that stops being true, she's fine with just letting them be.

With that in mind, she retreats again, pistol at the ready in case the kyldren continued their pursuit, but quietly hoping they'll notice the body and decide she's not worth the trouble.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

The downside to multitasking is that it tends to result in a lot of things happening at the same time.
Sometimes it's hard to tell how good of a thing this is.

The wave of moonlight flies forward through the fog, crashing straight through the previously made crack and into the core of the pillar, as more of the shambling robe figures spill out of the fog towards Mari.
She bravely brandishes her rod weapon and keeps herself between them and G'nichi.

Meanwhile, G'nichi yanks harder on the soul of the book and it slips yet further, functionally pulled from its home just as Page rushes out of the fog behind G'nichi. More spider-like than ever, she looms high on spindly limbs ending in large claws, laughing some incomprehensible words as she scythes them down towards him.
The gladius-presence and greatsword both raise the alarm as soon as she appears.

The unstable core of the pillar, exposed and twice-assaulted, ruptures and detonates.


A blanket of darkness rushes out and swallows the area, leaving G'nichi in a cold void of absolutely nothing at all.

[bc56]

Running to GLoG
"Do you really think that someone would want to preserve psychic fake-child human-eating predators?" Lizzie asks, incredulous. That's one of the dumbest ideas Miranda has had yet.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

G'nichi finds himself in a void.
Huh.
Well this would be significantly more distressing if not for the week he's already had.
Without any other source of stimulation or anything else to do, G'nichi looks down at the wrapped "package" in his hand. Swapping once again to his gladius, he sees if he can rip the soul out of the book completely. Perhaps if he can destroy it and the book itself he can strike at Page, regardless of wherever he is now.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

The book feels lighter here, physically and beyond. It seems to have less spiritual weight.
His sword does too, and he gets the presence that the gladius-presence is saying something, but it is so far away it's inaudible.

It's laughably easy to pull the soul out here. Looking like a little oily cloud, it slides right out of the book and sluggishly strains against his grip.
The book feels even less now and if he tries again, his sword will go right through it. Like a normal book.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

G'nichi can't hear the gladius, but he doesn't think he has many options even if he's screaming warnings at her.
Still, the fact that he's suddenly been barred from hearing her right as he finally succeeds is suspicious given everything that's happened and how many times he's been lead into traps, so he does his best to try to be even slightly smart about this. He can't just stand here, can he? But he has seen enough movies to be suspicious of destroying the physical vessels of evil artifacts. Never know when it actually releases a daemon from their bonds or something.
So G'nichi takes the extra second to take the gladius to the putrid soul before he does anything reckless just in case it's some ancient daemon being held in check by the book or something. You never know; he's encountered literally two sealed evils this week alone.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

There's nobody stopping him here.

The gladius passes through the oily soul just as easily as it would any other cloud of smoke.
There's a very faint spark of energy along the leading edge of the blade, which seems to further blacken the areas of soul it passes through, leaving it neatly split into two halves.
They each waver, like a strong wind blows through them, and they begin to dissipate entirely.

The void is no longer empty.

There is now a sky above G'nichi, stretching off into the what feels like the infinite horizon.
This sky is on fire. A roiling see of white-hot flames, with waves of blue surging to and fro within it.

G'nichi floats before an enormous star, though he continues to feel nothing but a chilling cold here.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

Hmm.
Yeah no, he still has nothing to work with here. He's been shown something but that's not really much.
Assuming nothing changes or is shown to him as he waits he slooooowly reaches out to unwrap his shirt from his hand and pass the sword through the book to put all of this to rest.
If he's banished to this realm forever hopefully Mari can handle herself.

[Earl of Purple]

Running to GLoG

The kyldren may notice the body, but they keep chasing her. They gained a bit of ground when she stayed to shoot one, but Lizzie can feel their minds still pursuing. They still seem to be enjoying the chase, even with the added danger- they don't seem particularly keen on the idea of self-preservation. They aren't as fast, however, so Miranda might be able to make it to GLoG before they catch her- assuming she's kept some idea of her destination and isn't just running randomly down a footpath in the woods, and isn't already too tired.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

The sword is wielded and the book is pierced.

