[Nexus] Outside XXXVII

[Chaotic Bob]

Outside the Vault

Magtok picks himself up just long enough to grab the disk with his other hand, to shove it into the computer he'd brought out here to be able to enter the vault in the first place. A brief glance here or there to make sure there's nothing of any value or interest, and then he'd melt the laptop down, with the disk still inside. The hero and festival aren't given any thought, at least for the time being.

In the disk goes.

After a few moments, a simple boot window appears with a single word and two buttons.

AEGIS

[Please Click] [Cancel]

[Recaiden]

[The Clouded Void]

Ranna sits down, leaning against the machine and resting for a moment. He's impressed that actually worked; it's been a long time since he put his aerospace design to any use, and never had he built something so quickly and of such improvisation.

[Lord Magtok]

Vault Disk

"AEGIS, huh? Just who, or what is being protected?"

Magtok doesn't consider this computer particularly important or valuable, so let's delver deeper. Nothing else to do, right? Not until a new Libby shows up or something to investigate whatever happened to the last one. He hits the 'please click'.

[Earl of Purple]

The Clouded Void

Presumably, the workers are focussing on building the factory or finding more robust components for the machinery in the gyrocopter.

[Reinholdt]

Voranhin's Laboratory- Wizard & Sasha

Sasha will find that the teleportation spell has deposited her upon a mattress in a small cage only just large enough for it, with enough extra room for a currently-empty bucket. The cage is one in a row of five, with five more cages in another row. The wizard appears soon afterwards, and with him, light.

The cages look out into an experimental chamber; there's a marble slab in the centre of the room with lots of shackles built in to restrain beings with different sizes and quantities of limbs. In one corner of the room, there's three large glass tanks; one is filled with a pale yellow liquid, one with a dark red mist and the third appears to be filled with water. Sasha appears to be the only inhabitant at the moment.

Voranhin's Laboratory- Wizard & Sasha

Sasha lays there trembling, not sure which of her blunted, repressed emotions to feel.

[High Sea Adventure]

Derek looks back and forth between the two passages. "Well this way seems to have hot bubbling tar or something, which is never any fun. I would pick the unnaturally black path over that."

[High Sea Adventure]

"All right." No splitting up then. Good.

Reinholdt pulls out a pair of flashlights and gives one to Derek before shining his own down the dark passage. They're magical flashlights! In that they don't require batteries and won't break if you drop them. Other than that, pretty normal.

[Chaotic Bob]

Vault Disk

"AEGIS, huh? Just who, or what is being protected?"

Magtok doesn't consider this computer particularly important or valuable, so let's delver deeper. Nothing else to do, right? Not until a new Libby shows up or something to investigate whatever happened to the last one. He hits the 'please click'.

The button is clicked and the window vanishes.
A couple seconds later, another window appears, flashing a few streams of largely nonsensical gibberish symbols.

Eventually, this too vanishes, replaced by another window headed with
"Establishing Contained Environment". A few lines stretch out past it, periodically winking in and out in sequence, in some form of loading/working recognition.

While it does that, a text cursor appears below.

We deeply appreciate the momentary trust you have chosen to give.
Please allow a few more moments for more suitable restructuring of internal resources.
_

Whatever the program's doing, it isn't going to be shy about devouring every bit of open space within the computer it can.
Probably not a bad thing, right?

[Zefir]

Old Arena

It is weak; he's fighting fire with fire...kinda. Anyways, Thatcher adjusts the twirl in his blade to cover his sides, but he can't keep that defense up for long, and it's not nearly as fast.

Well then one normal plasma ball would just pass through the shield. Either way, the shooting isn't endless. after a dozen more shots Andy stops. He doesn't make a move for now, which is due to his weappons need to cool down.

[Earl of Purple]

Voranhin's Laboratory- Sasha & Wizard (Voranhin)

The wizard walks to a wheel in the wall and turns it, moving the cages along so the next person or object teleported by his walking stick won't end up in the same cage as Sasha. If Sasha is quick, she may be able to escape before her cage moves too far- the cage originally hung in one of two places in the laboratory which is not blocked from teleportation magic.

[FireFox]

Effervescent Valley

Douglas flips the switch, surrounding the HALO Humvee with a low strength anti-magic bubble It's more of a shield against magical effects than a spell denial field. Unless the photo-ruining enchantment on the hut is of particularly great potency, the camera inside the vehicle should be fine now. All right... I guess we wait for the next person stupid enough to come along.

