Outside 45

[Felandria]

Temple Assault

Fel smacks her forehead.

Wait, guys.

I'm half storm giant, I can breathe underwater.

Plus, I really doubt there's anything down there that can eat me.

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir shakes his head. Time to remind everyone who's in charge of this expedition.

"Settle down, everyone. We're not getting into the water unless we know something. Felandria, shoot some lightning at the lake. This might aggravate whatever lives down there enough to show itself."

This situation strikes him as a logical consequence of building a massive castle in a swamp. But the demons aren't very bright, at the end of the day.

[Ruins]

Fayyaad begins with the logs. Maybe someone wrote down what happened here.

[Shadowcaller]

[Temple Assault]

To be fair, the temple was teleported there, and they hadn't meant it to be in a swamp in the first place.
But with that in mind, it should be noted that they still can't see the temple yet, nor anything that resemble a lake. There is large pools of water, with streams running in-between them, but nothing that could be accurately described as a lake.
Whatever Steve could determine, he hasn't actually reached the temple, or the lake which formed underneath it, yet.
"So you can take temple on own now? Hmph, we still get spoils. We found it first." The gnoll insists as it gets down on the ground. "You get... four parts of ten, yes? Very fair." He lifts four fingers into the air. "Good. Agreement made, now temple is close." The gnoll pushes away some hanging vegetation with his spear and steps further into the swamp, gesturing for them to follow. "See mist? That's the area where temple is." They can see mist in the distance. If Steve would use his evil-o-vision on the mist he can see that it radiates intense evil.

It should be noted that the area in front of them is nearly just mud and water. Someone heavy, like say, a giant, someone in heavy armor, or a horse, are likely to start to sink into the swamp if they move across it. The gnoll, dressed only in rags, can freely move across the swamp however.

[The Siege of VIGIL]

The demon called Sargon steps back, rubbing the shoulder Thariza kept hacking on as it winches in pain. "I'm not under your command, Soghv, and we have better things to do." It says with a growl.

"Once I'm done." The golem-thing replies as it turns all its six eyes towards Thariza. They glow with a pale blue light, and suddenly the golem-thing has been replaced by a male Charr dressed in a black robe. "Hello, Thariza. I am Jaccalish, the third Legion, and I bear the unfortunate news that you have been brought back from afterlife by me. It was not my intention to prolong your suffering, yet I assure you that I did it with the best of intentions."

[McBish]

Beyond the moons above the city of Inside two space crafts slowly float towards the planet. One is blocky, about the size of eight school buses stacked two high two long. It has a large transparent bubble at the front showing a crowded cockpit that looked like it use to have three work stations. Now those three seem jury rigged into one. On the back of this craft there what is colloquially called the claw. It does have pinching fingers it can use but is far more likely to use the tractor beam technology in it to hold onto anything.

In this case anything is the second ship. This ship I much bigger than the other. Shapped like a bike tire with a large hub, some might think the ship looks like a space station. The central hub is circular with a diameter of about 75 meters. Around thirty "spokes" connect this hub to the outer ring which forms a circle with a diameter of 250 meters. Each spoke bends and twists in a slightly different way, some in obvious geometric patterns others seemingly random.

This is the ship broadcasting the hologram down to Trog's.

[8BitNinja]

Temple Assault

Fel smacks her forehead.

Wait, guys.

I'm half storm giant, I can breathe underwater.

Plus, I really doubt there's anything down there that can eat me.

[Temple Assault]

To be fair, the temple was teleported there, and they hadn't meant it to be in a swamp in the first place.
But with that in mind, it should be noted that they still can't see the temple yet, nor anything that resemble a lake. There is large pools of water, with streams running in-between them, but nothing that could be accurately described as a lake.
Whatever Steve could determine, he hasn't actually reached the temple, or the lake which formed underneath it, yet.
"So you can take temple on own now? Hmph, we still get spoils. We found it first." The gnoll insists as it gets down on the ground. "You get... four parts of ten, yes? Very fair." He lifts four fingers into the air. "Good. Agreement made, now temple is close." The gnoll pushes away some hanging vegetation with his spear and steps further into the swamp, gesturing for them to follow. "See mist? That's the area where temple is." They can see mist in the distance. If Steve would use his evil-o-vision on the mist he can see that it radiates intense evil.

