[NEXUS] MagCave VI: What Is a Mag? A Miserable Little Pile of Circuits!

[ThirdEmperor]

Fast Approaching

Anything or anyone hiding close to the surface underground should feel a passing cold, like a gust of wind displaced from winter. Should, for some reason beyond the fathom of sane minds, there be a ghost sensor buried somewhere in the earth surrounding Mount Enn, it will presumably begin sounding eleven kinds of alarm at this point.

For barreling towards the MagCave at this very moment is an insect of very nearly kaiju-esque proportions, divided into four segments each as large as a train car, bristling with countless spindly, icky legs. And lest we forget, it's also carrying a small army.

In fact, unless something stops it, it's going to carry that small army right to the cloning vaults at the heart of the MagCave.

[Lord Magtok]

Revised MagCave Turn Order - TE's position has been changed. All else is the same.

1. Noodlehat
2. Reinholdt
3. Rotting Baron
4. ThirdEmperor
5. Magtok
6. Morty
7. Aric Kale
8. Bushranger
9. Terumitsu
10. C'nor

Radios All Across the Nexus

It's a damn shame you finally found your favorite song on the car radio today, isn't it? I mean, for a thing as awfully timed as this to happen right as the first few notes started playing...that's gotta be karma or something, right?

"Helloooooo Nexus! This is 101.3 K-MAG radio! Your trusted station for MagCave news, music weather, and traffic! Firstly, my sincerest apologies to all those other stations out there that have been subsumed by our signal! Sorry guys, more important things need to be on the airwaves this evening! If I come out of this alive I'll think about finding a way to make it up to you.

Secondly, it's 3:26 Magtok Standard Time, so here's Magtok with the Traffic/Weather MagReport. Magtok?"

"Thanks, Magtok. Heavy storms have battered our beloved Mt. Enn mountainside all afternoon. An area-wide mudslide warning is in effect, thanks to the recent heatwave just prior to the storm. Stay indoors, folks.

Those of you without the sense to leave well enough alone can expect major delays on the most direct route to the MagCave, however, as a large quantity of mud has overturned any plans for breaking the front door down. Sure was stupid of someone to engineer a mudslide that would do that, huh? Additionally, magical brambles and several representatives of Enshadu Opposition Party are illegally parked in the middle of route 12. Law enforcement officials are en route to investigate, but clueless Enshadu and all his dumb goons will already be dead by then, so who cares? That's all the information we have at this time, but we'll keep you posted as the story unfolds. Back to you, Magtok."

"Thanks, Magtok. Now we'll take a break and play some song requests from our callers. First up, Prometheus, ex-AMENite and believed-to-be present day leader of Excelsior has asked us to set the mood for his special visit to a special someone. Here's Baby, by Justin Beiber."

Wow, that's just harsh, Magtok. Also a great way to lose a lot of listeners really fast. I don't expect very many people will be tuning in to any of your later broadcasts if that's the kind of music you open with.


MagCave Interior - Arina

"Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
That's okay, let's see how you do it
Put up your dukes, let's get down to it"

Needs, you're going to have to do more here than just quote Bonnie Tyler and Pat Benatar. You might want to start by actually attacking Arina. Y'know, physically fighting her? The whole reason you're down here, instead of intercepting that ghost APC bug thingy? If you don't act soon, she'll just ignore you and go after that magma, and then-

Holy fudge! I said 'fight her', not 'turn the top half of your entire skull into a writhing mass of H.R. Giger tentacles and then bite her!'

"Ḩ̖͕̖̍ͩͬͅị̝̱̮͚̘͋͟t̶̜̉͒̆ ͍̬̻̣͍̻̭̄̋͂̂ͣͣͨm̹̯̽̓͒̽̕e̯͛ ̺̩͈̼͕͖͘w͔͚̻͙̭̤̮̍̿͆ͧi̼̦̞̥͑̔ͤ̆ͫ͋t̤̺͉̭͉̖̤h̿̇͗͛ͮ̋̐ ̸̣͎ ̺̦̀͆̊ͧ̏̋̚y͓͈̘̰̬̆̀ͨ̅̅͂̕o̳̻̒ͯ͌ͥ͐ͬ́ȕ͎ͥ̉ͫ̍͛r̢͔̝̗ͥ̋̿ͤͥ ̱̖ ̮ͦ̓̑̍̓͛b̧̳e̢̋̑ͨͣs͕͔͕͙̖̈́ͭ̔̉ͨͯͫt̟̯͎͍ͦ̈͊̾̽́ ̺̺͉̠ͯ̌s͍͉h̴̲̥̯̞ͅǒ͍̘͎̺̙͛̐̽̈́ͧt̝̮͓̟̬̺̻̿̐̆."

MagCave Interior - Margret's Room

"More important that threats to Margret be dealt with first. There's only one of you, and while we have tons of machines making more Magtoks, I'd rather not have to build one to make a new you, just because you were shooting at too many bad guys at once. You can still kill a couple, just don't venture too far out from here, okay?"

Magtok heads for the door.

"I have it under control, but I'll let you know if that changes. Keep tea partying, Margret."

Fast Approaching

"Warning, warning! Something strange in your neighborhood!"

Well, it's not quite a ghost sensor, but Needs' kitten Pokemon familiar does accomplish the same thing, more or less. Some MagClones give it an odd look, before abruptly arriving at the intended message. Or, at least, what they assume the intended message is. Whatever the situation, there's something weird, and it don't look good.

"Archy, get the proton packs into the cloning vaults right this instant, activate the Kinder Eggs, if anyone, no matter who, comes within range, and ask 1267-U why my dry-cleaned robes aren't lying in a neatly folded pile on top of my desk like I asked for six minutes ago. If Needs isn't back in five minutes, I want monkeysharks in all Priority Twos, and a goat-drop if Darth Vader and one of the Jedi start grappling."

[Morty]

[On the way to MagCave]

So far, so good. Any robots that are stopped or destroyed by Michalson's spells are robots that the main defences of the cave won't have to deal with. Of course, he doesn't have much juice left before he has to drop the whole thing and try to affect the battle individually, which isn't terribly likely to succeed. But for now, there's one more big spell he can conjure. Better make it count. Hmm.... Probably not much use conjuring another barrier to slow down the robots.

Michalson draws a complicated, strangely obscene sign in the dirt under him with the tip of his staff. He throws three big seeds into seemingly random parts of it. They look as though they're writhing and crawling. He then begins to whisper under his breath as he undoes the bandage on his right hand. The bandage is slid off, revealing a wound that's been there for years and resisted all attempts at closing it. As big a pain as it is, it does prove useful when his magic requires blood... and the magic that infects the wound resonates with what he's about to attempt. He clenches his fist, causing drops of blood to trickle from the injury and moves the hand above the symbol. The blood trickles slowly and droplets fall off, landing on the three seeds. They suck in the blood hungrily and vanish into the earth.

On the battlefield, Enshadu's robots will see that the thorns and the invasive slivers of shadows vanish. They appear to be sucked into the ground, like in some sort of creepy CGI film that's also played backwards. Then, the ground starts to rumble slightly, but it stops.

Just as they might think - inasmuch as an attack robot might think at all - they're in the clear, a new horror is unleashed. This time, huge, twisted branches and trunks are torn out of the mud, forming into three horrible, pitch-black creatures that roughly resemble treants or spriggans - but ones no druid would ever come near. They're taller than an adult male human and much wider, with twisted, crooked arms and legs. Each of them has a pair of small, glowing yellow eyes at the top of the "torso". Without so much as a sound, they lunge at the robots, trying to tear through them with massive strength, great speed and boundless appetite for destruction.

[Aric Kale]

[On the way to MagCave]

So far, so good. Any robots that are stopped or destroyed by Michalson's spells are robots that the main defences of the cave won't have to deal with. Of course, he doesn't have much juice left before he has to drop the whole thing and try to affect the battle individually, which isn't terribly likely to succeed. But for now, there's one more big spell he can conjure. Better make it count. Hmm.... Probably not much use conjuring another barrier to slow down the robots.

Michalson draws a complicated, strangely obscene sign in the dirt under him with the tip of his staff. He throws three big seeds into seemingly random parts of it. They look as though they're writhing and crawling. He then begins to whisper under his breath as he undoes the bandage on his right hand. The bandage is slid off, revealing a wound that's been there for years and resisted all attempts at closing it. As big a pain as it is, it does prove useful when his magic requires blood... and the magic that infects the wound resonates with what he's about to attempt. He clenches his fist, causing drops of blood to trickle from the injury and moves the hand above the symbol. The blood trickles slowly and droplets fall off, landing on the three seeds. They suck in the blood hungrily and vanish into the earth.

On the battlefield, Enshadu's robots will see that the thorns and the invasive slivers of shadows vanish. They appear to be sucked into the ground, like in some sort of creepy CGI film that's also played backwards. Then, the ground starts to rumble slightly, but it stops.

Just as they might think - inasmuch as an attack robot might think at all - they're in the clear, a new horror is unleashed. This time, huge, twisted branches and trunks are torn out of the mud, forming into three horrible, pitch-black creatures that roughly resemble treants or spriggans - but ones no druid would ever come near. They're taller than an adult male human and much wider, with twisted, crooked arms and legs. Each of them has a pair of small, glowing yellow eyes at the top of the "torso". Without so much as a sound, they lunge at the robots, trying to tear through them with massive strength, great speed and boundless appetite for destruction.

Creatures of wood and black magic, eh? Let's see how they face up against black fire.
Zane whips out two frizbees of the same material as the former firespheres, aiming for the chest and legs of the nearest demonic spriggan. Whether he hits or no, Zane will form three basketball sized fireballs and will attempt to repeatedly smash them into aforementioned spriggan. He'll accomplish this by spinning them in a large circlelike track and moving the circle until its edge is touching the demon.

)(Last self post for now. Have fun y'all.)(

[The Bushranger]

MagCave Interior - Arina

"Ooooh, kinky. But hey, you asked for it."

Now, when Needs tries to chow down on Arina, he'll quickly discover two things about the disembodied split-off spirit that are likely to be not to his liking. One being that ectoplasm tastes absolutley disgusting, the other that even as the Zalgo-speak makes her expression turn even more insane-looking and she starts madly giggling as if she's lost her mind (not that it's neccessarily a great loss), even as she punches(?) at Needs to dislodge those annoying nom-nom Geigercles and move back a bit...

...and start chanting in Japanese?

"Tasogare yori mo kuraki mono
Chi no nagare yori akaki mono
Toki no nagare ni umoreshi
Idainaru nanji no na ni oite,"

...


"Ware koko ni yami ni chikawan
Warera ga mae ni tachi fusagarishi
Subete no orokanaru mono ni
Ware to nanji ga chikara mote
Hitoshiku horobi o ataen koto o -"

[Terumitsu]

[MagCave Interior]

Well it would be sufficient to say that there was a flurry of activity at the cyborg's command. It wouldn't be necessary to state that orders would be followed although a few small variations were added into the mix here and there. Particularly with mixing in maybe one or two other sorts of nasty surprises in the form of a pair of rather featureless, black spheres which took up post beside the exits of the cloning rooms and began to blend in with the architecture. Magbots, loaded to bear with rather bulky backpacks were shuffled into the area where they hunkered down for the incoming transport and it's army; ready to fire on the first odd thing that poked it's ugly head into their field of view. Given that Archimedes was playing at direct control, they would be functioning rather more efficiently than one would expect given their reputation... Though why there were a few more Magbots armed with what looked like some sort of biological flamethrower was probably going to get more questions than their performance.

[MagCave Exterior]

With a few of the surviving ant-mines having been able to finally make their way into a more advantageous position, they began the process of self-termination and released their various chemical payloads in bursts of fire and acid. Six blasts centered roughly underneath the wave of Enshadu's troops would erupt from the ground in pillars of corrosive flame, generally making things quite unpleasant for whatever or whomever happened to be nearby at the moment.

