Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

Sekhmet hurries along to the church. They need to prepare for what lies ahead. Even as everyone else is watching her to see if she starts to mutate, she's watching herself. She's also consulting the tools she's already found. They seem intelligent or at least responsive enough to answer questions. Earlier, they indicated that she could store one of them inside of her. How does that work? What would it do, other than hiding it from view?

[Recaiden]

"I'm going to check out the lighthouse. Might shed some light on the sea part of things, I mean, no pun intended or anything."
"I'll meet you at the chapel."
Given the time the climb might take, she'd better get started immediately.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

"I will wait here for my clothing, should my manservant arrive soon, and then meet you at the chapel once I have changed." Benedict nods and heads back inside.

His manservant, unless Marlick Bay is bigger than I thought, should be nearly here. I think. And getting changed won't take too long; he'll just throw the robe over his pyjamas and slip on the boots. He'll abandon the slippers here; he could always come back for them, if they weren't so easy to replace.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

"She was there last night," Zophiel says, raising the spoon up close to his mouth, "but when I went there this morning to ask her some questions, she was gone."

Wait, maybe it's too warm. And all he got was the liquid, not the stock. He lowers the spoon back into the soup and starts to stir it around a little, and keeps on talking. "That's strange. All the while I've been here, Neptune's immediately answered everything I asked him," which means there's probably a gap or something in Pioter's story, "and most Jovians I've met have been pretty okay with syncretism or with adding other divinities to their worship." But that's probably not part of the mystery. Possibly just a different sect or a different Jovian pantheon or something like that.

This actually makes it more complicated: Unless there's something he's missing, these Saints are also the deities of the people here.

Scooping deep into the soup, he raises the spoon again. "So tell me about these Saints. If I had known they were also divinities of this place, I'd have offered something to them last night as well." And, finally, after that question, he eats the soup.

[Lord Magtok]

The Gang Annihilates A Moonwell

Spoiler

Show

[VIGIL Moonwell Destruction Mission]

"Illsa sees herself as a 'big game hunter'. She wants to hang the damn thing on a wall somewhere. She'" Sylv briefly explains as she turns to look at the airship. "That's your people, right?"

Anika holds up her arm as if attempting to wave at the ship. "Yep, that's us! I wonder if Wenomir is onboard. Could anyone ask? Don't have that comm-thingy on me right now."

"Anyway, I don't see how we're going to help without attacking head on. We don't have any long ranged weaponry here. All we were supposed to do was keep intruders off the island, not engage in open warfare."

Meanwhile, Geneva (and potentially the others) get a reply through the communication network. "Rodger that. What's the situation there? We could head straight for your position unless there is anything we need to be concerned about."
The ship is coming in quickly. People with experience with them can probably tell that it's moving unusually fast like it did when VIGIL came to Riverside to fight off the invasion.

However, it's not the only thing approaching the ship. A swarm of raven- and bat like demons are also approaching from the island. They're still some distance away but it looks like they would reach the ship before the airship would, should they head directly towards them.

[VIGIL Moonwell Annihilation Action]

"The demons have an artifact they stole from VIGIL, a dragon skull," Geneva's voice replies over the com channel. "We suspect they may be planning to use it with the moonwell on the island somehow. They have significant reinforcements on the island as well."

It just keeps getting better!

"Also we appear to have a group of enemy fliers inbound."

Great!

VIGIL Moonwell Annihilation Station

"So she deeply, deeply underestimates what she'll be throwing you up against. Great." She raises an eyebrow as Sylv mentions long-range weaponry. "No trained snipers or the like? I mean, I certainly wouldn't assume you guys to have artillery or anything." She pauses. "And, er, any chance y'all could lend me a rifle of some sort? Sargon might have swiped mine."

Saint Lazarus shuts her mouth and finds a wall to stare at when Blanche mentions LOSING her GUN. There's quite a few things she could say about the catgirl and her LOST GUN but the polite thing to do here would be to respect a teammate with seniority and not comment on the MISSING FIREARM because I'm sure she feels bad enough about it as is.

"Should I go for another flight?" Laz asks Geneva again, resignation in her voice as she watches the raven and bat demons in the distance. Blegh, there'd better be some other option available. Being swung around like an animated magical sword is the worst.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Oh boy splitting the party!

Okay, so, one thing at a time.

Sekhmet, on her way to the church, learns that she could internalize one of the relics as an arcane focus. Right now they can be wielded like a hammer. No finesse to speak of. And they draw on Sekhmet's magic. But if she were to consume one of them (not literally, you don't need to chew it) it would become an internalized arcane power source. She would be able to use it for much finer tasks. Subtly altering the level of entropy in a system. Slightly displacing the passage of time. Things that could be beneficial to herself and others. Right now? They are little better than weapons.

It sure is handy that these things basically contain a tutorial.

Sekhmet will get the impression that they aren't really intelligent, as such. These are all programmed responses.

She reaches the church without much difficulty! It's just as empty looking as it was before.

Benedict stands around and waits for his clothing! That should be showing up pretty quickly. Where to next?

Anchor begins her trek to the lighthouse. It'll take a pretty decent amount of time. Along the way she may notice the previous signs of life in the village are all but gone. No more people peeking through the curtains at her. Wonder what's up with that? She'll eventually reach the hill the light-house is built atop. A rather steep, windy path stretches in front of her.

