[Nexus] Inside 31

[happyturtle]

New Temple

No, it wouldn't matter usually, but Lauretta is a fanatic. "I am well. It little matters where we are, as Dalachrech is always with us," she says.

Oh, she's gotten a new pet since her giant centipede died. She has a moth resting in her hair, looking like an ornament.

[Lord Magtok]

I don't touch the things. Iggy says. Once you get one you're hooked. They're the worst kind of drug. He says to the cashier. He hands the appropriate amount of money, in as many different denominations as he possibly can.

Because having more than one of the same type of coin is for jerks.

The Magbots takes the coins, and rolls its eyes.

Yeah, whatever. Now take your stuff and get lo-

A hulking managerial bot walks by, and smiles.

Err...I mean, thank you for shopping at MagMart! Have a good day, sir!

Gods damned twenty different kinds of coin, you jerk...

[Affidavit's Hangar]

"I would say yourself, since I distinctly remember, once upon a time, that you were an actual villain, and did actual villainous stuff. But not any more. So my conclusion would be that you're here because you see me as a threat to others, and you are the noble little paladin, here to end my wicked ways."

"I can think of several methods of locating this hangar that would've led to such a speedy arrival, but clearly you believe you have some sort of ace up your sleeve that I cannot beat. So yes, if you must, by all means go ahead and tell me." He doesn't sound particularly concerned...

But there was a noticeable change in his voice. Whatever it is, he doesn't consider it a threat, but he's definitely interested.

Affidavit's Hangar

Magtok frowns. He could feel Affy's smirk in the very air around him, like some sort of smarmy plague he was being forced to inhale.

Just because I hate your guts and want them strewn about the floor, that makes me a hero? You've got a really weird perspective on things, dear. I'm as bad as ever, I'm actively doing things just as dark, if not darker than that one Christmas. I'm just not walking the streets with platoons of minions to scare everyone to death with anymore. That's just an obscenely stupid thing to do in this era. If you had bothered to get with the times instead of hiding away in your nostalgia-castle, you'd already know about this and I wouldn't be wasting my time explaining it.

He then reaches into his robes, and pulls out what appears to be some sort of wizard's magical orb or something.

Speaking of getting with the times, you might want to invest in some anti-scrying security. I've got eyes everywhere now. Have had for some time. Magic's not normally my thing, but y'know...can never hurt to know what people are doing, all the time, always.

He's lying, of course. But better that Affy wastes his time on that than know about the MagSat.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Office

Fair enough. "As are His subjects. But it is good to hear that you are not getting lost with one less floor than before." Terrowin's Office is in the attic, by the way. The ceiling slopes, as does part of the wall, and the Guest and Clerical bedrooms are on the same floor. There's still a basement with giant bombadier beetles in it, and an Altar Room, and the various Ritual Rooms. Also a garage, in which a wagon is kept, hiding the sensory deprivation tank and its cubicle

[happyturtle]

New Temple

"Should I make any special preparations for the ritual?" Lauretta asks.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Office

"Ah, yes. There are some robes you must wear. Nothing else, though." Terrowin will stand up and, motioning for Lauretta to follow, head towards a door on the right of his room. Well, Lauretta's right, the way they were sitting. Terrowin will open the door and motion for Lauretta to go first.

[happyturtle]

New Temple

Lauretta enters, perhaps letting her hand brush against Terrowin's as she passes him.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Bedroom

The room is large, with a four-poster bed, two wardrobes, a chest, and a floor-to-ceiling mirror. If Terrowin noticed Lauretta's hand, he doesn't react to it. Partially because his player doesn't know how they'd react. Terrowin will walk to the far wardrobe and open it, taking out a set of robes. The other wardrobe is really fascinating, it seems to be calling to Lauretta with Dalachrech's voice.

[happyturtle]

New Temple

"Is My Lord Dalachrech here?" she whispers.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

Pointy kitty bits!

Beware them!

The gap is only a few inches wide. And what's more it's framing the wall. Space on all sides with a nice vertical drop off down below! No way of knowing how deep it is.

Probably not the best of ideas to climb down there...

Zee seems to have grown bored of poking at the skeleton and has moved on to other things. Look like she's now examining all the various gross mummified bodies.

Hmmm...