[Reinholdt]

Voranhin's Laboratory

Sasha doesn't think in terms like that. Anti-teleportation isn't even a word she knows! Heck, she doesn't even know if what she does is teleportation or not. She is, after all, mostly shadow herself.

Not that she's trying to escape at this point in time. The setting might be different, but the cage she's in is the same.

Effervescent Valley

Comrade Omega leaves, disappearing through the stone archway.

[GrandDM]

[ToTLI]

"I cannot speak for my companion, but I require no reward."

[Arkhosia]

Effervescent Valley

Douglas flips the switch, surrounding the HALO Humvee with a low strength anti-magic bubble It's more of a shield against magical effects than a spell denial field. Unless the photo-ruining enchantment on the hut is of particularly great potency, the camera inside the vehicle should be fine now. All right... I guess we wait for the next person stupid enough to come along.

They might see in the distance a figure in a hooded cloak. The figure lifts her left hand, revealing dark grey skin. Two shadowy figures with bright grins and eyes appear, and shapeshift into a tall man in scruffy clothes and a small child in a dress, which head to the arch. If anyone can detect auras, they'll notice they are demonic in origin.
Have fun, my princelings.

[Aric Kale]

Well then one normal plasma ball would just pass through the shield. Either way, the shooting isn't endless. after a dozen more shots Andy stops. He doesn't make a move for now, which is due to his weappons need to cool down.

Well, technically it's more of a solidified flame, but yeah, it breaks fast.
Thatcher just barely manages to keep up, panting heavily while Andy's guns pause for a moment. No counter attack; he's waiting to see what's next.

[Beans]

Effervescent Valley

Douglas flips the switch, surrounding the HALO Humvee with a low strength anti-magic bubble It's more of a shield against magical effects than a spell denial field. Unless the photo-ruining enchantment on the hut is of particularly great potency, the camera inside the vehicle should be fine now. All right... I guess we wait for the next person stupid enough to come along.

Carrie watches and waits, checking through the photos on the camera to see what they got.

[Earl of Purple]

Tomb of the Lost Innocent

"That is good; I do not know what I could give to you, besides a promise of aid should ever you need it." This is directed at Guile; She can sense his extranormal nature.

"As for you, please kneel." She smiles up at Krayger, who is much taller than She is.

Effervescent Valley

I went over what happened earlier, and I realised that I'd automatically put the HALO team in a different timeline to Comrade Omega & Sasha. That's why the microphone couldn't pick any thing up; there wasn't any silencing spells. Sorry.

Anyway, the spell is quite potent, though whether it's potent enough is up to you. It's not potent enough to stop the wizard's teleportation, though.

Also, Arkhosia: the archway is a portal to Riverside- it leads away from the cabin. If your character wants to sell to the wizard, they need to ring the doorbell and ignore the HALO truck.

Voranhin's Laboratory

When I said 'wheel', I meant 'crank'. I just couldn't remember the word.

Voranhin walks over to Sasha's cage, holding a small glass bottle filled with something green, which oddly glows blue. "Drink this."

[Deathkeeper]

TotLI

Krayger kneels down, probably now at eye level with the Goddess. He's not sure what to expect.

[Arkhosia]

Effervescent Valley
...oh.
Also: The figure didn't notice the truck, I was just saying that the occupants might notice her.
Who says the figure's the one ringing the doorbell?
The man and the girl walk up to the door and ring the doorbell.

[Lex-Kat]

High Seas Adventure

Reinholdt whispers to Derek what he notices.

"Ideas? Plans?"

Derek looks back and forth between the two passages. "Well this way seems to have hot bubbling tar or something, which is never any fun. I would pick the unnaturally black path over that."

"All right." No splitting up then. Good.

Reinholdt pulls out a pair of flashlights and gives one to Derek before shining his own down the dark passage. They're magical flashlights! In that they don't require batteries and won't break if you drop them. Other than that, pretty normal.

As the duo head up the right path, they are engulfed in darkness. The flashlights help, but their light is diffused, like headlights in a heavy fog. And the air seems thicker. Almost as if it's slowly transitioning from gas to liquid.

It's in this thickening air that Reinholdt's ears are able to pick something he didn't hear before. It sounds like someone struggling with her bonds. To the left, but clearly still in this tunnel.

And then there comes a psychic call for help. ~He's here! He's found us!!~

[Recaiden]

[The Clouded Void]

One would expect a bit less successful cooperation from an abyssal settlement, even if they're not demons.

