Outside 50: Meeting nature halfway

[Earl of Purple]

Wasteland Camp

"Aye, I be truly grateful f' this. Been a while since I be needin' more'n a polish 'round th' edges." Also a bit of a careening, though the word isn't entirely accurate here- it didn't take place on a beach, he sat on a wooden stump. Bit more than a polish was required; he was covered in barnacles and sea weed.

Steelbite Canyon

Whoever or whatever is inside the drystone shack, it's not in there willingly. There's a bolt on the door, which is stopping them from getting out. The door's old, and there's a few gaps in it. Peering through the gaps reveal that there's a crystal at the far side, on a windowsill. It casts its sickly purple light out the back, where the world looks... a little wrong. There's a cliff back there, and the rocks meet in unusual ways. Also in the bothy are four dead people, more glowing crystals in their bodies. Three are standing; one, with a facetted crystal emerging from its shoulders instead of its head, bumped into the door. Another is lying face down, the crystallisation replacing the zombie's legs. One of the others has a facetted shape emerging from its chest, and the last was obese in life and the entropic shape is in its lower abdomen, a hole carved most of the way around it.

Castlemania Shadwick

Of course the dolphin doesn't know what a horologist does- none of them have watches. (Though Shadwick's digital model is possibly not the sort most horologists are familiar with.)

This is tricky, the out of reach crank and the water jets. Intercepting one with the briefcase is out of the question; he can't let go of it, but that doesn't mean the force can't break his wrist if he tried it. And that would be painful. Shadwick spots the loose stones, and will see if it's possible to get one free, and make a ramp or something to stand on to reach the crank. He'll use the extendable baton in his pocket as leverage if necessary, but it's not reinforced- just hollow steel, no magic or other toughening method used.

[Ionbound]

[Jade and Gwen]

Gwen is as perceptive as a perpetually-exhausted college student frustrated about a stupid castle delaying her plans. So...Not very. She just glances at Jade, then nods and sighs, "Right. I don't know if this staircase's gimmick is ghosts or what but I guess we just need to watch our steps. Typical, really." She sighs, and continues to ascent, though much more slowly, putting both feet on a step before moving on to the next.

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler: ABAJ Day 4 Last Few Posts

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[ABAJ - Day 4]

Jeb doesn't immediately grasp whatever significance G'nichi is implying here.
"I would guess he's probably still at the temple with Kawa, unless they left. They didn't come with us."

He does frown at a different part though.
"What do you mean Lady Eiko was cheating?"

ABAJ - Day 4

"You remember I said my weapons have their own power? Yesterday's went nuts when I was alone with Ran and Eiko. One of them was some sort of monster and was influencing the Demons. I figured it had to be one of them. But Eiko is dead and the fog is still out there. So Ran must be the last Demon, and Eiko was the imposter. But they were still clearly working together. I just hope Eiko didn't leave a contingency for Ran to enact in her absence." She had said good luck.
"I should check the temple. If nothing else Kawa needs to know that there's poison in the air." He needs to wait for Shar to return before he checks out the cliff anyway.
He sure hopes that if something happened to Shar he would know.

[ABAJ - Day 4]

Jeb frowns rather deeply at the latest information G'nichi has supplied, but does not question it at the moment. Out loud, at least.
Instead he interrupts Atsushi and Fudo's latest argument and instead begins directing them to take the kids out and back towards the dormitory to prepare for nightfall. If the game is still on, then no sense in unnecessarily testing that particular rule.

Meanwhile, G'nichi heads off towards the temple!

Wherein Kawa is fretting over an also unconscious Ran. Unlike the other two youngsters, he doesn't seem pale. Just...out cold.

ABAJ - Day 4

G'nichi notices the unconscious boy immediately.
"Kawa, did something happen? There's some sort of poison that nearly killed Yuu and Hana. Did- ah. He doesn't look like the others. Was he outside?"
He isn't going to say anything, but this is all very suspicious.

"I, I don't know! One moment he was shouting for poor Lady Eiko, the next he started screaming and then...this! I don't understand..."
Kawa is holding a hand over Ran's face, feeling for breath, the presence of which seems to only be slightly comforting her.
"He's been in here the whole time, how could he be poisoned?"

There's a slight pause as a train of thought cranks its way through her panic and twists it further.
"Hana and Yuu are poisoned?"

[bc56]

Jade and Gwen
"Hopefully it's just the stairs. Let's keep going." Jade climbs up the stairs further, one paw at a time. Since she's ahead of Gwen now, she should be the one to trigger any traps, assuming the weight of a fox is enough to trigger them.

[Deathkeeper]

ABAJ - Day 4

"Some sort of pink fog has rolled in. The kids it touched were knocked out immediately. If Ran didn't touch it then something else is at play. It's possible Eiko put some sort of fail-safe on him. Or maybe there's just a lot of magic going around." G'nichi tries to examine Ran but doesn't expect to find anything without any of his more knowledgeable weapons to advise him.

