The Museum of Destruction

[Gnrlshrimp]

Welcome to Ba'al's personal demiplane!

In the middle of a seemingly endless expanse of nothing, lies a vast field of fresh green grass...

With a great big volcano right in the middle of it. The volcano is truly massive, stretching up higher than the eye can see, with smooth near-vertical sides making it practically impossible to climb. The crater at the top is a couple of miles wide in diameter with strange, noxious gases constantly bubbling up out of it and a raging, fiery inferno visible far below. Like clockwork, every couple of hours or so there's a minor eruption that refreshes the streams of lava trickles down its sides, pooling in a sort of bizarre moat in a wide ditch at the very base of the volcano. There's no bridge across, only four holes acting as entrances in the side of the monstrousity, located a full quarter turn away from each other.

Inside the volcano is a series of tunnels, filled with a range of the deadliest, most bizarre weapons you've ever seen, and a fair few you haven't. The tunnels seem to stretch down indefinitely, leading on and on past more and more weaponry...as well as some fairly impressive creatures as well, all capable of unleashing absolute havoc on anything near them. The tunnels, however, all meet in a large, open room with a single marble staircase in a vast room decorated with images of fierce battles, suns collapsing, massive earthquakes and even whole solar systems being destroyed. At the top of the staircase is a single oak door, leading into Ba'al's own personal room. From here he has total control over the plane, able to bring about changes at any time. Thankfully he's not particularly imaginative, otherwise there'd be a hell of a lot more nasty stuff in his world.

This is Ba'al's personal museum, dedicated to the most destructive things ever created, set underneath a volcano capable of exploding with more force than, say, Yellowstone Park, if it ever goes up. Visitors are most definitely unwelcome and the plane is well protected from all attempts at scrying or teleportation to ensure Ba'al isn't disturbed by annoying adventurers grinding for exp, or anything like that. Only Ba'al himself has total access to his museum whenever he wishes, although his minion(s) are capable of entering the plane from the very edge of the field.

It also acts as an hiding place if he ever needs to run away. Unlikely, but possible.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Khiansa may be a little surprised when the darkness fades and he finds himself standing at the top of a volcano that could rival mount Everest in height.

Thankfully, the edge of the crater is quite wide, and there's no wind...and plenty of air, so he's not going to fall off, burn to death or choke to death.

However his "rescuer" is standing right in front of him with his sword pointed straight at the poor ex-monk's neck. "I'm afraid you just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But are you really surprised? Asking a complete stranger for help, what did you expect to happen?"

[Ashen Lilies]

"I guess I should have expected you to turn out to be some homicidal Demi-god with your own private realm of lunacy, just like my Ma always told me.

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Demi-god? Maybe. Possibly more, definitely not less. Anyway, relax, unless you prove to be completely useless, I won't be killing you. Where's the fun in that?!" Ba'al chuckles briefly.

"Just to make it completely clear how screwed you are though, that lava in there is rather special. Much, much hotter than normal. It may look red, but it is, in fact, hotter than the sun itself. If I didn't have complete control over this realm, your face would be burned clean off. Gravity, however, works normally so jumping off is just plain stupid as well. And attacking me? Well, I have a sword...and armour...and I'm some sort of godlike being, so, that'd be stupid."

More chuckling, louder this time. Ba'al grins and lowers the sword. "I'm not homicidal anyway. There's no fun down that path. If you are of some use, I will return you to your destination as promised, so, naturally it's in your best interest to be helpful here. Did you get all that? I could go over it again. I'm in no rush, however the next eruption is due in about fifteen minutes or so, so you really don't want to waste time either."

[Ashen Lilies]

Khiansa sighs.
"So what do you want me to do?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Oh, nothing much. For starters, perhaps you can just tell me a bit about the state of the world. It's been a long time since I last visited the nexus. What's the place like at the moment? Are there any of those silly acronym organisations still around? Any big evil villains that make everyone tremble in their boots? You know, all the usual crap."

[Ashen Lilies]

...
Oh. He was expecting some gladiatorial fight for Ba'al's amusement.
"The place? Same as usual. Still the insane chaotic place this world usually is. At least, according to Natasha. I'm not really sure about that. Yes, there are still those Acronym organizations. Never interested me, actually. And as for 'villains', well, if you mean threats to this world, there are those bug things and that big floating pyramid, I've heard talk of a lich running around trying to destroy the universe, and that's pretty much all I've seen on my travels."

