Outside 50: Meeting nature halfway

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

G'nichi gives Eiko a very real expression of pain. "Well, I guess I came here for gossip. Regardless of what I said I don't really understand why multiple people would have wanted Mari dead. I guess it doesn't matter now but still..." he sighs and stares up at the ceiling.
"Tomorrow this game will be over regardless of if my questions are answered, I suppose.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

Kothar turns back from the dead end. It's clear there's a secret door there, but he doesn't know how to open it yet. So instead, he heads to the waterfall to see what is behind it.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

"Why should I care what Annie Tommy can't do?" And then there's more words, and Endurance looks confused. "What, changed people? Like the birds that the government use to spy on people? I don't know anyone who's been surgeried, though." Endurance came from a weird place. Then he turns to Tristan. "You go to a University? I thought they were all gone. Mum spoke about one, she nearly went but she found the Reverent Mother instead." And that probably explains a lot about why Endurance doesn't know about robots- his world was hit by an apocalypse when he was either very young or before he was born.

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorways]

Green recognized a few other indications that the man not be entirely in his right mind; the "birds are spies" theory in particular was listed as a sign of mental incompetence. Which meant she couldn't take orders from this man, either.

Great.

[Murkus]

The Green

"Well, properly speaking you have created the only top I own that fits me, so if you wanted to make me a whole wardrobe I would not complain! I will have to dress a bit more casually if I ever return to my studies..." Artie is barely holding in laughter. This is extremely amusing. What were her chances of running into someone with clothing-based magics?
"Oh, unless that is imposing on you? I do not wish to be a poor guest, of course. Are these your woods?" Magic folks like them don't just hang around randomly, she supposes.

[The Green]

"My husband's woods. I can't make you enough dresses to fill your closet with... but maybe you could borrow some of my old things," says Vivi.

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

"So essentially your woods." Artie says with a smile. She can't imagine the distinction matters that much.
"Well, I don't want to impose but I'm sure none of your things would be something I'm ashamed of wearing. Are you sure that's fine? I haven't given you anything in return..."

[Chaotic Bob]

[ABAJ - Day 3]

Lady Eiko rotated Ran around her, lightly placing her hands around his ears, with the additional muffling fluff of her sleeves to help.
Death talk is not for children...despite the situation they're in.
"There doesn't have to be any particular reason, in this situation. Maybe she was just the...least offensive target for them? It is horrible, but she has been gone for quite some time. The others are like to feel less of a connection to her than their neighbors."
Her, G'nichi, and this little child.

She frowns, an expression that doesn't seem to fit her usually pleasant demeanor.
"It would be preferable for the game to end immediately. This may be our Lord's will, but that makes it no more enjoyable. May today's good fortune of hostile identification continue."

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 3

"It will continue. I won't let anyone else get hurt on my watch if I can help it. It's on my- well, I haven't taken Bahamut's Oath yet. But I'll follow it anyway."
He kneels down and looks into the boy's eyes.
"Trust me, Ran. I'll end all this scary stuff tomorrow." He stands back up and gives a wave to them both.
"Thank you for your help anyway, Ma'am. You have a pleasant day."
It's not his most elegant trap but he doesn't trust himself to keep talking for very long without his face eventually giving away his mistrust. Right now he's sort of banking on humans not knowing how to read reptilian facial expressions anyway. From what he understands not having eyebrows and a different mouth shape really messes up their recognition instincts. Either way, he's done what he can.
If Eiko was right about the Demons not really knowing their own roles? Or if Tiamat was wrong and she and Nemeth aren't her targets? Well truth be told? He can't do anything then. He hates it but that's all there is to it. Clearly if he tries to bank on guessing the demon's emotional stakes he will fail. Mari died to prove that. The best he can do is wave his power around and hope it takes the bait. If not, well, someone is going to die.

[Rebonack]

[Wrecked Motorways]

Clearly Green just needs to lower her standards.

"Okay yep. You're in the same situation I was in a few years ago," Tristan says as he retrieves his bike. Thankfully it's made of pretty stern stuff and thus survived the JUSTICE CRASH! "Have you ever read a book before? About a place that someone made up? Somewhere that wasn't real?"

Boy he sure is hoping so.

That would make this WAY easier to explain.

"Imagine what it would be like if all those places were real. And lots of other places, too, that no one has imagined before. Normally there's no way anyone from those places would ever be able to meet. Since they're all different worlds, right? Now imagine there was ANOTHER place that you can just kind of fall into. A place where you really aren't in Kansas anymore."

