[Nexus] Outside XXV

[Chaotic Bob]

The guard just shakes his head. "Not a whole lot I'm afraid. It's a big cargo ship. One of those ones with all the big metal crates. 'sides that I haven't the faintest clue."

He probably hasn't ever been there personally. As was mentioned before no one here has. They were too busy dealing with the restless dead.

"It might be the source of our problems. Maybe not. One way to find out I-"

A beat-

"Oh hell."

Why the sudden change of topic?

'cuz Allen just turned the lighthouse lamp off.

It gets very dark!

And the Fog begins to creep in.

Oh hey, darkness.
The makes a certain little mouse very nervous.

Are you sure we shouldn't be heading inside, about now?
He isn't very fond of the thought that these children might be ripped apart by some unknown enemy, right next to him.
Not really fond of getting ripped apart himself, but they're more important.

They're children!

[Rebonack]

[Lost Coast]

Women children and small rodents first!

"Oh you're right. The fog coming in is pretty bad. We'll get home right away," the little girl replies in that dead-pan voice of hers.

"Bye mousy!" the little boy giggles.

Both children then depart, heading off toward a darkened house nearby.

Away!

Should the mouse follow he may find it extremely difficult to find the children again...

Over at the foot of the lighthouse... "Reckon I should. You stay right there, mister. I've got some beatings to hand out."

And with that the guard heads up the stairs!

Allen, meanwhile, is fiddling with the control panel! It doesn't seem inclined to cooperate with him. No doubt there's some complicated process required to restart the lighthouse lamp.

"What the hell are you doing?" the guard demands of the cowboy, looking rather irate as he comes into the lamp room.

Meanwhile!

Down on the ground people are running inside and turning on all the lights they can find! Lighting candles even!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Lost Coast]

Be careful, please!
Of course little Yurioc is going to try to follow, levitating to keep a better view.
He probably won't follow them into the house (just wants to make sure they got there), but he'll be moving some distance along after them.

Or trying.
Blasted fog might make things difficult, even if he tries to repel it away with some telekinetic urging in a bubble around him.

His little mousey eyes probably need a bit of clear air in order to see, and nudging the fog away seems to be a good plan for that.

[Mr. Moon]

[Dead Forest]

The raven relays all of it, though with odd pauses, sometimes in the middle of words.

Karyana will go up to the elf, and say "What's wrong?". She'll also try to lay her hand on his shoulder.

The elf turns sharply as Karyana touches his shoulder, his face lighting up for just a second before he recognizes her.
"It's... my brother. He was supposed to be waiting for me here." He says, rubbing his hands together and looking down the path that Beorn and Flix are investigating.

[Dead Forest]

Beorn decides to follow the tracks just a little bit further. He wants to know what that animal is. Flix might be able to catch up to Beorn if he's quick. The fey isn't moving that fast.

As Beorn makes his way down the path, he leaves the clearing and steps into the forest path. A grey leaf, still stubbornly clinging to its branch, falls down and flutters through the air to land at his feet. The footprints continue a little further, before suddenly altering. Instead of multiple sets of footprints, there are only three pairs of furrows in the road, that cross over each other occasionally. Where the tracks start, the ground is slightly wetter and has an odd reddish tint.

[hr]

Lost Coast

Allen freezes as the guard makes his way up his steps. He slowly, carefully steps away from the computer.
"Well, see, I ah, bumped 'gainst it, yeah? An' I ah was jus' tryin' ta fix it, yeah? An'... Well..."
This isn't working.

Allen darts, barrelling his way towards the guard. He'll try to duck under any attempt to grab him and make his way out the light house.
Run Allen, run!

[Lady Serpentine]

[Dead Forest]

"Oh. I'm sorry. Maybe he left because of the thing that the others are tracking?"

She's purposely avoiding the possibility that he was eaten by it, and trying to be reassuring. She's okay at it, though not the best. How effective it is, is, of course, up to you.

[Shadowcaller]

Dead Forest

"Well, I guess we're just looking for life now. Something's been through here. Maybe it has something to do with what happened around here?" he says, pausing every so often to make sure Sidney can keep up with him. "Besides, that other girl seems to have found the elf already. Hopefully she'll be able to get more information from him while we go find out what happened over here."

Dead Forest

I can't imagine anyone would want to live here anymore anyway. The elves should move out once we save them from whatever monster that is lurking around here. Sidney replies trying to follow along as well as she or he can.

So where is everyone anyway? Are you supposed to split to cover more ground? Sidney asks curiously. It's a pretty big forest after all.