[Reinholdt]

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

"Shut your eyes." Reinholdt tells Raril, averting his own for a bit before pulling out a sun rod and activating it, lighting things up quite a bit. And then dropping it down the gap hole and peering after it. He could probably just fly down to see how far it goes, but that wouldn't really help Raril and Zee escape, so he doesn't see the point.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Bedroom

Terrowin hears Lauretta's query, and answers whilst carrying the robe back across to Lauretta. "No, but a portal to His realm is. Those who are truly dead cannot cross, which is why I could not use it to bring you, Harold or Narahar back. I use it sometimes when I need to commune to Him directly, and also I can use it to summon quasits and other Servants of Dalachrech." The robe is white, and emblazoned with a black two-tailed scorpion symbol.

[happyturtle]

New Temple

Lauretta takes the robe. "It must be comforting to have Our Lord so close."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Affidavit's Hangar]

"Oh really? Scrying you say? But what if I don't believe you? How about a simple test. Tell me how many creations are inside this hangar at the moment. If you have indeed been busy scrying merrily away you would no doubt know about all the secret rooms and should be able to answer my question within a few minutes." That invisible smirk is still quite definitely there. As it happens, Affidavit has no idea if Magtok is telling the truth or not, and can't write out the possibility that he does have magic. So...a simple test will solve that.

Oh, and speaking of eyes everywhere...

One of those tiny beetle creations Affidavit loves using is busy flying over towards Magtok, to tuck itself away in his dress robe and act as Affidavit's own little spy.

The drones, meanwhile, are finished with their repairs (yes, already, they work damn fast) and are making the journey back down.

"While you're busy scrying away, why not tell me of your fantastic villainous exploits? I'd love to know what sort of dark, evil things you're doing, while having to keep the empire and numerous other people happy. The finest acts of villainy ever seen, no doubt, while you huddle away in your little cave and act like everybody's friend!"

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech

"It is. Very comforting indeed, knowing that should I require to ask Him something with no chance of eavesdropping I can do so easily and quickly." The robe on the outside feels very smooth; judging from the outside, it would be a comfort to wear. The inside, however, could be very different.

[happyturtle]

New Temple

She won't find out until later though.

Timeskip?

[TechnoScrabble]

Blue Zone-Streets

There is a silent compression of the air and a burst of bright light, and suddenly, several strange beings are standing in the middle of the street in marching order. They stand like prehistoric therapods, and have long, thin tails that split into three halfway down. Their backs and important areas are covered in a thick, just lighter than black carapace with glowing, splotchy stripes and streaks in all shades of blue. They have smooth, light gray skin, and bluish gray tentacles bound together with silvery metal bands extend form the back of their heads, suckers and all. Their mouths and eyes glow electric blue, and some tiny holes in their carapace emit curling trails of glowing, glittery blue mist. Each one carries a silvery blue weapon that looks sort of like this:

Spoiler

Show

They are escorted by deep blue metal discs the size of frisbees, each of which is decorate with white stripes and antennae and a single black camera lense eye.

Yellow Zone

Near the docks, several large METAL BOXES fall from the sky, shattering on impact with the ground. Out step therapods like the ones in blue zone, only with one tail, dark green with no glowing breath and splotches instead of blue, and a frill made up of thin spins with green skin between them instead of tentacles. They carry weapons that look like thick FN Fals meant for firing large-bore ammunition.

A few blocks away, some volcanic rocks hit the ground with similar results, instead spilling out volcanic rock golems ranging in size from child-sized to ogre-sized.

Edge of the City

A swarm of giant, flying bugs descends on the city, lead by a wave of glittering blue and black locust/grasshopper beasts the size of a terrier and armed with spiky, bladed back legs!

Sewers

Consumers and alien troopers like the ones above but with deformities and grafted limbs and bug-like appendages and bodies covered in violet-red coral-like growths start to dig into the larger sewer tunnels! They're armed with all sorts of bio-organic weapons!

Main Gate

Several beings shaped like the man-size therapods in the yellow zone but with thicker tails and full-suit dull silver body armor and strangely shaped armored gas masks march single file into the city, carrying weapons that are simple tubes with handles and spiked ends and large cases attached to the sides.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Terrowin's Bedroom

The ritual will occur in a room in the heart of the Temple with no windows, and there is a table in the middle of the room. The other clerics surround the room wearing their normal clothes (Jorje and Gertrude are notably absent). Everybody is chanting in Abyssal.