Hidden under the noise of the blast, though, would be the rumbling of something much larger underground...

[Hattish Thing]

[MagCave Interior]

Well it would be sufficient to say that there was a flurry of activity at the cyborg's command. It wouldn't be necessary to state that orders would be followed although a few small variations were added into the mix here and there. Particularly with mixing in maybe one or two other sorts of nasty surprises in the form of a pair of rather featureless, black spheres which took up post beside the exits of the cloning rooms and began to blend in with the architecture. Magbots, loaded to bear with rather bulky backpacks were shuffled into the area where they hunkered down for the incoming transport and it's army; ready to fire on the first odd thing that poked it's ugly head into their field of view. Given that Archimedes was playing at direct control, they would be functioning rather more efficiently than one would expect given their reputation... Though why there were a few more Magbots armed with what looked like some sort of biological flamethrower was probably going to get more questions than their performance.

[MagCave Exterior]

With a few of the surviving ant-mines having been able to finally make their way into a more advantageous position, they began the process of self-termination and released their various chemical payloads in bursts of fire and acid. Six blasts centered roughly underneath the wave of Enshadu's troops would erupt from the ground in pillars of corrosive flame, generally making things quite unpleasant for whatever or whomever happened to be nearby at the moment.

Hidden under the noise of the blast, though, would be the rumbling of something much larger underground...

Well, those ant-mines exploding? Have an effect, albeit a dulled one. See, Excelsior had done some research and knew that attacks from underground were to be expected. That's why they dried up everything and brought down a massive storm. The ground is all mud, a sea of mud. So the fire and acid doesn't really do too much. However, three unfortunate Heavyarms get some acid all over. The first is completely toasted, the acid having diintegrated and melted his helmet. The second tow have only decent damage to themselves due to their now destroyed Powerarmor. However, the robots do indeed sense something much larger burrowing underground. So, the HeavyArms stop moving and begin to move back from the area, ready to fire their full blasts at whatever comes out. There's a communication to Daedalus coming in, by the way. Sir, there is something big underground. Orders? We have stopped movement to prepare.

[On the way to MagCave]

So far, so good. Any robots that are stopped or destroyed by Michalson's spells are robots that the main defences of the cave won't have to deal with. Of course, he doesn't have much juice left before he has to drop the whole thing and try to affect the battle individually, which isn't terribly likely to succeed. But for now, there's one more big spell he can conjure. Better make it count. Hmm.... Probably not much use conjuring another barrier to slow down the robots.

Michalson draws a complicated, strangely obscene sign in the dirt under him with the tip of his staff. He throws three big seeds into seemingly random parts of it. They look as though they're writhing and crawling. He then begins to whisper under his breath as he undoes the bandage on his right hand. The bandage is slid off, revealing a wound that's been there for years and resisted all attempts at closing it. As big a pain as it is, it does prove useful when his magic requires blood... and the magic that infects the wound resonates with what he's about to attempt. He clenches his fist, causing drops of blood to trickle from the injury and moves the hand above the symbol. The blood trickles slowly and droplets fall off, landing on the three seeds. They suck in the blood hungrily and vanish into the earth.

On the battlefield, Enshadu's robots will see that the thorns and the invasive slivers of shadows vanish. They appear to be sucked into the ground, like in some sort of creepy CGI film that's also played backwards. Then, the ground starts to rumble slightly, but it stops.

Just as they might think - inasmuch as an attack robot might think at all - they're in the clear, a new horror is unleashed. This time, huge, twisted branches and trunks are torn out of the mud, forming into three horrible, pitch-black creatures that roughly resemble treants or spriggans - but ones no druid would ever come near. They're taller than an adult male human and much wider, with twisted, crooked arms and legs. Each of them has a pair of small, glowing yellow eyes at the top of the "torso". Without so much as a sound, they lunge at the robots, trying to tear through them with massive strength, great speed and boundless appetite for destruction.

Well, looks like Zane is torching them. The wicked trees have erupted around the honor guard surrounding Zane. So, they targeted the biggest and strongest first. Of the robots attacked, only two of the twenty-five actually take damage. One of them is destroyed. The first two raise their shields and try not to move too much. However, the massive trees still deal good damage to them. The first has his shield shatter, taking only minor damage, while the second has his arm completely torn off. The third has his skull crushed and body dented. Of course, then the twenty five begin to fire at the trees with expert precision. Plus, they're firing E14's who's ammo can go through anything, and even dent elementium. Twenty-five shots are fired, centered on the three trees. (Also, the trees might have trouble moving about seeing as the ground is a sea of mud.)

Revised MagCave Turn Order - TE's position has been changed. All else is the same.

1. Noodlehat
2. Reinholdt
3. Rotting Baron
4. ThirdEmperor
5. Magtok
6. Morty
7. Aric Kale
8. Bushranger
9. Terumitsu
10. C'nor

Radios All Across the Nexus

It's a damn shame you finally found your favorite song on the car radio today, isn't it? I mean, for a thing as awfully timed as this to happen right as the first few notes started playing...that's gotta be karma or something, right?

"Helloooooo Nexus! This is 101.3 K-MAG radio! Your trusted station for MagCave news, music weather, and traffic! Firstly, my sincerest apologies to all those other stations out there that have been subsumed by our signal! Sorry guys, more important things need to be on the airwaves this evening! If I come out of this alive I'll think about finding a way to make it up to you.

Secondly, it's 3:26 Magtok Standard Time, so here's Magtok with the Traffic/Weather MagReport. Magtok?"

"Thanks, Magtok. Heavy storms have battered our beloved Mt. Enn mountainside all afternoon. An area-wide mudslide warning is in effect, thanks to the recent heatwave just prior to the storm. Stay indoors, folks.

Those of you without the sense to leave well enough alone can expect major delays on the most direct route to the MagCave, however, as a large quantity of mud has overturned any plans for breaking the front door down. Sure was stupid of someone to engineer a mudslide that would do that, huh? Additionally, magical brambles and several representatives of Enshadu Opposition Party are illegally parked in the middle of route 12. Law enforcement officials are en route to investigate, but clueless Enshadu and all his dumb goons will already be dead by then, so who cares? That's all the information we have at this time, but we'll keep you posted as the story unfolds. Back to you, Magtok."

"Thanks, Magtok. Now we'll take a break and play some song requests from our callers. First up, Prometheus, ex-AMENite and believed-to-be present day leader of Excelsior has asked us to set the mood for his special visit to a special someone. Here's Baby, by Justin Beiber."

Wow, that's just harsh, Magtok. Also a great way to lose a lot of listeners really fast. I don't expect very many people will be tuning in to any of your later broadcasts if that's the kind of music you open with.


MagCave Interior - Arina

"Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me
That's okay, let's see how you do it
Put up your dukes, let's get down to it"

Needs, you're going to have to do more here than just quote Bonnie Tyler and Pat Benatar. You might want to start by actually attacking Arina. Y'know, physically fighting her? The whole reason you're down here, instead of intercepting that ghost APC bug thingy? If you don't act soon, she'll just ignore you and go after that magma, and then-

Holy fudge! I said 'fight her', not 'turn the top half of your entire skull into a writhing mass of H.R. Giger tentacles and then bite her!'

"Ḩ̖͕̖̍ͩͬͅị̝̱̮͚̘͋͟t̶̜̉͒̆ ͍̬̻̣͍̻̭̄̋͂̂ͣͣͨm̹̯̽̓͒̽̕e̯͛ ̺̩͈̼͕͖͘w͔͚̻͙̭̤̮̍̿͆ͧi̼̦̞̥͑̔ͤ̆ͫ͋t̤̺͉̭͉̖̤ḥ̸͎̿̇͗͛ͮ ̋̐ ̺̦̀͆̊ͧ̏̋̚y͓͈̘̰̬̆̀ͨ̅̅͂̕o̳̻̒ͯ͌ͥ͐ͬ́ȕ͎ͥ̉ͫ̍͛r̢͔̝̗̱̖ͥ̋̿ͤ ͥ ̮ͦ̓̑̍̓͛b̧̳e̢̋̑ͨͣs͕͔͕͙̖̈́ͭ̔̉ͨͯͫt̟̯͎͍ͦ̈͊̾̽́ ̺̺͉̠ͯ̌s͍͉h̴̲̥̯̞ͅǒ͍̘͎̺̙͛̐̽̈́ͧt̝̮͓̟̬̺̻̿̐̆."

MagCave Interior - Margret's Room

"More important that threats to Margret be dealt with first. There's only one of you, and while we have tons of machines making more Magtoks, I'd rather not have to build one to make a new you, just because you were shooting at too many bad guys at once. You can still kill a couple, just don't venture too far out from here, okay?"

Magtok heads for the door.

"I have it under control, but I'll let you know if that changes. Keep tea partying, Margret."

Fast Approaching

"Warning, warning! Something strange in your neighborhood!"

Well, it's not quite a ghost sensor, but Needs' kitten Pokemon familiar does accomplish the same thing, more or less. Some MagClones give it an odd look, before abruptly arriving at the intended message. Or, at least, what they assume the intended message is. Whatever the situation, there's something weird, and it don't look good.

"Archy, get the proton packs into the cloning vaults right this instant, activate the Kinder Eggs, if anyone, no matter who, comes within range, and ask 1267-U why my dry-cleaned robes aren't lying in a neatly folded pile on top of my desk like I asked for six minutes ago. If Needs isn't back in five minutes, I want monkeysharks in all Priority Twos, and a goat-drop if Darth Vader and one of the Jedi start grappling."

Well. Enshadu of course notices the signal going out to radios, having been told to monitor radiowaves for communication. Which means "Baby, Baby." is playing in his head. That is unacceptable. So, another part of Enshadu's powerful brain sets itself to attempt to send out a signal to subsume Magtok's own. The first words said are Kiss Magtok goodbye, Nexus. All who oppose him, feel free to take bets. Perhaps I'll auction off his head. , however a very different song begins to play over the radiowaves afterwards. Every war needs a good song.

Fast Approaching

Anything or anyone hiding close to the surface underground should feel a passing cold, like a gust of wind displaced from winter. Should, for some reason beyond the fathom of sane minds, there be a ghost sensor buried somewhere in the earth surrounding Mount Enn, it will presumably begin sounding eleven kinds of alarm at this point.

For barreling towards the MagCave at this very moment is an insect of very nearly kaiju-esque proportions, divided into four segments each as large as a train car, bristling with countless spindly, icky legs. And lest we forget, it's also carrying a small army.

In fact, unless something stops it, it's going to carry that small army right to the cloning vaults at the heart of the MagCave.

Mhm, yes it is. In fact, many cultists are aboard the worm, including a very tall shadowy figure in a robe that doesn't quite fit him. He's wearing a blank mask to hide his face as well. His robe bulges in odd ways.

(OOC: Third, IS The Grandfather aboard as well? And when shall the Drilltanks be appearing?)

MagCave Interior - Margret's Room

"You don't want me to stop them from getting inside? Threats to Daddy should be E͚̲͔̺͉̩̔͆ͯͬ͌̚̕l͚̀̾̓̍̇͋̈̎ͪ͜i̤͕ͮ̄ͣͣ̋ͤ̄͌͜m͚̲ͥ̿̈̽i̝̝̇͝ ͅn̿͆͆͏̱͚̗͇̣̜a̛̯͉͓͔͍̫̗ͪ͒ͫͥ̈ͩt̠̻͍̱̙̿ͤ̽͟e̛͇̪̙͚̮̞̰̺͉͗̈ ̆̃̈̔ͦ̚͠d̖̦̞͎̬̅ͣͣ͆. Right?" Of course, if we remember the original tea party, said threats also included an everyday normal butterfly that landed on Magtok's robes once. Oh the massive explosions that were nearly had.

Margret smiles up at Magtok sweetly.

Sky over there

Yeesh. Firing into the sky randomly now? That's just mean, robots.
Fortunately Rein's far enough out that he has time to get out of the way. His original intention after all was just to snipe the hell out of Enshadu until one or the other got too annoyed to deal with it anymore. That stupid fog's still messing up his plans.

