Planeside

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

The mage sighs, but when she see and, more importantly, smells the meat, she gobbles it up before saying, "Mhmm...I'm Cassia. Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier."

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

Om nom nom food! Who knows how many she's eating for now?

"Well, nice to meet you formally, Cassia," Jezreel replies with that crocodile smile of hers. She offers one of her foreclaws to shake. "So... I guess we have three options here. We can try bluffing our way past the modron at the portal, fighting our way post the modron at the portal, or you just have to make peace with staying here in the Wilds doing your progenitor thing until your reproductive cycle calms down. The modrons won't let you leave the Wilds for a minimum of one year so they can track your offspring and determine how much ecological damage they would cause if they were introduced to Midgard."

Because nothing causes ecological damage quite like a new race of magical beasts.

"I'm game for all three! But before you make a choice, we should really wash off somewhere. You've still got newborn smell on you and that can attract unwanted attention," she explains as she leans down and begins scratching at her ear/antenna with one of her mid-legs. "There are lots of wildlings attracted to the scent of recently hatched chrysalis since whoever just popped out usually isn't use to their new body yet and make for easy prey."

And they also often have loot on them.

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia smiles back and shakes Jezreel's claw as she says, "Thanks for helping me out...Even if it didn't work."

She then looks around and says, "Hmm...Sneaking out seems like a good idea, once I wash off." With that, she starts walking back towards the flooded section to cleanse herself of the cocoon gunk.

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Hey, no problem!" Jezreel replies cheerfully. "Us Jay You students have to stick together, right? Haha! I'll be nice to have some company. Most wildlings that are born out here are dumb as rocks. Even my offspring have decayed mentally from one generation to the next, I think. They're still sapient but..."

She gives a little sigh and a shake of her head.

"Well, let's just say that my granddaughters make the average orc seem brilliant by contrast."

That's a real shame...

She lopes along next to Cassia, likewise rolling around in the water and extending several pairs of long, thin limbs ending in little scrubby things! She's got built in brushes! Complete with bristles for scrubbing! That's actually pretty cool. A weak base begins oozing out of the scrubbers and Jezreel starts brushing herself vigorously, filling the air with a sharp soapy smell. Before long she's covered in fizzy suds.

"You want me to wash you down, too? Promise this stuff isn't caustic enough to cause any damage."

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia nods and says, "I see. Sure. I'm not a huge fan of the water...It messes up my fur." And that would be terrible.

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Oh stop it. A little water won't kill you," Jezreel says as she begins scrubbing down her feline friend. Water is going to be involved one way or the other. She'll have to rinse the suds off eventually. "Brushy brushy brush brush~" the wildling sing-songs the whole time.

Once that silly task is done, Jezreel folds her little scrubber limbs back under her carapace and out of the way. She's got a ton of weird looking leggy things all over the place, really. Two hammers tucked at her chest such that the deadly blunt ends look hilariously like breasts on her vaguely humanoid torso, two saurian forelimbs, four saurian legs, two spiny grabber limbs on her back, three smallish pairs of mantis shrimp scythe-y limbs folded at her belly, and three pairs of scrubbers tucked behind her first pair of saurian legs.

She's GOT to be the weirdest looking vaguely centaur creature ever.

Anywho!

"Alright! The smell is taken care of. There's one other thing we'll need to do before we try heading through the portal-" Jezreel says as she reache sinto her satchel and pulls out G'ulk's little wooden box. She sets it down on the trunk they're standing on, presses a button, and steps back. With a soft woosh! the cart unfolds! "Accessorize!" she declares gleefully as she begins rummaging through the contents of the cart. "Usually a brand new progenitor won't be decked out in fancy duds. No, usually they'll be naked since they keep getting eaten. If we've got clothing and trinkets on it'll make the modrons more likely to buy the bluff."

Jezreel motions to the cart. It's full of all sorts of tanned leathers of various kinds, plant based fibers, gemstones and bones on strings, all sorts of very wild sorts of things. The kind of stuff one might expect a druid to be wearing.

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia squirms as Jezreel washes her, but lets the cleasing proceed. Once they're done, and the cart is revealed, she digs into it, eventually pulling up a set of leather strips that resolve themselves into a somewhat reasonable outfit.

She sighs and puts it on, and it resolves into a rather tight-fitting leather suit that is only just modest. She shakes her head and sighs, her ears folding down in embarrassment, and says, "Well...Could be worse I suppose. I could be naked."

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"I'm naked. You come with a fur coat," Jezreel points out. "Not that I have anything to show off, armor and all. Hmm... Oh sweet! She's got black dragon scale stuff in here! Not quite as good as my old stuff, but it'll have to do..."

