Serious Plots 8: Rawr serisaurus!

[Shadowcaller]

Pyramid of the Cosmos

Nora was? She just came off as arrogant and apathetic to Jaahlyn. Not that she would ever voice such thoughts however.
But her attitude didn't exactly make her, or the portal she opened, trustworthy. Nora was already putting too much faith in this minion.
She won't stop them from analyzing the portal however. Instead she is going to sit down and start to prepare her own portal near (but not too near considering what happened to Nora's magical text) one of the other doors. AKA, a dead end. "If you excuse me miss Syncope, and I do apologize for the disrespect, but I'm going to try to make my own portal."
The portal she will make will lead to the closest other dead end. Though in this case it will be a one way portal. Things can enter from this side but not the other one just in case there was something dangerous on the other one. It will take roughly ten minutes creating the portal.

[Chaotic Bob]

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Syncope is not looking up from the book she's resumed reading, even with all the additional pestering questions and tinkering.
"No reason to be scared. That one-"
Finger is waved vaguely at Norael.
"May be impressed by nothing, but I'm not. Corpses are unimpressive."

Apathetic and rude?

As for the aforementioned tinkering:
Jaahlyn is taking ten minutes on hers, so we're putting that off. It's not being interrupted though.
Norael's, however, gets more immediate results. As mentioned, the doorframe has a triggered teleportation effect in it which seems to lead off...somewhere not immediately nearby. But that's not what she's looking for, is it? Nora's looking for magic.

She certainly finds it. While it isn't an explicitly targeted effect, the space beyond the doorway seems to be under some sort of massive temporal dilation effect. It is...existing quickly.

[Morty]

[Grove]

Fayyaad should be arriving here with Alaine, according to the directions given by Bledig.

[billtodamax]

Grove

Fayyaad and Alaine will find themselves picking their way through an overgrown forest, roots and rocks snagging their feet as they walk, headed north toward where the clearing should be. They'll be walking for... quite a while. Have they... have they seen that tree before? Isn't that mark on the root where their shoe got snagged 10 minutes back? They definitely should have made it by now, right?

[Artemis97]

[Grove]

"Something's not right...We've been here before." Alaine points out. "Maybe I can see the clearing if I get above this." She looks for a good place to break through the canopy, before dropping a coin and Pushing against it. The coin sinks into the soft earth, but soon it's caught and Alaine is thrown up in the opposite direction. Hopefully up through the canopy and into the air above to hold there for a few moments, and get a look around.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Spoiler: Blue City Stuff

Show

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Unless there's something particularly fancy in the structure of Norael's labeling spell, the door's wards simply eat it.
More fuel. But at least they don't explode in response.

Syncope doesn't seem to care much about it, either, pushing on through with the talking phase of things.
"Everyone is committed, then. Your funerals."
She doesn't sound too beat up about it.

Instead she snaps her fingers towards the empty doorway behind her, sending a little purple spark to ignite the sleeping magic within it. A faintly glimmering vine pattern pulses into existence across the doorframe.
"Prior question answers: Sin-co-pee, I'm real, I'm not really afraid of any of you, there is no fine print beyond acknowledging probable death as really anything goes from here on out, and I don't really recommend the deadly metal door no."
That done, she's going to heavily drop herself back into the chair off to the side of the doorframe and vaguely gesture at it.

"Step inside and let your adventure begin. May it last longer than I expect it to."

[TBC - MagQuest]

A lot is happening in these opening moments of arrival.
There is, almost immediately after their shouts of contact, an ugly color change on the screen of the scanning-soldier's tablet and an apparent alarm noise.
All four of the soldiers respond to this noise as if someone in the room shouted "GRENADE!" and begin to move.

There are weirdly varying levels of movement here, that seem borderline nonsensical and varyingly useful:
The one with the gun pointed at Libby drops to his stomach.
The scanner jerks himself to the side.
The one to the left jumps straight up.
The middle one leaps forward.

