Vigil 8: Try jumping

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Ambrosia is in a defensive stance and have been ready for some kind of charging attack based on Utayo's description. Though her words couldn't make these creatures justice.
But this said creature is going to impale itself on her blade if it intended to simply mindlessly charge towards her.
While it's size gave it much longer reach compared to the tiny woman in armor her ssangsudo is long enough that she could out range it.
Still, Ambrosia was not interested in letting it get in that close so she moves sideways while keeping her sword raised towards it. It would more difficult for it to turn while charging and it was spending more energy to do so compared to her simply moving to the left.

[Nerd Talk]

Ambrosia raises her hand and waves it dismissively. "I feel I've preoccupied enough of your time already, Geneva. So you should inform the commanders now so we can get this going. I will stay at the base until you get a decision so there's no rush. I can even sleep here if need be." She then makes a more open-ended gesture. "But perhaps we can talk more later."

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Ophidia shifts on her coils to get a better look at Shanti. "If I were ssstill possssssessssssed, you would know," she hisses sarcastically. "Fine. You can take a look."

[Reinholdt]

[Blanche's Barracks]

Ava nods and goes around a corner away from the door Anika's propped open. The footsteps stop shortly thereafter.

A few seconds later, Anika can hear much quieter steps. Either of someone walking away or of someone anxiously shuffling in place. About a 60-40 split of which is which. She can wait just a little longer to see if the sound is getting softer which would guarantee the former. Or she could react now and check out the corner or whatever else Anika would like to do.

[Arkhosia]

Blanche's Barracks

Sensing the alarm in Wenomir’s voice, Blanche interjects quickly to catch him before he hangs up. ”Wait. Try to be discreet. I don’t think she knows I know, and Anika is cooperating.”

Once they’re done speaking, Blanche will put her phone away and move back into the main room. She watches Anika and the door, ears alert for any sign of what Ava might be up to.

[Shadowcaller]

Blanche's Barracks

Anika gestures insistently at the door and mouths "sneaking away" to Blanche.

Snakes Alive

"Well then, let me have a look at you..." Shanti remarks as she turns to Ophidia.
She brings up a wooden staff with the carved head of a snake and lifts it up so it's right in front of Ophidia. "Would you mind looking into my staffs eyes for a minute? Don't worry, it's simply to identify if you're a demon or not. It's not going to mess with your mind."

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
Ophidia sighs and stares into the staff's eyes.

She expects an easy clean bill of health, but instead, the staff will report (in whatever way it normally does) that she is, in fact, a demon.

[Shadowcaller]

Snakes Alive
Ophidia sighs and stares into the staff's eyes.

She expects an easy clean bill of health, but instead, the staff will report (in whatever way it normally does) that she is, in fact, a demon.

Snakes Alive

As Opidia stares into the staff, Shanti suddenly smacks her over the head with it.
“Apologies for the deception but it’s a on-hit effect which requires a certain firmness.” That or she’s just keeping up a decades long deception which allows her to smack her sister over the head occasionally.

Shanti has at the same time quickly retreated back to inspect the staff which eyes now glow red. “Looks like you’re still a demon though.”

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"Ow!" Ophidia is smacked. Then the staff glows red. She looks shocked. "What!? How isss that possssssible!? It mussst be wrong!" She grabs the bars of the cell angrily. "Tell me it isssn't ssso!" This is apparently devastating news to her.

[Shadowcaller]

Snakes Alive

"I could lie to you if you'd prefer but it wouldn't change the facts." Shanti steps back even further and then turns to Wenomir. "In fact, I think she has spent so long time as a demon that there's nothing left to return to. But that's only a theory. If you let me take her to the moonwell I could confirm or refute that."

[Morty]

[Snakes Alive]

"Hmm." If Ophidia is still a demon, then what did Lapis do? "Lapis, can you tell us more about what you did before?"

[Blanche's Barracks]

Wenomir seems to take Blanche's warning to heart, as when he arrives, he's in plain clothes and carries no weapons. It will, however, take him some time to get there.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

Lapis gives a little "Eep!" when the clobbering happens, scooting away lest she get subjected to snake staff bonking herself.

But... how could Miss Ophidia be a demon? Lapis sworded the demon until it went away.

"There was two people, Miss Ophelia and Mister Eunectes and Mister Eunectes was bad and controlling their body and when I tried to help he tried to eat me."

Lapis isn't a fan of being eaten.

"So I needed to sword Mister Eunectes without hurting Miss Ophelia so I used The Law of Sovereign Blades to make it so it would only wound the demon possessing Miss Ophelia and I sworded the demon until he was all gone."

Oh, is that all?