[Gullara]

[Dead Forest]

Beorn kneels down when the ground gains its reddish tint. He picks up and pick of the soil and brings it to his nose to smell it. He has the sense of smell equal to a bear, which is stronger than a dog's for reference.

The others will likely find him in this position.

[Ancient Tomb]

Bear noises. Koro makes them. After some wriggling and with the assistance of his companions, the dragon bear is freed. Yay!

[Saurous]

Dead Forest

"Well, it'd probably be best if we stuck together. I'd prefer it if we didn't get picked off one-by-one by whatever thing is hiding out here. Kary...ana-" he says her name slowly, letting the syllables roll over his tounge "-should be safe back in that house, and the...other guy is right around..." Flix comes to a stop right behind Beorn, looking at the kneeling bear fae curiously for a few moments. He then follows the furrows off into the distance with his eyes. "...huh."

[Mr. Moon]

Dead Forest

The liquid is blood. Elvish blood. And it was shed somewhat recently.
Further examining of the furrows reveals that one pair of them is much newer than the others.

The elf shakes his head. "No. I thought he would be safe here..."
He turns to the hooded girl. "Please!" He says. "You have to hurry!"

[Lady Serpentine]

[Dead Forest]

"I'm happy to hurry, but hurry and do what? Go after that, or something else?"

[Gullara]

[Dead Forest]

"Blood." Beorn says simply before standing. "Whoever was walking her was slain. By these." He gestures to the remaining tracks that continue into the forest.

[Saurous]

Dead Forest

Flix walks around Beorn, looking down at the blood-stained ground.

"Unless our man just collapsed into a pool of blood, whatever did this must have taken the body with it," he deduces, his eyes once again tracing the furrows. "Which means, unless we're chasing after some lunatic who gets off on playing with dead bodies, our little predator probably has himself a lair set up somewhere."

He glances back at the others, pointing a finger down the trail.

"And I'd imagine we'd find that lair at the end of these...tracks, I guess, here, he says, the tone of his voice revealing some level of excitement. "If we're lucky, maybe we'll find our mark there, too. Come on, let's move. And keep your eyes on the woods. It'd be best if it doesn't get the jump on us."

Flix then starts following the troughs further along the trail, once again taking his carbine in both hands.

[VampireRot]

Spoiler

Show

[Ancient Tomb]

"We already told you, we don't know what the artifacts do. Otherwise we would have used to ourselves." The brother tells them as he appears to attempt to hide the sister from the group.

[Ancient Tomb]

"Just grab the stuff and come on." Ilpholin shouts back down at Zanny and Wenomir.

She pets Koro some more.
"You're going to have to back up a bit Koro so we can get out and give you your gold, ok?"

[Ancient Tomb]

Koro makes more bear noises and starts backing out. Or tries to. He wriggles and squirms to no avail. More bear noises are a sign of his discontent. He might need a push.

[Ancient Tomb]

Great, now we have to push or pull this stupid dragon bear out of this hole, Wenomir grumbles. He's getting more and more annoyed by this whole situation. He tries to climb out first.

[Ancient Tomb]

"Alright. I'll help. 1. 2... 3!" Ilpholin pushes on three with Koro! Come on bear!

[Ancient Tomb]

Bear noises. Koro makes them. After some wriggling and with the assistance of his companions, the dragon bear is freed. Yay!

[Ancient Tomb]

"Right..."

Zanny rolls his eyes, and gathers up all the treasure with one sweep of his arm. No, I don't know how he does it either. Probably with dragon magic or something. He'll awkwardly try to climb up out of the hole after Koro is dislodged and his other companions go though.

[TechnoScrabble]

Missile Mountain

What's that on the horizon?
It's a metric craptonne of angry Philbots, that's what!
And lookie, they have air support, the Tizona and her sister ship, Titan!
The robots seems to have gathered weapons from Phil's stashes around Inside, as well as a number of strange steely crates with satellite dishes on top!

[Recaiden]

[Forest->Field]

The animals seen from the home thread go on peacefully, now that the world has been saved by the thinking beings. Now, this mansion the leader is heading towards should be somewhere in this general direction. At some distance. Not that they know what they're looking for.

[The Bushranger]

[Field of Forests?]

One of the aforementioned thinking beings has set out from town!
Seeking the field, the haunted mansion, and the wolves. Especially a certain wolf.
So he'll follow the singed grass road.

[Recaiden]

[Forest of fields closer, no?]

Oh no. They're being followed. But Brendan will soon find that the trail of ashes ends, and the only sign of anyone is the tall rustling grass behind him, and also to the side...
At least until three of them break from their hiding places and flee back towards the woods. Odd behavior, really.