Two of these don't really...work.
Leaping forward still involves a hole being drilled in one's head and jumping upwards just moves the hole down into their chest.
Both are still fatal.
Scanner's brisker movement has the goggles shredded from their face, breaking into a nasty spray of metal that carves jagged cuts along the soldier's face. They yell in pain and fall the rest of the way to the ground, not in a position to respond more usefully.

The fourth one seems fine though. Which is a problem.

Being alive gives them the time to roll over to their back, tilt their rifle back towards the Magtoks, and release a burst of rather interesting bullets towards the source of the waterjets.
In addition to the usual "punch nasty holes in victims" effect most bullets have, these ones also seem to carry some sort of magic-disrupting energy to them, designed to strip down prominent magical forces on impacted targets.
On a golem or basic undead, this would be animating energy. On a wizard, defensive enchantments. Big wall of fire, a generic localized dispelling. Etcetera.
No comptent mage hunter should leave home without them.


While all of this is going on, we have the Libby side of things.
When Magtok speaks, her eyes snap open and a complicated series of emotions fly across her face. Surprise, glee, terror, sadness, surprise again, then finally it settles on alarm.
Though, this last is not actually aimed at her rescuer(?).

The moment the fourth soldier's gun is aimed away from it, the shadow entity makes its move and Libitina shouts in panic.
"Azq, stop!"
Those threatening array of spikes snap inwards and drill their way into the captive soldier's head. No blood is sprayed, no terrible sounds of crunching bone are heard.
It's a silent and quick action, a quick jerk and abrupt conclusion of life.

TBC - MagQuest



You hear that? Libby wanted that one alive. Possibly all of them alive. That's the only sensible explanation. I mean, she wouldn't shout like that out of squeamishness, surely. Not a goddess who presides over death. No, this is all about the optimal way out of this crisis, the most effective way to get out of here alive. We should've tried to negotiate after all, and now three men are dead because of our rash actions.

"Needs, stop. You, hold your fire," Purple orders, as the waterjet shifts into an angry serpent, hissing with steam and posturing menacingly in front of the soldier doing the shooting, rather than making any attempt to kill the man. A very mild courtesy, as Needs himself cowers behind Blue and Purple. They might not have anything to fear from magical bullets, and in fact seem to be making no real effort to avoid being shot by them, but Needs is not so blessed with such casual disregard for antimagic and/or 5.56×45mm NATO cartridges. Those two holes in his bony shoulder (the one made entirely out of bone, I mean) are going to take some effort to patch up later. Assuming, of course, that Blue and Purple continue to be very good and cooperative meatshield and doesn't let any more bullets through.

"She doesn't want you dead," he points out. Gods only know why, but it's reason enough to keep Needs from killing for a moment. Just a moment.

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Syncope is not looking up from the book she's resumed reading, even with all the additional pestering questions and tinkering.
"No reason to be scared. That one-"
Finger is waved vaguely at Norael.
"May be impressed by nothing, but I'm not. Corpses are unimpressive."

Apathetic and rude?

As for the aforementioned tinkering:
Jaahlyn is taking ten minutes on hers, so we're putting that off. It's not being interrupted though.
Norael's, however, gets more immediate results. As mentioned, the doorframe has a triggered teleportation effect in it which seems to lead off...somewhere not immediately nearby. But that's not what she's looking for, is it? Nora's looking for magic.

She certainly finds it. While it isn't an explicitly targeted effect, the space beyond the doorway seems to be under some sort of massive temporal dilation effect. It is...existing quickly.

Spoiler: Fairy Mountain Stuff

Show

[Fairy Mountain]

Haabeth looks between Ilpholin and Damon with a fairly confused expression, which turns into determination. If the ancient King in Rags chose these two as his envoys, they can surely handle a troll.

