Seaside 4: Where Every Week Is Shark Week

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

The passenger door opens easily. Inside, there's a pair of seats upholstered in green leather, a steering wheel and associated car controls set into a polished walnut dashboard, with a glovebox that is currently closed.

Also, standing on the ice burg and looking down reveals at least two more vehicles- a chopper motorcycle of some kind, the shape blurred and indistinct from the depth of ice, and a modern motorhome lurking so the roof is just below the surface of the ice- though it doesn't seem to be full of ice, simply encased in it.

[Recaiden]

It seems like a nice car. But it remains completely mysterious. Good that there's no one in the cars. I was kind of afraid there would be skeletons.
Shutting the car door, I stare down at the motorcycle for a few moments before sliding off to get a closer look at the towering statue. Surely there's a connection.

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

The statue is large, immovable and standing on a stone pedestal sank into the ice. Heaped around its feet are a variety of offerings for the statue, including broken weaponry, bones carved from wood and lots of keys in many different materials and sizes. There's also a bicycle lying on its side, sunk into the ice and resting underneath the statue- that bike, at least, has been on the ice longer than the statue.

[Recaiden]

I don't like it.
Is this just some ancient ruin drifting on the seas? These bones, these keys, they seem recentish.

Are any of them car keys?
I start looking through the offerings with all the disrespect in the world.

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

There are some car keys, yes. None have the Triumph badge, but there's keys that look like they might belong to a motorcycle, and another set that are branded with a maker of heavy goods vehicles. Nothing that might fit the 1920's car, but then, maybe it's too early to have car keys? I'm not sure when car keys became a thing, really. There's also a heavy key, about a metre long, with a head that looks as though it was designed to hit things, not unlock them- a ceremonial hammer, perhaps, and if so the only weapon that isn't broken in the pile.

[Recaiden]

I take the gigantic key - how fun, how impractical (is this what 'a key to the city' looks like?) - and the ones that look like they could fit the heavy goods vehicle. Now to climb into the bus and see if any of them fit.

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

The key, despite its size, doesn't feel as heavy as it should. I don't know if Yone can sense magic, but this is enchanted- less weight, but more force, and if it hits anyone that isn't in their natural or original form the head will burst into flame.

The inside of the bus is free of ice, even all the way at the bottom. It's also pretty deserted, with no people inside- but there is a yellow rucksack resting on a seat about ten seats down, near the middle of the bus. The key fits the bus, and it starts first time. The engine is in the back, as it's a British-style bus, and the engine-heat and exhaust should melt the bus free. Might take awhile- five minutes or so, and it might not be a good idea to be in or near the bus before then.

[Recaiden]

I can sense magic, though I have to look at something a little closely; didn't notice it until I picked it up.
A key for hitting things, huh? What a weird idea.

Yes! The bus is on!
Does that mean people drove all these cars here once, and abandoned the vehicles and their keys? But why?

While I ponder this, and the ice melts, I hop down, grab the rucksack, and scramble back outside. No interest in getting dunked in icy water, thank you. Now, what's in here?

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

Inside the rucksack, there's a battered tin can with a faded label, claiming it to be beef soup, a pistol of bright blue plastic that makes a tinny bang when the trigger is pulled, an electric torch with a cracked lens, a pair of socks, a bracer made of green glass, magically treated to be as strong as steel, and a water-damaged school exercise book- the sort that students write in, not the one that has the questions.

Reading the exercise book reveals slightly blurred writing, in Russian. Amongst the geography notes are a set of directions, to somewhere- The Temple of Shattered Swords. It's in Russian, so if Yone can't read it, they're probably indecipherable.

[Recaiden]

Someone's bookbag. Lunch, toy, workbook, gym socks...and an enchanted bracer, let me just take that...

