[Nexus] Inside 44

[Halae]

[Inside The Mech]

"You activated the emergency switch, which I would have done anyways once I finished doing diagnostics, so you didn't do anything bad," Michael says, "I'm surprised you haven't asked how I control it. Seems to me like that'd be the first thing you'd want to know."

[Shadowcaller]

[Inside The Mech]

The woman blinks again, "Yes, how does it work?" She asks, staring at him.

[Halae]

[Inside The Mech]

Michael tips his head forward to show the woman the sockets implanted into his skull, "These have jacks that hook directly into my head. Let's me control the whole thing with my mind as if it was my own body. It's a bit odd to get used to, and not a lot of people are good at it, but I'm not bad, myself."

"What we have in here is the manual stuff - my cockpit has an emergency generator so that I can disengage from it, but everything in here is for if my neural network isn't interfacing properly. The manual override on that wall there lets me control it with my hands, though that's slow and crude, really."

[Eadin]

[A street!]

And so our heroes end up in a street in inside on a quest to find one of those priest persons!
A dreadful task indeed!

"Right, so where to best find a priest? Will any preist do or do they need to be the Emperor's priest?"

[Morty]

[Soul Quest- Warehouse]

You must leave immediately. It tries to prod her. The first time likely goes through her. But a second attempt she just may feel. It has ghost-touch abilities.

The person running toward Sophie comes to a screaching halt. Then she can hear him trying to run back the way he came.

[Soul Quest- Warehouse]

"All right, all right, I'm going." Irene says, moving towards the door.
Slowwwwwly. Hoping Sophie can catch the perp or at least hide out of the way.

I said, hold it, Sophie says, threateningly this time.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

"There isn't any other kind of Priest, silly," Freddie laughs.

Though after a moment or two he realizes, "Wait... Are people who lead worship of various gods called priests too?"

Oh Freddie.

You're so silly.

"Eerr... well. In that case I guess we have to find a Priest of the Emperor. I guess I can ask the phone?"

Good thing it's smarter than he is!

He fiddles with it... lessee... maps button... now just talk at it, right? "Directions to a Priest of the Emperor."

*Boop!*

A map pops up!

With three different destinations marked.

"Huh... I was hoping we would just get one... But I guess nothing can ever be simple in the Nexus, right?"

[Eadin]

[Street]

"Not all og them, but it's a very common title."
And then the phone shows a map!
The look on Cat's face is pretty funny.
"Wow! Didn't know it could do that."
So much info in one little thing.
Llet's visit all of them, one will probable be the right place."
Unless the phone lies.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

Hopefully the phone isn't lying.

That would shatter all of Freddie's hopes and dreams.

"Right. Okay. The first one is this way!" Freddie declares as he sets off.

About half a block later he turns around and says, "Eerr... no. Wait. It's this way."

He's still trying to figure out how to read this thing!

Cut him some slack!

Off he goes! "Hopefully it won't take too long to find the right spot."

The right spot will be the last one they visit of course.

[Eadin]

[Streets]

Cat frowns at Freddie's antics.
This will be a long trip.
She'll sigh and silently follow him, her mind seemingly elsewhere.
Let's hope the other places don't find out what Cat and Freddy realy are.
Exorcisms are not fun.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

Fredrick will refuse to ask fro directions, insisting on trying to figure out the map function on his new form.

Maybe Cat should convince him to poof into Winifred. Maybe she would be willing to ask someone who actually knows how to find the place they're looking for.

About five minutes later Freddie finds himself staring at a dead-end street.

Nothing here but four garbage cans, an old dumpster, some broken crates, and a dead pigeon.

Fredrick sighs.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," he insists. "It should be right around here somewhere..."

[Eadin]

[Streets]


Cat seems to be lost in thought.
After a while she'll become annoyed and try to take the map from Freddy.
"Give me that."
If she succeeds, she'll try to lead them to the right location.
She's pretty good at map reading.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

"Hey!" Freddie protests upon having his phone snatched.

Though... he doesn't fight to get it back. Nope.

He falls silent really quickly.

As Cat is looking down at the map she might notice out of the corner of her eye a few drops of something white dripping to the ground and causing spider-webs of frost to go creeping across the pavement.

And should she look up?

A rather enormous toad-like Ice Troll has its tongue lashed around Freddie's neck as it hoists him toward its perch on a nearby rooftop.

Well!

That would explain why he was being so quiet! He can't breath!

[Eadin]

[Street]

If looks could kill, the troll would be dead.
Unfortunately, Cat does not have deathray-eyes.
A shame.

Instead, she'll growl and transform.
And Sphinx-Cat will leap for the troll's throat!
Rawr!

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

When the enraged sphinx leaps at it the Troll drops Freddie rather roughly to the ground before leaping itself! Away from Cat and toward another nearby rooftop.

