[Nexus] The Outside XXXIX

[Morcleon]

[Walking to Inside]

Amelia nods biting her lip. "Yeah it was. It was... Ripping the magic out of me, it was very physical. It ripped through our spells like they were nothing. I couldn't begin to tell you what it did to me, technically speaking." Recalling the actual event is easy enough. Far too easy for Amelia's liking.

[Walking to Inside]

Wincing, Yuki places a comforting hand on Amelia's shoulder. "I see... you don't have to explain the process if you don't want to."

"And, um, how did you get rid of it in the end? I'd assume that it's not here anymore, yes?"

[McBish]

[Walking to Inside]

Amelia is shaking slightly, but takes a deep breath and calms down a bit with his touch. "I am not really sure. It left as far as anyone was able to tell me. I woke up in a bed three weeks later, I was the only one left. I didn't ask a whole lot of questions about it. I was just lucky to be alive."

[Morcleon]

[Walking to Inside]

Amelia is shaking slightly, but takes a deep breath and calms down a bit with his touch. "I am not really sure. It left as far as anyone was able to tell me. I woke up in a bed three weeks later, I was the only one left. I didn't ask a whole lot of questions about it. I was just lucky to be alive."

[Walking to Inside]

"So you haven't seen it since? That's good." Yuki smiles and gives her shoulder a slight squeeze before letting go. "You've gone through a lot. You're really strong, being able to come back from something like that..."

[McBish]

[Walking to Inside]

Amelia smiles a bit. "Thanks. I had a lot of help getting over it. The people that saved me took care of me for a long time. That is where I learned to fight. And where I got the only thing close to magic I can still do."

[Lex-Kat]

Melody's Island

Happy accepts the hand from Magtok, and leans on him as she returns to Melody's side. "Melody, love, you can't sleep if you have a head injury," Happy says. "Magtok, do you have a light?"

Magtok produces a flashlight, and points it down at Melody, careful to avoid shining it right in her eyes, because that would be rude.

Of course not, Momma. Melody smiles up at Happy. But her eyes flutter as she struggles to stay awake. I'm just... I'm just tired is all....

Derek takes a closer look with the light Magtok makes. He will reach down and try to gently lift up the bandage to try and take a closer look at what the wound looks like. "I might be able to help her. I have some affinity for healing magic. She's right Melody you need to stay awake." He fishes out a necklace from under his shirt. Then he unclips the pendant from it, it looks like a small vial filled with a milky white liquid.

Derek will see that the wound under the bandage is completely healed, with only a scar showing where the wound had been. Quinn and Neirian healed my head and stopped the bleeding. Melody says softly, then chuckles. Quinn was in such a hurry to save Estia, that she left without saying goodbye.

Now that there is light, it is much easier to notice that Melody's left arm is limp by her side and there is a bump above her elbow that looks suspiciously like a bone trying to poke through.

Also, there is bruising all along her legs and, if they carefully lift her over to follow the bruises, they'll find they climb up her back along the right side of her body. They look to be from the fallen rocks, likely there's more than just the broken arm.

Lyanna pulls away from Jezebelle's hug and tugs at Happy to get her attention. Her eyes still wet from the tears, she says quietly, trying to hide her words from Melody. Miss Quinn went to find Melody's magic. I think she's in denying. Lyanna looks to Derek. Miss Quinn also said Melody's been broken, and that she shouldn't walk. She needs a flat surface to heel.

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace:

"I recall a thumb print and a vindictive reccomendation for extra torture before chucking a soul to the Punishing Hells."

Romeo was hoping it was just dry old bones. He'll pry the keys off before going to the boys cell and trying the keys until success. It's the faintest effort that summons the boy's bow (and quiver?) to him.

"You were actually very helpful. Wouldn't have beat the claw one without your arrows. You're very talented, but if you want to do this for a living, I reccomend a team. This solo stuff is for the birds."