The Green

Artie is surprised, but only flinches in surprise a little.
"Oh, hello there. Are you the lady of this residence?" asks she. But of course, children around must mean that the tailor must have a partner of some kind. But Artie wouldn't have guessed one like this.

Khannie and Koshal

"Get cover!" shouts Koshal. Faye grabs his hand in her teeth and whips them ahead to one of the alcoves.
Darn it. This room is a deathtrap. Koshal desperately looks around for something they're missing. Buttons? Levers? Runes? There has to be something to get a door to open up. Otherwise all he can think of is knocking over all the statues.

[Murkus]

[The Green]

"Nooo," intones the soft looking green creature.

"Not in the way you mean, she means," says Savarins as fabric flies and his hands whirl, dip and slide. All without looking up. "Marna is just my friend. And my keeper. The place would be a wreck, Gods love her."

"Teaaa?" asks Marna, lifting a tray of it with two of her short arms.

[Fenric]

No, this outpost isn't meant to protect anything from space, so normal cannons have done for them so far. It's solar power and magical heat engines to keep things running, and there aren't even mutalisks here, much less ultralisks - why, those haven't been seen in the Nexus in...well, a very long time, surely.

The gate rolls open; they were expecting this fox, after all, and the white fox can head right into the yard.

"Hey Messenger." says the elf watching the gate (Tak-4, as it happens).

In the yard of the outpost they're building up things to bring to Braeg's world: wood and stone and concrete, tools and fasteners, food, crystals, some weapons, mystical and scientific tools for investigating the state of the world, a couple small flying machines, etc. Things are teleported here, into that round building, and then brought out on little floating pallets.

The white fox pads inside

Our blessings be upon you. The avatar is moving into position now, it will be only a short time now.

[5a Violista]

[Castlemania]
Seraphina and Siana

Seraphina goes down the hallway.

She looks at the three pathways.
"Yeah, I've already had enough of carnivorous plants this week," she says, immediately throwing the plant-stairs out as an option.

"Will you need help getting up the ladder?" she asks.
If she doesn't, then Seraphina starts climbing the wet ladder.

[Shadowcaller]

"Ah, delightful."
Jaccalish is several demons. What a sensible thing to be.

"You think so? Until today, you were the common enemy we had with so many others."
"Go on, tell of the established order. Their goals, your conflicts with them."

[Temple Site]

"We are aware of this. A direct result of a hyperaggressive militaristic philosophy that's been plaguing our people for eons." Then they pause as the angels put fourth their second question.
"Let us discuss this elsewhere. We're almost at a more appropriate location."

They turn and continue forward, soon rounding a corner.

If the two follow they will see a lone door in the corridor ahead. It looks out of place as they haven't seen any doors since entering this temple and this one doesn't seem to hold any special significance either. It's large of course but everything inside this place is and while made of stone it doesn't carry any ornaments. Nor are there any around it, the wall its attached to being identical to every other wall they've seen in here so far. In fact, the door cuts right through one of the carved eyes as if it had just appeared on the wall out of nowhere.

With a low rumble the door slides to the side, revealing a (relatively) small well-furbished room. In sharp contrast to the alien nakedness of the rest of the temple this seems to have been designed with comfort in mind. There are armchairs, a colorful rug, a couch and even what appears to be some kind of strange bean bags placed around the room. Jaccalish heads inside and should they follow they will see that the walls of the room are also covered in carvings. These are not of eyes or maws however but are even more abstract in design. Patterns and symbols that don't even seem to resemble letters, making it unlikely its scripture.

Jaccalish doesn't take a seat but they gesture them them to. The bean bags should probably be able to hold them comfortably. "Please, do take a seat. I am going to use visual aid to answer your question. Are you comfortable with this?"
The door remains open behind them as if it too was waiting for an answer.

[Deathkeeper]

The Green

"Ah, my mistake." says Artie, bobbing her head.
She self-consciously starts curling herself up to mitigate the amount of space she's taking up.
She also reaches out and takes one of the offered cups. "I'd love some." she adds, tasting it.

[Rebonack]

[Castlemania]
[Jade and Gwen]

The walk up the remaining stairs is uneventful (thankfully) and soon our heroes step out into a broad chamber packed to the gills with glittering treasures.

Gold, silver, spices, urns full of wheat and barley, scrolls, books, and even a full-sized, extravagantly decorated river barge. Broad pillars surround the chamber inlaid with colorful blue stone tiles. And at the center of the chamber?

Another sarcophagus.

This one, however, is big.

Really big.

Like twice the size of a normal human sort of big.