The wildling most certainly doesn't have enough material to fully dress herself up, but she does have enough to tie lots of ornaments to herself. All sorts of shiny little dangly things. Once that's done, she shoulders the home-made rope at the front of the cart and begins pulling it along behind her as she climbs up to the Hare's Highway.

"Alright, this is the important part," she says. "We're just merchants heading to Midgard to sell our stuff, okay? You'll want to show them... come on... she has got to have one, I know she leaves the Wilds..." Jezreel mutters as she digs through G'ulk's stuff. A moment later she comes up triumphant! "Hah! Here, take this."

She offers a small, plastic laminated card to Cassia. It has some stuff written on it in Modron and a picture of G'ulk. "That's a portal pass. It's proof that you've been examined and it's safe for you to go through the portal. Just make sure you cover up G'ulk's picture when you flash it. I'll tell them that it's been a bit over a year since I became a progenitor. They'll want to examine me and that'll keep their attention off you."

They've got a plan!

[Aric Kale]

Azgul Fortress:

The two shadowwights grip his massive blade, the cleaver the size of a whole man, thick and sharp, jagged like a glacier. The frozen lich brandishes Isverð, the blade of cold, with ease. The towering figure possessed a supernatural strength that rivaled even that of a giant. He'll look around, before stomping towards one of the wights and willing his blade to adopt a magical nature, making it able to slice through even solid shadow, like these things. The blade was quite powerful, meant to best the strongest of blades. He'll thrust it forward, most likely ripping right into the flesh of one of the shadow wights, before he'll slice to the side, most likely ripping out of it's abdomen and continuing to slice the second wight right in half. He was good at this sort of thing.

There is nothing but a simple phrase spoken by the lich. "Þú munt deyja."

Azgul Fortress

On the contrary, these wights are not made of shadows...simply armored in the stuff.
No matter, the sword's magic carves through the armor like candy, and the rest of the blade destroys the undead utterly.

Þeir munu allir deyja. Is all that the Blizzard will reply. Curse this darkness...there is no way to predict that-

-All of the darkness disappears at once, possibly disorienting those who were inside it.
Standing twenty feet away, Solana watches the little band of undead. Said group are surrounded by her remaining 18 undead, who immediately charge the Lich and his followers.
Their weapons are surprisingly strong, and the basic undead may find themselves impaled rapidly.

Vynris takes a rod through his back, ice forming around the wound, though when he tries to reach back and cut through the weapon, it breaks, rather than being sliced clean. His ice did nothing to the shadows.

The frozen Spec Ops manages to block another couple of attacks with his shield before destroying a wight with his blade, the broken solidshade rod still buried in his back.

The necromancer appears to be covered in a hazy fog of darkness, power growing around her as she prepares to attack.

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

A plan is had! Cassia nods and takes the card, and then makes her way back towards the highway as she says, "Jez...Thanks for helping me. Seriously. I owe you one."

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

Jezreel sticks her tongue out at her friend. "Don't thank me yet. We're still in the Wilds. Thank me once we're back in Midgard. And worth pointing out? We'll want to trek back up to the portal we both used to get in here. If we leave through a different one there's no telling where we might end up."

Like, say, some sort of crazy cosmic nexus?

It doesn't take long at all for them to reach the Hare's Highway again. Jezreel climbs up onto it pulling the cart behind her and offers a claw to help Cassia as well. "The walk will be good for you. You've got to get use to how your body moves. If you're stumbling around like a newborn then the modrons will see right through the bluff."

And that would be terrible!

Why?

Well... Because then Cassia would be stuck in the Wilds! How would she finish her assignment if she's stuck in the Wilds?

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia laughs and says, "Fair enough. If we don't get out of here I'll shock the snot out of you, then."

She slowly starts walking, eventually realizing it's more comfortable to lope along on all fours, following the highway until they reach the portal, trying to get used to her new body.

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Pfft. If they see through this that'll be on you. I've been here long enough to get a portal pass since my spawning cycle has dropped from practically every other day to once every couple months. And that drops off even more when I'm not being bathed in astral radiance," Jezreel replies with a laugh. "If I felt like being a jerk I could ditch you here and let you fend for yourself. But... I dunno. Having to survive on my own was pretty awful. Most of the creatures out here in the Wilds are just animals. There really aren't any cities or settlements that I've ever been able to find and things get... really lonely..."

Having several male whatever-the-hell-she-is fused inside her to fertilize her eggs does not count as company.