[ImpSyndrome]

Spirits with Hollow Hearts

The Lion, as stated earlier, is defenseless and now...dead. Unfortunately, the Ape is right on his tail, beating down on his defensive walls. The exorcist could be in trouble, should his defenses fall.
The Horse is also vanquished, and Yûki-aru rushes over to help, letting an arc of Reiatsu-infused shadow slam into the Ape

Leo barely has time to think about his next move before the Ape crashes into the sphere of protection around him, attempting to break it down and render him defenseless. The only thing saving him is another rush of energy from the spirits released from the vanquished Lion; their added power is just enough to sustain the barrier, allowing him to escape from harm's way. Unfortunately, this means that he'll need to collect more in order to perform another exorcism, and with the enemy so close at hand, it'd likely be easier to simply beat it to death with his weapon.

Thankfully, Yûki-aru has finished off his foe and is on his way to assist, so Leo will have some help with this menacing opponent. A wave of shadow from his blade's exposed ability gives him an opportunity to deal a joint attack, so he rushes in and strikes hard against the weight of the shadow blow, swinging his weapon with both hands like a baseball bat.

[Slii Arhem]

Spoiler

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Western Ghost Town

Denise sighs and goes about pouring some for herself before sitting down and sipping it. "I wanted to see what this Nexus thing was about. Just a quick visit, you know? And now..." She sips again. "I hope Dawn has fuel, because if not my bike has a limited lifespan."

Western Ghost Town

Krayger nods. "Krayger, and it's a pleasure to meet you, despite the circumstances.
Cheer up lass, I'll get us all to Inside before our hair goes gray. My phone is clockwork, so if at least only Dusk has the same reception I can keep calling. Worse comes to worst we just describe the place until someone who actually knows stuff thinks of something. And this time I can ask for it, since I have a town's worth of coin lying around here. And my own pockets, if that's what it takes.
But for now, I doubt that's going anywhere in under a day. Have room for us to sleep anywhere, Risa, or do I need to get my tent?"

Wintry Palace

Now that they're out of combat Tep simply tosses a few flames to light the torches that have been left in their sconces. Because everyone knows torches left in their sconces for years will still burn when adventurers need them to. "Hrm? I've only done it to one fellow, why'd you say that?"
The key hand can be chopped off with a few hacks from Romeo's hunting knife, as it's just dry bone. For the record, if he looks the boy's bow is on a rack behind the Jailer's desk, although other than an open book and a pen there isn't much else even remotely interesting on that side of the room.
"Last one on the left, door side." comes the response. "Geez, sounds like you really nailed 'im. I really should've just waited, shouldn't I?"

Western Ghost Town

She shrugs at the comment about fuel, unsure of it herself, but turns the majority of her attention to Krayger.

"You can sure try hun. There's plenty of places to sleep around town, but the rooms upstairs aren't for sleeping in. If you need some shut eye, any of the empty houses should suit you fine." She pauses, and then looks Krayger up and down, "But if you need company, I suppose I could get one of the other gals to tend bar a while. Not many fellas around here are what you'd call my type." Well that's about as blatant as you could get from a woman in a place like this, but she tosses in a knowing wink and a broad smile just to be sure he follows her.

[Lost_Deep]

Western Ghost Town

Krayger nods. "Krayger, and it's a pleasure to meet you, despite the circumstances.
Cheer up lass, I'll get us all to Inside before our hair goes gray. My phone is clockwork, so if at least only Dusk has the same reception I can keep calling. Worse comes to worst we just describe the place until someone who actually knows stuff thinks of something. And this time I can ask for it, since I have a town's worth of coin lying around here. And my own pockets, if that's what it takes.
But for now, I doubt that's going anywhere in under a day. Have room for us to sleep anywhere, Risa, or do I need to get my tent?"

Western Ghost Town

Denise keeps a straight face. In fact, she specifically straightens it. She also doesn't say anything, to keep anything unbecoming from coming out. She takes a drink (a bit more than a sip this time) and tries not to think about it while waiting for Krayger's response.