The last one steps out calmly, and the whole area is reduced to cinders as the flames recognize their friend. Brendan himself will be fine.
The wolf looks up at him suspiciously, not quite recalling who he is. All those humans seem alike, you know?, most of the time.

[The Bushranger]

[Forest of Fields, Fields of Forests, Potato, Potato?]

Brendan is quite surprised by the fleeing wolves. He thought they were friends!
He had been ready to be pounced, though.
The flaming wolf gets a smile, though, and he kneels, holding out a hand with a nice, tasty treat.
Hopefully he doesn't smell like all those other humans...

[Shadowcaller]

Dead Forest

Sidney nods in agreement, Do not worry, I should be able to assists you in case we are jumped by whatever manner of beast that is attacking these elves. Nice to meet you too by the way. The cultist tells them both.

And with those words the acolyte follows along by the best of his ability.

[Recaiden]

[Field]

Of course he does. He is a human, after all.
The food is snapped away, and, after being retreated with a short way, swiftly devoured.
The wolf keeps watching him. Not violent, which is good. Although too much of the recent murdering of innocent NPCs has been offscreen. Maybe he's even recognized, a bit.

[The Bushranger]

[Field]

Brendan, unknowing of NPC deaths innocent or otherwise, decides to take a seat on the ground. Best not to rush these things, after all.
He does wish it wasn't the full moon, though. But he's a paitent man!
He'll probably make some small talk, though. Soothing, calm words.

[Recaiden]

[Field]

Technically it's down to waning gibbous.

The animal sits and waits. It is also patient. But after a while it rises quickly to its feet again and growls at Brendan, and motions with its head that he leave.

((Deadtime.))

[Gullara]

[Dead Forest]

Beorn nods approvingly at Flix's deductions. That little bit of excitement is contagious. First and foremost, Beorn is a hunter.

"There's no use waiting any longer. Let us find out just what this beast is." The fey suggests.

[The Bushranger]

[Field]

Technically it's down to waning gibbous.

The animal sits and waits. It is also patient. But after a while it rises quickly to its feet again and growls at Brendan, and motions with its head that he leave.

((Deadtime.))

[Field]

Technicalities!

Brendan tilts his head, and stands.
"You don't want me around?" he asks, sounding more curious than anything else.

[ThirdEmperor]

Missile Mountain

The robots scan for any sort of communication or teleportation signals.

Hamlet

The nanobots start sampling things for study.

Missile Mountain

The robots don't detect any communication within the base, but that might just be because it's inside a mountain. As for teleportation, that one is slightly easier, as there's a huge anti-teleportation field around the entire base, excluding the airlock.

Hamlet

There's traces of large amounts of magic in, well, everything. Ridiculous utterly shenanigan inducing amounts. Nothing is exactly glowing with power, it's all just faded radiation from the huge magical kersplosion that nearly destroyed the entire town, but still, eek. Oh, and the soil has lots of iron in it. Yup.

M

[Recaiden]

[Field]

They're important ones! But I suppose it is all about perception. Except that it isn't, not totally.

Hesitation. Hesitation. Nod. Definitely some understanding of it.

[The Bushranger]

[Field]

"Well...alright, then." Brendan looks in the direction of the mansion. "I'll be checking that place out until the full moon is over, come and find me, alright?"

And in the direction of the haunted building he heads!

[Murkus]

The Brick House

"I do not want to touch it." Molodai says stubbornly, cringing away from the formerly acidic mass. She doesn't trust the monster, even with John's promises.

--------------------------------

"Uh... okay." Eos gives the tiny thing a smile, unsure what to say to that. He reaches up to stroke it gently.

Hermitage of Dalechrech

Percival sits and places his arm against his stump, waiting for the sewing to begin. "You know, ma'am, I'm not just a soldier. I can serve you in many capacities. It's not as though we're in any real danger for the moment."

Abandoned Graveyard

A creature happens to be wandering by the perimeter, ten foot tall and red-skinned, with large eyes and queer mandibles.

Bellan looks about curiously for someone to speak with, observing these defenses and musing on the purpose of such things.

[Mindfreak]

The Brick House
John sighs and the gelatinous cube inside the tube disappeared in a flurry of gold.
"I'll just make something else for them." he said with a smile.
---
Rose began to purr.
"Do you have any fish? I'm hungry...."
Eos may remember the haddock in the fridge.

[Earl of Purple]

Hermitage of Dalachrech

"Can you sew?" Elezibethele also casts a healing spell! Should it work, the power of Dalachrech will help heal Percy's wounds, but also tingle a bit. Elezibethele's quite good at sewing; the sutures are small, neat and regular.