A beat.

"Okay that's a book reference you might not get. Umm... let's see, is there anything to see from here..."

Tristan shades his eyes and begins looking out toward the horizon. Come on, he needs a visual aid! Where is that-

Ah!

"There! See that?" he says, pointing off into the far distance. Mountains obscured by the blue haze of distance on a clear day. But... one looks odd. Our heroes should only be able to make out the top from this angle. Very, very wide and very very flat. "Mount Improbable. It's upside-down."

A beat. Tristan tilts his head to the side a bit.

"It really isn't as impressive when it's behind all the other mountains, is it? As far as explanations go this one is feeling pretty bad and rambly," he sighs, glancing back at the two newcomers with an apologetic look. "Sorry. I haven't ever really done the welcome wagon thing before. Uuh..."

Next he pulls out his phone!

Pokes at the screen a few times, then frowns.

"No signal. Of COURSE not that would be too easy."


[Thermal Lake]

To the waterfall!

Now then.

THIS one is way, way more obvious.

Behind the waterfall is an alcove with a large brass lever sticking out of it.

No points for guessing what happens if it is pulled.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

Kothar pulls the lever. What else is he supposed to do?
Hopefully it either raises the water or opens a door somewhere around here.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

Poor Endurance, dismissed as being mentally incompetent because he was raised by a doomsday cult with better timing than most.

"I read an old travel guide about a place called... I think it was Franke? Had a city in it called Marsy-illy, which I thought was a funny name. Does that count? No way of gettin' there now, or so I thought at the time. I thought this was Wyoming. 'Cept all the cars are on the wrong side to usual." It's not a 'wrecked freeway', after all. "I... think I see? I try to avoid mountains. They're cold, and hard to get through, and it's too easy to get trapped." Endurance doesn't see the big deal with it, because he's not had many lessons in geography. He doesn't really see how it's unusual, not from this distance anyway.

He's a bit surprised at the sight of the phone; he's never seen a working one before.

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorway]

Green seems a bit surprised at the phone, too. It was an antique by her standards; handheld phones went out of style a few hundred years before her blueprints were drafted. Still, it wasn't unheard of for certain eccentric collectors to rig them for private use, and it certainly wasn't the strangest thing she'd seen Tristan do.

"We should return to civilization." She says bluntly. "This area is potentially hazardous to you both." She keeps her compulsion to find a human master- a sane human master- to herself. Neither of them would find that to be a particularly convincing argument, she was sure.

[Rebonack]

[Thermal Lake]

Lever pulled!

Kothar will be able to hear some clanking noises, though they sound distant. That dead end has, in fact, opened up! However it'll be difficult to see it from the waterfall.

What CAN be seen, however, is a trio of fishmen with tridents who are milling around in the shallows!

They definitely weren't there before.

And they...

Might not be hostile?

Sure, this is a dungeon and everything but that doesn't mean that EVERYTHING in the dungeon is going to want to fight Kothar.

Maybe he should go say hello?


[Wrecked Motorway]

"Wait, Wyoming?" Tristan says, glancing around again. Had he somehow managed to miss some important details? Or had Outside shifted on him? Because both of those things are arguably possible. Nope. This is still the motorway and it is still congested with ruined cars. If there's one thing Wyoming shouldn't be ever it's congested. Tristan decides that he'll just walk his bike while heading back toward the City. Otherwise he would leave Green and Endurance behind pretty fast.

Or.

Well, maybe just Endurance.

Green is a robot so maybe she can run with ROBOT SPEED.

"Okay, so. Endurance? You're not in Wyoming anymore, either. There's a pretty big city over this way and it hasn't got any zombies running around everywhere."

At least it didn't when Tristan left this morning for his bike ride.

Hopefully that's still true.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

Kothar descends back down and heads for the newly opened door. He will ignore the fishmen unless they try to attack him or communicate. He's just here for the amulet key.

[Murkus]

The Green

"So essentially your woods." Artie says with a smile. She can't imagine the distinction matters that much.
"Well, I don't want to impose but I'm sure none of your things would be something I'm ashamed of wearing. Are you sure that's fine? I haven't given you anything in return..."