Though none of the other things in the room are giant-sized, which is kind of odd. There don't appear to be any other ways out of the room. Yet.


[Khannie and Koshal]

Khannie gives a shrill cry of surprise when the wax begins pouring from on high, shadows congealing into a wire-frame hemisphere of deep purple and black above her to catch the worst of the rain. She sprints after Koshal, taking cover near the alcoves. From high above comes a shuffling sound along with a muffled muttering. One can't make out the words, but it sounds vaguely like prayers.

"I bet there's a monster up there," Khannie says, flicking her shadow-umbrella to get all the wax off.


[Shadwick]

Wiggling the stones is difficult with one hand, but if he gets his fingers wedged in there he can get enough leverage on them to pull them out.

They feel...

Light.

Given that the stones are easily a meter cubed they should weigh more than the gentlemen does, but in spite of that they move as if they were hardly anything. The first will slide all the way out of the wall while the second only moves out about half way. However, that forms a crude set of stairs easily high enough to reach the crank.

There are other problems, however.

Because of course there are.

When the stones are pulled loose there's a sound of shouting and splashing from down the hall. Apparently this somehow offended the dolphins? He had best move quickly.


[Seraphina and Siana]

And thus the very wet ladder is chosen!

It is rather slippery, which is bothersome.

Also those barnacles are pretty sharp, best to avoid cutting one's hands on them.

Anywho!

Seraphina begins to ascend!

About four rungs up a fish skeleton comes flopping down out of the darkness, threatening to slap Seraphina right across the face.

[Earl of Purple]

Castlevania Shadwick

Well, he really shouldn't have been strong enough to do that, but it's been done. So don't worry about it. There's going to be a lot of things Shadwick will try not to worry about, with his more important worry of getting this briefcase to Riverside motivating him to get out of here.

He builds the staircase and clambers up it, to clamp his one usable hand on the crank and start to twist. He'll twist it both ways, and then go the easier way because he's assuming it's already on as far as it can be.

Apocalypse Junction- Blighted Battleground

A vast strip of land marred by war, though war does not seem to be fought here at the moment. There's two networks of trenches staring at each other across a desolate waste of craters, barbed wire, and ruins- stone cottages shelled into heaps of rubble, ironclad war machines gutted by fire and explosions, and collapsed trenches and foxholes. The fighting has departed from the area long enough for plants to return, judging by the thick mass of red vegetation that clings to the ground, disguising the worst signs of war.

Striding across this blasted hellscape is a group of machines, four in total. They walk in a triangular formation, with one in the middle. The machines on the outside are tall, eleven metres high with three long legs and a rounded silver cab in which squats the pilot. The fourth, central vehicle shares its taller cousin's tripodal gait, but is much squatter, scarcely five metres high, with a larger cab equipped with a pair of grasping claws at the front and a large mesh cage rests on the vehicle's back. Each vehicle has a large mass of flesh serving as pilot, with luminous green eyes and quivering, lipless mouths, clusters of tentacles emerging from their sides to manipulate the controls of their chosen vessels. In the back of the cage on the central machine are three humanoid figures, rather forlorn and unable to get out.

Roaring over the horizon come five aeroplanes. They aren't especially fast, and an unusual design; they're biplanes, with large propellers mounted behind the cockpit, and with a light machinegun fired from the nose. They open fire as they approach, and one of the fighting-machines is peppered with bullets and collapses. The bullets soon spark off protective shields raised by the surviving machines, and invisible rays of heat flare out from the funnels wielded with vicious glee by the vengeful pilots. Two of the biplanes ignite, the bullets cooking off and their fabric wings bursting into flame before ploughing into the ground. The remaining three turn about, ready for another attack run.

[Gullara]

The Hegemony Flagship

"I can spare one if it'll get you out of my hai-" the MagClone in the naval officer's uniform sighs, wishing he'd chosen his words a little more carefully, and does his best to bottle up the urge to smash his fist into the face of any snickering grots scurrying around underfoot.

"If it'll get rid of you and your loathsome infestation, sure," he concedes, trying to keep any hint of his devious plot to have Magtork melt upon re-entry off his face. It might be too alien to recognize human facial expressions, but we can't take that kind of risk. That ugly creature might appear stupid, but behind all the casual brutality, it's been unexpectedly cunning so far. He leads the way to the hangar where the shuttle awaits, which is suspiciously similar to...no, it's literally just a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle from Star Wars that someone painted purple. Wow, how exceptionally original of you, Magtok.

"You capable of handling the rest on your own, or do you need me to teach you how to fly too?" he snarls, hoping the last-second adjustments to the nav-computer and complete removal of the landing gear will go unnoticed until it's too late. It only took a few minutes for them to walk here, which wasn't anywhere near as much time as the engineers would've preferred to carry out their sabotage discreetly, so there's a chance Magtork might notice something is off, but it's a slim one. I mean, he's probably never even seen a shuttle like this before, so we'll be fine, surely.