Ranna will be found asleep sitting by the prototype. Back on the island he works on, but this body needs to rest.

[Earl of Purple]

The Clouded Void

Unsuccessful cooperation gets the weak dead very quickly, unless they are very fast, very good at hiding and very clever. Pegasi ponies are often the first, rarely the second and sometimes the third, but they also need to stop for sleep. But there are lone wanderers around, ones that are too violent, unpredictable or antisocial to live with a community, or merely lucky, fast and clever enough to survive when a settlement was destroyed.

These pegasi and mephits continue working as Ranna sleeps, getting into the hang of the work. As some head off to sleep, others come to take up their jobs; the mephits don't sleep, however. Or not as regularly as the ponies, at least. There's not a real cycle to the shifts, though; they're individuals, and don't have a coherent system of when to sleep and when not to.

[McBish]

High Seas Adventure

((It's been so long since I saw Jezebelle's speech color I forget if it is that blue or not.))

Derek manages not to jump in surprise as the psyhic call hits him. He shines his flash light around looking for any signs of someone or something that could be contacting him as he tries to focus his mind and respond, hoping that the person can hear him. "Hello where are you?"

[Lex-Kat]

High Seas Adventure

((It's been so long since I saw Jezebelle's speech color I forget if it is that blue or not.))

Derek manages not to jump in surprise as the psyhic call hits him. He shines his flash light around looking for any signs of someone or something that could be contacting him as he tries to focus his mind and respond, hoping that the person can hear him. "Hello where are you?"

((Ah yes. I had forgotten that some may not recognize the speech color. That was Melody calling out. Jezebelle's is Pale Green.

And yes, Derek can hear it, as Melody wouldn't know exactly how the rescue mission was going at this point.))

[FireFox]

They might see in the distance a figure in a hooded cloak. The figure lifts her left hand, revealing dark grey skin. Two shadowy figures with bright grins and eyes appear, and shapeshift into a tall man in scruffy clothes and a small child in a dress, which head to the arch. If anyone can detect auras, they'll notice they are demonic in origin.
Have fun, my princelings.

Carrie watches and waits, checking through the photos on the camera to see what they got.

Effervescent Valley

I went over what happened earlier, and I realised that I'd automatically put the HALO team in a different timeline to Comrade Omega & Sasha. That's why the microphone couldn't pick any thing up; there wasn't any silencing spells. Sorry.

Anyway, the spell is quite potent, though whether it's potent enough is up to you. It's not potent enough to stop the wizard's teleportation, though.

Also, Arkhosia: the archway is a portal to Riverside- it leads away from the cabin. If your character wants to sell to the wizard, they need to ring the doorbell and ignore the HALO truck.

Effervescent Valley
...oh.
Also: The figure didn't notice the truck, I was just saying that the occupants might notice her.
Who says the figure's the one ringing the doorbell?
The man and the girl walk up to the door and ring the doorbell.

Effervescent Valley

I think I'll say that the enchantment on the hut does overcome the anti-magic shield, but only on pictures that are focused on it. So, by zooming in, they will have gotten pictures of Comrade Omega, Sasha, and now the newcomers. And maybe the wizard Voranhin too, unless he has his own enchantment on him. And since the conversation took place in front of the hut's door, they would have picked it up on the microphone. But perhaps the hut's enchantment would also degrade the audio recording, leaving HALO without any proof beyond the word of their members that selling children into slavery was even happening here. Does that work for you, Earl?

Douglas points the figure out to Carrie, asking her to get a few pictures before focusing on the man and girl knocking on the hut door. While keeping the microphone pointed at the latter two, HALO's intelligence director attempts to study the cloaked figure through his binoculars.

[Beans]

[Effervescent Valley]
Carrie takes the pictures as instructed, taking several shots per subject to try to get a good spread so they can pick the best possible ones.

[Lord Magtok]

Vault Disk

Seeing as the computer is a largely empty shell, meant for being seized and quarantining exactly this sort of menace, Magtok has no objections to this assimilation of the computer. Unless it magically starts sprouting legs and trying to kill him, his lasgoose will stay right here in his extradimensional pocket, waiting for the right excuse to ruin some innocent laptop's day.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Vault Disk]

The process doesn't take very long. Seems to be very efficient.
By the time it's done, it leaves a tidy little icon behind and little else.

And Magtok is obviously going to click the button.
Why not? He's got nothing better to do.


The program takes the screen away at this point, usurping it for its own purposes.
From here, everything is presented in a general green area, with a few white interface/button rectangles spread about.
All are unlabelled save one in the middle, which is a gently pulsing check-mark on it.