[Deathkeeper]

Spoiler

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Wintry Palace:

"I recall a thumb print and a vindictive reccomendation for extra torture before chucking a soul to the Punishing Hells."

Romeo was hoping it was just dry old bones. He'll pry the keys off before going to the boys cell and trying the keys until success. It's the faintest effort that summons the boy's bow (and quiver?) to him.

"You were actually very helpful. Wouldn't have beat the claw one without your arrows. You're very talented, but if you want to do this for a living, I reccomend a team. This solo stuff is for the birds."

Wintry Palace

Tep blinks at him. "Technically I just threw him out for his soul to be dragged down like anyone else's. And I don't see your point." After all, that fellow was already gone; not much of a finisher.
After the narrator finishes re-checking his notes (which is to say all five things that were planned) and Romeo's dialogue and finishes laughing his head off, he can continue describing how he gets to the cell after making that statement to find one rather large and extremely irritable-looking snowy owl, with what used to be his clothes wrapped around him as blankets. The bars on this cell were spaced for halfling-size or smaller prisoners, and while he still could probably have squeezed through the threat of the Jailer was enough to prevent that.
"You are so unbelievably lucky that I know you meant nothing by that." he says gruffly, shuffling his wings a bit to reveal the small set of opposable fingers growing out of them like a bat's thumb. Which the narrator blatantly stole from Eclipse Phase.
The (third) key finger opens the door, assuming he's still doing that. Tep just shrugs, having none of the context to tell him this isn't what Romeo was expecting, except perhaps his face.

Spoiler

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Western Ghost Town

She shrugs at the comment about fuel, unsure of it herself, but turns the majority of her attention to Krayger.

"You can sure try hun. There's plenty of places to sleep around town, but the rooms upstairs aren't for sleeping in. If you need some shut eye, any of the empty houses should suit you fine." She pauses, and then looks Krayger up and down, "But if you need company, I suppose I could get one of the other gals to tend bar a while. Not many fellas around here are what you'd call my type." Well that's about as blatant as you could get from a woman in a place like this, but she tosses in a knowing wink and a broad smile just to be sure he follows her.

Western Ghost Town

Denise keeps a straight face. In fact, she specifically straightens it. She also doesn't say anything, to keep anything unbecoming from coming out. She takes a drink (a bit more than a sip this time) and tries not to think about it while waiting for Krayger's response.

Western Ghost Town

Krayger returns the grin but shakes his head after another swig.
"Not tonight, Risa. If I'm going to give an honest effort at finding anything I'll need to have slept a little. And if I can help it at all I try to be a bit less casual and a bit more...patient with those matters.

Would you like to look for a spot now or would you rather ask around?" he says to the human.

[Aric Kale]

Spirits with Hollow Hearts

)(Sorry for the weak posts, I'm not used to posting for monsters, posting for monsters and my own character at the same time, or running any sort of thing in FFRP)(.

The combined barrage of Leo and Yûki-aru is enough to both force the Ape backwards and crack its mask, injuring it severely. With the Shinigami's next blow, the Hollow is finished.
Yûki-aru contains his Spirit Energy, and sheathes his Zanpakuto.
I thank you for your aid. I could not have done this task alone. For that, I will give you a gift, that it may help you as you have done to me. With that, he gives him a fingerless glove with an odd flame-decal on the back. With this, you'll be able to leave your body and interact with the spiritual, and physical, world. You would be in the state I'm in now, except I don't have a body to return to.

)(You can activate the gloves however you see fit. Leo can't exactly have someone punch him in the gut every time.)(

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace:

Well now he's just unsure. "You're... You're the sick boy's cousin right? Did the necromancer do that to you? This is strange." This doesn't stop him from unlocking the cell. There's no reason to keep him in there while discussing this.