Magtork looks at the shuttle critically, though he doesn't seem suspicious. After a moment he rolls his shoulders in a shrug. "It'll do. Come on, ya gitz, load up!" The grots pour into the room. There's dozens of the creatures, many carrying various thing. Robes and scrap from the engine room and what appears to be the kitchen's coffee machine.

The ork looks back to the 'tok. "Dat's a fine ship you're givin' me. Sure you don't want it back?" He grins at the diminutive cyborg.

[A Hunter must Hunt]

Anika's giant eyebrows are capable of arching far more expressively and therefore she wins once she has about the same expression as Mimi when she hears this suggestion. "Are you kidding me? Everyone knows that the bigger the pet, the more useful it is. Even humans have twenty of those kows for every little dog or cat they have." She wasn't sure if Mimi knew what a kow was, she had never seen one until she found out they produced the milk humans were so fond of.

"But while kows might have size-" Or at least aren't tiny. "-they are otherwise super-lame so I can't give her that. Blanche gotta have something with fangs or claws y'know? Something fierce."

[A Hunter must Hunt]

"I dunno. People must like these kows a lot if they have so many of them. Maybe you gotta give them a chance." Mimi muses. She doesn't have the foggiest idea what a 'kow' is, but her logic is sound to her. "But I guess something big like a kow must be hard to handle, and you were having trouble with that cat, so..."

[Ironsmith]

[Castlemania]
Seraphina and Siana

Seraphina goes down the hallway.

She looks at the three pathways.
"Yeah, I've already had enough of carnivorous plants this week," she says, immediately throwing the plant-stairs out as an option.

"Will you need help getting up the ladder?" she asks.
If she doesn't, then Seraphina starts climbing the wet ladder.

[Castlemania]
[Seraphina and Siana]

And thus the very wet ladder is chosen!

It is rather slippery, which is bothersome.

Also those barnacles are pretty sharp, best to avoid cutting one's hands on them.

Anywho!

Seraphina begins to ascend!

About four rungs up a fish skeleton comes flopping down out of the darkness, threatening to slap Seraphina right across the face.

[Seraphina and Siana]

"It's fine." Siana shrugs, slipping her cane into a hoop on her belt. "I've got the upper body strength to get up there okay. And hey, I don't even have to worry about my leg!" She gestures toward the raw stump that used to be her upper thigh. "I'll just come up behind you."

When she does get on the ladder, she's going to find the barnacles mildly annoying, but grin and bear it all the same. Her cuts will heal super quickly, so it was just a little pain really, right?

[Shadowcaller]

[A Hunter must Hunt]

"I dunno. People must like these kows a lot if they have so many of them. Maybe you gotta give them a chance." Mimi muses. She doesn't have the foggiest idea what a 'kow' is, but her logic is sound to her. "But I guess something big like a kow must be hard to handle, and you were having trouble with that cat, so..."

[A Hunter must Hunt]

Anika is practically fuming at that accusation. If her foot didn't still hurt she'd kick that stupid tree again!

"I would have handled it just fine if you hadn't distracted me!" Anika insists. "I'll have you know that my dad breeds those kitties and that I've helped him out plenty of times! In fact, I'm pretty sure there isn't an animal that I can't handle. Just point me at one and I'll show you!"

[Recaiden]

[The Other Outpost]

The white fox pads inside

Our blessings be upon you. The avatar is moving into position now, it will be only a short time now.

"Thank you. Do you have any more news about the place we're going?"

And last, some minions arrive. They'll need people to assemble and operate all this, of course. Mostly humans, and of those most are Sec-series minions, but there's a couple Keps, a couple Nais, one Ri, one other Tak, and last, Marcie herself.
They do a last check to make sure everything is there, and one nods to the fox.

[Temple Site]

"We are aware of this. A direct result of a hyperaggressive militaristic philosophy that's been plaguing our people for eons." Then they pause as the angels put fourth their second question.
"Let us discuss this elsewhere. We're almost at a more appropriate location."

They turn and continue forward, soon rounding a corner.

If the two follow they will see a lone door in the corridor ahead. It looks out of place as they haven't seen any doors since entering this temple and this one doesn't seem to hold any special significance either. It's large of course but everything inside this place is and while made of stone it doesn't carry any ornaments. Nor are there any around it, the wall its attached to being identical to every other wall they've seen in here so far. In fact, the door cuts right through one of the carved eyes as if it had just appeared on the wall out of nowhere.

