Outside 52: Touch grass

[Deathkeeper]

Cloud Castle

G’nichi smiles cheerily. Good old Zee. She’s always good to talk to.
”Well that’s nice of you but I don’t think anyone’s home. Maybe we could fly over the wall and see? No one is getting through the front door, that is for sure.” he gestures at the nails to make it clear what he means.

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
The "goddess" (if that is what she is) runs off without so much as a goodbye as soon as everyone is looking at the food.

Cynic shakes her head and refuses to touch the food. She's still suspicious of all this. Robots that look like humans and lion goddesses and turtles offering food.

Herringbone on the other hand is curious, taking a small scoop out of the unknown dish to begin with. "You live out here?" she asks the tortoise man, "Sorry for waking you up with our fighting." It's the middle of the night, it seems unlikely that he was up and about before they started shooting.

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Crags]

Gene is mostly sure that turtle dude isn't going to poison them.

And if he does then Cynic is probably going to blow him to hell.

So...

Eh?

Live dangerously.

If she had been called a robot out loud, though, she would have been pissed. She is absolutely not a robot.

"Yeah, we must have woke you up with all the explosions, sorry dude," Gene says, eyeing the... jello mold? Maybe? suspiciously.

Food shouldn't move like that.

[Shadowcaller]

[Cloud Castle]

The symbols can mean any number of things but in this context Zee can probably reduce it down to two likely options.

Either they are A: Meant to ward off evil. Staring eyes can be pretty unnerving, especially if you're a criminal about to break into someone's home as that's when you really don't want to be watched. Using that logic eyes are often used to keep evil things away from your home. Though in theory they could also be used to keep things inside too.

Or B: Magic security cameras. Like with option A eyes symbolize vision and sight. But with magic, something which usually involves symbology, these eye symbols could actually be used by a magic-user to see through.

There does seem to be some magic to them but she can't discern its exact purpose.

[Geopol4r]

[Crystal Crag]
Oh no, I was already awake. I just came to get some of the goo. It makes a fantastic base for curry, apparently.
You realize that the orange goo is somehow related the the ooze he picked up earlier. He somehow turned it edible. It doesn't taste half bad...

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
That's enough to get Herringbone to spit out what food was in her mouth.
Not because it tastes bad, but because she found out what's in it.

"That's some sort of nanotech... You cooked it!? How the **** is that possibly safe to eat?" She's already swallowed a couple bites, does she need to force herself to throw up?

[Ironsmith]

[Dragonborn Hunting]

"I believe so, yes," Fenris says, squinting off into the distance. "I suspect he was summoned by our foe to provide another distraction once our ascent was over."

Just one more problem to deal with.

At the suggestion to regroup Fenris signs.

"I am afraid so. There is little else we can do at this point. My nose will be little help in tracking a flying foe and he will be able to easily out-pace us easily. However, I do find it fascinating that this plane is similar enough to Nirn that it was possible to summon Durnehviir at all," Fenris comments curiously. "But you're right. I believe that may be our best course of action. Unfortunately a Milestone will be of little use in that respect. I tried setting one there and found that the underlying fabric of reality was too... thin. For lack of a better word."

Which means the would have to take the long way ho-

There's a sound of a ringing bell behind them.

Should our heroes turn around they'll find themselves standing a good twenty feet from a Riftline station, the train just pulling up.

"Ah! I've seen this machine operating in and around Inside again. Linked carriages, of a sort. They use some form of magnetic principle to float above their tracks, it's quite fascinating."

[Dragonborn Hunting]

"I'm sure it is." Yuvan replies sourly, stepping onto the train. "However, for the moment, I'll be content to simply take the offered ride home and bide our time while we wait for the vampire to turn up again. I don't know about you, but when we return I intend to go straight to Trog's, rent a room for a month, and start working out any and all preparations I can."

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crag
Well, there is a type of mushroom here that will absorb certain types of energy. It then grows and consume just about anything, and always produces a nutritous by-product.
It's easy to tell, he's been doing this for years. He doesn't care what it was, only that it is edible at some point.

[Earl of Purple]

Apocalypse Junction

"Yep, it sure did. Weren't expectin' it to get us all the way back here." Sian limps over to the nearest box and pulls out her Wand of Opening. "Something that'll let me walk without a limp, an' stop the curse turnin' me to stone." She taps the box, wording her request differently, and it flashes... but still doesn't open when Sian tries it.