Perfectly clear what Lapis did, then.

"The last stroke went through her without hitting anything so I don't think there's a demon possessing her anymore?"

[Lord Magtok]

Zomboards and Zweihanders

Spoiler

Show

[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!

Well that first quest sounds way more appealing to Jenette than the others. Getting stuck at the bottom of a lake and held down by a bunch of corpses wouldn't kill her, but she wouldn't have a reliable way of getting out of that situation. Getting set on fire is similarly unpleasant, and she doesn't think her body is any less flammable than the rest of Vigil. Besides, if these Tower of Oujet zombies are capable of forming factions and recognizing their own, maybe they're intelligent enough to be capable of diplomacy? If one or both sides are willing to speak with a fellow undead, this could be a lot simpler than it sounds.

The warning about bringing a friend along gets a dismissive roll of Jenette's eyes at first. She's not against working with others, and has done well in such situations before, but her best work has always been her solo ops. Nobody to question her decisions and judge her choices, no wasted opportunities caused by spending time explaining a plan or strategy instead of charging ahead with it. Still, if it's bad enough for another Vigil member to stress the importance of taking backup, maybe she should find someone, just in case. It'd look bad if anything went even a little awry and she had to come back here and explain both why things went wrong and why she didn't bring someone along to prevent things from going wrong.

"Hello, is this...Anika? Am I pronouncing that name right?" she speaks into her comm device, hoping she got the number right and Vigil's talking bear isn't busy with another mission. This could be a rare opportunity if she plays this right, after all. If she can develop a sort of camaraderie with Blanche's girlfriend while on a mission, she'll be one step closer to evidence that Blanche is Magtok's daughter. Jen will be one step closer to indisputable proof that Turath's position as a senior member of Vigil is endangering the organization every time she secretly passes mission intel to her parents in the MagCave. It's a bit of a gamble, especially if Anika has already been corrupted and converted by the catgirl, but if she's innocent, if she's completely unaware of what's going on like the rest of Vigil appears to be, maybe we could present our theory and convince her to search Blanche's room for secret passageways, stolen documents, or incriminating voicemails.

[bc56]

Snakes Alive
"I can confirm that Eunectesss isss indeed gone, and good riddanccce," Ophidia adds. "If ssshe hasss any way to purify the ssstain left on my sssoul, I would like to take it." Shanti seems to believe something called a moon well could help, and Ophidia has no other option for getting out of this cell or curing her supposed demonism.

[Reinholdt]

[Blanche's Barracks]

Anika is fully correct. Blanche will struggle to hear it from the doorway like Anika does - Ava's doing surprisingly well at being stealthy - but she's already moved away from the room and honestly should be long gone well before Wenomir finishes getting his shirt on, let alone arrive.

Though that may depend on whether or not Blanche and Anika stealth after her so as not to spook her or chase her down in an attempt to pin her movements, or some option C.

[Shadowcaller]

Zomboards and Zweihanders

Laz can hear a loud thud on the other end followed by the sound of rapid movement until she finally gets a response.
"I'mhere!What'sup? Are we being attacked again?" The voice sounds oddly excited about this prospect.

Snakes Alive

Well, Wenomir seemed to put a lot of faith in the words of a child who used the word "sword" as a verb more than a noun. But she had to accept the bizarre around here she supposed. Apparently the child stabbed the demon possessing this woman to death and yet there was now still a demon left. Herself.

"While the original demon might be dead, its corruption could still linger within her. Causing her to either just be identified as a demon or actually have become one during the duration of this possession. It's difficult to tell as the staff only gives me so much. I could try to dispel any curses but I think the best method might be to get her to the well so I can do a through examination." Shanti tells Wenomir before she turns to the prisoner once more. "But before we do any of that, why don't you tell me of this 'Mister Eunectes'? What kind of demon was he?" She'd also ask why a child was allowed to get so close to a demon but apparently she managed to stab it to death-

Hold on.

Shanti looks to Lapis and gestures for her. "Child, come over here. I need you to tell me how and why you got close enough for this demon to attempt to eat you in the first place."

[Arkhosia]

Blanche's Barracks

"What?" Blanche's eyes widen as she parses what Anika is trying to say to her, and she rushes on out the doors and pivots back and forth, looking for Ava. She motions rather curtly for her girlfriend to follow, barking an order if their quarry isn't readily apparent. "C'mon- you can track people can't you?"

[Shadowcaller]

Blanche's Barracks

Anika doesn't bother answering that. She knew in what direction Ava was moving so the moment they're out the door she's going to turn herself into a bear and sprint towards the source of the sound of footsteps. Then she's going to attempt to put herself in front of Ava like a wall of bear.

