[Nexus] Outside XXIX

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

Kate will pour herself some tea and, after some debate, add a bit of milk. she takes a little sip... that's good. She does not notice the frown at all, instead looking over at Julie. Oh, poor girl. She probably needs the rest... and probably something to eat soon. Kate looks back at Waldorf, giving him her full attention. He's obviously powerful, so it probably isn't something simple and straightforward... or if it is, it's part of a bigger plan. Anyway...

"What is it?"

Never agree to anything before you know what you're supposed to do.

[Slii Arhem]

Hills - A Portal

Waldorf gestures with his cup, nearly spilling the dregs, at Kate's antennae.

"You happen to be mildly fey touched, and such things don't come without secondary or even tertiary effects. Anything you could tell me, as well as any tests you'd care to submit to, could tell me quite a bit about your unique situation." No two people survive an encounter with the fey alike, and Waldorf keeps extensive notes on such phenomena.

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

The antenna reflexively twitch up away from the tea. "Oh! Well..." a moment to clear the tea flavor from her head, "The big thing is that I can now make pixie dust, which is really useful. And if I use to much, it begins to turn me into a pixie. And if I use it... or maybe in order to use it? Well, it's a moment of... joy, and a carefree feeling."

Kate shrugs. "It's kind of complex and confusing."

[Slii Arhem]

Hills - A Portal

Waldorf shakes his head, clearly amused, "Confusing may be putting it mildly Ms. Kyland. Somehow I doubt it is truly as simple as you have put it. From my admittedly second hand experience, I feel confident in saying there are many possible effects, and even more in the way of possible triggers, that occur from walking amongst the fey."

A massive leather-bound manuscript literally flies down to lay open in Waldorf's lap, the upturned pages covered in intricately detailed drawings of different fey. There is tightly packed writing all around each, filling up all of the white space on the page.

"Would you permit me to attempt a small spell?"

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

Kate will think a moment. What all could go wrong...

erk...

What all could go wrong that's worse than what's already happened?

Err...

What could realistically go wrong that's worse than what's already happened?

Still a lot...

"Well, okay."

If nothing else, she can try to use her pixie dust to repair any damage.

[Slii Arhem]

Hills - A Portal

Waldorf raises his unladen hand, and a faint aura of light should creep its way over to Kate. It seeks to identify, and then duplicate the last spell used on her, which should be her own dispelling unless she was hit with other magic in the interim. The aura glows orange after this is done, and then creeps its way back to Waldorf, who studies both Kate and the cloud of light intently under arcane sight, looking for any differences.

If his hypothesis is correct, it's not that Kate is using the pixie dust, it's that it was being used on herself. She should seem slightly more unstable magically now if he's right, even if it hasn't yet changed her physically.

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

Assuming that the spell replicates the detail that it is fey magic, there will be a little bit of instability. It might actually be a bit more than before, depending on the ambient magic energies in the area... and while there are a lot of magic items around, only unstable magic might compound the matter. To stable of magic, on the other hand, might decrease the amount of change...

In other words, yes, but how much might change due to how fickle fairy magic is.

"So?"

[Slii Arhem]

Hills - A Portal

It does in fact copy the type of magic the dispelling was made of, which is the very purpose of this spell. But that's where things get a bit odd. This warehouse, and everything in it, has been created through a combination of psionics and magic, and nearly every object, and the entire pocket dimension, is bleeding off small amounts of one energy or the other as they deteriorate. It takes quite a bit of upkeep just to keep the spells stable.

Hence, there is quite a bit of chaotic magic just floating around. How much actually effects the power of the spell, and what changes it makes to Kate are up to Lost, but Waldorf does notice quite the spike in her magical energies as she absorbs some of the pixie magic.

