Outside 52: Touch grass

[Earl of Purple]

Bone Hills- Maw of Arkhentkhats

Only when damaged did the Nested Ghoul summon another zombie, though it wasn't able to survive the first instance of damage and so only summoned the one minion.

Snarling faces are carved into the walls as the group follows the hallway, and ends in a wooden door studded with thick brass rivets. It'll take some force to open the door, as it's been wedged shut quite firmly. Beyond, there's quite a simple chamber with a wooden table standing in the centre of the room, a freestanding weapon rack next to it. Sat on the table in the middle is an antique mechanical typewriter, an ancient piece of paper still in it, and a chair behind it. Under the table is the skeleton of a Khajiit, though it does not move and has no glow suggesting animation. There's a single sword in the weapon rack, a long, straight blade of Dwemer alloy.

[Recaiden]

[Bone Hills- Maw of Arkhentkhats]

After confirming that the ghoul is really down, the group continues onwards.

It takes six tries, but they eventually force the wedged door back open.

"Died at his typewriter?" Do you suppose that he wrote something off, or was it just coincidence?

Honeysuckle steps up to pick up the sword off its rack, while the manticore peers around the edge of the paper to see what, if anything, it says.

[Earl of Purple]

Maw of Arkhentkhats

Yes, and they'd blocked the door with wooden wedges hammered underneath it, as well as locking it. They could have escaped, they thought staying in here was more important.

The paper is very old, and brittle, and bears the words: ELEVEN EYES ALWAYS WATCHING NO ESCAPE NO RESPITE NO HIDING ALWAYS WATCHING ELEVEN EYES NO HIDING NO ESCAPE NO RESPITE THEY SEE ME THEY SEE YOU THEY SEE ALL NO HIDING NO RESPITE NO ESCAPE ELEVEN EYES ALWAYS WATCHING THEY SEE ALL NO HIDING ALWAYS WATCHING ELEVEN EYES- and, well, there's half a page of that with no punctuation.

The sword is lifted! It looks like bronze, but it's lighter and sharper. It is, unfortunately for Honeysuckle, unenchanted.

[Recaiden]

[Bone Hills - Maw of Arkhentkhats]

Not being enchanted also means that it's not cursed! That's a small win, at least.

The manticore reads off the deranged rambling on the typewriter, for Honeysuckle's benefit.

"Oh yeah, the all-seeing eleven-fold eye thing. Cool. Great 't' up again 're." She reaches down to pick up the skull of the typist. She hadn't really expected that to ever come up again, but no sense getting worked up over it now that it has. There is no escape after all.

The elemental is particularly skeptical of Honeysuckle upon hearing this. The what?

"You know about this?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bone Hills- Maw of Arkhentkhats

The skull is picked up. It's a perfectly normal khajiit skull, with a mix of feline and humanoid features.

The sword continues to be a sword, with no mystical abilities. Nothing will interrupt them, and there's no other way out.

[Recaiden]

[Bone Hills - Maw of Arkhentkhats]

"Yeah, remember th' portal accident?" Oh. That eleven-fold all-seeing eye thing. Yes, Honesyuckle did bring tell them about that once...
"Ironic, you know? Since can't really myself."

"Are we done here?"
The elemental thinks they're done here.
Honeysuckle agrees that they're probably done here. It's not like the eyes will stop watching them if they leave the room or anything. There is no escape, after all.
She sets the skull back down in front of the typewriter (the whole place is a tomb, right?) and gives the sword a few experimental swings on the way out of the room. She doesn't know anything about swordfighting, but they're still fun. And then, at the last moment, she darts back and grabs the skull. Maybe this guy knew some answers. Or at least hints.

The manticore watches this with increasing skepticism.

The elemental reminds them not to let down their guard just because they're on the way back to the entrance.

[Purple Eagle]

[Slavic Engineers - Near Mishnehel's House]

"Ah, well..." Vlad rubs at the back of his neck nervously. "Assuming you aren't too attached to this place, she means. At some point, it might be more practical to start from scratch than to try to renovate what you have. Up to you, obviously."

Slavic Engineers- Mishnehel's House

"Internet's a funny name. Yeah, I can dismantle it." Mishnehel smiles at Svetlana, who was too distracted to answer her question. She'll reach over to the nearest wall and it disappears; there's no pop or flash of light, it's just gone. This might make installing amenities a little easier, but then it also might not. "I lose a bit of mass doing this, but not much. I should have enough for most of it, at least."

She'll step through the hole where the wall was and comes back with a three bottles of Nuka-Cola, everyone's favourite mildly radioactive soft drink.

[Slavic Engineers- Mishnehel's House]

Svetlana is smiled at, and she finds herself smiling back, if only to appear friendly to this alien being. Relatively alien that is, many find the concept of a human with everything but her brain replaced with cybertech to be alien in its own right, not to talk of the fox ears and tail she sometimes sports.

There's something quite cute about her 'internet', though. "Not as funny as 'what are you doing here' for a name." She snarks back in response.

Making the wall disappear just registers to her as one of her powers, much like Karasu building a house made of ink. "Alright. Mishnehel, was it? I am Svetlana. Might I inquire as to what this material is made of?" If she can take it apart and put it together then it shouldn't matter, but given what Vlad said about it, she'd very much like to know.

Ah, that's right, Vlad is here. She turns to her friend as she accepts a bottle of Nuka-Cola from their host. "Well, the fact that she can make parts of it appear and disappear at will should make our job easier, should it not?"

She starts to open the bottle and take a sip, but then her internal components warn her of radiation and she immediately decides not to risk it.

[Earl of Purple]

Bone Hills- Maw of Arkhentkhats

Nothing much is going to interrupt the adventurer group from leaving, if that's their wish. They can reconnoitre with the individuals they left outside, and their wagon of looted gold.

[Recaiden]

[Bone Hills - Maw of Arkhentkhats]

That is their wish. They think they've explored everything except one alternate hallway, and they have all that looted gold to think of.

Many minutes later, the group is back together at the top of the cliffside. Bandages for the manticore, more fuel for the elemental, loading the last few things onto the wagon - and now to head home triumphant. Neverest taps the flank of the ant-horse (it's working hard enough pulling the treasure for anyone to be riding in the cart with it) and off they go.

"Told you we could do it." gloats the manticore.
"Yeah, admit ' wasn't a disaster." Agrees Honesyuckle. "Had enough'a undead tryin' kill me, though."
"What I'm thinking is, we ought to build our own fancy trapped tombs someday."