Inside 63

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

Trick raises an eyebrow, and moves around the freshly made girl, looking her over. "I'm guessing that wasn't intentional then. A curse?" Her tail twitches in though. interesting...

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

She sighs, surrendering the last hope of solitude with a roll of her eyes as she props herself up on one arm, making space for another on the bank. The fungal colonies that break the lake's still surface glow in softer colors, growing pale and translucent from the lakebed beneath, like a castle sculptured in ice. "And a bet. If you must know."

"It's one of those long stories." A deft little toss lands a pebble upside one duck's wings, and the whole flock scatters away. "I suppose I'm still trying to explain it to my own satisfaction."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Skyway]

Electra emerges from the dark smokiness of Trog's to the bright day light of Skyway once more. She looks around for a moment, before finding a sign that indicates the direction of the Riftline station. She walks carefully, bringing up her GPS on her internal HUD, not really expecting it to work here. She stops and blinks as the data comes up in her field of view.

Well, that's interesting. At least I'll be able to use GPS and Sat-Nav here. When my EV unit comes back online, I should be able to teleport again. But, I've got a long way to go for auto-repair to get all of this stuff fixed. She starts walking again, her expression a bit brighter. Soon enough, she comes upon the Riftline station. She marks it on her internal map, and hops on the monorail for Riverside.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

She arches an eyebrow but accepts his hand to shake. Her armored gloves seem like a part of the armor, like it was an armored body-glove rather than parts put together. The fingertips are slightly pointed, giving them the appearance of claws. "Ambrosia Ithil. I am not interested in payment however, just tell me about this dragon of yours. Why do you want to slay it?"

"Simple" Steve says, "A dragon attacked Trog's Tavern. It didn't fly in, a gambler morphed into one. I thought I killed it, but upon further inspection, the dragon feigned death. The dragon caused lots of collateral damage and is after the blood of innocents. It attacked several unarmed people. I know the dragon is evil, because I used smite evil and it reacted. This dragon needs to be brought to justice." Steve looks around "The dragon also seemed to be stalking a woman named Laura, she ran off with steak knives as weapons." Steve pauses for a moment "So are you in? It's been a while since I fought beside someone who held justice over gold"

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"I am no slayer." Ambrosia states once he have heard his request. "I am but a scholar." She puts her hand on the large tome chained to her armor, held in a big holder in her belt. She doesn't seem to carry any weapons but her armor suggests more than just a scholar though. "But I did see a woman running past her not long ago. Didn't see where she went though."

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

Trick nods, "I might be able to get the curse off you, if you like. I know a fair amount about entropomancy, necromancy, transmutation, and a couple others."

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

She shrugs, from her shoulders to her eyes. "You might." It's worth a shot. No better plans are occurring. "I mean, ah -" Blinking through the fog, Sebastian straightens up, brushing sand from the sleeves and billows of her poofy white shirt. A hand is offered. "I mean I would like that, yes. And thank you for offering. Um, Bastian." Or nearly Bastian.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"I am no slayer." Ambrosia states once he have heard his request. "I am but a scholar." She puts her hand on the large tome chained to her armor, held in a big holder in her belt. She doesn't seem to carry any weapons but her armor suggests more than just a scholar though. "But I did see a woman running past her not long ago. Didn't see where she went though."

"Can you still help me out? You may not be a fighter, but you know more about dragons and this land than me." Says Steve "I need help, can you at least help me find the woman? She's running after a wyrm with steak knives."

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"I'm Trick," the tiefling says, reaching out a hand to shake, "Why don't you tell me about how you got the curse? I should be able to work something out, once I know that much." she goes to sit down on the grass by the pond, where Bastian had made room for her. While she keeps her boots out of the water, the long thick tail dips the tip in, apparently testing the temperature.

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"I will provide whatever aid I can." She replies with a curt nod and then gestures down the street. "I think she was running in that direction. She wasn't wielding steak knives however."