[Gnrlshrimp]

"A lich, eh? Bug things. Ah yes, those things you were running away from like a total and utter coward. Oh, and odn't get your hopes up. A gladiatorial battle may still be in the near future. Anyway, I have another question first. Why exactly do you say this world is chaotic?"

[Ashen Lilies]

"Well it isn't to me. To me it's... normal. I just have a friend... an oracle who claims this world is inherently chaotic, and it seemed a good thing to say."

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Maybe, maybe. But, anyway, if this world is chaotic, does that mean there's a general lack of law, and by extension, no real police force? Or is it just so odd that the presence of a police force only keeps order, without removing chaos?"

At about this time, Khiansa will start hearing a voice whispering to him...

"Welcome to my world. Listen to him, droning on and on like he's in charge. Well, I'm the one in charge here, he follows my every command, nothing more than my slave. And soon, you will be too, as soon as I-gurk!"

"Cut that out red!" Ba'al says, his arm currently throttling the no longer invisible warlock.

Red whimpers and nods, and is promptly dropped to the ground. He quickly takes out a mirror to make sure the strange red markings on his face are still in place (an odd pattern of straight lines with no apparent meaning) and that his spiky red hair is still in place. He quickly straightens out a couple of loose hairs and pouts at Ba'al. "Aw man! You always spoil my fun! I was gonna scare the **** out of this guy!"

[Ashen Lilies]

"She said that the land itself seemed to resist rule, and that any empire that tries to rule it doesn't last long. Which is somewhat true, I guess."
Khiansa gives the Warlock a glance as he is throttled and berated.

[Gnrlshrimp]

"So empires rise and fall, but never last for long. Interesting..." Ba'al picks up his sword again and looks around thoughtfully. "Well, you've been useful enough, I suppose, so I will let you go. In fact, I feel like I should give you a little gift. What kind of weapons do you like?"

Red c ocks (stupid censoring!) his head like a dog, confused by his master. "wait wait wait wait! You're actually gonna help this guy?"

Ba'al nods.

Red glares at him, turns invisible again and runs off, too annoyed by his master's sudden display of kindness to a complete stranger. "He'll never be as good a minion as I am!" he shouts as he walks away.

[Ashen Lilies]

"Um... I usually fight with a spear. Well, it's more like a naginata. Or a Guan Dao. That you can stab with. My player is weird about it."

[Gnrlshrimp]

"A spear, I can do. The other stuff is completely alien to my player too rare to have earned a place within the tunnels beneath this volcano. See, everything within these halls is specially designed for causing massive damage." Ba'al grins as a small tunnel opens up beneath Khiansa's feet. "Go on, start browsing. That tunnel will take you straight where you need to go."

In other words, congrats! Khiansa's player gets to come up with a super cool weapon...as long as it's capable of causing absolute chaos in the wrong hands.

[Ashen Lilies]

But... the other Khiansa already has one of those! D:
The world can only support so many Khiansa with spears that are capable of causing extreme Disaster in the Wrong (or sometimes Right) hands...

Also: Naginata = Katana-on-a-Stick, and Guan Dao = Machete-on-a-Stick.

Khiansa browses. And browses. And browses. And eventually comes across... a spear. A Chronospear.
...
You may roll for pun damage now.

[Gnrlshrimp]

...

I've heard worse.

Anyway, as soon as Khiansa picks up his weapon he'll find himself booted out of the demiplane and off to wherever it was he said he wanted to go.

Ba'al chuckles and closes up the tunnel. "Honestly, I'm surprised that worked!"

Red steps into view once more, looking quite confused, "What? What worked? You never tell me anything!"

"Did you honestly think I'd give him that weapon for free? He'll be in for the shock of a lifetime when he starts using it..."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Ba'al's Personal Room]

The carpet is red, the walls are black, the ceiling is a constantly shifting scene of wars, natural disasters and collapsing buildings, mountains, whatever. It's a huge mix of all the destruction going on in the world...

The room itself is mostly bare. Some of Ba'al's favourite weapons are stored here, including a small knife of some sort, some kinda portable death ray, and a tiny, tiny little black bomb...among other things, on a row of shelves. There's a desk with a chair behind it, a brown sofa for the rare occasions when he has guests, a separate side room with two beds in it.

All very basic. Ba'al doesn't spend much time here.