Rovering

The woman and the cyberman carrying her reaches the scorched observation deck and stand in the middle, before disappearing with a flash of light surging upwards towards the zeppelin hovering overhead. Another flash surges down and reveals another cyberman, this one without a person over its shoulder. It heads straight for the soldiers, ignoring the bullets pinging off its armoured frame.

The maybe-officer frowns slightly but unbuckles his belt and starts to pull the hazmat suit on, though it's a little awkward over his reasonably bulky uniform. He'll have to take his jacket off before he's done, since he keeps catching the sleeves. This does mean he's being quite slow about it, so the unicorn might want to do something about the approaching cyberman before it can interrupt.

Bone Hills- Maw of Arkhentkhats

The skeleton carrying the spear has its hands obliterated by the beam of Honeysuckle's gaze, and after glancing at the stumps of its wrists, runs towards the group waving its arms in the air and clacking its jaw. When it reaches the doorway, or anyone touches it, there's a surge of necromancy and it detonates, sending splinters of bone in every direction. The pugilist skeleton ducks down and grabs a broken pavise, pushing it up and hiding behind it. The large shield is cracked, and the supporting spike at the bottom has snapped.

CloudCastle- Skeleton Carriage

The barrier against magical detection unfortunately also prevents Benedict from detecting magic, so he doesn't know there's no reason for it.

The coachman directs the carriage to the platform, bringing the horses down in a swoop and pulling back on the reigns so the carriage comes to a stop near the middle. He then disembarks, leaving the driver's seat and opening the berline's side door and activating the steps so the occupants can climb down. Benedict goes first, buckling his swordbelt on and surveying the area to ensure it's safe before his wife follows. "Don't worry, Klin. This area seems secure, for now at least. The stairs are steep, so be careful. Coachman, stay here. Guard the coach, make sure nobody tries to steal it. I think it unlikely but not impossible. If anyone tries, do what you feel necessary." The coachman bows, and heads back up onto the driver's seat before reaching into a trunk secured behind it and pulling out a blunderbuss.

Benedict and Klin head toward the back gate, struggling with the steps. Earl isn't sure if they're going up or down, but they're both quite average-height humanoids, so they're struggling anyway. The coachman's unnaturally large, though still believably human-sized.

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Crags]

Magic mushroom that eat anything and then crap out nutritious food?

"Sounds fake," Gene points out as she takes another bite of her strawberry. "But then again everything here sounds fake so what the hell do I know?"

And then just to be sure?

She sticks her knife into the side of some of the orange goop and dumps it into her printer feed.

It is nice enough to give her a chemical breakdown.

"Uh... whatever Goops was made of? It's organic. Like proteins and stuff mostly? Some other stuff in there, too, so I dunno if I would eat it but I don't think it's going to kill you?"

Well!

That's nice to know.

Also a lesson about taking food from strange turtles. Also seems as though Gene's distrust of jello-o molds has paid off again.


[Dragonborn Hunting]

"I believe," says Fenris. "That sounds like an excellent place to start."

Time to ride the train!

Well. That's been quite the little adventure, hasn't it?


[Apocalypse Junction]

Once our heroes get to the top of the shaft Victor experimentally grabs the disc and it obligingly folds back up into a CD sized object.

"Well! Ain't that somethin' else. I guess we can ask these things fer tools even if we ain't got a clue what sorta tool might do the job proper," Victor wonders aloud.

The boxes are very useful!

Except, apparently, in creating leg cures.

"Well... It's doin' that glowin' thing this time around. You reckon it might just be workin' on this on account a bein' harder to do?"

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crags

Not only will it not kill you, but it also improves focus slightly. I find it useful for my meditation.

The tortoise takes a bite of his goop.

My name is Infaar. Who are you?

[Gullara]

[Ritual Night]

"Yes, that's just what you're supposed to ask, but I meant the exact wording that you're going to use. Since you're not going to talk to her the same way you're going to talk to me." She makes a circular motion with her hand. "Just... give it some thought. Play it up in your mind a few times. Since by the time you ask you're already going to be thinking about what she's going to answer. Since that's how the mind works. You can generally only effectively focus on one thing at the same time and since it's me you're going to be talking to you can't have your mind preoccupied with anything. You need to be in the present to notice things like body language and all these other details."

