Planeside

[Deathkeeper]

Shadow-Highway

Steven doesn't remember that name being on the list of people normally trying to kill his people, but he doesn't have time to consider that.
He brandishes his length of shadow, which quickly sharpens into a blade he holds at his side.

Holy Tamamo, punish this sin-
Not to sound crass, but they've pulled the pin.
Archon's Aura.

Steven assumes an aura that can be described as glowing, but given its shadowy nature, perhaps that isn't the best word. Though given where they are, light is screwy anyway. Those getting near him might find their minds influenced with fear, eroding their will to fight.

"You would insult my cousins? My fathers? Come, fools! I'll strike you down where you stand!" he booms, making no moves to stop the charging samurai.

[Earl of Purple]

Yggdrasil

"Phelamm is through here. I am its link to Yggdrasil, as Veggmaleri is the link between Yggdrasil and the world you have arrived from. Nexus, right?" With the first sentance, she puts her hand over her heart, or where her heart would be if her torso wasn't made of magic wood. "Phelamm is a very different world to this. My ash stands in a city park; the city spans a continent, and is home to many different species. They import food from off-plane, using transitive planes like Yggdrasil. That's a trading post, where some wizards have set up a permanent portal. They bring things here, to swap for things we have that they don't. Or that we get from elsewhere that they can't get from anywhere else." It's a good place to get all sorts of interesting things.

"There's natural portals, and vortices, but I don't know if there's anything else like us. Yggdrasil isn't the only dimension that links lots of others- I link to one of those myself." She's not sure she's answered the question, as I'm not sure I understood it properly.

Apologies for lengthy wait; I didn't realise it was my turn.

[Recaiden]

Yggdrasil

She seems to have answered it to Cleo's satisfaction.
"Not like you, but maybe, singularly."

A quick nod, once, twice, and then she skips, hops, jumps, twirls off towards the trading post.
"Let's go see!"

[Cyber Punk]

Yggdrasil

"That sounds nice. Would be nice to visit Phelamm, Korisfa." He looks towards the Trading Post and smiles. "Trading post? Interesting stuff? Now I'm curious. Let's go see." Fixer says as he starts to stride towards the trading post, after Cleo.

[Ionbound]

Shadow-Highway

Helen growls as well, saying, "Well, I won't kill you for being dumb. Still. You should all just STOP MOVING." Her last words carry a bolt of shadow energy that should make the shadows around the warriors claw at their bodies, trying to gain purchase to pull them to the ground and keep them there.

[Fenric]

[Shadow-Highway]

Helen's shadows do their best, but encounter a nimbus of green light that protects the warriors. They are slowed slightly, but less than one might hope.

They ignore Steven, not being fazed by the fear aura: fanaticism gives a really awesome bonus to resisting such effects, but their first strikes on the shield are not particularly effective, and their vicious hacking results in only small flecks of shadowstuff flaking off.

Frederick looks like he's trying to cast a spell underwater: his movements slow and labored - his casting hindered by being on the wrong plane for the technique he's using.

[Deathkeeper]

Shadow-highway

These guys really aren't that smart, are they?
It's a wall.
As in, it's just one wide rectangular prism. Perhaps they could, say, walk around it?

Well, if they're choosing to attack his wall instead of being smart, Steven is not going to stop them. He kicks lightly at his side of the wall, causing a number of spikes to shoot out from the other side at those besieging it.

[Ionbound]

[Shadow-Highway]

Helen frowns as the warriors seem to resist the shadows, and growls, a short blade of shadowstuff forming in her hand as she lunges at a near one, trying to sink it into his neck.

[Holy-hunter]

Yggdrasil

Excited to explore Arlen follows his new friends forward.

((Sorry for the delay, thought I would keep up with posts while over east for the w/e but it failed :/ ))

[Earl of Purple]

Yggdrasil

Um, they aren't leaving the Ratatosk behind. They've been walking as they go, but the trading post is still quite a distance away.

"Here, I know a shortcut. Or Blodau can call us up more Ratatosk and we can ride. Riding the sap's quicker, but riding a Ratatosk is cleaner." Korisfa doesn't mind the sap, which is why she's suggesting it. Blodau does, which is why she has made friends with the Ratatosk and learnt their language.

[Fenric]

[Shadow-Highway]

Steven's spikes knock one of the warriors back a few steps, and Helen's stab strikes true: but the armor rings hollowly in both cases.

Frederick finally finishes only to have the disappointing result of having his hard-earned lightningbolt slam into the warriors but accomplish nothing at all.

Dangit! The idiot things are golems!

[Recaiden]

[Yggdrasil]

"Sap?"