Zophiel stirs some soup! The innkeep scowls. "These ones were QUITE insistent that their pantheon was the only TRUE pantheon. I hear they accepted other pantheons so long as the worshipers admitted they were just different names for the Olympians, but some of our ancestors refused to bend. The Saints aren't gods. Rather pointedly so. They actually care about things other than their petty drama."

Jupiter IS a pretty well known drama-llama.

Piotor's lip twitches in a ghost of a smile when the paladin eats some soup. "They aren't gods. So... I guess the Saints aren't really interested in worship? They have teachings. Things we should follow to be more like them. They want other people to know about them. But whether someone worships them or not? I think maybe they're more interested in actions than prayers and devotion."

The soup... does something.

Maybe.

Zophiel may find that he has forgotten why he came in here in the first place. Just that he's here now, he's having an interesting conversation, and that the soup is really good. Especially targeted is the memory of last night's call.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Obviously, Zophiel's going to have a bunch of questions for himself. Like...he came here with his daughter, right? Wasn't he going to meet up with her soon? And he was hired to be a bodyguard - where's the guy he's bodyguarding? Why does he have a spear and a hammer in addition to his swords? Why's there black lines along the surface above his arteries? He's in a hurry - but what for? Probably meeting with Anchor to tell her something about the guy he's bodyguarding for, because that makes sense. And, most importantly - that magic seal that should only be altered or removed under life-or-death no-other-option emergency that he hasn't had time to fix since this morning...you know that one? Why has it been altered? Why's it not at full strength? Something clearly happened, but he can't remember it...he'll figure it out soon.

Obviously, these questions can wait to be answered. It won't have to wait until all the soup's gone - after all, he told the innkeep that he doesn't have time to finish it because there's something he has to do - maybe after it's half-gone?

But, seriously, this is an important conversation. Learning about the local religions is, obviously. In fact, he probably should have done more of this last night.

"I see," the paladin says. "If they're not gods, then...what are they? Saints, I know, but isn't there another way to describe them for someone who doesn't know the terminology? Because many gods don't care about worship, just actions like you said of these Saints, and many things that aren't gods do care about worship." He eats more soup. After all, there's always more time for a discussion of theology. "And what other sort of teachings do they have?" He wants to ask more about the weird cultists he ran into, but can't remember why he ran into them or if it actually happened.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

That makes no sense at all! Why would internalizing one be required for fine use, not just practice? Would she still be able to use it as a weapon then? That's what she needs right now.
Sekhmet's reached the church with time to spare. She pulls out the time relic and searches through the building to make sure there's no one else here. She also checks on the seal again. It would be a good idea to make sure that hasn't popped open yet. And she'll use the relics to search for the remaining fragments again. She suspects one is beyond the seal somewhere, and she's not sure how she'll reach the other.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

It doesn't take long for Benedict's clothes to arrive, and Benedict throws the human skin robes over his pyjamas, discards his slippers and puts on his boots. The sword belt is buckled back up over the top, to make it easier to draw if necessary. "Go back to my room and guard my chest. Don't let anyone in, unless they give the pass word 'Spiralling into light'. Understood?" The manservant nods and turns to leave, as Benedict heads back to the church.

The manservant's arrival at the pub might jolt Zophiel's memory.

[Recaiden]

Anchor

They're hiding in anticipation of the noontime call, she expects.
Not looking forward to dealing with the villagers later.
She begins the hike up the steep windy path, keeping her eyes wide for anything going on.

[Shadowcaller]

Operation SeaSlug

It should be noted that the other people at the library have started to either go back to their own businesses or simply leave the area.

The gnoll shakes his head. "No, my mom says I'm too young to be a warlock." Then he gestures to the right. "And there are signs." He's right, there is a picture of a bathroom with an arrow attached.
However, if Will does follow them he will see that there are two bathrooms marked "gnoll" and "human. Huh.

He then turns to look at the other people in the library. "Are you warlocks?" He asks a human carrying a few books, but she simply hurries past without answering.
This seems to confund the gnoll. "What does a warlock look like? I am good at spotting demons, warlocks not so much."

An Unexpected Summons

"Of course it will be in the arena. I have the perfect opponent for you so if you don't mind we shall start the opening duel right away." The anex gestures out into the arena. "My people are waiting for the fight of their lives and I know you can provide it."

Ildabog smiles in her seat and crosses her hands over her chest before turning to look over the arena.

The Gang Annihilates A Moonwell

"Got incoming. Everyone get ready!" A lookout at the ship shouts. Spotting the incoming demons before even VIGIL did.
"You heard him, you know what to do!" Sylv doesn't even really need to give the order before the mercenaries get into positions. Taking cover and getting their weapons ready.
Then she turns to Blanche and after a moment of hesitation throws her a rifle. "You better be careful with that, and put on some damn protection!"

However, it soon becomes obvious that the swarm isn't heading towards the mercenary ship. They're heading straight towards the sky ship.

"So... is Wenomir there or what?" Anika asks Geneva as she seemed to know these sort of things.

"We got our eyes on them. Looks like they're heading this way. We're preparing to fire back, is there anything you can do from there?"

The swarm is not in shooting range. While they probably could hit a few, especially with a sniper-rifle which Blanche could ask one of the other mercenaries for specifically, they likely would waste more ammo than kill demons. With the sky-ship heading for them and the demons heading for the sky-ship they're likely to reach it in a few minutes at most. Effectively reaching it before the ship can reach them.

"We should drive the boat to the skyship!" Anika declares, seemingly already looking for a way to drive the ship. That would likely be disasterous.