"Fall back! Let him handle it!" she cries out. The elven guards are more than happy to get out of the trolls reach, but to their credit their retreat is orderly and organized. They take up a position near one of the tunnel exits. Damon has the troll to himself, as it starts lashing out against the crystal chunks, instead of pursuing the elves or attacking the guests. "Everyone nearby has retreated to the upper levels already," Haabeth tells Ilpholin. "His tunnel is stable, but with a troll this big, who knows what can happen. But it's as fixated on the crystals as the rest of them."

[Fairy Mountain]

Ilpholin looks apologetically at Haabeth and shrugs. "Better do it. Is there anyone who still needs to be evacuated? How stable is this tunnel?" Probably pretty stable normally, but there's a rampaging troll causing havoc.

A rampaging troll her attention falls back on as she narrows her eyes and takes a step back. The spears didn't seem effective against its rocky hide, but worse it seemed fully at home in the darkness. The lack of sound it was making was the most disturbing part. Fighting blind was one thing. Fighting blind and death seems questionable.

She'd have to wait and see how Damon does first. Seeing being a questionable term here.

[TBC - MagQuest]

Oh rats, surviving gun-man shot at the hostiles rather than Blue. Blue lets out a disappointed sigh at the comparative lack of holes in him. If only Needs had been a bit quicker at cowering behind him. Still, that's three hostiles down and the surviving guy too busy screaming at all the wounds in his face to cause any trouble.

You're welcome, Magtok.

...

No no, don't thank me, it's fine. The smile on your face is all the thanks I need.

*****

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Ten minutes for Jaahlyn to do her thing? Well, fair enough. Magtok is not a mage. Magtok sits down and waits for the magic people to say it's safe to proceed.

*****

[Fairy Mountain]

With the risk of friendlies being hurt now dealt with, Damon has the freedom he needs to enjoy himself.

Black fire spreads like a wave along the walls and ceiling at a rapid pace, plunging the tunnel into darkness. But Damon isn't interested in attacking the troll with fire directly. Instead he draws his mithril sword and waits for the fire to surge past the troll, and reaches out to touch the flames.

In a brief burst of fire, Damon is gone, visible (to anyone who can see in darkness) only as a spark of flame travelling along the trail he's laid.

A moment later and he erupts out of the ceiling just behind the troll, plunging downwards, aiming to bury the sword in the back of the troll's neck. The sword, naturally, has a layer of flame on it, just in case that makes a difference.

[Murkus]

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

"Only if you really want to," Tina clarifies, emerging into the upstairs room. She's fully aware where he's looking, but she probably couldn't guess at what exactly he's thinking.

She climbs out of the wardrobe, and... Oh. Mysterious box, mysteriously appearing woman, mysteriously pretty room. Fire crown. That's all new. Fettina gets the sudden, intense notion that she doesn't wanna bungle this, and worries she'll bungle it no matter what she does. She leans towards Rein, whispering, "How do we approach this one? Polite greeting? Tactical seduction?"

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of the Cosmos

"Once, a dead sea serpent washed up on the beach near my uncle's house. That was an impressive corpse. The sheer size of it. It was almost half a mile long. The bones were used to build a new lighthouse and watchtower, and my uncle had the teeth turned into daggers, and handed them out to anyone he wanted to impress for years. But the most impressive thing of all is that something had killed it. A horned leviathan's tusk had pierced its skull." If anyone queries it, he'll explain that a horned leviathan's 'horn' is in fact a tooth, an immense canine growing from its jaw and looking like a horn from a distance. Most people don't live long enough to see one close enough to tell the difference.

[Chaotic Bob]

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmo]

Jaahlyn is magicking.
Magtok is waiting on the magicking.
Norael is also magicking, but hers is taking significantly less time.
Benedict is storytelling.
Depending on what Norael wants to do, things may get bumped forward to the end of Jaahlyn's magic, but until then...

Syncope glances up at Benedict as he babbles. There is almost the barest hint of casual curiosity. Almost.
"Where did you say you were from?"

[TBC - MagQuest]

I a l m o s t h a v e t h e c o r e
There is the impression of sound from the direction of the shadow figure, who's spikes appear to be digging deeper into the poor deceased soldier in its grip.

