Outside 44: Baby it's cold outside

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

"Okay. Claire, go do something distracting. Keiko, pick off any of them that are alone. I'll go liberate their ...ingredients."

Cleo takes a deep breath and disappears from sight, from sound, from smell. One could still taste her or run into her, of course. The sneakiest dragon slinks down into the village, circles around the cauldron, and makes her way towards the cookfire and its prisoners.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Clarie grins and rears up, suddenly looking rather substantially more menacing

All right. my turn!

She tosses her head to the sky and bellows out a war cry! The magic of it is intense and unmistakable: Keiko and Cleo, as her allies now, will feel charged and exhilarated! But dank fear is the lot of her enemies as the Messenger of War unleashes her wrath!

And then she charges. The three Slaads who were cooking turn, wide eyed, and snatch up whatever cooking implements are at hand... but they are trembling. Meena and the two bound dragons start to struggle

Help! Help!
Grnnk! ShhhsSSshshTKKK!
YRRRRLWYRLLR!

Keiko's head splits into nine, and she slides off through a channel of muddy water at a brisk pace.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Listen to that! Don't worry, captives. That's a friendly rock dragon.

Cleo runs up and tries to cut through their bindings. Starting with Meena, then Dewdrop, finally their new friend.

[Nalix]

The Tower - Floor Four

Phil stands at a window, presumably within sight of Vaylith. As he looks out over the landscape his eyes, now seeing with the new power he had sought, can still see a glimpse of other worlds. The battle with the chaos champion had given him a glimpse of divinity, of terrifying powers parallel to his own in kind, but vastly greater in scope.

He felt an itch, a voice, familiar somehow, calling to him.
"I hear you," whispers Phil.
Silence answers him, though he can sense someone listening. "You..." said a voice in his mind. "I honestly never thought I'd see you again. Now I'm glad I put that tracker in you. I lost its signal when I left you. I see through you now, this world, your companions. Do you remember me?"
Phil shook his head slightly. "Not as only a voice," he said.
A woman's face appeared in his mind along with grandiose visions of power, and memories of their brief encounter.
"I don't recall your name," said Phil. "But you are the goddess of science I accidentally summoned."
"You opened the door, but I passed through it," she said. "I have had many names, but you may call me Arthra. Calamity has befallen my kind and we are seeking refuge wherever we can. Some of us have managed to reach this Nexus where you currently dwell. I don't know how many, but they are dangerous. Our Power is only a fraction of what it was, but there is one of our kind in particular who is in your world and is quite dangerous."
"I suppose you want me to hunt down this ex-god?"
"If you choose to, that would be one solution. While his is there his power and influence will continue to spread. That has always been our way. This one is called Ainkar. He is wanted for crimes against the Power, for consorting with cultists of the Abomination and aiding them in order to escape to your realm. He must be killed or returned to us. You are my only connection with that realm and I cannot go there myself. I am in no position to command you, but I ask you to do this. Speak and I will hear you. Ask, and I will answer you when I can. It is in your own interest to stop Ainkar."
The vision fades, and Phil turns from the window. Luna needs to hear about this.

((We can use this as a new plot hook, and I can make a new character and other characters for a new adventure thread, or we can ignore it and do something else. Let me know here or in PM))

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

With a loud roar, Claire breathes her petrifying weapon on the Slaads. Only one is turned to stone, though: the other two resist. From elsewhere in the camp, four more arrive at the fire to see with the commotion is... and one gets slapped into next week by Claire's tail.

Any time now, Keiko...

It's only a moment before Keiko's grinning head peers over a long, low hut. And again, and again, and again... until nine dragon faces are peering into the square. Claire's jaw drops.

Nine tails as a fox, nine heads as a dragon! Hey, frogface!

As the Slaad turn to look, five of Keiko's heads unleash blazing purple rays of destruction! The two Slaads that resisted being turned to stone are summarily disintegrated. The remaining three resist, but look unhappy.

Keiko now looks rather dizzy!

Oooohgg... remind me to not fire more than one at a time... ever again.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Cleo takes a deep breath and reappears as she frees the last prisoner.

