[Nexus] Inside 41

[The Bushranger]

[Snowy Streets]

"Well, fine. But I'll be watching you."
Jamie gives the old man a WARNING GLARE. As she is the SPAWN OF TOBIAS, this GLARE is in fact surprisingly intimidating for coming from a girl of her age!

...before looking at Rick.
"Hey, you should come visit the Good League of Good sometime, alright?"

[Rebonack]

[Home of the Sword Sage]

"What's the Good League of Good?" Rick inquires. Probably something good?

Into the house!

As soon as Rick walks inside music starts playing from... somewhere...

The interior is warm and cozy with a crackling fire burning away in the fireplace. A table adorns one corner and a number of shelves hold various food-stuffs and dishes. Various swords and shields along with the skulls of SCARY MONSTERS decorate the walls.

Along one side of the room is a line of four CERAMIC POTS which Myrrh immediately begins smashing the crap out of with exuberant delight. He finds 2 GREEN GEMs and 1 MAGIC PHIAL! One MOTE in Rick's MAGIC METER is recovered!

The Sword Sage doesn't seem to find this at all odd.

"Now listen carefully boy. I will tell you of your Quest and then teach you some powerful techniques with your sword. They will serve you well on this dangerous Quest."

Heart: {]♥♥♥[}
Magic: {]♦xx[}

[The Bushranger]

[Sword Sage's Home]

"It's where we do good things," Jamie says, as if it was self-evident. "You can't miss it!"

She waves to Rick and Myrrth, then walks off, in search of more...Adventure!

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel nods. She knows that just from the few encounters at work. She sighs again. She leans over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Let's... not worry about tonight, okay?" Maybe not the best way to deal with it, but he already apologized, and she doesn't really want to be angry at him.

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt nods and gives Arel a weak smile after the cheek kiss. He has some concerns about her continuing to work there of course, but she tolerates his job so he doesn't say anything.

"Yeah, that sounds best."

[Rebonack]

[Home of the Sword Sage]

Rick offers Jamie a pensive wave as she departs. GLoG. Need to remember that...

The Sword Sage settles into his chair and fixes his eyes on the lad and his lizard! "Listen well, Hero. My story will only tell you what you need to know to begin your Quest. Where it ends, well, that will be up to you."

The old man begins in a suitably mysterious tone as he takes along draw from his pipe.

"Long ago Morlenkenor, The Dark Lord of Doom, was banished from the material world to a realm of twilight and shadow where his evil would be unable to taint the land. But his power was not sealed up completely. One Ring was left behind, a Ring into which he had poured all his malice, hatred, and will to rule. His servants seek the Ring above all else to use its power to free their evil master."

If Rick were genre savvy in the least this would probably sound really familiar.

"The Ring now lies dormant in the Forest of Time, protected by the three-fold gate. But the forces of darkness are weakening the seal. You must collect the three Relics of the Hero and then travel to the forest. Pass the Trial of the Forest Guardian and re-forge the seal before the servants of Morlenkenor can break it."

"Did you get all of that?"
>Yes
No

Heart: {]♥♥♥[}
Magic: {]♦xx[}

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel smiles. "Goodnight, Reinholdt." She stands and goes to leave the room. She pauses once at the door to give him one last look before heading to bed.

[TechnoScrabble]

Grey Zone Church

Extending from a towering granite steeple is a pitted and worn gargoyle. Perched atop the gargoyle is a dragon.

He's pretty small for a dragon, being young and all, only about medium size in d&d terms, but he's still got that good ol' draconic magic and might going for him. He's dominated the skies around this church unabated, eating any feathered interlopers and the occasional hobo climbing the bell tower to steal some pigeon eggs.

He-WOMP!CRUNCH!NOM! NOM! NOM!

The dragon is snapped up in an instant by a great, filthy, fanged maw that extends from the shadows of the decayed bell tower's inside. The source of the maw crawls slowly out of the bell tower, cracking stone and chewing cruelly slow on the still-kicking dragon whelp.

The toothy gob belongs to an infant dodtenwyrm. Right now the beasty is jet black, sort of knobby on the scales, and about the size of a pickup truck. It doesn't even have scale ticks yet! This city is perfect for it. Until it grows up into the filthy, coal gray and muddy iron colored, spike scaled, disease and destruction spreading beast that dragons themselves fear, it can survive comfortably upon the inhabitants of this...town. Much better than the rest of its family still crowded up in those frozen mountains by that strange metal cave....