"Don't want you to go through what I did, so even if our plan falls through I'll stick with you. You know, teach you the ropes and stuff. Then once your quarantine period is over we can hope on the first portal back to Midgard!"

Won't that be great?

Yes indeed.

Super great!

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia grins a very Cheshire Cat like grin and says, "Cool. I bet it gets lonely out here, yeah...Hmm...I wonder if proximity to the highway effects how feral a progenitor is. I mean, we were both right there. I wonder if we'd been further off if we'd be feral."

[Hattish Thing]

Azgul Fortress

On the contrary, these wights are not made of shadows...simply armored in the stuff.
No matter, the sword's magic carves through the armor like candy, and the rest of the blade destroys the undead utterly.

Þeir munu allir deyja. Is all that the Blizzard will reply. Curse this darkness...there is no way to predict that-

-All of the darkness disappears at once, possibly disorienting those who were inside it.
Standing twenty feet away, Solana watches the little band of undead. Said group are surrounded by her remaining 18 undead, who immediately charge the Lich and his followers.
Their weapons are surprisingly strong, and the basic undead may find themselves impaled rapidly.

Vynris takes a rod through his back, ice forming around the wound, though when he tries to reach back and cut through the weapon, it breaks, rather than being sliced clean. His ice did nothing to the shadows.

The frozen Spec Ops manages to block another couple of attacks with his shield before destroying a wight with his blade, the broken solidshade rod still buried in his back.

The necromancer appears to be covered in a hazy fog of darkness, power growing around her as she prepares to attack.

With a great gust of wind, the darkness vanishes away. Most of the undead are easily stabbed, but hardly killed. These undead were fairly easily destroyed, yes, but in the presence of great cold, they simply reform. So, although the shadow wights do find their marks, the undead seem to be taking little damage. It wasn't snowy here, which means that to truly damage the things, they'd need to be separated from Snowfall's cold, which is radiating all around him. Snowfall himself wafolks a little way forward, waiting for three of the wights to approach him. Two of the things manage to strike his armor, but all they do is leave scratches on his frozen armor.

Snowfall, in return, brings a leg forward, aiming to kick one of the wights to the ground. Should this succeed, he'll swing his massive sword once more, aiming to cleave the other two right in half. Following that, he'll finish the move by rushing forward, attempting to crush the skull of the final wight centered around him with a stomp of his large combat boots. With that done, he'll rush forward, attempting to finish off the necromancer with an overhead swing.

Unless something stops him, she might end up chopped straight in half.

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"That's... actually a really good question," Jezreel wonders aloud. "It might be? I don't know if anyone has ever gone around taking a survey of progenitors asking them where they were when they exploded. You wouldn't really be able to run experiments to find out since that would be horrifically unethical."

So say the least.

How many people would you need to explode to get a good sample size.

"Really though? So long as you keep your mind being a wildling isn't that terrible. Sure it kind of puts your life on hold, but how many people can say that they're the mother of a whole race of magical beasts? Not that many. And given that wildlings are effectively immortal I'm kind of surprised no one has tried to find a way to preserve their mind without fail. Turning into a weird monster would probably be a little less evil than turning into a lich."

At it happens, becoming a lich requires an unspeakably evil ritual of eeeeevil. A lot of folks are a little iffy about doing unspeakably evil things. Or at least one would hope that a lot of folks are iffy about doing unspeakably evil things.

[Aric Kale]

Azgul Fortress

Aww, so many dead wights as Snowfall destroys three and Vynris kill another one.

The frozen undead seem to be fairly persistent, so the wights double up on these icy zombies...

As for the Lich, he's activated my trap card! walked right into a trap.
The moment the first wight is killed, shadow bars form around the remaining two wights and Snowfall, trapping them all in.

The cage works as previously and privately discussed, Hatter, need a reminder?

Vynris notices his commander rapidly become trapped and drops his sword, switching to his gun and firing three bolts of magic ice at Solana.

It's completely ineffective, and the frosty lieutenant is skewered by more of the wights...he's kinda stuck.

Now are you willing to listen, mindless frost giant?

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia laughs and says, "Oh man, you know that we need to try to figure that out once we get back, right? Can you imagine?"

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Oh I can imagine alright," Jezreel replies. "How many people would flock here hoping for a shot at eternal life? The fact that it hasn't happened yet makes me suspect that it's random and there just isn't any way to control it. Otherwise who would want to be a gross skeleton when you could be something alive? Though... hehe... All the progenitoring would probably distract a bit from magical experiments."

