[Nexus] Outside XXX

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody Island Ferry}

Catoline looks toward the front, where they have just landed. Without pausing another second, she rushes off to be on nice dry land.

Once there, she crouches down and begins to sniff the air.

[Reinholdt]

{Melody Island Ferry}

Vincent gives fisherwoman a wave, before stepping off after Catoline.

"Let's at least save. Maybe find a place to use a tent or something, before we go barging into the fortress of doom."

[The Bushranger]

Fortress Mountain

Uhh.... Yeah, turning corporeal again in a room flooded with radiation is not, by any means, wise. Especially when she could have just phased through.

The lightsaber works fairly well I suppose, piercing the thick metal in half a tick, but cutting out enough of an opening for Erin to get through will take a half dozen seconds or so and spending that much time out of ghost-form might be inadvisable. What with the room being flooded with deadly radiation and all.

The only parts of her that are corporeal are her hands...
...and they just get a nice tan.
Ghost powers. Immune to (most) radiation.
Delta radiation might take a few years off the end of her life.

Aeryn will boot the door down once she's cut the requistite hole. And dive through!

[UncleWolf]

Deep in the Dark Forest

Spoiler

Show

May Be Triggering

Spoiler

Show

The Ensign hurries, sprinting away from the edge, likely with Mori close on her heels. She might not know the terrain too well, but Cat's lingering threat pushes her beyond her limits. She runs as fast as she can, leaping over logs and ducking under branches with no thought of what's behind her. All she wanted to do was escape. She was dead, in Hell, so she knew she couldn't flee for real, but every fiber of her being pushed her on, aching to survive what she knew was already an expression of futility.

After the first mile, she begins to slow, silent tears running down her flushed cheeks as she breathes heavily. She was fit, but she wasn't meant for this kind of exertion, especially on a world instead of a ship. Either through Mori's help or blind luck, she finally finds a little cove near a creek bed to crawl into and hide. She curls her knees up to her chest and points the little inadequate gun outside the entrance, shaking in adrenaline and fear. She knew that the Cat-Demon was going to come after her. It had promised as much. Edda couldn't fight a demon with a measly laser pistol. It'd come for her and tear her to pieces, no matter what that Mad little boy had promised her. It'd come for her and the wolf wouldn't stop it. Nothing could.

Horrors flash through her mind, picturing the demon playing with her, taking her piece by piece as it laughed for all eternity. This was Hell, the demon's domain and it'd do anything it'd want with her and there was nothing the poor Ensign could do about it.

Almost nothing.

She looks down at her pistol, shaking in her grip as a realization comes to her. A strange smile crosses her face and her hand steadies itself. She was already in Hell, so how much worse could it get? It'd get her away from the Demon, wouldn't it? Maybe it'd take her to the rest of the crew and maybe even the Captain himself. She knew the Captain would have faced the Demon, despite the fact that he'd have lost, but she lacked his courage and strength of will. The guilt of the fact hit her hard, making her weep for a moment before closing her eyes and setting the barrel against her head as she cries. "S-Sorry Captain." She chokes out before pulling the trigger.

Mori will see a bright flash of energy and hear a sharp crack before Edda's body slumps over as the mistaken stunner falls from her hand, skidding off into the stream to rest.

[Viera Champion]

[Megatank]
Lamet brings some drinks and stuff, smiling a little.

Leymah finds the flattest area she can on the roof of the vehicle, and lays down the blanket.
This looks like a good spot.

[happyturtle]

Deep in the Dark Forest

Mori yelps and barks at the burst of the stun pistol. When nothing further comes of it, she investigates Edda, whimpering to find her unconscious, and unable to rouse her.

Finally she sits back on her haunches and howls, calling for her boy, who will somehow fix this.

Kell hears and comes running, guided to the spot unerringly by the forest itself.

He too, is unable to rouse the lady, even when he resorts to actually touching her. And then he tries something he isn't sure about. He calls on the forest to channel some of its strength into her*. But yet she remains unconscious.