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Goodnight Arel. I'll see you in the morning." In that he fully intends to bring her a homecooked breakfast to help smooth things over even more than they have already. And it will be... DELICIOUS.

[Zefir]

[Distraction Street - Atop a Bringer near the Grave Titan]

As the fire starts to spread out Fade's shadow shoots a last red lightning at Cryus, trying to hit him hoping for the chance to stop his escape. The shadow will in each case go back and be a shadow. Fade isn't in the position to hold her up right now and as all may note the shadow soon goes back to his place near Fade.

In the same time Fade took off one of his gloves. On his now free hand is a circle drawn. He has done this the last time he had to fight a fire troll and he still hopes that it is working. He waves with his other hand and all the Myrs and the bringer he summoned disappear, only leaving the garbage they were made of. The mana he used to summon the bringer comes back into his hand. It's a good amount of white mana in it to activate the circle again.

Since the bringer is gone Fade should fall down to the floor, but instead it looks like something is slowly putting him down on the earth. On his way down the fire that should burn him and all that stands behind him got dragged into the circle. And since all his minions are either gone or burnt by the fire (he couldn't unsummon all in time) Fade is standing there alone.

And now things depend on what of these things happen. If Cryus doesn't manage to flee Fade will clearly go after him with the strange shield and the sword of light and shadow. If he still escapes Fade will go for the other planes walker, most likely the one who summoned the Souldrinkers. In that case he won't avoid trying to slash a few of them on the way.

[Slii Arhem]

Distraction Street - Grave Titan Corpse

The Queen goes down with a screeching, flailing roar as the slaying spell hits her, severing her connection to the hive and the land of the living at once and leaving a nearly unharmed corpse behind. The remaining slivers all go rigid at once, unsure of what to do without a queen to direct them.

Then comes a rain of fire, directed at every living being on the street. The hybrid drones, being out of the battle and out of sight, are safe for now. The ones on the street have little time to react, and do so completely by instinct.

They must save those with useful mutations from this, and leap to do so. The remaining normal slivers tap into the abilities the crypt sliver has given them, regenerating Jakob, the Legionmind and the Crypt sliver even as they burn to ash. This leaves only those three on the street when the fire clears, and they quickly reverse direction from the ruined street and begin to flee. The hybrids, unable to hold back the urge to follow, leap from the building's windows and run as well, leaving their queen's corpse and the hivestone behind.

It's unlikely anyone cares to chase them, considering the sorry state of the other armies. Even if they do, the slivers are abnormally quick, putting all their muscles into their effort to go.

The SETs may find that the fight, for all intents, is over if they wish to search the scene.

[Murkus]

Masks Temple

Ah, but Xifra's being confined by her own request. Sort of like checking oneself into a rehab centre.

She clings to Jack, her hands and mouth wandering, trying to seduce him, turning on the Notice Me aura to make herself nearly irresistible to any normal man. Of course Jack is far from normal. "I'll make it worth your while. I've learned so much here."

But at the same time that the Object "thinks" (if it can be said to have volition and thought) that it is controlling the situation, she manages to slip out a telepathic cry to him. Why did you do this to me? I want it gone! I want to be clean! The emotional tone is one of desperation and hopelessness - very much in contrast with her words and actions.

Jack, gods help him, considers giving into her advances. He attempts to pick her up and push her against the wall, a combination of lust and taut restraint swirling in his gut. His mouth hovers near hers, but his hands try to hold her arms, keep them in place. The wizard would be hating himself, if he were a better man to begin with, but Jack hasn't quite reached that stage. "Xifra."

In his fit of temptation, he sees a solution. If he attempted to take Cruelty now, it would be a fight. One that might destroy Xifra's mind. So give the Object what it wants - make it think it's won. Once it's guard is down, he'll enter her open mind and extract the malevolent entity. Quick as he can.

The fact that this gives him an excuse to pull the curtain is... well. As I've said, he hasn't quite reached a stage where guilt is a major factor in his decision-making.

