[Nexus] CURATOR I: The Evil Has Landed

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of the Ith]

Will's datapad lands in the mud, as he wasn't expecting that.

The reptile-girl should find his tail-spike pressed against her throat.

"I'm checking you for injuries. Stop it."

This is repeated in Common and Saudar, as before.

[FireFox]

Aurea moves closer to Reinholdt and waits to see how the situation resolves. She's a bit impatient to move on with the exploration.

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

Will might soon find reptile-girl's hands attempting to run up and down his tail! She's trying to figure out what he is.

Or she is just trying to get a good grip on his tail so she can blindly fling him at a tree with astounding strength and speed. Probably the latter, as that's what she is trying to do at the moment! I don't blame her. She has been temporarily blinded and is now being confronted by creatures that are totally alien to her!

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of the Ith]

She'll find that his tail is rather spiky, and thus not terribly well suited for grabbing.

But, if she does so anyway, Will is flung. Maybe. Is she strong enough to hurl four hundred or so pounds like that?

Is she is, he'll shove himself off the tree, where he stuck because of all the pointy bits, and leap toward her, though he'll land near rather than on her.

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of the Ith]

Reinholdt keeps an eye mostly on Aurea at this point. He kind of figured Will deserved the throw what with approaching her like he did with all those spikes and for putting one to her throat. That was just rude!

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

It was a very rude gesture indeed!

The reptile-girl can normally lift about three hundred or so pounds, but in this case, she feels especially threatened by the intruder and aggressor (Will). With chemicals pouring into her bloodstream caused by fear, she could probably manage to throw four hundred pounds. Probably.

When Will leaps back, if he lands very, very close to the reptile-girl, he'll likely find a forceful kick aimed in his general direction! There's a chance that the kick will hit Will, but this girl is just lashing out at anything that moves. If Will doesn't land that close, the reptile-girl will attempt to blindly flee through the thick forest! She'll probably crash into a few trees and take out a few branches if allowed to retreat.

[FireFox]

Aurea clears her throat frostily and glares at Will. If you are quite finished antagonizing the indigenous fauna, I would like to reach the temple before we fail this examination.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of The Ith]

Will tries to grab her with all of his hands, and prevent her from doing the same to him.

"It lives here. Had it not occurred to you that if we can question it, it might be able to provide information on the temple?"

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of The Ith]

"Dude, seriously. Even if she did know something, this isn't the way to do it and you're making things much, much worse. Stop trying to assert your dominance over her."

Also, I'm guessing Will tried to grab the reptile when she tried to kick him, but your post makes that very unclear.

[FireFox]

Reinholdt is correct. Your barbaric use of force is an egregious affront against the dignity of our profession and I will have no part of it. Aurea holds her magic light up higher and continues along the path, by herself if need be.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of The Ith]

"Dude, seriously. Even if she did know something, this isn't the way to do it and you're making things much, much worse. Stop trying to assert your dominance over her."

Also, I'm guessing Will tried to grab the reptile when she tried to kick him, but your post makes that very unclear.

((Yep, that's when. Sorry about that.))

Will glares at him.

"I was checking her for injuries, as she fell out of a tree, and she attacked me. I have no urge to be attacked from behind, and am preventing her from doing so."

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

Yep! Will has definitely gone and ticked off the locals!

The reptile-girl struggles to worm her way out of Will's grasp, which seems like a near impossible feat...at least, it might be right up to the point she attempts to spit highly corrosive acid out of her mouth and into his face. It shouldn't hurt too bad I'd imagine, but it's still acid that smells like oddly like the burned-out engine of a car.

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of the Ith]

"You never approach locals like that, not even for injuries, and you most certainly don't fight back unless you're in serious danger." He is a Treasure Hunter Extraordinaire.

Reinholdt goes to try and pull Will away from the lizard girl. He's not very strong though.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of The Ith]

It hurts. He's mildly acid-resistant, but it's still painful. He tries to shove her away from himself.

If successful, he says "Fine. You two are right. Next time we run into something and it hurts itself, it can die."

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of The Ith]

"She wasn't acting hurt! She was acting confused and scared and you had the gall to threaten her life on top of that! If you can't even recognize basic emotions, you shouldn't be interacting with sapient life forms at all, let alone trying to help them."

