Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tours]
Hector

"The Rot is killing my tree..." comes the voice of the nymph. "It's killed all of my trees and this is the last one. Now it'll die to and I'll die with it."

There comes another sob from the tree.

"I know I'll just be reincarnated from the Dreamheart b-but... I'm afraid. I don't want to lose me."

A sniff.

"I don't recognize you. You seem nicer than the other barghests I've met in the forest. Are you... new?" she asks. New implies, quite clearly, that she wants to know if you are a recently created faerie. Which he is. Recently created faeries are often still a bit more human. Which... honestly doesn't mean a great deal. Humans can be jerks too.

"I don't know if there's anything that can be done for me. Not... not on this side of the fence at least. The Watchers, they have a way to kill The Rot. If you could get it for me, then I might be able to heal my tree."

Oh hey this sounds like a quest. Get the cure for The Rot and save the tree. But how are you going to get past the fence? Especially with so many guards nearby...

What do you do?

Dave

You did it.

You made it out of the forest and you're still alive. And still human. And no parts of you are missing.

There's just one little problem. You have a spider's kiss on your neck. There's a dull ache from it every time you try to think about WHY it's so important that you bring back some tea to the spider. Should you touch it, you'll feel a slightly raised welt and discover that it's tender when you poke at it. You cross a farmer walking along pushing a wheelbarrow on your way toward the village. He raises a hand toward you in greeting, but as he looks closer his eyes go wide with terror!

"Doomed!" he stammers, backing away and dropping his wheelbarrow. Apples roll all over the cobblestone road. He makes a sign with his hands at you, three fingers splayed upward with his other palm cupped over them. Maybe a vague approximation of the crown-and-sunrise symbol? "You are doom-driven! S-stay away!"

And then he flees back toward town, his fruit forgotten.

Well.

That was... a reaction.

You could continue on toward the town square, but something about you really spooked the farmer. If everyone reacts that way then it'll be really hard to gather information.

What do you do?

Carlie

You carefully, respectfully, step into the cathedral of trees.

...

Nothing.

You can feel your heart pounding in your chest. You can see your breath fogging in front of your mouth. You can feel the overwhelming wrongness permeating this place.

Back against the trunk of the tree for fear that you might catch a glimpse of The Thing That Hunts, you wait. Long minutes pass and the horrid cold slowly fades.

Eventually you are alone.

No strange faeries attempt to harass you.

You are free to walk out of the forest and toward the Hamlet. Will you make for one of the outlying farms or cottages? Or maybe into the village itself? Or does the harbor with all of its delicious fresh fish draw your attention?

What do you do?

Khiael

The force blast slams the horror, shattering several of its wriggling spines. It buffets the corpses, halting their forward advance as they're bowled over backwards and doing some significant damage to the barnacle skeleton. And it completely shreds the kelp that was grabbing you. As soon as the sizzling, rotting touch of the kelp is removed the wounds on your body begin rapidly knitting themselves back together.

The horror isn't content with this, however. As more kelp tendrils begin snaking their way back toward you a miasma of congealed time settles around you. Your movements become sluggish and you struggle to move. No doubt the horror hopes that will make you easier to capture again.

"Idiot child. I can hear it in your voice. You still cling to the false hope that the Church will not have you burned. In time you will come to understand that this world means nothing," the horror taunts. "You will DIE and you will see TRUTH."

The two remaining kelp zombies rise again and start shuffling toward you.

How do you survive?
****

Khiael feels like he's moving through mud. His limbs are slowed. His reactions are slowed. Even his thoughts are slowed. But once again he feels the power well inside of him. This isn't how he should be. This is wrong. And he can do something about it, can't he? He defies the reality the horror attempts to impose on him, sundering it. He crouches down, bracing his hooves against the stony sea floor, wings opening wide.

Then he leaps.

Over the zombies, over the kelp fronds, and behind the horror. He whirls around and stabs his claws into the monster's bloated form and dumps the raw, unfocused power of growth into it.

"I can just make myself look human again!" he counters. "I didn't sin! This wasn't my fault! That blasphemous thing FORCED me to touch it! I can just go back to living a normal life and no one has to know!"

[bc56]

Waylaid Tours - Doomed Dave

"What do you mean, doom?" Dave asks. It's a reasonable question. He rubs the bite mark on his neck. Perhaps that's the reason? Is it poisonous? Why would the spider have let him run off then? He has more questions too. "Who lives in that castle? Do you have a phone here? What about tea?"

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tours]
Dave

The farmer doesn't respond to you.

Not about the castle.

Not about the phone.

And certainly not about the tea.

He doesn't expand on what he said about being doomed, either.

Which is a pain.

Now what?

[bc56]

Waylaid Tours - Dave

"Ruuuuude! Maybe you're the doomed one!" Dave moves on, adjusting his shirt so that it's rather less comfortable, but hopefully covers that bite mark. He'd rather not lose his chance to get some information because of a stupid lingering injury. He heads towards the town square to try the same questions again on someone else. Hopefully he can get better answers than "Doomed!"

[5a Violista]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie

Carlie holds her breath as long as she can. Not just with her lungs, but she also puts her hand over her mouth to prevent any gasps from giving away her location. Her heart pounded. She's sure it's a wonder that thing couldn't hear it.

Once it feels safe, she waits a short while longer, just in case it came back. And with the bigger threat gone, her nervousness about being in a fairy ring starts returning.

She slowly leaves the ring of trees, and then carefully steps back over the ring of mushrooms. "That was very kind of you," she tells the fairies in the ring - not actually sure if there were any there. Maybe they were also hiding from that thing. Maybe it had already eaten them.

The bunnygirl jogs - not quite running because she doesn't want to get more exhausted, and not quite walking in case it comes back - in the direction of the Hamlet. The more people, the better, she feels. So, instead of going to one of the farms or cottages, she goes straight to its center. On the way there, she obviously notices how...human everyone is. Her ears and tail really do stand out, don't they? She starts wishing she were one of her human or half-elf or other similar guises right now. But...even then, her state of dress still would stand out, with its rot and tears and holes on her shoulder and chest and the bloodstains. Or maybe the wrapped half-healed injuries combined with the cutlass and mooring hook. Or, the simple fact that she's an outsider would stand out.