Jack leans in to kiss her, hands leaving her wrists to relieve Xifra of her robe. Apparently giving in. Unless stopped, Jack will pull the curtain in short order, and begin weaving a psychic snare around Cruelty. He's delicate about it, for once treating the human mind like the fragile thing it is.

[Lost_Deep]

Distraction Street - Grave Titan Corpse SCIENCE IS NOW!

The female extraterrestrial immediately runs into the street and takes samples. One from that stone, one from the body of the creature, some scrapings here, a big vial from the queen, and scans of anything left alive!

The male takes this moment to get a head start on lugging the hybrid away. The thing is heavy...

[Halae]

[Distraction Street]

The hybrid begins shrieking. It's muffled by the fact that she's gagged, but it's still clear that it would be extremely loud if she could actually get more sound out. So not only heavy, but annoying too. She's also squirming, but is finding it very hard to do anything with that, and makes no headway towards escape.

[Rebonack]

[The Home of the Sword Sage]

Rick doesn't have too much time to contemplate his crazy quest. Nor much to say for that matter. After all, everyone knows that Protagonists rarely talk to NPCs at any great length. That's Myrrh's job as the talkative cute thing!

"We can do it, mir! We can make many good sealings!" the lizard chatters as Rick is taken to another room of the home. Wide open room. Raised wooden floor. And several dummies on sticks! Some kind of sparring place?

"I'm going to teach you how to use the power of the Life-Force Beam," the Sword Sage intones. "This is a simple enough technique for any Hero to make use of. As a Hero you can draw on the power of your Spirit Beast. Do you know how to do this?"

Rick nods slowly, cupping one hand and causing a small tongue of flame to ignite. He had used that trick to light the way down in those spooky dark tunnels!

"Good. Now draw your sword and cut the air toward the dummy!" the Sage thunders, pointing dramatically at the nearby straw and cloth target!

With a mighty, "Hyah!" Rick swings his weapon at the target, a crescent of flame leaping from the blade, cleaving through the dummy and setting it alight! Eerr... And the fire seems to have blasted Rick's WOODEN SWORD to cinders...

"Oh neat!" Myrrh comments as he flops onto his back and begins to fiddle with his feet. "Oh keen! Many good adventures will be had with that!"

The Sage dumps a bucket of water over the burning dummy, extinguishing it with a hiss of steam and smoke. "The Life-Force Beam is a potent technique. But remember that it can only be used when your HEART METER is full. Fight well, and your foe won't ever even have a chance to touch you!" the old man trudges over to a rack and takes down a smallish object wrapped in cloth and hands it to Rick.

"It's dangerous to go alone. Take this."

Rick got the BRONZE SWORD!

Rick learned the LIFE-FORCE BEAM technique!

Your life and magic will be restored!

do Do DO DOOOOOOOO!

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

The smell of eggs and bacon permeates the air as Reinholdt woke up extra early to cook breakfast.

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel won't wake up immediately, but after a little while, hunger forces her into wakefulness. The fallen seraph blinks the sleep out of her eyes and stretches. She did a bit of tossing and turning, but she's rested, if rather disheveled. No getting up yet, though she'll probably do so soon. Maybe she gets breakfast in bed? =O

[UncleWolf]

[Counting Basie]

Cosiellio nods, "I know. I understand it's a personal thing, so I can't exactly ask you what I should be, but do you have any suggestions for how I might find out? I'm not really sure where to start."

Counting Basie

"I honestly can't." Wolfy tells him. Of course, he already knew what Cosiellio would choose, but where's the fun in telling him? "I simply Was with a purpose. I never had to find mine."

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Well since she didn't get up to investigate immediately, yes. Yes she does.

If the gentle knock at her door is any indication. Knock knock!

[Halae]

[Counting Basie]

Cosiellio chuckles, "I was afraid you'd say that. I guess that means I'm a bit of an oddity, huh? I suppose I could just try out different things, but there's only so many metaphysical concepts I could go after before I have to try out being the god of overly done toast."

He taps his chin, thinking, "Can I ask you what you do with your time?" It's obvious Wolfy doesn't have to answer if he doesn't want to.

[Rebonack]

[Back to the Snowy Streets!]

Rick and Myrrh depart from the Sword Sage's home, refreshed and ready for adventure! Or at least Myrrh sure does seem ready for it. What with all the bouncing and general jubilance. Seems the Sage gave them a WORLD MAP with the location of the RELIC OF COURAGE marked on it.