Sewers

In parts of the sewers, giant cockroaches have made their lairs. They hiss when the newcomers approach them, but local ghouls or other sewer-dwellers get no such reaction; nor will any Imperial troops posted down here.

Every so often there's a giant blind scavanging cave beetle; they are solitary, and tend to attack from ambush in concealed niches behind pipes and burrowed under the floor in shallow water; they have vicious jaws capable of nipping off a human's head.

[happyturtle]

New Temple

After spending the rest of the day in prayer, Lauretta changes into the robe and heads for the chamber.

[TechnoScrabble]

Sewers

The cockroaches and beetles will be ignored unless they attack the aliens.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Ritual Chamber, which is what the last post should be labelled

The robes are quite nice. Before she enters the chamber, an invisible quasit will try to land on her shoulder and whisper into her ear: "Give the book to Terrowin, take the robe off and lie belly down on the table." The other cultists are praying to Dalachrech, asking Him to accept Lauretta as a full Cleric and Initiate rather than a Novitiate.

Sewers

The cockroaches just warn any natives in the sewers that the aliens have arrived, but the beetles attack as well, always from surprise and preferably into melee where their sharp mandibles can be put to best advantage.

[happyturtle]

Ritual Chamber

Lauretta obeys. She's wearing only knickers under her robe, but she doesn't seem embarrassed at all. However, when she lays down, she's careful to make sure her hair falls over the place on her neck where she was once branded. She's used magic to remove as much of the scarring as she can, but it still can be faintly seen, so she always uses her hair to disguise it.

[billtodamax]

The Magbots takes the coins, and rolls its eyes.

Yeah, whatever. Now take your stuff and get lo-

A hulking managerial bot walks by, and smiles.

Err...I mean, thank you for shopping at MagMart! Have a good day, sir!

Gods damned twenty different kinds of coin, you jerk...

Iggy gives the magbot a happy, slightly mocking smile, before heading for the door, beckoning Harnel.

Alright! Let's get to work on your armour! Iggy shouts.

[Halae]

Harnel will grin and roll his eyes at Iggy's antics, "Alright, let's hop to. Where are we going for that?"

[billtodamax]

Magmart > Scrapyard

Scrapyard! Iggy announces happily, exiting the store and leading Harnel there. We need more titanium. Plus, there'll probably be a welder there.

[Halae]

[Scrapyard]

Harnel follows, likely carrying everything they just bought

[Earl of Purple]

Ritual Chamber

Terrowin places the book on Lauretta's back, brushing any hair that might be in the way. It's quite square on Lauretta's back, though, so it depends on where the branding was as to whether it's uncovered. Unless Lauretta has secretly done something betraying the Cult, her skin should grow over the book, forming the book's binding and coat. It's not a pleasant experience, but it doesn't hurt as much as the last ritual to determine worth.

[happyturtle]

Ritual Chamber

It's on the side of her neck, so she's probably okay. She has been exceedingly loyal, of course. Though she gasps a little, she holds still to allow the binding to proceed.

[Earl of Purple]

New Temple of Dalachrech- Ritual Chamber

When the book is mostly bound, Terrowin will place his holy symbol on the upwards surface; the symbol will briefly heat up and brand the two-tailed scorpion into the book's front cover. Then the book will be sliced from Lauretta's back, which will be healed by Terrowin. Those last two stages hurt more than the previous stage.

[iElf]

[Animal Shelter]

As Din presses onward the animals' conditions worsen more and more. Rivers of blood flow from open wounds. Large sores cover their bodies. Some are little more than masses of tumors and cysts.

Their eyes are pleading. Begging for their suffering to end. Their pained cries echo in the corridor, like the wails of the damned. Crying out for Din to help them, to save them, to end their pain.

If it is even possible, it gets worse and worse. Horror beyond imagination greet Din's senses.

Din keeps her eyes shut, and covers her ears. she just stops to cry occasionally, but keeps on

[happyturtle]

Ritual Chamber

Lauretta can't stop herself from flinching a bit in pain, though she does hold still and quiet as much as she can.