"There you go! Meena, get them out of here; we'll handle the Slaad."

You'd think Keiko would have nine tails as a dragon too. But that would get dizzying. And apparently just using all her heads together is too much.

Now, as for these last few frogs...Cleo faces the remaining new arrivals and breathes out a rain of needles. (A few might prick Claire's tail, given where she is, but probably not enough to really hurt).

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Meena and the two dragons run East, heading back toward the tunnel.

Yow!

The needles don't particularly damage her, but they do hurt . One of the Slaads is properly pincushioned and falls over, but that one shielded the other two just enough...

Uh-oh! They're casting!

But that's all the time there is: a sizzling lightningbolt blasts toward Claire, and a pack of five magic missiles heads Cleo's way.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

The magical missiles actually do some damage.

"Ow ow ow!"

Not a lot, but enough that Cleo stumbles and scowls. That'll leave a pack of bruises. Might have cracked a rib. She focuses on the leftmost frog-monster and starts to cast a banishment. Back to Limbo where you belong, you terrible anachronistic thing!

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Claire is stunned by the blast and doesn't do anything effective through the twitching spasms.

Cleo sends one back to Limbo with a despairing wail! Only one more visible...

it's never a good thing when the narration says something like that, is it? And this time is no different!

Keiko yelps and her heads abruptly vanish from the roofline. There is the sound of much snarling and disturbance from behind the hut, but nothing can be seen thanks to the building.

Meanwhile, seeing how well it worked last time, the last one sends five more missiles at Cleo.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

"Keiko! What happened?"

Cleo twists around to look at the roofline, there's nothing there, but she isn't even trying to avoid get smashed by the missiles. She stumbles close to the fire; this isn't going well, not really at all. Putting her attention back to this part of the fight, she repeats the banishment. After all, it worked so well last time.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

With a cry of despair and a "poof", the last Slaad on this side of the hut vanishes.

Claire regains her feet and starts to scurry around the hut, but she stops in her tracks with a horrified expression. Keiko's voice can be quite clearly heard, yelling angrily:

UGLY STUPID FROGTHING!
THAT HURT!
IMMA EAT YOUR LEGS!
RARRRRRRRR!

From beyond the hut, a series of crunching and tearing sounds is followed by a Slaad-head flying over the roof and landing with a wet thud next to the fire.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Well, looks like Keiko has this under control. Please let the severed head not keep talking or anything. Cleo doesn't even want to look at it. Just face studiously anywhere else while she intones a healing spell upon herself. Curing light wounds should just about describe it. Then as her bruises are relived and scales shine, she can scurry around the hut and see just what's happened to the poor slaad.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Claire is trembling like a leaf at the scene.

By the time Cleo gets there, there's not quite so much to see anymore but a largish damp patch, a number of unidentifiable scraps, and several of Keiko's heads still chewing.

Tastes like chicken!

But one of Keiko's heads is limp on the ground, and she is holding her right hind foot up off the ground: resting her weight on her tail instead.

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Cleo makes a strangled gagging sound and leans against the corner of the hut. This is worse than severed heads flying everywhere. At least they stay still and quiet once they land.

After a minute of settling, she goes over to Keiko and casts her healing spell again, aiming to fix up the leg especially.
"You okay?"

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Keiko sets her foot down gingerly, testing it

Thanks, Cleo! That blob of a thing grabbed my leg and yanked me down off the roof, then pounded me on the head really hard and knocked me out...

She looks at the still unconscious head

One of me, anyway. It's really annoying: like having your foot fall asleep!

Sorry about the mess, I was really mad and hungry after using five breath weapons all at once... so I kinda followed up on my threat and ate him.

Claire shudders

I'm soooo glad I decided to stop fighting you two...

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Cleo nods. Not sure about nine-headed sea dragon unconsciousness concerns.

"Can you go back to one head?"

Looks up at the rock dragon.

"Don't worry Claire; I wouldn't have eaten you. Now come on, we need to make sure there aren't any more hiding around here."