At the same time, the silence of this place is filled with the roaring howl of the star above, a sound much like the one G'nichi had heard earlier attempting to drown out that peculiar, unseen choir.
For just a moment, the blue-shadowed regions of the seething plasma seem almost, just a little, like a colossal planet-sized eye.

A force grabs at the base of G'nichi's back and the entire scene is torn away like a canvas.


The scene within the pink-fog filled chamber has not changed an inch in his absence(?), save that he now has a pile of paper-based ash in one hand and that yanking force from earlier is still trying to pull him down on his butt.
Incidentally, this would pull him away from Page's attempt to remove his head from his shoulders with her claws.

It's loud in here now, with her screams, the shuffling zombie things, Mari's frantic breathing, and the highly alarmed voice of the gladius-presence.
"The pillar's core just released a huge wave of energy and you...uh, well you're back now and it's all gone. Whatever spell she was preparing here is unsettled, and I think she's about to lose her grip on the other items."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

With the book finally dust G'nichi can finally stagger to his feet, transfer Gladius in his left hand, and draw his green sword in his right. He does his best to step back as far as he can away from Page. Sometime in the confusion he lost his glasses. Still, Page is a pretty big target.
"Thanks. I'm back." he says breathlessly, not being given time to process any of that. Instead he starts firing more green beams at Page.

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - ???]

Losing his glasses spares G'nichi the grislier details of whatever new change Page has begun to undergo.
It looks an awful lot like growing more legs and partially splitting in half.
Apparently it's pretty bad though, since Mari starts screaming shortly after.

So when he starts swinging his greatsword beams Page's way and she also starts screaming, this situation just seems to be reaching some sort of horror-filled critical mass.

A beam cleaves through a couple of her legs and she staggers downwards, while another beam tears a chunk out of whatever qualifies as her main body.
Burbling laughter emanates from her, while she twitches and thrashes her way forward, and vomits a pool's worth rainbow-gleaming tar towards G'nichi.

"STAY AWAY FROM IT!"

Meanwhile, it seems to have started raining in here.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - ???

G'nichi jumps blindly to the side, landing hard on his shoulder. It's a good thing the floor is squishy flesh and- eewwww.
G'nichi doesn't have time to ponder how he's wet and shirtless and laying on a living floor. He does his best to stagger to his feet yet again. He gives the greatsword and its beam attack one more go for good measure. His brain is feeling awfully fuzzy. Where's a blue potion when you need one?

[Ironsmith]

Running to GLoG
"Do you really think that someone would want to preserve psychic fake-child human-eating predators?" Lizzie asks, incredulous. That's one of the dumbest ideas Miranda has had yet.

Running to GLoG

The kyldren may notice the body, but they keep chasing her. They gained a bit of ground when she stayed to shoot one, but Lizzie can feel their minds still pursuing. They still seem to be enjoying the chase, even with the added danger- they don't seem particularly keen on the idea of self-preservation. They aren't as fast, however, so Miranda might be able to make it to GLoG before they catch her- assuming she's kept some idea of her destination and isn't just running randomly down a footpath in the woods, and isn't already too tired.

[Running to GLoG]

Yeah, you'd think they wouldn't make any sanctuaries for half-ton intelligent omnivores either, but when grizzlies went endangered, up came the fences.

Miranda keeps running, only stopping every ten seconds or so to take potshots at her pursuers. Of course they were still following her. Apparently, "psychic" and "intelligent" weren't always correlated. She didn't want to have to shoot them dead, but when they're this relentless, she doesn't get much choice in the matter.

When she's near GLoG, if they're still on her, she'll stop and take more precise, aimed shots; one at each of their eyes, followed by a second, double-tapping shot if they fail to decay. Whatever they are, they don't need to be anywhere near the daycare.

[Morty]

[Wastelands Campsite]

"You can't do that! It would kill them!" Horace protests. Not that he's in any position to stop them; he still can't stand on his own, and even if he could, the odds are hilariously stacked against him. So, naturally, he tries a different tack. "Those moroi are all that's left of our expedition. Please, you can't hurt them!"