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park]

The water is strangely warm for the season, warmed by the luminescent strands tangling beneath the surface. There's a soft *hic* and Bastian is a boy again, maybe a little over twenty, with golden nubs of horn holding back a mop of brown curls, here and there a gleam of metal within, and a sharp reptilian sort of face; The human features seeming slender and alien wrapped around wide, expressive reptilian eyes, the draconic teeth drawing his jawline into something sleek and angular. Scaled patches here and there, mostly clustering around his arms, fingernails not quite talons but jet black and curving slightly.
He leans back on his arms, and sighs. "I made a bet with someone who's trying to be a friend. What they didn't tell me is, if I don't break this curse in four days, I'll be stuck whichever way is up at the time." Sebastian's own tail flicks in agitation. "I'm mostly angry and confused over all this godbothering business. It's such -" He stops short there, a very pointed stop. "She's called the Meddler and I don't really know anything about her magic. It's some kind of puzzle, of course, but we may as well try."

[Halae]

[Crescent Park]

Trick nods, "What else did she say? Anything you can remember?" She reaches inside her coat for a notebook and pencil, and begins writing something down - presumably, she's treating this as a case, if Bastian recognizes Trick as the city's premier PI. Everything about her demeanor is professional, but friendly.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"I will provide whatever aid I can." She replies with a curt nod and then gestures down the street. "I think she was running in that direction. She wasn't wielding steak knives however."

Steve gets on his horse "are you coming with?" Asks Steve. He extends his hand to help Ambrosia on the horse if she accepts. "If you're going with, you need to either get your own mount or travel on mine, but right now may not be the best time to get a horse."

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

It's not like she's got much competition. Or that Bastian's especially caught up with the present day, as he leans in to look over her shoulders. "Oh, ah, there were some cryptic hints and such. Very directly mentioned I should see a newspaper. Quests. Some amusement in saying 'right' kind of magic could break the whole thing, for all that helps me."

"I suppose, ah, I should be chasing those. Well. I suppose I would be, if I wasn't trying to get my head on right in the first place." It's a terribly trying endeavor to be constantly changing. None too conductive to clear thinking.

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"Which means, of course, that this is a test to push you out of your comfort zone and provide some entertainment, most likely. Or, given the name 'Meddler', it's an effort to get you to live life more fully." Trick keeps writing down her notes on the situation, "If you're willing to agree to it, I can scan you over for any magical effects; it should tell us the nature of your curse and possibly come up with ways around it, or to solve it if the ways around it aren't practical."

She takes that ornate black bone dagger off her thigh. A casting implement, perhaps?

[Shadowcaller]

Steve gets on his horse "are you coming with?" Asks Steve. He extends his hand to help Ambrosia on the horse if she accepts. "If you're going with, you need to either get your own mount or travel on mine, but right now may not be the best time to get a horse."

[Paladins]

"I can travel swiftly if need be." Ambrosia replies curtly but accepts his help to get up on the horse. "Let's go then." She states once she's sitting in the back.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"I can travel swiftly if need be." Ambrosia replies curtly but accepts his help to get up on the horse. "Let's go then." She states once she's sitting in the back.

Steve shouts "hah" and the white horse takes off in the direction that Ambrosia directed him in. "Do you know anything about dragons that can feign death and can turn things to stone with explosions?" Asks Steve "as a Paladin, the only monsters I ever really studied was undead. Also, do you need a weapon? I know you said you weren't a slayer, but I don't know how dangerous this journey will be, and you will probably need some means of self defense. It's great if you know some form of magic or martial arts instead, less money spent on weapon repairs or ammunition." Steve leans in to the horse to allow it to run faster. The horse neighs

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"I choose to not carry arms, sir." The scholar replies. "But trust me when I say that I can defend myself. Let us say that I know 'magic'." As derogatory as the term was. "But dragons, as I have learned, are a very diverse species that exists in many variants across this multiverse. It sounds like it's much more than a brute beast however and that makes it extremely dangerous. If it knows you're chasing it, it will likely just flown away by now. Even with a horse it would be impossible to follow a flyer, especially in a city."

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"Oh, all of those and then also as a reward of sorts. If I win, I mean." 'If' is a rather uncomfortable word to say. Bastian would have preferred it stay out of the conversation altogether, but, here they are. "Beyond that it's both complicated and the worst thing to talk about if I'm meant to think clearly." But it's the notes on the other page that catch his eyes. "You're interested in the park."