[The Green]

"No, no. I don't like the idea of owning things like a wood. A place like this should be for everyone..." says the older woman, clasping her hands before her. "And I suppose you can start by telling me... well... what happened?" She laughs. "You talk like all of this was a recent change. What did it?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

Artie puts a finger to her chin as if searching for a way to explain all of this.
"Well I haven't really been able to look into it yet. I can tell you that I think I got a bit drunk and was talking to some very powerful being I happened to be acquainted with, and when I awoke I was in possession of a few masks which vanished and then I inherited the Role of my predecessor and bam, I became the very magic snake-lady who now-" She looks down at her scaly coils, searching for a word.
"Hm. Am I standing before you or sitting before you? Coils before you, I suppose. Changing words for not having legs seems to be harder than adapting to not having them, it seems."

[Terumitsu]

[Dimensional Troubles]

As she scans the machines some of them that aren't too preoccupied pause and turn in her direction and in a way returns her gaze. She can't detect the kind of electronic signals associated with advanced machinery but in this context that's expected. Instead they are powered by what one might call conceptual means.

A spirit, or perhaps spirits, inhabiting and animating these constructs.

"Truly?" Jaccal sounds impressed. "Then perhaps you would know something about the subject of interdimensional crossing? Since we could use some help." They gesture at the machines behind them. "Since as you might have been able to tell, we've been sabotaged and we're now trying to fix the problem. We're more than willing to share our designs and findings in exchange."

"Sabotaged? By whom?" Ambrosia inquires, seemingly not needing any introduction.

"A military squad of humans as far as we could tell. Somehow reached this facility undetected and made a hole to get inside and steal precious equipment. Nothing that can't get replaced but it's still a significant setback." Jaccal then turns to Riss once more. "But you wouldn't belong to one of the nexus powerful organizations would you, Clarissa Heln Gelter?"

As Jaccal's attention is back at Riss, Ambrosia have turned to Thariza. Giving her a somewhat concerned look that says more than any words could. Was she alright?

[Dimensional Troubles]

That was quite an enticing trade offer there. "Transdi- Ahem. Yes, I am familiar with the subject though most applications I have employed are, ah, in microscale. Still, there are multiple engines for this sort of action and I cannot guarantee at this moment that my methods are congruent with your system without more information. Not to say I will not try, of course." she said, the 'upper' pair of arms unclasping from the rest stance to gently steeple in front of her. It was easy to see that both her attention and interest had been garnered. She pondered asking if perhaps Thariza might be more learned in this particular application of bending space and time but held back due to a mix of avoiding an interruption as per the unwritten rules of conversational compact and, well, her own issues with being 'socially clumsy.'

"To answer the other question: I am not officially allied with any of the notable organizations beyond my own given the scopes of our aims being irrelevant to each other. However, depending on the need behind that question, it may be unnecessary to make contact." she added, polished metal fingertips glittering as they tapped against each other.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

"You're twenty years too late for that, miss. Those things ate it all." He gestures at the pile of ash that was previously zombies, and... I don't think he's started righting his cart yet. So he'll get to work on reloading that, whilst I struggle to remember why he wanted all that deodorant.

"Yeah, Wyoming. Unless I've crossed the state boundary, anyway." He might not know if the sign's fallen over. "Weren't many zombies in Riverton, when I visited it. Bunch of people in the city hall, I think, but they'd strung bodies from the metal, uh, poles by the side of the road. The ones that bend at the top. So I didn't go there." Lamp posts or traffic lights, either way Endurance has never seen one working.

[Purple Eagle]

Blackheart Woods

"You said it yourself, they were studying death here. To them, it wasn't just a superstition." Natalie proffers the pen to Karasu so she can have a closer look; the staining is all in the well. "The ink was blood, I think. That's... that's diabolism, I don't know much about that. Enough to know it's dangerous, more dangerous than any other branch of magic, especially to the inexperienced beginner. And... and I say that as someone whose mother was an experienced elementalist until she blew up." Natalie knows all magic can be dangerous. Teleporting herself could lead to her not reappearing at the other end, if she loses concentration on the way- it's why she's never teleported herself.

And the first door they found had a lock and a key in it; they could try the key in that, when they leave. But they've already unlocked that door. Might be worth checking anyway, in case the key is magic.

[Blackheart Woods]

"Yeah... guess so." Karasu nods, agreeing with her partner. She takes the pen and studies it real closely, making sure to take a picture with her OmniBeads. "Blood as ink, and human no doubt..." She frowns as she considers what Natalie's saying. "What's the deal about that magic? What does it do, write a name and someone dies?"

"Key could be for something coming up later, wouldn't have gotten here without opening the lock we saw... should try anyway, key could be magic." She suggests, stashing the key in her inventory. "Any of these useful to us?"