[Ritual Night]

"Um, okay." Valerie swallows. Her anxiety is starting to build a little bit now. "How am I supposed to figure out what I'm going to say before I know what she says, though?"

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

"Great! Cool! Then I'll help you out as a shark and you help out Blanche in turn, how about that?" She offers her hand but then hesitates as she isn't sure Mimi could properly shake it.

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

Mimi grabs Anika's hand, but doesn't make a shaking motion. Instead she throws sparkly powder onto her palm. When Anika looks, she'll see a string of numbers on her hand. "When you wanna contact me you just gotta find a phone someone and use those numbers. Just ask for me after that."

[5a Violista]

[Into the Woods]

Unsurprisingly, the forest road is moderately well-kept, especially compared to the underbrush. The road itself shows most of its wear from cart tracks.

At first, it seems pretty safe. Deer in the distance watching, some small game running for cover as he comes near, evidence that a bear calls this area its territory (but isn't around at the moment)...fairly normal and boring forest.

However, after walking for a decent distance, Domhnall will likely feel the distinct feeling of being watched. Like' there's eyes watching behind him. Sure, it may just be the deer, but...if he looks back, the road behind him looks several shades darker than the road ahead. As if the forest itself is encouraging him to continue on forward and to not turn back.

Also, at some point, he'll find a broken wagon wheel just barely on the side of the forest pathway, with some crushed grape stems (and a few grapes) . The grapes have just barely started molding and have mostly been eaten by forest animals, which suggests it must've been not too long ago.

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
"I think I'll pass on the rest of this." Herringbone passes the dish back to Infaar. "I'm Valarie." "We're doing real people names? Fine. I'm Kasie." Cynic adds. "We usually go by callsigns. I'm Herringbone and she's Cynic."

[Meowmai]

[SPOILER=Quotes]The Ossuary

Dena stops and looks over the battlefield before she makes any moves. "This must be the recovery team one." The ones that came to provide backup to team two. Quite a bit larger than the team they encountered. "Don't engage unless you think you can do so undetected." She orders. "We're going to attempt to sneak past." Then she is going to activate her camouflage and attempt to get around the skirmish unseen.

The Ossuary

Cantata nods. Trying to avoid detection seemed the smart thing to do with the sheer volume of everything going on down there. Besides, it was kind of her specialty, and much more of her element than a front-facing strike. She pulls up the hood of her cloak and looks back towards Pania for a second, as if trying to confirm whether or not the woman can do it or if she'll have to cover for her. If she struggles too much, she'll try to psionically make her less noticeable - although that won't help against the brainless skeletons.

[The Ossuary]

Pania nods in confirmation, and starts to move as well. It would be clear to the others that she isn't as experienced in stealth as she is. She isn't inexperienced either- having had to hunt for her tribe for food required some knowledge in stealthy movement- but she didn't have the same gear and/or expertise her companions had. Nevertheless, she seemed to be confident as she began sneaking, doing her best to stay silent and keep her distance. She didn't ask for help, so it'd be up to Cantata if she gets any or not.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ritual Night]

"Um, okay." Valerie swallows. Her anxiety is starting to build a little bit now. "How am I supposed to figure out what I'm going to say before I know what she says, though?"

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

Mimi grabs Anika's hand, but doesn't make a shaking motion. Instead she throws sparkly powder onto her palm. When Anika looks, she'll see a string of numbers on her hand. "When you wanna contact me you just gotta find a phone someone and use those numbers. Just ask for me after that."

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

Anika stares at her hand, or specifically at those numbers.

Mimi had one of those phoenes?!

"Uh, alright." A beat. "You know where VIGIL is then? Big floating island thing." She gestures towards the sky. "Kinda hard to miss once you get close." Of course, most things were probably big to Mimi.

[Ritual Night]

Astrana smiles comfortingly and tries to take Val's hand. "Usually you can gauge some possible answers based on what you know of the entity. That's what all our research is for, to get an idea how they work." She gets in for a quick hug. "I think I'm making your mind work against you though with all this advice."

The warlock pulls back and suddenly there's a bottle in her hand. It's label suggesting that it's a fairly expensive wine. "It might seem counterproductive but this is a closely guarded fourth tower secret." She winks. "We sometimes get some of this to calm our nerves before a big ritual. That, or-" She puts two fingers to her mouth as if she was holding a cigarette in-between them. Val should have a pretty good idea exactly what she means. "It actually helps a lot if you want to try it."

