[Nexus] CURATOR I: The Evil Has Landed

[FireFox]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Aurea looks at Liz highly disapprovingly, but follows her anyway. She mutters something Greek under her breath. Tsoula.

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Reinholdt frowns and glances away, following behind the lizard woman.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Will follows the procession as well.

His blaze couldn't be unloaded, so it's either in his belt, with Liz, or some third outcome, depending on what procedure was for ranged weapons that you can't take the ammunition out of.

[The Alexandrian]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Will probably retains his weapon. Liz only requested that the weapons be unloaded so that they do not misfire.

The group will be led to the center of the camp, a spacious area filled with lush, green grass, great fires, hunks of strange, unidentifiable, raw meat, and two or three lizard-people busying themselves by stoking the fire and seasoning the meats. Of course, a few carved pieces of meat hang from a line strung from one side of the circular area to the other.

Liz turns to the group after a moment has passed in silence, giving them a sufficient amount of time to both smell and taste the sweet-scented air.

"None of you are vegetarians, are you? If you are, we might have a little problem..."

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

"I am not. I'll be shocked if they are either." One being metal spikey guy and the other being a dragon.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

"I'm not."

Where are you getting metal from? Will's covered in chitin, and that's what the spikes and hooks are made of, too.

[FireFox]

Aurea just shakes her head and continues looking around curiously.

[The Alexandrian]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

"Splendid."

Liz replies, a disconcertingly large, toothy grin spreading across her muzzle as she attempts to hand Rein and Aurea high-proof (195-proof, to be more specific) alcohol in carved, wooden cups conveniently set on a grand stump of what once was a towering redwood tree nearby.

"Drink. It will help you sleep soundly the whole night through. The forest can be quite noisy at night. It is surely a plague. We have grown accustomed to it, but this will help you cope, I'll wager."

Hey! Why didn't Liz offer Will a cup?

[Devixer]

[HQ - Central Lodge]

Kenneth might be here, still reading that book on necromancy he got from the library. The shotgun wound on his chest has healed, and he has both his eyelids now.

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Reinholdt raises an eyebrow. "What makes all the noise anyways?" It is curious.

He takes a sip, before coughing and sputtering a bit. That's strong stuff.
Unless it doesn't taste all that strong for some reason.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Will's body language is quite curious about why she didn't offer him one.

Unless, of course, there's another cup, since she only has two hands.

[FireFox]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Aurea slowly sips to not appear impolite. Hopefully she isn't coerced into getting drunk. That just couldn't end well.

[The Alexandrian]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Coerced into getting drunk! Why Liz would never even conside that foolish scheme! Aurea is perfectly capable of getting drunk without any application of outside pressures. Liz has faith in Aurea!

"Many creatures scream when they die. Tons of predator hunt at night."

That's not reassuring at all.

And the drink is very strong stuff. Sweet and strong.

But Liz still hasn't offered Will any...

-----
[CURATOR HQ - Central Lodge]

Kenneth appears to have learned much in such a short time period! That's great!

Somewhere in this room, the puppy lies sleeping, paws kicking a tad in the air as she does so.

"No! Not chocolate!"

She whispers, evidently experiencing quite a nasty nightmare.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

"What is the meaning of the drink offered to my companions, if any?"

[Devixer]

[HQ - Central Lodge]

Kenneth is flipping through a few pages on rituals when the puppy starts whispering. He looks toward her, looking concerned. "Madame?"

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Reinholdt continues sipping away at his drink after getting past the initial taste. He glances at Will with a funny look. It's rum! Times 2 or 3 or whatever. Like Reinholdt's going to turn down free alcohol.
He frowns a bit though. Maybe he should. They were on a mission.
Oh. But they couldn't continue it until morning. So it's ok. Besides, Reinholdt knows his limits! Probably.
...
*sip*

"Don't suppose we're going to learn about the temple in more detail?"

[FireFox]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Aurea, still rather quiet, sets her cup down and nods in agreement when Reinholdt speaks up.

[The Alexandrian]

[CURATOR HQ - Central Lodge]

"No! Keep that dang needle away from me."

The puppy whimpers, rolling around frantically in her sleep. She must be having some nightmare if it's causing her to whimper like that!