"That doesn't mat-"

Which seems to trigger some sort of panicked expression over what is visible of the supine soldier's face.
Panic which is very quickly followed by what looks to be an alarmingly practiced action: from its position aimed at the Magtoks, he quickly jerks his rifle to the side and puts a round towards the skull of the mauled-but-still-living soldier. This is going to have an unfortunate ending for that fellow if no one reacts faster than bullet. "NO!"
This presents just shy of a second's worth of reaction time for Needs' water snake to work with, before the gun is jerked the rest of the way downwards, so that the butt of the grip slaps some sort of button on his chest.

This will cause a small explosion.
Also to have an unfortunate ending.

[Lord Magtok]

TBC - MagQuest

Hold Person, Needs casts, the cleric's second-level spell striking somewhere between the squeezing of a trigger and the pressing of a button. The act forces him to release his hold over the river snake, which should hardly matter given there shouldn't be anyone left alive and combat-ready to sic it on anymore. Unfortunately, Plan Drill Through Feia's Scaly Carapace With Dirty River Water has been officially cancelled, since there's no way she wouldn't see it coming after this little episode.

Anyway, provided Need's attempt to control the situation doesn't go completely awry due to some inherent spell resistance the sparrows have access to, Purple hurries forward to disarm the helpless soldier. Got to get that rifle, the man's sidearm, any grenades or gadgets he's hauling...honestly, it might be better to just cuff him instead, but who was expecting to need handcuffs for a mission like this one? Stupid soldier guy...I mean godsdammit, was any of that really necessary? Is death really that much better than just hearing everyone out for two minutes? This kind of annoying suicidal bull**** must be what it was like for people who had to fight him back in the day, ****.

"Oh yes, of course, how could I possibly have forgotten to thank you for accidentally helping out by standing still and doing nothing at all?" Purple fires back at the Professor, though there's none of his usual venom in it. Maybe he's softening his stance of utter distaste and unconditional loathing for the guy, on account of getting them this far. Or maybe he just doesn't want to be seen arguing in front of Libby.

[Reinholdt]

[Fairy Mountain]

"Crystals?" Ilpholin notes quizzically, hands folding in front of her. "Why do these trolls care about the crystals?"

She watches the fight as best she can, but a lot of that depends on if Damon or the troll are making sound. Did Damon teleport or move really fast?

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

It's unlikely Rein knows what he's thinking either. But he is thinking this is a situation that's impossible to not bungle. Where's a quick save when you need one?

"Oh tactical seduction for sure," Rein says, whispering back. "Largely cause there's really nothing I can offer in terms of wisdom except go with your gut. Which one of us is the good cop- I mean sub?"

[Morty]

[Grove]

Fayyaad waits for Alaine to come down, keeping his hand on the staff at his side. Something definitely isn't right here. Maybe they need to start marking their passage...

[Fairy Mountain]

"We don't know," Haabeth admits, watching the fight. "They just show up and attack, without a word. When we tried asking other trolls, they didn't know either, or refused to say. But it seems like trolls either avoid this mountain or go crazy when they come near it."

Damon, meanwhile, will find that the troll isn't quite as fixated on the crystals as it may seem. Or its reflexes are surprisingly quick. It bends backwards, so that the sword strikes it in the shoulder instead of the neck, and its skin seems extremely tough and resilient. The sword pierces it and draws a trickle of thick, dark blood, while the troll lurches forward to get away form it. Still without making a sound.

[5a Violista]

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

Somehow - possibly because they were whispering - the woman doesn't seem to notice them or turn around yet. She moves on to her blush.

She does, in fact, look like the kind of person tactical seduction would work on. Maybe compliment her looks, tell her how well she's dressed, and then flatter her a bit more.

Flattery doesn't work on everybody, but this woman looks like it's her thing.


