Vigil 8: Try jumping

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Eunectes smiles sweetly. It's a very unnatural expression. "Yesss, it underssstandsss. Two mussst be one."
"No! Don't!" Ophelia protests, "It'll give him control!!"

They don't seem likely to agree on anything anytime soon.


Dragpies
<The two opposing forces can wait. They will slow each other down. The others are more urgent... Let's go to the forest first.> Kothar concludes. It's his preferred environment, should be a fairly straightforward fight, and seems like more people are in danger.

[Shadowcaller]

[Nerd Talk]

"Of course, one moment." And so the scholar gently grabs her tome mid-air and as she flips a page they seemingly start turning on their own at a rapid pace until they abruptly stop on a specific set of notes. "I let Spako copy these down earlier. Though he doesn't have the same context as you do so he might might appreciate them." From what she could tell, Spako was much less of a scientist than Geneva was.

Ambrosia then holds the tome out so the Geneva can read and then just lets go, it staying afloat in the air.

Spoiler: Ambrosia's Tome

Show

There are some specifications to these runes as they need to form meaningful sentences if more than one rune is used in a spell or carved into an object. Furthermore, if inscribed into an object their power is only as strong as the material they are made of. Therefore hard metals are preferred as the canvas for them.

Furthermore, the runes are divided into two categories. Ice and fire. Fire runes can't be used on the same canvas ice runes and vice-versa, with a few exceptions.

After this brief explanation of how she believes the runes work comes the actual sketches of the runes she found divided into categories. The first page covering those three runes she believes are associated with fey. Two of fire and one of ice.

The first fire rune is called "fey-bane" and Ambrosia have only seen it used on weapons but theorizes it could be used on other items as other runes she have seen don't seem to be limited to one specific category of gear. However, in those cases the effect of the rune could change and she can't say to what in this case.

Weapons inscribed with "fey-bane" brings a searing pain to the physical bodies fey used and to those under their influence. Enough to make them snap out of it in some cases (though it isn't clear how Ambrosia would know that if she haven't used these runes herself). They can also easily destroy objects manifested by the fey by melting them down.

The ice rune is called "fey-stability" and on both weapons and other items so she has a better idea how it function seemed to change depending on its purpose. If inscribed into an item intended for protection it shields the user from fey to some degree. Especially against mental influence, though Ambrosia theorizes it depends on which kind of protective item its used on. She especially saw the runes on helmets which makes her think it has a greater effect on certain types of items, like with the fire rune and weapons.

But as previously mentioned she had also found the ice rune used on weapons and even on what she describes as trinkets. On weapons it seems to slow down the physical bodies of they fey it hurts, both physically and mentally. Though it doesn't seem to have any effect of those under their influence or objects they manifest.

On the trinkets it was more unclear what the exact effect was, or rather how it was related to fey, as in that case the rune seemed to have been a part of a longer rune word which made the wearer able to connect to some kind of communication network. Like some kind of runic ear piece.

This brings her to the final rune as it was used with the ice rune on that trinket despite being a fire rune, making it one of the fey exceptions to the rule of the two not being used together. She has determined it to mean "tree" or more specifically "fey-tree" and seems to be used in nearly all more complex rune sentences. She believes it's the rune which specifically connects its wearer to the previously mentioned network. Ambrosia here speculates it could instead be called a "rootwork" with an associated doodle of a network of roots which all come together in a big tree.

On the other pages he finds more generic categories that include runes such as "transportation", "chaos", "change", "life" and "elemental", which are all in the fire category. Then there's "death", "toughness", "rest", "cold" and "everlasting" which are all the ice category. Ambrosia makes special note that the transportation and fey-tree rune together seem to form the basis of what makes up the "gating" rune word. As in the demons means of teleporting which they often use to get around.

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

As the trio pass through a small grove of pine trees, Thariza suddenly stops.

"Wait. I don't think we're alone here. And something seems to have spooked all the animals before we got here."