In its wake it leaves a stream of what looks like water filled with far too many bubbles. The frothy water drops down toward her and will crystallize and expand on contact with anything solid.

Should it land on her Cat may find herself frozen in a shell of ice.

Hmm...

Seems this Troll is stronger than the previous ones!

And that's no good.

Freddie, meanwhile, is gasping for breath! He seems to have forgotten that he doesn't have to breath.

[Eadin]

[Streets]

Cat leaps gracefully... and misses the troll!
Before she has time to do something else, she'll feel something wet.

And now she's an icecube!
That's unfortunate!

Bam! Back on the ground.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

One important thing about landing is that one bends one's legs as they land. If limbs remain ridged it can cause some pretty major injury, such as broken bones.

Cat just got frozen stiff and then dropped at least 20 feet straight down. Or... 7 meters. If meters are preferred. Either way that's a significant drop!

So yeah.

Crash is right.

Possibly crunch as well.

"Cat!" Freddie cries out in alarm as he tries to drag the frozen sphinx behind the dumpster. He pulls out the Claw and fires-!

A rubber chicken.

The novelty toy bounces off the Troll harmlessly.

"Well. That was horrible timing..."

With a BLEGH! the Troll spews another massive glob of freezing goop at our heroes!

[Gullara]

[Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt nibbles his lip.
"Doesn't that mean the vines are affecting your mind?" Reinholdt asks nervously.

[Animal Shelter]

Arel blinks a couple time, but shakes her head. "Reinholdt, I'm fine. It's not making me think any differently." She insists.

[Eadin]

[Streets]

Whew! That must hurt!
The ice breaks while Cat transforms back to human form.
Seemingly lifeless.

She is easily dragged, though.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

This is very terrible!

The monster's gross spit is freezing all over the dumpster, quickly enshrouding it in a shell of thick ice! As a matter of fact, it's only a few seconds before all routes of escape are blocked off!

Well.

That's terrible.

Shortly followed by a loud thud as the toad-Troll leaps atop the frozen dumpster. And gnaws a small hole in the ice. And then starts spewing freezing foam into the small cavity that Freddie and Cat are hiding in.

The Huldra realizes what's going down pretty quickly and reverts to his natural form, throwing himself over Cat as several wisps of foxfire expand to fill the gaps...

[Shadowcaller]

[Inside The Mech]

Michael tips his head forward to show the woman the sockets implanted into his skull, "These have jacks that hook directly into my head. Let's me control the whole thing with my mind as if it was my own body. It's a bit odd to get used to, and not a lot of people are good at it, but I'm not bad, myself."

"What we have in here is the manual stuff - my cockpit has an emergency generator so that I can disengage from it, but everything in here is for if my neural network isn't interfacing properly. The manual override on that wall there lets me control it with my hands, though that's slow and crude, really."

[Inside The Mech]

The woman looks curiously at everything he points out and nods. "I think I begin to see. You want to be angels don't you? Man in your world have lit their own divine fire." She asks, the clothes he gave her forgotten once again.

[Halae]

[Inside The Mech]

"Maybe, maybe not. From a philosophical standpoint, everybody wants to be better than they are. Me? I just drive the thing, and keep it in good shape." Michael says, pointing to the clothing once more, rather insistently

[Eadin]

[Streets]

Very bad.

Poor Cat doesn't seem to be very well.She'll try to move but mostmy groans.

She'll feel it getting colder and looks up.

She'll lift her arm and shoot a bolt through the hole, hoping to make the troll at least back away.

She'll fall unconsious pretty soon after that, though.

[Devixer]

Kaalia was a bit irked that they wouldn't be able to clothes shop, and, although she wanted to continue with what she thought was an excellent tour, couldn't think of anything else she needed or wanted. "You know, we should probably-"

"-check out what's going on over there!" she exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the strange cat creature that just belched fire. Kaalia had never seen such a... woman, the assumed, plus a fellow craftsman to boot. Unless Cass stops her she'll march straight over to the Catmander's blanket.

"Well hiya!" she greets, smiling broadly. "What are these marvelous wares you promised?"

[Market Street]

A catamander was obviously a four foot tall (and a bit of change) humanoid that had both the traits of a black cat and salamander. Also pointy horns behind her ears but those were hidden under a newsie cap. She sounded just a bit young to be called a 'woman' though. "-and make sure you apply it once a day for a full week. I don't care if it looks healed before then either. And that'll be twenty silver... Here's your change! Have a nice day sir!" Nephea made sure to finish with a rather burly looking ogre with quite the number of scars before addressing her new customers.

"Hello there! Well, I've got a potion for nary every problem you might have. Well, no bringing back any long dead grandmothers or restoring ancient cults or anything. You'd probably want to see some of the clergy around here for those problems. Don't truck with any love potions either. Stuff is dangerous and usually implies one person has some issues they need to sort out. Obsession's a bad thing. Um, but other than that, I probably have something for you! Anything you might particularly be in the market for today Ms..?" Nephea had on a bright smile that was expected of any good shopkeeper but this one was apparently quite genuine at least.