...
Obviously, not the harbor. Even in the center of the village, she can still smell the waft of fish. Not quite as awful as the rotten fish earlier, but still it makes her feel a little sick. Going to the harbor would make it too strong.

Once in the village's downtown, she looks around for somebody who looks like they know a lot and aren't incredibly busy. Like maybe a guard or rich person or confident person. "E-excuse me, could you help me?"

[Shadowcaller]

[New Inside - Castilla]

Ilpholin scowls. "I think you do." She grabs the blanket and yanks it off the bed. "And you're just trying to use me to get free."

Or maybe he doesn't. She'd see soon enough. No more places for him to hide though.

[A meeting place]

Can't lie? "I see. Yeah, your method is the same I used a lot. It is the savest way for a trade of informations." he won't mention that lies are possible , too. But it would be extremly hard which even he couldn't do.
"Well then let us beginn. As i said befor your vessel we met caused me trouble. I would like that to stop, but I assume she got someone else drawing the strings. I need to get the snake by the head."

[New Inside - Castilla]

"AHH!" The exposed pixie panics and darts to hide underneath the bed which is just as far as the chain allow them to go.

"No, no! I swear! They just came into the glade and took me in their metal-beasts. I didn't see anything on the way here."

[A meeting place]

"I'm not sure I can say our methods are the same without actually seeing yours, dear customer. But regardless, that does sound like a problem. How do you like this 'head' to be dealt with? There are a great deal of solutions that I can offer. In fact, it would be optimal if you, as something that of course would count as a part of your payment, could share to me your ultimate goal. Then, based on it, I could recommend one of my solutions. Otherwise, I'm afraid I don't really offer options or packages. It's not that kind of business. You would have to simply tell me what you want." Helios pumpkinhead replies as it floats upwards, seemingly never content with just being still.

[Reinholdt]

[Waylaid Tours]
Leah

The storm rages around you.

Currents of time and space buffeting you, trying to rip you free from your current temporal position and cast you anywhere and anywhen else.

But with the anchor in your hand you remain firm.

Eventually the storm dies down and you spy the source.

Describing it is... difficult. A stone, maybe? A stone with something trapped inside it, shapes squirming incomprehensibly. Congealed colour clings to it. Crystals form and melt over its surface.

A stone. A monolith. A tower.

It looms before you, defenseless. You've already breached the only means it had to protect itself.

What do you do?

[Waylaid Tours]
Leah

Leah smiles wickedly once the temporal storm dies down and she spots her prey. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," She says standing up straight. Rebekah was the destructive one, but it never hurt to dabble from time to time.

The catgirl steps forward and swings her artifact mallet at the stone, tearing down the false idol, ripping the tower's foundation from under it and letting it crumble to dust. Many, many times, swinging again and again.

It's basic, but sometimes you just have to hit it very hard with a hammer.

[Deathkeeper]

[Waylaid Tours- Hector]

Hector nods to the dryad.
"Pretty much, yeah. I could try to get it, but they already know about me, and I can't really sneak very well with these things." he indicates his shackles and chains.
"Really wish I could get rid of these. But yeah, I could try to ask my Other to get their cure for you. But I'd need to get over the fence three times. One to get there, one back, and another going back there. Right now I can't even do it once." he looks over at the fence longingly.

[Ionbound]

[Waylaid Tours-Gwyn]

Gwyn squints as soon as her magic takes effect, nearly blinded by the millions of shining strings emanating from the not-Thing and trailing off to who-knows-where. So much so that the has a hard time analyzing the altar beyond just 'this is cursed and will splatter you against a wall'. Finding herself unable to attack the problem of the horrible curse, and hearing the awful squealing of hogs approaching she advances down the other corridor away from the awful sounds.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Nightmare Forest]

Quin nods at Makuro.

"Is there a way we can help you return to your slumber? The Fear changed many things here, and it seems that you are as much a victim as everyone else. We came to try and help those affected, and you are one of them." He holds out an empty palm in a gesture of goodwill. "If it is in our power to help you, we will."

[Morty]

[Nightmare Forest]

"Would you prefer to be asleep, then? Is that true for everyone?" Makuro's wondering if they can reverse the forest by putting the inhabitants back to sleep. The forest's existence does seem linked to the stone water-snake's awakening, since it wasn't awake until recently.

Lapis shifts uncomfortably.

"Sometimes when people get stuck in an enchanted forest they stop being people," the little seraph reports. "I was afraid that might have happened but I didn't want to..."

Say it.

She didn't want to say that they were all gone.

She wanted to hold out hope that someone could be saved.

All of the corpses in the village were a pretty strong indication that there might not be anyone left alive.

"This place makes my tummy hurt... I don't love it even a little." Lapis mutters.

Quin nods at Makuro.

"Is there a way we can help you return to your slumber? The Fear changed many things here, and it seems that you are as much a victim as everyone else. We came to try and help those affected, and you are one of them." He holds out an empty palm in a gesture of goodwill. "If it is in our power to help you, we will."

"We... don't know. We know so little." The snake's rumbling voice has a tone of depressed desperation to it. The poor creature came into existence half-finished, unbidden and unwanted. "The Fear's passage echoes from deeper in the forest. You need to go there and still it. Then everything might go back how it was, asleep. Or so we hope."

[Halae]

Bufopolis

"Uh... Harry? Yeah. Harry. Pretty sure I'm Harry." He nods for a moment, before frowning and looking at the ground. "No, Harry's my brother. I'm Fred." He nods and smiles, turning back to Emily. "How about you? Do you have any Harries? I mean, siblings?" He's pretty badly affected, it seems. Whatever the drink is.

