Random Plots and Places 9: What a crazy, random happenstance!

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat nods.
"Sounds good. I'm guessing they're metal, though. You got a crowbar or something I can use?" she asks.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

Wenomir shrugs.

"I don't think I really have one. Whatever treasure that might still be in there probably isn't worth facing down a lich, pragmatically speaking. I'm going to call for backup from VIGIL and hold on until they arrive if I have to."

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"You're just gonna battle it on your own?" That was so suicidal. It might take hours for Vigil to get here. "Do you even have a plan?"

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"What else am I going to do?" Wenomir asks. "If we leave, the lich might disappear to who knows where. I've faced down Calublufiok and Reinholdt's apocalyptic bastard, I should be able to stay alive against a lich for a while."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"You didn't answer my question, if you faced down a lich before, what's your plan?" Dena replies, looking him in the eyes.

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Harass it as much as I can, make it use its magic, don't let it escape," Wenomir says. "Don't go in for the kill, but make it think I want to. Outlast it."

[Lord Magtok]

House in the Countryside

Needs leans right into the photograph, rubbing his kitty face all over it. Best familiarize himself with the boy's appearance as much as he can. Whatever the kid is going through, it could do a lot to change the way one looks, though, so it's best not to be too obsessed with finding an exact match.

Target confirmed.

[Shadowcaller]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Outlast a lich? Now I get why you're in VIGIL, you're completely crazy." Dena shakes her head but doesn't run away which probably is a good sign.

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Probably," Wenomir says, as he pulls out the vaguely defined VIGIL communicator and sends a call for backup. "Hopefully they get here fast. If you want to leave before the lich gets out, there's probably not much time left."

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

The lich is indeed free, though now has to deal with at least one blocked door and starts to burn its way through using very hot heat spells. It still takes a while; there's a thick door and a layer of concrete in the way.

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat nods.
"Sounds good. I'm guessing they're metal, though. You got a crowbar or something I can use?" she asks.

They give her a claw hammer and open the door; Acanthe starts to wheel herself that way, claw hammer on her lap. She looks happy to be able to move around!

"Let's go! I want my butt back!"

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat is busy gathering the bag when Acathe takes off in the chair.
"Ack! Hey! Wait up, Acanthe!" she says, hurrying forward and rather quickly catching up to the wheeling lady, quite in contrast to the past ten minutes of effort.
"Sheesh, I know you want out of this but leaving me behind won't solve anything." she says, oblivious.
Don't say anything, Acanthe. If she thinks about it those instincts will turn off.

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat is busy gathering the bag when Acathe takes off in the chair.
"Ack! Hey! Wait up, Acanthe!" she says, hurrying forward and rather quickly catching up to the wheeling lady, quite in contrast to the past ten minutes of effort.
"Sheesh, I know you want out of this but leaving me behind won't solve anything." she says, oblivious.
Don't say anything, Acanthe. If she thinks about it those instincts will turn off.

Acanthe just smiles, slowing down a bit to let her keep up. After a while, they come to the door labeled CAPACITORS, which Acanthe sort of fumbles with til it opens.

Before they even open the door, there is a sound of whirring, humming, thrumming. It only gets louder as the door opens.

In there are two huge cylinders of metal, black with black-and-yellow hazard check marks. Each has an LCD panel with data and things on it. Pipes run here and there over the surface.

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat rolls her eyes.
"Oh great. Hazard signs. Just what I needed to make me confident in this plan. Aw, hell. It's not like I've anything to lose here. Gimme the hammer, Acanthe." she says, holding out a hand and presumably swapping the hammer for the bag.
Pat will go over the capacitors and try to find a pipe that looks thin. If there's anything like a bolt clearly holding it together she'd try prying it off, but chances are there isn't, so instead she'll just start whacking it. She'll probably use the claw side for that, since she needs the pipe to leak and just denting it won't due; it has to be pierced.
At the very least the damn things are so loud that it's doubtful that anyone will here her smashing.

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat rolls her eyes.
"Oh great. Hazard signs. Just what I needed to make me confident in this plan. Aw, hell. It's not like I've anything to lose here. Gimme the hammer, Acanthe." she says, holding out a hand and presumably swapping the hammer for the bag.
Pat will go over the capacitors and try to find a pipe that looks thin. If there's anything like a bolt clearly holding it together she'd try prying it off, but chances are there isn't, so instead she'll just start whacking it. She'll probably use the claw side for that, since she needs the pipe to leak and just denting it won't due; it has to be pierced.
At the very least the damn things are so loud that it's doubtful that anyone will here her smashing.

SHe gives her the hammer and watches as she WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK WHACK.
After a lot of whacks, she ruptures the pipe open, letting peachy-pink energy stream out and wash over them.

...

On the downside, Acanthe's returned serpent-butt is stuck in a wheelchair.
But hey, Pat can wear pants again!

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat looks at herself, extremely surprised that that actually worked. But it's a pleasant surprise, and Pat spins about a bit with a delighted laugh. She thought she'd never actually get back to normal so easily. She does blush a bit when she realizes that her pants were gone, but luckily she has exactly one pair of clothes in that bag.
"Here, let me get you out of there." she offers, and will probably have to perform a combination of bending the chair and cutting at the seat with the knife from the bag to get her friend out of it.

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat looks at herself, extremely surprised that that actually worked. But it's a pleasant surprise, and Pat spins about a bit with a delighted laugh. She thought she'd never actually get back to normal so easily. She does blush a bit when she realizes that her pants were gone, but luckily she has exactly one pair of clothes in that bag.
"Here, let me get you out of there." she offers, and will probably have to perform a combination of bending the chair and cutting at the seat with the knife from the bag to get her friend out of it.