Indeed, there's a notable absence of even birds and insects. And Ambrosia might feel the familiar sensation of the King in Rags' influence hanging in the air.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Well, she should be safe while she was in her human body-
Unless this was a more physical kind of threat?
It might be both but the fact that he would attack so close to VIGIL said something about his boldness. Arrogant swine.

"The being which controlled me, I can feel its influence is near." She warns the other two as her tome in its holder is suddenly a sword in her hands in the blink of an eye.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo half opens her mouth to speak, her eyes full of fear. But instead she clamps her mouth closed and makes a further gesture with her mechanical hand. Much like the first butterfly drone, the rest of her skirt pulls apart, breaking into several more identical drones. She pulls the eyepiece she used before from her satchel and fixes it before the butterflies fan up and out in all directions, looking for the threat to stream a visual feed back to Utayo.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

This is really pretty strange, by Lapis' estimation.

Two people in one body.

One wants to be one person, but the other doesn't?

It's definitely confusing, that's for sure. She decides to pay a little more attention to the information she's getting from her tag. It's hard, though, because it keeps changing and that's really confusing!

Okay so Mister Eunectes is a possessing demon.

...that sounds bad. But not as bad as it could be if it was the sort of demon Lapis is more familiar with; a living wound in reality. This demon is more like... a Cursed Name. Except it has its own subjectivity, it sounds like? But without a body of its own? A parasitic soul that grabs onto other bodies? It is definitely very strange. And probably some kind of bad faerie.

And Miss Ophelia is an Inquisitor?

Is that someone who is really inquisitive and asks lots of questions? Oh wait, no, that's someone who hunts for demons and heretics and things. So kind of like a Watcher? Mother says to be careful with Watchers. They have an important job but sometimes zeal blinds them to people being friends!

Lapis isn't totally sure what's going on, but she's pretty certain this is some kind of sad story she's stumbled onto.

"Miss Ophelia you don't want to have Mister Eunectes living in you he's not supposed to be there right do you need help making him leave?" Lapis asks as she steps forward, taking a quick jaunt around the door of the cell she's inside of so she can get a little closer. From an outside perspective she appears to just sort of stutter closer, winking out of existence and then popping back in. "Because I think I can help convince him that he should go back where he belongs."


[Dragpies]

<Okay! That sounds like a good idea Mister Kothar I just need to write the quests down on the quest board thingy so the other adventurers at VIGIL know about them since it's VIGIL's job to help!> Lapis says as she heads straight for the Battered Shield.

She doesn't go inside, though.

Instead, she heads to the big bulletin board in front of the building, shoves a chair up next to it since she's kind of short, then climbs on top of the chair and begins writing in the recent zombie quests that popped up in her log since they're important things that people need to take care of! That's why VIGIL has lots of adventurers not all of them can do everything on their own!

That done, she hops off the chair and scoots it back to where she found it because she isn't some chaotic little animal of a child who makes a mess of things and doesn't clean it up.

<Alright ready!>

The box is stowed away in Lapis' inventory since she has more important things to do right now than mess with interior decorating. Like being a dragon because the forest isn't exactly close and because she isn't sure if one of the airship skiffs will take her since Lapis is still Lapis. The now rather magpie-like dragon gives her wings a great big fluff, causing several downy feathers to shake loose and float away on the breeze.

<Do you want me to carry you Mister Kothar I'm not really good at doing flying rides yet I'm worried I might turn too much and you'll fall.>

Lapis' Motion sphere would actually help her keep stable quite a bit but she's still nervous about dropping a friend.


[Nerd Talk]

Geneva's eyes flick pack and forth across the page for a few seconds at most.

It turns out that she reads extremely quickly.