[Arkhosia]

Anika and Blanche in... Moon Eternal

"Believe me, I'm pissed enough I was disarmed in the first place." Blanche catches the rifle and swiftly checks the chamber before darting over to cover, kneeling down and setting the weapon to the side before pulling off her pack. She rummages through it briefly, retrieves her suit and starts to slip it back on, mind racing as she looks up at the airship and tries to think of a plan.

"Geneva! Can you teleport anyone up there to help keep those things away?" The catgirl gets back to her feet, wriggling her hips back into the outfit with slight resistance. Her tail flicks nervously as she looks over at Sylv. "Otherwise, can you get whoever's piloting this thing to get us in range? And, er, Anika, can- can you help me with this?" She nudges the armored plates poking out of her bag with a foot. Hopefully that'll keep her rambunctious companion too preoccupied to make any rash decisions.

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel might notice the other patrons in the inn look pretty relaxed as well. Just eating their soup and looking contented. A few of them have fallen asleep, it would appear.

Clearly nothing untoward is going on here.

"Well, you know," Piotre begins vaguely. "Uranus and Terra arose from the chaos. Then they gave birth to the titans. The titans usurped Uranus and then gave birth to the gods. Then the gods usurped the titans. The Saints aren't like that, though. They weren't born of chaos. They were men and women who lived lives of ideal. They attained a good life and ascended to Sainthood. Neshiyahel, she reached out to the priestess in a vision and showed her what to do. She's the Saint of Forgetfulness. With her our old lives and mistakes can be forgotten. Gives people a chance to start over again. I'm no priest, though. You would have to ask the priestess if you wanted to know more."

Sekhmet will understand that it can still be used as a weapon if she accepts it, simply that she will be able to use it as much MORE than a weapon as well. She will understand that some things can't be learned through practice. You must have the correct gift to accomplish such feats. And the relic is a gift.

No one is in the chapel right now. It's just as empty as it was on their last visit. The seal is still where it was previously, but the creeping gold timer has nearly reached the end of its journey. Sekhmet will feel a tug nearly straight down. She was right. Another one of the relics must be under the church. Also? The other, the one that was out at sea, feels closer than it was before.

Interesting...

Benedict will find Sekhmet wandering around the chapel holding the two relics like a pair of dowsing rods. She pretty clearly has no idea what she's doing. It's like a child playing with... some kind of very potent magical power source.

Anchor reaches the lighthouse without trouble! It consist of a small cottage connected to the tall white tower. It isn't lit at the moment, since it isn't night. This isn't terribly surprising. Depending on how she's feeling, Anchor could find a way up to the top of the lighthouse and sneak in through the windows. Or she could knock at the door like a non-burglar.


[Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!]

"Lazarus and I will be heading up to offer assistance in a moment," Geneva sends back to the airship.

~I have no idea?~ Geneva replies to the elf's question. ~He didn't answer the call. Do you want me to ask?~

Geneva isn't really sure how relevant that would be.

~The furthest I've been able to teleport is only forty six meters if I'm using the short-range visual version,~ Geneva admits. ~It would speed the flight time up a little, but not by a great deal. I'm sorry, Miss Lazarus, I'm afraid we're going to be flying again. I'm not sure how well a normal steel sword will work against-~

A beat.

~Oh! Wait! You had asked before if I could enhance your weapon! I may have just thought of something, hold on a moment,~ she says as she begins scrolling through her inventory. ~No... no... no... why did I even keep all those prickly pears? I really need to clean this thing out. AH! Here it is!~

And then she materializes a little metal square with a clear glass window on it! There's a disk inside. Written across the device in Unovan is the phrase 'Dragon Dance'.

Then? She just kind of holds it up to herself and pushes a little button on it.

Geneva is trying to learn DRAGON DANCE!
But Geneva already knows four TMs...
Forget an old move to learn DRAGON DANCE?
>YES NO
Which move should Geneva forget?
|Teleport| |Substitute|
|Dragon Breath| >|Psyshock|
Forget PSYSHOCK and learn DRAGON DANCE?
>YES NO
Geneva forgot PSYSHOCK and learned DRAGON DANCE!

Geneva stows the TM away again!

~Okay, I'm ready now. I can enhance your strength and speed with draconic power on our way up, Miss Lazarus. Is that okay?~ Geneva asks of the ghoulgal as she floats up into the air a few feet.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

That seems useful, but it's limited. If Sekhmet can only choose one, which should she choose? On one hand, time seems very handy, but on the other, so do space and motion, but she doesn't have those yet. Wait. Could she switch which one she's storing? That would be more helpful.

Regardless of the answer, she still feels like she should practice with them. She shifts the time relic to her left hand and points it at one of the church pews. Like in the basement, she channels her magic through it. Let's see what it can do.

[Recaiden]

Anchor tries knocking at the door.
Some of theses buildings must have people in them, right?
If there's no answer after a little while, she can just try the doorknob, and if that fails, she can move on to trying to shoot out the lock.

But it's best to start with the polite thing. They're not in such a specific hurry that breaking in should be the first resort.

[Lord Magtok]

Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!

[Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!]

~Okay, I'm ready now. I can enhance your strength and speed with draconic power on our way up, Miss Lazarus. Is that okay?~ Geneva asks of the ghoulgal as she floats up into the air a few feet.