Reinholdt swoops and swerves a bit to avoid another pair of shots that decided to head his way instead of the bazillion other ways and angles they could have gone. Least he doesn't have to worry about an entire barrage.

Time to use an old trick he hadn't had to use since the days of the dire winter that happened way back when he first arrived in the Nexus and had to beat giant frost wurms for treasure. Pulling out his fireball wand and clasping it close to his rifle, he takes aim, mutters a quick incantation to imbue the ammo and fires.

The totally normal rifle bullet will travel until it hits something, even if that something is the ground (a distinct possibility) and then explode in a fireball spell effect. It's nice, but it eats up wand charges like no one's business. Rein's hoping to catch Enshadu in the blast but even if he doesn't, he might be able to burn away some of that blasted fog.

This is a poorly aimed attack with a moderate radius directed at the people in the fog area.

Entrance to MagCave

Enshadu may be stronger, faster, and more powerful than any man, but the Operative isn't anywhere close to a man, however his appearance suggests. The lightsabers don't meet anything but mist, as the Operative moves behind Enshadu and tries pushing him through sheer psychic force, into the path of the oncoming holy energy. He doesn't respond to the taunt.

Although the bolt doesn't hit the Operative, it does cause the fog to dissipate somewhat, an effect further compounded by the fireball from Reinholdt's rifle. Enshadu and the Operative are more or less clearly visible now.

Oh. Shots. Well, fire. Enshadu knows it's coming, but doesn't seem to care. In fact, he stands as the fireball hits him squarely. Of course, the fire has no effect on him. Though it does start top eat away at his coat. How annoying. The ground around him is wet and muddy, and remains unaffected.

Enshadu just keeps striding towards the Operative, now on fire. Enshadu does notice that The Operative cannot be targeted by his sabers. Well, it's good he was implanted with the better chip. He attempts to use his telekinesis to forcibly dispel The Operative's magic. It might fail. Oh. Reinholdt in the sky. With a gun. Enshadu teleports! He teleports into another part of the fog, hidden from Reinholdt.

In fact, now Reinholdt might feel a powerful force begin to pull him. Enshadu is attempting to pull Reinholdt right out of the sky. He's using his telekinesis to cause Reinholdt to hurdle right into the ground.

Unfortunately, Enshadu apparently teleports back at the bottom of the mountain. Great. He begins to ready his flight capabilities.

[Reinholdt]

Sky over there

I highly doubt the ground is on fire, being all wet and muddy, but that's just my opinion.

Ah telekinesis, Rein's old foe. That hasn't been used and abused on him many times before. He even built up a tolerance to the stuff. Of course, tolerance isn't immunity and he's forced to actively fly upwards against the force to prevent himself from getting dragged down to the ground. The initial use of it certainly threw him down a bit, but he's recovered somewhat and certainly not on the ground. Of course, this all still makes aiming so incredibly difficult. Not that he bothers trying to pull off a shot this round as his target's disappeared.

Though not into the fog like he wants. I do believe he's made a tactical error and forgotten about the anti-teleportation field that's screwing with teleports around here. In fact, if I'm recalling things correctly, I do believe Enshadu has successfully just inadvertently teleported himself right off the field of battle, as it shunts him over there. This actually makes it easier for Rein to shoot at him, though he's going to need time to readjust and find him again as it. Though someone else can correct me if this is not the case.

As a side note, I'm not sure there's even fog left to hide in quite that thoroughly anymore. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

Regardless, he affects no one else this round, sadly.

MagCave Interior - Margret's Room

"Alright daddy. Have fun!"
Baron Badger needs a tea refill anyways.

[Devixer]

MagCave Entrance

Whatever fog is left is too thin for Enshadu to hide in. Not that it matters, as Enshadu was actually teleported to the base of the mountain via Magtok's warding field. Because of this, the Operative's psionics remain un-disrupted. Of course, since his psychic abilities aren't like any traditional magic, I doubt that Ensahu could disrupt him anyway.

The Operative waits for Enshadu to come back up the mountain, not affecting anyone this round.

[Lady Serpentine]

((Jumping in here due to not having anyone else in the fight and everyone in that section having posted...

Also, my apologies to Magtok for kinda stealing his style; the post got into my head this way and would not convert properly. I will endeavor to not do so in the future.))

[MagCave Entrance (Catmen in the Sky with Paladins?)]

Somewhere overhead, the flying paladin chooses to... Sheathe her sword and point at The Operative?

...

I don't think you're going to make him surrender by looking stern, Kary. Really might want to try actually doing something at some point. Such as now, before he thinks to go after whoever shot that beam of holy light at him, seeing as -

Well, okay, that works. A hail of exploding light-bullets ought to distract him, and possibly blind him, especially given they seem to be making really bright flashes and four-foot holes in the ground, not that the latter are staying, with it being mud.

None of them will hit him, of course. They're just distractions. That particular little spell is tied to a scroll, now gone, that she picked up prior to the battle; each of those is tied to earth, hence the rather impressive damage done to the ground, and wouldn't have nearly that effect if they did, so she's actually aiming to avoid him. Though I suppose that if some do anyway, he'd probably still get at least somewhat hurt.

In any case, the main attack is the two demons that spring into being behind The Operative a moment later.

The first is a squat, bloated, humanoid, perhaps four feet tall, and oddly flabby for a thing meant to fight, though it does have a set of vicious claws on each hand; its back is covered in fungi, and pus oozes from splits in the grey skin, matting the patches of brown fur scattered apparently at random across its body. It charges, slashing wildly at him; given that the foul-smelling stuff leaking out if it is coating those claws, it's presumable that something nasty would happen if it hits, despite its lack of strength.

The second is a writhing white grub with a deformed, but still recognizably human mouth; said grub is set onto a tumorous, five-limbed (three left, two right) body, broad and muscular, each leg ending in either a wide hoof or a bony protrusion seemingly meant as a blade.

Instead of charging like the other, it begins chanting in a strange, high-pitched, language, presumably preparing some sort of spell; should The Operative, or anyone else who can hear it, be familiar with the various demonic tongues, they can probably recognize that it's preparing to summon something else.

((All of that is assuming no interruptions, of course.))

[ThirdEmperor]

Cloning Room

"Keep th'army movin' an send th'ghosties t'deal, rust bucket." Day's got more important things on his mind now. ETA is, oh, five seconds...

Four now..

Three..

Two..

One..


There is a disconcerting lack of giant ghost bugs flying through the wall of the cloning vault. In fact, there's a considerable lack of any at all for the waiting ghostbug busters to zap with their fancy ray technology. Two more seconds tick by...

And then a yawning, thousand-toothed mouth rising from the ground beneath the largest concentration of MagBots, turning corporeal as it passes through the floor and snapping shut with enough force to cleave through metal.

Hopefully, the MagBots weren't too tightly clustered. Or fast enough not to be completely wiped out by Day's stellar Jaws impression.


Inside the Ghostwurm

The Einherjar soldiers rise from their seats, checking weapons and adjusting their armor. Two disappear into the next segment on and return pushing a metal crate, removing the lid to reveal dozens of plasma rifles packed in styrofoam.
"Anyone who doesn't got one, get one. Shoot to kill, no prisoners, no hesitation. If you've got spells or whatever else, prep up now."

The seven battlemages aboard are muttering quietly beneath their masks, tendrils of soft blue light wrapping around the various occupants of the transport before fading into the air. A little added protection from incoming firepower, although spread across too many to really be effective.

Moving to the front of the car, Prometheus addresses the assembled troops. "We have hostiles in the room ahead, armed with nonstandard weaponry. Our best estimate is some manner of high-powered energy beam. Grandfather." He turns to the where the cultists and their creations sit, gesturing to the panel in the ghostwurm's side they entered by. "Ready your golems. They will be the first wave, providing cover for the second, my brothers. When I give the signal again, the rest of you are to follow. Understood?"

[Lord Magtok]

MagCave Interior - Arina

Spoiler

Show

MagCave Interior - Arina

"Ooooh, kinky. But hey, you asked for it."

Now, when Needs tries to chow down on Arina, he'll quickly discover two things about the disembodied split-off spirit that are likely to be not to his liking. One being that ectoplasm tastes absolutley disgusting, the other that even as the Zalgo-speak makes her expression turn even more insane-looking and she starts madly giggling as if she's lost her mind (not that it's neccessarily a great loss), even as she punches(?) at Needs to dislodge those annoying nom-nom Geigercles and move back a bit...

...and start chanting in Japanese?

"Tasogare yori mo kuraki mono
Chi no nagare yori akaki mono
Toki no nagare ni umoreshi
Idainaru nanji no na ni oite,"

...


"Ware koko ni yami ni chikawan
Warera ga mae ni tachi fusagarishi
Subete no orokanaru mono ni
Ware to nanji ga chikara mote
Hitoshiku horobi o ataen koto o -"

Needs frowns, inasmuch as the Giger monstrosity currently occupying his face can frown. The next word out of Arina's mouth is likely to be 'Purrloin'. The word after that is probably going to be 'Purrloin', too. And the next few words as well, unless she notices that a magical cat seems to have seized her tongue, and reverses the spell accordingly.

"G̘̤͖̹ͩ̑͜o̺̝͕̻̺̅̊̒́ ͎̪̟͖ͥͫ͊ͭ̌ͅh̬͢o̷̼̱͐͆́͑̏͂m̨̻̮͕ͣͤ̓ͯ͐ͤ̄e͓͖͉̳ͤ́ͦ̇̂ͤ͐ͅ,̥ ̗͎̦̥ ̜́̔̓̎ͫͦͨḀ̬͎͔̋͗r̴̺̪̬̽iͮ͌̅ͯͯ́̑ň̞̠̳̪̖̺̈̊͂a͉̰̾ͦ̽́̈͌̅ ̟.̲̜̹̙͔͍̆ͯ́́̈́̓̇ ͋ͬ͐̓͂I̿ͦ̎͌̇ͣ̾ ̣̩͖̺̕d͌͡o̙͆ͫ͂͂ͫ͗ͬn̮̞̍ͫ̇̎ͬ'̬̞͈̮̙̘͕̆͗ͬͭͨͫ͜ṫ̘̣͌͝ ̺ ̰̘̎͑͌w͖͕̰̱̏ͯ̅̚͡a̷̜̳͇̬͌̓ͭ͛͛̆n̙̜͙̽ͭ̔͂͝ͅt̤̟͙͆̍ͧ̎ ̳̟̀̐ͬͥ͢ṫ̻̠͉̹̑̆͝ŏ̩̳̙͖͔̒ͫ ͔̩͋̋́͟k̜̳̫͉͆̌i̤̠̟̗̝̯̝̓̾̍̎͐̒l̛̺̖̩̻̰̙͆̃̌l̶̞̩̯͕ ̨͎͇̥̗ͨ̊ͤ̎̚ỷ̯͇̼ͦ̕ô͂̅̇̉̀̎ȕ͔̥̞̝̩͉̖̐̂̽ͥͤ͢,̨͇̘͍̫ ̵̼̝̝ͭ͛b͖̂͘ṵt̄̎̆ͥ̔̎ ̑ͤt͚̣͈͎͍ͩ̓͟hi͆͆̐s̰͈͔̭͚͕̿̈̉͑ ̤̳̥̎ͭͮì̴̯̲̝͙̋̾̾̓̚s̖̹͊̅͗̀̈́ͅ ͣ̃͋ͣ̂͑w̺̗̼͇̪͓̻̿̐ͣͦ̋h̪͖͇̪͕̯̰̅ͬͫ͞e̊͊͠r̟̼̋ẽ͎̦͇̪̻̎̏̾ͧ ̜̭ ̠ͣ͂̀ṃ̦̹̖̔̆̎̐̇ͧͬ͘y͍͉̝̠͇̗̹̐ͥ̒͌̎ ͔̺̟͕̳̬̖͐͋f̱̯͉̈́̿̾̈́ͪ͘a̩̣̺̗̮ͥ͊̈ͨ̒͊̿ͅm̬ͪͩ̔i̱̜̝̺̺̰͇̍l̔̑ ̧̟̤͖͚ͧ̎̋̊ͧy̼̾̋̒ͫ̀ ̜̍ͧ͋͆̾ͫͫl̬̬ͥͦͣi͎̩̲ͣ̄́͂̈ͣv̛̙͗̋̋̑̍e̦̬̫ͬ̒́s̫ͤ̉̆̿.ͮ̈ͪ̽ ̭͋͡"

Needs Food Badly hovers closer, inky black fluid pulsing in the air around him, the angles of his body all wrong, in ways that hurt the eyes to look directly upon. He raises up an arm, a crusty, barnacle-ridden lobster claw of an arm, and a dark void gathers between his pincers.

