Riverside 20: Another day, another disaster

[Recaiden]

Shame about the headdress.

But at least there's a tasty-looking bug!
That noticed his scouts right away.

The dragons flutter away from the grub, trying to watch it from a greater distance. What is it looking for?
Come to think of it, where did it come from?

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

"Skwaa Skwa!" The grub stretches up towards the dragons but can't reach, and so turns its attention downward again. After inching along a way, with the dragons following it, it arrives at an ivory wand that rolled under one of the shelves. It's clearly an object of power that was missed. The thing crawls up to the wand, opens its mouth very wide, and begins chewing on the wand's tip with its toothless maw. And a curious thing happens. The grub begins to grow. And at the same time, the magical aura around the wand begins to fade. After a few minutes, the grub, now the size of an american football, releases its meal and begins inching off elsewhere in search of something else.

[Recaiden]

Oh, now that's interesting. A magic-eating bug.
Tao heads for the ruined shop as the grub has its meal, lingering in the burnt doorway.
He's hoping that when the grub next finds something, he can swoop in and take its magic item himself.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Caterpillar

The grub continues inching along. Suddenly it changes course and moves towards a tarnished silver coin lying on the floor, gaining speed quickly. It's a lot faster than it looks. Tao will have to hurry to snatch the probably magic coin from it.

[Recaiden]

Tao starts forward when the caterpillar picks up speed, but that's silly.
He just has a dragon swoop down and snatch up the coin.

And then he steps up and tosses a sliver of magic healing apple to the caterpillar.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Caterpillar

The grub chows down on the apple's magic, grows a little larger, then starts inching towards Tao's feet. Is it being threatening? Or friendly? It's hard to tell, because it's just a grub, and has no features with which to telegraph its emotions.

[UncleWolf]

The Empress's Estate

Glahr's lack of speech doesn't seem to be noticed until the Empress addresses it, and worry surfaces on her face before subsiding somewhat with the last statement. Octavia still can't help but feel a ripple of anxiety that somehow this was her fault, that she hadn't been there to stop whatever silenced her kinswoman, or that her loss to the tribe had somehow led to it - but it sounded as if it was a much more mutual exchange than she initially assumed, some willing pact or ritual between her and the Empress.

Still, there's enough of a lingering doubt and worry that Octavia almost asks for more clarification. She doesn't however, the moment to do so seeming to pass as the Empress removes her helm. Why, the smaller woman seems to almost lose her own voice as she drinks in the face of the monarch she follows, undeniably recognizable and yet bearing so many new marks of time and tumult that bring her sympathy back to the fore alongside reverence and adoration. The woman returns Glahr's affections, snuggling back against her as she responds simply, fondly. "There is nowhere else I'd wish to be."

The Empress' Estate

"From what I've heard, there's probably a couple places." The Empress says with a wry smile before getting up from her knee and gestures for one of the doors behind her throne. She speaks a Word, Orthay, and the door opens as commanded. "Go ahead, Glahr, take her and get her situated. I will see to it that this mess is cleaned up and cared for." She promises, putting her helm back on as she looks at the mess of dead bodies. "At least we've some new arms for the armory..." She mutters, nudging the Wretch's plasma pistol with a toe while Glahr smiles and all but drags Octavia towards the door and through it.

Unless stopped, Octavia finds herself rushed to a rather regal looking door, likely The Empress' own, and Glahr takes out a key to open it. She looks quite proud that this is the room she's staying in. Despite the regal entrance, the chamber itself is rather spartan aside from the incredibly large bed. An armoire, armor rack, weapon rack, and a vanity mirror. There's a closet as well, but the open door shows that it is mostly filled with Glahr's personal clothing.

[Shadowcaller]

[The Miss J Investigation]

As it so happened it had been decided that not only Jezebel but her servants needed VIGIL communicator. C-Command would usually be the person that handed them over but Anika had volunteered and the commander had been busy elsewhere. Thus, here she was at the 'gardens'? No, Lotus gardens. She had gotten instructions on how to get here but it still had taken a while.

Riverside looked so different after the invasion that the druid barely could recognize it. Still, she eventually found her way there. Now the true investigation could begin as she could find out what Jezebel was really up to!

Anika makes her way through the Lotus Garden's with what she assumes to be Jezebel's lavish manor in mind. She hadn't actually never seen it but she assumed it looked all fancy.
All she was supposed to do was to hand over the communicators, but she wanted to stay and look around...

[Recaiden]

Tao makes a point to step quickly away from the grub.
Not because it might be threatening, but just because if the closest magic is things he's carrying, it'll hardly find anything else, will it?

[Zefir]

[Finding Rats] Ruby, Jaahlyn, Holly and Fade

Fade nods as Jaahlyn points down the path. ((Iassume it is the only other path they see?))

"Good." he says and truns to Holly. "Should anything happen use the com device. Follow us as soon as possible. Those here might be just a glimps of what can happen." he then turns off to follow Ruby. when passing through light they might see that the wounds he got slightly produce smoke, but only when light touches them.otherwise there is a nasty smell of burnt blood around him.