"Sure...this isn't going to be some permanent lizard transformation thing though, is it?" Laz isn't terribly fond of permanent transformations, as I'm sure we're all already aware. That said, I suppose being turned into some kind of living dragon girl would mean she'd technically be one step closer to being the human she started out as. Convincing someone to transform you into a human being has to be a lot easier than convincing someone to kill you and then immediately resurrect you after. There's no way to guarantee they'll keep to the second half of the deal when you're dead and incapable of arguing about it, after all.

Also, what the heck was with that inventory screen thing Geneva pulled up? Some kind of magic? Sufficiently advanced technology? It looked sorta like the menu screen from that Pocket Magtoks game she used to play back in elementary school, except with a few generations of refinement and UI upgrades. She never got around to beating the game, but she was inordinately proud of her starter pokémag, a shiny Sighborg that could inflict the Shame status effect on an opponent's Magtok with just a single Disappointed Look.

[Shadowcaller]

Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!

"Rodger that, I think we can handle a few demons until then." Sure enough, considering all the glowy magic that can be seen coming from the skyship it looks like the VIGIL members are buffing up just like Geneva and Laz are.

Meanwhile, Sylv groans and turns to her unit. "Gatling, get us in closer to the skyship! Though if Illsa asks, we were coming in to fight them off, okay?!" Her orders are quickly obeyed by an older human and soon the sound of the engines can be heard. They're about to move.
In all this excitment Anika doesn't hesitate and pulls whatever is sticking out of Blanche's bag right out as she kneels down next to Blanche. "What is it?"

However, as all as this is going on anyone that's keeping an eye on the demon swarm might notice something odd. They're slowing down before really getting in range of the skyship. Almost if they were waiting on something.

Then something crashes into the skyship from behind.

K-KRAK

There is a loud groan as wood cracks, metal bends and sparks fly. A solid black chunk of metal with more in common with a submarine than a ship simply appeared out of nowhere and rammed into it. Its black shell is covered in orange patterns that look like letters of some alien language. Both the metal and the runes recognizeable for anyone whose been dealing with the demons for any amount of time.

It's impossible to tell how the crew onboard the ship is reacting to suddenly being rammed into, but the skyship comes to an abrupt stop. Now simply floating in the air.
Sylv and the other mercenaries swear loudly as the sound of the crash reaches their ears. Some of them simply lost staring at the debacle in shock.
Anika isn't one of those people however. "That- that's one of the ships from the invasion! But they were all like, illusions!" She gestures at it wildly using the thing she picked out from Blanche's bag.

Meanwhile, just a few seconds after the crash the demon swarm starts to speed up again. This had been the signal they've been waiting for.

Spoiler: Magic Knowledge Check

Show

The demonic ship seems to have come out of invisibility just before ramming into the VIGIL skyship. Furthermore, the VIGIL ship isn't out of commission yet. It's far studier than that.

[Arkhosia]

Anika and Laz in Moonwell Eclipse of the Heart

"Er, the armored plating I wear over this thing," Blanche explains, pulling the suit up past her waist and sliding her arms into the sleeves. "Could- could you help me put them on real quick? Don't want to make anyone wait for me." She reaches back and starts to do the fastenings on the back of the outfit - but doesn't get far before an ugly noise fills the air.

"Agh, god [carress]ing damnit! That must be where all these [a shoal]s came from!" Blanche seems to forget in the moment that these demons can teleport. "Geneva! Lazarus! You need to get up there now! Anika, go with them if they can bring you along - but you sure as hell ain't flying up there if they can't!" Those are, as one might put it scientifically, a metric [caress]ton of demon birds. She is not very eager to see her friend get intercepted and torn to shreds by them.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Benedict walks up and watches Sekhmet, sketching a white symbol in the air, creating another lens so he can figure out what Sekhmet's doing and how the relics work. He might be able to give pointers, or get enough warning to escape an imminent explosion.

"Would you mind telling me what you're doing? I would like to know, for scholarly purposes." He's genuinely curious, and he's not being deceitful.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel nods and listens.
Well...good to know, right? About the stuff. "That sounds useful," the paladin says to Piotre. "I've got an old life too that would be better off forgotten and erased."

He turns and watches the manservant walk in.
Right.
Zophiel was in in a hurry. Can't quite remember why he's got his weapons with him and why he didn't just leave those in the room. That was a silly thing to do, bringing them along. Plus, a spear. No idea why he's got that too. Benedict, who employed him and who has that manservant, probably needs him to do something. Yeah, that makes sense, why he was in a hurry and couldn't finish the soup.

Leaving the soup just-under-half-eaten, he sets it down. "So you said the priestess should be back at the church again soon, right?" he asks. Since, y'know, at the start of the conversation Zophiel mentioned the priestess wasn't there so that's why he still remembers that part. "Okay. I'll have to make sure to go put my weapons away, so that I can go do...um..." He thinks. "...whatever it was I needed to do. I'm sure I'll remember what it was on the way there."

After thanking the innkeep, Zophiel goes back upstairs to the same room that the manservant went, as he starts taking all three of the weapons off his back one-by-one so he can place them back in there.

...
Presumably, Zophiel entering the room conflicts with the manservant's orders to not let anyone in.


[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]


One of the reinforcements on the skyship is Awen the witch. She's all bundled up because it's cold that high in the sky.

...
Everything was tense, but calm, as everyone (Awen included) was preparing. That is, until one of the other passengers noticed the swarm of demons approaching the ship. Everyone began moving around frantically trying to finish their preparations and give out new orders, leaving Awen lost in the bustle, unsure which of the new orders are the actual ones to follow.

And THEN!