"We can't leave 'em here t' eat th' next travellers t' come along, Horace. An' what'll 'appen tonight, they'll be free t' scatter an' go where they will. How did Lady Skuld an' th' others keep 'em contained, can we do what they did?" Not that Frigate actually has anything to worry about directly, he was still built to protect people. Admittedly, one specific person who is now dead. But the drive is still there.

"This mission has already gone sideways a few times," Olvisin points out. "We can't finish it by leaving those creatures intact to snack on anyone who comes out here after dark."

[bc56]

Running to GLoG
"There's a difference between natural creatures and things like this." Lizzie counters. "Bears don't normally eat people." She's still mad Miranda isn't using her magic.

[Earl of Purple]

Running to GLoG

Miranda's mistaking 'intelligence' for 'strong survival instinct'. These things reproduce by dying, their survival instinct doesn't kick in unless there's fire or light to trigger it because that kills the larvae. This is a forest at night and she's using a helium-powered airgun. Killing them is not the way to scare them off.

Once the second one's down, however, and leaking maggots onto the path, the final member of the pack stops pursuing Miranda. It's nearby, in the trees, and looks down at her and its deceased packmates. It stays where it is, watching the way Miranda goes. When she's out of sight, it'll drop down onto the path and leave, heading back to whatever serves as their lair.

Bone Hills

The hills are dry and dusty, and the dark red sandstone bedrock is never far from the surface. Here and there, sticking out from hillsides, dust-dunes, and embedded in the sides of cliffs, are immense bones. They're all humanoid, and large, though not all the same scale. It's not one dead titan resting in the dry dirt here, but many- how many is hard to determine, as none of the skeletons are articulated. They're just massive semi-fossilised bones protruding from the ground. There's been an earthquake recently, and some of the cliffs have collapsed and new cracks, chasms and ravines have opened up. In addition to a few previously buried bones emerging from the ground, some forgotten tombs have opened, too. Enough of them to suggest this was, once, a popular place to be interred, amongst the bones of dead gods.

Amongst the points of interest here, there's the expanding town of Skullhole. The cliff has eroded slightly, so more teeth are visible than before, but the community built into this vast horizontal skull embedded in a cliff found themselves safer than many of their neighbours during the earthquake. Entrance is through the left eyesocket of the skull, which is nearly at ground level- rock steps allow access to pedestrians but not vehicles, though the portal is wide enough to admit a van. The right eyesocket serves as a lookout post, fortified with sandbags filled with the red dust of the area and a well-maintained Puckle gun. The earthquake has brought new traffic to the region, as well as forced some locals to relocate, so outside is a small shanty of tents and lean-tos as space inside the skull itself is limited. There's also the Abby of St. Ossifer the Androphobe, a walled compound of several squat buildings of locally quarried stone around a massive upright femur with a rickety ladder strapped to it, a shack of wood resting at the top.

Or, striking out into the hills and canyons, one can easily find a tomb. There's one at the base of a cliff, the entrance revealed by a rockfall; a face carved into the rock, the mouth stretched inhumanly wide to serve as a door and studded with chunks of bone to serve as teeth. Another, a marble mausoleum over steps down was previously buried under dust, though now the iron gate has been forced open and a pair of battered old motorhomes are parked outside. A third is halfway up a hill, a simple rectangular door carved into the sandstone and blocked by a bronze portcullis, lifted by a mechanism set into the rock next to it. A fourth is in a ravine, a narrow footpath down a cliff to an immense ulna and radius, the doric columns flanking the tomb's entrance set into the cliff at the far side of the bone bridge.

[Ironsmith]

[Wastelands Campsite]

"What are the odds of anyone even finding this place?" Horace demands. "We could drive them into the back of the cave, put up another barrier, and..."

And...

And then what? He didn't have any ready way to restore them. He couldn't even step out to hunt for them; they were far too delicate to leave unsupervised. They'd just sit in the dark, huddled together, perpetually starving.

Horace lets out a resigned sigh and points to the cave entrance. "...Leave us. Please."

