[Nexus] Outside XXXVII

[Arkhosia]

Adventure!

Xenna nods. Her left hand rests near her blade just in case the brigands have a theatrical sense of timing.

[Earl of Purple]

Adventure!

"Good! I can't wait to try... Hmm, a gun like this needs a name. Loyalty's Kick? Yes, I like the sound of that one. Or Betrayal's Punishment? No, the first one. I can't wait to try Loyalty's Kick out!" She'll look over it, assessing how well it was made and the likelihood of it exploding instead of firing a ball. It looks like her telekinesis is sufficient to carry it, though for a stable firing position she may need to rest it on her back. Unless she sees a tripod or something also for sale. The balls go into her saddlebags, ten per side.

[The Bushranger]

Elsewhere

The grenade rolls, bounces, comes to a halt and then is knocked into the water by a rampaging swarm of rats larger than any she's yet seen that simply materialized out of nothing in an instant. Between the masses of the piled-high, furry horde, she can see glimpses of hagfish heads and scales being held in bloodcaked rodent mouths.

The rats turn to her as one, a sinister collective intelligence guiding them, but they merely sit stacked atop one another and stare with guileless red, infected eyes. She can hear things, words amidst the chirps and squeals and chatters. Words of condemnation and bile. The river krusts spit no acid nor bile at her, that is the job of this mass of dead before her. Each tiny, twisted head bears some previously unnoticed feature. An ear, a lock of hair, a human eye, a scent, an air of superiority. Each is a soul, man, a woman, a life cut short.

A sin, a blight on her soul.

They seem far too numerous now, stacked high before her. Has she truly killed so many?

Confronted with all her sins rememb'rd, Lydia has only one possible reaction as the squeaking, chirping horde announces its judgement of condemnation.

She snaps.

With an inarticulate yell of rage, she lifts her pistol and fires, reloading with haste and then firing again. And again, and again, and again, at the chittering swarm, mindlessly emptying her pockets of all the bullets they contain, not stopping until every last round is spent, then collapsing, face buried in her hands.

[Slii Arhem]

Elsewhere



Confronted with all her sins rememb'rd, Lydia has only one possible reaction as the squeaking, chirping horde announces its judgement of condemnation.

She snaps.

With an inarticulate yell of rage, she lifts her pistol and fires, reloading with haste and then firing again. And again, and again, and again, at the chittering swarm, mindlessly emptying her pockets of all the bullets they contain, not stopping until every last round is spent, then collapsing, face buried in her hands.

The rats explode into columns of ash and smoke as the bullets strike them, several at a time dissolving into nothingness as she expunges her sins with lead and fire. The bridge, the water, and the stench of stagnation dissolves into a forest and a pond, as the smoke swirls together into a form, a presence she can feel without even looking upon it.

Her first kill. Her first real step to where she is now.

[The Bushranger]

Elsewhere

It's a few minutes before Lydia is able to compose herself, and straightens up, dusting herself off and feeling embarassed, upset, and slightly foolish. It's all just an illusion, after all...

...isn't it?

She takes in the view of the pond and steps over to it. She remembers it well; a young man who had known too much, and whose boss had had enough coin to hire somebody to remove said knowledge, in a very final fashion, but not enough for anyone "established". And so the young woman who needed the coins-of-ten had agreed, because after all, he was an evil man who had done a very evil thing and evil was supposed to be punished.

As she slips behind a nearby tree, she remembers what happened after that.
The scream of the young woman who had been meeting the man at the pond hadn't been evil at all...

*************

[Operation Ascendant->Assault Force]

After the infiltration team enters the base, Major Xanatov turns on the comm. "Alright, everyone, ascend and prepare for the hatch opening. Red, hope you like mountain climbing."

The fighter-gunships, including the Major's, begin climbing to the appropriate altitude. Blu will probably want to follow, and Red is just gonna have to climb.

"Mountain climbing? I was born to mountain climb," Red declares, and one can just picture that infuruiating grin as he pilots the robot, STAWMPING his way up the mountainside.

Stealth? What's that, something you eat?

[Chaotic Bob]

EMBOH Code Vault

"These boxes and program menus don't have names, do they? Nothing along the lines of Accounts Management, Money Transfers, Security? If you're not going to give me a list of options, whatever sounds closest to that middle thing I said would probably be best, followed by the first thing."

Magtok crosses his arms against his chest. He really doesn't want to spend all day opening up everything. Even at lightspeed and such, that's got to be annoying.

"Direction, useful data. Monetary storage and manipulation, come along."
The fellow seems slightly engaged now, a little bit of energy tipping his words as he taps the side of the server box with a hand.

Time to start moving like they mean it.

"Wait...there-"
Visually, everything pauses for just a moment, before splinters of red pierce the air like flaming grass roots.
They vanish immediately, and a great rumbling descends from the sky, the runes above obscured in an oncoming mass of sparks and light.

