Outside 42

[Lost_Deep]

Ruined Castle

The inside of the buildings are a bit worse than the outside, the black stuff is even more common. In a few buildings he checks, there's these black pod things growing. Disgusting, really.

[Deathkeeper]

Ruined Castle

Spako shakes his head and keeps moving. He might be convinced to look harder were there shinies about, but he doesn't feel up to digging through random buildings full of goo and pods. Towards the castle he goes.

[Zefir]

Spoiler: Quotes

Show

Carrie just heads for the cave.
... All of that was dumb and I don't even know what's happening any more.

In My Father's House

Marcus shakes his head at Aiden's hotheaded foolishness.

It's my job to keep all of you safe, or at the very least alive. How can I do that if I let you challenge every potentially powerful person we meet?

You saw her skills, she could have proven to be a valuable asset if you could have just reigned yourself in!
The Roman takes a deep breath, managing to control his own highland temper.

It's our goal to make sure that every day seems like a boring day for the people of this world. And in that task we cannot take personal matters first.

In My Father's House

Aiden bursts into laughter. "You are gonna keep me safe? Oh man, that's the richest thing I've heard since I've got here. Bronze Age Man's gonna keep me safe." Aiden turns and heads for the cave. "And I'm pretty sure it was you threatening to kill her that made her leave, by the by." He won't say anything more than that, as he's lost any interest in talking with this guy. Especially with that malarkey about "personal matters". What did that even mean when killing monsters?

In My Father's House

Tovpir just shrugs at Carrie and heads for the cave.

[Fenric]

[Dwarven Portal Quest]

Poor scavenger bird. Stick around; you'll probably get to eat Archangel sooner or later.
"Get up, ex-seeker."
"There's nothing here. Sand-boat's gonna be ready to set off in a moment, already got your gear in it."

"Learn more about the weather next time, mkay? It's going to be awful getting home without the bird-thing, and you coulda avoided that."
Archangel sits up, hand to her forehead.
"It's over already?"

Shortly we have the two clumsy rock constructs pulling a little sled-like thing that Winds insists is a boat towards the destination.

Scritch, scratch, scratch: dragging a stone sledge across sand is going to be noisy!

The air soon warms back up again with a clear sky and blazing sun which is now falling toward evening. Heat waves shimmer and dance in the distance, giving false hope of buildings that vanish or recede into the distance as they are approached.

The air is still painfully dry, and sparks arc from their stone platform from time to time as the static from dragging through the sand builds up.

[Cyber Punk]

Greater Littlewood

Phil agrees. "I think I know what a gun is now, or at least vaguely how it works, but just like someone picking up a sword for the first time, I think I'd be more likely to hurt myself with it than anyone else. As for armor, I can create my own if I'm in a bind, though something light I can wear under these robes might be nice. My road to adventure is calling though, so I'm ready to go on searching for a real plot hook." In Phil's universe "story" is a real physical force, and he's seen evidence that it might be here as well. There's even a type of magic, fate magic, that is designed to manipulate the elements of story and plot.

"We don't have armour to spare. You want any, go search the dead. They might have some. Might be an idea to take their coats and masks too." The girl, Zither, has already started down the ladder to prepare one of the surviving vans.

Greater Littlewood

"I don't need the coats. Not my size. The armor and masks might come in handy for me, though. Phil might be able to disguise himself with the full gear, if he wishes." Hotaru rubs the shield gen one last time, then walks after Zither. She pauses to look at Phil, grinning at him. "So I guess we're off then, Phil? More adventure times to be had!" She gives him a thumbs-up sign.

[Nalix]

Greater Littlewood

"Sounds great to me," said Phil. "Lead the way and I'll try to keep up. We can pick up gear as we go. Where do you plan on going?"

[Recaiden]

[Dwarven Portal Quest]

Very noisy. This is worse than sandpaper.

But the slow ride isn't so bad. Painfully dry? Dry is what you want, most all of the time. It might hurt, but wet will kill you.
Archangel is curled up at the front of the sledge, her wing assembly turned and used as a bit of shade, twitching in surprise when a spark snaps particularly loud.

Wings stands a little ways back, overjoyed at everything. The heat, the electricity, the pain. It's all so wonderful. What a trip.

[Lost_Deep]

Ruined Castle

The castle is in much better condition, and the front gate at least is shut. There's some scratches on it, like something with claws tried to get in, but it's shut tight.