"Okay, I'll take the shortcut."
If the dryads are up for it it probably won't be too bad; they've been quite friendly so far.

[Deathkeeper]

Shadow-Highway

Steven spits a curse, and then tries to make liquid shadow pour into the cracks and slots in one of the armors. If it can fill it, it'll then harden, hopefully immobilizing it.

[Ionbound]

[Shadow-Highway]

Helen curses as well, but focuses on her blade that is hopefully penetrating a darkness within the golem, which she tries to make expand, ideally destroying the construct from the inside-out.

[Fenric]

[Shadow-Highway]

Steven's attempt results in a very nice "suit of armor on a stand" result pretty much instantly.

Helen's attack takes a few moments longer, before showering the area in glowing green bits.

Frederick throws a small ... something - about the size of a baseball - at the archer. It flies farther and faster than it has any right to, however, and as it approaches the man it abruptly expands into a cage and engulfs him.

Ha! Shadow Bands of Binding, thank you very much!

[Deathkeeper]

Shadow-Highway

Steven lets out a sigh, looking over the golems.
"Well, that was fun. Any others we need to worry about?" he says, poking at the immobilized samurai with a foot.

[Ionbound]

[Shadow-Highway]

Helen takes a deep breath and says, "That's one word for it, yes. Shall we continue on? I think that definitely drained our reservoirs of power."

[Cyber Punk]

[Yggdrasil]

A short-cut. That's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all.

"You speak as though we can also ride the sap." Fixer takes a look at his new coat, he wouldn't want the sap to stain it. "I'll go for the Ratatosk, since it's cleaner."

[Fenric]

[Shadow-Highway]

Frederick scurries over and retrieves his archer-in-a-ball

Don't let me forget he's in there - it'll get awkward if he pops out back home.

Then he nods to Helen

No kidding, let's move!

And the three scurry off once more, heading down the highway.

I certainly hope there aren't any more. We'll have to warn folks that there's creeps like this wandering around.

[Deathkeeper]

Shadow Highway

Steven nods, taking this seriously.
"Yeah, definitely. We should put in a word with Orochi's people. It's not like we can just put up a signpost." he says.

[Holy-hunter]

Yggdrasil
((Oops, sorry :/ ))

Arlen frowns at Cleo's answer thinking the Ratatosk was the obvious answer, "why don't you like the sap?" Arlen asks Blodau seeking reasons why they should ride the giant animals instead.

[Earl of Purple]

Yggdrasil

"It's less riding, and more jumping into a river of sticky goo that will carry you wherever you wish to go." Korisfa smiles.

"It's too sticky. And the trading post won't stop being there just because we aren't jumping into a river of sap to get there." She's more patient; she'd quite happily walk to wherever she wants to go, if it weren't for how much fun riding a Ratatosk was.

[Cyber Punk]

Yggdrasil

"It's less riding, and more jumping into a river of sticky goo that will carry you wherever you wish to go." Korisfa smiles.

"And that right there, that's the reason why I'll go with the giant squirrel thingies. Besides, my nanosuit can auto-clean itself, but I doubt this coat can."

"It's too sticky. And the trading post won't stop being there just because we aren't jumping into a river of sap to get there." She's more patient; she'd quite happily walk to wherever she wants to go, if it weren't for how much fun riding a Ratatosk was.

"I agree with Blodau, here." He's patient as well. A river of sap would be wonderful, since he could heal while riding the sap... but the coat.

[Rebonack]

[Wilderness]

First comes a sensation of heaviness.

Have Jace or Zebes ever experienced sleep paralysis before? The state of being totally aware but unable to act? It feels more or less like that. Laying on a soft mat of vegetation, the only sounds the distant wind, the gentle lap of waves against stone, the chattering of birds, and the soft drone of insects. Warm sun beams down on them, quite different from the anemic winter light coupled with a chill wind they had been enduring previously.

Almost feels like summer. The sort of weather where one might be tempted to just lay in the sun for a while.

If not for that awful sensation of being totally helpless.

Then, from beyond the mottled darkness of closed eyelids comes a voice.

A sophisticated sort of voice, suave and proper. But with a sneering, mocking undercurrent. The tone of someone who knows something you don't and finds that dreadfully amusing.

"Hey there buddy, you don't look so good. You had better light a fire before it gets dark."

Slowly feeling will return to the bodies of our heroes and they will be free to look about. There will be no trace of the debonair source of the voice, only a wilderness stretching in every direction. Quite unlike the fields they had been in previously. For one, gone are the rolling hills. Instead Jace and Zebes are met with a completely flat landscape with trees and bushes and stones dotting the surroundings. But they don't look... real. For lack of a better word. More like set pieces on a stage. Like the earth itself, they all appear strangely flat as if they were nothing more than matte paintings over plywood, though on closer inspection they will all appear quite three dimensional.