"This appears to be a relatively straight forward language-based magical system," Geneva says as she sits back on her haunches, ordering her thoughts on the matter. "Words of power systems like this tend to be highly modular and this one doesn't appear to be an exception to that rule. I've used a few similar systems with the teleportation equipment that I've developed, but I can't say that I've had the chance to examine the system used by the demons specifically. Mostly I've needed to work through inference and what data I've been able to gather from their portal use. This is quite valuable information since I'll be able to use it to further refine my anti-teleportation design. Written words of power are often quite stable however we have something of a secret weapon on our side."

The edges of Geneva's beak turn up in a smile.

"The Nexus translation effect is so pervasive that people hardly even think about it. Leveraged properly, I may be able to create spell-matrix that 'tricks' the Nexus into translating a particular type of language into gibberish. I'm not sure if this will be effective or not, but if the concept proves to be sound I may be able to render any magic based on this specific rune system impotent."

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Thariza takes her bow off her back, strings it and nocks an arrow, looking around with practised vigilance. However, Utayo's drones are more likely to spot the threat first. It still won't be easy, though. It seems that three large figures are moving through the trees, but they blend into the trees with natural ease. They appear humanoid, made partly out of wood and partly out of scales, their heads those of horned dragons and their arms ending in wicked claws.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"Ophelia can't ssspeak right now," Eunectes answers. He lunges forward to coil around Lapis and begin crushing her. His mouth opens wide, far wider than should be physically possible. "Sssay your prayersss, little one, and know they will not be anssswered."

Dragpies
<Don't worry. I would survive the fall,> Kothar reassures. He would. He clambers onto Lapis' back. <Let us go swiftly now. We may not have much time.>

[Earl of Purple]

Snakes Alive

The hoatzin is being ignored!

For the boss bird, this is a good thing. It's going to disappear under Ophelia's bed, even though it shouldn't fit, and reappear elsewhere. About ten miles away, in a little thatched cottage perched atop a hoodoo. It's staying there for a while, until it's happy Lapis isn't going to follow.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

Rule number one of springing an attack.

Never announce that you're going to be attacking in some capacity before you attack, otherwise that puts your foe on guard.

This is a lesson the demon probably should have learned. Too bad for him. Maybe better luck next time?

As he lunges to coil around the child she moves with preternatural precision and grace, stepping over the first wind of coils to climb atop the second before they have time to tighten around her. Balanced precariously now, she makes a single drawing stroke as Resolution clears its scabbard.

A cut without hesitation or doubt.

A pure motion.

To know the Law of Sovereign Blades is to know this: it is the Will that divides all things. It is Will that divides between self and other. It is Will that divides formless things into formed. It is Will that cuts one's own Path forward. With Will as a warrior's sovereign blade there is nothing that can hide from her intent.

Lapis' sword will pass harmlessly through Ophelia's body. It will touch no aspect of her, physical or spiritual. It will, however, strike Eunectes with a grievous wound to his very core.

"You should say stuff after you attack, not before," Lapis chides the demon.


[Dragpies]

Lapis gives a nod and takes off!

...carefully.

In spite of Mister Kothar's comment she really doesn't want to drop him by mistake.

The little seraph will be leaning heavily into her Motion sphere for this trip, but to accelerate her flight and to stabilize it.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Eunectes is sliced, the blade passing through Ophelia like she's not there. "What?" Ophelia gasps, "NO!" Eunectes snarls. "Ssshe wasss freely given to me! Ssshe isss mine!" "That'ss a lie! He'ss weakening, keep doing that!"

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

Weakening?

Keep doing it?

Okay!

Lapis can do that!

She reaches for that Light again-

-only to have it scoot just beyond her reach.

UGH! Of all the terrible times for her Light to play coy with her!

The girl leaps away from the snake, landing with deft sure-footedness as she draws forth her shield and brandishing it in front of her, sword held low and ready for a counter thrust. The sword and shield both are holy things, cast of smokey black obsidian and filled with dancing arcs of power as though someone had bottled lightning. The tip of the weapon carves between light and darkness, filling the space above it with invigorating radiance and the space below with soothing shade.