[Earl of Purple]

Greater Littlewood

Well, at the bottom of the ladder beneath the tower are the same three corpses, though Zither's claimed the honey badger Faunus' morion helm and one of the attacker's belts, with a pair of hand axes pushed into it. "I'm going to the van over there. It should have enough fuel. I'll take you to Sandy Oaks; I know the way. You can gather what you want. If you take a coat and mask each, you might blend in." The coats are human-sized, but I thought Hotaru was a human? Not all the attackers were male, so finding one that fits shouldn't be too hard.

If they search a body, or find a pile of equipment dropped by an alcoholic mountain goblin, they'll find a flintlock firearm (muskets, multi-barrelled volleyguns, pistols, and blunderbusses, are all prominent), bags of shot, horns of gunpowder, and maintenance kits, an axe (either a large axe or a large gun; never both), a large overcoat, a gasmask, several spare filters, and a kevlar breastplate.

[Deathkeeper]

Ruined Castle

Welp, nothing too deadly so far. That's always a plus. Spako looks around for a tower's window or some other entry point, otherwise he'll have to try and flap up and just look for a courtyard or something like that from which he can enter.

[Fenric]

[Dwarven Portal Quest]

Very noisy. This is worse than sandpaper.

But the slow ride isn't so bad. Painfully dry? Dry is what you want, most all of the time. It might hurt, but wet will kill you.
Archangel is curled up at the front of the sledge, her wing assembly turned and used as a bit of shade, twitching in surprise when a spark snaps particularly loud.

Wings stands a little ways back, overjoyed at everything. The heat, the electricity, the pain. It's all so wonderful. What a trip.

Through the sparks and noise, eventually an unmistakably solid disturbance mars the horizon: not quite white walls with clearly visible if gently crumbling spires beckons.

Just in time, too: the light is rapidly turning golden and the heat is already fading - the nearly anhydrous air having no thermal capacity worth mentioning. Soon, the ambient temperature will take a drastic turn to the opposite extreme.

[Recaiden]

[Dwarven Portal Quest]

"Is that a crash site up ahead? That's where we're going?"

"It was built there, ex-Seeker."
Archangel shivers and sits herself up to get a better look.

They bring the sledge to a stop, hop out, and hurry towards the walls, sending the golems just a scarce bit ahead of them.

[UncleWolf]

Lyn smiles.
"How very respectable. Sure, if you think now would be a good time, lead the way." she says, stepping back so he has room to stand up and take the lead.

Desert

Belisarius leads Lyn out of the tent and she'll find that dusk is settling over the camp. People, Saurians and humans both, are starting to take down many of the tents so they can depart while the desert is cooler. It is still quite warm, but not unbearably so. The saurian leads her to the largest of tents, guarded by several imposing figures in ornate red leather armor, and she'll find herself before "The General".

He is quite the impressive man, sitting in a throne made of black wood. Even seated he is over seven feet tall, and likely stands half again that size should he stand. The Saurian is reminiscent of an Allosaur and looks quite aged with grey scales and eyes clouded over. He has several attendants seeing to him, carefully washing him down with a mixture of water and fine sand. When Lyn and Belisarius enter, his nostrils flare as he takes in their scents before giving a low rumble deep in his chest. "You must be the Outlander." He says, seeming to smirk in amusement, but for all Lyn knows it could be a threatening expression as it reveals a great many large teeth.

[Deathkeeper]

Desert

Lyn bows, trying to be as respectful as possible.
"Y-yes Sir. My name is Lyn." she says simply, hoping her companion can give her some sort of hint at what she should be doing.

[Cyber Punk]

Greater Littlewood

Well, at the bottom of the ladder beneath the tower are the same three corpses, though Zither's claimed the honey badger Faunus' morion helm and one of the attacker's belts, with a pair of hand axes pushed into it. "I'm going to the van over there. It should have enough fuel. I'll take you to Sandy Oaks; I know the way. You can gather what you want. If you take a coat and mask each, you might blend in." The coats are human-sized, but I thought Hotaru was a human? Not all the attackers were male, so finding one that fits shouldn't be too hard.

If they search a body, or find a pile of equipment dropped by an alcoholic mountain goblin, they'll find a flintlock firearm (muskets, multi-barrelled volleyguns, pistols, and blunderbusses, are all prominent), bags of shot, horns of gunpowder, and maintenance kits, an axe (either a large axe or a large gun; never both), a large overcoat, a gasmask, several spare filters, and a kevlar breastplate.