[Gullara]

[Tracking Rats] Archera

The baby is swooped up and continues to cry softly as she presses it against her chest.
As she moves in the direction of the gun shots she arrives to a scene just to get a quick glimpse of Flicker before she disappears into the direction of the tunnel that they came from.
Not-Irena is standing behind what appears to be the only elf in the group they were tracking.
The elf appears to be trying to get out of her grip when they both disappear as she shadow jumps them both out of sight.

The rats and the mutants have now spread all over the village looking for whoever is attacking them. The nine children remain near the gate leading out of the village however, gazing out into the darkness around them. Archera probably have enough experience with children to tell that these behave oddly in the sense that they look perfectly calm despite a gun going off not long ago.

[Tracking Rats] Archera

Archera is forced to back up when before she can get close enough to get a really good look. The child in her arms has to be the priority, and she can't put herself in a dangerous position. The crying means she needs to take extra care. So instead she has to trust the others know what they're doing. She fades back towards the direction they came from, keeping a sharp eye out. At the very least she hopes they can meet up again before presumably making some swift retreat.

Moth Park

There's a beat before Anastasia manages to think of a reply, the change of tone tripping her up slightly. "Well it's not like I'm gonna beat her if I can't survive her tutoring, yeah?"

[Moth Park]

"I'll say you were brave when I tell your story." Eliseo says with very mock solemnity.

The boy sits back onto the bench she found him on. "If we're gonna hang out here and chat, wanna sit down for a bit?" He suggests. Any other seating is a bit away, so her options are limited to the bench next to him.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Caterpillar

The grub continues inching towards Tao. It's faster than it was when it was smaller, and seems more aggressive in its pursuit of magic sources. He might have to get out of sight to get it to start searching again, because it seems very intent on snacking on his gear.

[Recaiden]

Hey, grub, you better stop before things escalate!
Tao vaults over a ruined shelf and moves pretty quickly back to the doorway, only then stopping to look back at the little bug.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Caterpillar

"SKWA!" The grub lunges after Tao, but once he clears the shelf, it turns and begins inching around the store again, searching. If Tao continues to explore the ruins, he may have to deal with it again. It's not clear how much of a threat it actually is, except that it obviously hungers for magic.

[Recaiden]

Magic or not, it's a little bug, Tao thinks. He reunites with the invisible dragons, returns the ring from his hand to its necklace holding place, and tries to pick his way to the part of the ruins that used to be the back rooms. Maybe there's something left of the cultists, or what they were working with. Some answers, if he's very lucky.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

Tao leaves the grub behind and checks out the back rooms. Everything has been wrecked, and despite the fire, it's clearly mostly deliberate. However, the wreckage has revealed something a bit more interesting in the room where the crates were. A trapdoor is now visible that was initially hidden under one of the crates, but that crate was smashed. Maybe the lower chambers of the secret cult lair will have some clue as to their business?

[Arkhosia]

Moth Park

”Heh, yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Unless you were thinking of heading somewhere else?” Anastasia takes a seat next to Eliseo as she looks at him inquisitively. She was plenty happy to chill out here, but hey, if he has anything else he wanted to do, she was just as happy there.

[Recaiden]

Aha, a trapdoor!
Oh, this is such a bad idea.
Tao goes over and opens it, getting out a big flashlight trapped to the side of his pack and shining it down ahead of him, before descending through the trapdoor if everything looks okay.

[bc56]

Tao descends. The room below is walled with stone tile and quite dark. From the piled ash and scorch marks in the chamber, it's clear that this area was also burned. Two doors hang open, one a sturdy iron door, undamaged by the flames and the other wooden, burned almost to charcoal.

[Recaiden]

They were thorough in destroying this place.
Tao checks through the wooden door first, confirming that it's all burnt up. And they opened the iron door to let the fire spread...there's probably nothing left but more ashes.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

Beyond the wooden door is what looks like an office or study. Burned hulks of bookshelves and a desk line the walls, scraps of scorched paper and leather scattered about. Perhaps some fragment of information survived in here? The cult was thorough, but were they perfect?

[Recaiden]

Tao does kinda love books.
So if there's a chance to sift through writing for information, he's taking it.
Let's see if anything kinda sturdy got overlooked in the ash... Desk drawers, maybe?

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

In the topmost drawer, Tao finds nothing. Same with the second drawer. But the third contains a battered and scorched steel strongbox, apparently left behind by the cultists. Maybe they forgot it, maybe they assumed the flames would destroy its contents, it's hard to be sure.

[Recaiden]

There we go.
Tao hauls the box up and sets it on the desk. Now to see about getting it open. This thing doesn't look to be in the best condition, he can probably smash or shoot it open if necessary.
And it might be some sort of trap, so he'll try to face it away from him before opening the lid.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ratty Tunnels] Ruby and Fade

The passage leading out of the chamber goes in one direction until it splits into two. Though if they listen closely Fade and Ruby can hear sounds of movement from the left passage.
Then a lone woman (who Earl of Purple can describe) suddenly emerges from the left tunnel in full sprint, appearing to be fleeing from someone or something.

