[Nexus] GLoG 82: So Many Babies!

[Earl of Purple]

Woods

Oddball continues sitting on Jamie's shoulder, ready to spew Acid at Jamie's command or suggestion. Or NotJamie attempts to harm Jamie or himself.

Lakeside

A small bird lands on the rock next to Natalie's clothes, growing in size as its wings turn into arms and its feathers into thick black fur. When the transformation is complete, the revealed spider monkey starts putting the discarded clothes on.

[Lost_Deep]

[Woods]

"Umm...maybe we should get my mom. She's a telepath and I bet she could understand you!" Jamie says encouragingly.

"You?"

Apperantly that isn't working. Is there some other noise she wants? "yee... eee... sss... see? ssshhhh... shee? she?" Is that a good noise? "ah... aa... ai... I?"

NotJamie makes the noises, but doesn't know what they mean. Other animals have nice, simple noises! Like growling or howling or cooing.

[happyturtle]

Arriving

A carriage drives up, pulled by steady draught mares and guarded by four Wolfen. A halfling girl jumps out of the forest where she's been keeping watch - not knowing that jumping in front of horses is dangerous, and that if these horses hadn't been chosen for their calm temperaments, she could have been hurt.

"Hi! Hi! I'm Lily! You're here! Everyone's going to be so excited to see you so we can have the wedding! Daddy and Mommy and Tito made lots of food and we have a bed for Mister Gamalial so he can rest but he'll want to see baby Flamecrest first because she's the prettiest baby in the whole world!"

[Reinholdt]

Elm Cabin

"Keo? Hmmm..." Reinholdt bites his tongue, figuratively though before saying anything. He personally hopes it's not her though.

And Jamie already has enough of a power trip.

Still, not his decision. Reinholdt will step over to give Vasilisa a kitty head nuzzle as it gets time to part. "I understand. Hope you find the right one."

[Gullara]

[Arriving]

Renetta has been walking around the camp for the last hour now. Flamecrest is in her arms and has been growing increasingly fussy, picking up on her mother's agitation.

And then she spots it. The carriage accompanied by wolfen can only be one thing. Her Mother and Uncle are here. The welfen takes a steadying breath, then walks over to where the carriage stops to meet them.

[UncleWolf]

Arrival

They know.

Of course they know. We've known that since Dark Step told us what was going to happen. They deserved to anyway. They're our sons after all.

Perhaps, bu-

No buts, my mate. It's too far past that point now. Lets just enjoy the occasion. We don't have many of our own that do this.

You're right. This isn't a time for worry. What was I thinking?

Oh...just dragging me off somewhere to ravage me no doubt.

The pair of Wolfen to the right of the carriage are walking arm in arm with spears over their shoulders. They lean together slightly, obviously showing affection for one another. The Male has dark tan fur and wears only a pair of leather trousers. He's shorter for a Wolfen about 6ft in height, but his muscles are easily seen under his fur. His mate is a tall and thin female Wolfen with a light sandy colored fur wearing a vest as well as pants. As they walk side by side, their tails sway back and forth.

Both of them appear to be a little over middle aged for Wolfen, graying on their muzzles, but their ears and eyes tell Lily that they're a wonderfully happy couple.

Spying the halfling, the female lets go of the male and gives a deep bow and a cheery flick of the ears as a wolfen style grin. After all, showing one's teeth would be aggressive. "You must be little Applehill." She says, eyes smiling. "Our son told us much about you. I'm Weavemaker and that's my mate Stonethrower." Dawn Wolf tells the little girl.

[happyturtle]

Arrival

"I know who you are! Pathfinder told us all kind of stories about you," Lily says, and she ignores the bow to jump up and hug Weavemaker. "He's my favourite storyteller, cause Waterstrider tells good stories too, but he tells them faster than Pathfinder does, and Mommy and Daddy's stories don't have Wolfen in them or stories about hunting or adventures." Lily spies Renetta in the midst of her monologue and waves at her. "That's Renetta! Isn't she pretty? She was pretty when she was an elf but she's even prettier now. I hope I can change into a Wolfen when I grow up like Renetta and maybe marry Pathfinder, except that he loves Reelshka now but he says he still loves me and he promised that everything would be okay, but I still think Pathfinder and Waterstrider are the handsomest Wolfen in the whole world and I wish I could marry one of them."