It should be noted that the area in front of them is nearly just mud and water. Someone heavy, like say, a giant, someone in heavy armor, or a horse, are likely to start to sink into the swamp if they move across it. The gnoll, dressed only in rags, can freely move across the swamp however.

Steve looks at the area that he pointed at and says "Hold up guys, I might be able to see how much of a fight we are going to have." He closes his eyes, and prays ""Champion of Righteousness, please lend to your servant your divine sight to root out wickedness" (Detect Evil). He then opens his eyes and says "That mist is blocking me. The whole thing is radiating with evil. It also looks like our more tanky comrades, including myself, won't get very far. Do any of you know how the heavier of us can get through?"

[Green Elf]

Steve looks at the area that he pointed at and says "Hold up guys, I might be able to see how much of a fight we are going to have." He closes his eyes, and prays ""Champion of Righteousness, please lend to your servant your divine sight to root out wickedness" (Detect Evil). He then opens his eyes and says "That mist is blocking me. The whole thing is radiating with evil. It also looks like our more tanky comrades, including myself, won't get very far. Do any of you know how the heavier of us can get through?"

" I could manipulate the trees so you could get across."Says Luvon."And HALO wouldn't help because of their stubborn pride or can't fight at all."

[Artemis97]

[Degenburg Castle]

When the trio of investigators enter the castle proper, they will find themselves in a large entryway with a staircase leading up and to the right, and a pair of large double doors to the left. Behind the doors, a crowd can be heard to be gathered, talking and laughing.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The logs only have a handful of entries, and display in an order of oldest to newest, with the two newest displaying date tags that are gibberish compared to the others. The date codes don't match ones used in the Nexus, so it's a good bet this ruin came from some other dimension. The first three are relatively boring, just technical descriptions of equipment in the ruins, along with power classes and other things that don't make much sense without more context that isn't provided, though Fayyaad can glean from them that this was a back-up extradimensional research facility at one point in time. The last log with a sensible date code mentions the facility being sealed for storage and automated sentries linked to something called 'System HQ' being stationed there.

The next entry, the first with a gibberish date code, however, is much more useful. It's written in a completely different style, the text of which displays as though the computer is having difficulty reading the memory where it resides, though the text appears complete:

Date: )*(&&%$%
Entry: We've managed to contain the entity here, though it's come at great cost. We're lucky Medea was able to tell us about this place; without the equipment, we'd have no chance to seal it. Now comes the difficult part: getting him into the portal. Gravity says he should be able to hold the host until the sealing can be done, and Sechs has volunteered to act as bait to get him in the right place. We're only going to get one shot at this, and after the others' sacrifice, we have to make it count. The Xar have been taking turns acting as sentry while we get set up for the final phase, knocking the creature back into the four or so rooms adjacent to the portal chamber and keeping it out while we work, but even they are beginning to fatigue. It's only a matter of time before they fall. We must hurry, or this will be the end.

The following entry is much more broken. The system seems to have trouble displaying it all, and after a few minutes of viewing, the system will crash back to the menu that came up when Fayyaad first accessed the terminal. Still, what he can get is useful enough:

Date: !@#%$
Entry: !@##$%@#$ successful. The entity is trapped, though two of the Xar Masters were killed, along with Gravity and Sechs. #@$@#$%@#$!$#%^^&&*% Jubei says even through all of this, the seal isn't permanent. By his estimation, it will take the entity roughly 100 years, but it will eventually devour the dimensional locks that imprison it. He says he's got a plan, but he will need to have us seek other Xar to help. I don't like this one bit, but there's no going back. We've managed to buy Terra some time. I just pray it's enough. The way @#$%#evourer destroyed #@$@, I'm not sure who else could stand against it. This is all we can do. If you read this, @#!$@#%$^#$%^&&^*!@#$ on't @#$%$# refractors. And @#!$$%$#. G0012341234.