The sky is exploding.

Action determined slightly off-screen!

Maggy chooses at this moment to simply grab Libby and rush over to the server box!


Mr. Hat dips his head low for a moment...

"And here we are."

Maggy and Libby are standing next to a server box precisely identical to the last one.
Rather than a garden, however, they appear to be in some sort of industrial room full of numerous, gargantuan vats.

There are no lights in the room, but numerous bright glows are rising from the vats and providing ample viewing ability.

They are arranged in a circle around the server box, around 20 of them, and rise a good twenty feet from the ground. They are labelled, from "I" to "XX", and seem to be the only real feature to the room.

No ceiling. There's simply nothing above them. No sky, no endless white.
Just nothing.

There are walls, but they're mostly obscured by those vats so details are lacking.

[Felandria]

[Everysize Hotel]

Nothing will stop her and the room appears clean.

Felandria wakes up, takes a shower, puts on a robe and calls the front desk.

Hello, I was curious if there was a restaurant or bar on the grounds, and if so, would I fit?

[Lord Magtok]

EMBOH Code Vats

"Ooooh, nifty. Roman numerals and more unanswered questions," Magtok observes without an ounce of sarcasm, floating up in an attempt to look into those towering vats, and find out exactly what's contained within.

"Quick question, what the hell just happened? Are we pressed for time?"

[Rebonack]

[Adventure!]

Alas, a tripod is conspicuously absent. And the cannon is made from rather high quality steel, none of that punky low grade iron that's likely to blast apart when subjected to the pressure of a cannon ball. Just the type of relatively reliable weapon that any pirate would enjoy.

With new stuff acquired our heroes press onward!

Though... now the threat of brigands looms over them. Who knows what might be hiding in that tall grass? Awful people with crossbows, maybe? Or something even more nefarious?

One can never know until the trap is sprung.

If it's ever sprung at all.

"So! What brought you all to the Nexus, hmm?" Tim asks curiously. Better to chat than to walk in silence as far as he's concerned.

[Arkhosia]

Adventure

My house was under siege. A eizard's spell backfired, and here I am.

[Earl of Purple]

Adventure!

Steel? Even better. I was personally expecting bronze, like many early cannons. I don't know why. She's going to check the barrel for rifling, and look for a maker's mark. It's unlikely she'll find one she recognises, but you never know.

"Our ship got cornered by pirate-hunters from the Crystal Empire and shot down. We were the only survivors, we got attacked by mans riding big pony-like things that didn't talk. They had bronze weaponry. We killed a lot of them, the rest ran off, a unicorn accidentally teleported onto the scene, and then the ship exploded. Later, it turned out that unicorn was a changeling born after an invasion failed and left a generation of changeling fouls being raised as ponies. She did give me a gun, though." That changeling was your character, Rebo, so you likely know that.

[Rebonack]

[Adventure!]

The cannon is indeed rifled and does indeed have the maker's stamp on it. It's a crest of a dragon and a lion standing in front of a shield. Probably nothing that would be recognized by the pony.

"Fascinating! I hear magical accidents account for near half the nice people who land here," Tim muses. "Less often folks just crash out of nowhere. The Nexus has a way of gobbling up folks it thinks are interesting!"

Bill rolls his eyes. "That's nonsense and you know it, Tim. The Nexus doesn't have a mind of its own. It's just unlucky happenstance or good fortune that anyone lands here, depending on their situation beforehand."

Beforehand? What a weird expression for a pony. Must have picked it up from the hobbits.

"Bill and I were born here. Third generation! Our ancestors came from Southshire in Mystara, of course. Nasty crazed wizard showed up one day and began banishing folk left and right! Most of them ended up in the Nexus, confused but otherwise fine!"

[Recaiden]

The Clouded Void - Hill

"Not all eighteen gazillion chemical elements. The four magical elements- Earth, air, fire and water." They'll go to land on the hill. It's quite a large hill, if it is a hill and not just a large lump of stolen soil and rock from some world Pazuzu raided. It's mostly flat, though there's a slight curve. If Atorre needs it a different shape, then the pegasi and mephits can probably alter it.

"Exactly, magical elements. Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Metal, Wood, Blood, Light, Dream, Gravity, Ice, Aether, Motion." Atorre floats down to the hill and walks about it. Curving down should work fine, with maybe a little excavation.

[Lost_Deep]

Pokemon Lab

TYPE IN YOUR PROBLEM. The screen reads. That's slightly more helpful right?

need facility blueprint

Caps are for when Mawile is working with people or case-sensitive things. When your hands are as small as her's, the shift key seems a lot farther away.