"So it appears to be triggered by any and all feylike effects, not just your own. The good news is that using these powers should not change you, unless you use them on yourself. You may wish to monitor that feeling of elation you get when using the pixie dust, and stretch smaller usages out over longer periods of time. I'm not quite sure how you would react to too much of this feeling, or if there is something else behind it." A very clinical diagnosis. Now that that is over with, Waldorf turns off his arcane sight to examine any of the physical changes Kate may or may not have picked up.

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

"Hmm, I wonder if the fairy magic being produced and used affects me.. probably so."

Kate's body isn't effected yet... no, she still looks completely human. 'cept for the nonhuman parts, of course... she doesn't look different.

[Slii Arhem]

Hills - A Portal

"Regardless, I am satisfied. It is certainly a unique situation you find yourself in Ms. Kyland. If you're done with your tea, I would like to help you get my relative home in one piece. She is not really in the shape to make another hour long trek."

Waldorf begins to clear the table, leaving anything Kate might need to finish up her last cup, and prepare another if she wants. He's in no really hurry.

Julie gives a light snort, and her head rolls to one side on her shoulder.

[Lost_Deep]

Hills - A Portal

Kate will finish up her cup and set it down. She then looks over at Julie. "Yeah, any kind of ride would be better than having to walk back. What do you have in mind?"

Kate's going to guess teleportation.

"Oh, I should probably wake her up, huh?"

[ThePhantom]

Field of Battle

Ouch, if Gordon lives through the poison, he's going to be needed a doctor after this. Gordon takes blows all over his body, the armor and his scales helping to protect him, but against this kind of last ditched attack, some blows are going to draw blood.

However, Gordon knows about how to endure. More than one fight he's one by enduring what comes his way, and he will push pass the pain, and finishes his grab of Ilpholin. Of course, now he has to grab his ally to keep him from crashing into the ground.

Gordon drives towards the falling Prometheus, dark blood dripping from his wounds, and tries to grab him, through the fact that he has to be more gentle than he was with Ilpholin is going to make this hard.

(My assumption that he grabs Ilpholin comes from the last post from Rein)

Spoiler

Show

This is her big offensive, an ace up her sleeve. It's wild, it's quick, it's dangerous, and it's mad. If Gordon endures through this attack, he'll have caught Ilpholin in his claws as he had hoped. Otherwise, since her own web line gets unavoidably cut during this, she goes into a semi-controlled fall instead.

[orb_of_blood]

[Forest at edge of Nexus]

A huge portal opens up. The force of the temporary tear in the fabric of space (which is essentially what a portal is) almost tears up several trees in the way. Out steps a single humanoid with flaming red hair. Then another, this one a lizard-folk with huge teeth. Another, another... soon there are a few dozen humans flanked by around fifteen ferocious gnolls, all squeezed into this small area of woodlands.

Five gnolls, much bigger and better equipped than the others, bring up the rear. They are obviously in charge, as the others shy away from them, fear blatantly shining in their eyes.

You say we be at town! One of the giant gnolls points an accusatory finger at the lizard-folk woman, who backs away slowly.

I- I thought we would! I'm sorry, I must not have studied the maps well enough! Please forgive me, Master! She falls to her knees before him, shaking. None of the other slaves or gnolls offer any support. They are all watching silently, afraid to offer any sort of assistance.

We not at town! The gnoll's hand goes to the nasty spiked whip at his belt (every gnoll there has a similar one), but a different giant gnoll stops him with a firm glare.

No time, no time. She'll be punished later, Grendar. You, Flame. Kordak, the true leader of the group points at the redhead, one of the only members of the group who isn't paralyzed with fear.

Yes Master?

Burn every tree and creature that stands in our way. I hate forests.

Her eyes glint with evil glee. With pleasure. She turns, hands glowing red with the awesome power of fire magic, and the destruction begins.

[RandomPoster]

[Forest at the Edge of the Nexus]

A four-eyed, furry dinosaur creature wearing a red uniform is in the same general area, though she was merely studying the native plant-life with her tricorder. Her tricorder picks up the dimensional tear, however, and the resulting mammalian and reptilian lifesigns.