Why is she in this room with the box, though?
That's one of the top unanswered questions in this room, alongside 'where did she come from' and 'why is she here' and 'did she get past the flame-zombies or what'.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[TBC - MagQuest]

Blue similarly rushes forward to disarm mister trigger-happy suicide-vest.

It's possible he and Purple will end up snatching for the gun at the same time.

Blue will relinquish his hold if that happens, after just long enough for the two of them squabbling over the gun to look pathetic.

INSIDE VOICE, Magtok. The Professor reminds in a needlessly loud thought. In case you forgot, I am inhabiting a completely normal, boring Magtok. And until such time as this body expires, ideally beneath Feia's claws, I am only capable of any action your flimsy form could perform. So I'm dreadfully sorry I an't perform these dazzling feats that Needs is performing, but you don't want the real me coming out early, do you?

Meanwhile, Blue just says "Hi Libby. In case you're wondering, Purple-hood is the one you should go and embrace, or kiss, or have intercourse with, whatever it is people do to express their love for each other nowadays."

*****

[Fairy Mountain]

Damon had been braced to perform a little bit of fire-magic to get himself out the way in case the troll tried to swipe back at him. He's pleasantly relieved when that doesn't prove necessary, but simultaneously disappointed by his failure to find his mark.

Tough troll.

As he lands, Damon puts one hand to the ground, sending a surge of black fire rippling forwards. Let's see how the troll likes having his feet scorched.

[Chaotic Bob]

[TBC - The Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Presuming Norael doesn't do anything particularly insane in the next several minutes, Jaahlyn will get her portal opened up so the group can prepare for the next phase of the plan.
Which is, presumably, going deeper into the pyramid!

And certainly deeper it is.
The area beyond the portal is that special sort of dark reserved for caverns that haven't seen light in centuries. Undoubtedly the portal effect has some luminescence to it, or at least allows some light from this entry chamber to pass through, so there is a portion of visibility immediately on the other side.

It does not appear to be a cavern, as such.
It appears to be a utility room, lined one each side by a complex mesh of thick, black-metal piping running up into the ceiling and down through the floor. There are unmarked gauges here and there, mostly flitting about in middle-levels, though a couple are twitching on the lower end of whatever they're measuring.
The floor and walls appear to be made of that same meteoric material as the reception hall and there is what appears to be the back-end of a hidden door straight ahead some twenty feet or so. It seems fairly flush with the surrounding walls, but has a fairly obvious twist-to-open knob right in the center of it.

For those with sensitive hearing, there seems to be a faint humming of electricity or something similar in the air.


Syncope is quietly observing, some degree of attention up and away from her book.

[TBC - MagQuest]

Well, one death instead of two.
That's clearly not part of the soldier's plan, but he can't really argue about it on account of being rather paralyzed...

Which also makes it rather difficult to stop the MagCrew from stealing all of his equipment. Rifle, a rather ordinary-looking 9mm pistol, one curious and definitely not standard grenade, the mauled remnants of what looks to have once been a PDA, and various spent and unspent magazines of ammo. Also a knife, if they care to grab that (probably do).
That button the fellow looks to have been gunning for seems to be physically attached to his body armor, however, so they're not likely to be taking that off so easily. Who designs an explosion directly into their suits?

Now, while the soldier definitely is paralyzed now...that spell seems to be getting unraveled rather quickly by what can be best described as arcane-hostile radio static emanated from the body armor.
That paralysis won't last past the next ten to twenty seconds, most likely.

Meanwhile!

H o l l o w. I t w a s n o t t h i s o n e.
"Perhaps we shall luck out and it is the good captain. You may away now, Asq."

The shadow demon(?) drops the soldier in its grasp to the ground like a limp doll, then appears to retreat back somewhere inside Libby's robe-sleeve.
She doesn't look very comfortable with it and holds the arm awkwardly against her chest as if wounded, but
But, said discomfort is schooled away and replaced by a happy-but-confused look.