"She lives, Mori. You did your best." Kell says. All he can do now is try to keep her warm and safe. He builds a fire and crafts another lean to - this one with much more care than the night before, in hopes that it will shed water.

It looks like rain tonight.

((*think druidic healing - not very strong since it's his first try at it))

((The Ensign remaining unconscious was agreed by Wolfy - no godmodding intended))

[ThirdEmperor]

Boletaria

Huh. The 'arctic chill' is uncomfortable, but the sight of the tiny soul fragment literally phasing through his stomach to rejoin the others more than makes up for it. Cool, both literally and metaphorically.

"I hope you can provide fire then. Now let's go." Never a please or thank you with this guy, is there? For all Red's tried to make peace something or other he's doing must be ticking Alpha off, cause the supersoldier seems to hate his guts more than ever.

The triplets head back out of the courtyard, towards the path leading from the bridge-gate that they didn't take before. They're moving slower now, not just because of Alpha's armor and wounds but also to keep a good eye or six out for enemies. Wouldn't want to be ambushed. Again.

[Asha'man]

[Boletaria: Ramparts]

The path to open the gate bridge is uneventful. Other than a few lightly armored dreglings that aren't really worth mentioning unless you want to be stuck in the first area forever combating mooks.

The was up to the ramparts or battlements is up but a soldier there is throwing firebombs downward and there maybe a trap activated for the first guy to go up. who knows maybe a boulder will roll down the slanted walkway up? One can also glimpse catapults and cannons from where the party stands.

[Eadin]

[Off the Road]

"Older more powerful trolls absorb other animals and elements," Freddie says as he pew pews at the monster with the Claw. Just bulletish blasts for now. Figures heat wouldn't work that well against something with skin made of lava.

"I think the people here just named this kind of troll a creeper."

Makes sense!

Speaking of creepers, the monster doesn't seem that happy about all the projectiles being shot its way.

So it heaves forward and spews a stream of molten rock at our heroes. Wuh oh! Look out!

Thing sure is creepy.

Cat will grab her shiny staff, sending a blast of Doom the creeper's way!
Take that!

Too busy with the blast, she fails to notice the molten rock in time!
She tries to jump away, but gets a bit on her arm!
Ouch. Be more careful, Cat.
Need to pay attention in combat.

[orb_of_blood]

He growls and continues flapping his new wings futilely. He was falling slowly to the ground. Ah! Um...ok....this is difficult...I'm hungry too...

"Heh, alright, you can practice later." Assuming she's still holding onto him, she lands impossibly lightly on the ground, and he should as well.

"Now, the first thing you need for hunting in the draconic Lairan style is a draconic form. From there it's actually remarkably easy. The dragon blood in you knows what to do, you can pretty much relax."

But first she has to teach him to unlock said draconic blood.

...And no, she doesn't know how she's going to do that.

"Er... ready?"

[Hattish Thing]

Outside

Eek! Um...ok! Could you repeat that sentence but...um...make sense? How do I change? He hasn't let her hand go yet....he's just not paying attention to it.

[Rebonack]

[Off the Road]

The molten rock is very hot. This probably won't come as much of a surprise, really. If rocks are hot enough to melt they're usually pretty warm. So... yeah. Cat may find herself on fire.

Freddie, however...

Huldra are pretty darn resistant to heat. It's said that they can pull red hot steel out of a forge and shape it with their hands without any ill effect. So aside from getting knocked over by the magma (molten rock is heavy!) it has little ill effect on him.

Trix and Rico use their jump-jets to launch themselves out of the way! Unfortunately Collens isn't quite so quick and gets buried in magma. At least it's a quick death...

The two power-armored space marines launch a pair of anti-armor rockets at the monster, blasting a pair of huge holes in the thing and sending molten blood spraying everywhere! Then Cat's beam of doooom slices a nice hole through several important organs.

With a gurgling cry the troll's body crumbles away into a heap of still glowing volcanic cinders.