The ship jostles and the noise of the crash reaches her ears.
Awen falls over.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!]

~Don't worry, it isn't a transformation or anything,~ Geneva assures the ghoul. ~It's just a power-focusing tool.~

~I can only carry one person at a time,~ Geneva admits as she snags Laz inside a telekinetic bubble. ~Sorry.~

And making barrier platforms for Laz also means that she isn't shielding herself. But she's pretty confidant this will work out!

Then she gives a tiny little nod and starts heading toward the demons, dragging Laz along with her!

And as she goes?

She begins dancing! And as she dances swirls of magenta power with vague draconic shapes begin flitting through it!

-and it absolutely makes her look WAY more dragon-y. She gets scales and tiny little wings and some antlers and everything. Her speed boosted significantly, she takes off toward the birds even faster! As she draws close she forms a little psionic baton and tosses it at the ghoul, whereupon it vanishes into her with a PING!

Lazarus will probably feel really pumped all of a sudden! And maybe kind of vaguely dragony without actually physically changing at all. Her strength and speed should have just jumped notably as an aura of draconic power swirls around her! She feels like she could probably toss a car at someone if she really felt like it.

Geneva moves her into range of the birds, the bubble popping open into a wide disk platform.


[Marlick Bay]

Sekhmet will learn that once she has claimed one of the relics it is an indelible part of her, it can't be removed or replaced.

Once you socket one of those gems you can't take it out!

Oddly enough, this wouldn't impact her ability to put the four relics back together again. Weird.

Then she points the time relic at a pew and-!

It looks like the pew has suddenly been shot full of holes and hundreds of tiny little pieces of it vanish, cast into the future. The whole pew collapses into a heap of sundered wood. Several seconds later all the missing pieces appear again and join the mess on the floor.

WELL!

That looks like it would hurt something tremendously. Good thing the horror hadn't done that to her.

Benedict will get a pretty good view of the whole display as he comes in wearing his gross robe made of flayed human skin. Hopefully it doesn't still have nipples on it that would be weird as heck. Examining what Sekhmet is doing will reveal that it is less magic in the more traditional sense and more like simply re-writing reality. It completely bypasses the normal rules of magic and seems pretty content to do its own thing.

Anchor knocks at the door.

No answer.

Then she opens the door!

The interior of the cottage is cramped and homey, with nautical knick-nacks all of the place. It doesn't seem particularly nefarious at first glace, but should Anchor snoop she'll find evidence that the lighthouse keeper has been intentionally running some ships aground. Which is, of course, extremely nefarious.

Zophiel will get a grunt from the innkeep, who seems a bit annoyed that he didn't finish the bowl of soup. "Yeah, she should be there again soon," he confirms.

Then?

We'll have to see if the manservant lets Zoph into the room or not.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

"Oh? I'm, uh, just channeling my power through the artifact before, uh, sending it at the pew." Sekhmet replies to the question. The answer about the choice worries her. Why would it only be able to come out when all the parts are together? Maybe it doesn't come out, but the other parts go in? Which one should she choose? Should she choose any at all? Time seems like it would be very useful other than as a weapon, but she feels like she has a better claim to Entropy. It was the one she found first. Then there are the two she doesn't have yet, Space and Motion. Those could be helpful too. She won't make such an irreversible change yet. On the other hand, she wants to try something else. She holds both relics and points them together at a different pew, channeling through them at it. She wants to see if she can combine their effects. "I'm trying to channel through both of them to see if they, uh, work differently together," she preemptive tells Benedict. That will save her from at least one question.

[Recaiden]

After what happened in the last place, nautical knick-knacks are extremely suspect.
Yes, in a seaside fishing village this is going to result in a lot of false alarms.

But the rule is only proven right when she discovers the odd schedules, the nights the lighthouse was intentionally left off while other lights were shone...
Drawing her pistol and double-checking that it's loaded after the encounter in the woods, she starts climbing up the stairs to the lighthouse tower itself.
"Hello!? Is anyone home?"
Is it really possible that every building they go to today will be abandoned?

[Lord Magtok]

Geneva and Laz in Flight of the ValkZombies

Spoiler

Show

Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!

"Rodger that, I think we can handle a few demons until then." Sure enough, considering all the glowy magic that can be seen coming from the skyship it looks like the VIGIL members are buffing up just like Geneva and Laz are.

Meanwhile, Sylv groans and turns to her unit. "Gatling, get us in closer to the skyship! Though if Illsa asks, we were coming in to fight them off, okay?!" Her orders are quickly obeyed by an older human and soon the sound of the engines can be heard. They're about to move.
In all this excitment Anika doesn't hesitate and pulls whatever is sticking out of Blanche's bag right out as she kneels down next to Blanche. "What is it?"

However, as all as this is going on anyone that's keeping an eye on the demon swarm might notice something odd. They're slowing down before really getting in range of the skyship. Almost if they were waiting on something.

Then something crashes into the skyship from behind.

K-KRAK

There is a loud groan as wood cracks, metal bends and sparks fly. A solid black chunk of metal with more in common with a submarine than a ship simply appeared out of nowhere and rammed into it. Its black shell is covered in orange patterns that look like letters of some alien language. Both the metal and the runes recognizeable for anyone whose been dealing with the demons for any amount of time.

