Outside 46

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteorite

War is neither allured or unsettled by the pony; he is incapable of feeling either emotion. He watches coldly, but no longer disinterestedly. "Step aside. I will open this container." His voice is soft and smooth, but beneath it, a great bulk of rage can be felt in the tone. The black lenses of his gas mask reflect the green light from the meteor.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ralton Falls]

Anika raises an eyebrow, suddenly concerned that the halflings were trying to pull something. A teleporting tree? Sounded awfully convenient, and the way the repeated how magical it was. "Hold on... I'm not questioning your mystical magic tree or anything but..." Oh, to the void with it. "Just whisper to the magical winter veil tree, got it." She gestures for her companion to come along, it was time to feel stupid!
Surely a magical teleportation tree wouldn't be too hard to spot, right? "Wait... what do I tell the tree? Do I compliment it or something?" "That's a thicc trunk you have there my treesome lady"?

[Rebonack]

[Mysterious Meteorite]

Red Velvet gives the incarnation of war a nonplussed look, raising one foreleg to her chest in a gesture of shock!

"Rude! You didn't even say please," she retorts. She takes note of all the nasty stuff leaking out of the meteor, breathing in a hearty lungful of the corrupting toxins, getting a good feel for exactly the sort of awfulness they would inflict upon the living. Her own unnatural anatomy would offer a measure of protect on its own, but beyond that her personal magic is of a particularly blighted variety. Corruption, corrosion, disease, and poison. These are all her personal cup of tea.

The tendril holding her sword lashes out to one side, aiming to spear the skeleton still working at the rock with the aim of dashing it to pieces.

"And no, I don't think you will," she continues. "Whatever's in that thing? It makes my worms itch."

As if on queue, a writhing shape crawls up her neck and across her face, moving just under her skin.

"They're wriggling around under my hide in anticipation of what they can sup from it. And if they like it, then it's death for anything alive. So no, I don't think you'll be opening it," she says as she smiles a wide, predatory grin. "You're free to try to force me to move, though. Fair warning. I can take a pounding and you don't look like you have the stamina to keep up."

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteorite

"Foolish mortal. All things die, in time. What defines us is whether we look death in the face or run and hide when the time comes." The skeleton she attempts to stab ducks away from the blow, retreating back to the circle of skeletons. While he's still speaking, War charges at Red, his horse's hooves thundering across the shattered ground of the crater. By the time he reaches the word "time," he is already attacking, his sabre slashing downward at the pony.

[Deathkeeper]

[An Innocuous Picnic Area]

At first Morne draws an oversized, shiny looking revolver from inside his coat. Then he notes the harsh metal walls of this place, and the sensitive, fleshy ears on Khannie's head. With a sigh, he shoves it back into its hidden holster and draws the khopesh from his waist as he strides over to the blinking hallway.
"A sword is a wand that casts two spells: parry and cut." he mutters to himself.

[Rebonack]

[Mysterious Meteorite]

One of the downsides of charging with a sabre is that it's strongly broadcast and the sabre doesn't have that much reach. Red dances to one side, lashing out with both sword and axe to hamstring the horse as it thunders past. She doesn't simply move with an uncanny alacrity, she moves with grace and poise as well. Every step is carefully calculated, every movement precisely measured to make it as lethal as it is aesthetically pleasing to observe. In the same flourish she blows a kiss at the passing horse.

It may find its strength sapped as its muscles begin to slowly rot away into infectious slime.

"All things die? Oh hardly, darling. The supply of beings arrogant enough to begin sentences with 'Foolish mortal' will never run dry."

One of her ears flicks toward the nearby skeletons, zeroing in on them in case they take any action. At the same time, she takes a few strutting steps toward War.

"How about we make a game of this? I give you one free shot," she lifts her chin and tilts her head off to one side, exposing her neck as she regards him with a sly smile. "If you can hit me hard enough to beg for quarter, I'll let you open your rock and we'll find out what sort of fabulous awfulness is inside. If I deem you impotent, well, I guess I'll have to start playing rough."

The sly smile stretches, showing off a predatory grin. A smile that's hungry.

"What do you say, big boy? Think you have it in you?"

[Sort of Under an Innocuous Picnic Area]

Down the blinking path it is!

Khannie quickly kicks a box that's wiggling a little too much for her liking over the edge of the catwalk before hurrying after the anubis-helmed guy.

The first few alcoves are empty, looking like cells more than anything else. Little more than a cot in one corner and a hole in the other. Yet others are filled with junk. Odds and ends. Boxes and strange machines. A few are protected by force fields that paint the room in magenta hues. Something worth protecting inside, maybe? No doubt there must be controls somewhere nearby. But it's hard to imagine what one would even begin looking for? There's an odd table cluttered with refuse nearby. And another one of those control pillars. And a box in the middle of the floor slowly scooting toward our heroes.

"I know why I'm here," Khannie says. "What are you doing here, mister?"

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteor

The horse simply rides on, the weapons seemingly meeting no resistance as they pass through the horse's limbs. This is very odd, however, because the horse is clearly quite real and solid the whole time. War rides to a stop next to the meteorite. "I make no pretenses to immortality. All are mortal, even myself. All worlds come to an end, either with a bang or a whimper." He swings his blade with superhuman strength at the cracked stone, hoping to slice it open.