Lapis will remain in motion, clearly looking for the best moment to strike. Hopefully she can use her Invocations again soon.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"Are you afraid?" Eunectes taunts, but doesn't act on it. "I'm holding him back! Quickly! Kill me now! It'ss the only way to be ssure!" Ophelia commands.
That's weird. "Do it," Eunectes agrees, "Then ssshe will have no chanccce to control me" They're... Agreeing with each other? That's probably a bad sign.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

But... Lapis doesn't WANT to kill Miss Ophelia! She wants to chase off the bad faerie thing! She was hoping that just wounding it would make it decide that whatever it's doing isn't worth it and flee! But that isn't what it's doing! It's sticking around and still being terrible!

Okay.

Come on Light please please pretty please don't be mean!

Lapis reaches for her power again and-!

It slips through her fingers again.

Lapis makes a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. Of all the times for her Light to be difficult right now is the WORST. POSSIBLE. TIME!

"I can't do it again!" Lapis complains. "Something's stopping it and I'm not going to kill you Miss Ophelia you have to FIGHT!"

She isn't letting down her defensive stance, though. Just in case the demon lunges again. Or just in case her Light finally stops being a butt.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"I have fought him, every ssecond of every day ssince he got into my body. I fight him now, holding him back from sstriking you. Don't tell me to fight," Ophelia hisses. "Giving up ssso sssoon, my prey?" "No! Get back, foul one!" The mask fused to Ophelia's face wavers, and seems less solid, but only for a moment.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

The mask.

The mask!

It's just like the fae masks, isn't it?

The Light comes singing back into Lapis' grasp and she thrusts Resolution forward, aiming to pierce straight through the mask and the foul demon that it represents. Once more the edge of her sword will fail to touch the flesh of Ophelia; it hungers only for the destruction of the horrid parasitic spirit clinging to her body.

Hopefully this will be enough.

Hopefully the monster will admit it has been beaten and flee or it will be destroyed completely.

It really doesn't make a great deal of difference to Lapis.

"Then I'll help you fight Miss Ophelia! Get out of here you bad snake you aren't welcome here anymore!"

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"Nooooo..." Eunectes moans as the blade pierces through where his head would be. The mask is melting off Ophelia's face, dripping into nothingness like runny white paint. Her face underneath is human, except for the yellow reptilian eyes and the needle-like fangs. She doesn't look happy though. "What iss happening?"
The name tag keeps changing, faster and faster.
Eunectes
Ophelia the Choker
Ophectes
Eunelia
...

It seems something's gone either horribly wrong or horribly right.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

Lapis broke the mask!

...

That's...

That's good, right?

That means the demon has to go away now?

But it seems like the bad horrible faerie is still hanging on by just a little bit and still trying to be terrible even though Lapis has whacked him really good!

With her Light once again returning Lapis hauls back for a real hay-maker of a demon-cleaving swing!

"Don't worry Miss Ophelia he's just about gone just one more time I think and then he'll be gone for good!"

One more strike to cut away the last of the demon's will binding Ophelia's body to his control! He will totally do him in Lapis is sure!

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
The attack whiffs. It passes through Ophelia harmlessly without touching Eunectes at all. So he must be gone, but then what's happening?
Ophelia slumps over as if a great weight was just lifted from her shoulders... Wait. Not Ophelia. The tag says her name is "Ophidia" and she's a "demon destroyer."

"He'sss gone." Ophidia breathes, "I'm free." She rises up on her coils. Some nagging feeling at the back of her head tells her that something isn't right, but she feels fine. Better than she has in at least a year now that that interloper is out of her mind. She feels her powers fully at her fingertips once more, and something else... Another source, a nexus of power. It must be a great distance away, but it calls to her.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

"You did it! You beat him Miss... umm... Ophidia?" Lapis says, not quite sure what to make of the name change thing.

That seems a little weird?

But weird is okay maybe!

The Nexus is always a little weird.