Cloning Room

Spoiler

Show

Cloning Room

"Keep th'army movin' an send th'ghosties t'deal, rust bucket." Day's got more important things on his mind now. ETA is, oh, five seconds...

Four now..

Three..

Two..

One..


There is a disconcerting lack of giant ghost bugs flying through the wall of the cloning vault. In fact, there's a considerable lack of any at all for the waiting ghostbug busters to zap with their fancy ray technology. Two more seconds tick by...

And then a yawning, thousand-toothed mouth rising from the ground beneath the largest concentration of MagBots, turning corporeal as it passes through the floor and snapping shut with enough force to cleave through metal.

Hopefully, the MagBots weren't too tightly clustered. Or fast enough not to be completely wiped out by Day's stellar Jaws impression.


Inside the Ghostwurm

The Einherjar soldiers rise from their seats, checking weapons and adjusting their armor. Two disappear into the next segment on and return pushing a metal crate, removing the lid to reveal dozens of plasma rifles packed in styrofoam.
"Anyone who doesn't got one, get one. Shoot to kill, no prisoners, no hesitation. If you've got spells or whatever else, prep up now."

The seven battlemages aboard are muttering quietly beneath their masks, tendrils of soft blue light wrapping around the various occupants of the transport before fading into the air. A little added protection from incoming firepower, although spread across too many to really be effective.

Moving to the front of the car, Prometheus addresses the assembled troops. "We have hostiles in the room ahead, armed with nonstandard weaponry. Our best estimate is some manner of high-powered energy beam. Grandfather." He turns to the where the cultists and their creations sit, gesturing to the panel in the ghostwurm's side they entered by. "Ready your golems. They will be the first wave, providing cover for the second, my brothers. When I give the signal again, the rest of you are to follow. Understood?"

"****! Archie, what the **** is that thing?!"

A Magtok encased in power armor backs away, retreating from the hideous worm-monster as quickly as his repulsors will allow. Best leave this one to Archimede's Magbots; he couldn't even get a good look at that thing as it went by.

[Morty]

[On the way to MagCave]

((Since it's not your place to say that the acid and fire bombs are stopped by the mud, and you haven't edited it despite being asked to do so, I'm not going to take that part of the post into account. I'll put it into my next post, after you edit your last one.))

If Zane expected the shadow-treats to go up in flames, he's going to be disappointed. The fire does not affect them like it would regular wood. In fact, it seems to be subdued by the gravely chill that surrounds them. The flames do burn through the brambles and branches, but slowly.

Then a hail of bullets buffets into the treants. They tear through the shadowy substance, ripping off bits and chunks of black miasma. However, the wounds seem to regenerate frighteningly quickly, and some of the separated parts float or crawl back and rejoin the bodies. All this makes actually destroying the treants a painfully slow process... and the parts that don't rejoin the treants turn into a vicious acid that sprays the attackers.

What is more, as Zane and the robots continue their arduous task of damaging the shadow monsters, each wound inflicted seems to increase their ferocity. As they're burned by the magical fire and ripped with missiles, they grow stronger, faster and more savage, while continuing to single-mindedly assault the enemy forces.

[ThirdEmperor]

On the Way

Fire leaping from the ground, death raining down from above, shadows rising to the attack, the storm still raging. This war is turning into quite the fine mess. And with Enshadu having booted himself down the mountain, and Excelsior busy with their own designs...

That would leave Zane in charge, wouldn't it.

"Cyborgs, grab them and hold them back!" With a wave of his hand Zane conjures another fireball, drawing dark fire from the air and twisting it into shape. "HeavyArms, focus fire on the trees! Combat bots try to hit the one in the air! Spread out! Don't stay clustered together" He directs the robots with the point of his blade, trying to marshal them into something resembling an organized front.

With a snap of his wrist he hurls the fireball over the heads of the riot troopers and towards the nearest shadow tree. If it hits it'll explode like the others, but there's a second trick this time- The fire implodes upon itself after the initial impact, trying to flow into the creature's wounds and there take physical form. If it works the sudden solidification should tear the creature apart from the inside.

But whether it works or not, that sort of magic has a cost.

[The Bushranger]

MagCave Interior - Arina

Needs frowns, inasmuch as the Giger monstrosity currently occupying his face can frown. The next word out of Arina's mouth is likely to be 'Purrloin'. The word after that is probably going to be 'Purrloin', too. And the next few words as well, unless she notices that a magical cat seems to have seized her tongue, and reverses the spell accordingly.

"G̘̤͖̹ͩ̑͜o̺̝͕̻̺̅̊̒́ ͎̪̟͖ͥͫ͊ͭ̌ͅh̬͢o̷̼̱͐͆́͑̏͂m̨̻̮͕ͣͤ̓ͯ͐ͤ̄e͓͖͉̳ͤ́ͦ̇̂ͤ͐ͅ,̥ ̗͎̦̥ ̜́̔̓̎ͫͦͨḀ̬͎͔̋͗r̴̺̪̬̽iͮ͌̅ͯͯ́̑ň̞̠̳̪̖̺̈̊͂a͉̰̾ͦ̽́̈͌̅ ̟.̲̜̹̙͔͍̆ͯ́́̈́̓̇ ͋ͬ͐̓͂I̿ͦ̎͌̇ͣ̾ ̣̩͖̺̕d͌͡o̙͆ͫ͂͂ͫ͗ͬn̮̞̍ͫ̇̎ͬ'̬̞͈̮̙̘͕̆͗ͬͭͨͫ͜ṫ̘̣͌͝ ̺ ̰̘̎͑͌w͖͕̰̱̏ͯ̅̚͡a̷̜̳͇̬͌̓ͭ͛͛̆n̙̜͙̽ͭ̔͂͝ͅt̤̟͙͆̍ͧ̎ ̳̟̀̐ͬͥ͢ṫ̻̠͉̹̑̆͝ŏ̩̳̙͖͔̒ͫ ͔̩͋̋́͟k̜̳̫͉͆̌i̤̠̟̗̝̯̝̓̾̍̎͐̒l̛̺̖̩̻̰̙͆̃̌l̶̞̩̯͕ ̨͎͇̥̗ͨ̊ͤ̎̚ỷ̯͇̼ͦ̕ô͂̅̇̉̀̎ȕ͔̥̞̝̩͉̖̐̂̽ͥͤ͢,̨͇̘͍̫ ̵̼̝̝ͭ͛b͖̂͘ṵt̄̎̆ͥ̔̎ ̑ͤt͚̣͈͎͍ͩ̓͟hi͆͆̐s̰͈͔̭͚͕̿̈̉͑ ̤̳̥̎ͭͮì̴̯̲̝͙̋̾̾̓̚s̖̹͊̅͗̀̈́ͅ ͣ̃͋ͣ̂͑w̺̗̼͇̪͓̻̿̐ͣͦ̋h̪͖͇̪͕̯̰̅ͬͫ͞e̊͊͠r̟̼̋ẽ͎̦͇̪̻̎̏̾ͧ ̜̭ ̠ͣ͂̀ṃ̦̹̖̔̆̎̐̇ͧͬ͘y͍͉̝̠͇̗̹̐ͥ̒͌̎ ͔̺̟͕̳̬̖͐͋f̱̯͉̈́̿̾̈́ͪ͘a̩̣̺̗̮ͥ͊̈ͨ̒͊̿ͅm̬ͪͩ̔i̱̜̝̺̺̰͇̍l̔̑ ̧̟̤͖͚ͧ̎̋̊ͧy̼̾̋̒ͫ̀ ̜̍ͧ͋͆̾ͫͫl̬̬ͥͦͣi͎̩̲ͣ̄́͂̈ͣv̛̙͗̋̋̑̍e̦̬̫ͬ̒́s̫ͤ̉̆̿.ͮ̈ͪ̽ ̭͋͡"

Needs Food Badly hovers closer, inky black fluid pulsing in the air around him, the angles of his body all wrong, in ways that hurt the eyes to look directly upon. He raises up an arm, a crusty, barnacle-ridden lobster claw of an arm, and a dark void gathers between his pincers.

Reversing the spell makes the ghost's eyes widen in surprise as the energy of the Dragon Slave spell channels into her, rather than out! And as that lobster-mobster claw of Needs rises, her eyes follow it, gloing bright green, almost white -

Wheee eye lazors! Sheza firin' 'em! Right at that dark void, then turning her head so that they go to slice across The Claw, even as she backs away in the direction of the MagMa.

[Terumitsu]

[Cloning Room... Or Whatever May Be Left Of It..]
((Moving this into it's place as I totally forgot about BR. My bad))


...Well. This was going to be eventful although the words 'Perfect Storm' might be more appropriate.

Given that Archie had at least a modicum of sense pertaining to how groupings should be made in confined areas, only three Magbots would be eaten; two with proton packs and one with that flamethrower thing. Generally, a sensible formation given that the intangible ghost thing was going to be coming out of the walls or what have you and having them at the forefront would simply be the most prudent placing.

If the Magbots had been carrying any other kind of weapon, this would have been admirable tactics. Clearing the area was generally a smart thing to do. But when one's foe is carrying around small, nuclear powered particle accelerators that have disastrous effects when their field of influences interact... Well, 'You're gonna have a bad time.' doesn't even begin to cover it. As the thousands of teeth sheer away at the equipment and their devices, the organic flamethrower went first in a magnificent explosion as the chemicals inside violently reacted with the air and created a thick cloud of toxic, acidic, and currently burning substance that seemed to be doing a better job at eating away at the Magbots than the teeth. This burst, potent as it was, would seem like a firecracker as the proton packs went next. Given their properties, the ghostly intangibility that had been an asset of the Ghostwurm would very likely be as if it wasn't a factor at all.. But even then, the raw chain reaction of molecular bonds being severed and their energy being released would lead to one hell of a transdimentional boom. Not necessarily large but definitely extremely concentrated though it would easily obliterate a good 15 meter radius around it.

Total protonic reversal indeed.

Perhaps as a bit of luck, the blast wave from the detonation would blow back everything that hadn't been at the epicenter. Else, a chain reaction of these sorts of explosions would be merrily wrecking their way through the Cave and generally making a mess of things. Still, Magtok may very well find himself quite pleased to be encased in armor as the force of the blast would likely send him through a wall or three. Thinking prudently, Archie directed the few Magbots that would still be functioning to turn off their packs and those of others which had been deactivated once the dust began to settle. The A.I. neglected on answering immediately as, well, it was taken by complete surprise as well.

But as for the Ghostwurm? Well.. Given that mouths are usually where the heads are and heads carry brains... It was probably very unlikely that, unless it had some perverse aberration of anatomy that allowed it to survive such a massive shock to the system and probably without a head (and quite a lot of neck and maybe body for that matter), it was not going to find itself among the living for very long... Which may spell disaster for those inside given how they would very likely be shunted back into the same space as a lot of rock and earth.. But then again, large things do die slowly and if there was some chance to force it out of the ground before it fully kicked it, there would at least be a chance for survival.. Though it would likely lead to disembarkation at the bottom of a large, smoking hole for the troops involved.