Well, this just got complicated.



[Degenburg Castle]

Electra looks up the staircase to the right, before gesturing towards the door to Dena and Rein.

"After you."

[Shadowcaller]

[Degenburg Castle]

Well, there was no turning back now. Dena will enter, wishing she had that stupid fey glamour charm to cover her face, sometimes it was just better to not look like you had snakes for hair.

[Reinholdt]

[Degenburg Castle]

Oh choices choices. They could try sneaking up the stairs and exploring the castle for potential blackmail material to- oh. Dena's just going for the door. All right then. Reinholdt follows, but tries to listen in on the crowd to get a feel for if they're discussing one particular event or just a myriad of normal courtly things.

[Recaiden]

Beyond the moons above the city of Inside two space crafts slowly float towards the planet. One is blocky, about the size of eight school buses stacked two high two long. It has a large transparent bubble at the front showing a crowded cockpit that looked like it use to have three work stations. Now those three seem jury rigged into one. On the back of this craft there what is colloquially called the claw. It does have pinching fingers it can use but is far more likely to use the tractor beam technology in it to hold onto anything.

In this case anything is the second ship. This ship I much bigger than the other. Shapped like a bike tire with a large hub, some might think the ship looks like a space station. The central hub is circular with a diameter of about 75 meters. Around thirty "spokes" connect this hub to the outer ring which forms a circle with a diameter of 250 meters. Each spoke bends and twists in a slightly different way, some in obvious geometric patterns others seemingly random.

This is the ship broadcasting the hologram down to Trog's.

From within the orbit of the moons one guy in a spacesuit zips rapidly towards the drifting ships. He adjusts his angle and posture relative to the magical thrusters on his hands and feet so as to start slowing down and come on a course that will intersect with the smaller tow-ship. He aims generally for the cockpit, keeping an eye out for hatches or gaping holes in the side of the hull.
A message is sent down to his helpers on the Nexus surface. "You seeing this? It's pretty huge; I don't think I'll be able to push it into orbit or anything myself."

Yes, the signal is coming from the other one, but this has a visible control center and looks more mobile.

[Felandria]

[Temple Assault]

Felandria smiles broadly.

Now you're talking my language, Wenomir.

She pulls the Lightning gun out of its holster and readies it.

Then she tests the ground and her foot quickly sinks.

Yeah, that's not happening.

Felandria aves an arm and casts a Fly spell on herself.

[Morty]

[The Siege of VIGIL]

Thariza lets out a low, rumbling growl. It seems she can't quite muster the kind of rage she'd like to, though.

"You brought me back? Why? Couldn't you just let me finally rest?"

[Ruins]

Fayyaad frowns. This just got a lot heavier than he thought going in. The people here tried to contain some sort of creature, and succeeded... but now it got out, or is close to doing so. He wonders if their employer knows something about it, or if he really does just want a particular crystal. Probably the former. He goes to check the Dimensional Lock status. Is it still intact?

[8BitNinja]

Luvon drops his swords and picks up the silver ones. He also takes the arrows. "So, your dealing with some non-evil creature in the water. Can you detect chaos? I could see if it was a monster it an animal. And also, do we need to go in the water, or just get across?"

"No. But if we can stay out of the water, that would be best. Can't you bend trees?" says Steve.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The terminal flashes a screen full of gibberish briefly before crashing back to the menu when Fayyaad tries to access the lock status. Surely, though, if the logs are true, there must be another terminal somewhere linked to the lock system. A place holding something that important would be foolish not to have redundancies. Perhaps one can be found further in.