CloudCastle- Skeleton Carriage

The barrier against magical detection unfortunately also prevents Benedict from detecting magic, so he doesn't know there's no reason for it.

The coachman directs the carriage to the platform, bringing the horses down in a swoop and pulling back on the reigns so the carriage comes to a stop near the middle. He then disembarks, leaving the driver's seat and opening the berline's side door and activating the steps so the occupants can climb down. Benedict goes first, buckling his swordbelt on and surveying the area to ensure it's safe before his wife follows. "Don't worry, Klin. This area seems secure, for now at least. The stairs are steep, so be careful. Coachman, stay here. Guard the coach, make sure nobody tries to steal it. I think it unlikely but not impossible. If anyone tries, do what you feel necessary." The coachman bows, and heads back up onto the driver's seat before reaching into a trunk secured behind it and pulling out a blunderbuss.

Benedict and Klin head toward the back gate, struggling with the steps. Earl isn't sure if they're going up or down, but they're both quite average-height humanoids, so they're struggling anyway. The coachman's unnaturally large, though still believably human-sized.

CloudCastle- Skeleton Carriage

They're going up.
Otherwise these stairs wouldn't be terribly steep.
The main fort is built at what seems to be the very peak of these mountains with this platform constructed on a offshoot just underneath it.

These stairs taking them up to what seems to be a backdoor.

Though as they come closer it's clear that 'door' doesn't quite give it justice. Since like the stairs it seems to be far larger than it needs to be. Perhaps 'gate' would be more apt though it isn't a double-door as entrances this size usually are. It's just like a standard door which has been sized up that completely lacks a handle.

But as they approach a voice bellows out. A deep monotone which breaks the silence of this place like thunder from a clear sky.

HALT

It might take them a moment to realize but its source seems to be the ornamental dragon-head just above the door. It's jaws seemingly moving to form words which has no place on its stone-tongue.

STATE THY PURPOSE

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Crags]

"Nice to meetcha, turtle dude, I'm Gene," the definitely not a robot says. "You live out here or something? You know what the deal is with the big black pyramid over there?"

Gene is still curious about the big black pyramid in question.

Waaaaay off over yonder, but large enough to be easily seen if one climbs out of the slot canyons and looks around. Pretty standard four sided pyramid, a glossy jet black like polished obsidian, and with a great big oval-shaped white stone just sort of... hovering... above the peak.

Gene was thinking it must be a meta-vault or something similarly weird.

But maybe not?

It's been difficult for their range finding equipment to give them a clear read on its size and distance.

"And, just puttin' this out there, I'm not thinking callsigns mean a lot to mushroom eating turtle hermit."


[The Ossuary]

Aaaaand stealth music go!

Our highly paid professionals skirt their way around the melee, moving carefully toward the pyramid and ducking between smaller tombs and headstones to keep out of sight of the recovery teams. It would appear as though their infiltration is successful! All the skeletons are busy attacking living foes they CAN see (how DO they see, anyway? They haven't got any eyes) which is a good thing for the mercs. The last thing they need is getting mobbed by a bunch of bony bois and drawing attention to them.

There only appears to be once immediately obvious entrance to the ziggurat, a huge arched doorway in the front of the structure out of which blocks of sixteen skeletons garbed in ancient arms and armor are steadily marching out of. There must be another entrance somewhere though, right? These stepped temples always have more than one way in. It's just a matter of figuring out where it is, right? They could search around the base, or on one of the middle levels, or maybe sneak up to the top and see if there's a stairway or something?

What are they going to do?

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
"They mean something to us," Kasie counters. "There's no harm in telling him," Valarie adds. "So, Infaar, what do you do out here?" "Other than eating weird mushrooms."

[Deathkeeper]

Into the Woods

Yup, there's something wrong around here, that's for sure.
Domhnall checks the site of the "accident" for any signs of a struggle, or a trail of footprints or blood. If there aren't any clues he'll simply have to continue down the road and keep his eyes peeled.

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crags

Infaar will stand.
Other tortoise-folk come here for training. Personally, I simply prepare for the coming day. Someday, a true danger will arise, and I will be there to end it.
Infaar will stretch, crack a few joints, then sit and continue to eat.