[Finding Rats] Jaahlyn and Holly

Jaahlyn first seem to be going along with Fade and Ruby as they rush off in the direction of the 'sovereign' but then she suddenly stops and turns in the direction of Holly as she approaches one of the mutated creatures. It looks to have once have been a small black-skinned humanoid creature. Not anything Holly would be familiar with. The creatures ears might remind her of a bats while its eyes seem to carry a strange yellow glow. Possibly hinting that it has some kind of dark vision.
Then again, how much of this creature is original and how much have just been added thanks to the 'blessing' Jaahlyn mentioned is hard to tell. It might have been a human child once as far as Holly can tell.

Once she makes contact with it she can immediately sense that its related to all the rats she've encountered so far. It isn't infected by the virus she spread however or she would have been able to track it down here much faster.

"I believe she's suffering, my lady." Jaahlyn suddenly suggests as Holly is standing there. "She was once a villager of a nearby settlement until the sovereign decided take her from her home along with the rest of the villagers and bless them. Some were conscripted into their army while others were made to produce it."

[Abandoned Village] Archera

Archera can see that the rats and the mutants are all moving in the direction of the passage that they entered the village through, seemingly chasing someone judging by the angry sounds they're making.
The baby is still making soft crying sounds against her chest but it seems it can't be heard over the chaos.

At least not by the minions.

"We can hear you." Archera can suddenly hear a voice call out. The voice of a child.
One of the girls of the nine children they've been following is walking in her general direction. Seemingly following the sound of the baby's cries.
"Reveal yourself and perhaps we can discuss this? You want to save the life you hold, don't you?" The child is looking around as to determine which direction the sound is coming from and it looks like the other children are joining in.

[Tracking Rats] Amalungak and Someone

Amalungak's assailant will attempt to punch him in the back of the head with their armored gloves before pressing him up against the wall of a nearby hutt. If this succeeds they will in turn attempt to put a pair of black handcuffs on him and then just hold him in that position. Waiting.

Once it sounds like the rat kings minions have passed by they grunt. "Whose in charge of this, *******?"

[Ratty Tunnels] Flicker

As Flicker runs through the narrow tunnel with the rat minions in hot pursuit she can see what seems to be the beam of a flashlight as she is about to reach the end of it.
As she emerges she can see a woman (who Recaiden can describe) holding a gun with some form of flashlight attached to it.

The rat-minions are still about a dozen meters behind her.

[Buffet Dungeon]

Ohhh!
That sort of stuff was her sisters speciality so even if she decided not to keep them Shanti would be interested.

Thus Anika rolls need and as her only party member passes she can shove the pants into one of her magical pockets that rarely get mentioned and turns back to Magdalena. "Ah, should have figured you got better stuff. Sounds like you've done these kinds of dungeons dozens of times." She probably grinded them like crazy with all the add-ons she was seemingly using.

Loot-filters, so fancy.
Anika was way more casual.

"Alright, that sounds like a plan to me. Should we go with the bear cavalry tactic again and just charge in or be more cautious? They could have placed some kind of curse or trap on that door. Demons are clever like that. Perhaps we should blast open the door instead of break it down?"

Moth Park

"WHERE?!" A voice calls out next to Ana as a white-haired figure suddenly jumps out next to her, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

Hekta's hair is unusually clean suggesting that she have actually cleaned herself recently. Wherever by accident or intentionally is up for debate though as all parts of her aren't equally as clean.

The young demon is grinning, all her pointy teeth at full display, and her hands are raised into the air as if just about to grab Ana. Her red eyes staring right at the kumiho.

[Morty]

[Tracking Rats] Amalungak and Someone

"I... do not know," Amalungak lies through clenched teeth and pain. "I came here to investigate... was stuck here with those rats."

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

Tao bashes the lock off the strongbox. No trap emerges from it...
But there is a loud crash from the room behind him.

"SKWAAAA!"

It's the grub. Except now it's the size of a large dog. Apparently it did find other things to feed on upstairs.

[Recaiden]

That's not a good sound.
Tao whirls around, reaching to his belt-
How big must be whatever the grub is supposed to grow into?
-and pulls out his pistols. Normally his first resort would be the wand to put a danger to sleep, but after seeing it slurping up magic upstairs, that's not going to be any good.
So he just shoots at it right away, two rounds.

[bc56]

Carter's Curious Collection

Two bullets slam into the grub's side, stinking blue ichor leaking from the wounds. It lunges at Tao, scattering wreckage out of the way and trying to get its rubbery toothless mouth on him.

[Recaiden]

Oh, that's not good.
Tao ducks to the side and tries to shove the burnt desk at the monstrous grub.