[McBish]

There are no gaping holes in the ship. One side of it is burnt and small holes seem to be hastily patched. There are three hatches on the smaller ship. One large at the top center, a smaller one near the front on one side and a similar one on the other side of the ship back near the engines.

Sitting in the center chair in the cockpit is the woman in the hologram. She is watching several displays looking like she is going fall asleep. The man is too small for for her sensors to pick up. So she is quite surprised to see him floating outside. She looks around trying to spot a the ship he came from. Then she flips some switches and speaks into a microphone, projecting a radio signal out to the suit.

"Oh thanks god. Did you get my message? Where's your ship?"

[Morty]

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir shakes his head.

"We're not here for spoils. We just want to kill demons. Now let's get moving. We can't do anything about the lake until we reach it. Take point, Felandria. You're flying, so you won't sink if the terrain shifts. As for you two..." The warrior glares at Steve and Luvon. "If you want to be a part of this expedition, now is a good time to stop ignoring me. Fall in. That's an order."

[Ruins]

Fayyaad's understanding of such technology is highly limited. But it's clear he won't find much more here. For the sake of completeness, he also checks the power status.

[Recaiden]

A short-range response is radioed back, as Cloud head towards the hatch on the front side.
"Couldn't get the ship on such short notice."
He totally could have. Just didn't want to deal with it.

"What's the situation with these two ships? Is there anyone else aboard?"

[McBish]

The woman inside pauses suspicious of anyone claiming to have flown out here in just a space suit. She scans the nearby space searching for other ships.

"My ship is damaged, several systems not working or not working properly. Including several key landing systems. The other ship has pretty much always been half a wreck. I would like to avoid landing either of them right now. But several of the systems that would let me keep living in space for any sort of extended time.

And there is one other person on board. A baby. So I am going to have to ask you to tell me a little more about you before I open that hatch you are heading towards."

The hatch does have a touch screen interface next to the hatch. A blank screen on it. It does look like it is a airlock hatch that could cycle someone inside.

[Recaiden]

Well, I can't say for sure that there aren't any ships nearby, but Cloud definitely didn't bring any.

"Okay. My name is Cloud, left hand of the goddess Message."
"I was thinking that I would just take anyone on the ships down, that's still an option."
"I might be able to repair your ship, but I wouldn't count on it. I'm not the best with new technology, although I do have someone on the other end of the radio who is. More importantly, you're outside the atmosphere, so I can't use any heavy wizardry to help."
"If you separate the ships, I can probably put the smaller one into a stable orbit, giving us time to fix or replace the systems, but the other half seems too massive - not to mention more inconveniently shaped - to manage that in the time we have left."

[McBish]

"I should have enough control left to park us in orbit. That is what I normally do with the other ship. How would you get us down if you don't have a ship?" She picks up the microphone she is speaking into and moves out of the cockpit out of sight. "Tell me about this Message."

[Recaiden]

"Sure. It's a pretty new faith, she's the child of Death, who, obviously is a much greater power. The main portfolios are the peace of night and meteors. We're about protecting the helpless, healing the sick, living in harmony with the dead. There's some new beginnings and revenge stuff in there too."

He's just holding onto the edge of the hatch for right now.

"I suggest you do that, then, par the ship. I can help with repairs, and we can borrow a ship to bring up what's not fixable."
Cloud is probably presuming a lot, acting like they can just get ahold of replacements for whatever systems aren't working.

[McBish]

"Ok how about weapons, are you armed?" Obviously the woman is a little concerned about opening up her ship to some stranger. She knew she called for help and would probably have to let someone aboard. But she hadn't expected a single person flying up in a space suit.

[Recaiden]

"Uh, yeah. I've got a pistol, a harpoon-gun, a sickle, a ring, and my chakrams. I wouldn't go down to the corner-store without a weapon. And about 1 out of every five distress calls is a pirate ambush."