She puts her sword away and moves in to give the freed 'demon destroyer' a hug.

Destroying demons is probably a good thing if they're like the demons she knows about.

Those ones are all super duper bad!

There are lots of OTHER sorts of things called demons in the Nexus but near as Lapis can tell most of those are their some sort of weird fae or else just funny looking people.

So!

Hug!

Hopefully Lapis doesn't get coil-hugged she likes being un-squished.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Ophidia is cold. Not emotionally, but physically.
Okay fine, she's emotionally cold too. She returns the hug, but it's an awkward and very brief gesture. "There'sss sssomething I mussst do, could you pleassse let me out?" She asks, gesturing to the cell door.
Will Lapis let the snake woman out of the cell?

[Reinholdt]

Moonwell -> Blanche's Barracks

There's a space of about 30 seconds before they hear a "Er, one second!", and then a minute or two after that before Blanche opens the door, having clearly just pulled on a black tee and a pair of jeans. She must have only just woken up but - Ava might notice she's still taken the precaution of having a pistol holstered at her side, even this early. "Who - Oh, er, hey Anika," the catgirl greets with a smile. "What's up? And uh, who's this?"

Blanche's Barracks

"Hey babe!" Anika greets with her ever confident grin.

Then she gestures to their guest. "And this is Ava. She needs to borrow a phon-thing to call her aunt so she can make sure she's okay." A beat. "...you got your phonthingy on you right? Also, can I borrow your, uh, bathroom? Toilet?" Two rather different questions.

[Blanche's Barracks]

"Hi..." Ava says, waving awkwardly as she glances between Anika and Blanche, noting the pistol and the almost intimate greeting and Blanche's ears and Anika's scattered... everything.

"And to warn her," Ava adds as Anika asks to borrow a phone.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

"I should probably tell the commanders first Miss Ophidia they'll probably want to talk to you first I think?" Lapis replies as she begins fiddling with her VIGIL communicator.

>Lapislazuli: I was chasing the boss bird again and it went into a cage with a snake lady and I guess she had a demon in her and the demon made her try to eat me?
>Lapislazuli: I sworded the demon and its gone now and she said she's okay since the demon is gone and she wants to get out of the cage now so I thought I should tell you.

There!

Sent!

Lapis smiles up at Ophidia.

"Okay I let the commanders know Miss Ophidia someone will probably come soon to talk to you and make sure it's okay to let you out do you want me to stay with you while you're waiting?"

Lapis continues to be very kind to pretty much everyone.

"Your tail scales are really pretty I love them!"

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
The scales in question are a glossy dark brown, almost black. "Thank you," Ophidia answers, glancing down at them.
Something feels wrong again, but she's not sure.
"It's good to have them to myself again." No other snake in her head telling her what to do, just an occasional but nagging sense of wrongness.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo half opens her mouth to speak, her eyes full of fear. But instead she clamps her mouth closed and makes a further gesture with her mechanical hand. Much like the first butterfly drone, the rest of her skirt pulls apart, breaking into several more identical drones. She pulls the eyepiece she used before from her satchel and fixes it before the butterflies fan up and out in all directions, looking for the threat to stream a visual feed back to Utayo.

[Nerd Talk]

Geneva's eyes flick pack and forth across the page for a few seconds at most.

It turns out that she reads extremely quickly.

"This appears to be a relatively straight forward language-based magical system," Geneva says as she sits back on her haunches, ordering her thoughts on the matter. "Words of power systems like this tend to be highly modular and this one doesn't appear to be an exception to that rule. I've used a few similar systems with the teleportation equipment that I've developed, but I can't say that I've had the chance to examine the system used by the demons specifically. Mostly I've needed to work through inference and what data I've been able to gather from their portal use. This is quite valuable information since I'll be able to use it to further refine my anti-teleportation design. Written words of power are often quite stable however we have something of a secret weapon on our side."

The edges of Geneva's beak turn up in a smile.