With a low rumble the door slides to the side, revealing a (relatively) small well-furbished room. In sharp contrast to the alien nakedness of the rest of the temple this seems to have been designed with comfort in mind. There are armchairs, a colorful rug, a couch and even what appears to be some kind of strange bean bags placed around the room. Jaccalish heads inside and should they follow they will see that the walls of the room are also covered in carvings. These are not of eyes or maws however but are even more abstract in design. Patterns and symbols that don't even seem to resemble letters, making it unlikely its scripture.

Jaccalish doesn't take a seat but they gesture them them to. The bean bags should probably be able to hold them comfortably. "Please, do take a seat. I am going to use visual aid to answer your question. Are you comfortable with this?"
The door remains open behind them as if it too was waiting for an answer.

The angels follow. They wouldn't have come all this way if they weren't willing to do what was needed to talk.
An unusual door. An unusual stone door, which Sophia thinks may be significant. Perhaps it did just appear suddenly on this wall, and isn't always present.

The hound hops up into an armchair and curls up a bit, while Nathan bends their legs and settles onto a beanbag.
They wave a tentacle at the symbol-strewn walls.
"The furnishings are dry and fibrous, and the decorations are distracting, but I believe the location is adequate."

"You were going to elaborate on how some of your enemies are enemies of all who have come in contact with Cuthun."

[Deathkeeper]

Castlemania- Khannie and Koshal

"Let's find out." Koshal rumbles as his fingers ignite into green flame again. He hurls it up towards the ceiling to see if he can get a good look at whatever is up there.

[Lord Magtok]

The Hegemony Flagship

"Dat's a fine ship you're givin' me. Sure you don't want it back?" He grins at the diminutive cyborg.

"If I ever see you try, I'm going to open fire with the entire fleet's arsenal," Admiraltok answers without so much as a moment's hesitation or a tinge of anger, stating this simple fact as if it were as obvious as the ugly nose on Magtork's misshapen green face. He silently counts down from a hundred in his head, trying to distract himself and keep his thoughts away from this cowardly trap long enough for the greenskin filth to fly off and die horribly. It might be a little difficult to explain what MagShuttle debris is doing in a massive crater in the center of Inside, or whatever other politically inconvenient location Magtork decides to obliterate with his stupid face, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The important part is getting the xenos out; the consequences are a future Magtok's problem.

[Ionbound]

[Jade and Gwen]

Gwen gasps as she and Jade emerge into the room full of treasure. Her eyes seem to gleam with the gold and silver, and she breathes in deeply to inhale the scent of spices. Glancing at Jade, then putting her hands quickly in her dress's pockets to restrain herself, she says, "So...I, uh...This is a lot of money. And I'm a very poor student. But...It's also cursed, isn't it. Can you tell?" She adds the last sentence almost sounding hopeful that Jade can tell her that it isn't.

[Rebonack]

[Marsh]

Clever solutions really aren't Kothar's forte are they?

Can the problem be solved by being eloquent (in Draconic) or by smashing things?

Then he's in good shape.

If not?

Then there are problems.

The main problem right now is that so many fire flies have been smooshed that they can't hold Kothar up anymore.

...which means that unless he manages to grab onto that tree he's going to go tumbling straight down toward the swamp water below. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem but this is one of those trees with very spiky roots that stick up out of the water. Landing on a bed of wood-spikes really isn't great.


[Bridges and Brigands]

John is having a day.

Not a bad day, as such. And not really a good day, either. Certainly an exciting day. Typically exciting days are bad days. Exciting days mean that something unexpected and often unpleasant happened. After all, John has two mains jobs. The first? To provide protection for religious pilgrims on their travels. The second? To provide medical care to the same. Or, for that matter, medical care to anyone who requires it. Most often excitement means a bone needs to be set. After all, this is something of a safe road. Or at the very least it is supposed to be a safe road.

They had fallen among brigands.

An exciting day.

But not a bad one.

There had been injuries, but the small band of robbers had been driven off. Largely in part because Those Above had apparently looked upon John's lone stand against those blood-thirsty cut-throats and saw fit to bless him. What would have been an impossible skirmish turned into a route in the span of a few breaths. It was like the Heavens shined down on him and he just... opened up. Filled to the overflowing. The meager well of Light he once wielded felt like a sea compared to what was a thimble. The Light touched everything. Everything. Even the Other buried deep in his heart. He isn't sure exactly what the outcome of all this will be, but he's thankful none the less.

For now?

For now he has a Name to rely on. A raw, fresh Name. A Name that speaks to his duty to protect and mend.

Hospitaller.

They caravan of pilgrims have taken a refuge atop a small hill where the remains of a ruined fort stands. Not much by any stretch of the imagination, but still a place to bed down where at least three walls and half a roof will offer some measure of protection from dangers of whether and bloodthirsty men alike.

"Hold still, Wallace," John says, his voice firm as he works on setting the bone of an arm broken in the attack.

"Can't you just pray it back together again?" the pilgrim grunts through grit teeth.