[Bufopolis]

Emily breathes out, "My mother died in childbirth; I never got the opportunity to have any siblings, and the man who adopted me later never had any kids either. I'm an only child." She humors his question despite his inebriation. He probably won't remember her answer come morning anyways.

[Earl of Purple]

Waylaid Tour Aelid the Crow Flock

So all one soul split into... many different pieces. Aelid tries to count herself, but it's a little tiring. A bit like... well, counting sheep.

So, jump down into the water, make a lot of noise and maybe attract a crocodile, wait until there's enough of herself to fly down some vines to climb down, or risk it all and climb down carefully with a body we can't actually feel. Crocodile is straight out. Vines... Is probably the best bet. So she's going to wait until she can grab some vines to help her climb down.

Bufopolis

"Oh. I'm... Sorry to hear that. Siblings are the best. Except when they're the worst. And even then they're still the best." He nods a bit vigorously and nearly falls over, before he catches himself.

Nightmare Forest

"Can you tell us what to expect deeper into the forest?" Always good to have a good idea of what's ahead, so they can be prepared. Of course, a river serpent might not know what lies away from the river.

[Rebonack]

[Nightmare Forest]

Lapis blinks.

"Wait... you WANT to stop existing?" she asks, sounding a bit incredulous.

This has got to be trick of some kind, right? Why would someone want to stop existing? Existing is great! Lapis LOVES existing!

Though...

If a bunch of gross fae want to stop existing Lapis is more than happy to help them achieve that goal.


[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie

Lots of humans here. Lots of humans giving you looks of disgust. Some scowl. Others cover their faces with handkerchiefs and hurry away from you when you approach them.

It isn't a rich person nor a confident looking person that finally talks to you.

Oh no.

It's a beggar seated between two squat, ugly wooden buildings. A beggar dressed in old, tattered clothing. He has notable fin-like ears and fishy scales on his forearms. And, of course, he smells vaguely fishy.

"They won't want to talk to you, sorcerer. Anymore than they might want to talk to me. Just stumbled out of the forest by the looks of you," the vaguely fishy person says. "People like us, we've- Alms for the deformed, sir?"

A small bronze coin is tossed into his ragged hat.

"The King bless your generosity! Anyway, people like us have gotta scrape to get by. We've got a little ramshackle town on the beach toward the forest we do. You might be able to get some help there."

Hmm... That's certainly advice. From a very fishy person. But at least this one didn't throw death magic at you.

You could look into the shanty town on the beach. Or maybe keep trying your luck around here? There's that tavern over there with a sign depicting a harpooned whale hanging over the door. Maybe the taverny folks might help? Oh! And that looks like a large, elaborate church over there! Not a cathedral by any means, but certainly a fairly well maintained chapel. Or temple. Or something. Outside is a young man in a white robe handing out leaflets to people passing by. Maybe the religious folks might help?

What do you do?

Dave

The collar the coat you pilfered from the carriage is actually quite high and includes a neck clasp of sorts. It's rather fancy and would do an admirable job of covering the spider bite on your neck. Should you choose to take that route it may serve you well. At the very least, the fine clothing would make you look more respectable rather than outlandishly out of place.

First? The phone.

"Sorry sir, none as such around here. The woods gobbled up all the lines and our barony here isn't big enough to warrant phone lines."

Second? The castle.

"Oh, you must be new in the Hamlet. That's the Baron's castle, seat of the barony it is. He died recently, though. Very tragic. Word is he sent a letter for an heir to come and take up the title. That was a few months ago. Hopefully the heir didn't die in the treacherous forest. Die or somethin' worse..."

Third? The tea.

"Dry goods shop, right over there. Can't miss it."

Well! It would appear as though your questions have been answered! Now what? Though... hmm... There's a woman over there in tattered clothing with rabbit ears asking around. Wasn't she on the bus, too?

Leah

Occasionally the most direct solution to a problem works the best.

You smash the nexus of the devil's power with the mallet and shatter it! You hear a grinding, shattering sound like glaciers having a profound disagreement as the pillar bursts. For a brief moment there's a flash of colourless light and then-!

The colour pools are gone.

The crystal growths coating everything are gone.

In their place is an iron fence in a rough circle, the King's Seal engraved upon its posts. In the middle of the encircled garden is a single pinprick of scintillating colour. The devil isn't gone. But her foothold on the world has been shattered. It was if she had gripped the lowest rung of reality with her hand, and you just smashed her fingers with a hammer. The devil will likely try to worm her way back into the world, to gradually awaken, but that will take centuries or more.

Nearby you see a small sign pointing to a cobblestone road. The sign reads, 'To the Hamlet'

What do you do?

[Hector]

For a few moments there's silence from the dryad. Then she speaks again, her voice wracked with pain.

"I could destroy one of the fence posts for you. But we should wait until nightfall. Be still, and maybe the guards will forget that you're here."

That sounds like a good plan, right?

A plan we can get back to, though. Mostly because-

You are now a human without a shadow.

Now standing before you and offering simple hospitality are Mary and her husband Thomas. Their three children have been shooed into the other room so talk of the forest and its horrors won't scare and/or entice them.

"Alright then, lad. Hector, was it? What happened to you out there in the forest? Do you have any news from the lands beyond it?" he asks.

It... might not be a great idea to tell him that your shadow was turned into a black dog.

What do you do?

Gwyn

You flee down the path of meat.

It squelches under your shoes and makes disgusting spurting noises. Like walking through wet mud.

The light quickly dies off to nothing. Thankfully your orb of light provides sufficient illumination to show you the way to safety.

Or to show you the fact that the tunnel just ahead is full of... heads. Calling them heads probably isn't totally accurate. They're pear-shaped masses of meat budding off the surface of the tunnel, covered in muttering fanged mouths and black, spider-like eyes. They sway gently back and forth, filling the tunnel with unintelligible murmuring. You're suddenly unsure whether or not the path with all the pigs would have been safer.

The tunnel continues on beyond the undulating growths, but it vanishes around a corner that blocks your view.

What do you do?