It's impossible to tell how the crew onboard the ship is reacting to suddenly being rammed into, but the skyship comes to an abrupt stop. Now simply floating in the air.
Sylv and the other mercenaries swear loudly as the sound of the crash reaches their ears. Some of them simply lost staring at the debacle in shock.
Anika isn't one of those people however. "That- that's one of the ships from the invasion! But they were all like, illusions!" She gestures at it wildly using the thing she picked out from Blanche's bag.

Meanwhile, just a few seconds after the crash the demon swarm starts to speed up again. This had been the signal they've been waiting for.

Spoiler: Magic Knowledge Check

Show

The demonic ship seems to have come out of invisibility just before ramming into the VIGIL skyship. Furthermore, the VIGIL ship isn't out of commission yet. It's far studier than that.

Anika and Laz in Moonwell Eclipse of the Heart

"Er, the armored plating I wear over this thing," Blanche explains, pulling the suit up past her waist and sliding her arms into the sleeves. "Could- could you help me put them on real quick? Don't want to make anyone wait for me." She reaches back and starts to do the fastenings on the back of the outfit - but doesn't get far before an ugly noise fills the air.

"Agh, god [carress]ing damnit! That must be where all these [a shoal]s came from!" Blanche seems to forget in the moment that these demons can teleport. "Geneva! Lazarus! You need to get up there now! Anika, go with them if they can bring you along - but you sure as hell ain't flying up there if they can't!" Those are, as one might put it scientifically, a metric [caress]ton of demon birds. She is not very eager to see her friend get intercepted and torn to shreds by them.

[Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!]

~Don't worry, it isn't a transformation or anything,~ Geneva assures the ghoul. ~It's just a power-focusing tool.~

~I can only carry one person at a time,~ Geneva admits as she snags Laz inside a telekinetic bubble. ~Sorry.~

And making barrier platforms for Laz also means that she isn't shielding herself. But she's pretty confidant this will work out!

Then she gives a tiny little nod and starts heading toward the demons, dragging Laz along with her!

And as she goes?

She begins dancing! And as she dances swirls of magenta power with vague draconic shapes begin flitting through it!

-and it absolutely makes her look WAY more dragon-y. She gets scales and tiny little wings and some antlers and everything. Her speed boosted significantly, she takes off toward the birds even faster! As she draws close she forms a little psionic baton and tosses it at the ghoul, whereupon it vanishes into her with a PING!

Lazarus will probably feel really pumped all of a sudden! And maybe kind of vaguely dragony without actually physically changing at all. Her strength and speed should have just jumped notably as an aura of draconic power swirls around her! She feels like she could probably toss a car at someone if she really felt like it.

Geneva moves her into range of the birds, the bubble popping open into a wide disk platform.

"Oh. Okay wow, that's a lot stronger," she remarks, as her armor suddenly feels about as light as a t-shirt, and her zweihander weighs her down about as much as a similarly proportioned toy sword made of foam might. A very faint, sadistic little giggle escapes her, one that would probably be a little worrisome if anyone here had any idea that Laz was anything more serious than just a woman in a suit of armor. "Is this powerup going to last long? Because once we clear the skies, I'm kinda thinking about boarding their ship and ramming it into the moonwell," the overconfident and bloodthirsty ghoul knight bemusedly remarks. I mean, how hard could it possibly be to rush the bridge and then crash an airship on purpose? Before we can worry about that, we've got to deal with these aerial annoyances, though. The empowered knight rushes forward to carve apart demon birds with dreadfully inhuman grace and style, becoming a whirlwind of steel and an endless font of destruction. She's already fought these things once earlier; she has a pretty good idea of what they're capable of, and exactly where to swing her sword to take entire wings and/or heads off. A lunge here, a thrust there, maybe even reach out for that one's neck and squeeze until it stops twitching. She has an entire hand free, so why not?

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

Well, that's simultaneously fascinating, horrifying and impressive. "That's... not magic, child. Not really. I'm looking at the energies, your energy goes in and then... reality is different. It's not magic, because it doesn't do anything to exert your will upon reality. It just happens. Those relics are more powerful than I thought. Be careful, I suspect when I said they could wipe out this town if used incorrectly was being overly optimistic." In other words, the area they destroy could be much larger than the town of Marlick Bay.

[5a Violista]

]Marlick Bay[

Zophiel...enters the room.

He's holding all three of his weapons, somehow, even though he's only got two hands.

"Hey," he calls out to the manservant.

Assuming that the manservant is only protecting the chest, Zophiel passes by into the adjacent servant's quarters room attached to Benedict's room and puts down his swords first.

Then, the spear. He doesn't really remember it or where he got it..."Where did you come from?" he asks the spear.

And then he notices something else: the seal on his back. Yes, that one, the one that he won't let anyone touch or know about. It's...been altered, slightly. He can tell that it feels a little different, that he's got a little more power than usual, and so on.

He sits on the bed, holding the spear in front of him and looking at it.
"What happened?"


[Moonwell - Skyship - Awen]

already posted recently

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Ah, now, that's interesting. Sekhmet decides to trying using BOTH relics at once.

The result is quite a bit more impressive.

Reality shatters where the pew was, leaving it to go tumbling into the void. Exactly what a hole in the universe looks like is going to be wildly different depending on the viewer, but two facts will remain consistent. It looks jagged and broken. The hole doesn't remain there for long. From the outside in it begins closing up again, the breach slowly closing. After a few minutes it will be completely gone.

The pew, incidentally, is also completely gone.

It just clipped through the map and is now tumbling through the void.