[Running to GLoG]

Miranda lowers her weapon as the last of the kyldren keeps its distance, letting out a relieved sigh. At least they aren't all suicidally persistent. When it's clear the creature isn't going to attack, Miranda backs away toward GLoG, not taking her eyes off the creature until they're too far apart to watch each other.

She'll then flush her gun and print off some of that healing salve, rubbing it on her fresh wounds as she makes her way to GLoG.

[Recaiden]

A bunch of newly opened tombs means a bunch of tomb-robbers. Here comes a bunch now.

Along the winding way into the bone hills comes a big cart, drawn by a six-legged, two-headed creature that's a lot like a horse, and a fair bit like an anteater.
Walking alongside, leading the creature, is a person in a lot of winter clothes. Although, before too long they comment "Hey, it's nice and dry here." and take off one scarf and a layer of mittens. They're the one who actually organized the outing, found maps and time, knows how to turn a bunch of treasure into a bunch of useful money.

Behind the cart is the fire elemental, who's just here to hang out with their friends, and you know, maybe they could find something to do with treasure, maybe there'll be some bad guys that need to be burned?

The manticore is flying overhead, keeping an eye on things from far-off. She is an expert in the wilderness, and claims that that extends to ancient tombs and giant graveyards as well. We'll see. She's certainly the most able to fly and most likely to be able to bite a bone lord.

And finally, sitting relaxedly in the cart is the foxgirl. Her part in the plan is that her devil-senses should let her detect the open spaces and straight lines of lost tombs straight through the sandstone, prevent them from missing anything.

Thus organized, they set out into the hills. They're hoping they won't need to head into the unfamiliar town of Skullhole during the expedition. Maybe on the way back.
The marble mausoleum clearly has people in the middle of picking it over, and they're not here to steal anything from people. Just from ghosts, totally different.
Coming to the edge of the cliff with the carved face-door, the manticore glides down to take a quick look inside, before the others go to all the trouble of getting to it.

[Morty]

[Wastelands Campsite]

"...and what are you planning to do here, exactly?" Olvisin asks.

[Earl of Purple]

Bone Hills- The Maw of Akarkhentkats

The maw leads down some steps- they're wide and shallow, but there's no guarantee there's going to be anywhere down here big enough to turn the cart around- until eventually the tunnel splits in two directions. The corridor to the left quickly turns a corner, whilst the one to the right is longer. If they've brought the cart this far, they're likely to regret it- the tunnel doesn't branch, it's a T-junction, the corners quite sharp. The manticore and horse-antelope should have enough space here to turn, but getting the cart around either corner is likely to be trickier.

The walls here are sandstone, like the surrounding hills, but it's been carefully carved to resemble a block-built wall. The floor has a shallow groove, and to begin with it is carved to resemble a tongue. Occasionally, a glowing orb of light flickers near the ceiling, casting a bright but harsh blue light on the walls, floor, and the adventuring party.

Wastelands Campsite

"If'n ye do this, t' keep an eye on 'em, ye're expedition will truly be over. There'll be nobody t' remember ye or yours, not who knew 'em as they were. Ye'll rot too, aye? They be like ye but without feedin'?" Frigate thinks it's a stupid idea, to go down with one's ship. Granted he's never had a choice to do otherwise, but he's also never been in danger by doing it.

[Ironsmith]

[Wastelands Campsite]

"...Then the expedition is over." Horace replies, slowly pulling himself to his feet. "I can keep them in this cave, if you will allow it. And I may gain nothing more than time. But I can't abandon my people like this." He turns to Olvisin. "If these were your brothers; would you leave them behind?"

[Recaiden]

They not bringing the cart into the tomb. The warmly-dressed fellow, the cart, and the monster-of-burden all remain at the top of the cliff, setting up some gear.

The other three march into the maw and down the steps.
Manticore first, fox second, elemental third.
At the fork in the corridor, they first turn to the left.

[Earl of Purple]

Bone Hills- Maw of Akarkhentkats

The tunnel to the left turns further into the tomb, and goes a rather short distance- about as long as the distance down the right tunnel- before ending in a wooden door on the right side. The door isn't locked, and can be quite easily pulled open. Pushing it is also possible, but would require the manticore's bodyweight behind it, which would break the hinges. On the other side, there's a room three metres wide by five metres deep, with an archway into a neighbouring chamber.