"Alright, whatever," Cass says while following Kaalia. She isn't too interested in touring the rest of this market. She got what she needed, after all. She certainly didn't need any sort of potions. Was this a talismonger? She thought they didn't made potions. She just shrugs away her thoughts. She had her gun, pretty sure she still was an adept. Didn't need anything else.

[Rebonack]

[Streets]

There comes a pained croak from above as the freezing foam temporarily stops.

But...

That doesn't seem to have been quite enough.

Because it isn't long before more of the cavity starts freezing over.

Stupid Troll!

Should anyone happen by they might see a huge mound of frothy ice with a massive monster squatted atop it that looks like a cross between an ape and a toad. Looks like it might be attacking someone!

And that's just terrible.

[Shadowcaller]

[Inside The Mech]

"But all of this is so amazing..." She insists before looking down at the clothing as if not really sure what to do with it, "Alright, I guess I need to get used to this." She picks up the shirt and inspects it closely. "Is it normal to feel this... dull as a mortal? It feels like I can't think straight." Her first attempt to put it on doesn't go so well as her head get's stuck. She have to take it off again and sigh before making a second. He might want to help her a bit.

[Morty]

Because those weak spots are not only small, but difficult to access, most of the slugs don't penetrate the armor. There are a couple of hits, though, but none of them would hit organs or other vital areas.

Alerted to the Hunters's presence, the creatures shift into combat ready positions, and then two of the Hunters are each rushed at by two of the creatures, in an attempt at a pincer maneuver.

The stocky Hunter with a shotgun steps forward and erects an invisible barrier in front of him in an effort to keep the monsters away.
The Avenger steps forward when the creatures attack and swings a metal rod at one of them. It is affected by the same magic ability as before.
The scraggy-looking Hunter also engages the creatures in melee, swinging his ax with unnatural strength.
The girl and the Judge, meanwhile, step back and toss molotov cocktails at the insectoid monsters.

[Slii Arhem]

[Streets]

There comes a pained croak from above as the freezing foam temporarily stops.

But...

That doesn't seem to have been quite enough.

Because it isn't long before more of the cavity starts freezing over.

Stupid Troll!

Should anyone happen by they might see a huge mound of frothy ice with a massive monster squatted atop it that looks like a cross between an ape and a toad. Looks like it might be attacking someone!

And that's just terrible.

Streets

Someone is doing something more than just happening by. From the sky, a massive pastel-coloured spiky object falls at the ape-toad, aimed so that it'll fall square onto the thing's head with a *THWOMP* as it collapses into a pile of blokz on impact.

Kashi whirls around in the sky, banking for another pass just in case that one didn't do the trick. He reaches into his box O' blokz to begin creating another angry Thwumper, ready to bombard again after he gets a better look at the situation.

[happyturtle]

Bakery

Spoiler

Show

Master Dahl's Bakery

"But I found it!" Hekta replies self-consciously as she presses the idol against her chest. "It even got a little voice inside it, here, listen." The demon states as she offers Elias the idol.

Master Dahl's Bakery

Another scroll comes out in between bites, this one made of gold, I turn food into gold and stuff when I eat. It's how I make my hoard when I want to lie down and sleep at night.

Although, with all the flying around Kashi has done, he hasn't spent enough time in one place to make a proper hoard in quite a few nights.

"You make gold? Really?" Elias is rather interested by that (and wishing he could get away with vivisecting the dragon) when Hekta tries to give him an obviously cursed idol.

Elias nearly falls over in his haste to avoid touching it. "No way. I am not touching that." He grabs a fabric bag from the kitchen that used to carry flour. "Drop it in here. Then we'll figure out what to do with it. Do you remember where you got it?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bakery

If Elias gets too close, probably within half a metre of the idol, he may get a vision. If so, he will see:

Spoiler

Show

Himself chained down on a lump of rock next to and slightly above Hekta. Surrounding the rock is a vast sea of tiny, chittering black beetles- there's nothing else in sight apart from the sky. The beetles will slowly roll up the rock, eating everything in their path. From the sound Hekta makes as they start on her first (she's slightly lower), it's very painful. Elias will feel them too, when they start on his toes at the time they reach Hekta's midriff. They'll rise up until they're over his head and all he can feel is pain as they eat his flesh. When they roll down again, he and Hekta are naught but skeletons, though it's not too long before their flesh starts regenerating until they're whole again. Then the process starts again, though the vision stops after the beetles reach Hekta's knees.

Of course, if he's too far away then he won't get the vision.

[Shadowcaller]

Bakery

Hekta frowns a bit before dropping the idol where Elias pointed. "I found in some sort of secret temple I have been looking out for. This thing tried to send me some sort of message, but I just ignored it." She says proudly, apparently not noticing Kashi's notes.