Depending on how familiar Benedict is with magical effects, he might be aware that this isn't terribly different from what happens when you stuff a portable hole into a bag of holding. Just without the wall of wind sucking everything nearby into it. Suffice to say what Sekhmet just did was tremendously dangerous.

Anchor, meanwhile, begins climbing the tower. Strange spiraling shapes have been... etched? into the inner walls. The interior of the lighthouse is almost glassy to the touch. It's strange, to be sure. As she draws closer to the top, she'll hear a rather horrible mumbling, gibbering sound from the other side of the trap door situated above her head that leads into the light chamber. It sounds like something is slithering around up there.

And Zophiel?

He sits on his bed and contemplates his spear.

Forty five minutes remain until noon.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay

Sekhmet is told she's messing with forces beyond her ken. She mostly shakes this off. "I don't think so. I doubt I have enough power to do anything very dangerous." Then she's surprised by the gaping tear, like a piece of paper ripped in two, that swallows up the bench. "Uh, I take that back." It's an impressive effect. She should probably stop playing with the weird relics now.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel stands up.

He's going to try to piece together what's going on.

First, he can't remember much of what happened here. He knows he's in the Nexus. He's been temporarily employed by Benedict as a bodyguard, and his daughter is somewhere around. But neither of them are here. Benedict's manservant is here, however. Just walked in. This implies the manservant was with Benedict and was just told to return here. That probably means Benedict is off doing something, but isn't presently in any danger, since both Zophiel and the manservant are here. There's no clue where Zophiel's daughter is, however. There must be some kind of magic or something making him forget? He can remember he was in a hurry.

Second. His shadow is slightly out-of-sync with himself. He noticed it but...has no idea what that has to do with anything.

Third. The window in Benedict's room is shattered. Zophiel stands up and goes to the other room to examine the window: based on the glass, it looks like it shattered from the inside since all the glass is outside on the ground below. The room's already cold so it can't have been recently.

Fourth. The priestess. He remembers meeting with her yesterday. And he remembers going there today to find her, but she wasn't there. He still wants to find her, however.

Zophiel starts pacing around the room, trying to figure out what it all means.

Fifth. Downstairs was unusually quiet for such a packed inn. Strange. And his right arm is a little stiff and numb, but otherwise working properly. Both of those things must be related...paralysis? Numbing? What did both he and everyone else in the inn have in common?

Sixth. The spear and the hammer. The claw hammer seems...insignificant, actually. But the spear, he had alongside his swords. The spear's got to mean something. Speaking of his weapons, he had both his swords and the spear. They were stowed away on his back, suggesting there was no immediate danger, but that he was expecting something to happen soon.

And, most importantly, the seal. The only way he would do that is if somebody else was tampering with it, or if there was extreme danger. Actually, strike that, if somebody else is tampering with it then there's guaranteed to be extreme danger.

The paladin stops.

The priestess is missing. People downstairs are acting too quiet. Based on his arm, he's clearly been poisoned somehow. These all have to be related.

There's extreme danger and there hasn't been time for Zophiel to fix the seal, as evidenced by its sloppiness. Somebody quickly left this room through the window a while ago. Two people who are good at magic aren't here, but he is, and is prepared for combat, left somewhere and got a spear, and then came back. His clothes are still wet, which proves he was outside coming in and not vice-versa.

Maybe the spear's related to his shadow?

He continues trying to figure out this puzzle. What's the important pieces? The missing priestess, the spear, where Benedict or Anchor have gone, possible poison or magic in the inn? Or are there multiple mysteries?

Zophiel touches the tip of the spear, pricking his finger with it. Maybe it's a special spear or something? Maybe the spear's poisoned? Or...is it sharp or dull? Why would he pick up a spear in addition to his swords unless he was fighting in a narrow hallway?



Edit:
Since the manservant was told to not let anyone in the room rather than not let anyone in the chest and the manservant won't listen to an explanation, pretty much the same thing happens with a few minor exceptions:
First, after trying and failing to get in, Zophiel remains out in the hallway. This means Zophiel still has all three of his weapons because he wasn't able to put the swords away.
He was able to see the broken window and feel the cold from the room while trying to get in.
He considers the fact that Benedict doesn't want anyone in the room, and tries to tie it to where Benedict could be and figure out what reasons he could have to prevent people from entering - like, either he suspects somebody will go in, or there's something off happening around here, or he just won't be back for a while - but obviously couldn't have left the town because of the storm.

Other than that, everything remains pretty much the same, just in a different location.

[Shadowcaller]

Spoiler: Quotes

Show

Anika and Laz in Moonwell Eclipse of the Heart

"Er, the armored plating I wear over this thing," Blanche explains, pulling the suit up past her waist and sliding her arms into the sleeves. "Could- could you help me put them on real quick? Don't want to make anyone wait for me." She reaches back and starts to do the fastenings on the back of the outfit - but doesn't get far before an ugly noise fills the air.

"Agh, god [carress]ing damnit! That must be where all these [a shoal]s came from!" Blanche seems to forget in the moment that these demons can teleport. "Geneva! Lazarus! You need to get up there now! Anika, go with them if they can bring you along - but you sure as hell ain't flying up there if they can't!" Those are, as one might put it scientifically, a metric [caress]ton of demon birds. She is not very eager to see her friend get intercepted and torn to shreds by them.

[Geneva and Laz in Moonwell Dragon Dance-Off!]