"I could. But it's better to mend what can be made whole with medicine first before calling on the grace of the Light. The wounds heal more cleanly. And we don't know if our friends will be returning for another visit tonight. Best to be conservative with what advantages we have."

[bc56]

Jade and Gwen
Jade shakes her head. "Sorry, not my forte. But it probably is. You've got a better vantage point, do see any clothes in here that are about my size?" Whoever owns this tomb doesn't need them anymore if that's the case. "If we're going to rob this place, I don't really need the money." Unlike Gwen, Jade isn't a poor college student.

Marsh
Kothar is good at this though. His fingernails dig into wood with gargantuan strength and grind him to a halt. Then he can start climbing again. This has been really annoying; he just wants to get the amulet back to the mountain and finish all this.

[Rebonack]

[Apocalypse Junction- Blighted Battleground]

"We've got some bad mojo going down in Apocalypse Junction," Echo Sight says, fiddling with the sensors hooked up to his large ears to better zero in on the source. "Military grade stuff. Lots of miserable people dying miserably. I'm getting a seventy three percent chance that'll result in a gloom incursion."

"Sounds good enough for me," Contrail replies, angling her wings to make a hard bank. The armatures connected to each individual feather respond in kind and everypony aboard the Epona strike aircraft can feel the sudden acceleration.

"Shields are still at eighty percent from our run-in with that dragon," Glimmer Glam reports. "We're what, four minutes out? We should be pushing eight six by the time we arrive. What are we tangling with, Echo?"

"Unknown... walker? Some kind of walking tank. If I'm hearing this right it sounds like they're using coherent heat weapons," Echo replies.

"I'll reinforce the shield's insulating properties," Glimmer replies primly before getting to work.

"Left wing still feels like it's got a bit of a hitch, how are we doing on that, Crescent Wrench?" Contrail pipes up.

"Would be doing better if you didn't pull those tight turns when you don't have to," Crescent grumbles, nose deep in the machine's guts.

"I'm locked and loaded, boys and girls," Fizzle Pop announces to the rest of the crew as she peers through the machine's targeting systems. "Looks like we've got some buddies. Fixed winged prop-driven. Why not give them a friendly wing-wave, Contrail?"