[Halae]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

Trick nods, and taps a finger at one of her potion belts, "I'm an alchemist, so when some new plant life crops up, I like to take a look at it, and see what uses can be distilled. The things in these blooms show a relationship to structure; I already have ideas for temporary patches in buildings or creating instant - if disgusting - armor using expanding foam and proper guiding tools. Said foam may also be able to be used by police forces for nonlethal captures and floatation devices for people that are drowning."

She blinks, apparently realizing that she'd gotten away from herself there, "But that's not really what we're dealing with here. What it sounds like to me is that you need a quest to help undo the curse. Are you willing to let me scan you, see what I can tell about it?" She motions with the ritual knife and, assuming Bastian agrees, will go about looking over the magic on him.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Crescent Park - Fungal Bloom]

"Oh." He says, grinning for some unknown reason, and, "Oh right."

"You can, I've got no objections. Only, be forewarned I suppose, I'm told I can be rather disconcerting to look at." He sits up and straightens his back, holding still for her to 'scan'. Whatever in specifics that might mean.

And he's not precisely lying. Seen through magical means, Sebastian is a silhouette dropped out of the space around him, a flat window into a backdrop of light, of brilliant sparks like stars entangling and drawing in the leylines of the park into their gravity, drawing threads of magic into a single maelstrom wrapped around the center of him. It can be very disorienting, akin to trying to follow a moving spiral.

[Slii Arhem]

Crescent Park - Inside Bastian's Curse

It's a curse! It does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, changing him from one to the other every time he hiccoughs, and inducing random hiccoughs for its duration. It does seem to be very slowly weakening since he got it, likely why the hiccoughs haven't been as numerous as when he first acquired it. By the time he's been afflicted with it for three days, he might be in a form for a long time before another change occurs, and the changes might begin to get slower, disconcertingly. By the end of the fourth day, all of the magic will have been used up, and both the hiccoughs and the changes will be gone entirely.

However, as she's examining it Trick finds it begin to react to her intrusion, a bubble of energy inverting on itself, collapsing into a threatening "looking" spike. She gains two more pieces of information before she has to abandon her scan or risk it being violently dispelled. The curse is pretty much immune to direct, brute force attempts to dispel it, but there is a loophole, as is common with otherwise undispellable curses.

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"I choose to not carry arms, sir." The scholar replies. "But trust me when I say that I can defend myself. Let us say that I know 'magic'." As derogatory as the term was. "But dragons, as I have learned, are a very diverse species that exists in many variants across this multiverse. It sounds like it's much more than a brute beast however and that makes it extremely dangerous. If it knows you're chasing it, it will likely just flown away by now. Even with a horse it would be impossible to follow a flyer, especially in a city."

"We don't know where the dragon is, but I know someone who might." Says Steve "That's who we're chasing ma'am. Her name is Laura, she was directly involved in the skirmish with the dragon, and seemed to know something about it. The dragon may not be natural, as it was summoned by a what appeared to be a gambler. It was also a really stupid dragon, it didn't fly to get an aerial advantage, it didn't use very powerful attacks that even young dragons would possess, and it leaped right onto me into sword range." Steve stops talking for a moment "I believe I forgot to thank you for helping me, most people I know hold money in higher esteem than justice and righteousness, but you took the job for free, so thank you."

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

She smiles faintly. "Oh, it is nothing. Admittedly I am just curious about this dragon we're chasing." The scholar admits. "I am a researcher of them and the one you describe is one I've never heard of. So perhaps I can learn more if we managed to chase it down."

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

She smiles faintly. "Oh, it is nothing. Admittedly I am just curious about this dragon we're chasing." The scholar admits. "I am a researcher of them and the one you describe is one I've never heard of. So perhaps I can learn more if we managed to chase it down."

"I can tell you a few things about it" starts Steve. "First of all, it's evil, I can tell because when I smote it with holy power, it reacted. It also uses fire, but in a missile form, rather than a stream of flame. It also can feign death by causing an explosion that turns things to stone, anything wood, cloth, or flesh, but not metal. I wasn't able to make out the hide color or small details, the debris was creating a smoky haze."