Freddie digs his way out of the magma, sputtering as he does so. He's a bit bruised up, but otherwise fine.

[Edge of the Dark Forest]

Freddie had spent a goodly portion of hisr time on the way back to the City poking around on hisr phone looking for as much information as she could on the various space-capable settings in the Nexus.

And frankly it was a bit overwhelming. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of universes in the Nexus with space travel! And they all have different names for everything! After dropping off the latest spoils of hisr adventures at the Totally Not a Mimic Bank Freddie had already decided to at least familiarize himrself with ONE universe to make conversation with this woman less awkward.

She picked a reality where the humans there worship the Emperor! It seemed like the best possible choice.

And with this new (somewhat tentative) knowledge Winifred returns to the edge of the dark forest, her shape and attire suitably modified to fit with her assumed role. Though anyone actually from the universe would recognize that something is off.

Winifred is wearing no skulls.

Mostly because they kind of creep her out.

[Eadin]

[Off the road]

Yay, they killed the creeper!
Shame abou that person dying, though.
But Cat was too busy screaming in pain.

She seems to has stopped screaming, though.
Wound seems to already be healing a little.

"Everything alright?" she asks Freddie.

[Rebonack]

[Off the Road]

"I'll live..." Freddie replies as he does his best to scrape all the molten rock off himself. Eeww, lava. It smells like the inside of a troll! He glances over at where Collens once stood and is about to say something when-

"He was a good soldier. But it isn't the time to mourn. We have a mission to finish," Rico says.

On to the mine!

A bit more blasting later our heroes will arrive at the entrance to the mine! A big elevator-like device stands open and ready to plunge Cat and Freddie deep into the earth.

[Eadin]

[Off the Road]


"Right, let's go."

Cat will get into the elevator, staff ready.

[Rebonack]

[The Alloy Mine]

Such a silly name!

*cough*

Freddie heads into the elevator as well.

And down they go!

Down into the darkness.

Except not that dark since there are electric lights all over the place. When our heroes reach the mine they'll find that things are actually well lit. metallic arches span the tunnels at regular intervals with lights humming away on their surface. The stone is a dead black color with electric blue veins running through it. Here and there large blue pointy crystals are growing out of the walls.

In the middle of the room is a large suit of mobile armor. Some kind of weird mining machine. It has a whole bunch of spidery looking legs. Maybe that's the thing the map is in?

Four tunnels lead away from the elevator. Two to the north, one to the east, and one to the west.

"Wow," Freddie comments as his tails sneak out of the base of his spine. "It's actually pretty down here."

[Eadin]

[The Alloy Mine]


Ooooooh, shiny crystals!
Cat will be quite fascinated with them.

"Yeah, it's beautiful..."


Then there's the mining machine thingy.
Cat will walk up to it to try and find some way to get inside it.

"Any idea how to get in here?"

[Rebonack]

[Alloy Mine]

So shiny...

The crystals seem to exude power and light all their own. No doubt they're one of those made up science fiction materials that has magical properties despite very clearly not being magic in any way. No sir!

"It has a ladder over on this side," Freddie says, indicating said ladder that leads up to a hatch on the machine.

That's probably how you get in!

Should Cat climb the ladder and open the hatch she'll find a cockpit with FAR too many complicated looking buttons and levers and screens.

[Eadin]

[The Alloy Mine]


Cat is a little tempted to take a crystal, but probably not able to dislodge one.
Won't bother too.
Instead, she'll climb into the mining device!

Fancy buttons and bleeping stuff!
"Come look at this!"

[Rebonack]

[The Alloy Mine]

So much blinking and booping...

Freddie climbs in as well and balks at the sight! This is very confusing! "Goodness, what a mess. I guess these are for giving the machine commands?"

He refrains from poking any buttons lest disaster strike.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a map in here?"

Because it sure doesn't look like there is!

...unless it gets displayed on one of those screens...