[Devixer]

[HQ - Central Lodge]

Kenneth starts to look more concerned, and audibly closes the skin-bound book. "Madame!"

[The Alexandrian]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

((Doh! >.<))

"First off, the drink isn't a symbol of anything. It's alcohol. It should help them sleep through the night. I'm not sure that it would help you any, though, given your different anatomical structure and chemical makeup."

Liz shrugs. She really has no clue as to whether or not certain fermented fruit will affect Will even slightly.

"As for that temple down there, I just hope your as good a fighter as you are to look at."

Liz is clearly once again undressing Reinholdt with her eyes as she utters that last phrase.

"There's some sort of undead army down there. They're magically sealed inside right now, but if your party is set on getting inside of that shrine..."

"It's important that we don't allow our minds to rest on such things. Not on a night like this. We have to enjoy life while we still have it."

Look! All the bright stars are flickering brightly in the night sky above! How stunning!

-----
[CURATOR HQ - Central Lodge]

The puppy's eyelids burst open. She's panting heavily. She scans her surroundings distrustfully, obviously terrified.

"Where am I?"

She inquires, her voice a mixture of panic and confusion.

[Devixer]

[HQ - Central Lodge]

"You're still in CURATOR, madame. You were having nightmares." Kenneth is leaning forward in the seat he's taken.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

"I am unsure. I have never had it, though I know it is not toxic to me in normal doses. It would be an interesting experiment."

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Reinholdt makes an effort to try to blatantly ignore the undressing and flirting.

"Do you know what kind of undead?" Reinholdt gives a shudder. He hated undead. Specifically the thought of being one. Undead weren't too bad as long as he wasn't one of them.

[FireFox]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Aurea takes another drink and sighs. We don't even know what we're supposed to do with the temple...

[Mindfreak]

Outside Curator

The wail of a siren fills the air, as an armored firetruck races down the road to CURATOR, a massive sheet of metal with burnt skeletons and rusty spikes welded onto it chained to the front. The firetruck careens wildly as it approaches the base, the driver obviously never having driven such vehicle in his life, and it shows no signs of slowing down as it approaches the archeological institute.

Unless someone stops it, the firetruck is going to crash right into CURATOR.

A large group of cars of all kinds follow the firetruck, with one in the lead.
If someone looked hard enough they would see that most of the cars were filled with NPCs.
If someone tuned into 97.5 FM, they would hear Jack Note's voice singing.
All of the car's radios are set to this station.

[The Alexandrian]

[Village of the Reptile-Folk]

Liz turns around for barely a moment before rapidly and completely unceremoniously tossing a rough metal flask of alcohol at Will.

"Experiment away."

Where'd that flask come from anyway? Oh! It was attached to Liz's leather belt? When did she put that on anyway?

Without turning around, Liz decides to respond to Reinholdt, her long, whip-like tail swaying back and forth behind her as she does so.

"What types of undead? Skeletons. Zombies. The usual. I've never been down there myself, so I can only speculate."

Liz faces Rein once again, having completely missed his shuddering. She glances at Aurea only long enough to say,

"There's probably treasure or something down there. That's no doubt what you're after."

before her focus returns to Reinholdt. She sighs dreamily.

And in this culture she's supposed to be a fine soldier.

[CURATOR HQ - Central Lodge]

The puppy's ears abruptly perk up. She wears a slightly alarmed look in the center of her eye. She, despite her obvious exhaustion, hauls herself to her paws.

"Somebody outside is playing terrible music! That's bad! They're going to wake me up!"

[Lady Serpentine]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

"Thank you."

Though, since they communicate through body language, I'm betting that that's useless since she has her back to them.

He'll unstopper the flask (since she threw it, I assume it was sealed in some fashion, correct?), and take some of it.

[Reinholdt]

[Village of the Reptile-folk]

Reinholdt sips at his drink some more. He hates zombies most of all.
"Suppose we could try to contact the base again and find out." Reinholdt says, offering Aurea the radio.

[Devixer]

[HQ - Central Lodge]

"Wake you up? I'm not sure I understand, are you not already awake?" Regardless, Kenneth gets to his feet, as quickly as a zombie can (not very.)

[FireFox]

[Village of the reptile-folk]

Aurea takes the radio, but doesn't thumb the transmit button. Oh... It would be more polite to wait until after dinner, would it not?