"Tep, could he do that? Transforming one living creature to another seems so beyond his ken." This is completely beyond changing around a dead body. Romeo didn't think he was capable of this.

[Deathkeeper]

Wintry Palace

Will nods. It is, in fact, Will. He even says so after that.
"I don't really know how many injections. Was drugged the whole time, and apparently this was something he'd been sitting on for a while since he whipped it up in just a day and a half. Least he didn't bother to reapply the first set. I don't even want to know what I'd hallucinate while actually growing feathers."
"Alchemist kid, alchemist. Necromancers don't need potions and formulas to reanimate things. I said that before, remember?"
I believe the exact phrasing was "'Necromancer' is being generous."
"And yes, altering the physical body was his specialty. That's why the only thing he needed from me was the ritual of the soul, since he had the formula for his undeath worked out already. He made up the method for making potions specifically for undead on his own, which is actually rather impressive."
Will waddles out of the cell, keeping his old shirt around him for warmth, but sadly leaving his pants and shoes behind.
"There's a little knife in my left boot. Could you take that? Sorry if they're a bit gamey, but I made it myself with Uncle Ralof and I'd hate to leave it here to rot in this hole. Oh, that staff. You wouldn't be the kind of fellow who can reverse weird magic things...wouldja?"
And technically the Alchemist flat-out said he'd do the same to Romeo, but I guess Romeo just thought he was talking crazy.

[Lost_Deep]

Western Ghost Town

"Some of both?" Denise suggests with a shrug. "We don't want to step on anyone's toes. It should be simple enough, right?"

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace

Will nods. It is, in fact, Will. He even says so after that.
"I don't really know how many injections. Was drugged the whole time, and apparently this was something he'd been sitting on for a while since he whipped it up in just a day and a half. Least he didn't bother to reapply the first set. I don't even want to know what I'd hallucinate while actually growing feathers."
"Alchemist kid, alchemist. Necromancers don't need potions and formulas to reanimate things. I said that before, remember?"
I believe the exact phrasing was "'Necromancer' is being generous."
"And yes, altering the physical body was his specialty. That's why the only thing he needed from me was the ritual of the soul, since he had the formula for his undeath worked out already. He made up the method for making potions specifically for undead on his own, which is actually rather impressive."
Will waddles out of the cell, keeping his old shirt around him for warmth, but sadly leaving his pants and shoes behind.
"There's a little knife in my left boot. Could you take that? Sorry if they're a bit gamey, but I made it myself with Uncle Ralof and I'd hate to leave it here to rot in this hole. Oh, that staff. You wouldn't be the kind of fellow who can reverse weird magic things...wouldja?"
And technically the Alchemist flat-out said he'd do the same to Romeo, but I guess Romeo just thought he was talking crazy.

Wintry Palace:

He mentioned turning Romeo into a steed, but he and I figured he meant by attaching horse parts or something.

"Necromancy was what he did, alchemy was what he used. Though in this case, yes, it's not necromancy." Romeo says, a little disinterested in the semantics. He has no second thoughts about grabbing Will's knife.

"I'm sorry, but no. I don't know how to do that. My master may have notes on the subject but even he isn't an expert on body magic. But after we bring the flowers to your father, I can take you into the city. There are plenty of clerics, wizards, and miracle workers who could help you."

[Deathkeeper]

Wintry Palace

I actually hadn't been sure how it'd work. I went through a lot of different animal ideas, the elk being one of the earlier ones, with various ideas of full animal to tauric, but eventually decided that the crazy alchemist's first priority would be getting more materials and information, not something to carry him around. Hence, spy animal.
Will looks dejected. "Oh, okay. Well, it's not too bad. At least I'll still fit in our cabin and it wasn't a mouse or something. mm."
Tep raises a hand.
"Erm, you want a ritual of body restoration, right? I might have one of those in my book. A strong spell like that, even a white magic one that a good kid like you can cast will be in the Restricted Pages, though. I'm not allowed to give those away without a contract. I mean, you promised you'd take me as your minion, and that's doing me enough of a favor that I could put the spell as the payment for hiring me...but if you look at it a certain way it is getting magic from a deal with a demon. By my Hell's standards you're not trading souls and it's not to hurt anyone or personal gain, so you wouldn't have any marks against you, but that's Our Hell. I guess you can't really trust my word on that." he says quietly.
((Also, I totally didn't think of this until I had already introduced Tep. It just fit together really well.))