That probably depends partly on how intensive the birthing process is. A creature that gives live birth to single, large offspring? Super distracting. A creature that farts spores everywhere? Not so bad. Jezreel is sort of in the middle. Releasing all those larvae is pretty taxing, but that's just because there tend to be a whole lot of the little things.

Speaking of...

Gestation periods for wildlings tend to convert months into hours. And if the Internet is telling the truth about panthers, Cassia is probably looking at between three and four hours before her first litter of cubs. Yeesh. Not even going to give her time to settle down, is it? Given the round-about paths of the Hare's Highway, reaching the portal she had come through will probably take at least that long.

"If you start feeling like you're swelling up or have got something squirming around inside you we should probably take a break," Jezreel cautions. "The modrons will totally suspect something's up if you have a bunch of infant offspring following at your heels."

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia nods and swallows, her mouth dry, and says, "Yeah...About that. I can already feel them. We might need to wait for my first litter before going...It's probably going to come before we even get there."

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Oof, already? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised," Jezreel sighs. "I gave birth to my first litter within a few hours of getting blown up myself. If it's any comfort to you? My first time was really weird too. Though, from what I've gathered the whole process isn't nearly as taxing as it is for people back in Midgard. Everything here grows so fast that we can pop 'em out when they're a lot smaller and they'll still survive."

This has GOT to be the weirdest conversation ever.

"And I think-" Jezreel suddenly stops rambling mid sentence and glowers down at her belly. "Seriously? Now?" she mutters before craning her neck back and caressing her underside with her weird nose antenna, picking up a cocktail of her own hormones to confirm her suspicion. "Yup. Gravid. Apparently my ovaries decided that you shouldn't be alone in your suffering, Cassia. My little tag-alongs are fertilizing a batch of eggs as we speak. What could have triggered ovulation? This is way sooner than the last few batches. Did I pick up a new hitch-hiker while we were in the water?" Jezreel rambles to herself. "Ugh. I don't need a zillion kids hanging out on my sail right now. Am I lactating already?" she mutters as she leans back and licks herself near the base of her sail. "Oh God I'm lactating already. This is going to be a fast batch."

Jezreel lets out a long sigh as she rubs her face with her foreclaws. "Okay. We're going to need to find somewhere safe to bed down and do the thing that progenitors do best. As soon as the kids get big enough to fend for themselves we ditch 'em and get back to the plan."

The universe always seems to find a way to throw a wrench into an otherwise sound plan.

Time to find a nest?

[Hattish Thing]

Azgul Fortress

Aww, so many dead wights as Snowfall destroys three and Vynris kill another one.

The frozen undead seem to be fairly persistent, so the wights double up on these icy zombies...

As for the Lich, he's activated my trap card! walked right into a trap.
The moment the first wight is killed, shadow bars form around the remaining two wights and Snowfall, trapping them all in.

The cage works as previously and privately discussed, Hatter, need a reminder?

Vynris notices his commander rapidly become trapped and drops his sword, switching to his gun and firing three bolts of magic ice at Solana.

It's completely ineffective, and the frosty lieutenant is skewered by more of the wights...he's kinda stuck.

Now are you willing to listen, mindless frost giant?

Snowfall will stride forward with the weight of a being much greater than his size. As he's trapped within the shadowbind, he looks around. Seeing no way out, he'll punch forward, only to find that the shadow shield simply bends around him, keeping him stuck inside. The lich will roar forward, clearly angry that his movement forward was so rudely interrupted. The being will attempt to press his hand to the shadow and freeze it. However, I'm not sure what, if anything, that will do. The idea is to freeze the outside until it's weak, and can simply be punched through.

If that doesn't work, he'll stare forward creepily, at Solana.

[Aric Kale]

Azgul Fortress

Snowfall and his forces have been trapped.

Vyrnis ceases his struggles as he realizes his ice shots do nothing against the solidshade armor that the wights are wearing.
...one of the wights moves to disarm him but the crazed warrior simply punches through its throat. Before he can do any more damage, the armor around that one wight wraps itself Vynris as Solana speaks to him.
Soldier...tell the lich that he will ally himself with me, or spend eternity in his cage.

The spec ops glares violently before translating...
Skipstjóri, sem hún norn hefur krafist að við berjast hlið hennar ef við erum að yfirgefa þennan ríki...

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia nods and says, "That's good news about it not hurting so much. I...I think I do have live birth. So if it's going to be less unpleasant that's a bonus, I suppose. Let's go find somewhere, yeah...I don't want to give birth on the highway. You know a good spot?"