They do say beggars can't be choosers. But her caution is probably a good idea. This could be anybody coming up.

[McBish]

"Fair enough I suppose. Well I am armed to just so your not surprised when you come in." The panel lights up and the hatch door slides open to let him into a small airlock. Probably big enough for two people to stand in if they stand close together. It takes less than half a minute for the whole cycling process to complete and let him into the ship.

Waiting for him inside is the woman from the hologram. She looks pale and sweaty, not very healthy at all. She is holding a rather large hand gun at her side. Her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She is leaning against a bulkhead trying to look casual rather than needing support.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Ruins]

The power status screen shows six energy levels, four under one heading, marked as "Portal" one under the next, marked as "Ignitor" and the final, marked as "Security". All are listed as having stable output, but the first four show their reserves as being 98% depleted. The fifth and sixth are only 12% depleted. How long that last 2% in the first heading will last is difficult to tell. It at least hasn't changed while Fayyaad has been looking at it, but whether that means there's hours, days, or months left in the system is hard to know.

[Recaiden]

"Is oxygen in short supply up here?"
Definitely something to ask before unsealing your helmet.

When the airlock opens, it reveals, well, a guy in a puffy one-size-fits-all spacesuit. There is a golden halo floating over his head. You can see his face through the helmet at least: dark skin, golden eyes, narrow smile. Human enough. Several of the aforementioned weapons are visible strapped into their holsters.

[Shadowcaller]

Steve looks at the area that he pointed at and says "Hold up guys, I might be able to see how much of a fight we are going to have." He closes his eyes, and prays ""Champion of Righteousness, please lend to your servant your divine sight to root out wickedness" (Detect Evil). He then opens his eyes and says "That mist is blocking me. The whole thing is radiating with evil. It also looks like our more tanky comrades, including myself, won't get very far. Do any of you know how the heavier of us can get through?"

" I could manipulate the trees so you could get across."Says Luvon."And HALO wouldn't help because of their stubborn pride or can't fight at all."

[The Siege of VIGIL]

Thariza lets out a low, rumbling growl. It seems she can't quite muster the kind of rage she'd like to, though.

"You brought me back? Why? Couldn't you just let me finally rest?"

"No. But if we can stay out of the water, that would be best. Can't you bend trees?" says Steve.

[Temple Assault]

Wenomir shakes his head.

"We're not here for spoils. We just want to kill demons. Now let's get moving. We can't do anything about the lake until we reach it. Take point, Felandria. You're flying, so you won't sink if the terrain shifts. As for you two..." The warrior glares at Steve and Luvon. "If you want to be a part of this expedition, now is a good time to stop ignoring me. Fall in. That's an order."

[Temple Assault]

"Good, then we get all spoils." The gnoll declares as he waits for them to cross the swamp. "Just hurry up then if you so eager to the slaughter, my pack is all waiting."

[McBish]

"No we have plenty of oxygen, and I can pump more from the Hub if I need it."

The woman rubs her eyes with her free hand as if trying to clear away the image of the halo from them. She is fairly short, just over five feet tall. She looks to be in excellent shape, well defined muscles on her arms and legs. A round face with faded freckles frowns a bit as the halo stays visible.

"Hey so you said something about wizardry? Like magic?" It seems like Cloud has stumbled onto someone who hasn't had any experience with magic. Her voice has a polite skepticism in the tone.

[Recaiden]

Cloud clicks open the mask of his helmet and takes a deep breath.

"Yeah. I have powers driven by the smokeless flame as well as -" He breaks off there.
"Magic is really complicated. Basically I can do more if it's in the Goddess's sphere of influence, and your ship isn't. But I still have, uh, roughly two thirds of my capability. Definitely includes moving stuff, un-breaking things. Was there anyone on this ship other than you and the infant? Speaking of which, you don't look too good yourself. Were you inured in...whatever happened?"