She takes this excuse to get away from Keiko's meal and look for more intact frog-things through the little village.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Keiko merges her heads back together, which makes her wince and shudder.

Yeah... I guess I can... ugh...

Claire takes the opportunity to follow Cleo and scurry away from the bloody scene. Keiko looks around for a moment, then sighs and heads toward the nearest bog to rinse herself off - her water-shedding scales not quite as effective against sticky blood.

Meanwhile...

Cleo and Claire find that they've done a reasonable job of extirpating the offending Outsiders. The camp really isn't all that big: just a raiding party really... of course, that does leave the question of two particular individuals.

They find the first one, as a ray of grayish arcane energy washes over Cleo. But opening with Petrification was probably not a good choice by the Slaad shaman...

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Her instinct is that one lightly injured head will heal better than 1 thoroughly battered head and 8 healthy ones.

The individuals in charge!
Green sparks dance around Cleo as the petrification spell does nothing like what it's supposed to. Sorry, slaad shaman; that's her status effect.
"Is it supposed to be grey, really? Guess I don't know why it's green for me. Chromatic theory says stone is blue magic, and-"
"Oh, right. Disintegrate."
Cleo shakes her head and the bells ring and hopefully (to her) the slaad becomes a pile of dust.

[Earl of Purple]

The Tower- Nobody's On Floor Four Any More...

When they return, Zither's taken the bodies of the raiders from the Tower down to the back of the basement, where they were stripped of anything approaching useful, slightly dismembered and buried in the compost heap. Currently, she's in the multicoloured Beetle with legs and she's trying to figure out its novel control system. It has a pair of levers, one on each side of the driver's seat; one controls the right legs, the other the left legs. She's figured out how to make it go, and is currently practising the steering- one lever is moved more than the other, and is one is pulled back whilst the other is pushed forwards, the Beetle can turn on the spot. She likes it a lot, but it's not as fast as her lime-green jeep, even if it is more agile. When Hotaru arrives, Zither smiles, waves and will scuttle the car towards her, stopping and opening the door for her to get in. Her tail's grown, though she's presently got it between her legs, hidden.

Vaylith, meanwhile, has found a yoyo, and is trying to figure out how it works. She enjoyed looking at the pistol she found, until Zither noticed and took it away, putting it in the armoury where little dragon-girls can't play with potentially deadly semi-automatic toys made mostly of steel.

[Cyber Punk]

[The Tower]‎
‎
Luna smiles and climbs up onto the vehicle, looking around. Nice setup, if more than a little archaic. "Hi, Zi. How's the tail?"

When she looks and see Vaylith, assuming they're in the same area, she tries to call her attention. "Hi, hun! I brought gifts from Santa!" She looks around. "So, I guess that makes you V's aunt, Zi. Big sis, maybe?"‎

(Sure! As long as it doesn't involve anyone being polymorphed or anything.)

[Nalix]

[The Tower]

Phil finds Luna at the vehicle with the others. Those things had fascinated him at first, seeming to be a new class of object to him, not alive, yet requiring fuel, not undead, having never been alive, and not a construct, as it used no magic to maintain its forms and functions. Though after hearing a detailed explanation it seemed best to classify them as constructs. He'd never seen one with legs before. The bug of burden followed him to the vehicle.

Phil waves to Zither and Luna, and Vaylith too if he can see her inside the vehicle. He doesn't get in but stays to the side, away from the movement of the legs. "Looks good for difficult terrains," says Phil. "How fast does it go? Do you know how it handles on sand or in water?"

Phil doesn't mention his conversation with the ex-goddess, or that she's still whispering in his head, appealing to his desire for power, possibly giving him a distant or distracted expression.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Green sparks dance around Cleo as the petrification spell does nothing like what it's supposed to. Sorry, slaad shaman; that's her status effect.
"Is it supposed to be grey, really? Guess I don't know why it's green for me. Chromatic theory says stone is blue magic, and-"
"Oh, right. Disintegrate."
Cleo shakes her head and the bells ring and hopefully (to her) the slaad becomes a pile of dust.