The immediate chamber has a stone floor with a light covering of dust, and there's also four skeletons within. They're humanoid, animate, and three of them carry axes. The last holds a bow. The nearest strides forward, raising its iron axe as the others also turn to approach. The bow-skeleton reaches into a quiver and pulls an arrow out, pulling back the string ready to loose. In addition to the weapons, all the skeletons have iron cuffs about their ankles, attached to chains connecting them to the floor. They only just have enough space to reach the doorway.

[Recaiden]

The foxgirl raises a hand and makes a sound.
"Hold up. Skeletons other side of the door. I mean, walking. Holding weapons. But...leashed?"
"Stay back, got this."

The brushes past the manticore, and her visor adjusts so that she can look at the skeleton archer.
Looking straight through the door, which should soon get a burning hole in it, hopefully just before the center of the skeleton's bow, and maybe the bone hand holding it, are likewise incinerated.

Then she opens the door and steps back.

[Shadowcaller]

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

This just got exciting! Mimi nods, but then frowns. She points at Anika, up and down. "You're so big and purple. How're you gonna hide from those big things. They'll spot you for sure." She points out.

[Temple Site]

Nathan just watches Jaccalish for a few moments, surprise clear in their eyes.
"You intend to move an entire planet using the Nexus's unique spatial properties?" That's ... bold. Probably not impossible.
"Please elaborate on how this would be helpful. Is not your world wrecked, blackened, near-lifeless? Is it not host to other factions of your people, who would be hostile to both you and us when they arrived?" Couldn't that easily throw the whole solar system into chaos? They start calculating. Isn't there a fair chance that will provoke a huge reaction from the other angels? Maybe they have a plan for that already.
But a connection like that - if they could use it to locate their own realm, and bring in an entire world, one that isn't in ruins...that has potential.

[Temple Site]

"It's indeed but a shell of its former self. That we cannot deny." Jaccalish gesture at the blackened world around them hardly seem necessary here.
"However, while there are all sort of pragmatic reasons we could list for doing this, like all the lost technology which could be harvested from its surface and how it could in time be restored to life, in truth it comes down to an ideological one."
Jaccalish steps closer to the two. "You see, the world has actually become something of a liability at this point." With a casual gesture small floating orbs that seem to represent other worlds start to appear around them and they spare them quick glances while their clawed appendages move over their surfaces.

"While our people have been able to leave it physically for a long time they've yet to been able to do so mentally. The idea that their world could be restored and they can take their revenge is so ingrained in them that they haven't been able to truly settle anywhere else. All our jaunts to other worlds have simply been means to restore their world. Not attempts to create something new elsewhere." Jaccalish continues to speak until they eventually come to a blackened orb which seem to represent their own planet.

They reach over to touch it with one of their claws.
"Therefore, the world must be restored." As the claw gently touches the surface the orb suddenly brightens and turns a vibrant green and blue.

But then Jaccalish closes its claw around it and its instantly crushed into tiny specks of light. "Or it has to be destroyed." Now they turn to face Nathan, almost getting uncomfortably close. "We believe our project will have a good chance of at least achieving one of those. Aiming for the former of course but as I'm sure you're already considering, there will be a lot of complications. We've had a lot of time figuring those out while within this realm however. Indeed, we came here before all others of our kind. So if you have questions regarding it, now would be the time to ask them." They pause, their cold eyes now regarding them with silence.

[A Hunter must Hunt Kows]

Anika frowns. "I'll have you know that I've sneaked past hundreds of demons! These won't even make me break a sweat!"

Of course, her exclamations must have been louder than intended as she suddenly gets deadly quiet.

The sound of the metal demons had drawn a lot closer during their brief exchange. Had they already spotted them?
Anika gestures to the left and then changes into a saber before quickly starting to dart away.
However, it would be difficult to move around the two creatures as they had consumed the vegetation of this odd landscape they had left it completely bare behind them. There would be nothing for them to hide within and it would seem that getting to the kows would require them to cross this field.