[Reinholdt]

[Blanche's Barracks]

Ava is pretty close to the exit doors, but she's not expecting a sudden security bear. She screams, frightened, turning to run back the way she came. Blanche is back that way though.

[5a Violista]

[Foxhunt]

It's fortunate that the only witnesses to this conversation are a bunch of arboreal rodents, because anyone else would likely assume Awen to be off her gourd.

After casting her spell, Awen is going to find herself in the company of about a dozen blind squirrels, and a dozen other fascinated ones. And one paralyzed one she's elected to help later, which is also blind now since it can't meet her gaze.

The blind squirrels, naturally, flee. That's not a good position to be in, unable to see the world around them with a fox on the loose. And the fascinated squirrels, also naturally, do not flee, but rather continue to stare at (and a few even approach) Awen like a morbid take on a fairy tale princess. If she wanted to, there would be nothing stopping her from plucking them off the tree branches like furry little fruit.

[Foxhunt]

The fox, of course, doesn't give up his chase. Chase after a blind squirrel, shake it around a bit, commit to memory which direction the other blind ones fled, and then run back to Awen and toss the poor blind squirrel at his witch.

"Listen, I can't just keep on using magic! I'll run out eventually," she says. Then, "Okay, I guess that's technically not magic..." and "I can't understand you whem your mouth's full!"

After having a squirrel tossed at her and failing to catch it, Awen groans and figures she might as well use the Technically-Not-Magic. While trying to not break eye contact with the squirrels already under her spell, she spots a flower in her peripheral vision. She crouches down and pulls off the flower petals.

She grinds the petals under her fingers, then rubs the residue on her wrist, and the back of her neck. "Sweet dreams," she says, not-quite-using-magic...her body starts emitting a sweet flowery scent that makes people (and animals, I guess) that smell too much of it drop off to sleep.

She hopes that puts all the ones nearby to sleep, so that she can collect them easily and not have to worry about maintaining eye contact with so many, since it's slightly easier to grab sleeping squirrels than enchanted squirrels.
Exasperated, she kindly informs her fox, "Now will you tell me which one it is?"
But, alas, it seems the fox is too busy with chasing down blind squirrels and tormenting them and tossing them at the witch.

[Arkhosia]

Blanche's Barracks

Blanche does indeed move to intercept, maneuvering to stand in Ava's way and grab her arm if she attempts to pass her. "Hey! Slow down, we only want to talk!"

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"I'm always on lookout for more." There's an odd change in Thariza that Ambrosia is likely familiar with by now. Her old Iron Legion training is taking over.

As soon as she's done speaking, the woods around them erupt in motion and aggression. Utayo can warn the other two in advance, as her drones will spot the attackers, but the creatures move with frightful speed. Each of them is roughly Thariza's size, but they're not hunched over like a Charr is. They're lanky, wiry figures seemingly composed of twisting wood and dark, moss-like scales. Their heads are those of dragons, adorned with horns or antlers made of branches. Thariza looses an arrow, which becomes a streak of light that knocks one of them off its feet, then sends a pair of normal arrow at another one, causing it to stop as it tries to duck them. But the third one charges Ambrosia, seeking to gouge her with its claws.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Ambrosia is in a defensive stance and have been ready for some kind of charging attack based on Utayo's description. Though her words couldn't make these creatures justice.
But this said creature is going to impale itself on her blade if it intended to simply mindlessly charge towards her.
While it's size gave it much longer reach compared to the tiny woman in armor her ssangsudo is long enough that she could out range it.
Still, Ambrosia was not interested in letting it get in that close so she moves sideways while keeping her sword raised towards it. It would more difficult for it to turn while charging and it was spending more energy to do so compared to her simply moving to the left.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo starts to move back and upward the moment the creatures burst from the trees. No wonder she couldn't make them out very well; they're almost camouflaged in this environment. She pulls her satchel in front of her body and rifles through it. She should have been more prepared... In a moment she retrieves two bundles of rings. When she places them over each of her wrists they separate without being touched and spread over the length of her arms.

[Ironsmith]

[Word Among the Birds]

Hah!

Lapis has caught the bird!

It only took some reality shaking cosmic power but she did it!

"I'll be back for you, Boss Bird!" Lapis yells at the other smelly bird, tagging it for later tracking. Then she just needs to fly back to VIGIL and deliver this one to the lab and everything will be okay probably!

Word Among the Birds

After being tagged, the hoatzin... just follows Lapis. No teleportation, or supernatural movement, or anything. Just flying a short distance away, keeping track of Lapis and following her like a stalkery stalker. If she drifts it'll lose track of her, though, since the hoatzin is apparently incapable of tracking people that move from one place to another without strictly speaking travelling through the space in between.