Fortuna appears to be nearby as well. It looks like she's been forced into her human guise, though her horns and cage-tipped tail seem to have persisted. She still's still out from whatever incapacitated Jace and Zebes.

The area immediately around them is covered in a soft, leafy ground cover with trees both large and small scattered about. Shrubs bearing berries abound and someone has apparently scattered sharp stones on the ground without rhyme or reason. From the edge of its burrow a strange antlered rabbit watches the newcomers curiously. To the west, perhaps two hundred yards away, Jace will be able to see the ocean. Or at least what stands in for an ocean here. One can almost imagine it as nothing more than sets of painted planks being moved back and forth to simulate waves, but the steady crash of the sea-shore persists none the less. To the east the trees thicken considerably, growing dark and menacing. To the north the ground grows increasingly stony. To the south the terrain remains much like their surroundings, open and meadow like.

Well.

Now what?

[Deathkeeper]

Wilderness

Jace and Zebes groan into consciousness, not enjoying the situation at all as they look around.
"Any ideas, Zebes?" asks the sorcerer.
"Sorry, Boss. No clue." answers the familiar.
"What? You always have an idea?" says Jace, surprised.
"I don't know this one! The best I can say is that we didn't end up in my worst case scenario."
"Oh, and what's that?"
"It would have more tentacles and something would have already had a gory death. That, or a world populated by talking animals, because you know what that would entail and how long you'd have grumbled about it."
"Shut up, Zebes." says Jace, as he goes over to Fortuna and tries to give her a friendly pat on the cheek to rouse her.
"Rise and shine, Miss. We have experiments to run." he says, trying to make sparks by snapping his fingers but not really expecting results.

[Rebonack]

[Wilderness]

"...there's research to be done..." Fortuna mumbles in a sing-songy tone. She scrunches her eyes a little tighter and shifts her weight before shoving herself up into a sitting position.

And then opens her eyes, staring at her hands blurrily.

"That explains why I don't feel my hooves."

Indeed it does!

"And my magic feels muffled..." she adds, a shade of concern coloring her voice, as she holds a hand out toward a nearby stone.

The rock does nothing.

Fortuna focuses at it harder.

The rock continues doing nothing.

Fortuna makes silly faces at it!

Still the rock remains unmoved.

"Really muffled..." she mutters, glancing about. "And I have no idea what this place is. Besides fake-looking?"

[Deathkeeper]

Wilderness

Jace nods.
"Yeah, we're pretty stuck. Come on, we're going to need to start getting supplies. I've only got a few things that're on my belt. Did the shunt into human form give you anything?" he asks, drawing his trusty dagger. It's never steered him wrong, probably because he almost never uses it.

[Rebonack]

[Wilderness]

"Did you hear that voice, too?" Fortuna asks as she rises to her feet. Thankfully she doesn't wobble on two legs anymore. The whole biped thing took her a little while to figure out. "The one that said we should make a fire before it gets dark?"

It wasn't a very nice sounding voice, that's for sure.

When asked about equipment she gives Jace something of a blank look for a moment. "Umm..."

She begins searching around her her jacket pockets before pulling out a humorously over-sized crescent wrench. It had been proportioned for her natural form, so for an average human female the thing just look silly. It would probably work pretty well for wholloping something unpleasant.

Or tightening really large bolts.

"Well... I guess this is better than nothing?"

The jackalope continues watching our heroes, its nose doing that wiggly thing rabbit noses do.

[Deathkeeper]

Wilderness

Jace nods.
"I've got my knife, a potion that probably doesn't work, a few bandages, an ioun stone that also probably won't work, and I think there's a match at the bottom of one of these..." he says, digging through his various little compartments on his adventurer belt.

Meanwhile, Zebes eyes a jackalope.
"Good day, jackalope." says Zebes.
It's in the creature's best interest to respond. If it doesn't prove sapient soon it'll end up Zebes' adorable little lunch.

[Rebonack]

[Wilderness]

"I've just got the wrench and my clothes," Fortuna replies with a huff. At least it was nice enough to give her clothing. She's learned enough about humanoid culture to at least feel embarrassed for other people being naked. Seriously, though. That's it.

That's all.

When Fortuna realizes that IS in fact all, she does a double-take.

"MY PIPColt! My PIPColt is gone!"

That's bad!

What's she going to do without her wrist computer?

What happened to her wrist computer!

Meanwhile!

The jackalope thumps one foot on the ground, a clear alarm call to other rabbit-like creatures nearby. The bunny with antlers is watching Zebes cautiously.