Then she hears that they are planning on burning the trees. Oh no, thats where she is hiding! And worse, she's a redshirt...

[UncleWolf]

Gordon's Body

Unlike the flesh-eating disease and hemotoxin, the black poison is completely painless beyond the whip marks. Instead, there's cold numbness that will start to spread out from the wounds. Accompanying the numbness, Gordon's muscles should start to spasm slightly from the modified Tetrodotoxin. It'll quickly spread to the non-necrotized portions of his flesh to cause similar symptoms, likely causing him to fumble his hold of Ilpholin and possibly miss his grab of Prometheus.

After that, it'll take a few moments for the Tetrodotoxin to spread deeper to try and slow his breathing to suffocate him, but that'll happen after Gordon either catches Prometheus or doesn't.

Of course, like the Red Poison, this one packs another punch as well.

Hidden by the spasms of the first half, misshapen Draconic proteins are released into Gordon's system. Initially, they do nothing, infiltrating his bloodstream. It's only when it reaches the brain that they being their twisted job, trying to slowly eat holes in Gordon's brain. At first he'll only feel tremors and a slowness in his actions, but if let continue for several minutes, he'll start losing pieces of memory and find his senses fading as his limbs turning useless and uncontrollable.

Aside from all of this, the Necrotizing fasciitis continues to creep through his skin and flesh, likely causing his scales to dull and soften as it spreads and degrades his body.

Prometheus' Body

Unlike Gordon, Prometheus has one thing going for him. He's not a dragon, rendering the prions useless against him.

But, that also leaves him with several doses of modified Tetrodotoxin on a level that would affect a dragon. His body is much smaller, meaning that all symptoms related to the toxin happen quicker and be that much more potent. It'll take only seconds for the toxin to numb the flesh of his chest before it starts seeking his heart, limbs, and lungs, trying to shut him down completely.

[Reinholdt]

[The Glory Fields]

Prom can teleport too! Who knew? Well... anyone who went to his lab really, but it doesn't change much. Ilpholin's attack doesn't leave much dodging wiggle room. Her whip is sliced off at the hilt, leaving her with, well... a hilt as the rest falls to the ground. Granted, she might be able to make more, but that would call for sacrifice from her part that she either can't or won't do right now. A good thing he did it too, as she might not be able to get the bite behind it, but she probably could have still moved it around just enough to be a nuisance.

Not now though. Now, she's just caught in the grip of the dragon's claw. And Gordon is trying to catch Prometheus! I personally wouldn't, what with that wing contraption that cuts 'anything', even if it is devastated to the point of useless for flying. But then I also wouldn't be anywhere in an arena full of sharp things if I can help it. I don't like pain. All the same, it's a bit disorienting for Ilpholin with the sudden dive. She wiggles a bit, but stops when she realizes its pointlessness. She hadn't a clue what the poison was when she used it, so she's not going to rely on that either. Still, a struggling victim tends to be gripped tighter, leaving less room for proper escape.

What she does do is relax and concentrate. Also... blink. A film disappears over her eyes as she stares at Gordon. She has reason to believe that Gordon wouldn't be so crazy as to take his eye off her while he's catching Prom. She could be wrong, but it's a gamble worth taking. So her hypno eyes get turned on. Adore her. Love her. Please her. Those eyes beg for it.

"It's over Gordon. Even if you defeat me here today, you've lost AMEN. Look out at the crowd Gordon. They aren't cheering for you. You don't impress or terrify them. I do. You've built something wonderful Gordon, but it's grown out past you. And the best thing you can do now is to let go. Just let go Gordon. Let it go..." It would make her oh so happy! Don't you want to make her happy Gordon?

She's more than aware that dragon's mental defenses are strong, so while she's doing this, she rubs one of the two rings she wears with her thumb, activating it. A very special ring in fact. One with a pink gemstone, given to her by none other than Gordon himself. She activates the lust effect it's supposed to grant, targeting it at Gordon.