[Word Among the Birds]

Bird caught!

Quest (nearly) complete!

Lab tech's job (probably) saved!

Communicator beeping!

That... last bit seems to be unrelated. Maybe.

KittyKatG4l is calling...

Fortunately, Eun's choice of timing puts Lapis right outside the lab when the call arrives. Or perhaps unfortunately. It depends on how well Lapis can multitask.

[Foxhunt]

The fox, of course, doesn't give up his chase. Chase after a blind squirrel, shake it around a bit, commit to memory which direction the other blind ones fled, and then run back to Awen and toss the poor blind squirrel at his witch.

"Listen, I can't just keep on using magic! I'll run out eventually," she says. Then, "Okay, I guess that's technically not magic..." and "I can't understand you whem your mouth's full!"

After having a squirrel tossed at her and failing to catch it, Awen groans and figures she might as well use the Technically-Not-Magic. While trying to not break eye contact with the squirrels already under her spell, she spots a flower in her peripheral vision. She crouches down and pulls off the flower petals.

She grinds the petals under her fingers, then rubs the residue on her wrist, and the back of her neck. "Sweet dreams," she says, not-quite-using-magic...her body starts emitting a sweet flowery scent that makes people (and animals, I guess) that smell too much of it drop off to sleep.

She hopes that puts all the ones nearby to sleep, so that she can collect them easily and not have to worry about maintaining eye contact with so many, since it's slightly easier to grab sleeping squirrels than enchanted squirrels.
Exasperated, she kindly informs her fox, "Now will you tell me which one it is?"
But, alas, it seems the fox is too busy with chasing down blind squirrels and tormenting them and tossing them at the witch.

[Foxhunt]

Awen's not-magic-per-se works like a charm; a few crushed petals later, she finds herself surrounded by sleepjng squirrels, including a few that fell out of the surrounding trees. Also sleeping birds with a similar problem. Also a sleeping tree snake. And a light haze of sleeping very probably dead arboreal insects, including a steady trickle of bees from a hive several feet above her head.

All in all, quite the mess. But at least she's got a guarantee her squirrel is around here somewhere.

...Probably.

[Shadowcaller]

[Blanche's Barracks]

Ava is pretty close to the exit doors, but she's not expecting a sudden security bear. She screams, frightened, turning to run back the way she came. Blanche is back that way though.

Blanche's Barracks

Blanche does indeed move to intercept, maneuvering to stand in Ava's way and grab her arm if she attempts to pass her. "Hey! Slow down, we only want to talk!"

[Blanche's Barracks]

The security bear continues tracking Ava back to Blanche but doesn't bare its teeth or act in an otherwise hostile fashion.

Yeah, they just wanted to talk!

[Morty]

[Snakes Alive]

Wenomir sighs deeply. It couldn't be this simple, could it.

"I wasn't there when she was captured, so I don't know much. But yes, please tell us more about what happened, Lapis."

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

The wood-dragon halts when Ambrosia moves out of the way of its charge, not wishing to end up skewered on the large weapon. It starts making swipes with its claws while stepping towards her, trying to probe her defences and seek a weak spot. These creatures are smarter than they look...

Meanwhile, Thariza puts her bow aside and reaches for a mace and an axe as one of the creatures leaps at her and the other gets off the ground. Ambrosia knows that her mace is an old, battered Iron Legion weapon, while the axe is a newer one she made in the Nexus. She steps to meet the creature charging her, the mace swirling with sickly purplish flames as she swings it. She strikes the ground, rather than the creature, causing flames to erupt under its feet. It reels, stepping sideways to avoid them, and the other wood-dragon is caught in them as well. She gives it more encouragement by swinging her axe and causing a cold rift in the air to open near it.

None of it does them any real harm yet, but it does a good job keeping them focused on Thariza, meaning that Ambrosia is only dealing with one of them and Utayo isn't being attacked yet.

[Reinholdt]

[Blanche's Barracks]

Ava pulls her arm away from Blanche's grip, but is trapped between a security bear and officer cat.

"You must think I'm stupid," Ava proclaims. " 'Making-out' in the bathroom." She makes full use of air quotes here. "Only to turn around to privately call High Lord Commander Wenomir to set up a guest room."

Surely there are secretaries for that. High Lord Commander Wenomir (as some lower class citizens like Ava know him as) must be far too busy for such trivialities.

Ava points an accusing finger at the bear. "Trapping me here! You're going to sell me out as part of some sort of plea deal! That's why you're so eager to turn yourself in!"