((I suppose Nalix is waiting for me))

"Sandy Oaks, Phil darling!" Hotaru replies as she gets on the ladder and climbs downwards.

"Thanks a lot." Hotaru says to the girl as she gets to work looting the City Watch. She also takes a coat that fits her. "This is weird. I prefer my own clothes better." After trying it on, she removes it and uses the pockets to store her new loot, gotten from searching some nearby piles of equipment dropped by alcoholic mountain goblins. She takes some gunpowder, maintenance kits, two bags of shot a gasmask and half of the spare filters, leaving the rest (which she makes sure to keep in plain view) for Phil.

Making her way to the van, she approaches Zither. "I'm Hotaru. What's your name, hon?"

Spoiler: Hotzy's Inventory (TM)

Show

• City Watch coat, Female
• Gas Mask
• Several spare filters
• Two bags of shot
• Some horns of gunpowder
• Some Maintenace kits

[Nalix]

Greater Littlewood

Phil follows Hotaru, selecting a gas mask, a coat, and a pistol. He tries on several coats before selecting one, along with the gas masks, before putting all three items into his backpack. It's bulging now, mostly with the coat, but he was used to worse ever since his time with the militia. He continues following Hotaru.

[Earl of Purple]

Greater Littlewood

So... Hotaru has the shot, gunpowder and maintenance kits for several different flintlock firearms, but not actually one of the antique weapons themselves? Besides which, all the kits are basically the same and reuseable, which is why each person only had one of them?

"My name is Zither. Like the string instrument." The girl smiles, taking her assault rifle off from where she had slung it over her shoulder on a crude strap made from a length of rope. She props it up in the cab of one of the vans before climbing into the driver's seat.

Trying on multiple gasmasks won't help; they're all adjustable, but otherwise one size fits all.

[The Bushranger]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine moves under the moose, and a few new blades of grass appear and try to poke at the moose's ankles. It should feel a few small pinpricks as Jasmine samples the moose's DNA.

DNA sample get!

It's very...moose-y. Moosily so, in fact.

The moose continues to munch, twitching one foot.

Are those walnuts it's eating?

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

that done, there's a pause, before long, fleshy tentacles reach up out of the grass with intent to immobilize and strangle the moose. They're very strong, and thick.

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

Outside of his room, the moose is powerless!

And so the moose goes down in a hurry. A small flock of birds pops up from a nearby bush in surprise!

Jasmine 1, Moose 0.

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine will then turn into a moose to carry the moose on her back to the camp.

That'll likely be odd walking into camp.

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

Moose on a moose!

Jamie, seeing an approaching moose on a moose ,blinks, jumping up in surprise...then grins as she takes a guess as to what happened.

There's a nice crackling campfire already, with a spit set up and waiting for cooking above it.

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine will change into her default human form, with fur mimicking clothing. "I have this moose for food," she states.

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

"That's going to be enough food for the whole trip," Jamie declares, grinning as she produces her camping knife and sets to work on butchering the moose. "I wasn't expecting this, it's awesome! And there's an icy-cold spring in the river so it'll preserve the meat until we head back."

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine nods. That sounds good. She isn't clear on how that works, but it's probably like the 'refrigerator'. "Good. Now what?"

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

"Now we get to enjoy the smell of roasting meat for awhile." Jamie grins, carrying a nice hunk of moose steak over to the fire where she impales it on the spit. "I've never actually had moose before. Venison's good though."

Owls start to hoot in the trees by the river.

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine nods, and then after a minute says, "I've been doing a lot of sitting lately."

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

"Feeling restless?" Jamie asks, looking up. "We could go and try to see some of the owls, if you'd like," she suggests, standing after having rigged up a contraption to keep the meat turning as it cooks.

[Lost_Deep]

Woods Camp Alpha

Jasmine looks a little confused at that. "Maybe? I don't know? As a deer, I was always doing something, but as a human there's a lot of... not much happening. Not worried about being eaten, or about what to eat, or where to go. Things aren't happening all the time."

[The Bushranger]

[Woods Camp Alpha]

"Oh. Well, that's kinda...what being human does to you sometimes. Sometimes you have to find things to do, instead of constantly having them happen." Jamie shrugs. "And sometimes just doing nothing at all is a fun thing to do on its own."