Blue's comment doesn't really help with that, but she does at least angle her immediate approach towards Purple. The various Magtoks like to have peculiar identity roles like this and it's generally just simpler to humor them, if there's no time for frivolity.
She'll be vaguely respectful and not jump on the poor cyborg, as it has been...quite some time...and he has been known to be awkward about these sorts of things in the past. Magtok's touchy-feelyness seems to wax and wane at random, and she's currently not equipped to properly see where he's at.

Mortality has costs.

That and there's the matter of the fellow on the ground...Magtok would probably rather keep grand romantic gestures to a more personal time, wouldn't he?
She'll be good. Restrained.

"Ah, hello Maggy dear. Dears. Um, I was not really expecting you to show up yet." (At all?)
The plurality addendum is necessary, regardless of Blue trying to dump everything onto Purple. All Magtoks are lovely, in her eyes. A singular, barely cohesive whole.
And her clearly loving gaze does make its rounds over everyone, to see who all has joined in.

Needs earns an extra look or two, for his wounds and...
"Not expecting that either...some talking to do soon."

[Reinholdt]

[Fairy Mountain]

I'll presume Damon's being particularly quiet too then. Even if he wasn't, the troll being as silent as it is makes Ilpholin wary to join the fray. Her ability to fight blind isn't entirely dependent on sound, but it was close enough. Another thing to discuss with Tauron about upgrading.

So her time is spent thinking about what Haabeth says. "So what about the song? Do the crystals make the music or does the Singer and the crystals just carry the tune? If something drives the trolls into a wild frenzy to attack the crystals, I would imagine it would be that. Can you change the frequency or stop them altogether for a time?"

[Morty]

[Fairy Mountain]

The troll lowers itself (is it male, female or neither? it's really hard to tell...) down to the ground, almost dropping on all fours in a primal, hungry posture. It drives its fingers into the ground, sending a ripple of stone spikes to meet Damon's flames. If the spikes aren't enough to stop the fire, however, the troll is liable to be scorched.

"The crystals do have a melody of their own, but the Singer uses them to carry her melodies," Haabeth explains. "The tone of the music doesn't seem to make much of a difference and if she stops singing, which she can't do for very long, just makes attacks less frequent. She says that the trolls can hear the crystals too and they remind them of something they've lost. That's why they lose their minds."

[Lord Magtok]

TBC - MagQuest

"Purple, Orange, Blue," Purple explains, pointing to each of the three of them to try to help Libby understand what's going on here, without taking his eyes off the prisoner as he separates the man from his weapons. That button looks like bad news, but I'm sure Blue can keep the man's arms behind his back and keep him from belly-flopping onto the floor or something. Shouldn't be too much harder than standing still and taking gunfire for Needs, right? Plus, now we have a free rifle! He might be inclined to cooperate a little longer if his weird anti-magic bullets are some sort of proprietary squad secret that can't be allowed to fall into enemy hands, right?

"We're operating under the assumption that she's watching at all times, and being deliberately vague and confusing about names and identities, and who is or isn't who they're acting like, on the off-chance it might trip her magic up somehow. It's not really part of any master plan or cleverly foreshadowed trick, just an extra layer of defenses against whatever might be up ahead. I suppose Orange is closer to black right now after his magical girl transformation sequence earlier, though. So what's the deal with these soldiers, why are th-hey!" Magtok doesn't get to finish that thought, as Orange is the New Black sneaks up behind him, clasps his hands on both Purple's shoulders, and insistently pushes him all the way over to Libby. Purple stammers through about three consecutive attempts to complain about this unprovoked and unwelcome abuse, to try to insist that now isn't the time and the area isn't secure yet, as Orange wordlessly takes Purple's arms and holds them out for a hug. Sometimes people just need that little extra push, y'know? Sometimes that push is also completely literal. Orange pokes his head out from behind Purple's shoulder to give Libby a nod, and then scurries away to help Blue keep an eye on the captive.