[Earl of Purple]

The Clouded Void- Hill

"I can't say I've heard of those. But these mephits are air, dust, and ice, mostly. There's a couple of steam mephits, some fire mephits and a salt mephit, too. No ooze or mud mephits, as there's not enough liquid, likewise for the magma mephit. The earth mephits can fly, but prefer to live underground. So maybe there are those elements mixed in with them." Though the pony (whose name I have forgotten) doubts it. How can metal be a magical element? There's iron, tin, zinc, copper, steel, bronze, brass, gold, silver, electrum, platinum, mithril, adamantine, orichalcum, and probably more weird ones he doesn't know.

[Arkhosia]

[Adventure!]

The cannon is indeed rifled and does indeed have the maker's stamp on it. It's a crest of a dragon and a lion standing in front of a shield. Probably nothing that would be recognized by the pony.

"Fascinating! I hear magical accidents account for near half the nice people who land here," Tim muses. "Less often folks just crash out of nowhere. The Nexus has a way of gobbling up folks it thinks are interesting!"

Bill rolls his eyes. "That's nonsense and you know it, Tim. The Nexus doesn't have a mind of its own. It's just unlucky happenstance or good fortune that anyone lands here, depending on their situation beforehand."

Beforehand? What a weird expression for a pony. Must have picked it up from the hobbits.

"Bill and I were born here. Third generation! Our ancestors came from Southshire in Mystara, of course. Nasty crazed wizard showed up one day and began banishing folk left and right! Most of them ended up in the Nexus, confused but otherwise fine!"

Adventure!

Count your ancestors lucky. I arrived here practically Exsanguinated. I still have the scar.

[Earl of Purple]

Adventure!

"Do you have a history of anaemia, or do mans not have much blood to begin with? I hope not the latter; I specialise in amputations." And he's the team medic. And it also reveals a bit of his ignorance towards humanoids.

Volley, meanwhile, doesn't recognise the maker's mark. She was hoping for the same design as on her pistols- a dragon claw-print under two apples with fuses, showing they were built at the Dragon Foundry in Freeport by the master gunsmith (or possibly mistress gunsmith, but that doesn't sound as cool) Apple Bloom (or Appleboom, as she's more often known).

"Good luck in our case. The Cap'n would have been hung for sure if we'd been captured, and me an' the doc would be lucky to get away with a branding." Even if the captain didn't have her Cutie Mark on the ship's flag, and pretended she wasn't the captain, she'd still have been executed because she already has a brand.

[Zefir]

Felandria wakes up, takes a shower, puts on a robe and calls the front desk.

Hello, I was curious if there was a restaurant or bar on the grounds, and if so, would I fit?

[Everysize Hotel]

An elvish femal voice will answer the call.

"Yes, we got both. They would fit the size you got wwhile checking in, but they are to small for you right now. I could offer you the room service, but I should remind you that it's not included in your payment."

There are only a few males offered for her current size like the dino plate of secret of the sea.

Thatcher nods approvingly, swinging his sword in slow figure-eights. That's very interesting. Luckily, my sword is enchanted, or I would have a hard time blocking...
The enchantment is a spell cast into the blue gem in his pommel. It is a ward of blocking, designed to let him clash with lightsabers and the like.

[The Old Arena]

Andy watches him wilding hsi sword and for him he looks less intressed.

"I think that we got all covered now. I should mention I'm not here for win or loose. I waant to try the suit in a controlled battel."

[Rebonack]

[Adventure!]

"Was it vampires?" Bill asks of the drow curiously. "It was vampires, wasn't it?"

Vampires are awful. No one likes vampires. Awful, terrible vampires.

Well, some people like vampires.

But some people are crazy.

Tim, meanwhile, nods sagely. "Oh I would imagine so. If you do decide to get back into piracy just make sure that it's well outside the walls of the City. The folks in charge don't take too kindly to that sort of thing, as I'm sure you might imagine."

[Aric Kale]

[The Old Arena]

Andy watches him weilding his sword and for him he looks less intressed.

"I think that we got all covered now. I should mention I'm not here for win or loose. I want to try the suit in a controlled battle."

I understand. I'm ready when you are. The swordsman declares, taking a few steps back, his sword raised in a vertical line.

[Arkhosia]

[Adventure!]

"Was it vampires?" Bill asks of the drow curiously. "It was vampires, wasn't it?"

Vampires are awful. No one likes vampires. Awful, terrible vampires.

Well, some people like vampires.

But some people are crazy.

Tim, meanwhile, nods sagely. "Oh I would imagine so. If you do decide to get back into piracy just make sure that it's well outside the walls of the City. The folks in charge don't take too kindly to that sort of thing, as I'm sure you might imagine."

Figuratively, yes. Let's just say there was a group of mercenaries with the wizard.

[Earl of Purple]

Adventure!