[Eadin]

[The Alloy Mine]


Cat can't help but press a button or two.
Curiousity and stuff...
"That's what they said..."
Hopefully the button pressing will make something pop up.

[Rebonack]

[Alloy Mine]

Pressing the button causes...

Ummm...

Well.

It caused the machine to make machine noises. Maybe turned it on? All the screens light up with read-outs and displays and something that looks a lot like a map!

...

Though that is shortly followed by an error screen and a whole bunch of technical gibberish. Great.

[Eadin]

[The Alloy Mine]


And curiousity is probably going to kill the cat again.
Or at least brought her in serious trouble...

"...Sorry...."
Myeah...
"Guess we'll have to find our way ourselves?"

[Rebonack]

[Alloy Mine]

"Guess so..."

Hopefully not. A dead Cat wouldn't be nearly as much fun as a live one. Dead things usually can't adventure very well.

Anywho!

Back out of the vehicle!

"Alright then..." Freddie says as four wisps dance out of him and bind to his body, becoming a rather impressive suit of armor. Though not as neat as that power armor, obviously! "Which way to we search first?"

[Eadin]

[Alloy Mine]

Cat is probably not the best adventurer....

Good at mauling, though!

She'll change into sphinx-form, sniffing the air around her.
Sniffing out the beasties!

[Rebonack]

[Alloy Mine]

Hmmm...

There's a pretty strong monstery smell coming from the east passage. And the west passage smells like flowing water! The two passages to the north smell really odd, though. Cat may have trouble placing the scents given that they're related to technology stuffs!

Clearly Cat needs to expand her library of known scents!

Freddie sheds four more wisps, this time the little blue motes of flame bind to his tails and cause them to become rather fire-like in appearance! Hehe, he just set his tails on fire! Silly Freddie. Seems he's gearing up for a fight!

He grips the Claw in both hands, causing the artifact to spread over his hands and upper arms to form a pair of scary looking clawed gauntlets! Probably good for blasting things.

"Okay Cat," he says. "Where are the trolls this time?"

[Eadin]

the alloy mine

She's not exactly a hunting dog...
Just no other way to get to them.

She'll shift back to human form, being unable to talk in her other one.

''East.'' .she says, switching back and running into the eastern passage!

[Rebonack]

[Alloy Mine]

Wait, really?

Cat can't talk in her sphinx form? But don't sphinxes have human faces and stuff?

Ah well.

Down the east passage!

...

Our heroes don't make it very far.

There has been a cave in over here, though not a major one. Can still see through the rocks in places. If only there was some way to magic the rocks out of the way!

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody Island Ferry}

Vincent gives fisherwoman a wave, before stepping off after Catoline.

"Let's at least save. Maybe find a place to use a tent or something, before we go barging into the fortress of doom."

Save what? You are a strange little elf. she turns and heads toward a small tree grove up the beach. I'm going hunting.

Like I'd share a tent with you. she mumbles as she leaves.

[ThirdEmperor]

Fortress Mountain

Welp, that's one obstacle down.

And several of Erin's powers revealed too.

Through the door, Erin will find... Guns! Lots and lots of guns pointed her way!

The next room is set up like a stadium, with the door leading out onto a flat, empty plane surrounded on all sides by tiered platforms carved out of the stone, battlements running along the edges of the steps to provide cover for the gunners.

In short, a killing field. With Erin right in the middle of it.

The twelve soldiers set up here open fire the moment Erin dives through the door, most of them wielding either multi-mode battle rifles with fire rates roughly similar to an AR-15 on full auto or plasma guns adapted from Erin's own stock.

The two in the back though, guarding the door? They've got gauss turrets, a reverberating hum filling the air as the magnetic powered anti-materiel cannons warm up.

Boletaria- Ramparts

Well, before anyone tries heading up to the battlements, that dreaming throwing the firebombs needs to go. One will open fire with the crossbow, saving his rifle ammunition for bosses and the like.

The other two are hanging back, surveying the area for any hidden foes or other such nasty surprises.