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Crags]

Well.

Doesn't sound like mister turtle dude knows anything about the pyramid.

That's fine.

He's probably sane too and decided not to get close to it.

"We're probably not going to be around here for long," Gene mentions. "Just passin' through. Hey, you know anything about cities around here? My pals here are looking for a couple of their lance-mates that got lost and we were thinking a big population center might be a good place to look."

Problem is that they have no idea where anything is.

At all.

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crags
No. Cities are not what I look for in life. I look no further than this Crag; I know nothing of the pyramid. If you require assistance, however, I have time to spare. It's been a while since I had combat experience.
More food enters his mouth. He gradually gets faster with his movements.

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
"No offense, but the things we fight would crush you like a bug," Cynic makes a bag gesture towards the three giant robots surrounding the campsite. "We don't want you to get killed on our account," Herringbone adds more sympathetically.

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crags
Would you like to spar with me? I'm sure I could prove useful.
He gobbles down the rest of his food, stands, and begins to punch the wall. And carve out a ball of stone. With his fists. He offers to... bounce the ball back and forth.

[Gullara]

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

Anika stares at her hand, or specifically at those numbers.

Mimi had one of those phoenes?!

"Uh, alright." A beat. "You know where VIGIL is then? Big floating island thing." She gestures towards the sky. "Kinda hard to miss once you get close." Of course, most things were probably big to Mimi.

[A Hunter must Herd Kows?]

"Nope, no idea. What's Vigil?" Mimi replies cluelessly.

[Ritual Night]

Astrana smiles comfortingly and tries to take Val's hand. "Usually you can gauge some possible answers based on what you know of the entity. That's what all our research is for, to get an idea how they work." She gets in for a quick hug. "I think I'm making your mind work against you though with all this advice."

The warlock pulls back and suddenly there's a bottle in her hand. It's label suggesting that it's a fairly expensive wine. "It might seem counterproductive but this is a closely guarded fourth tower secret." She winks. "We sometimes get some of this to calm our nerves before a big ritual. That, or-" She puts two fingers to her mouth as if she was holding a cigarette in-between them. Val should have a pretty good idea exactly what she means. "It actually helps a lot if you want to try it."

[Ritual Night]

"Um." Valerie looks confused after pulling away from the hug. That just looks like regular wine? "I thought when you said you had to take stuff before some rituals that it was some special substance? Like, something magical or..?"

[Arkhosia]

[The Ossuary]

Cantata raises her eyebrows if they get close. This place is outputting a lot of constructs, which can't be very good for either of them. May give them a hint as to what's so important about this place for these necromancers as well, however. She moves towards one of the walls, ready to search it for another means of ingress... but looks towards Dena first. Leadership aside, it's important for them to know if this place is similarly warded. As such, she uses two fingers to mime a person walking before abruptly crushing them into a fist, gesturing back to the ziggurat and giving Dena a questioning look.

[Rebonack]

[Crystal Crags]

"I've got some hand to hand training but it isn't exactly my deal," Gene admits shortly before turtle dude just casually caves a hole into some pretty hard metamorphic rock with his fist.

Haha.

What?

Guess he's a D&D monk or something?

"Okay that's pretty friggin' impressive but we aren't planning on doing dungeon crawls or saving princesses. We're just looking for these two's buddies so they can get home," Gene explains. "We aren't planning on hopping out of our mechs if we can avoid it while we're traveling around."

No real reason to do so unless they find somewhere that they NEED to check out that their machines can't fit in.

Like that bunker.

[Geopol4r]

[Crystal Crags]

Well, if you don't need my assistance, I will keep working.
He throws the solid stone volleyball into the air, and heads it 40' away.
OOC: DnD Monk meets Wii Fit Trainer from Smash.

[bc56]

Crystal Crags
"Yeah, we don't really do hand to hand. Not to mention that if you hit one of us with that, it would break every bone in our bodies." Sparring with someone who could do that doesn't exactly seem survivable unless they really hold back. "We appreciate the offer, but no thanks."

[Geopol4r]

Crystal Crags

Are you sure you don't need someone to take blows for you while you fight from your mechs? Someone experienced in hand to hand and quicker than your machines would be useful.
Wait, quicker than your machines? He's an anthropomorphic tortoise!