The workbook is written in, uh...pretty sure I remember this from grade school. Kinda washed out though. As the bus melts free I wait outside and spend several minutes deciphering the workbook. I even learn a few things about geography. Huh. Or maybe I knew them and had forgotten. But more importantly, there's one thing that stands out! The Church of Broken Swords doesn't sound like a major geographical feature, but its location is recorded in detail anyway. This is important.

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

A can of soup's an unusual choice for a student's lunch.

It doesn't take long for the hole to get large enough for the bus to collapse onto its wheels. It's not flat; the engine encased in the ice melted down as much as around, and it's slowly slipping backwards into the hole. Yone should probably turn the engine off, or at least put the handbrake on, or it'll melt a hole through the iceberg and then probably sink.

[Recaiden]

Is it too much soup for the average student?

Turn off the engine? Why? Melting the bus through the ice and into the ocean is its own reward.

This place seems harmless enough otherwise.
Best of luck to the weird statue, but I have something else to investigate!
I call for my chariot and prepare to set off following the directions written in the workbook, to see what's at this Church of Swords.

[Earl of Purple]

Floating at Sea

Then I guess some rather confused merfolk will be receiving a bus. They'll probably put it in a museum to the mysterious surface-people, mislabelling it and showing it to children.

The directions will lead to the base of a cliff, in Outside, which I'll post for briefly- unless Yone wants to poke around a little.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

The bear does not charge. Instead, in a swirl of green energies, Anika stands there in its place and gestures with her palms at Ilpholin, somehow causing massive roots to spontaneously emerge from the ground underneath the nymph and start to ensnare her from her legs up.

[Operation Sea Slug]

The demon leans backwards as he replies her heads slumping over as she lets out a groan of displeasure. Then it waves its hand as if to indicate them to go on with it as Will speaks. "Ugh, I had wished for company for so long, until I met you. You're not even interesting to make fun of, so just do whatever. Maybe you'll bore the master to death."

Tammy looks hesitant at Will even as she is pretending to cover her huge ears when the demon is speaking. "Er... are you sure?"

But then a sound rings out. The sound of metal hitting stone.

This is shortly followed by the demon's eyes widening in shock as she cries out. "NO! Ignore everything I said! Just don't touch that!"

Tammy blinks at the demons sudden reaction. Especially considering it seems to be a overreaction. All that seem to have happened is a (admittedly to them gigantic) metal glove have fallen to the floor from the out of what appears to be a stone vault which somehow seems to have opened on its own as it was closed a moment ago.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will grins at Tammy.
"I wasn't, until she got annoyed." And then a giant metal glove falls! How mysterious! Will walks over to it, spinning his metal hand in its socket with one finger extended.
"Hrm. This thing? I'm not supposed to touch. Well now, sure sounds like I should be doing whatever you don't want me to, considering you openly wished for my friend's death and all." he says. shining his light up to the thing as he gets close.
"Uh it's not full of demon juice of anything is it, Tammy?"

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin remains coiled to jump, but no sound comes. What was going on? Suddenly the earth shifts and things that shouldn't burst up, wrapping around her toned legs. "What the ********?!" The islanders get an earful of Lolth's favorite swears as Ilpholin tries to pull her legs free from the roots, finding it far more difficult than it should be. Was Anika the roots now? No, she could still feel the night elf's presence in front of her, but... smaller. Gah. The roar was her transforming back. Then the roots were... she had that kind of magic as well?

Ilpholin's arms shift into machetes and start hacking at the roots, trying to tear them up to get free before the situation gets worse.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

Anika doesn't seem to count on the roots to be able to hold Ilpholin for very long as there suddenly is a long bo-staff magically in her right hand. As the nymph is busy hacking at the roots she grabs the staff with both arms and bends her knees slightly as she pulls the staff back and the thrusts its head at Ilpholin, aiming right at her solar plexus.

[Operation Sea Slug]

As Will gets closer, he can see that the glove appears to actually be made up a finely arranged array of scales that only appeared and sounded metallic in nature.
But then something stirs within the glove as it suddenly moves. All Will can make out is something blue within however.