The shaman is not so easily destroyed: the Slaad holds its hand up and the deadly ray is harmlessly deflected into a pile of nearby firewood (not so harmless for the wood, of course: it is destroyed). It begins to croak out an incantation while Claire breathes out her own petrifying weapon to a similar lack of effect.

Well... fine!

Now the Shaman points at the ground under Clarie's and Cleo's feet, which immediately softens while a powerful force attempts to drag the dragonesses down into the muck!

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

Whoops. Sorry, pile of firewood.

Cleo struggles against the force pulling them into the mud, but not very effectively, and starts to sink. There go her feet under the mud, and the tip of her tail...

She takes a deep gulp of air and uses her own breath weapon, a hail of needles on the shaman. Leaves her coughing afterwards; it's draining to use that so often.

[Earl of Purple]

The Tower

Archaic, yes, but the most practical method of steering a legged vehicle without direct mind link-ups.

"It's a much nicer tail than I was expecting. I love it, thank you." She stops the vehicle next to where Phil stands. "The legs are an addition made to the older chassis, and from what I remember, the original car this vehicle's based on was actually waterproof, so whilst I've not tried it on water or sand, I'd guess it can swim. Wouldn't want to try it on sand; legs aren't the best for sand, not the really soft stuff. Wheels, tracks or hover-units are best for sand. Top speed's about thirty miles an hour; the jeep's faster, but this is so much more agile." It's true; classic Beetles float. They can't steer in the water without conversion, and I don't know if the engine works underwater or not.

Vaylith smiles at Hotaru, and rushes over to where the legged Beetle is parked. "Pressents? Whaat kiind of pressents? Whaat's a Saantaa?" She's really excited, and her eyes widen. She's changed into a pair of denim shorts and a black t-shirt.

[Cyber Punk]

[The Tower]‎

Luna waves to Phil. "Hi, 'daddy'. Come on in so we can catch up on things." She winks, and the reduced spark in her eyes might be more noticeable. Overall, she seems more... stable.

She smiles back at Zither. "If only there was some way to morph the legs to suit different terrain without overhauling the vehicle. The Professor might be able to help with that, but that'll be later, probably. Can I see the tail, Zi?"‎
‎
When Vaylith gets to the car, Luna'll carry her inside. "Hope you didn't miss me too much, baby. Santa helped merge Rai and I. We're one mind again, and it feels permanent. My search is over." That last part is more addressed to Phil and Zither.‎

She pulls out the Russian nested dolls and opens them. The topmost looks like Phil, then Luna, then Zither and finally Vaylith. After showing the dragonchild how they work, she continues. "Like this, it's like everyone is hugging you and keeping you safe, Vaylith, and you can always count on that. As for Santa, he gives gifts every Thanksmas."‎

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

Whoops. Sorry, pile of firewood.

Cleo struggles against the force pulling them into the mud, but not very effectively, and starts to sink. There go her feet under the mud, and the tip of her tail...

She takes a deep gulp of air and uses her own breath weapon, a hail of needles on the shaman. Leaves her coughing afterwards; it's draining to use that so often.

Concentrating on it's own spell, the Slaad fails to react quite quickly enough and is struck by quite a few needles. This of course also disrupts the spell of mucky doom.

During this, Claire had been concentrating quietly and at last her eyes spring open and she commands:

Meteor Storm!

The shaman now gets the delightful experience of being pounded by giant, fiery, magically summoned rocks!

[Recaiden]

[Dragon Rescue]

"*cough*Ha!"

Cleo grins victoriously and pulls herself out of the muck, taking one, three, six steps onto solid ground and-

Blink. She misses the first instant of the magical rain of fire out of pure astonishment. Stands stock-still watching, different eyes following different meteors.
"Wow."

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside the Temple Gate]

Hoping enough damage has been done, the chronomancer sheaths Ebb and turns to see what was beyond the gate in his dull gray outlook. Before much else, he takes the time to retrieve and restore his clockwork staff to its full length. Walking away from the havoc ensuing behind him, he reaches for his pocket-watch. Focusing briefly he attempts to glimpse the future in a bit more detail than the recent small intervals for which he's been using it.