Reinholdt pushes away from Will himself and continues on after Aurea. When the future native local attack comes, he is not going to go out of his way to help the giant spike beast.

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

Reinholdt is very perceptive. Very perceptive indeed.

If the group continues down this shaded forest path, they will soon stumble upon a steep (decline) gravel trail spilling into a lovely clearing in the woods. It is a fairly large clearing. One could easily build a city here without chopping down a single tree. In the center of the clearing is a deep, deep lake with water as pure as the virgin snow. It appears to be the source of a river cutting through the forest opposite this path. To the left of the river is a small village of primitive thatch structures (and a fleet of waertight canoes) populated by -you guessed it- reptile-people.

[FireFox]

Reinholdt, where does that... GPS say the temple is located? Hm, under the lake, perhaps?

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of the Ith]

"It's possible." Reinholdt says, glancing warily at the village, before looking to the GPS for directions. If it points right at the lake, then chances are pretty high that it's an underwater temple.

Get your blue tunic and iron boots ready.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of the Ith]

When he catches up to Reinholdt, Will says "If I do not interact with sapient creatures, how am I supposed to learn to recognize emotions? I have been attempting to do so, but progress has been slow."

He sounds confused.

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

The GPS does indeed point right at the center of the lake. It makes one wonder why Percilia-prime did not furnish the group with a helicopter or a submersible vehicle of some sort! It might have merely been an oversight on her part. Then again, the GPS could only function properly if Percilia-prime knew exactly where the temple was...

[FireFox]

Excellent. Aurea smiles and tries to walk straight into the lake unless stopped. These other chumps can figure out their own way to get down; she likes swimming.

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of the Ith]

"I recommend watching a lot of television." Reinholdt says.

"Says the center of the lake. Let's go look at the lake at least." See if they can see it.
Reinholdt heads towards the lake, keeping away from the village and keeping an eye on it.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of the Ith]

Will, unsurprisingly, hangs back if any of the villagers could see him approach the lake. Otherwise, he follows the others.

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith - Clearing]

As this is a clearing, the villagers could spot the group with relative ease. They don't seem likely to take any action against the group, though. They are engaged in trivial, everyday tasks which would likely indicate that the reptile-girl Will so wickedly assailed has not returned as of yet.

The lake is quite deep, but it is also crystal clear. A good distance below the center of the lake, resting under the clusters of frantic fish rapidly darting through the water, lie three great marble columns, likely the remains of a shrine of some sort. The columns are in classic greek style. Classy.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Forest of the Ith - Clearing]

In that case, Will follows them.

[FireFox]

By the time Reinholdt and Will get to the lake, they may be surprised to see a huge golden dragon swimming to the bottom to take a look at those columns.

[Reinholdt]

[Forest of the Ith - Clearing]

Reinholdt shakes his head at Aurea. She didn't even wait to see what Percilla wants them to even do here.

He gets on the radio at this point.
"Percilla, we've reached the spot where the gps directed us and it appears to be some sort of structure or shrine buried in the water of a deep lake. Aurea is investigating it now. What do we do now that we're here?"
...
...
"Over."
He always forgets that part.

[Devixer]

[Front Entrance/Gate/Whatever]

Kenneth the zombie wanders onto the entrance of CURATOR. He might intend to join, or eat everyone's brains. Only one way to find out...

[The Alexandrian]

[Forest of the Ith]

A deep, gravelly voice responds to Rein in a rather gruff and smug manner.

"Percilia can't come to the phone right now. She's a little busy at the moment, and she'll be tied up for awhile. May I take a message?"

Seems like the Guildmaster has gotten herself into a little bit of trouble in the group's absence, eh? Either way, Aurea will find that there was once writing carved into the underwater pillars, but it has been eroded away to the point that the markings are no longer distinguishable. The massive columns do appear to be resting on an old, rusty base. The center of this base has a circular circumscribed about it. It is roughly human-sized. How odd.

-----
[CURATOR - Main Building - Front Entrance]

The giant, metal double doors of the base slowly creak open as Kenneth approaches. Weird. I don't think that anyone is home, seeing as all of the lights in the Main Room have been deactivated. Strange. Something appears to be darting about through the shadows. Not someone. Something.

[Devixer]

[Front Entrance]

Kenneth pauses as he notices the lack of light. Well, his other senses would guide him, them. The zombie sees the thing rushing through the shadows, and braces himself.