Though this would likely be a bit of a disorienting way to enter the battlefield..

((The 'you done goofed' link is meant to be humorous and not taunting or out of spite or meanness))

[MagCave Exterior]

Zane may find the earth under his feet begin to shake... Although if he was still under the effect of being just above the ground then this forewarning would likely be lost on him. A huge, chitinous, wormlike beast with teeth dripping of acidic saliva from a wide maw would erupt from underneath his feet in an attempt to snatch him up and swallow him whole.

Puddin has arrived.

Strangely, though, there wouldn't be an attempt to simply kill him but in the monster's gullet a combination of enzymes would try to strip him of his equipment if he was caught. That intermixed with a strange vapor would try to induce a comatose state although, as before, it would require him being swallowed up first.

[Reinholdt]

Sky over there

Reinholdt recovers from his earlier brush with the powers of cheating and sweeps about, looking for his prey. Certainly the battle has more than enough elements going on to make that rather difficult. There's a bunch of crome there, fire over there, did he maybe teleport inside? If not for Enshadu now being the sole other person outside the 'battle region' as it might be called, Reinholdt may never have noticed him. At least not for another post or two and how boring would that be? The price of being way off to one side, I'm afraid.

But currently Enshadu is off to one side by his lonesome, at least for the short time being, and Rein does spot him. He takes several sniper rifle shots at him, aiming to at the very least keep him busy. He'd specifically aim for the base of Enshadu's weapons just to destroy those, but at this distance, even an experienced sniper like Reinholdt can't do that. Maybe if Rein spent more time practicing with his weapon instead of treasure hunting. Still, hitting Enshadu himself shouldn't be much of a problem.

Bang Bang Bang at Enshadu.

[Devixer]

MagCave Entrance

The beams of light that Karyana shoots at the ground don't do much to distract the Operative. All that they do is alert him to Karyana's position, give or take a few meters. Normally, he'd stop wasting time and just kill her now, but there are a couple of demons coming for him right now.

The first demon isn't a terribly high priority. As it slashes at him, the Operative deflects the incoming blows using a combination of military hand-to-hand combat and his telekinetic powers, shortly before trying to deliver a crushing jab to its eyes. The psychic force behind the punch should be enough to stun the demon for some time, if not outright kill it from the shock.

The second demon requires a bit more attention. The Operative tries to interrupt the summoning through his psychic powers, sending the telepathic equivalent of intense static to its mind in an attempt to block the demon's thoughts.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Cloning Room]

That's one hell of a stomach ache.
Sadly for the MagBots, the wurm's skull is nicely reinforced, turning much of the blast right back at them through it's open maw. Like a very painful laser.

Sadly for the ghostwurm, what doesn't get turned back goes right through it's brainpan, sheering through the equivalents of the cerebrum and diencephalon, as well as all that fancy machinery built in for steering.

Oh, but death comes neither quick nor easy today. Life has a sort of momentum to it for dumb beasts, especially the larger and tougher varieties. The ghostwurm thrashes and flails, lifting into the air in it's death throes.
Then, corporeal form. Bringing with it such things as solidness and, most relevantly, weight.

A few more MagBots are likely to lose their life as several tons of squished bug come crashing down.


[Inside the Belly of the Beast]

There's a sudden lurch and Prometheus' speech is cut off mid-word by the ground going out from under him, the soldiers rattling about like pennies in a washing machine as the whole vehicle twists and turns and-

Slams into the ground, hard. Everything unsecured is hurled against the chitinous wall now defined as the 'floor', the cargo crates breaking open to spill plasma weaponry and little chunks of plastique with legs stuck in across the segment.

General groaning voices the mood of Excelsior at large, but one voice rises up in a guttural growl. His favorite railgun slung over one shoulder, Markus clambers up to the door on the 'ceiling' above, using the bench seats stuck into the new walls as a stepping stone.


[Cloning Place Again]

A scaly green fist smashes open one the numerous chitin panels in the fallen beast's side. It scrabbles for purchase, another appendage joining it, before finding a seam in the armor and digging in with the claws. With a grunt of effort Markus leverages itself out.

Excelsior's pet monstrousity looks much the same as always. Thick mottled scales covering every inch of it's hide. Arms and legs like treetrunks, claws and teeth like yellow, unbrushed daggers. Flattened nose, jutting brow, mouth deformed by tusks. Tail whipping at the air around it. But the crude armor, plates of elementium hanging from his shoulders and wrapped around his limbs, that's new and all sorts of worrying.

The modified guass turret he aims the way of any surviving MagBots is also new, but exactly the same as his old one anyway- Takes a second to loudly charge up, then spews a storm of supersonic metal pellets. Fun fun fun.


[And, Again, Inside the Wurm]

"Gor.. Mysterious eldritch monstrosity, go help Markus with the clean-up. Please." Prometheus groans, disentangling himself from the heap and staggering to his feet. What a wonderful start to an endeavor.

[ThePhantom]

Inside the Wurm

Charming. Well, at least the jolt woke Gordon up from his nap. Hey, there wasn't much for him to do on the trip here. Okay, let's focus, everything is sideways, and things have fallen down. So, best thing to do is to find a jointed spot, and start pulling things apart, after remembering to doublecheck if the armor is on.

Cloning Room

On the side of the slain ghostworm, tentacles appear in one of the jointed segments, forcing it open enough to let a mass of tentacles through. The mass pauses then one of the tentacles lashs out, trying to pull a magbot into the mass, where is would likely be torn apart. (In truth, Gordon is using his grapple gun to pull the magbot in. He is however going to rip the robot apart himself if he can get it close enough.)

[Lord Magtok]

MagCave Underground - Arina

Spoiler

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MagCave Interior - Arina


Reversing the spell makes the ghost's eyes widen in surprise as the energy of the Dragon Slave spell channels into her, rather than out! And as that lobster-mobster claw of Needs rises, her eyes follow it, glowing bright green, almost white -

Wheee eye lazors! Sheza firin' 'em! Right at that dark void, then turning her head so that they go to slice across The Claw, even as she backs away in the direction of the MagMa.

The claw is mutilated, leaking unearthly fluids that soak into the soil all around them. Needs hisses, clearly pained by the attack, before responding with a sudden lunge, attempting to seize Arina by the neck with his ugly lobster claw.

"̿͐̏̒Aͩ̎ȑi̐̃̓͑̂ͬ̓nͪ̾̊̈́ȧ̿̉̋,̔͞ ̍͋̓ͧ́̐tͫ̆̄̏̔̉̚͢h̛̓ē̷͊́͆̆r̍̽ͨ̀̈͝e̍ͫ̓̓͏ ̧͆͑͐̑iͥ̈́̄͂̏̏s̈́͒͊ͣ aͨ ̾̐̎͏c̶̑̌̈́ͥh̿í̐̽͏l̑̏͛̒̍d̢̎ ͧ͌ͭh̎ͮ̊͋e̋̑r̅͛ͯ̉ͩ͑͌̀é̆͘.ͧ̕ ́A mͣ̑̿̈ͮ̓̕ơ̔ͮ̎̍̊̔̎t̿͐ͣ͊͞ḧ̌̑ͫeͬr̵̄ͬ̈́ͯ ͗͝a͋̓̂̄͗̿͆nd̃̔̾ͨ fͭ̃̏̀͑ͥ̊͏ã̓̏͑̉tͣ̾͡h̏ěͥ̑ͭ͗͢r̵ ̨w͗ͬ͛̅̽͏hͩ̌̓̒̈́͢o̒̽̿̏̄̕ ͬͦ͆͜l̕o̒͌̀͆ͪ̚v̡́eͪͨ̓͐̿̚ ̈́͗̌͝e͝aͩ̐̊c͑̓̋͞h͌̈ ̊o̽ͭ͒t̂ͦ̆͒̈h̃eͦ̒̑̋ͧ̚͟r̄̀͞ ͂́dͪͪ͗ͧe̐̑͆̇ͪ͐͊̀a̕r͂ͩ͌̋̅̔̔lͧͮ̊̚͠y̆ͦ̓ͮ̓ͦͦ͝,̐̉̈ͩ a͒̾ͨ̅ͭ͘n̓̋̅d m̿ͯ̀̀́ả̴ň̓͌y̴ͬͬͪ̂͑͋ ͗͆ͤo̊̇͋ͬ́t̨ͨ̉ͩͦ̽h̊ͮͬ̋̾ͧ͠e̿̾̈r̂̔̀͋̂͂͋š̴̄ͫ͛͊ͥ ͥ̅͂̇̓a͛sͨ͗́̈́ ̨̽̽͗̉w̷̿̿̏êͩͦ̌ͮ́͆̀l̉ͮ͂ͪl.ͤͩ̀̚ ̧̔P̶l̇͛̂̉̂̓͛e͑́̇̍ͧa̅ͩs̷̄̿̐̌͆̈́e̊ͥ͌ͣ,̄̔̎̈́̍̇ͧ͢ I̎̅̀'̓̿̚͜m̵̉͐̓̐͒ͬ ̛ͧ̃͗ͫ̃̿t̴͑ͯ̄̃͋̚r̴͐y̌͐ͥͥͧi҉n̂̉g̊̈͡ ̛̑ͩ̓̿ͬ̂ȁ̵s̊̓͂ ͭ̔̂͋́͂ͭ͡h͌̾ͥ̔͛͋ąr͗̐͋̄d͒͋͆͗ ͮ̒̽ͧ̓́a̧͌̏̒̑̚sͧ̒ ̶ͦ̂ͥͪͨ̄ͭI͊͆̑̓̆̚ ͭ̒ͣ̓҉cͣ̂͆̾ä́̀͋͊̀n̴̔͒̇̃͐ ͩͭͬ̈́ͬ̆t̓o̐͌̄ͩ̌ ̿ͫͧͫ͗̊ͮsͣ̔p̅̾̈̃̉̑̀e͂̉̈́̏̀̈̚͝ǎ̽ͭͫͥ̂k̕ ͫ̄̋̒ͩ͘c̓̅̋͞l̈͊̀e͌ͧ͌̔ä̎͆̍̿̌̅r̶͛l̵ͦ̔ỷ̈́͏ ̎͢t̉̽̂̑͆o̵͗ͩ̀ͥ͗̅ ͑̓̄ỹ͛͊͐̓̂͞ȍͪ̓̌u̎̏̉̂;͒̋̈́̃ ͤ̈͗ͥͦ͢I̶̊ͥ̉ ̡͐̂͛̒ͥdͯͧoͤ̉ͭ͋ͬ͢nͬ̍ͩ͌̾̍͘'̢tͪ̀ ͯ͌ͪ̇̄͊҉w͊aͦ̿͊ͨ̀̓nͩ͗t̄͐̔̓̅̔͒͠ ̒̾̌̓̉ͣ͜t͛̏̅o͟ ͪ̌h̓͋̓ͭ͛ͨͩaͪ̐v̈́̎͋ͤe̍͂͊̎̈ͨ̿͠ ͒t́͒̅͝o k͛̇̎̾̊i̎͐ͤ̎͞l̸l̢ͬ̔̂̓̐ͬ ̄̓ͩͪͧ̓yo̅͛͒͋̈̂͂́u͑͐̾͡ t̿oͨ̀ ̒ͨ̆ͯp̸͐ͫ̿ͩr̀̏̍ỏ͛̏ͣ̒ͧ́t̛̔ͩ͆eͮ͛ͥ͆cͬ͝t͑̔̕ ̏ͩ̅ͬͤͤt͛ͭ̓ͨͤ͡h͑ͨ̌ͯͬ͘ë́̊m̈́̽ͪ̄ͧ͆̚.̿͡ ̵̏̒̈́͊A̸͂̎̊̎̈́ͯb̷̄̇ͤāͧͩ̆ͬ̇͠n̆ͨ̀d̄ͭͭ͐̾o̡̎͌̂ǹ̒̀ͦ ̵ ́y̡͛̍ͦ̾ͮo̧̔͌̋̑͗ͯ͋u̧ͩ̾ͧ̍͂ŗ͗̐ m̢͐̌̽̔ͧͨͫi̅ͨ̓ͧ͘ŝͦͪ̓ͬ͘s̑͊͌͋͘i͂oͭ̐́n̄ͪ,ͧͨͬͧ͒ ͮͪ̊҉w̨ͫͪ͛͋ͫ̚eͦ͗̓̓ ͂ͮ̽̈́̚͘wͦ͋̈́͝i͂͑ͯ̄l̨ͭͧl̑̽̍̑̇ ͩc͋͗͐̽̓o̷̓ͦ̍ͦrͣ̍̾̉ͬ́r̍̃ͧ͡o͌̋̎͗̚͢bơ̐ͫͯͣ̒ͧͪr̴̉a̾ͤ̎͋ ͪ͐t́͊͑̃e͆̈́͛͞ ̓̔ͣ̚w̋҉ĥa̢͋̂ͣ̉̍ͧte̸̓̄̂vͯ̾ē̂̎ͧ̚͞rͨ̉́ ̷ͪ̍̍̐͊͂ͮś̿ͯͯ̂͌ͦtͨ̐͑͗ͩ̄ͫö͞r̈ͦ͛̆̈ͨy͒̒ ͑ͧ͋̑͘y͒ͥ͊͟o͐̊ͯ̕u̿̄̈́̒ ͛ͣ̒̊̉͜c̄̎̅r̒e̕a̾̇͒͋ͥ̏t̑̓̌̅e̶ͧ̚ ̍̊̉t̃ͪ͂̐̀͘ȍ̆͂͌ ̒ͭ̚d͒͆́͟e̒̓͐̿̽͂n̋̑̓͌͟y̆́ͯ͑ͭ̚ ̊ͩy͒ͦ̆̓̓o̴uͥ́̀ř̈̽ͯ̾ ͭ̊ͫ͂̔̚̚҉w̾ͫiͧ̍̐́̃̂̚l͋̈̆ͧ̀lf̑̓̍̋̌ͧͤ͘ul̢̑̾ͭ ̓͌̍͊r̷̆̇̉̈ͭe͊̒tͭ̊ͯr̍̆̊͌̅̎͌èͮa͊̃͆́ͧͨtͭ̓̃̔̒҉.̇̐̽̇̿̓ ̈́"
́̾