Before his otherworldly eyes flood with a soft golden hue, he glances back to check the progress of the destruction of the cannons and smiles.

Good. He thought. With the next two down, we will be well on our way putting this catastrophe to an end.

A moment later his mind ought to be filled with the next half hour or so from his perspective.

((Feel free to PM if you'd prefer not to have everyone know out of character, either option is cool with me.))

[Outside the Temple Gate]

The dragon is racing towards the final cannon, out from under the rubble of the first. Kind of a shame - but what was she going to do with a demonic flame cannon anyway? Really - but it had to be done. A carpet of grass and flowers begins to sprout from the ground where it fell apart. Hopefully that's not just more to burn in the future.

"Thank you, angel from wherever you've been brought."

She moves to dispose of these guardians just like the last ones - magically broken to bits. Mechanical guardians are rarely creative - what new thing could they manage?

[Outside Temple Gate]

Hei notices the demon cannons' destruction and what his lack of control has caused for the demonic side. Eh, there are probably reserves... but in this case, such thinking will only lead to heavy losses.

"Hear my voice and lend me your aid." He growls under his breath at every piece that could lend him aid. He speaks to the cannons to lend him aid, to let him buff them, make them harder to destroy, and cause significant damage to non-demons. For the demons, he bids them to let him in and let him buff and strengthen them, to cause them to grow in power. He tells the wind, the ground and the plants to avoid causing harm to the demon forces.‎

As for the airborne forces, he blasts them with a torrent of corrupting muk, infecting them with the cuthun essence. If they don't turncoat or feel compelled to follow the Cuthun, then their spirits will degenerate instead.

[Outside the Temple Gate]

Beyond the gate, which was about to close, the wizard can see a large round room with a dome, every centimeter of it engraved with a indicate pattern of symbols which gives off a faint glow. There are no doors or other other exits within the room and it's otherwise empty.
Within the room are two more pit lords, frozen in time as everything else. Both are turned towards the door, it looks like they are attempting to cast some kind of spell.

Meanwhile on the top of the cliffs the guardians are in disarray, the angel moving to one of the last cannons without as much as a word or glance at the dragon. But the guardians aren't as easy to vanquish this time. Something in their structure seems to resonate with Hei's words which seem to somehow cancel out the vibrations set in motion by the dragon. Seeing that they're not breaking apart and dying, they suddenly decide to take the initiative and float up to her and attack with their clawed tentacles.
They will attempt to swarm her, extending their many limbs to cut off all escape paths as the other move in to cut and wound, aiming for the wings and the head.

The angel is having some difficulties of its own as the guardians are as easy to cut through anymore and the creatures are attempting to swarm it in a similar fashion as Cleo.

But while the fight on top of the plateau goes on, the invading horde is slowly straggling towards the gate, despite taking heavy losses. The cloud of corruption Hei sends to the fliers doesn't seem effective at all as they simply fly through it and starts to swarm the dragon. Darting straight into him, trying to pierce his scales with their talons and beaks. They're specifically attacking wings and other limbs. Like they're trying to force him down on the ground.

[On and About]

"We have the maturity of children? For someone that passed a hundred, you have the be the most childish person I know Kirky. I can tell how angry you get just hearing that." She smiles widely at the drow.

[Fenric]

[Dragon Rescue]

"*cough*Ha!"

Cleo grins victoriously and pulls herself out of the muck, taking one, three, six steps onto solid ground and-

Blink. She misses the first instant of the magical rain of fire out of pure astonishment. Stands stock-still watching, different eyes following different meteors.
"Wow."

Keiko slides up as the storm subsides: no clear signs of the Slaad in the churned up marshy ground.

Well, at least you didn't make it hard to find you guys... what was that, anyway?

[Murkus]

[Out and About]

"Ooh, he's so maaad!" Tina harangues in a sing-song voice, turning the wheel gently as they round a bend. It was a pretty good comeback, she would admit in other company, but Dena gives Tina a voice again. Attempting to incite Kirk, she continues, "Gosh, Kirk, relax, we're just messing around." As though what he'd said was at all serious or grumpy.