Honestly, Ilpholin is only hoping that bombarding him with two similar effects and a distracting speech will cause him to loosen his grip enough for her to slip free. Don't let the lengthy post fool you. She's looking at Gordon, talking, and rubbing her finger a little.

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of forest]

The group of gnolls finally reach the edge. The slaves have formed a protective ring around the rest of the gnolls, with Kordak in the middle, far out of place due to his irregular size.

Flame, in front, looks very unhappy that they've run out of trees to burn. Behind them the forest is skeletal, barren, scorched. But Kordak, seemingly reading her mind, laughs and informs her that she'll have plenty more to burn before the day is out.

Before them lies a vast expanse of fields, and there, in the distance, the city can be seen. The group pushes onwards, flattening large patches of grass, burning or soaking other areas.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of Forest]

Well, that is quite enough... there's no reason to destroy this ecological gold mine! With a huff, the alien-deinonychus takes off her santa hat (she wants to be taken seriously, after all) and sets her phaser to stun. Taking a deep breath, she reveals herself to the group.

"Erm, stop what you are doing? In the name of the Federation, and all that jazz?"

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of forest]

The group halts. A whispering starts up amongst he slaves as Kordak leaves the protection of the group to walk over to the dinosaur. He's flanked by two other gnolls and Flame. Can I burn it? Flame asks excitedly.

That depends. Does it know anything about the creatures we seek, and is it planning on trying to stop us? Kordak looms over it.

You seen Sleet an' elf an' puppy an' small elf-human? Asks Grendar. Oh yes, I'm sure she'll know who he means by that.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of the forest]

"Sleet? You mean, like the melted snow? Uh, it doesn't really snow here that often-" unless plot demands it, of course "- but as for the other two, there are plenty of those around the Nexus." Obviously, she is unaware of the people the Gnolls are looking for. "I, uh, I'm not sure I could tell you where in good conscience, though, considering all the harm you caused here. Why are you doing this?"

The Gnolls may notice that she is keeping her phaser rifle halfway at the ready. It seems the "burn her" comment has put her on edge. Especially since she is a redshirt (well, she's wearing a nonhumanoid version of the red uniform, anyway)!

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of forest]

We hunt free slaves! Grendar says joyfully. A talking dinosaur! It has made his day.

Kordak regards the dinosaur with interest for a few moments. I'd like to see it burn, He says finally. He turns and walks back to the group, having no further questions for it.

Laughing gleefully, Flame's hands glow red and a jet of fire shoots at (does she have a name?). The other two gnolls stay to protect her should the dinosaur fight back.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of the Forest]

((Yes, her name is Czarina))

Czarina yelps at the sight of the flames, and quickly dodges it. Ducking for cover behind a bush (... or, the burn up husk that was a bush...), she takes aim and fires at Flames. Assuming it hits (Czarina is unsure if it will, as she doesn't know the creature's reaction time), it should cause little more than unconsciousness for ten to twenty minutes. In the meantime, however, the bush leaves most of Czarina very much exposed.

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of forest]

Flame is hit and she falls back very ungracefully, smacking her head on the ground as she does. For the moment, she's dazed. Ooh, Grendar does not like that.

Grendar lunges forwards, grabbing for the creatures tail. Graaaaar! He screams. It might be gnollish, or it may simply be Grendar's signature scream. Either way, he's not very happy.

The other gnoll steps over Flame to shield her, should the dinosaur think of firing something more dangerous that he could take, but a delicate human couldn't. No sense in losing two good Catchers, is there?

The whip, Grendar! Calls Kordak, laughing. He's enjoying the show.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of the Forest]

A whip?

Oh, what she wouldn't do for an emergency transport right now... She quickly runs about five meters further away, taking position behind a burnt log (though if the Gnolls have any ranged weaponry, this leaves her open to them).