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Nah, but finding one shouldn't be too hard," Jezreel replies as she shrinks the cart back down and stows it in her satchel. And true to her word? Finding one isn't very hard! There's a nice big hollow tree nearby that nothing is presently living inside of. Or at least nothing so large that Jezreel can't easily chase away. Then next patch of time will be spent outfitting it with soft bedding and feathers from that bird thing Jezreel killed and ate half of.

Then?

Jezreel practices making silly faces at her friend.

"Haha! Rawr! Let me see your war face! Now your stern stop clawing the furniture face! Hehehe! Now-"

A beat.

A shudder.

"Oop! Those are contractions aren't they?"

The blue medical curtain falls. Perhaps an hour of squicky stuff later, Jezreel has seventy three four inch long whateverthehellsheis larvae chilling on her back and lapping at the base of her sail. The little things look sort of like she does, just transparent and way more pointy. Crustacean larvae look weird.

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Birth-giving is had! And when the blue curtain of motherhood rises, Cassia is feeding a litter of four newborn cubs, sighing, and saying to Jezreel, "So how long is it going to take the little guys to be able to fend for themselves?"

[Rebonack]

[The Astral Wilds]

"Depends on the species, I guess?" Jezreel replies with a shrug. She's been watching two larvae that seem to be having trouble climbing onto her due to deformities. They've been at if for the past half and hour and she has done nothing to help them. "My little grubs stick with me until their first molt, then they all just sort of wander off all on their own. I've observed some of my older daughters from a distance. The dumb ones? When their kids don't leave after the first molt they start eating them."

Well.

That's pretty awful.

"First molt takes about a day? I dunno how long your fuzzy-wuzzy adorable little pals will take before their big enough to leave. Though..." she gives a small huff. "It might be best to try not to think of them as your kids. Think of them as... I dunno... pets. Or better yet, wild animals that happened to come out of you. Because there's a pretty decent chance that they aren't smart enough to care about you. And... most of 'em die young. Or at least mine do. And stuff that dies young usually keeps getting snacked on as soon as it respawns. If nothing else, that'll get them reincarnated on Midgard faster."

Those two larvae are still trying to climb onto Jezreel and still failing.

"Sorry little guys," she says as she reaches out and grabs the larvae in her saurian claws. "But time's up. Evolution is a bitch and so am I."

And then?

Then she eats them both.

Holy crap that's harsh...

[Hattish Thing]

Azgul Fortress

Snowfall and his forces have been trapped.

Vyrnis ceases his struggles as he realizes his ice shots do nothing against the solidshade armor that the wights are wearing.
...one of the wights moves to disarm him but the crazed warrior simply punches through its throat. Before he can do any more damage, the armor around that one wight wraps itself Vynris as Solana speaks to him.
Soldier...tell the lich that he will ally himself with me, or spend eternity in his cage.

The spec ops glares violently before translating...
Skipstjóri, sem hún norn hefur krafist að við berjast hlið hennar ef við erum að yfirgefa þennan ríki...

Snowfall continues gazing forward, his stare unwavering. He listens to Vynris but doesn't appear to acknowledge what happens, staring forward for a long moment of deep silence. Finally, after an uncomfortable passage of time, he speaks out to Solana, pointing his gauntlet's finger her way. "Ég hef ekki tíma fyrir þetta." He continues, his voice guttural and unnatural. "Eternity er ekkert að mér, Måge. En ég hef verk að vinna, og þú sóa tíma. Hvað er það sem þú vilt til að fá frá mér? Tilgangur minn er mikill, og ég verð að halda áfram með verkefni mitt." He seems to be accepting what she says here, but I'm not sure he actually knows what command is beyond simple military terms. He was put into the Nexus for one reason and one alone, and had little knowledge regarding such human emotion as a desire for power.

[Aric Kale]

Azgul Fortress

Solana chuckles. She had won.

That is all...and I will be creating my own force from amongst our foes as they are destroyed.

Vynris translates, Það er allt. Við erum að vera bandamenn hennar ... hún mun fylgja með okkur og segjast a hluti nokkrar af undead sem við bjuggum til að vera þinn eigin persónulega vörður hennar.

As a sign of good faith, the wights draw back from Snowfall's undead, and Vynris is unskewered...

The Lich remains in his cage.

[Ionbound]

[The Astral Wilds]

Cassia nods as she watches her new friend eat her offspring, unfazed, and nods, saying, "I see. Happily, I don't have that problem." And, indeed, she has a teat for every cub, letting them feed, before sighing and saying, "It's quite sad they're not as smart as us, though. I wish they would survive longer. Maybe once we get back to Midgard..." She sighs as the cubs stop suckling, having drunk their fill for now, and, instinctually she lifts them off the ground and onto her back where they hang on like baby apes.