J'accuse!

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

The power of the ssangsudo came from keeping you opponents at a distance, which was exactly how Ambrosia was using it right now. Her blade doesn't move an inch even as the creature starts swiping at her. She knew its arms weren't long enough to close that distance so she wasn't going to waste energy at trading air slashes with her opponent.

However, as soon as it steps too close she moves in the direction of the arm currently closest to her while making a quick slash at the attacking claw. This before stepping out of its reach again.

While she could easily close the distance between them she wasn't confident that she could fell such a large creature in one attack even if she did manage to impale it. She was satisfied just punishing her opponent for getting in too close while also testing just how tough its wood-like skin really was.

[Rebonack]

[Snakes Alive]

Oh boy it's time for a story!

"I was chasing the Boss Bird because I found it spying on Miss Alethie and then it saw me and started flying away so I chased it but it couldn't get away so it flew through that window and so I drifted in after it and it was hiding under the bed in Miss Ophelia's room and I started talking to Miss Ophelia and the demon and I was asking them to help me catch the bird but they wanted something to eat so I came over to their room to talk better and then the demon made Miss Ophelia try to eat me so I sworded him until he was gone."

Simple!

Oh!

And an important thing!

"Drifting is where you go inways or outways to go around things because no one ever builds walls in those directions except the ones at Miss Geneva's lab that one has got walls in all the directions but they're made out of other things when I asked Miss Geneva about it she said it was important for experimental controls."

Excellent.

Now everyone is up to speed.


[Word Among the Birds]

Lapis returns triumphantly with the canary!

Only it isn't a canary now it is a skunk-bird.

"I got the bird Mister Max!" Lapis loudly announces as she approaches the door. "Can you open the door for me my hands are full of bird."

That makes opening doors difficult.

But then!

A phone call!

"Hello Miss Eun how is your vacation going?" Lapis asks cheerfully into her communicator which, sadly, requires her face to be closer to the stinky bird.

[Arkhosia]

Blanche's Barracks

Blanche nearly lunges to regain her grip, but refrains once she realizes Ava isn't trying to run just yet. She stares at the woman with visible befuddlement. "What? You think I'd get Wenomir involved just to get her in less trouble?" The catgirl narrows her eyes. "I don't care about any of that right now. What I care about is having the right person handle all of this, and it sure as hell isn't me right now," she barks. She's tense, wound-up, ready to pounce or get in the way if it becomes at all necessary.

It's likely around this point that Wenomir enters the scene.

[Lord Magtok]

Zomboards and Zweihanders

Zomboards and Zweihanders

Laz can hear a loud thud on the other end followed by the sound of rapid movement until she finally gets a response.
"I'mhere!What'sup? Are we being attacked again?" The voice sounds oddly excited about this prospect.

"Oh no, nothing that crazy. Just some zombies trying to steal a magical artifact from a tower, and a different group of zombies fighting them to steal the same magical artifact from the tower. And then us, a third group, with a single zombie in it, trying to steal the magical artifact so the other two groups can't have it for their presumably evil zombie stuff. I just need someone with me in case I run into some adventurers or something, and need to explain I'm not one of those zombies. And also maybe ask some questions about Vigil while we're busy working on-"

There's a pause for a moment as Jenette belatedly processes the odd thud she heard on the other end of the line. She looks to the sky, trying to gauge the time. It's hard to be sure since everyone has their own weird calendar systems and the movements of the stars and moons can't always be relied upon in the Nexus, but she's almost positive Anika wouldn't be hibernating at this time of year.

"I didn't interrupt a nap or anything, did I?"

[Shadowcaller]

Zomboards and Zweihanders

"Damn, I wanted to fight a dragon." Anika mutters as she finally seems to have had time to take a breath between her words.

"And nah, its fine dude. You just spooked me a bit. I just couldn't figure out what that weird sound was at first." Laz might get the feeling that Anika is shrugging at this very moment based on her tone alone.
"Anyway, bad zombies doing bad things and you're one of the good zombies?" She had heard of 'light zombies' but never actually seen one. But Laz went around in full armor, did that mean she was some kind of paladin?
"Like a paladin or whatever? Since I never heard of those zombies. Unless it's the ones I'm thinking of?" Not sure how Laz is supposed to know what you're thinking of, Anika.

Blanche's Barracks

Anika goes from security bear to security druid in a matter of seconds as a green cloud obscures her form and she's ready to respond to these accusations!
"Yeah! And you think I'd free you just to send you straight back to jail-" Oh wait, that's exactly what she did, crap.
"Uh, I mean, I'm not selling you out for a 'plea deal'. I don't even know what that is!"