Assuming she reaches the log unimpeded, she will try to snipe Grendar with a phaser beam, also set for stun. If they do start firing/throwing weapons... well, exactly what happens depends on what weapons they have.

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of the forest]

Yes, a whip. A gigantic, nasty, spiked, sharp whip that Grendar has suddenly been reminded he possesses. He pulls it from his belt and looks at it stupidly for a few moments.

Then the phaser beam hits him. The stun doesn't really work on him, but it's almost like being stung by a bee, sharp and momentarily painful. Hey! He cracks the whip at her. As she's behind a log it may miss or it may hit her face or chest.

The other gnolls and slaves do... absolutely nothing. Grendar enjoys disciplinary actions and he's probably having fun right now. Cutting in would be a huge mistake as he might turn against them instead.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of the Forest]

Czarina's face and chest are protected as she ducks behind the log. Her back, however... well, a large strip of flesh has been severely wounded. She roars in pain. Rolling in an attempt to shield her injured flank from more damage, she aims her phaser again.

Well, she did attempt to follow Federation regulation... Oh well. She sets the phaser on its kill setting, and fires. Even if it does hit, that is not a guaranteed killing blow, however; the setting was made with human-sized targets in mind, and even then, some humanoids have been lucky enough to avoid a fatal injury with it.

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of forest]

Grendar isn't one for dodging and the beam hits him in the chest. Uff! He falls back a few steps. The fur on his chest is sizzling and the flesh is seared black. He does not look very happy with that. Brother! He calls, upset.

Kordak doesn't want the smae treatment, but that is his brother out there. He nods at three of the slaves who nervously run over to the fight.

Czarina may want to keep in mind that she's about to fight slaves who weren't actually choosing this action for themselves. They probably don't want to hurt her. But they attempt to nevertheless.

There are three. One female human with a katana, who apologies profusely after every swing that she aims at the dinosaur. One male elf with a longspear who's probably purposely missing Czarina. One male half-ogre with a club. He's actually attempting to damage her.

As for Grendar, he's almost crying. He's a big strong idiot who isn't used to feeling pain. Brother! Brother! He calls unhappily.

[RandomPoster]

[Edge of the Forest]

Eep... This isn't going as expected. She quickly dodges a blow from the katana, and upon hearing the woman apologizing, Czarina quickly realizes that they are slaves. Darn it....

She doesn't want to harm the innocent. And then the blow from that Half-Ogre hits her, and she releases a shriek of pain. She briefly considers running, but she's not sure if they would pursue. Normally, she could run a good twenty three kilometers per hour (and sustain such a speed for about ten minutes), but with her back and leg injuries, that would be reduced to about eleven, at best.

Switching back to stun (she really doesn't want to harm the slaves, after all), she fires first at the Half-Ogre.

[orb_of_blood]

[Edge of Forest]
((If she does want to run, they wouldn't follow her.))

The half-ogre staggers backwards at the force of the shot. He's too big for it to be entirely effective, but it works enough to make him pause for a few minutes.

...okay, I tire of this. Archers? Kordak, upon hearing his brother's cries for help, orders the archers to line up and take aim. There are eight. And careful, those are good slaves, For Andaress' sake, don't kill them! Before the archers fire, he turns and addresses the rest of the slaves. Cleric! We need a cleric!

Ummm, master? Sleet was the cleric.

Kordak sighs. Oh yeah... Sleet... ****, they had no healing!

[RandomPoster]

[The Edge of the Forest]

Eight archers? Yikes.

Well, it seems Czarina has bitten off far more than she could chew. When she hears that they have no healer, however, she does try one thing before she goes; she sets the phaser to "Disintegrate" and aims an intense beam of nadions between the slaves engaging in melee. Hopefully, it will not hit them and will hit its intended target; Grendar. Whatever happens, however, she will turn and run afterwards.

She'll still not make it out of range before the archers can fire, however...