Aelid

You decide to wait. It takes... an hour or so. And it's just awful to watch. But by the time the process is finished, your puppet will have vomited up a number of crows equal to its own mass. The task complete, it looks... unhealthy. Kind of emaciated. Not quite dead or skeletal, but certainly not well. As a result of this, though, your murder of crows is pretty substantial. Dozens of crows! Easily enough to fetch vines for your body to hang onto as you fly them down to the mire below.

The sucking, oozing mire.

It's a long, slow, grueling slog. But you're making headway. Eventually you reach the edge of the bog and trudge your puppet into a dryer part of the forest-

-that's filled with spider webs. Spider webs everywhere. Sheets of sticky silk are strung between trees. Across the ground. Over stones and mushrooms. EVERYWHERE! There would be absolutely no escaping them. And like the webs inside the tree, these too are littered with bones and desiccated bodies.

Maybe NOW is the time for fire?

What do you do?

Khiael

The shell of the horror warps and cracks and splinters as tumors begin erupting out of it, swelling and distorting its already grotesque shape further. A mass of kelp slams into you from the side, hurling you away as you feel something crack inside your chest. A spike of pain shoots through you, but you fight it down. You always fight it down. You've been hurt worse than this before, you just need a few moments to mend.

"Idiot child. You still cling to lies and fables. Allow me to free you from them," the horror intones as you feel a destructive force coalescence around you. There's a brief feeling of wrenching as it tries to cast many small parts of your body several seconds into the future. While leaving most of you behind. This is, of course, tremendously unhealthy. The water around you is filled with cavitating bubbles and perforated stone as the temporal assault washes over you.

To make matters worse, the two remaining reanimated minions are upon you! The bloated corpse attempts to seize you with its clammy, sausage-like fingers while the half-eaten cadaver lashes out with dozens of toothy eels that seem interested in fresher sources of flesh.

How do you survive?
****

Khiael gives a shrill cry of pain as bits of his body decide to go on a short vacation. Pockmarked with wounds, he beats his wings and flings himself backwards, trailing a cloud of billowing ink.

Billowing ink full of whispering words and gnashing teeth.

The two corpses bumble right into it as the cherub dives out of their reach, the jaws ripping at them mercilessly.

"I won't die-" Khiael begins, only to gag up another cloud of ink. He wipes his mouth with one arm, glaring at the horror with the side of his face that's less marred. "I won't die here. I'll give you no satisfaction, monster!"

Then with two of his good arms he raises his hands and makes a rending motion at the sack of accursed flesh.

Space bisecting the abomination displaces vertically by a few inches-
-and then rips apart violently horizontally in a bid to bifurcate the horror into two halves.

[5a Violista]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie

Honestly, the kinds of looks and treatment she's getting is a little nostalgic.
Not really the good kind of nostalgic, but rather 'this reminds me of my homeworld' kind of nostalgic: nearly everyone except her is human and getting ostracized because of that. If this place is anything like her home town, the church is probably decent but wants nothing to do with her. Humans are nice and all, but...because of how accepting most of the Nexus is, she's almost forgotten how xenophobic monocultures can be.

Based on past experience in similar situations, she decides against continuing to look for help here from the tavern or the church or...etc. Again, if its anything like where she comes from, she already knows where this is going. If only she hadn't run into that fish-mage-person,, she could blend in...

Once the beggar starts speaking to her, Carlie stops and listens to him. She holds her breath as long as she can. "I-I see," she says. Being called a sorcerer, honestly, is something she doesn't like. Magic-users isn't really something she wants to identify with. Beaches are probably her favorite place, but she seriously hopes it doesn't smell like fish there, too. "I'll head there."

Just before leaving, she asks one more question. "Could you tell me what you mean by 'sorcerer'? I...don't think I am one by any definition I know of." No. Magical Girl doesn't count as sorcerer, because she really doesn't want to be a magic-user so she's treating Magical Girl as more of a title than a descriptor. Neither does 'shapeshifter' even though it technically uses what her homeworld considers magic: it doesn't count because she's a knight, goshdarnit. And a veterinarian. And a private investigator. And...a whole list of things. But not a magic-user.

Once she receives her answer, she wishes him luck and goes towards the shanty town, dreading the smell that's probably there and hoping she can stand it without going into another vomit-fit.

[Reinholdt]

[Waylaid Tours]
Leah

It's gone...
It's finally gone.

Well, driven into a centuries long dormancy, but good enough. Leah laughs. And laughs and laughs, slumping onto her mallet for a moment and resting.

With all the colour gone, those husks were probably crumbling or disappeared already. Probably. She could go hunt them down to be sure. But they've probably already fled the area even if she did go looking. She'll just gamble that they're dead and the timeline has reconciled properly.

There's a hamlet to go to. Maybe finally get some help for that bus accident. No wait. Was that today? How many days has it been? Months? Years? Or had it been less than a minute? It was exceptionally hard to tell given the bus was nowhere in sight.

The hamlet being her only lead, Leah heads in that direction anyways. She'll just have to remember to leave her tomb here later, along with her possessions and a slab.

[Ionbound]

[Waylaid Tours-Gwyn]

Gwyn looks deeply concerned by the squelching sounds her boots make as she walks and the heads growing on the walls. Despite that, she stays the course, walking with a careful, measured pace down the corridor and around the corner, gritting her teeth to stay focused, humming an old song a friend taught her to drown out the whispering voices, and staying ever vigilant in case of ambush.

[bc56]

Waylaid Tour - Dave

That's helpful. Dave looks for a bathroom (he doubts they have indoor plumbing in this dump) to change into the rest of the fancy clothes. He's not sure he has enough information to pull off an impersonation of the missing heir, but at least he's wearing clean clothes now. His next stop is the dry goods store. He'll need to purchase a container of tea. The gold coins should come in handy for that, although they might be too valuable.