"Oh gosh!" Tammy exclaims in shock, but it doesn't sound like she's reacting to the glove as it sounds like it would be a bit too slow for that.
"I have higher priorities-Nnngh!" The demon sounds to be in pain as something seems to happen in correlation to the glove moving. "My master awakens." She then continues in a now monotone voice. "I would suggest that you bow before your betters, nakeskins."

Will has the choice to continue keeping an eye on the glove or turn around and see what is happening at the stalactite.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Sometimes, you have to know when to fold ‘em. This quickly went from Will wanting to spite the demon to feel better about losing Titania to being completely over his head. Will slowly backs away two steps from the glove, and turns so he can see what’s going on without completely turning his back to the glove. And he drops to one knee for good measure, because sometimes there are people you just don’t want to piss off, and Sargera made it sound like the warlock this demon served was one of those people.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin hears the whistle in the air and swings her machete arm upwards, nicking the staff and taking the edge off, but failing to stop it completely as it crunches into her, pushing the wind out of the nymph. Feeling her knees momentarily weak for all the wrong reason, Ilpholin finds herself incapable of mustering the strength to rip free of the roots binding her feet. Instead her arm suddenly transforms into a whip, lashing out at where the staff originated from in a wide sweep, looking to catch Anika off guard and entangle the night elf's legs as well.

[Shadowcaller]

[Operation Sea Slug]

As Will starts turning, he catches a glimpse of the stalakite opening up when something might catch his attention. Namely, the glove stirring again and a to him gigantic flood of a oil-like blue liquid emerges from it. It isn't simply pouring however, the liquid seems to somehow have animated and is moving towards him for some unfathomable purpose like a enormous ooze. But long before it even reaches him, he can feel a presence in his mind, like a voice screaming in some deep corner within.

[Tropical Island]

The whip tightly ensnares Anika's leg as her stance makes it difficult for her to easily move out of the way. However, if Ilpholin does pull the whip, the druid won't easily topple over as she is standing with her legs wide with one leg forward and knees bent.

Still if Ilpholin's whip has special qualities the druid have no defense against it. Instinctively, she follows her own attack up by pulling back and then slamming the staff against the nymph's chest, hoping to push her over.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will’s head pounds as the voice screams in his mind. For something of this size and range Will doesn’t bother drawing a weapon. Screaming, practically falling over himself as he tries to stand from his kneeling position, his natural hand flies to his mechanical bicep and squeezes, a blast of plasma lances from his palm at the tide of muck.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Pulling on the whip is only a small part of Ilpholin's maneuvers and not her focus, though there is a testing tug. Much more than that, the whip tightens on its own, seeking to roughly constrict like the weapon were a living, moving snake wrapped around its prey. Indeed, it seems to wrap higher and higher as well, a spiral of force. A fan of compounded threats, an electrical charge surges through the whip arm wherever it makes contact with Anika's skin. It's fairly weak, maybe a third to a fourth of the strength of a proper taser.

She's a bit more prepared for the follow up swing now that Ilpholin knows she's not fighting a bear. Her free hand swings in the way and catches the end of the staff with her palm, gripping it tightly. The force still forces her to bend backwards of course, and to anyone who hasn't seen her flexibility in action, it would look awkward, probably even painful. The roots actually kind of help her stability at the moment, leaning back like that. Twisting she tries to yank the staff to one side and turn the tables on Anika with sudden horizontal motion to rock her off her feet. The precarious balance Ilpholin has will crumble if it works though, since half her stability comes from Anika counterbalancing the staff.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tropical Island]

Anika simply gives the staff up, letting go of it, rather than being yanked away with Ilpholin's pull. Perhaps the pain of the whip coiled around her leg was just too much, she does appear to be in pain, her body stiff as a low current of electricity surges through it.
She isn't surrendering yet however. As Ilpholin pulls away the staff the nymph will suddenly find that it isn't there anymore. It's now in Anika's right hand again and she is making another thrust aimed at the whip arm.