"Rawr! Now we are knowing what our quest is! We shall go make many adventures! And I shall eat many things for the making of more strong! It will be fun Master Rick!" the lizard chatters.

"I guess so," the boy sighs. "But I can't help but wonder if I'm the right choice for all this. I'm just a kid and this seems pretty seriou-"

Suddenly SkeleFoe minion!

The dog-skull headed skeleton bursts from the ground and begins to shamble toward Rick at a not particularly threatening pace.

"Oh! Master! Do the fire thing! You can use breath that makes burning now!" Myrrh suggests enthusiastically.

The lad nods and raises his BRONZE SWORD above his head! The blade ignites and- FWOOSH! A burning crescent cleaves through the skeleton! With a POOF! the monster vanishes in a flash of light and a puff of smoke!

Despite himself Rick grins! Those monsters aren't nearly as much of a threat when he can pick them off from a distance. "Maybe we do have a bit of a chance after all. Come on Myrrh, let's go find that first Relic!"

"Mee-mar! To adventuring!"

Heart: {]♥♥♥[}
Magic: {]♦♦♦[}

[Lost_Deep]

[Distraction Street]

The hybrid begins shrieking. It's muffled by the fact that she's gagged, but it's still clear that it would be extremely loud if she could actually get more sound out. So not only heavy, but annoying too. She's also squirming, but is finding it very hard to do anything with that, and makes no headway towards escape.

The male says something, the female responds. He seems to be waiting for her. She takes more samples. The male does his best to pull the sliver along... but he isn't very strong. The sliver's struggling does nothing to help it escape the bonds, but does make life a bit harder for the male.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Apartments]

Spoiler

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[Apartments]

Aww. Blue had kinda been hoping Feia would let it stay around. Being close to her would be preferable to sitting on a rooftop.

But then...Mother has her own work to do, clearly. It wouldn't want to get in the way! And it wouldn't want to get Father in trouble either, though it doubts Remnant will do anything particularly drastic in response to the appearance of the odd creation here and there.

Although admittedly there are little beetle creations dotted around the place to act as Father's eyes and ears. If Remnant ever picked up on those, there might be trouble. But then it'd be their fault, not Blue's!

Oh well. Mother knows best. If she thinks Blue wandering around might concern Remnant, then it might as well stay out of the way while observing. "Of course, Mother, you're quite right. If you need me, just call."

And with that, it tries to give her a quick hug, then proceeds to head to the nearest building and start climbing up. Back to observing.

Feia humors the hugs for a moment, before watching the creation leave.
Afterwards, she rubs her forehead, glances off towards some other portion of the city.

Then it's back to yelling at the workers, directing their efforts to certain portions of the building.


[Before the Den]

Spoiler

Show

[Before the Den]

Well that didn't work. Oh well, if everything could be solved through instant applications of force such as that, then things would have been much different back in her home realm. Though, the downside was that she had tipped her hand more than she had wanted with that shot and it would take a moment for the weapon to reload. Only a few more seconds, yes, but there was a reason why it was often more prudent to stagger the assault. That isn't to say no good came from that assault as she had now taken down that kinetic barrier the witch had. Peeling away a defensive layer was always good. With her full suite of sensors kicking in, the muse was ready for battle.

"Oi! Kirk! You any good at shoot'n?" Ghoul called aloud, grasping a small, thick disk sticking to her belt. There were three sets of similar devices, each counting five in number. Well, two sets of five and one set of four, now. "Cause if not, you'd better learn quickly!" she said. Given that she had waited for Kirk to 'steal' the bike, this would mean he at least was close to it if not riding it already. Whichever it was, there would be a few seconds for the drow to get himself comfortable before the bike took off on autopilot. Apparently she expected him to give her support with those nasty guns that bike had. At least there were a pair of triggers on what looked like handles near the front. Maybe those would be useful in some way? There was a small screen in between the handles that displayed a pair of quickly filling progress bars as well as two numbers. Both said '29.'

As for the disk that Ghoul had selected, she tossed it at Feia, arching the throw so that it would end up a few feet in-front of her. The witch might be expecting this but it seemed like a safe bet with those orbs of fire there. Shortly, a blast of super-cooled mist would envelope the area. Right now, it was a measure of how quickly the witch would teleport out of the way... Or if she would simply take it and keep going.