[Deathkeeper]

[Waylaid Tours- Hector]

Hector looks away, wishing he didn't have to recall this.
"Our bus got taken out by some thing in the forest. I didn't see it. Then I spent hours wandering around the woods being chased by things with too many heads and crawling through thorns. Inside is doing better than it was last year, at least. But if you don't mind me asking. Um. Why do you people...live here?"
It seems to Hector that any sane person would have gathered their fighters and led a charge to get literally anywhere else after spending a month here.

[Earl of Purple]

Waylaid Tours Aelid and Crows

Ah, spiders. Aelid's a little worried about the state of her husk-puppet, but there's not much she can do about it. Except... She has the puppet open its mouth and one of the crows tries to force its way back in.

If that works, she'll do it a few more times... But I doubt it'll work. She has her body take out the lighter and flick it on, pointing it at the webs and forest before her as the crows focus, turning the little dinky flame into a burst of flames to burn a path through the trees.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Hillside Rambling]

Vivi looks at her, momentarily stymied. "...How many, dear?" Vivi turns... and starts to pace. "It is okay... we are both magical people, in a sense. We live in a land of great wonders. We can solve this. If you are a separate mind... if you are your own person, as I believe you to be..." Vivi seems to be concentrating intensely. "We just need to get you your own body. Or make you one. We need something for your spirit, your essa, to inhabit. And then we need to draw you forth."

[Hillside Rambling]

Lucy's eyes widen. "You can do that?"

No no, that's not the most immediate matter to hand. If you're being honest with her, you need to keep being honest. "There are four of us, not counting Sylvess, because o-of course he's real. I mean-" Lucy sighs. "Is this really something that can be done?"

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie

The fishish guy looks a bit puzzled. "Oh I... uh. I assumed since you have a-"

He makes motions above his head with his hands. Probably referring to your ears.

"-a deformity and since you made it out of the forest without being killed you must be a sorcerer. But, uh, hey, none of the business, right?"

His tone of voice suggests that he isn't totally convinced. Deformities often, but not always, suggest that someone is a sorcerer. A link to the otherworldly manifesting outwardly. Sometimes people are lucky and get something that's easy to hide. Other times they get giant rabbit ears.

Regardless! Making your way down to the shanty town isn't terribly difficult. There's a low, grassy bluff overlooking the bay's southern end where a ramshackle set of docks have been built populated with equally ramshackle boats. A few mostly human looking figures are fishing off the dock or repairing nets. Atop the bluff most of the homes are built, if built is even the proper word. They're absolutely derelict things scrabbled together from bits of drift wood, old tarp, sections of rusted ship hull plating, and other such garbage. Most people here appear to be working at one thing or another. Fishing, building, tending gardens, carving wood... There's a rather iffy looking blacksmith furnace over there. And the unpleasant scent of a tannery. And what is PROBABLY a tavern of some kind considering the inebriated collection of people lounging around outside. There's also a church. It isn't a grand stone building like the one in town, just a simple little white washed wood affair. Atop the steeple is a simple metal holy symbol.

Sadly, given that there's quite a bit of fishing going on, it smells like fish here as well.

What do you do?

Leah

The devil banished, you at last step back onto the Old Road. It's ancient, pitted cobbles are just as uneven and marred as you recall from the bus ride. The forest, just as foreboding.

Then it gets worse.

The temperature begins to drop, just as it had before the bus hit... whatever it had collided with. Your breath begins to fog as a heavy sense of foreboding and terror settles over the road.

Something is coming.

Some thing is coming.

You have to hide. Whatever this thing is, it will kill you if it finds out. Looking around, you can make out three places you could flee into. There's an old shack nearby, nearly falling apart. A small heap of skulls is piled next to it. A large outcrop of stone stands at the edge of the road, a hollow near its base. As you gaze into the darkness you can see something glistening in the gloom. A chunk of the bus' body is leaning up against several trees nearby offering shelter. It is smeared with crimson.

What do you do?

Gwyn

There isn't any ambush, of course. Not as such.

The meat-polyps just decide to attack you as you try to move past them.

Several lash out to bite at you while those out of reach continue gibbering mindlessly. They aren't particularly strong or swift, nor are they able to move from where they're rooted in place. But they're quite persistent in their attempts to gnash at you. Wading through them won't be particularly easy and they begin lunging at you the moment you're in reach. Maybe just standing back and blasting them would be the easiest solution? But then, if anything is attached to them it might know that they've been destroyed.

How do you survive?

Dave

No bathrooms as such, but finding an out of the way alcove to change your clothing really doesn't prove to be terribly difficult. By the time you're finished you look quite noble and dapper.

Then to the dry goods store! The fellow tending to it is wearing a plain white (or at least at some point it was white, it's grubby now) shirt and and sports a waxed handlebar mustache. He's probably wearing pants of some kind, but his lower body is unseen behind the counter. You HOPE he's wearing pants back there.

"Ah, tea? Of course, m'lord," he replies, pulling out a small box from one of the shelves and placing it on the counter. "You, ah, you aren't the baron's heir are you? Haven't seen you around before and you look mighty fancy."

Very fancy!

How do you respond to the shop owner's question?

Hector

"The Thing That Hunts..." Mary says ominously.

"You had a bus?" Thomas asks. "The world on the other side of the forest must be doing better than we imagined if they still have engines and fuel. A shame that the Thing destroyed it. That monster destroys anything on that road. Nearly impassible, it is. You're fortunate that none of the adversaries out in the woods got you."

Haha...

Yeah...

Got through there just fine, didn't you?

The couple looks puzzled at your question. "Getting through the corrupted forest is no small task. You have to take the side roads through the woods where the Thing doesn't hunt. It's easy to get lost and the fae twisting everything up doesn't help. We have our homes and our lives here. No sense in uprooting everything and risking it all."

It doesn't sound like they know anything about Inside. This must be a new area that just got ripped up and plopped into the Nexus.

That happens sometimes.

Aelid

Eating crow doesn't work.

You feel slightly silly for trying.

The fire, however, works great. Maybe too great.