Acanthe finally is free, flumping out and banging her head on the pipe! Ow!
The stream of hazy pink tapers off.
"Well, now that we're done with that, le---" THE ENTIRE PIPE RUPTURES, SPRAYING ENERGY ALL OVER THEM BOTH.

Pat gets grazed, but Acanthe gets the full blast. She thrashes in alarm and discomfort, denting the side of the capacitor.

Pat's left shoulder has a patch of downy feathers on it. Acanthe is clutching at her eyes. The ones in her eye sockets, that is.
Because she has rows of them all down the sides of her tail, and they look like they could use... all of the eyedrops.

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Well of course those eyes aren't comfortable. Between them are stripes of glowing scales shining right into them!
Pat's shoulder feels itchy, but she has a shirt on so she doesn't actually notice what happened.
"Oh, geez. Come on, let's get out of here before the next blast." she says, trying to help pull Acanthe out of there. Of course, Acanthe weighs a ton again, so it's unlikely the effort will actually do anything.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

Wenomir will get a reply!
"It'll take me a minute or two to get there. Can you stall?"

((minute now defined here as 5 rounds))

[Shadowcaller]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Depends, when does back-up arrive? Since I still have claim of 50 % of the treasures in this crypt." No way she'd let that go to VIGIL charity or whatever.

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"We should be able to. We've already trapped it behind two sealed doors," Wenomir responds. Then he looks at Dena. "KR says it'll take her 'a minute or two'. She needs to prepare the spell before teleporting here."

[Shadowcaller]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Fine, then we'll stay and wait for your girlfriend to arrive and clear things up." Dena replies, wondering just how often this happened.

[5a Violista]

[Mirror, Mirror]
Card

The trapdoor opens pretty easily once the rug is moved out of the way, and it can hang open. It looks like there is a lock to the trapdoor, but it has long since been rusted off.

Inside the trapdoor is very dark. Like, nearly pitch black. There's a small walkway down there, leading over to the west a few paces, and then there's a really thin staircase with narrow and tall stairs that leads both upstairs and downstairs several floors, with shoddy wooden doors on each floor.

But, first, he'll need a light unless he can move around by echolocation or something.


Darsy

There is, in fact, some drops from the silver liquid around the room - and even back into the hallway - which is easier to notice now that it isn't so dark (and now that Darsy is on the floor instead of the ceiling). There's some drops here, a splash there by the wall, some of it pooling by the curtains (there's also a funny round object there behind the curtain. It won't take much to deduce it's very head-sized).

As just said, there's also more spattered near the door.

If Darsy looks out into the hallway, it becomes more concentrated, with larger silver pools and drops further down. About thirty feet down is the largest pool, where the silver blood - if that's what it is - immediately stops.

Also, fun fact: down there in the hallway, it looks like something was dragged through some of the pools of the liquid, towards the Master Bedroom that Darsy is in right now.

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Well of course those eyes aren't comfortable. Between them are stripes of glowing scales shining right into them!
Pat's shoulder feels itchy, but she has a shirt on so she doesn't actually notice what happened.
"Oh, geez. Come on, let's get out of here before the next blast." she says, trying to help pull Acanthe out of there. Of course, Acanthe weighs a ton again, so it's unlikely the effort will actually do anything.

Acanthe squirms toward the door, clearly in considerable discomfort if not outright pain. As they leave and the door slides shut, the walls are already starting to warp and collapse, turning into something soft.
... Is that butter?
The walls are butter.

[ThePhantom]

Mirror mirror -Card

Hmm, a pity that darkness works against him as well as the mirrors. Well, nothing much for it. Card takes out a glowstick, snaps it to start it up, and holds it in his hand as he carefully descends into the dark passage through the trapdoor.

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

The first blocked door fails, shattered by a wave of sonic energy cast by the lich's hands. Now he is slowly approaching the next one, hoping that it, too, isn't blocked. Though it is, and will require another spell wasted in removing the blockade between several hundred year's worth of captivity and the mortals brave enough to release him from his prison... Even if they did throw his sarcophagus down a spiked pit and then throw knives at him.

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat is mostly focusing on helping her poor friend get about in her state, but the smell is enough to alert her that something is up.
"Acanthe, I know you're not feeling great right now but this is starting to seem like a bad idea and I think we should get as far from that thing is possible." she says, worried.

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

"Correction, we'll wait for her and kick the lich's bony ass with her help," Wenomir says. Then he hears the noise the lich makes while busting through the obstacles. He grips his axe and readies himself. "Here it comes."

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat is mostly focusing on helping her poor friend get about in her state, but the smell is enough to alert her that something is up.
"Acanthe, I know you're not feeling great right now but this is starting to seem like a bad idea and I think we should get as far from that thing is possible." she says, worried.

She nods, starting to slither down the hallway away from the door, but not the same way they came---rather, continuing down the hall.

[Deathkeeper]

Lab Complex

Pat can't help but grimace.
"If it's really bad I guess you could go back in and see if it'll reverse itself with another exposure, but otherwise I guess we should just keep going..." she says. She's a little too disoriented to notice the change in direction. All this lab stuff is disorienting!

[Beans]

Lab Complex

Pat can't help but grimace.
"If it's really bad I guess you could go back in and see if it'll reverse itself with another exposure, but otherwise I guess we should just keep going..." she says. She's a little too disoriented to notice the change in direction. All this lab stuff is disorienting!

She shakes her head, slithering along. "Nooooo. No no no. Not gonna risk making it somehow worse, and you know it'll get worse..."
The halls slope downward a little as they go.