It can be assumed that she will continue babbling excitedly for the entire time the Wolfen visitors are here.

Fortunately for the visitors, Pansy arrives to provide actual directions about where Gamaliel's room is, and where to take the carriage to get as close to it as possible, so that the infirm elf can be helped out by his servant (and secret lover) Paul. The Wolfen, of course, will have no difficulty finding the Forest Huts by scent, if they choose to separate themselves from the party.

[Gullara]

[Arrival]

Renetta looks between the carriage and the wolfen. Deciding to delay the reunion with her mother a bit longer, the welfen moves to stand before her soon to be in laws.

She hesitates, not sure what to say at first. It's suddenly a daunting prospect to speak with them now that she knows they're gods. "It's wonderful to see you again." She almost forgets herself and bares her teeth to smile. That takes so much getting used to. "I'd like you two to meet Flamecrest." She holds the cub up a little higher. Flamecrest peers at her grandparents with her typical wide eyed stare.

[happyturtle]

Elm Cabin >> Campsite

Elm Cabin

"Keo? Hmmm..." Reinholdt bites his tongue, figuratively though before saying anything. He personally hopes it's not her though.

And Jamie already has enough of a power trip.

Still, not his decision. Reinholdt will step over to give Vasilisa a kitty head nuzzle as it gets time to part. "I understand. Hope you find the right one."

(((Oops, missed this post))

Vasi gives goodbye pettings and heads out to speak to more little girls. Anyone can approach her if wanted.

[Gullara]

[In the Lake => Shore]

A certain little dryad walks out of the shallow water. She forgot to take off her tunic before jumping in, and now it's drenched. She starts to pull it off, but pauses before she gets far. Brinika said people are supposed to wear clothes, and she has absolutely no other clothing aside from this tunic. Now what does she do?

Vasi will likely find Salix wringing out the hem of the tunic with a frown on her face. It isn't working very well.

[Reinholdt]

Elm Cabin -> Woods

Reinholdt shifts into human form before stepping out of his cabin, grabbing the crystal given to him earlier along the way. There he heads for the exit to go to HALO nearby woods.

Well given that he's also pulling out a shovel, it seems pretty clear he's intent on burying the crystal. Which is pretty much exactly what he's going to go do before heading to BDD to get a drink. Lots of them. But first, crystal burying.

[Morty]

[Medical Lab]

Wenomir arrives there as per his arrangement with Tobias.

[Arrival]

Brinika is peering at the arriving Wolfen from a distance. What's going on? The tiny goblin is curious.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Toby takes Wenomir into the scanning room in the basement. The room has the proprotions of a golden rectangle and every square inch of the walls and ceiling are covered with Druidic runes. One side of the room features several stone blocks, also covered with runes, arranged like a server room. Toby closes the door, plunging the room into darkness. Feel free to lie down and make yourself comfortable, Wenomir. And say hello to METIS.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

Wenomir lies down. This is all giving him very uncomfortable flashbacks to being strapped to a table, with tubes stuck into his veins and dripping the vicious bile into his bloodstream. But he manages to keep his cool. After all, this time he's here of his own free will and the person behind the machinery is someone he can call a friend.
METIS? What's what?