See, spider web is tremendously flammable. All those little silk strands are incinerated in a nearly explosive fashion, the blast-wave threatening to knock your puppet right off its feet and into the mud. Several crows are likely knocked out of the air as well if they're too close to the webs. But!

That clears your way!

And considering the horrible screeching, chittering sounds it upset the spiders are well.

However, you can see a sign in the distance pointing the way to the Hamlet. Maybe if you run at full tilt through the spider's nest you might be able to get out before they find you. After all, spiders without their webs are a bit impaired, right?

What do you do?

Khiael

As you jerk your hands apart there's a disgusting crack as the horror splits in two, filling the water with foul smelling sludge. It deflates to the sea floor, now little more than a heap of shattered shell and flabby meat. Without the horror to animate them the two corpses collapse, the kelp clinging to their bodies yellowing and dying.

You're still breathing hard, water rushing through your gills. You can feel all the holes horror tore into your body slowly mending. Unhelpfully, all the bits of you that got sent into the future by the horror pop back into existence nearby and settle to the ocean floor where little fish and crabs begin picking at them. You watch them for a few minutes as you heal. It's... weirdly soothing. You cough another cloud of ink, then turn away from the ruins of the horror.

The under sea cave splits again.

One path leads downward, full of deep darkness and flashes of living light. One path leads upward, the water's surface shimmering at the mouth of another cavern within the stone. One path leads forward, the bottom lined with sand and swaying sea grass fed by shafts of light pouring down through chimneys in the stone. You can see eerie, toothy fish plying through the dark. You can see vague shapes skittering about the walls in the cavern above. You can see small lumps burrowing about in the sand.

What do you do?
****

Khiael feels... weird. The itchy feeling of his body knitting itself back together isn't new. He's survived things that should have killed him before. He's pretty sure hitting that rock wall earlier is such an example. No, that's not what feels weird. It's the sense of... euphoria? Accomplishment? That comes along with his reliquary filling up a little bit when the horror and its minions are slain. He's not even totally sure what a reliquary IS. Let along how killing a devil-corrupted monster should fill it up. He can tell it's a desirable thing. But... he's conflicted on whether or not it is actually good.

Touching that Icon had turned him into a devil.

And anything a devil would naturally desire must be bad, right?

What he really needs to do is find someone who is knowledgeable about these things. Preferably someone who wouldn't kill him on the spot. He knows some of the heterodox churches consort with adversaries that are deemed to be sufficiently sympathetic to Royalty. Isn't that what he is? He doesn't want to eat or corrupt anyone! But at the same time... the priest back home never had anything nice to say about the heterodox churches. Are they really trustworthy? Or are they really just heretics pretending to be mostly faithful?

...frankly he could use a bit of a break, too.

He's been smashed, whipped, blasted, ripped, and nearly drowned recently.

And he may or may not have been incinerated so that a cherub could be created.

He picks the sandy path. Those little burrowing things couldn't be any bigger than crabs. It's probably fine.

With a flick of his tail, Khiael picks the middle way.

[bc56]

Waylaid Tour - Dave

"I could be. I'm not sure if I'm in the right place. I've been wandering in those woods for some time, and I might be lost. What was the baron's name here?" Hopefully that doesn't sound too suspicious. The name is one of the pieces of information Dave needs to pull off this caper, the most important piece, in fact. He can't convince anyone he's the heir to a family if he doesn't know the family's name.

[Deathkeeper]

[Waylaid Tours- Hector]

Hector just sort of...awkwardly stands there for a bit.
"Alright then. But...how am I supposed to get home, then?" he asks nervously. He suspects the answer might be "you don't."

[5a Violista]

[Waylaid Tours]
Carlie

She nods and doesn't say anything more to the fishish guy. He didn't really explain what a 'sorcerer' is, except that they have animal parts...but not all people with animalparts are sorcerers? Based on what he said, that sort-of implies he's not a sorcerer. Just they have 'deformities' and strong powers of some kind. And, she found out they're not really human supremacists here...they just are xenophobic against humans that look different because of 'deformities'. And she's assumed to be human. Good to know.
Carlie says a 'goodbye' to to the kind - but also smelly - man and goes to the shanty town.

Oh, geez. Does this whole forest area smell like fish? As much as she'll probably want her sense of smell after getting out of this area, she's really regretting bringing it back, back then. She could have survived seven months without her sense of smell, right?

Carlie does her best to avoid breathing deeply through her nose.
And she holds the two weapons she had in such a way that it definitely doesn't look like she's going to be using them anytime soon.

She keeps the blacksmith in mind for later - it might be a good place to get something; she's done blacksmithing before and so maybe if she helps out she could get something in exchange.

Meanwhile, this church feels a lot nicer than the other one did. They probably have some spare cloth, so that she can wear some clothes that aren't falling apart, and possibly something to clean the unhealed wounds - or maybe a healer if that's the sort of thing they have here, and it's possible they have some sort of incense or burnt offerings or something to drown out the smell. And food or drink? No, wait, the people here look pretty poor and probably most of what they have to eat is just fish. She'll have to check out the tavern afterwards because she doubts the church would have much on hand to give to a foreigner.

Regardless, clothes and information is the first priority, followed soon by drink to make up for this cold sweat she still has and favors so that people would be more willing to help her, and then food afterwards.

So, she heads into the church.

[Earl of Purple]

Waylaid Tours Aelid the Crow Flock

Well, it might feel silly but there's nobody around to see- with this many eyes, Aelid's pretty sure she'd have spotted someone if there were- and it was worth a try.

As was burning her way through the spider webs. More flammable than she'd realised; she thought maybe the webs would be damp, or that the fungi wouldn't be flammable. She's never really tried burning either, but now she knows it works really well. Hopefully well enough that she's got time to run through the burnt-out forest before the spiders get her. Two crows land on each of the husk's shoulders, one facing forward to keep an eye out for obstacles she can't otherwise evade and one facing backwards to see how close any pursuers get. The others keep flying in a flock around the husk, though if she had to choose between saving a crow and saving her human body, she'd pick the crow. Especially if it's the crow still clinging to her camera.