[Morcleon]

[Walking to Inside]

Amelia smiles a bit. "Thanks. I had a lot of help getting over it. The people that saved me took care of me for a long time. That is where I learned to fight. And where I got the only thing close to magic I can still do."

[Walking to Inside]

"You're quite welcome." Yuki grins, happy that Amelia isn't being mopey anymore. "So what's this 'close to magic' thing? Maybe I can try to base any potential grafts off of that..."

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace

I actually hadn't been sure how it'd work. I went through a lot of different animal ideas, the elk being one of the earlier ones, with various ideas of full animal to tauric, but eventually decided that the crazy alchemist's first priority would be getting more materials and information, not something to carry him around. Hence, spy animal.
Will looks dejected. "Oh, okay. Well, it's not too bad. At least I'll still fit in our cabin and it wasn't a mouse or something. mm."
Tep raises a hand.
"Erm, you want a ritual of body restoration, right? I might have one of those in my book. A strong spell like that, even a white magic one that a good kid like you can cast will be in the Restricted Pages, though. I'm not allowed to give those away without a contract. I mean, you promised you'd take me as your minion, and that's doing me enough of a favor that I could put the spell as the payment for hiring me...but if you look at it a certain way it is getting magic from a deal with a demon. By my Hell's standards you're not trading souls and it's not to hurt anyone or personal gain, so you wouldn't have any marks against you, but that's Our Hell. I guess you can't really trust my word on that." he says quietly.
((Also, I totally didn't think of this until I had already introduced Tep. It just fit together really well.))

Wintry Palace:

"No, it is personal gain. It's a powerful spell and a shortcut from either legwork or research." Offen rare that someone justifies not taking the deal with devil. "But we'll put a pin in it until I'm satisfied we've exhausted all options. Just in case." He turns his face to Will. "I will get you back to normal, I swear it." He even crosses his heart for good measure. "Do you think your shaman could do something about this?"

[TechnoScrabble]

Ghost town near DFI

Leo is here, walking as quickly as he can with Sylvia presumably behind, looking over his shoulder far too often.

He happens upon a small, pastel-colored bunch of two story shoppes and townhouses remeniscent of 1950's American designer neighbourhoods.

[Arkhosia]

Ghost town near DFI

Leo is here, walking as quickly as he can with Sylvia presumably behind, looking over his shoulder far too often.

He happens upon a small, pastel-colored bunch of two story shoppes and townhouses remeniscent of 1950's American designer neighbourhoods.

Sylvia follows, daggers held in each hand and wings spread out for flight just in case.

[TechnoScrabble]

Sylvia follows, daggers held in each hand and wings spread out for flight just in case.

Leo stops in front of a house with an overgrown, once priatine lawn.

"I hate being an open target. This way."

He leans back on one heel and stomps on the door with the ferociously strong legs of a tire geal, slamming it open, and waves Sylvia in before closing it back behind them and pushing a China cabinet in front of it.

[Arkhosia]

Leo stops in front of a house with an overgrown, once priatine lawn.

"I hate being an open target. This way."

He leans back on one heel and stomps on the door with the ferociously strong legs of a tire geal, slamming it open, and waves Sylvia in before closing it back behind them and pushing a China cabinet in front of it.

Sylvia flies in quickly.
Now what?

[TechnoScrabble]

Sylvia flies in quickly.
Now what?

"Vantage point."