One more assessment here as well.

[Before the Den]

Kirk does indeed hope onto the bike before it takes off. Hopefully he has control of it, and that it's not too complex, because it looks like evasive maneuvers might be needed soon.

The drow looks over the controls. Progress bar? Probably the time before the weapons can be fired again. On the off chance that the triggers are attached to another weapon, Kirk gives them an experimental squeeze. In the event it doesn't fire, Kirk will produce an interesting Thompson sub machine gun from is jacket impossibly. Soon after a barrage of green lasers will be headed right Feia's way.

The laser Thompson and some of Ghoul's cryogenic weaponry.
Cold is her element, she does not fear it. She embraces it.

Without a thought, Feia dives downwards, directly through the erupting mist, seeking to both elude Kirk's fire and buy herself some visual cover.
Perhaps her dress will freeze around her body, but her skin does not feel the cold's sting.

Instead, she draws her fingers through the air as she drops, using her magic in an effort to seize the mist and carry it along for the ride.
It will be useful for obscuring her position, no doubt, and perhaps her two opponents will think twice about using it again when she drives it back at them. Or Ghoul, at least.

Kirk is a middling problem, by comparison, a known variable.
By rushing towards the bounty hunter with her own attack, perhaps she seeks to quell the unknown quickly.

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel looks toward the door. Well, only one person she'd expect it to be. She takes a moment to straighten her shift, but does nothing for her tangled hair. "Come in." She calls, not realizing that she looks a bit ridiculous. D=

[Halae]

[Distraction Street]

Yes! make it as insanely difficult as possible! The Sliver girl continues to squirm as much as she can, likely to not much avail.

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

At least she doesn't sleep naked like some people like to do.

The door opens and Reinholdt enters, carrying a tray with a plate of eggs and bacon, and some orange juice!

"Good morning!" He says, as chipper as he can, while bringing the delectables over to Arel.

[Terumitsu]

[Before the Den]

Unless Feia does something to induce continued substantiation of the mist, it would quickly evaporate and fade away from being exposed to the comparatively hot air.

Of course, Ghoul's sensor suite was powerful enough to penetrate tactics like smokescreens and similar ilk. A screen of mist would be as useful as a perfectly clear pane of glass in this case.

Nevertheless, a straight up charging assault was an odd choice of tactics. Certainly Feia had seen what firearms did, right? This probably meant that she had something in mind or that her barrier had returned. If the latter was true, then the muse would need Kirk's assistance in taking it down again. If it was the former, then either she was getting close for a strong, short-range strike or maybe just getting closer so she could have a better shot at an ranged attack. Neither of those set well with Ghoul and she began to strafe sideways as she fired off several blasts at the diving witch, preparing herself to jump backward or at least to the side should the latter two options should happen. If this turned out to be a right-out charge, Ghoul could easily alter her stance for a simple jump upward to launch herself over the witch. It would also grant her a free shot right at her back.

As for Kirk's attempts to use the piloting system, they failed spectacularly and only brought up a prompt that asked if he wanted to drive manually. The autopilot seemed to be doing a decent enough job at keeping him from getting hit for the time being. If he wanted to drive himself, however, he might get the hang of things after a while if he was good at improvising but it was probably a bit more complicated than he expected. In any case, the progress gauges had finished filling and there was a message that said 'Fire when ready' on the screen.

[Gullara]

[Before the Den]

This seems like a no brainer. No trying to pilot the bike in the midst of combat. It'd keep him from participating for a minute. Instead he aims the weapons and lets loose with them. Of course, as soon as Feia gets near Ghoul, the weapons will cut off. Until then, Kirk fires away.

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Good morning, Reinholdt." Arel says warmly. Seems some sleep did her good. Her mood is much improved. "Is that for me?" That must be the delicious smell she woke up to.

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Well the cats certainly won't be able to eat it all." Which is pretty much a straight lie. But yes, for her.

He sets it down. "I figured you haven't had the opportunity to experience breakfast in bed yet."

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"Oh? Well i suppose not." Arel looks curiously at the food. The eggs are familiar, but what's that other stuff? "This is nice. Thank you." Rein gets another big smile before she picks up her fork and a piece of bacon with it. "So what is this?"