"The Nexus translation effect is so pervasive that people hardly even think about it. Leveraged properly, I may be able to create spell-matrix that 'tricks' the Nexus into translating a particular type of language into gibberish. I'm not sure if this will be effective or not, but if the concept proves to be sound I may be able to render any magic based on this specific rune system impotent."

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Thariza takes her bow off her back, strings it and nocks an arrow, looking around with practised vigilance. However, Utayo's drones are more likely to spot the threat first. It still won't be easy, though. It seems that three large figures are moving through the trees, but they blend into the trees with natural ease. They appear humanoid, made partly out of wood and partly out of scales, their heads those of horned dragons and their arms ending in wicked claws.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Ambrosia has her attention on their surroundings, already going into a defensive stance as she's fearing the worst. She'd flee but as she didn't know their enemy she wasn't sure if it was even possible to run.
So for now she's going to stand her ground and wait while Utayo's drone scouted ahead.

Or at least that's what she assumed they were doing.

[Nerd Talk]

Ambrosia nods as she seems to have observed this too. "Interesting that you say that since it seems like the demons use a language that seems to bypass that 'Nexus translation' you just mentioned. That's why I had to translate these particular runes actually. This also extends to their verbal language though in a way I'm not sure I understand as they seem to be able to shift between being understood and not. I'm actually not sure if they're actually using two different languages or the same with a different setting but it does strike me as odd that they would have something to specifically counter the nexus translation effect. I can't imagine it being particularly common after all."

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Thariza takes her bow off her back, strings it and nocks an arrow, looking around with practised vigilance. However, Utayo's drones are more likely to spot the threat first. It still won't be easy, though. It seems that three large figures are moving through the trees, but they blend into the trees with natural ease. They appear humanoid, made partly out of wood and partly out of scales, their heads those of horned dragons and their arms ending in wicked claws.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Ambrosia has her attention on their surroundings, already going into a defensive stance as she's fearing the worst. She'd flee but as she didn't know their enemy she wasn't sure if it was even possible to run.
So for now she's going to stand her ground and wait while Utayo's drone scouted ahead.

Or at least that's what she assumed they were doing.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo's eyes search the feed, processing the information rapidly. "There's something approaching." She points in the direction. "Three of them. I can't make them out well. Be ready; they're moving quickly." She hovers backward away from the threat, letting Ambrosia and Thariza take point. "I-" She hesitates, but speaks quickly before it's too late. "I can't put myself in direct danger. I would risk more than my own life."

[Lord Magtok]

[Dragpies]

<Okay! That sounds like a good idea Mister Kothar I just need to write the quests down on the quest board thingy so the other adventurers at VIGIL know about them since it's VIGIL's job to help!> Lapis says as she heads straight for the Battered Shield.

She doesn't go inside, though.

Instead, she heads to the big bulletin board in front of the building, shoves a chair up next to it since she's kind of short, then climbs on top of the chair and begins writing in the recent zombie quests that popped up in her log since they're important things that people need to take care of! That's why VIGIL has lots of adventurers not all of them can do everything on their own!

Jenette doesn't spend a whole lot of time around the Battered Shield. For one, places like that usually don't have accommodations for her unusual dietary restrictions. For two, the one time she did step inside, one of the patrons asked her a whole bunch of questions about her noble lineage, her jousting record, and a bunch of other stuff she couldn't satisfactorily answer because she's not a 'real' knight. It was really awkward and uncomfortable and saddled Jen with a lot of anxiety and unease because she never realized that aging fantassin was doing it on purpose, with the express intent of driving soft cityfolk like her out of the business.

None of that stops her from glancing at the bulletin board every now and then when she's passing by, though. There's some good stuff on there sometimes; you can always find a steady supply of quests that need doing by dangerous people with big swords and ridiculous powers. Quests like this zombie business, for instance. Jen has a special place in her heart for zombies. It's a place full of angst and hate and bile, an overwhelming contempt for the creatures that will not or cannot manage their condition well enough to persist in civilized society. Unsurprisingly, necromancers occupy a space in that same aorta, and if there's any of them causing innocent people trouble, you can bet Jen's zweihander is going to have a few harsh words to say about that later. Now let's see what's been written down here...