[Operation Sea Slug]

The plasma burns a big hole through the mass, but yet it continues onward towards Will. It seems to utterly lack any internal organs, or a way to even feel pain. Thus if the plasma actually just burned away a lot of it's body mass seems inconsequential to it.
But before it can reach him the gauntlet is suddenly is thrown into the air by an invisible force and lands right on-top of the mass which immediately starts to boil and recede. "Heh, didn't count on that did you?" A booming voice calls out. If Will turns, he can see a skeletal figure, so massive (likely normal sized) he can't see all of them, approaching behind him. The figure does not even seem to notice him though as they stop and put their skeletal hands on their bony hips, staring at the gauntlet and the blue mass boiling underneath it which seems to have stopped moving. They make a circular motion with their hand and a barrier of some black matter shields the gauntlet before turning to look back at the stalactite, specifically the demon which can still be seen reflected in it.
"Hey, Anyvis, kindly go [mutual intercourse] yourself and while you're at it give me a full status rapport as I'm gonna make your life hell for your little act of betrayal here."

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Oh, so that’s what a full size person looks like from here. Will really didn’t have a lot of perspective on their current size.
Well, then.
Avoiding further desire to scream, Will manages to find his feet and scamper up to Tammy.
”I feel like we might want to go.” he whispers, gazing wide-eyed at the skeletal foot that is dangerously close to them. He does not want to go out as badly as being stepped on.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Well that's unfortunate. Darn magic staffs. Ilpholin ends up flopping onto her back unceremoniously in the soft sand. Anika hits Ilpholin's whip arm pretty easily, but finds it flexible and tough, the resilient arm barely reacting at all. The nymph smirks a little. If any part of her had a weak point, it was not the weapon arms themselves, reinforced to protect against most attacks. Maybe if they were cut near the shoulders... But that's unlikely in this situation.

Knowing where Anika's arms are helps though as Ilpholin's other arm turns into a second whip and lashes out, trying to wrap around the night elf's arms. She intends to pull forward and make the doubly entangled Druid fall on top of Ilpholin, catching the night elf with her soft body.

[Shadowcaller]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Tammy and the imp has frozen at the spot it seems, staring right up at the massive skeleton.
And guess what?

The gnoll skeleton is now staring back at her and Will.
Two purple orbs of light illuminating its eyes as it gazes back.

"What? Not even a 'thank you'? These, what, thousands of years and you people still haven't learned basic manners? You trespass in my home, destroy my property, kill my guard pets to fill your own pockets and when I save you from one of them, you don't even show gratitude. I suppose time can't fix everything, then again its also nice to know that some things never change." The gnoll skeleton looks off in the distance for a moment and Tammy slowly shuffles backwards which seems to be enough for the undead gnoll to immediately look back.

"Uh..." Tammy looks like a deer in headlights.

Yet the lich just shakes its head. "And now you are attempting to flee the scene of your crime. Tsk. But who am I to expect more out of you?" Suddenly the skeleton lowers itself down towards them with one hand still raised in the air and the other flattened against the floor in front of them as if expecting them to jump into its skeletal palm. "Come, walk with me. Let's make sure the rest of your gang don't suffer the consequences for their actions too shall we? Would be a real shame if they all manage to get themselves killed."

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin does manage to ensnare one arm and Anika is pulled on-top of her with a groan. She struggles, attempting to put the knee of her still free leg against Ilpholin's crotch and her still free arm against the nymph's throat.

By now, Tuo has returned along with what appears to be his parents and they are all, along with what must be the majority of the village, staring at the two. No one has dared to intervene but it appears that Tuo is hesitantly making his way towards them now.