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"It sounds like the dragon is intelligent so it's unappropiate to speak in terms of "it", I think. No matter how "evil" it was." Ambrosia remarks. "But do you know why it attacked? You probably should describe the situation from the start so there isn't any room for misunderstandings."

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"It sounds like the dragon is intelligent so it's unappropiate to speak in terms of "it", I think. No matter how "evil" it was." Ambrosia remarks. "But do you know why it attacked? You probably should describe the situation from the start so there isn't any room for misunderstandings."

"Simple" Steve says, "I was talking with someone at Trog's Tavern, and Laura came in, talking about having a monster problem. The gambler who also came into the bar shortly before I did seemed to just... fold away, for lack of better words. He didn't teleport, he folded out of existence. Then the dragon shot a fireball directly at the table we were at. It then jumped on me and attempted to break my neck after I directed it's attention from Laura to me. I stabbed in the throat with my sword after I imbued it with holy power used to harm evil, and killed it. Also, I called the dragon "it" because I'm unsure of it's sex, or if it even has one. Anyway, the dragon exploded and turned everything around me, including the clothes of a half dragon, into stone. There's probably some remains back at Trog's, when we find Laura, I can bring you back for an autopsy on the dragon"

[Murkus]

[Park of Seasons - Central]

It's now that Adir can take note of the forcefield the purble robed man has created. He stops. The other mages have dropt any spell or atemp to surround them for now, holding their ears due to the uncommen noise of the gun. Only the green robed gnome got worst. He holds his ears like he is in deep pain and sinks to his knees while shaking his head around, trying to get that noise away.

Zefir needs to think for a moment. Maybe he got to optimistic. On the other hand he thought Adir might be the fighter type who rather fights then turns back. It's not going as he planned, but well. he didn't plan to get Adir along.

"Plan C it is." he says. He then grabs into his pocked drawing a hand full of small glass balls. He then throws them in front of the mages. They shatter and create a thick smoke screen. "That should give us enougth time" he says and waits for Adir to lead him to his truck.

[Park of Seasons - Departing!]

"C'mon, let's go!" Adir says, bounding off toward his vehicle, where it waits in the street just outside the Park's gates. He calls back, "I don't know if plan A was fight there, C4, but we were pretty badly outmanned for plan A!"

Unless they're attacked before they reach Adir's pickup, he'll open the passenger side door for Zefir and hurtle himself across the hood of the truck with a single easy bound. Into the driver's seat he flies, and it won't be very much longer before they're revved and moving unless Zefir's friends have something to say about it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Paladins]

"So he can shapeshift then." If the gambler was male, the dragon might be as well. "Or it was summoned from somewhere. Might mean it have returned from where it came by now." She observes. "Neither scenario is good for this chase, if it can shapeshift it could be nearly anyone by now, if it can teleport it's far gone and if it's summoned it might be gone as well. What even makes you think Laura knows anything about this? It seemed to have been a fairly random event." She pauses thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, you said this person was a 'gambler'? Perhaps he was using some kind of artifact that creates random events? One of the results might have been that a dragon was summoned to attack whoever was nearby. They tell me such 'randomness' is fairly common around here."

[8BitNinja]

[Paladins]

"So he can shapeshift then." If the gambler was male, the dragon might be as well. "Or it was summoned from somewhere. Might mean it have returned from where it came by now." She observes. "Neither scenario is good for this chase, if it can shapeshift it could be nearly anyone by now, if it can teleport it's far gone and if it's summoned it might be gone as well. What even makes you think Laura knows anything about this? It seemed to have been a fairly random event." She pauses thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, you said this person was a 'gambler'? Perhaps he was using some kind of artifact that creates random events? One of the results might have been that a dragon was summoned to attack whoever was nearby. They tell me such 'randomness' is fairly common around here."

"Should we stop looking for Laura then?" Says Steve in reply "If so, where do we go when we turn around? Is there any known artifacts that are used to create random events? I have no idea what to do if Laura isn't a part of this, so I need you to make a call on what we should do"