[Rebonack]

[Zomboards and Zweihanders]

The quest bulletin board is always a great resource for anyone who likes unspeakable violence.

Honestly VIGIL really isn't the sort of place that gets non-violent quests all that often. The reason there is clear enough. Typically Farmer Alf needing some help digging his new well isn't the sort of potentially world ending (or at least large geographical region destroying) calamities.

These weird magical zombies have been popping up on the job board relatively regularly of late and not just due to Lapis' Quest Log shinanagins, either. There have been a few reports of ruined villages dotted around Outside a few attacks on Inside as well. There's a note that these things display some weird magical mojo and should be approached with caution and gratuitous amounts of force

Jenette can swing at least one of those, right? One out of two isn't that bad.

Anyway.

The quests.

There appear to be three zombies quests on the board at the moment, two added by Lapis (who included a note about how stopping these zombies is very important thank you for helping please be careful and maybe bring a friend because they're strong and she loves all the people at VIGIL so don't die!) and a third that was posted by someone else.

-Two apparently opposed zombie factions are fighting over the Tower of Oujet where a powerful and dangerous artifact is being held. Someone needs to fight their way past the zombies, collect the artifact, and sequester it in the VIGIL vault lest it fall into gross rotting evil hands.
-Some novice adventurers recently unsealed the temple of the Burning Hate (why would they do that to a place with that name come on guys) and unleashed a gaggle of awful fire zombie things which promptly cooked the adventurers. The zombies are now using the temple as a staging area to attack surrounding villages to collect (and burn) more bodies. The temple needs to be re-sealed before they can build up their forces to become a threat to a wider area.
-The lakeside village of Lakeside (what else would it be named?) has been getting harassed by disgusting water-logged zombies that keep grabbing fishermen and anyone who strays too close to the lake. This is pretty terrible since the lake is where the village gets a pretty large chunk of their food. Someone who can breath underwater (or conveniently doesn't need to breath) is needed to figure out where the zombies are coming from and to find a way to get rid of them.

There you go, Jene.

Options!


[Nerd Talk]

"That's actually a fascinating topic! There are a few languages that, for some reason, the Nexus absolutely refuses to translate. I've done some research into that subject, as it happens. Mostly it's a question of intent. I'm speaking Equestrian right now, but because it's my aim to be understood the Nexus is quite happy to translate for me. However, if I am NOT trying to be understood by native speakers-"

Geneva says something in an soft, vowel filled language with a lot of breathy horseish noises.

"-then as you just heard my speech is not longer translated. That was 'It's harder to understand Equestrian now, isn't it?'"

She seems quite interested in this topic as well.

"I would need to examine the language more closely to determine if it's one that the Nexus naturally doesn't translate or if it was the intention of the writer to remain unintelligible."


[Snakes Alive]

Lapis isn't picking up on the sense of wrongness here.

It isn't being displayed in Ophidia's words or body language so there isn't anything for Lapis to notice.

As far as she knows Ophidia was always a snake lady and a mean parasitic soul just glomped onto her.

After all! There are plenty of snake people in the Nexus what's so weird about that?

"Do you want me to try to get you anything while you're waiting Miss Ophidia?" Lapis asks kindly. "Are you still hungry?"

Hopefully not hungry for Lapis. Though Lapis is pretty sure Ophidia won't try to eat her without the demon's influence.

[Shadowcaller]

[Nerd Talk]

This seems to surprise Ambrosia more than anything else than Geneva has told her. "So you're saying that it's possible that there might not be any unusual quality to this language at all and simply a matter of intentions?" The hippogriff's words did suggest as much so there seemed to be validity to her statement.

Her father would find this interesting.