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

To be fair to Will, skeletons don’t have ears! This gnoll is obviously cheating. Still, Will knows a threat when he hears one. Seems like he doesn’t get a break today.
”Uh, sorry. I honestly didn’t think you’d hear me from down here if I tried.” He had seen a movie that featured this level of size difference and he’s fairly sure talking had been an issue.
”Thank you, for what it’s worth.” he says as he’s forced into boarding the skeleton’s hand where it would be even easier for him to be killed by the obviously evil skeleton gnoll with absolutely no effort. Will is having a hard time feeling grateful after watching what her “guard pets” did to TTN. But he even swallows his pride and bows! That has to be worth something. But it probably isn’t.

[Reinholdt]

[Tropical Island]

Ilpholin starts to lean forward to passionately kiss Anika only to get an arm pressed against her throat, pinning her down and making it harder to breathe. Gah. Doesn't Anika know how to read the room? It was such a perfect out and all this fighting was just making Ilpholin horny. Horny, sweaty, and tired. Well this is actually hurting pretty bad and has nothing to do with kissing!

Ilpholin's grip suddenly tightens and with strength not even remotely apparent given the nymph's soft frame, starts to lift, whip tendrils stretching to pull Anika up off her and a few meters into the air. They intend to give Anika just a moment of dangling in the air before slamming the night elf's body to one side. If successful, the whips unfurl though, releasing Anika as they return to Ilpholin to become normal arms again.

[Shadowcaller]

[Operation Sea Slug]

A skeleton don't have flesh keeping it together or a tongue or vocal bands to make words with either, but this one seems to be doing just fine without either.
Tammy and the imp goes along with Will, the poor goblin looking too terrified to do anything else while the demon just look mightily disgruntled, so at least this situation isn't worse than the rest of the imps existence.

"You are most welcome." The undead gnoll replies as she walks straight up to the wall they came from, which simply opens up to her. The ancient stones shifting on their own accord, causing a massive cloud of dust to appear as the wall shifts. Will will likely be nearly completely blinded as the gnoll simply walks through the cloud until she comes out at the other side. There she stops in front of what appears to be a small pile of the bug demons that attacked them earlier on the floor surrounded by a swarm of even more of the creatures. "That is pretty impressive." The lich states while lowering her hand down to the pile. "Why don't you two go and find your friend in there while I get the others?" As she gently drops them down on the floor, she makes a gesture with her other hand and in a instant the rest of the swarm start to drag away the corpses of their fallen brethren from the pile.

[Tropical Island]

Anika misunderstood the situation!
She was easing the pressure the instant Ilpholin started to kiss her however, which also means that she is no position to make any counter-moves when Ilpholin's tendrils start lifting her into the air. Her eyes, already widened as the nymph kissed her, looks back at her in surprise. Her mouth opening to say something, but not before Ilpholin slams her to the side. Ow.

Tuo stops in shock as the night elf lands in the soft sand as if waiting for something else to happen.

Anika groans, yet seems to be taking that pretty well all things considered. "Wow... that was amazing." She remarks as she slowly starts to get off the ground. "You're amazing." She grins at Ilpholin, her sharp canines fully displayed like some predator. "I love your fighting technique, so inventive. You didn't even need to see to know where I was..." She stops herself as she gets a good look at Ilpholin. "Need any healing?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Operation Sea Slug]

Will doesn’t know how to process the gnoll being nice. It’s entirely antithetical to what he was led to believe about this person! This is the being that would get hundreds killed? Whom Will is watching literally control demons with a wave of her hand? She must just be really polite evil. Or the demon is just awful.
Will hops down from the hand, very confused.
”You’re not going to leave us at this size are you?!” he asks hurriedly before she starts to leave. He didn’t plan on spending his life a few millimeters tall!
But as the pile of bugs starts to dissipate a lump rises in his throat. He approaches the dwindling pile, hands shaking. He doesn’t dare hope.
”T-T-Titania. S-Status report.” he chokes out.