[Murkus]

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

"I was kidding, you silly idiot! Mostly," Fettina perks her mouth to one side and shifts her weight from hip to hip. "How about I distract her while you check that box?"

Tina creeps up. She decides to just say 'hey', and see how this odd woman reacts to a chrome-alloyed angel standing in her chamber with her arms behind her back. She has half an idea about making this person think Tina's here to call account for her sins, but the plan is mostly to make polite conversation. Probably.

[Reinholdt]

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

"Cause I think the box is the only thing keeping her not entirely existing or kill- Tina!" The time for action is now!

Even if that action is mostly just quietly standing several steps away from Tina in a stealthy?? manner and getting a closer look at the box. So Rein does that.

[UncleWolf]

Pyramid of the Cosmos

Norael frowns when she finally realizes what's going on with the other side of the portal she was messing with, and she recoils a bit out of disgust. She'd never dealt with time magic before and it had taken her far too long to figure out what was actually going on there. "Yeah, no. We'll take your portal rather than this one. Be wary of time shenanigans. Whenever we go through a portal like that, I would recommend that we all go at once in case the time streams have too much of a difference." As she explains, she collapses her spear down to just the head and a dagger style shaft to hold it in one hand. "Ready." Once everyone else is ready, she's ready to dive in.

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of the Cosmos

"Time magic is always tricky. I'm ready to go." He can't do much with his staff, unfortunately, but he'll try to hold it as much out of the way as he can whilst they go through the portal. On the other side, he'll swap hands with the staff and pull out his pistol, just to be on the safe side. It's always important to be prepared.

Hopefully, he's prepared enough for what's ahead.

[5a Violista]

[Gem Mountain - First Floor]

"Oh. Hello," the woman responds. She doesn't turn around because she can see Tina in her mirror. Turning around would prevent her from finishing her blush. "How did...you got here much quicker than I expected. Would you mind waiting for a few moments so I can finish getting ready? It's not suitable to treat a guest while being only half-ready." She appears to only know there's one person here, so it looks like Tina's distraction is working.

Reinholdt can check out the box.
It feels...warm.
Not, like, the unusually warm that the earlier corpses were.
Instead, it feels like 'this is body-temperature' warm.
Lifting it up will get the feeling that it's half-filled with a liquid, and that there's some other object floating in the liquid - it's not a hard object.
It's a fancy box. Very treasure-like. Its dimensions are about a hand-span's in each direction? roughly.
There's no magical or supernatural compulsion related to it that would make him interested or disinterested in it, either. Just normal curiosity.

Maybe he should open it?

[Shadowcaller]

Pyramid of the Cosmos

Jaahlyn had suspected the portal created for them would be dangerous and Norael's apparent disgust only seemed to confirm her suspicions. But then again, this entire place was made to be dangerous so it might not even have been intentional. Still, they had been told not to trust Feia's minions and Syncope was defenitly one of them.

"Do a quick scan of my portal first, then we'll go, miss." She says as she turns to Norael.
If she confirms that there is no direct danger that would spring on them the moment they would go through it, she will be the first to walk through. Her body being lost would only be a setback, it wasn't as valuable as the others lives.

((Wolfy can ask DeB to confirm across OOC channels and if there are no issues with entering the portal, DeB can post next for Jaahlyn stepping inside.))

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Fairy Mountain]

Silence is subjective. Damon may not be saying much, but the sound of fire crackling is alive and well.

That, and the occasional hiss of laughter from Damon. He lives for this.

Although he does shout one thing out to them, "Dead, or incapacitated?"

The stone spikes at the very least disrupt flow of the fire enough to make it miss its mark. Damon grins and leaps up, his form shifting and growing into that of a gargoyle-esque creature that emits an unearthly howl and beats its wings, circling up towards the ceiling. Axe still clenched in one big stony fist, the Damon-gargoyle raises his other hand and hurls a black ball of fire down towards the troll.

*****

[TBC - MagQuest]

Blue sighs and leaves it to Purple to sort things out. "There is more going on here than meets the eye, Libby." He walks over to the incapacitated soldier and rests a hand on his armour.