"Fizzle that squat one has got a cage full of humans on its back. Stick to tight-beam we don't want collateral damage," Echo warns.

~~~~~

Dropping down from the cloud layer comes a flying machine that absolutely dwarfs the pusher-bi planes at nearly triple their size, its skin a dark matte grey. Moving at the low sub-sonic, it makes a strafing run across the tripods, lances of bright pink light scouring from the machine's under-belly to rend gouges through the walkers and reduce everything they touch to glittery pink dust. After the first run it goes rocking past before flaring its wings a good half mile away before wheeling around for another attack.

The aircraft is a sight to behold. It has no propellers and no jet engines. What it does have are wings. Huge, perfectly articulated feathered wings. Metallic silver feathers flashing in the sun. An ornithopter. The fuselage of the craft is long, cigar shaped angular body. Somehow it's simultaneously reminiscent of a horse and a hawk in profile. Several shimmering gemstones are embedded across its surface and arcane arrays glow just under the skin of the machine. With a snap of its wings the *Epona* all-theater combat platform launches itself toward the walkers again, searing light reaching out to touch them. Thus far the aircraft is being very careful to avoid targeting the machine carrying all the captives.

As it nears the bi-plane's the aircraft rolls slightly side to side in a waggle; a near universal equivalent of waving hello between pilots out of radio contact.


[Marsh]

Climb that tree!

Before long he'll reach the crown where the amulet-

Wait.

There's no amulet up here at all!

Just a great big glowing thing on the end of a long vine that looks vaguely like one of the amulet cages from a distance! Also an other one of those awful carnivorous blooms. It immediately lashes out to try to grab the lizard man in its vines because of course it does.


[Castlemania]
Shadwick

Crank that crank!

There's a low groan from the ancient machinery as the flow of water gradually diminishes until at last the pressurized streams are reduced to mere sprays. It doesn't turn off all the way. Not even close. He'll still get drenched when he ducks through the water, but at least it isn't going to be striking him with stone-pulverizing force.

No one really wants to be experiencing stone pulverizing force.

That isn't good for anyone.

Should he push his way through the jets he'll find an interesting sight on the other side.

Another crank.

This one much closer to the ground. Twisting it would probably return the streams to full blast. There's also a metal bar that can be inserted into it to prevent it from being turned back. Considering that the sound of angry dolphins is getting closer it might be a good idea to crank the jets back on-

-or he could hurry down the hallway to avoid letting them get close in the first place.

What to do?


[Khannie and Koshal]

Our heroes look up.

Imagine, for a moment, a bunch of skeletons all amalgamated together. Now imagine they're they're all covered in soft wax as if it were highly flammable flesh. Then imagine that its covered in wicks all ablaze.

Got that?

Great.

Because the huge skeleton wax abomination just dropped off the ceiling and slammed into the middle of the central chamber.

That is definitely a boss fight. And Khannie is definitely Magical Girl Transformation-ing.


[Jade and Gwen]

Clothing Jade's size?

Well...

Judging from the size of the sarcophagus any clothing here would be WAY too big for Jade by at least a full doubling so-

Oh hey wait.

There are some smaller, less fancy boxes in here too. Probably for mummified servants judging from the tools that surround them. If Jade hunts around she SHOULD be able to find a nice linen outfit. It's pretty plain, but it is still in good condition. Somehow.

Also?

Yeah.

The treasure is probably cursed.

[Earl of Purple]

Blighted Battleground

As the Epona flies in and peppers the group of tripods with its sparkle-cannons, the squat human-catcher exults, quickly joined by the others. "UUULAAAAAA!"

One of the taller ones collapses as the sparkle-cannons puncture its shields and burn holes straight through it, and the pilot. Now there's just two left, and the squat walker is heading quickly over to the just-fallen tripod. It takes up the heat ray, and fires at the biplanes. The taller warmachine focuses its own fire on the ornithopter, projecting a beam of microwave radiation to excite the molecules of the pony-plane. Hopefully the shields can take the heat; if not, the hull may start to melt.

The biplanes waggle their own wings in greeting, before diving back in on the attack. One is struck by the salvaged heatray wielded by the human-catcher, bursting into flames and crashing- though it crashes into the last of the taller tripods, which was too distracted by the ornithopter to see it coming and collapses as the burning biplane smashes through its legs and sends the cab crashing to the ground, spilling the Martian pilot.

Castlemania Shadwick

Now he's all the way through, he's going to reinstate the full flow by turning this crank, and then blocking it. Hopefully he won't be coming back this way, to deal with such uncultured and unsophisticated dolphins. Imagine not knowing what a horologist is.

He'd just run, but there's only one way to go so making sure they aren't following him is a better use of his time than trying to run and hope there's a turn-off somewhere that could help him lose them. He's not entirely sure of this, but most undead don't get tired, and Shadwick Marbarblessen most definitely does get tired.

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie and Koshal

Koshal grins. Sounds like something he's actually supposed to fight!
Hopefully he can.
Time to test it! Koshal runs up (no need to tire Faye out) and takes a few slices at the monster with his sword. Checking to see if something this big can be sliced is always something to establish quickly.

[Rebonack]

[Blighted Battleground]

The MASER blasts the underside of the Epona, a shimmering crystal shield snapping into existence where the beam strikes. The shield is a dazzling array of highly reflective facets, causing the directed energy weapon to scatter on its surface, greatly diminishing its potency. With another tripod fallen, the crew of the ornithopter employs a different offensive technique against the last of the alien war machines. The air is filled with a shimmering sound as a series of short-lived kinetic fields flash into existence, first targeting the tripod's weapon followed by its limbs. Each field flickers for only the span of a few seconds before cavitating violently, producing tremendous crushing force. Should all go according to plan the war machine will be disarmed and immobilized in the span of a few heart-beats.

This is one of the problems with war machines that aren't built with arcane defenses.

When encountering a threat that can employ arcane array weapons the gap in offensive and defensive flexibility tends to be stark.

There's a real reason why the forces of Orcus have been having such a bad time with Team Nightmære.