~Don't worry, it isn't a transformation or anything,~ Geneva assures the ghoul. ~It's just a power-focusing tool.~

~I can only carry one person at a time,~ Geneva admits as she snags Laz inside a telekinetic bubble. ~Sorry.~

And making barrier platforms for Laz also means that she isn't shielding herself. But she's pretty confidant this will work out!

Then she gives a tiny little nod and starts heading toward the demons, dragging Laz along with her!

And as she goes?

She begins dancing! And as she dances swirls of magenta power with vague draconic shapes begin flitting through it!

-and it absolutely makes her look WAY more dragon-y. She gets scales and tiny little wings and some antlers and everything. Her speed boosted significantly, she takes off toward the birds even faster! As she draws close she forms a little psionic baton and tosses it at the ghoul, whereupon it vanishes into her with a PING!

Lazarus will probably feel really pumped all of a sudden! And maybe kind of vaguely dragony without actually physically changing at all. Her strength and speed should have just jumped notably as an aura of draconic power swirls around her! She feels like she could probably toss a car at someone if she really felt like it.

Geneva moves her into range of the birds, the bubble popping open into a wide disk platform.

Geneva and Laz in Flight of the ValkZombies

"Oh. Okay wow, that's a lot stronger," she remarks, as her armor suddenly feels about as light as a t-shirt, and her zweihander weighs her down about as much as a similarly proportioned toy sword made of foam might. A very faint, sadistic little giggle escapes her, one that would probably be a little worrisome if anyone here had any idea that Laz was anything more serious than just a woman in a suit of armor. "Is this powerup going to last long? Because once we clear the skies, I'm kinda thinking about boarding their ship and ramming it into the moonwell," the overconfident and bloodthirsty ghoul knight bemusedly remarks. I mean, how hard could it possibly be to rush the bridge and then crash an airship on purpose? Before we can worry about that, we've got to deal with these aerial annoyances, though. The empowered knight rushes forward to carve apart demon birds with dreadfully inhuman grace and style, becoming a whirlwind of steel and an endless font of destruction. She's already fought these things once earlier; she has a pretty good idea of what they're capable of, and exactly where to swing her sword to take entire wings and/or heads off. A lunge here, a thrust there, maybe even reach out for that one's neck and squeeze until it stops twitching. She has an entire hand free, so why not?

[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]


One of the reinforcements on the skyship is Awen the witch. She's all bundled up because it's cold that high in the sky.

...
Everything was tense, but calm, as everyone (Awen included) was preparing. That is, until one of the other passengers noticed the swarm of demons approaching the ship. Everyone began moving around frantically trying to finish their preparations and give out new orders, leaving Awen lost in the bustle, unsure which of the new orders are the actual ones to follow.

And THEN!

The ship jostles and the noise of the crash reaches her ears.
Awen falls over.

[Moonwellation - Not on the Skyship]

Anika will help Blanche to get on the armor. She at least seem somewhat experienced with putting things like this on. She did have her own leather armor after all.

But hearing Blanche ordering (wait, was she her superior or something now?) her to not fly up hand help the Vigilites onboard the skyship seem to distress her to no end. Especially when Geneva admits to only being able to carry one and then just flies off.
"...I'll fly up there once we're close enough." She loudly decides, which seemed like a good compromise to her.

"Hey! Catty!" Sylv suddenly calls out above the alarm in the air. "We're not going to get much closer in case that ship of yours crashes! Whatever you two want to do, it will have to be soon." They would be able to shoot at the flying demons from there, but the question is how effective that would be.

---

Meanwhile, in the air above, Laz and Geneva will find that the demons are trying their darnest to get away from them by continuing towards the skyship. But as they focusing on moving forward, the two can easily intercept them. Depending on how fast Geneva and her now deadly bubble'O knight can move they
can start slicing and dicing up the creatures in the air.

The bat-demons haven't been encountered by the group yet and they seem to differ from the ravens. While the ravens seem to specialize in ripping things apart with their many arms and beak, the bats don't seem to have any melee options at all besides their jaws.
They're faster though, which will be apparent now as they easily outspeed the ravens and starts to launch balls of some kind of thick liquid against the ship.
Of the two, Geneva and Laz will have a easier time keeping up with the ravens which despite their seeming bulk are actually quite fragile when they encounter the ghoul-knights blade. Indeed, in the air they're especially vulnerable as a single attack against their wings sents them plumeting into the ocean below.

However, besides the ravens they reach, none of them are staying to fight. Seemingly completely focused on reaching the skyship.

[Moonwell Annihilation - On the Skyship]

"Ship! Enemy ship!" Awen can hear someone cry out in the alarm onboard the skyship.
It doesn't take long to figure out what they mean. The vessle which simply seemed to have materialized into thin air behind them is build like a battering ram that had been carved out of a single chunk of black metal. There are no bolts or screws holding pannels together, no signs of separate attachments such as cannons or engines. It was a flying black monolith glowing with sinster purpose that was at least the size of their own ship.

It's sudden presence left confusion and panic in its wake not only due to the crash itself but that it left the crew with a dilemma. Should they focus on trying to dislodge the mysterious vessle or the incoming swarm of demons?

Whatever the case, the first part of the swarm was now inbound. Huge bat-like creatures that with their jaws were able to spit balls of a black liquid that acted very much like acid as it landed on the ship.
Awen might notice something peculiar about this liquid in the chaos. While she can see a minotaur being hit right in the face with it, she seem to be able to just wipe it off with their hand. Though the gloves the minotaur was wearing and the wood the ship was made up of seemed to start melting as soon as it came in contact with the liquid.