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Medical Ether Thaumatic Imaging Suite. It's a... magical construct I put together to allow me to scan patients without leaving me too drained afterwards to treat them. The Druid sounds supremely proud. I'm still working on giving her more of a personality, but she's perfectly functional. The room becomes dimly illuminated as long series of runes light up, foxfire green. With just a few simple spells, Toby initiates the full scan.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

Wenomir will remain still and silent during the scan. It helps that he's really patient.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

The full scan takes about six hours to create an in-depth picture of Wenomir's entire body. Toby is mostly concerned with his blood and how the demonic taint is affecting the rest of his body, however, so he spends more time focusing on that. He's looking for anything that might suggest another option for solving the problem, or else anything that might preclude the option of simply removing the demon blood and replacing it with normal blood.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

The scan will yield the following results:
Wenomir's blood seems to consist of two distinct substances. The first one is his normal, human blood. The other one is an unnatural, volatile substance mixed with the natural one. It appears to be inactive, so to speak - it needs to be awakened by certain stimuli. The ichor - which seems to be made up of supernatural essence of entropy - can be awakened when Wenomir smells creatures that are a physical manifestation of some sort of idea - such as demons but also angels or anything of the sort. When it awakens, it directs itself at several organs, nerve clusters and hormone glands, increasing his speed, reflex and concentration. It also seems to give him a sixth sense of sorts when dealing with such creatures.
Tobias will be able to tell that simply removing the demon blood and replacing it with human blood won't work - the demonic essence would cling to any new blood injected into Wenomir's blodstream. It could possibly be extracted from his veins using supernatural means. As Tobias guessed previously, magic related to the idea of order would work well, as it's anathema to the chaotic nature to the demon blood.
((I hope that makes sense. My knowledge of human organism is somewhat accidental. ))

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Toby, breathing hard, slumps against a wall and takes a few minutes to absorb and reflect on the information. The lights go out. Wenomir is free to move around and talk.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

Wenomir doesn't stand up yet, but stretches, feeling sore and stiff after lying down for so long.
How's it looking? He asks.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Well... It's like this. Good news: I have a plan that will probably work. Bad news: I can't do it alone. Better news: I know a cleric of a God of Law and Order that can handle the chaotic essence! Worse news: I need to break him out of prison first. The Druid laughs.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

Wenomir mulls it over. Prisonbreaks aren't really his forte, but if it's the only chance to get rid of the demon blood... damn. On the other hand, he's not comfortable with breaking the law for the sake of his own gain.
What is he in for? And who's holding him? I can help you break him out if that's what it takes.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Well, the dark side of Gods of Law is that all the bureaucratic red tape gets in the way of actually getting stuff done. My friend worked for his city's guard, catching serial killers, and found out one of the higher ups in his church was abusing his authority to experiment on innocent people. The twisted way their laws work meant that he couldn't bring the bastard in for trial, so he asked Reinholdt and myself to help bring him to justice in the way we do best. Then Tony turned himself in, confident that he did the right thing in the eyes of his god, if not his superior mortals. Toby shrugs invisibly in the darkness. Look, he's the prisoner of a corrupt government and he believes that his god will rescue him sooner or later. If you believe in fate, consider the idea that your need for us to bust him out is a sign from that god.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

I don't care about gods and fate, but it's enough that I know we're not letting out an actual criminal, Wenomir says, getting up and stretching. Count me in.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Toby gets to his feet as well. Great. Now, I know you Watchtower folks get your panties into a twist every time you look at Rein, but he's a friend of Tony's and his skills would be helpful, so I'm going to ask him if he wants in. Can you work with him?

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

Wenomir sighs and shakes his head. He was afraid Tobias would say that.
I can bear it if he wants in, he says. He really wants to be rid of this mutation, so he's willing to endure working with Reinholdt.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab]

Great. If you have anyone else you want to bring in, like another stealth specialist or something, I won't say no to more help. Toby opens the door to let them out. Oh, METIS: start working on my half of the ritual.

[Morty]

[Med Lab]

No, I can't think of anyone. Besides, with more than three players this plot might be a tad stretched. I did find a cloak of invisibility recently. It should come in handy, Wenomir says as they step outside.

[FireFox]

[Med Lab > Outside]

Toby deeply inhales the fresh air. All right. I'll make the arrangements, talk to Rein, and then stop by your place. Pack light; Nomopolis is hot this time of year.

[Morty]

[Outside]

Wenomir nods. Understood. And thanks again, he tells Tobias with a nod.