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tour]
Dave

"Ah, well... This here Hamlet is all part of the Erebus Estate," the clerk replies, rubbing his mustache thoughtfully.

That was, in fact, mentioned on the deed. Castle Erebus and its surrounding estate. The harbor, the Hamlet, the farms, even the wholesome stands of lumber to be found outside woods overtaken by Rot. All those belong to the Erebus Heir. And since no one has any idea what the heir looks like...

You could be him!

If you really wanted to be.

Only problem is you no nothing about these people, this area, or what's going on. It would take a pretty impressive act to keep it up.

"So that would have been Baron Elod Erebus," the clerk concludes.

What do you say?

Hector

"Back through the woods?" asks Mary.

Thomas gives his head a sad shake. "You're lucky you made it through at all, lad. It had to have been the work of providence. There are ships that visit here every year in the late spring. Next one won't be for a few months yet. But they sail all about doing their trade. We dare not venture out into the sunless sea, not with the little boats we have here. But maybe you could catch a ride on the fleet?"

Well.

You have some options, it would seem. Try to find a way back on your own, simply remain here, or wait for the large and heavily armed merchant fleet to arrive.

What do you do?

Carlie

Thus, you have escaped from one source of fish-smell and blundered into another source of fish-smell. Fish seem to be inescapable here. Which is quite unfortunate for you.

The holy symbol on this chapel is different from the first one. This one looks like a T with a three-pointed crown at the top. The one at the first church you saw was a central ring with four T's extending from it. This one is just a simple wood object held together with a few nailed-on metal plates. The other was all-metal and gilded with gold. The level of fanciness here is quite a bit lower. They're still kind of the same symbol, just different versions of it.

You push the door to the chapel open and find yourself in a rather meager little building with a few windows and candles for light. It's swept and tidy, its pews straight, its alter clean with a white cloth laid across it. The source of the cleanliness becomes apparent in a hurry. There's a woman here in a white robe with a simple white cloth belt and a red sash over her shoulder and opposite hip. The sash is embroidered with a T in yellow thread. She's holding a broom, a simple, humble thing with a driftwood handle and stiff grass stocks bound tightly by cord for the head. The broom, perhaps unsurprisingly, is being used for sweeping.

Imagine that.

Oh.

And she has straight black hair with a pair of black-furred rabbit's ears sticking up out of her hair. That's pretty notable.

One each twitches when you step in. She stops her cleaning and turns toward you. "Peace be upon-" she gives a little gasp upon seeing you, golden-yellow eyes widening. "King's mercy what happened to you? Get inside we need to get those wounds cleaned."

She's already moving toward the back of the chapel to fetch a little first aid kit.

What do you do?

Aelid

You run.

You run as fast as your puppet's legs can carry it. Your crows are just so much faster, flitting from tree to tree. Why do human bodies have to be so slow?

You can hear the spider.

You catch glimpses of it between the trees.

And then disaster strikes.

You didn't spot a root sticking out of the earth in time. The foot of your puppet catches it and falls. Hard. Hopefully the birds perching on the body's shoulders take off in time. Sadly, this provides ample opportunity for the spider to show itself.

Calling it a spider is... well. Maybe not wrong.

A spider is perhaps the thing it is least dissimilar to. Hovering above its back is a ring of twisted black chitin flickering with green and purple iridescence. Four spidery legs extend from its compass points while four spokes extend to its central hub. It's full of distressingly human eyes. It also isn't connected to the rest of the creature. Now, imagine a long slender fish sticking through a black carapace loop. Except more of the glinting chitin growing from the ring to meet the fish and cover it in segmented armor. Where a fish might have fins there are instead four more spidery legs. Its face looks disturbingly human, save for the spider-fangs on either side. And eight large black eyes. Where a spider might have pedipalps it instead has a pair of completely normal looking human arms. Wheels churn about it, spinning silvery thread.

The weaver-spawn pounces at your human body with great speed, a blur of black, flashes of purple and green. With two of its large legs it tries to seize the body and feel it with its too-human hands.

"Oh. Teehee. You went and barfed up all your hopes and dreams," the spider titters. "Don't you know not to accept food and drink for a hag, silly birds?"

The ophan likely intends to eat your puppet.

And you need your puppet to get into the Hamlet. You are certain of this.

But how can you hope to get your human body away from this devil before it vitrifies your insides and sucks them out?

How do you survive?

Khiael

You swim down the sandy path thick with sea grass, keeping an eye on all the little lumps in the sand shifting about on the off chance that you're about to be accosted again. You're really hoping to avoid any further accosting. Your day has had more than enough accosting already for your liking. Two horrors, two dryads, three zombies, one case of spontaneous combustion, one near drowning. That's all the accosting you can handle, thanks. You need something nice, quiet, and non-threatening.

The sand shifts again.

You feel your body tense, ready for whatever attack might follow.

Then the sand explodes in a swirling cloud as you're assaulted by-!

-a school of totally harmless cleaner fish.

The begin nibbling at you as you swim, plucking off bits of dead flesh from your earlier injuries. It kind of tickles. You snort a small jet of bubbles, trying your best not to laugh.

You're mostly successful.

Mostly.

Soon the top of the tunnel gives way to sandy cove of clear water and sea grass. The cleaner fish abandon you as you exit the cave, swimming back into their domain. A multitude of small fish flit between the waving green weeds, spooked by the shadow of something large (you) swimming past. You stick your head above water and breath in a lungful of air, feeling the odd sensation of water draining out of lungs through the gills hidden along your back and neck. Bobbing with your head above the waves, you see several things.

From the sandy beach of the cove a meandering trail leads up the cliff face and into the forest. Alternatively, you could walk along the beach toward the Hamlet. Or you could swim the rest of the way.

What do you do?
****

Tickling fish.

Tickling fish are so much better than horrors.

Khiael swims into the shallows, climbing out of the water and shaking himself off. Drops of water and ink go flying everywhere. He still aches a little bit from being dissected earlier, but that's feeling mostly better. Now standing with the water lapping at his ankles, he weighs his options.