Leo runs up to the bedroom in the upstairs of the house, it's curtain covered master bed still pristine long after the inhabitants of this town disappeared.

He ducks down and peeks out a window, sweating from the run and releasing more of his pheremones than before as his pores open up, and watches. And waits.

After a while, he stands back up further in the room and scratches the back of his head.

"Maybe it was a false alarm. Whatever it is, nothing's following us. For now."

[Deathkeeper]

Spoiler

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Wintry Palace:

"No, it is personal gain. It's a powerful spell and a shortcut from either legwork or research." Often rare that someone justifies not taking the deal with devil. "But we'll put a pin in it until I'm satisfied we've exhausted all options. Just in case." He turns his face to Will. "I will get you back to normal, I swear it." He even crosses his heart for good measure. "Do you think your shaman could do something about this?"

Wintry Palace

"Bull****. No one's going to be upset that you wanted to take less time if the whole point was making a bunch of people miserable for the shortest period of time possible. Shortcuts are only bad if you're benefiting from it, but here you're only doing it for someone else, and it's such a circumstantial ritual I doubt it'd be all that useful most of the time. Besides kid, if you've forgotten I'm on a time limit, and if I don't get a contract or some binding magics on me in the next hour I'll be spending the next century being kicked in the snout! And the one after that polishing the toe that my broken face had the nerve to bleed on!" he says, half yelling and half pleading. Although honestly I don't know if demons bleed. It's probably considered ichor if they do.

Will waves his wings in a shrug.
"He needs a strong magic plant just to exorcise a spirit that hangs around a fishing village. No, I don't think he'll be all that helpful. Thanks, though.

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace:

The demon makes sense. And hes tickling Romeo's sympathy bone. He's been on the receiving end of an abusive upper class sort. Hearing the shaman will be of no help either doesn't build confidence.

"..."

"How long would it take to prepare? Could we do it with the materials upstairs?" He's not one hundred percent for it, but he can't leave Tep to that fate.

[Deathkeeper]

Wintry Palace

Well, he should remember that he could easily just bind Tep as a familiar normally as he'd mentioned before, it's just that he'd blow the chance of ever getting a contract-bound favor out of it, so it really depends on if he's willing to walk away from the opportunity with the victim in question standing right there.
Although seriously, if he agrees to this Tep might end up being the best thing to happen to him, as he'd have someone (besides his master) to tell him things like "don't give in to the thing that even told you it was a demon after it begs for like, five seconds." Because seriously, any sane person should suspect Tep of manipulating them. And whether or not he actually is, Romeo sure is making it easy.
Tep flips through the book, peering at the pages over his glasses.
"It's lengthy and complex, but I can guide you through it, even if I can't cast human White Magics. Doing it our normal way would be far faster and easier, but you want your soul stainless. And I was stuck with those plants for decades. Sight or not I remember them all. Yeah, they're all here, plus some basic equipment that's pretty darn common. It'll be stretching it thin, but no one's moving into that lab after us, so we don't need to be frugal with the materials.
I'm not allowed to discuss details on it except the ones to sell it to you. But say the word and I can have everything on paper in a minute."

Will looks over at Romeo though, apprehensive.
"You...don't really have to do this for me, you know. You don't know me."

[Slii Arhem]

Spoiler

Show

Western Ghost Town

Denise keeps a straight face. In fact, she specifically straightens it. She also doesn't say anything, to keep anything unbecoming from coming out. She takes a drink (a bit more than a sip this time) and tries not to think about it while waiting for Krayger's response.