Allow me...

A little spark, from hand to armour. And some element of the Affy gets to work, searching through the armour for a way to disable its self-destruct mechanism, the arcane static, whatever other nasty surprises might be lying within this equipment.

Disarm the armour, and maybe they can give it to Purple as some additional protection, reactivate everything except the self-destruct...

Or give it to Blue, and let him detonate himself upon Feia?

*****

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Magtok nods, "Yes, I'm definitely in favour of safe portal. Let's go already."

[billtodamax]

Grove

Alaine is perfectly able to do so, getting a good view of a break in the canopy just a little ways ahead of them. It's just there! Should be very easy to simply walk directly at it.

What's she doing? A voice asks from next to Fayyaad. He'll find a green skinned woman with brilliant golden hair standing next to him, peering up into the canopy at where Alaine went. How on earth did she get there?

[Chaotic Bob]

[TBC - MagQuest]

Now, Libby doesn't have actual favorites, among the Magtok collective. And not in the sense that parents don't have favorite children (because they definitely do).
She definitely does seem them as more or less a single entity, shattered into innumerable components. Which makes it rather impossible to have any favorites.

That being said.
NeedsOrange has earned some brownie points with her.

Best shown through a twinkling little smile of appreciation at his efforts, before doing the rest of the work for Purple. Namely by stepping the rest of the way over and grasping him in a rather tight one-armed hug. That sort of tight that says "I missed you and didn't think I'd get this again".
One-armed because her other arm is still awkwardly crooked against her chest, but her enthusiasm is definitely still present.
"Just for a moment, if that is all we have."
She murmurs a bit, indeed planning on taking just a moment or two on this guilty pleasure.

Which keeps her amply distracted away from what Blue is doing.
Therein lies...curious computer tech. It's not spectacularly robust, but there is some sort of system within the armor running a series of grotesquely complicated, geometric equations nearly nonstop.
Which also appears to be the source of that arcane static. Reality seems to be rumpling a bit around the nature of the math.

The button, meanwhile, is much simpler. It's simply wired to large amounts of densely compacted explosives woven here and there within the armor, but is also complicated disengaged from the other electronics. It's as close to analogue as the system can get...
Nothing more in there. Weird reality warping math engine and an explosive trigger button.

Nearly a minute has passed.

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Looks like the group has decided on plan "everyone mush through Jaahlyn's portal at once".
Very good.

It's almost possible to see Syncope smirk as Norael completely disavows the teleporter and throws in her lot with the other portal.
"Good luck."
And she even offers a very slightly more genuine sounding missive as they all pile through!

There were no immediately repugnant magical effects waiting for them here. Just that spooky darkness and peculiar background noise, which has gotten louder as they entered the piping room. Doesn't seem to be coming from the pipes, though, but rather the door beyond.

At some point, whoever ends up sticking their hands in a pocket next is going to find a small, credit card sized purple envelope has appeared in there.

[Artemis97]

[Grove]

"Aha!" Alaine spots the clearing and sets its direction in her mind, before ending her push on the coin and dropping back down to earth. She pushes again on the coin to kill her speed before landing. "It's just that way... oh hello?"

[Reinholdt]

[Fairy Mountain]

Well she can at least tell where Damon is, even if she can't be impressed by what he's doing. Ilpholin continues to consider. The troll attack is definitely because of the Singer then. Or perhaps the songs.

Ilpholin glances at Haabeth, then past her to the troops holding the fallback point. She looks back at Haabeth. "Tell your soldiers to sing. All of them, as loudly as they can. Don't worry about what or about harmony. Might even be better the more discordant the performance."

[Morty]

[Grove]

Fayyaad almost jumps, startled, but regains his composure quickly. That doesn't mean he trusts this woman. It seems the warnings about fairy business on this mission were correct.

"She's trying to spot the path we're meant to take from above," he explains, simply enough.