First?

Swimming.

Swimming is nice, he thinks, stretching two pairs of arms and wings as he yawns his toothy mouth wide, the last of the water draining from his lungs. But he's had enough of swimming for now. Placing two hands on his hips and using the other two to shield his eyes (the ones in his head at least) he peers off down the beach. It looks like the cove ends in a rock point. He still can't see the hamlet from here. So he would have to climb over the point, swim around it, or FLY over it.

A glance at his wings leaves him feeling uncertain.

He recalls from home that there were always lookouts keeping their eyes peeled for flying threats. That's a good way to meet a cannon-ball.

Or... he could go back up to the woods. The woods full of angry dryads.

...a walk on the beach sounds really nice right now, actually.

The cherub wades out of the water and sets off down the beach, leaving little cloven hoof-prints in the sand. Every now and again a gull resting on the sand takes off or a crab flees for the cover of its burrow. But otherwise it is peaceful enough here. Hopefully.

...heaps of kelp are given LOTS of space.

[bc56]

Waylaid Tour - Dave

Dave needs to decide how he's "related" to the baron. "He was my great-uncle," he replies. The baron probably didn't have many close relatives if he needed to send for his heir. "I'd best be off now. I'd better not keep the folks at the castle waiting." Hopefully he doesn't seem too suspicious. The fact that nobody knows the name or appearance of the true heir is a remarkably useful coincidence.

[Deathkeeper]

[Waylaid Tours- Hector]

Well. Hector can't stay here. Sooner or later someone will notice that he doesn't have a shadow.
"I suppose I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it. Tonight I think I'd rather just sleep." and maybe speak to a certain dog. Or not.

[Rebonack]

[Waylaid Tours]
Dave

"Ah, well, I hope your time here is a prosperous one, m'lord," the clerk replies.

It sounds like he's buying it.

As you move off toward the castle, purpose in your stride, people move aside and watch you pass.

Is this the new baron?
Where are his guards?
Did he alone survive the journey through the forest?
What will the laws set in place by the steward still stand?
What of news from the outside?

The people all wonder as you pass.

Trekking to the castle takes some time, giving you ample opportunity to consider exactly what you're doing here. What do you know of nobility? Or law? Or the local religion? Or any of the other forms of madness plaguing this place? The woods were filled with abominations feared by the local population. Can you root them out?

At least you reach there doors of Castle Erebus where two halberd wielding guards stand. One looks to be dozing while the other is gazing vacantly off toward the sunless sea.

What do you do?

Hector

"We'll let you stay here for tonight at least, lad," Thomas says. "But if you want to stay longer, you'll need to work. There's plenty to do around the farm if you're willing."

Oh boy.

Manual farm labor! That sounds like fun, right? There are probably worse things, considering.

"We don't have any extra rooms, so you would need to sleep out in the hay loft at the barn," Mary says apologetically. "We can spare a few extra blankets. It'll be dry and warm at least."

And far enough from the house that you can sneak away to let your shadow into the Hamlet. Surely nothing untoward could result from that?

Khiael

As you walk along the beach, enjoying your brief respite from the misfortunes visited upon you over the past few hours, you come upon a curious sight.

A scrap of metal. A burning tire. A nearby culvert in the side of the cliff releasing a steady flow of rancid water and chunks of meat.

And a woman.

You remember her from the bus. She had been sitting next to you and you had gotten to talking. She, like you, was a recent transplant from outside the Nexus. Like you, she had escaped a world on the brink of disaster. The trials were different. The dangers were different. But you both had a sense of kinship. You both shared the things that gave you hope. Clara?

Her name was Clara.

She looks unconscious. Maybe injured? She can't heal like you can, maybe she hit her head when she landed? If she's hurt maybe... You had tried to mend someone else before with your sorcery. It had worked. A broken arm set right in minutes. But word got out and you were punished sorely for it. Maybe you can fix her?

As you stand watching, one of the lumps of meat from the culvert begins to move of its own accord. A slithering thing of raw muscle, ivory teeth, and lashing tentacles. With speed impossible for its awkward shape it skitters toward Clara and buries itself in the side of her neck. So fixed upon her were you that you didn't spot the crawling flesh until it was nearly upon her.

"Clara!"

Her eyes snap open, both at the meat's impure touch and the sound of your voice. She scrabbles at the meat with her fingers desperately, but it's too late.

It has already fused to her skin, now looking like a great tumor between her neck and shoulder.

She twitches and convulses as shapes crawl under her skin, her limbs motivated by some alien invading will.

"Wh-what... What's happening t-to me..." Clara stammers as she's forced to her feet, the color of raw meat spreading. "Kyle? Is... that you? Help. P-please help me."

What do you do?
****

The Old Flesh.

Of course this place would be plagued by the Old Flesh as well.

Khiael stands transfixed with horror, losing a few precious moments. Of course there would be demons lurking out in the woods. Why wouldn't there be? How many people had been twisted by the forest and then died awful deaths, leaving behind dark stains on reality rejected by devils and fae and God alike? Demons, formless and filled with malice, they would possess and taint whatever they could touch. The flesh of men. The flesh beasts. The flesh of monsters. They didn't care. They would take any physical vessel they could find to spread their hatred and misery.

He has to do something. He has to act fast or Clara is going to be worse than dead. He hurries over to the afflicted woman, keeping a respectful distance. He wasn't sure if it could steal his own meat while he was still alive, but he knew what it could do to humans.

"Clara listen we need to get you to a priest," Khiael says quickly. "You've been demon possessed and it's going to keep calling more demons until they overwhelm you. That's just a small one, fight it and don't let it control you. If anymore come I'll keep them away, okay?"

Suddenly the distance to the Hamlet feels daunting.

Khiael begins leading Clara down the beach away from the rancid pit the demon had crawled from. Should any more come slithering out of that noxious abyss, Khiael is going to take a page from the horror's book and cast random chunks of it into the future.