"What's a vampire? I don't think we've encountered one yet." Volley says. I think they've started walking again, away from the merchant. If so, Volley is stumping along determinedly, though likely slowing the group down (unless they're too inconsiderate to slow down for a cripple with, to my knowledge, their only ranged weaponry).

"We'll keep that in mind. On that subject are there any freeports around? Places where pirates, bandits, outlaws and exiles can gather, trade, socialise and have fun? I grew up in one, and it's loads of fun." If 'fun' includes large amounts of alcohol, gunpowder, prostitutes and a constant street party, anyway.

[Rebonack]

[Adventure!]

"Undead monsters that burn in sunlight and feed on blood," Bill replies matter of factly. "They're generally bad news. But every now and again the Nexus dredges up one that isn't evil incarnate for whatever reason."

It really is mysterious.

Tim ponders the question of free ports.

"Hmmm... Probably! There are plenty of small towns and cities outside Inside. All sorts with their own rules. No doubt there's a freeport among them somewhere."

Seems like a reasonable enough guess.

[Shadowcaller]

need facility blueprint

Caps are for when Mawile is working with people or case-sensitive things. When your hands are as small as her's, the shift key seems a lot farther away.

[Pokemon Lab]

IDENTIFY YOURSELF. The computer types back.

[Arkhosia]

[Adventure!]

"Undead monsters that burn in sunlight and feed on blood," Bill replies matter of factly. "They're generally bad news. But every now and again the Nexus dredges up one that isn't evil incarnate for whatever reason."

It really is mysterious.

Tim ponders the question of free ports.

"Hmmm... Probably! There are plenty of small towns and cities outside Inside. All sorts with their own rules. No doubt there's a freeport among them somewhere."

Seems like a reasonable enough guess.

Adventure!
Vampires are rather irritating. At least you might get semi-immortality though.

[Earl of Purple]

Adventure!

"Don't care about the immortality. I like the sun, myself. Even if Celestia would execute me if she caught me, so would Cadence, and really, that's all that matters." Volley Shot smiles.

"That's good. I was born and grew up in Freeport, the original freeport. It was a lot like Inside, actually- lots of different people walking the streets; pirates, mules, donkeys, buffalo, zebras, griffons, hippogriffs, minotaurs, cows, goats, diamond dogs, zonies, zonkeys, all sorts. And weird architecture; most of the buildings were decommissioned sky-ships, including the one my mother ran her business in. The rest were usually tents, huts or a mixture of the two." In an emergency, practically the whole town could be packed up and moved, though admittedly slowly. Did stop the Equestrian Navy from moving against the larger ones, though.

[Chaotic Bob]

EMBOH Code Vats

"Ooooh, nifty. Roman numerals and more unanswered questions," Magtok observes without an ounce of sarcasm, floating up in an attempt to look into those towering vats, and find out exactly what's contained within.

"Quick question, what the hell just happened? Are we pressed for time?"

"This is rather precisely what you sought."
Sarcasm or no, Mr. Hat addresses what needs to be addressed.

Flying up to view into the vats is completely unobstructed!
They appear to each be filled with with lightly vibrating fluid of some sort, all in differing hues. Likely more for identification purposes than anything else.
"Funding in this realm is a complicated affair. Often, it is simpler to make what the seeker desires from scratch, based on what is believed to be their due."
If you've got 200 [currency] in the bank, they'll make you 200 [currency] to match.


Libby lingers on the ground, rubbing a finger along her forehead.
"Of course we're mildly pressed for time. The system has been collapsing since before we entered."
"I have been attempting to delay the inevitable until everyone is safe."

[Lord Magtok]

EMBOH Code Vats

"Best estimate on how much I can get away with, with just enough time left over to run away in a dramatic sprint towards some portal back to the outside world?"

Oh, whatever. Just start mixing things and turning valves and hope for the best, Maggy. Maybe you can make a magical sword or a doom gun or a gilded unobtanium statue of yourself.

[Chaotic Bob]

[EMBOH Code Vats]

Why is all of this nonsense even inside a virtual abstraction?
Curious.

"Don't worry about the time-frame, Magtok. You've ample opportunity to work."
What a delightful non-answer that seems rather pointedly like "not very long, but enough to do some hijinks".


Meanwhile! Valves!
There are no valves.
No connecting parts or moving machinery anywhere, really.
Wonder how they did all their mixing and manipulating?
Just a teensy little thinky think.

[GrandDM]

[Stairs in the Mountain]

The armour is oddly attached to other bits of itself, and the helmet and chestplate can be removed without the other parts clattering to the ground.

Assuming they both get inside the armour, the noises reach the foot of the stairs and are revealed to be two harpies. They search around for a while, snarl when they can't find anything, and leave again. As they ascend the stairs, one of them says:

"Better tell the master. He won't like this."