Any and all are clickable though!
What's the choice?
Alternatively just burn it before something terrible happens.

[Reinholdt]

High Seas Adventure

As the duo head up the right path, they are engulfed in darkness. The flashlights help, but their light is diffused, like headlights in a heavy fog. And the air seems thicker. Almost as if it's slowly transitioning from gas to liquid.

It's in this thickening air that Reinholdt's ears are able to pick something he didn't hear before. It sounds like someone struggling with her bonds. To the left, but clearly still in this tunnel.

And then there comes a psychic call for help. ~He's here! He's found us!!~

High Seas Adventure

((It's been so long since I saw Jezebelle's speech color I forget if it is that blue or not.))

Derek manages not to jump in surprise as the psyhic call hits him. He shines his flash light around looking for any signs of someone or something that could be contacting him as he tries to focus his mind and respond, hoping that the person can hear him. "Hello where are you?"

High Seas Adventure

"Dammit, I knew this was a fakeout." Reinholdt immediately turns around and turns pink, going to fly out at high speeds. "You're on your own for the rest! Don't die!" Sorry Derek. Just be wary of those traps and you should be ok.

"Stall for as long as you can Melody." Reinholdt says, trying to leave as quickly as possible. He's got to fly back to the island at top speed.

Voranhin's Laboratory

When I said 'wheel', I meant 'crank'. I just couldn't remember the word.

Voranhin walks over to Sasha's cage, holding a small glass bottle filled with something green, which oddly glows blue. "Drink this."

Voranhin's Laboratory

Sasha stares at him, but most certainly does not drink the bottle.

[Lord Magtok]

Vault Disk

Well obviously someone's trying to get him to pick out the middle one, so let's flagrantly disregard their wishes and press one of the other buttons. We can go for the pulsing check-mark later.

"Such a goddamn cryptic UI. Someone hated whoever was meant to actually use this thing."

Magtok pretends he wasn't just talking to himself, and raises up an arm to record his musings from here on out.

"Trying the top-left-most button first. Aegis is a vaguely fitting name for a hero vault computer program thing, but the interface seems to be the work of some sort of vengeful supervillain. Unlabeled buttons and mysterious loading screens every step of the way. On a vaguely related note, I hope this isn't one of those laptops with a built-in mic. Don't want Zombie Val to think I'm talking to her when I'm not."

[Zefir]

Well, technically it's more of a solidified flame, but yeah, it breaks fast.
Thatcher just barely manages to keep up, panting heavily while Andy's guns pause for a moment. No counter attack; he's waiting to see what's next.

[Old arena]

Andy is going to check the energy level first. Well it's just another statistik on his screen. To see that there is quiet a lot of energy left he smiles. The batery he bought is quiet more effective then he thought. Normal batteries would be half empty right now.

Now he can test something else. both of his weapon seem to be ready again and then they start to flicker. At first it's only slowly, but after a few more moments the flicker got even faster. Should Thatcher not do anything Andy will. He takes a few steps closer and swings his weapon at Thatcher. The weapon grows in size fir a blink and seems to shoot a fireball 2 meter in diameter at him. Note: this attack si scaled down as well, but looks dangerouse. It's stronger then the balls but still should only leave first degree burns where he got no protection and maybe ignite some hair.

[Earl of Purple]

Effervescent Valley

That works for me! Voranhin is quite cautious, and knows his activities are likely to attract people that want to interfere.

Voranhin has an amulet that prevents scrying, but it's mostly focussed towards magical scrying rather than the various sorts of technological scrying (cameras, microphones, etc). So he might turn up on the photographs, especially with an anti-magic baffle preventing its effects.

Voranhin opens the door for the apparant-man and the apparant-child with them after a short wait. As before, the cabin will decay the film or records of any images either takes of it, but slowly enough that it might not be immediately obvious, and it doesn't affect any copies made.

The wizard, Voranhin, is a man in his late fifties, wearing stiff robes the colour of old, dried blood. His hair is heavily greyed, but the original black still shows through, and his eyes are a piercing blue. His posture says the ornate walking stick he's holding is mostly for show. "Ah! You're here about the ad?" He smiles.

Voranhin's Laboratory

There's a ringing sound. "Oh, excuse me. It sounds like somebody else is at the hut." He walks over to the spot he telported in from, and disappears. Sasha is left in the dark, the only light coming from the green liquid in the blue-glowing bottle left just outside her cage.