If he gets a hold of her, he doesn't squeeze just yet, though. Still holding out hope she might leave the MagCave of her own free will.


The Cloning Chambers - Complete with Long Overdue Description!

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[Cloning Room... Or Whatever May Be Left Of It..]
((Moving this into it's place as I totally forgot about BR. My bad))


...Well. This was going to be eventful although the words 'Perfect Storm' might be more appropriate.

Given that Archie had at least a modicum of sense pertaining to how groupings should be made in confined areas, only three Magbots would be eaten; two with proton packs and one with that flamethrower thing. Generally, a sensible formation given that the intangible ghost thing was going to be coming out of the walls or what have you and having them at the forefront would simply be the most prudent placing.

If the Magbots had been carrying any other kind of weapon, this would have been admirable tactics. Clearing the area was generally a smart thing to do. But when one's foe is carrying around small, nuclear powered particle accelerators that have disastrous effects when their field of influences interact... Well, 'You're gonna have a bad time.' doesn't even begin to cover it. As the thousands of teeth sheer away at the equipment and their devices, the organic flamethrower went first in a magnificent explosion as the chemicals inside violently reacted with the air and created a thick cloud of toxic, acidic, and currently burning substance that seemed to be doing a better job at eating away at the Magbots than the teeth. This burst, potent as it was, would seem like a firecracker as the proton packs went next. Given their properties, the ghostly intangibility that had been an asset of the Ghostwurm would very likely be as if it wasn't a factor at all.. But even then, the raw chain reaction of molecular bonds being severed and their energy being released would lead to one hell of a transdimentional boom. Not necessarily large but definitely extremely concentrated though it would easily obliterate a good 15 meter radius around it.

Total protonic reversal indeed.

Perhaps as a bit of luck, the blast wave from the detonation would blow back everything that hadn't been at the epicenter. Else, a chain reaction of these sorts of explosions would be merrily wrecking their way through the Cave and generally making a mess of things. Still, Magtok may very well find himself quite pleased to be encased in armor as the force of the blast would likely send him through a wall or three. Thinking prudently, Archie directed the few Magbots that would still be functioning to turn off their packs and those of others which had been deactivated once the dust began to settle. The A.I. neglected on answering immediately as, well, it was taken by complete surprise as well.

But as for the Ghostwurm? Well.. Given that mouths are usually where the heads are and heads carry brains... It was probably very unlikely that, unless it had some perverse aberration of anatomy that allowed it to survive such a massive shock to the system and probably without a head (and quite a lot of neck and maybe body for that matter), it was not going to find itself among the living for very long... Which may spell disaster for those inside given how they would very likely be shunted back into the same space as a lot of rock and earth.. But then again, large things do die slowly and if there was some chance to force it out of the ground before it fully kicked it, there would at least be a chance for survival.. Though it would likely lead to disembarkation at the bottom of a large, smoking hole for the troops involved.

Though this would likely be a bit of a disorienting way to enter the battlefield..

((The 'you done goofed' link is meant to be humorous and not taunting or out of spite or meanness))

[Cloning Room]

That's one hell of a stomach ache.
Sadly for the MagBots, the wurm's skull is nicely reinforced, turning much of the blast right back at them through it's open maw. Like a very painful laser.

Sadly for the ghostwurm, what doesn't get turned back goes right through it's brainpan, sheering through the equivalents of the cerebrum and diencephalon, as well as all that fancy machinery built in for steering.

Oh, but death comes neither quick nor easy today. Life has a sort of momentum to it for dumb beasts, especially the larger and tougher varieties. The ghostwurm thrashes and flails, lifting into the air in it's death throes.
Then, corporeal form. Bringing with it such things as solidness and, most relevantly, weight.

A few more MagBots are likely to lose their life as several tons of squished bug come crashing down.


[Inside the Belly of the Beast]

There's a sudden lurch and Prometheus' speech is cut off mid-word by the ground going out from under him, the soldiers rattling about like pennies in a washing machine as the whole vehicle twists and turns and-

Slams into the ground, hard. Everything unsecured is hurled against the chitinous wall now defined as the 'floor', the cargo crates breaking open to spill plasma weaponry and little chunks of plastique with legs stuck in across the segment.

General groaning voices the mood of Excelsior at large, but one voice rises up in a guttural growl. His favorite railgun slung over one shoulder, Markus clambers up to the door on the 'ceiling' above, using the bench seats stuck into the new walls as a stepping stone.


[Cloning Place Again]

A scaly green fist smashes open one the numerous chitin panels in the fallen beast's side. It scrabbles for purchase, another appendage joining it, before finding a seam in the armor and digging in with the claws. With a grunt of effort Markus leverages itself out.

Excelsior's pet monstrousity looks much the same as always. Thick mottled scales covering every inch of it's hide. Arms and legs like treetrunks, claws and teeth like yellow, unbrushed daggers. Flattened nose, jutting brow, mouth deformed by tusks. Tail whipping at the air around it. But the crude armor, plates of elementium hanging from his shoulders and wrapped around his limbs, that's new and all sorts of worrying.

The modified guass turret he aims the way of any surviving MagBots is also new, but exactly the same as his old one anyway- Takes a second to loudly charge up, then spews a storm of supersonic metal pellets. Fun fun fun.


[And, Again, Inside the Wurm]

"Gor.. Mysterious eldritch monstrosity, go help Markus with the clean-up. Please." Prometheus groans, disentangling himself from the heap and staggering to his feet. What a wonderful start to an endeavor.

Inside the Wurm

Charming. Well, at least the jolt woke Gordon up from his nap. Hey, there wasn't much for him to do on the trip here. Okay, let's focus, everything is sideways, and things have fallen down. So, best thing to do is to find a jointed spot, and start pulling things apart, after remembering to doublecheck if the armor is on.

Cloning Room

On the side of the slain ghostworm, tentacles appear in one of the jointed segments, forcing it open enough to let a mass of tentacles through. The mass pauses then one of the tentacles lashs out, trying to pull a magbot into the mass, where is would likely be torn apart. (In truth, Gordon is using his grapple gun to pull the magbot in. He is however going to rip the robot apart himself if he can get it close enough.)

The cloning chambers of the MagCave. Here, within this vast chamber roughly the size of a football field, is where the magic happens. This room is the heart and soul of Magtok's enterprises, the key to his perpetual youth and immortality. Incubators are spread across the room in a tidy grid of parallel rows and columns, growing the next generation of Magtoks even as war explodes all around them. Surprisingly, the vast majority of these incubator tanks are empty. Huh, you'd think there'd be more occupied ones, but I guess the cyborg doesn't expect to die quite as many times as Excelsior would like.

By the north wall, complicated machinery does its best to keep Magtok's DNA as pure and as immune to the wear and tear of age as possible. This is a critical piece of the equipment Excelsior intends to steal, along with maybe one of the incubation tanks or two, but they'll be hard-pressed to get away with something so large with their giant worm pushing up daisies.

Elsewhere, you can find a lattice of massive tubes on the floor, pumping memories, food, information, and more to the growing clones. Also Magbots, broken Magbots, broken cloning tanks, abandoned lasgeese honking with rage, and a single, solitary MagClone, biding his time behind one of the intact cloning tanks, trying to catch his breath after being caught in the blast of that earlier explosion. He might have lost a rib or two, crashing through several cloning tanks before putting a Magtok-sized hole in the wall, but hey, at least he's still breathing, right?

He's not very well hidden there, as you can sorta see a hazy Mag-shaped figure from the opposite side of the amniotic goop within the tank. I don't think he intends on staying there long, though. Just waiting for an opening. Let the Magbots under Archimedes' control get their attention, and then once they're distracted, pow! Zip across the room with the power armor's repulsors, and then ion cannon someone right in the face! Or maybe use the Hatchet, I dunno. It all depends on what's going on the next turn, I guess.

"Fudging ****-****s. Arch, I need a distraction three point six seconds from now. You take their port, I hit starboard."

[Morty]

[Michalson's Hovel ==> MagCave]

While his treants keep fighting the bots and Zane, the results of which will be posted after Hatter's post, Michalson decides there's no reason for him to stay out there. The shadow-constructs require no supervision and will keep fighting until destroyed. He opens a shadow-portal and steps into it, exiting in MagCave. The teleblock lets him through as a MagEmployee. Once there, he readies himself to meet any invaders that might have got through.

[Aric Kale]

[MagCave Exterior]

Zane is still flying while barking out orders and hurling fireballs. So yes, he misses the rumbling of the ground beneath him, but being twenty or so feet in the air should save him from the worms deadly maw. And to deter the beast further, the pyromancer throws several firespheres )(does he ever run out of those things? )( inside its mouth. Better hope Puddin isn't afraid of fire...

Spoiler

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1. Noodlehat
2. Reinholdt
3. Rotting Baron
4. ThirdEmperor
5. ThePhantom
6. Magtok
7. Morty
8. Aric Kale
9. Bushranger
10. Terumitsu
11. C'nor

[The Bushranger]

MagCave Underground - Arina

Arina...actually hesitates for a moment as she makes out Needs' words. That small whisper in the back of her head, usually silent, of what little bit of Erin she took with her when she split off protesting...

But then, after a moment, the hesitation is gone.
"I have been given orders by...him. And I must not fail him!" the ghostly woman says, red eyes glowing brighter as she reaches up to attempt to grab that horrific lobster claw in both hands!

And then to pump her ghostly fireballs directly into Needs' lobster arm.

Even for Needs, this could get...painful.