Oh, and there's also several sets of 'cuffs in the wall to hold prisoners, as well as a box filled with a few nasty tricks and torture devices. He doesn't use them much, but they're fun.

*****

When Ba'al arrives with Elle, however, he carefully places her on a bed, quickly securing her in place with some rope. He runs off, grabs a healing potion from a secret stash of his, pours some of it down her throat to make sure she doesn't die or anything, then climbs into the other bed.

He could do with a rest as well.

[EleventhHour]

[Ba'al's Room]

She wakes up, feeling absolutely lost, and more than a little bit surprised. "...I'm not dead?" She asks the cieling, before a wracking pain runs down her sides. She writhes, with the crackle of bones as she stretches the kinks out between her rib, "Oh... Ow, ow, god!" With her unpleasant waking over, she tries to look around the room without moving her chest too much, it's rather painful anyway, and she can't see much, but she does spot one thing of interest. "You." She hisses at Ba'al, wether he's awoken by this point or not.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Ba'al opens an eye lazily to look at his prisoner. He grunts and rolls over, wincing as he feels his wounds, still rather sore by the looks of things.

First thing's first, his rather bent nose. He grabs it, takes a deep breath, and wrenches it back into position.

What follows is a string of rather rude words, all bellowed at the top of his voice.

He staggers back onto his bed and grins, "That was a good fight. I enjoyed it."

[EleventhHour]

[Ba'als]

She struggles against the ropes, not caring as more pain flares in her ribs. In any case, she can't move enough to do anything, and her sore sides are far more accepting of lying in the comfortable bed than she is. "Sure. Let me up, and we can go again." She smiles prettily, as if she wasn't trying her best to get a knife out at that moment. Trying and failing, to be exact.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Ba'al smirks as the ropes burn away. "Sure, if you really think you're up to it in your current state. But bear in mind, I control the world you're now in. I'm your only way out. Oh, and on top of that, I'd have no reason to go easy on you again. You know, if you'd just answered my question this whole mess would've been avoided." He grins as he opens the door and walks out into the main room, pausing to admire one particularly brutal scene on the ceiling, "What's happening to you now...it's all your fault."

[EleventhHour]

[Room]

She struggles to sit up, but her body doesn't agree with that plan at all. Instead she yells her frustration until she's aching again, then collapses against the pillows with a sigh. "Why did you bring me here, anyway?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Well, firstly because I beat you up so badly, I wasn't sure I'd be able to find a temple quickly enough. Secondly, you never answered my question." After toying with his one of his little weapons of mass destruction, he walks back into the bedroom. You kinda pissed me off with all that fencing, but I wouldn't go so far as to kill you for that."

[EleventhHour]

[Bed]

She mutters in a discontent manner, "Seems like you were trying to kill me pretty hard. And seriously, I'm not telling you about my past." She shifts about in the bed, wincing as she rolls over onto her stomache, buring her face in the pillow. "Mmph."

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Hey! You were using your bloody claws! Those things hurt!" They really do, hell, he could've lost an eye! He has ways around that but still...it's not pleasant. "What did you expect me to do? Just let you rip me to shreds?"

[EleventhHour]

She makes a few muffled curses, then turns her head, "What else was I supposed to use? You were melting all the bullets." She grumbles some more, rubbing her own sides remorsefully. "You could have... That's a hard boot..."

[Gnrlshrimp]

"You could've just not shot at me in the first place. You could've been smart enough to not place all that bloody fencing up!" Ba'al sighs and walks out, coming back in with another healing potion.

He sits down on the edge of Elle's bed, at the end furthest away from her claws. "If I give you this, we're just going to have a repeat of yesterday, aren't we?"

...Of course it's a hard boot! What did you expect him to wear, sandals?

"As much fun as it was, you are kind of cute. It'd be a shame to have to smash that pretty little face of yours against a wall again."

[EleventhHour]

"Needed the fences." She mumbles , before snuggling into the blankets, pulling them up over herself. She looks more lost than anything at this point, shivering in pain and trying to bury her face in the pillow again. "...don't call me cute..." She whispers to herself.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Ba'al sighs and hands the healing potion across to her. "Well, clearly I'm not going to get any sense out of you in your current condition." If she takes it, he quickly gets off the bed and backs away slightly. He's not that stupid. "And what, exactly, is wrong with being cute?"

[EleventhHour]

[Bed]

She moves away from the potion, wincing unhappily, "Not taking it." She says, edging away a bit more. "And... everything is wrong with being cute."