Wintry Palace

Tep blinks at him. "Technically I just threw him out for his soul to be dragged down like anyone else's. And I don't see your point." After all, that fellow was already gone; not much of a finisher.
After the narrator finishes re-checking his notes (which is to say all five things that were planned) and Romeo's dialogue and finishes laughing his head off, he can continue describing how he gets to the cell after making that statement to find one rather large and extremely irritable-looking snowy owl, with what used to be his clothes wrapped around him as blankets. The bars on this cell were spaced for halfling-size or smaller prisoners, and while he still could probably have squeezed through the threat of the Jailer was enough to prevent that.
"You are so unbelievably lucky that I know you meant nothing by that." he says gruffly, shuffling his wings a bit to reveal the small set of opposable fingers growing out of them like a bat's thumb. Which the narrator blatantly stole from Eclipse Phase.
The (third) key finger opens the door, assuming he's still doing that. Tep just shrugs, having none of the context to tell him this isn't what Romeo was expecting, except perhaps his face.


Western Ghost Town

Krayger returns the grin but shakes his head after another swig.
"Not tonight, Risa. If I'm going to give an honest effort at finding anything I'll need to have slept a little. And if I can help it at all I try to be a bit less casual and a bit more...patient with those matters.

Would you like to look for a spot now or would you rather ask around?" he says to the human.

Western Ghost Town

Risa goes back to wiping down the bar with a bit of a sassy smirk on her face, but it's clear she's skeptical of Krayger's ability to save the town. It's impossible to tell how long they've been in this dump since it's permanently night where most of the people stay, but it feels like it's been forever to her, so if there was something to be done about it, you'd think it would have been done by now.

[Duck999]

Very far away from Ghost town near DFI

Filii left DFI, and made sure to go the opposite direction that Leo did. The bugs he placed on Leo allowed him to pick up every detail of their conversation. Now he knows that he was correct that the man was hiding something.

[OrchestraHc]

Wintry Palace:

They say there's a sucker born every second. When Romeo was born, there wasn't another one born for three whole hours.

"I do," Romeo replies. "Even if I don't know you, I have to help you. I have the power to help, so I have the obligation to. Simple as that."

"Tep, were going upstairs."

[Deathkeeper]

Spoiler

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Western Ghost Town

"Some of both?" Denise suggests with a shrug. "We don't want to step on anyone's toes. It should be simple enough, right?"

Western Ghost Town

Risa goes back to wiping down the bar with a bit of a sassy smirk on her face, but it's clear she's skeptical of Krayger's ability to save the town. It's impossible to tell how long they've been in this dump since it's permanently night where most of the people stay, but it feels like it's been forever to her, so if there was something to be done about it, you'd think it would have been done by now.

Western Ghost Town

Krayger is still smiling and takes a hearty pull from the bottle.
"You're lucking I'm not a betting man, Risa, because I know that smile. You don't think I'll get anywhere. But just you wait, I'll get something. Won't be vain enough to say it'll be soon, but I'll be damned before I drink myself fat in a tavern when I could be trying something.
I'm going to try another call, Denise. If you'd like you can grab some intel."
He can be skipped for a bit while that gets concluded.

Spoiler

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Wintry Palace:

They say there's a sucker born every second. When Romeo was born, there wasn't another one born for three whole hours.

"I do," Romeo replies. "Even if I don't know you, I have to help you. I have the power to help, so I have the obligation to. Simple as that."

"Tep, we're going upstairs."

Wintry Palace

Well, as long as it's because of him and not because the setup I pieced together last minute pressures you to pick one option, it's fine.
Tep snorts at the do-gooder sentiment, but does not comment. He will, however, firmly plant himself on Romeo's shoulder so he can start writing as he's walking.
"Take his clothes, kid. Once all those feathers are gone and he gets his lame human feet back he'll start freezing and needing his boots to walk. All the materials we need are in the store room you found me in save for a few ones that I think I saw when you walked past that supply closet. I'll send this fellow to gather those regular ones while you move the tables in the Lab to the walls so we have room for the ritual. You'll need to get some of the magic soaps and scrub the alchemist's lich-dust off the floor, because that'll screw with the magic. The ice, too, can't have water on the runes."
Says the imp, formulating a plan along with the document. There are no more undead minions around, and that part will go smoothly.
I can't write up the contract on my phone though, so saving that for next round.