[Terumitsu]

[MagCave Exterior]

Puddin is actually a pretty cool monster. Is a biological monstrosity and doesn't afraid of anything. The firespheres did appear to burn and char some of it's gullet and there were now a lot of angrily colored patches but the size of the monster had to be taken into account as something that would put down a person would need to be amped up for the same effect on this chitin armored beast.

That said, when one erupts from the ground, it's generally not some piddly little 'stick out one's head and poke around' or even 'reach way out with half of one's body to snatch something.' No this was comparable to a volcano's pyroclastic fury in that it literally launched itself up out of the ground at Zane. It's trajectory would mean that, even it it missed, it would still have enough lateral momentum to where it would likely smash down into Enshadu's Troops like a several dozen tonne wrecking machine. And given the joys of inclines and slick, muddy surfaces, this might lead to a bit of an avalanche as it slid along the ground.

[The Cloning Chambers]
((Pat stuff performed at the request/instruction of Wolfbane))

Magtok would be getting a rapid ping back a mere moment later. "Ah, Sir. Your biological expert wishes to provide a bit more than a distraction. If I could suggest getting to a-" It was about then that a Puddin would break through the wall near the cyborg, interrupting Archimedes' warning. If he felt inclined to look inside the hole, he would be able to see a second monster behind the first. "*Ahem.* A safe place would be best right now. Preferably one that would allow you to survive in an environment without oxygen for a time. I would suggest the chamber you are hiding behind, personally, and I will see what I can do about getting you a breathing apparatus in the meantime for extended forays if you lack one offhand." the A.I. concluded. If Magtok complied, then either he or the chamber would be sprayed at by the nearby Puddin with a slightly yellowish, viscous substance that smelled strongly like herbal medicine.

Once that exchange and potential action was concluded (though it was unlikely it took more than twenty seconds until completion albeit allowed the possibility any with sharp eyes to try something in the meantime presuming they weren't otherwise focused on a more obvious task), the Puddin would launch itself out of it's little hiding spot towards the remains of the Ghostwurm. Unlike the one outside the Cave, however, this one seemed to be intent on something other than simply snatching up prey in it's jaws. Rather, it quickly began to bloat until it burst into a mess of chitin and meaty chunks. While that would visually seem to be a bit of a waste as there would be a minimum of acidic byproducts from all that buildup, the result of releasing enough Halon (1301 specifically) into the air would be soon felt by anything that required oxygen given how well it displaced the lighter gas. And extended exposure would definitely be less than optimum on one's nervous system..

Not to call it there, though, the second Puddin behind the first sprayed out a thick, tarlike acid from it's pours into the hole it was in before rushing out after the first before the corridor that had been dug collapsed in on it and sealed it inside. Like the other one, it too bloated up in flight before bursting into another unseen payload... Though this one was much more sinister than simple chemical warfare. A cocktail of bacteria and disease flooded the area with a rather nasty array of effects.

While not but one of the diseases were actually fatal, they had been specially cooked up with Pat's empyrial and infernal essences to be resistant to magical means of removal. Apparently the former prevented them from being deadly on their own but the latter made certain that their effects would nearly literally be hell. It would likely be a bit before those quirks were worked out but they would certainly be the cause of seizures, vomiting, nausea, high fever, muscle cramps, mild dementia, and the sudden intense feeling of one needing to violently void one's bowels. Of course, Pat's trademark rapid incubation and onset was in play here

The last disease, however, was derived from a nasty thing called Egotism. while it lacked the magical resistances as many of the others, it made up for it by being quite nasty all on it's own. It's onset would see many of the same symptoms but markedly more potent as well as the inclusion of feeling like one's skin was set afire and spasms of the limbs while also leading to strong mania or psychotic effects. And if left alone too long, it would make the body's pores exude a thick mucus as one's insides slowly turned into mycelium. It too was made for rapid onset.

As for the bacteria, it was simply an agent made to rapidly break down the airtight seals one might have on gas masks or air filters or environmental suits and the like to form holes and points of entry into the previously 'safe' zones. Plastics and petroleum products would be under it's influence so even some equipment might be affected as well. Of course, the goop from before was of the antibiotic sort designed to render the agents ineffective so as to prevent Magtok from suffering a similar fate.

In any case, the vents in the room were shut off as well as the portals of entry so as to force all the biologically inclined beings to marinate in the bio-chemical concoction.

As for the Magbots that still remained... Well, most of them had been blown away by the event from before and judicious application of gauss weaponry and purely being ripped apart. Those few that still stood were those that had been far away enough as to be out of reach or behind the closest thing to solid cover and possessing an uncanny amount of luck. The converse of that, though, was that they could do very little to respond in kind in this point in time as they were struggling to regroup away from the nasty devouring bacteria. Hopefully at least some lasgeese might survive by flying up and away from the mess..

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Outside the door into the cloning chambers, there are some Magbots setting up a positive pressure seal so as to keep the nasty stuff in when they barge in next round.

[ThirdEmperor]

The Cloning Vault

((Posting on behalf of C'nor.))

Anger not psychics, for your brains are squishy and malleable things.

The first attack comes quickly, retaliation perhaps for the killing of the Ghostwurm. A field of psychic static is projected upon the area roughly surrounding Magtok and the Puddins. Anyone with a link, telepathic or wireless, will likely feel it interupted in an excruciatingly painful manner.

At ten seconds one of the perpatrators appears in the flesh, huddled in the doorway behind Gordon. It points a finger and a thin line of glowing white energy shoots out at the second Puddin. Should it strike, and it moves fast enough that it would be very difficult to escape, the rampaging centipede will find itself teleported into the air far above Mount Enn. Or more likely, the teleblock field will kick in and shunt it over to the base of the mount to play with Enshadu.

But that's not quite the end. The rearmost segment of the ghostwurm begins to shakw, fat little bugs with white wings escaping from the seems, before the doors burst entirely and the full swarm pours upwards into the chamber.*

What it does, if anything, depends on what's left to do. Ideally both Puddins should be gone by this point; Chronologically taking place some seventeen seconds into the round. But supposing at least is alive and makes the mistake of charging, the flies will descend like, well, flies.

They'll sting at the joints between the centipede's armor and any open wounds they can find with surprising strength, trying to inject two things; The first a potent compound that will reduce a small patch of flesh to sludge with terrifying speed. The second, eggs that will hatch in moments to chew their way through the poor beast from the inside.


MagCave Exterior- In the Fog of War

Fighting two at once? Tricky proposition there.

The psychic shockwave slams into the first demon and throws it back. The static overwhelms the second's concentration, making the pentagram on the ground twitch and distort like an image on a broken television set.

But here comes the bad part. Seems the Op sold his first opponent short by far, because it's neither dead nor even momentarily stunned. It lunges back into combat from behind, trying to tear through the all-important muscle between the Operative's shoulders, then continuing on into a flurry of slashes.

Another bolt strikes the ground nearby as well, making the mud boil and churn with a hellish light. Reinforcements are on their way.

[Hattish Thing]

MagCave Entrance

Whatever fog is left is too thin for Enshadu to hide in. Not that it matters, as Enshadu was actually teleported to the base of the mountain via Magtok's warding field. Because of this, the Operative's psionics remain un-disrupted. Of course, since his psychic abilities aren't like any traditional magic, I doubt that Ensahu could disrupt him anyway.

The Operative waits for Enshadu to come back up the mountain, not affecting anyone this round.

Sky over there

Reinholdt recovers from his earlier brush with the powers of cheating and sweeps about, looking for his prey. Certainly the battle has more than enough elements going on to make that rather difficult. There's a bunch of crome there, fire over there, did he maybe teleport inside? If not for Enshadu now being the sole other person outside the 'battle region' as it might be called, Reinholdt may never have noticed him. At least not for another post or two and how boring would that be? The price of being way off to one side, I'm afraid.

But currently Enshadu is off to one side by his lonesome, at least for the short time being, and Rein does spot him. He takes several sniper rifle shots at him, aiming to at the very least keep him busy. He'd specifically aim for the base of Enshadu's weapons just to destroy those, but at this distance, even an experienced sniper like Reinholdt can't do that. Maybe if Rein spent more time practicing with his weapon instead of treasure hunting. Still, hitting Enshadu himself shouldn't be much of a problem.

Bang Bang Bang at Enshadu.

Well, Enshadu is certainly confused when the large metal man ends up at the bottom of a mountain! His metal brain instantly realizes his mistake, but decides to immediately teleport two very large guns. Er. Guns. Yeah. More like the massive cannons on wheels that were built to provide artillery. The massive cannons are chrome and metal, and appear to have no pilot, they just function by themselves. In reality they are controlled by Enshadu's powerful mind, allowing them to move and pilot themselves.

So, the two massive artillery arrive. Just as shots begin to rain down on Enshadu. Enshadu doesn't like that. Not at all. Two bullets hit. One lands close, and Enshadu's left eye closes in to investigate the ammunition. However, ehatever those things are most likely harmlessly bounce off his elementium casing. While he orders the two artillery to fire large metal balls of shrapnel at Reinholdt. They may miss of course, but they're probably better at hitting because they're machines. Enshadu does one more thing. He teleports three crates of dynamite to appear. He then uses his telekenesis to have them float around him at a fair distance. He'll then begin to rocket into the air, heading for Reinholdt, for as soon as he gets within 50 feet, he's sending the three crates of explosives straight for Reinholdt, lightsabers still drawn.

The two artillery begin to slowly wheel up the mountain.

Cloning Room

"Keep th'army movin' an send th'ghosties t'deal, rust bucket." Day's got more important things on his mind now. ETA is, oh, five seconds...

Four now..

Three..

Two..

One..


There is a disconcerting lack of giant ghost bugs flying through the wall of the cloning vault. In fact, there's a considerable lack of any at all for the waiting ghostbug busters to zap with their fancy ray technology. Two more seconds tick by...

And then a yawning, thousand-toothed mouth rising from the ground beneath the largest concentration of MagBots, turning corporeal as it passes through the floor and snapping shut with enough force to cleave through metal.

Hopefully, the MagBots weren't too tightly clustered. Or fast enough not to be completely wiped out by Day's stellar Jaws impression.


Inside the Ghostwurm

The Einherjar soldiers rise from their seats, checking weapons and adjusting their armor. Two disappear into the next segment on and return pushing a metal crate, removing the lid to reveal dozens of plasma rifles packed in styrofoam.
"Anyone who doesn't got one, get one. Shoot to kill, no prisoners, no hesitation. If you've got spells or whatever else, prep up now."

The seven battlemages aboard are muttering quietly beneath their masks, tendrils of soft blue light wrapping around the various occupants of the transport before fading into the air. A little added protection from incoming firepower, although spread across too many to really be effective.

Moving to the front of the car, Prometheus addresses the assembled troops. "We have hostiles in the room ahead, armed with nonstandard weaponry. Our best estimate is some manner of high-powered energy beam. Grandfather." He turns to the where the cultists and their creations sit, gesturing to the panel in the ghostwurm's side they entered by. "Ready your golems. They will be the first wave, providing cover for the second, my brothers. When I give the signal again, the rest of you are to follow. Understood?"

"****! Archie, what the **** is that thing?!"

A Magtok encased in power armor backs away, retreating from the hideous worm-monster as quickly as his repulsors will allow. Best leave this one to Archimede's Magbots; he couldn't even get a good look at that thing as it went by.

On the Way

Fire leaping from the ground, death raining down from above, shadows rising to the attack, the storm still raging. This war is turning into quite the fine mess. And with Enshadu having booted himself down the mountain, and Excelsior busy with their own designs...

That would leave Zane in charge, wouldn't it.

"Cyborgs, grab them and hold them back!" With a wave of his hand Zane conjures another fireball, drawing dark fire from the air and twisting it into shape. "HeavyArms, focus fire on the trees! Combat bots try to hit the one in the air! Spread out! Don't stay clustered together" He directs the robots with the point of his blade, trying to marshal them into something resembling an organized front.