[Earl of Purple]

Blackheart Woods

"No. You summon a demon, ask it for a boon. The demon will want something in exchange for the boon, and you need to negotiate with it. If you word things poorly, you could lose your life, your soul, or release it onto the world. Then you seal the agreement with your blood. If it works, you could get something powerful- project hellfire from your fingertips, or you stop ageing, or whatever. But you have to do what the demon wants, or else the deal's broken, you lose the boon and it takes a price from you. Life, soul, etc. Diabolism is the one type of magic Dad didn't tolerate in the university. Every thing else, Dad could point you at someone to teach you." Even necromancy, though that'd probably be Benedict Beaulieu, who actually has dabbled in diabolism.

"Not the knife, I don't want to touch that whilst it's in that chalk circle. Rest of it... Yeah, I think so. Maybe leave the leg here for when we leave, so we're not lugging it around everywhere, or the egg. Breaking that might be bad." So that would be the skull carved with symbols of mortality, the three tallow candles, and the silver salt-shaker. Plus, of course, the tortured brass key, possibly the bloody pen, the coins (which are no longer legal tender, so one pound, three shillings and thruppence ha'pny may be equivalent to £1.38p, but don't add up to that) and the research on death energy.

[Ironsmith]

Wrecked Motorway

"You're twenty years too late for that, miss. Those things ate it all." He gestures at the pile of ash that was previously zombies, and... I don't think he's started righting his cart yet. So he'll get to work on reloading that, whilst I struggle to remember why he wanted all that deodorant.

"Yeah, Wyoming. Unless I've crossed the state boundary, anyway." He might not know if the sign's fallen over. "Weren't many zombies in Riverton, when I visited it. Bunch of people in the city hall, I think, but they'd strung bodies from the metal, uh, poles by the side of the road. The ones that bend at the top. So I didn't go there." Lamp posts or traffic lights, either way Endurance has never seen one working.

Wrecked Motorway

"Correction. My memory banks indicate I was in a perfectly functional city just three days ago." Green replies. "New Berlin, in the People's Republic of Almania." She blinks. "Unfortunately, the intervening memories between now and then are corrupted. And I can not seem to get a GPS signal, so I do not know for sure where we are or what direction it is in. But there are cities around, I can assure you."

[Rebonack]

[Wrecked Motorway]

"There's still plenty of civilization left," Tristan insists, starting off down the road while wheeling his bike next to him. "Like I said before pretty poorly you aren't where you used to be. We've had a few attempts at ruining things like your plant zombies, but we've managed to fend them all off so far."

The last one was the Buttercupocolypse which was kind of a zombie attack?

Sooooort of?

But not really.

"We working infrastructure and beds and houses and everything. We can even get you some new clothes."

New clothing would probably be a good thing.

Endurance's outfit is in rough shape.

Then to Green?

"Hey, you're a robot, right?"

May as well just ask.


[Thermal Lake]

Striding confidently like you belong there is a pretty good way to give monsters pause.

Usually.

"Glub!" one of the fishmen gurgles at Kothar. "Glub glub!"

The other points its spear at him. Are they afraid or aggressive? Maybe both?

Neither are rushing him yet, just being threatening.

[bc56]

Thermal Lake

No need to fight yet. The fishmen aren't attacking. Kothar turns on them, and snarls, a low, vicious sound, that seems to say, "leave me alone." He can be very frightening when he wants to. He'll try to walk past the fishmen into the passage they emerged from.

[Ironsmith]

[Wrecked Motorway]

Green stares at Tristan for a moment before dropping her cloak, showing the plastic endoskeleton underneath. There's a moment of silence wherein she tries (and most likely fails) to ping him before realizing he doesn't have a built-in radio. In that event, she repeats her message verbally.

"GALATALOS version 12.4.0
Serial number #GT-74136-042797

Battery at 62% (52 days, 6 hours remaining)

This unit has the following modules installed:
>Gardening Basics (Applesoft Inc)
>Housekeeping Basics (Applesoft Inc)
>VENUS Personal Companion patch 1.3 (Caretech Labs)
>Ncrypt WORM scrambler (Unknown publisher)

Copyright Applesoft Incorporated. All rights reserved."