The former fields swarms of undead monsters and demons. Terrifying abominations and powerful warriors.

The latter fields a professionally trained army of specialized infantry units backed up with armor, artillery, and close air support. While Team Nightmaære might be badly out-numbered tactics and technology certainly help.

[Fenric]

The messenger chuckles

Village. I'd say it looks like mid eighteenth century Earth Eurpoean construction though I'm no expert and looks to be a mishmash of English, German, and French styles with more regard to "looking cool" than being at all historically accurate. It's a mess, hardly anything more than rubble and a wall here or there. There is something distinctly strange about the survivors, but our aura seems to have dispelled whatever curse it was, at least for now.

The local god is posessive, so we need to tread lightly as far as religion goes. Otherwise he hasn't seemed to care. The monsters have not dared approach, and Lord Braeg is going to return to the Nexus so that point of contention should be remedied.

The fox pads over to an empty space near the wall. Nine tails fan out behind her, each tipped with a whisp of burning golden foxfire and one carries a blazing white sphere with a golden sheen. Immediately, Inari's power swells in the area and an unlikely item appears: a frame of large wooden beams with absolutely enormous sapphires at each corner and set into the midpoint of each.

Due to the extreme distance, this portal's physical construction had to be real and therefore permanent. It will gain no lasting enchantment from this use, but it will remain spin-entangled on all top quarks with its counterpart in Dho Cladach.

She closes her eyes and concentrates, and enough power to happily run a sci-fi planet for several years gathers around her. Plants sprout in the area and fairly well explode in exuberant growth from the leakage, and if anyone had any persistent health issues those should vanish completely.

Blazing purple light flares from the sapphires, and arcs of energy flit around. Depending on Atorre's senses, they may or may not see the eye-watering form of Inari's tesseract forming in the center: a seven-dimensional construct to map the coordinates between here and the nexus. Swirling and impossible, it soon reaches a steady state and the fox opens her eyes and her nine tails wag.

Without any further warning, the power and light flare like the heart of a star and then are gone. In the center of the frame can now be seen the ruined village, with Inari standing placidly in front of the frame.

[Earl of Purple]

Blighted Battleground

The pilot fallen from the other tripod, the one that had a blazing wreck of a biplane take out its legs, drags itself- and its claimed heat-ray- over towards the trenches. It's bulky and slow, even moving as fast as it can, dragging its bulk along with the tentacles growing from each side of its bulk.

The squat machine is also quickly disarmed, the forcefields severing a leg and sending the vehicle tumbling over as there's a splurt of thick red blood- the vessel's gripping-claws lack the dexterity to fire the weapon, so the pilot had transferred it to its own tentacles. It shrieks as it also slips from the cab and tries to crawl away.

The vehicles dealt with, the remaining biplane turns and takes off, heading elsewhere- possibly an airfield to be refuelled. The gunner in the front nacelle before the pilot waves at the pony aircraft before they go, but the terrain here is too lumpy and uneven to make a good airfield. They could maybe land safely, but never take off from here- and there's a risk there's some unexploded ordnance lying around, a dud shell that is awaiting the tiniest bit of pressure before exploding.

[Rebonack]

[Blighted Battleground]

It's rough scooting around as a Martian when you're use to noticeably lower gravity.

The ornithopter swoops low over the battlefield, loosing another volley of sparkle bolts at the fleeing Martians. The aliens are still armed and dangerous, which will make it rough escorting the caged humans to safety. Speaking of, that's really not something that the Epona is well equipped to do. It does, however, have other options.

Namely?

A compartment on the underside of the craft opens up before disgorging a finned spike that drops straight into the earth. It doesn't explode, though. Instead it blooms like a flower into a wide, slightly concave platform covered in an intricate spell matrix. The device hums for a good minute or two before a series of bright flashes and WHUMP!s of displaced air herald the arrival of five more equestrians. All five are dressed in the full-body combat gear of Team Nightmaære, black body suits with white armor plates fashioned from the bones of long-dead Titans. The thestral, pegasus, and unicorn outfits are all relatively light weights, quite unlike the heavier powered armor of the kirin and arion ponies. The former has several faceted projections on the back for augmenting shield projection while the latter looks more like a tank with legs considering the massive back-mounted cannon.

The two fliers immediately take to the air for overwatch while the unicorn trots up and pulls the cage open with telekinesis.

"Is anyone injured?" the unicorn asks, his tone prim and professional.

[Ionbound]

[Jade and Gwen]

Gwen hmms and looks around, saying, "There's some smaller coffins; They might have clothes your size in them. If you're lucky." She thinks, biting her tongue to resist the urge to give into the impulse of sticky fingers (at least, not right away) and instead examines the giant sarcophagus in the middle of the room for clues on how to proceed.

[Earl of Purple]

Blighted Battleground

The fleeing Martians aren't able to find cover quickly enough, and quickly stop moving as holes are drilled through their bodies and part of their bodies turn to sparkling dust.

Inside the cage, the three humans stand up and get out now it's been opened. They're a dirty young lass, about nineteen, wearing a tattered pink dressing-gown over khaki trousers, heavy boots and a green tank top, with an empty holster at her waist. She's got green eyes, red hair and freckled skin beneath the dirt, and looks a bit astonished at the ponies. A slightly older woman in her twenties, with brown hair, dark skin and hazel eyes, wearing a long, tasselled grey coat and loose trousers. Finally, a middle-aged man with ochre-brown skin, greying dark hair and yellow eyes; he wears a black leather kilt and a red jacket, which makes it rather obvious he's missing his left leg below the knee, with an ebony peg-leg replacing it. He's the one who speaks first. "Thank you, uh, sir. Your help is most assuredly welcome. No, no injuries. At least, not new ones- you can't do much about this, can you?" The man taps his leg. "My name is Yadeeta Suleiman, this is Abraxo Smith and Steveni Akan. We've got an outpost near here, well, relatively speaking. An old farmhouse, we think, that way past the no man's land and trenches." He points first at the redhead, then the other lady.