With a snap of his wrist he hurls the fireball over the heads of the riot troopers and towards the nearest shadow tree. If it hits it'll explode like the others, but there's a second trick this time- The fire implodes upon itself after the initial impact, trying to flow into the creature's wounds and there take physical form. If it works the sudden solidification should tear the creature apart from the inside.

But whether it works or not, that sort of magic has a cost.

[MagCave Exterior]

Zane may find the earth under his feet begin to shake... Although if he was still under the effect of being just above the ground then this forewarning would likely be lost on him. A huge, chitinous, wormlike beast with teeth dripping of acidic saliva from a wide maw would erupt from underneath his feet in an attempt to snatch him up and swallow him whole.

Puddin has arrived.

Strangely, though, there wouldn't be an attempt to simply kill him but in the monster's gullet a combination of enzymes would try to strip him of his equipment if he was caught. That intermixed with a strange vapor would try to induce a comatose state although, as before, it would require him being swallowed up first.

[On the way to MagCave]

((Since it's not your place to say that the acid and fire bombs are stopped by the mud, and you haven't edited it despite being asked to do so, I'm not going to take that part of the post into account. I'll put it into my next post, after you edit your last one.))

If Zane expected the shadow-treats to go up in flames, he's going to be disappointed. The fire does not affect them like it would regular wood. In fact, it seems to be subdued by the gravely chill that surrounds them. The flames do burn through the brambles and branches, but slowly.

Then a hail of bullets buffets into the treants. They tear through the shadowy substance, ripping off bits and chunks of black miasma. However, the wounds seem to regenerate frighteningly quickly, and some of the separated parts float or crawl back and rejoin the bodies. All this makes actually destroying the treants a painfully slow process... and the parts that don't rejoin the treants turn into a vicious acid that sprays the attackers.

What is more, as Zane and the robots continue their arduous task of damaging the shadow monsters, each wound inflicted seems to increase their ferocity. As they're burned by the magical fire and ripped with missiles, they grow stronger, faster and more savage, while continuing to single-mindedly assault the enemy forces.

Well, that's a lot of stuff.

Okay, so there are three nasty treants and Puddin'.

And a ton of soldiers. Okay, first things first. The treants take out some robots. Two Combat Bots are destroyed, and one Heavyarm is damaged. Not good. Okay, the sand spectres are called to battle! So, the 15 original sand spectres plus the thirty transformed ghosts of Hamlet begin to charge Puddin and the treants. They are incorporeal, but still do a ton of damage by ripping and shredding all in front of them So, the ghosts swarm much like ants over large insects, clawing desperately. Their touch also drains any liquid extremely fast from the victim, so there's that.

At the same time all Heavyarm's direct fire straight at Puddin, firing the extremely powerful and large shots, which are massive lasers that fire for 6.7 seconds straight each before having to recharge for a long time, so Puddin may just spontaneously explode or something horrible.

The cyborgs also begin to lurch and heave and stomp their way to the already swarmed trees, but they walk slow so they're not there this turn.

MagCave Entrance

The beams of light that Karyana shoots at the ground don't do much to distract the Operative. All that they do is alert him to Karyana's position, give or take a few meters. Normally, he'd stop wasting time and just kill her now, but there are a couple of demons coming for him right now.

The first demon isn't a terribly high priority. As it slashes at him, the Operative deflects the incoming blows using a combination of military hand-to-hand combat and his telekinetic powers, shortly before trying to deliver a crushing jab to its eyes. The psychic force behind the punch should be enough to stun the demon for some time, if not outright kill it from the shock.

The second demon requires a bit more attention. The Operative tries to interrupt the summoning through his psychic powers, sending the telepathic equivalent of intense static to its mind in an attempt to block the demon's thoughts.

[Cloning Room]

That's one hell of a stomach ache.
Sadly for the MagBots, the wurm's skull is nicely reinforced, turning much of the blast right back at them through it's open maw. Like a very painful laser.

Sadly for the ghostwurm, what doesn't get turned back goes right through it's brainpan, sheering through the equivalents of the cerebrum and diencephalon, as well as all that fancy machinery built in for steering.

Oh, but death comes neither quick nor easy today. Life has a sort of momentum to it for dumb beasts, especially the larger and tougher varieties. The ghostwurm thrashes and flails, lifting into the air in it's death throes.
Then, corporeal form. Bringing with it such things as solidness and, most relevantly, weight.

A few more MagBots are likely to lose their life as several tons of squished bug come crashing down.


[Inside the Belly of the Beast]

There's a sudden lurch and Prometheus' speech is cut off mid-word by the ground going out from under him, the soldiers rattling about like pennies in a washing machine as the whole vehicle twists and turns and-

Slams into the ground, hard. Everything unsecured is hurled against the chitinous wall now defined as the 'floor', the cargo crates breaking open to spill plasma weaponry and little chunks of plastique with legs stuck in across the segment.

General groaning voices the mood of Excelsior at large, but one voice rises up in a guttural growl. His favorite railgun slung over one shoulder, Markus clambers up to the door on the 'ceiling' above, using the bench seats stuck into the new walls as a stepping stone.


[Cloning Place Again]

A scaly green fist smashes open one the numerous chitin panels in the fallen beast's side. It scrabbles for purchase, another appendage joining it, before finding a seam in the armor and digging in with the claws. With a grunt of effort Markus leverages itself out.

Excelsior's pet monstrousity looks much the same as always. Thick mottled scales covering every inch of it's hide. Arms and legs like treetrunks, claws and teeth like yellow, unbrushed daggers. Flattened nose, jutting brow, mouth deformed by tusks. Tail whipping at the air around it. But the crude armor, plates of elementium hanging from his shoulders and wrapped around his limbs, that's new and all sorts of worrying.

The modified guass turret he aims the way of any surviving MagBots is also new, but exactly the same as his old one anyway- Takes a second to loudly charge up, then spews a storm of supersonic metal pellets. Fun fun fun.


[And, Again, Inside the Wurm]

"Gor.. Mysterious eldritch monstrosity, go help Markus with the clean-up. Please." Prometheus groans, disentangling himself from the heap and staggering to his feet. What a wonderful start to an endeavor.

I'll post all actions here, sorry for delay.

Okay. First the blood golems come out, and I guess form rows of 5, five golems wide, ending with a full force of 25 blood golems. The hulking things are liquid, but have the ability to cause their blood to scab and turn into a strong armor like material to protect themselves. The blood is acidic and poisonous, for black magic has birthed the hideous creatures. So, the rows of seven foot tall blobs of black blood will begin to move forward, massive swinging arms striking to grab and pull anything into themselves.

Then come the cultists. They're behind the golems, the thirty dark red robed zealots have prepared spells, and the 25 all cast the same spell at once, targetted at centipedes. It appears they have a battle plan. The spell is a hideous thing, a blast of purple dark magic that flies over obstacles to reach the centipedes. If it hits, the spells attempt to leech away any fluid to the bone, while simultaneously causing necrosis.

The Grandfather and Mysterious Hooded Figure walk in the very back, each apparently unarmed and clothed in billowing robes. The Grandfather is whispering something to himself, whispering horrible magic... preparing.

The blood golems spread out. They're serving as walking shields, what with being nearly immune to bullets, so having them clumped up makes everyone else clump up. Which means one big target for the enemy.

The firepower will not effect any of the golems or Excelsior's forces.

The Grandfather is prepping.[/QUOTE]

[Reinholdt]

Sky over there

The ammo is rather normal sniper rifle ammo.

I'm guessing the balls of shrapnel don't fall apart into pieces in mid air and are of the hit the ground and blast all over the place variety. Because the former would just come apart before ever reaching Rein and the second variety is really the only kind that makes tactical ammo sense. Unfortunately firing such things at air targets makes less sense as you have to be pinpoint. And maybe the machines would be, but Rein's not going to stay still to let them. In fact, he's flying backwards to avoid getting hit by them, so they'll come up short.

In fact, flying backwards seems to be the plan of the day, what with Enshadu coming straight at him. There certainly was enough of an initial gap that Enshadu shouldn't be getting to him this quickly, but I'm not aware of the jetpack's capabilities. I'm just guessing it's designed for longer periods of flight since it's been used once already. So getting close enough to throw the crates should be a next round sort of thing. He did go to a lot of effort to put distance between him and possible unwelcome friendly/unfriendly fire after all. Fly backwards Rein! Fly!

Of course, there may not exactly be any crates to throw by the time Enshadu gets there. Rein's not just flying, he's also taking wild shots at the explosive crates to try to get them to detonate prematurely in Enshadu's face. Might not hurt Enshadu, but could slow him down, if Rein's lucky.

*****

1. Noodlehat
2. Reinholdt
3. Rotting Baron
4. ThirdEmperor
5. ThePhantom
6. Magtok
7. Morty
8. Aric Kale
9. Bushranger
10. Terumitsu
11. C'nor

[Devixer]

MagCave Exterior

The Operative turns around when the first demon lunges for him and deflects the blow that would've gone to his back. His vision seems a lot less inhibited than that gas mask should suggest. In response to the flurry of slashes, the Operative first steps back to evade them. Then he draws an ice pick from a concealed pouch in his sleeve, and tries to jab it in its eye.

The other demon may find that his problems with concentration aren't going away. The static continues to grow louder and louder in its mind. At least, that's what the Operative is trying to force.

[ThirdEmperor]

Cloning Vault

Thirty seconds is a long time.
A PPSh-41 can fire roughly five hundred bullets in that time, for a grand total of two-point-seven-five kilograms of lead being accelerated to supersonic speeds.
A M134, two thousand bullets, nineteen kilograms.


But Markus wields a weapon considerably more advanced than either. When the trigger's pulled back, power courses through the gauss coils, electromagnetic force sheering off segments from the solid metal magazine and shaping them into spheres as they accelerate through the center of the coils. As they reach the end of the barrel the polarity suddenly switches, launching forward.

All this happens very, very quickly, producing a sound like an angered hornet's nest and a hail of bullets bearing down on the flimsy glass tank Mags is cowering behind.

And once the glass breaks? Then with a flick of a dial the cannon is turned to single fire mode, hurling a long shard of sharpened metal at supersonic speeds with each pull of the trigger, the volleys aimed equally between the two Puddins as they surface.

But supposing one or more of the Puddins survive all that and the best efforts of his brothers to make their charge.

Then Markus will be forced to leap down from the ghostwurm and engage in a more personal mode of combat, hurling a grenade at the closest Puddin' before rushing to halt their charge. Said grenade isn't of the standard fragmentation variety either. No, it's payload is a semi-organic adhesive that expands exponentially when exposed to oxygen, clinging with enough force to pin a charging elephant. Certainly not something you want to be entangled in while an angry green fist is headed towards your exoskeletal skull.


And while that's all of Markus' thirty seconds, there's still more to go.

Soldiers in shiny chrome armor flood out of the downed ghostwurm, taking cover behind the walking wall of golems. They've got swords, E14 kinetic pulse guns, grenades, but the ordinance for today is plasma rifles, bootlegs of the Erin's brand made in robot sweatshops. The remaining MagBots are likely to be cut down by precision blasts of magnetically contained plasma.

But their real target is Magtok and Puddin #1. The air runs thick with ionized plasma, leaving a wide trail of flame burning blue flame between Mags and the Excelsior forces as they fire full throttle on him and the Puddin'.

And if, after all that, after everything, there'd still a Puddin' charging?
The battlemages will use their telekinesis to try and lift it off the ground.

Spoiler

Show

Short volley of ~three hundred bullets headed towards Magtok and the first Puddin'. Terrifying volley of plasma headed towards the same. Some more plasma for the remaining MagBots. Then quite a lot of antimateriel class fire headed at the two Puddin's. If either survive, goober grenade on any that can still move, then a brutal pummeling courtesy of Markus. Finally, any Puddin not dead, goobered to the ground or intercepted by a hydratrolll will be telekinetically lifted into the sky.

Thirty second rounds are bad. Let this be the end of them.