As soon as her recitation is done, the cloak comes back up and she sits patiently, as though nothing bizarre had happened. Hopefully, that answered Tristan's question.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrecked Motorway

"Never heard of the People's Republic of Almania. Or any city called New Berlin." Endurance, having finished loading up his shopping cart, follows, pushing it in front of him over the rough surface of the unmaintained road. "In for what?" Infrastructure, like many words of a somewhat technical bent, has missed Endurance's rather basic education. He doesn't comment on new clothes, though. He could do with some repairs or replacements.

He jumps as Green drops her cloak and he sees her plastic shell for the first time, and she starts saying many words he doesn't understand. "Uh, you said you was a gardener? Useful skill to have, that. I don't much have the patience, more of a scout." Not that he's actually scouting right now; he's between settlements.

[Murkus]

The Green

Artie puts a finger to her chin as if searching for a way to explain all of this.
"Well I haven't really been able to look into it yet. I can tell you that I think I got a bit drunk and was talking to some very powerful being I happened to be acquainted with, and when I awoke I was in possession of a few masks which vanished and then I inherited the Role of my predecessor and bam, I became the very magic snake-lady who now-" She looks down at her scaly coils, searching for a word.
"Hm. Am I standing before you or sitting before you? Coils before you, I suppose. Changing words for not having legs seems to be harder than adapting to not having them, it seems."

[The Green]

Viviana laughs. She seems to do that often. "And who was your predecessor? What is it you do now, exactly?" She half turns and waves Artie along. Maybe to take her to more clothes!

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

"My predecessor was some sort of chemistry expert. It's difficult to say. I was a medical student in the city. I don't know what I'll do now that I have all this power. I certainly have enough time that I could finish my degree so I can say that I have it." Artie slithers along in the direction Vivi points her. Vivi might notice how despite the surroundings dirt and detritus seem to refuse to stick to Artie's scales as they travel along the ground.

[Morty]

[Wastelands]

There are four goblins waiting here, hidden in the withered vegetation. None of them look very comfortable in this environment. One of them is a large (for a goblin) woman with two large, holstered handguns. The other is smaller and thinner, but loaded for bear - she's carrying a heavy backpack, a number of smaller bags and pouches and a heavy shotgun. Next to her is a similarly slim man in a coat, holding an elaborate metal staff that he seems to have adorned with twigs so it doesn't stand out as much. Then there is a tall and broad-shouldered goblin with close-cropped hair, hefting a shield and a heavy hammer. They all seem to be waiting for someone.

[Ironsmith]

[Wastelands]

They don't have to wait long. Soon, they can hear heavy, rhythmic footfalls, as well as low, measured droning in the air. Shortly after, they'd be able to see the first members of the procession emerge from the dark; beastly folk in tarnished silver armor, marching in lockstep. At the head of the group is a bull-headed man, carrying a staff with a heavy weight on one hend, which he thumps against the ground every few paces. He looks to be a little over twelve feet tall; large, even considering his species.

As the caravan approaches, more of the members can be seen. There must be around a dozen warriors with them, aligned in an ovular pattern around a small crowd of hunched, cloaked figures, which wander around semi-aimlessly in the area between the soldiers.

Bringing up the rear, the goblins will see a winged woman, about eight feet tall, and who seems to have a certain radiance about her, lighting up the vicinity of the caravan. Unlike the others, she's dressed in regalia, with not a scrap of armor on her. She also appears to be unarmed, unlike her escorts.

They entire parade is still a fair distance away; there will be time to take up positions before the goblins risk being seen.

[Rebonack]

[Wrecked Motorway]

Yep.

That's a robot. And Tristan definitely isn't. Which is why he doesn't have some kind of neural implant radio. Can you imagine getting constant spam calls about your flying car's warranty inside your head? Truly the darkest future.

At least the robot has been de-wormed.

I was so totally right.
Sweet we've got a robot pal.
She seems nice?

"I can't say that I've heard of those places, either. You must be a long way from home, too, miss Galatalos," Tristan says as he continues his trek toward civilization. "Infrastructure is things like roads and electric lights and running water. All the things you need to keep civilization humming. Have you ever been to a settlement that has a generator? Maybe some working solar panels?"

Tristan figures that if working electricity is a thing where Endurance came from it would be some form of decentralized power.


[Thermal Lake]

The fishmen don't appear to be buying it.

Maybe they don't find lizards scary.

Maybe Kothar unintentionally did something that made his threat less threatening.

Maybe they're just really, really dumb.

Whatever the reason, they both go rushing toward our hero to try stabbing him with spears, their webbed feet slapping against the damp floor like unusually intimidating ducks.