"That's indeed fascinating. I had no idea." A beat. "Have you told this to the VIGIL leadership? Since it seems like it could have useful applications."

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Ophidia shifts position and smiles. "That would be lovely. Something alive, if you don't mind." Why does it feel so weird to say that? It's only natural for a snake like herself to eat live food. She wants to feel it struggle on the way down.
Lapis might remember that Ophelia disagreed with that sentiment earlier though.

[Ironsmith]

[Word Among the Birds]

Lapis now has a wooden duck in her hands.

"THE BOSS BIRD!" Lapis howls in equal parts excitement and frustration! She found the Boss Bird again! She stows the duck token away for later and attends to more important things!

First?

She's going to do a scan on the fake bird diving away from her. That way she can easily track it so long as the Scene doesn't change!

Second?

She dives after it again!

Lapis isn't just quick. Her speed and precision of movement are both preternatural. That's what having the Motion sphere will do for someone, after all.

Third?

She cheats.

Motion. All motions have two components; acceleration and inertia. Change and stasis. Lapis reaches out with her intent and tries to alter that motion. To accelerate toward her until the bird falls into a state of motionlessness ignorant of even the pull of gravity.

"Be Still."

Word Among the Birds

Another hoatzin appears, flying away from Lapis and coming from the same tree as the first. It must have been perched right up against the trunk in order to not be seen, right? It's going to try and distract her from the other bird, making the same pre-recorded calls as earlier. It can't keep up with Lapis' extreme acceleration, however, so it's unlikely to succeed.

[Word Among the Birds]

The bird is, of course, made still by this power. To a degree, at least. As the ground stops approaching, it starts frantically flapping in a way to try to push itself further down, which is immediately compensated for by Lapis's invocation.

And now it has the young seraph careening straight toward it.

Yup.

The bird does all it can at this point and braces for impact.

[Arkhosia]

Blanche's Barracks

"Hey babe!" Anika greets with her ever confident grin.

Then she gestures to their guest. "And this is Ava. She needs to borrow a phon-thing to call her aunt so she can make sure she's okay." A beat. "...you got your phonthingy on you right? Also, can I borrow your, uh, bathroom? Toilet?" Two rather different questions.

[Blanche's Barracks]

"Hi..." Ava says, waving awkwardly as she glances between Anika and Blanche, noting the pistol and the almost intimate greeting and Blanche's ears and Anika's scattered... everything.

"And to warn her," Ava adds as Anika asks to borrow a phone.

Blanche's Barracks

Blanche blinks. "Er, yeah- sure. I think we have a landline in here." She steps aside to allow both visitors in. The space is about the size of a relatively spacious two-room dorm, the two women entering past a small kitchenette on the left and into a living room area with a couch against the left wall. A television sits on a tv stand against the wall across from it, with an L-shaped bookshelf lined up in the back right corner. Most of the shelves are lined with novels, history books and firearms manuals, but the discerning eye might catch what seem to be a series of rather thick manuals for tabletop games, as well as a dvd set or two. The topmost shelves lack any books, the space instead taken up by orderly rows of various miniatures.

To the left of the bookshelves is a sturdy wooden desk with a pegboard set up above it, lined with various tools and PPE for maintaining firearms. The desk doesn't seem to be used for this purpose at the moment, though - right now, a cutting mat has been left out on the center and a series of half-constructed miniatures stand atop it next to plastic sprues, a pair of snipping tools and an Xfacto knife. The rolling chair in front of it has been pushed in.

A short hallway to the right leads into a bedroom with a twin bed against the wall, with an end table to the left. A dresser rests against the wall to its left, and a large gun safe occupies the righthand corner. Two doors can be found in the hall towards it - one to a closet, and one to a bathroom, which Blanche promptly gestures Anika towards.

"Phone should be on the counter," Blanche states, directing to a handheld in a charging station on the left of the kitchenette table. "So er, what's going on exactly? Are you two in some kind of trouble?"