[Hattish Thing]

[Mysterious Meteorite]

Like a swollen, weeping boil fit to burst, noxious green fluid continues to torrent forth from deep within the wound-like recess in the rock, blackening the ground itself as the poison sludge spews about and pools here and there, steam rising from the surfaces of the foul puddles which now dot the landscape and seep down to the bottom of the crater. As its struck, the rock cracks straight in two, the immense force causing the thick, half-congealed liquid layer to gush forth, splattering about and utterly drowning the bottom of the crater in several feet of nauseating, radioactive slime corrosive enough to burn into the soil.

For several seconds, barely visible through the rancid steam which rises from the small crater-lake of toxic filth, a bright green rune-sphere can be seen, previously hidden within the rock. The sphere itself quivers for several seconds, its surface wriggling grotesquely as if thousands of creatures wriggled just beneath, before promptly exploding, bathing the surrounding region in an infectious wave of radioactive spillage, coating the area (and likely those in it) in a layer of curdled slime foul enough to burn straight through flesh and expose those caught in the blast to an irradiated cocktail of dozens of terrible diseases.

Out from within the sphere, green smoke rolls forth, accompanied by a stench unlike any, whose vapors are toxic enough to result in the prompt death of most humanoids. Those fortunate enough to possess supernatural fortitude likely find themselves nauseated, unable to resist vomiting forth as their innards are burnt and infected, should they be capable of doing so. Not even those farther away from the crater are spared, for lesser life forms within three-hundred feet are automatically extinguished once exposed to the air which rises forth from the green sphere, tainted by potent necromantic magics.

A curse spreads forth, blighting those who live and die within three-hundred feet of the crater. Animals, once healthy, drop dead, blackened and sickly, covered in pus-ridden boils and horrific growths. Once pure, clean water is tainted, forever infused by a vile blight without cure. Plants wither and rot, rendering the field incapable of crop growth, not merely extinguishing life in the present, but far into the future as well.

--

What crawls forth from the small lake of sludge at the bottom of the crater is just as wicked.

Once free of the steaming filth, an impressive form levitates up into the air, dripping with the foulest of fluids. The entity appears as an imposing humanoid figure, nearly twelve feet tall and several feet wide. Multiple layers of thick, dark cloth decorated with rows upon rows of skulls and green runes cascade down the figure's enormous form, each sinister rune glowing with a violent green light. A dark green cloak drapes over the skeletal figure's broad shoulders, pinned beneath enormous metal pauldrons, all tall spikes and sickly green crystals. A tattered purple tabard hangs over the front of the broad figure's robes, depicting a number of ominous runes and sigils.

Enormous sleeves hang low, lined with dark green threads, while each of the figure's long, bony fingers are encased in elongated finger-gauntlets crafted of an alarmingly bright, green material, one which sparks and glimmers here and there. An enormous metallic helmet is worn upon the thing's head, one which covers all but the lower half of what appears to be a long-dead skull, splitting into six separate spires at the tap, each one decorated by a row of green crystals. Three diamond-shaped crystals face forward, seemingly acting as the creature's foul eyes. Fierce, green flames erupt forth from the helmet, as well as the figure's pauldrons, shrouding the humanoid in an aura of violently radioactive flame.

It will continue to rise up, ignoring those below, slowly raising its arms up into the air.

[Rebonack]

[Mysterious (popped) Meteorite]

Red Velvet is a pretty simple person.

She likes living. She likes doing cool things. One of those cool things is joining worthy foes in battle and engaging in the thrust and riposte of cutting banter.

When someone doesn't rise to the challenge, it kills her a little on the inside.

As all the toxic crud begins spewing out of the space rock, Red makes a snap decision. She's pretty confident in her ability to weather the storm of nasty goop, but she would rather not test it when there are potentially two nasty foes to contend with.

She made that mistake on High Peak all those years ago.

And she isn't going to be making the same mistake again.

She triggers one of the runes etched into her hide, the lines briefly flaring with magic before causing her to vanish with a muffled thump of displaced air. An eyeblink later, she reappears in the distant treeline, rune still blazing with light as it slowly recharges. She begins pacing as she lights up her horn, levitating a small ear piece out of her saddle bags and nestling it into place. "Switchboard? Red Velvet reporting. I made some fabulous new friends out here, the source of the undead sightings included."

A pause at a question.

"Alas, no. Not friends like that, situation got a little too unsafe for me to stick around and play kiss-kill with them. No new members to our cause. Yet. One of them is using magic not dissimilar to mine, but on a MUCH larger scale. Looks like the beginnings of an ecological disaster. We'll probably need a containment and cleanup crew out here. I'll lay low and watch for a while, see how our new friends play."

Another pause.

"Of course, darling. Safeword is scrubbingbubbles. I'll call in again if I need someone to lend me a hoof. Ta~!"

[Deathkeeper]

[An Innocuous Picnic Area]

Morne shrugs.
"I dunno, Big A led me here. He doesn't like giving me written instructions. Or, any, usually. Chances are he wants me here because there's some last rites to perform on some sap who never got any, there's some tomb that needs some form of securing, or something's violating the sanctity of life. Unlike me of course, I do it in the sanctioned way." he says, keeping an eye on that box.

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteorite

War seems unaffected by the radiation. He turns to look at the figure rising from the asteroid as the skeletons retreat, falling back away from the destructive energy. He doesn't speak, allowing the entity to gauge its surroundings for the time being.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Facility]

Probably time for a more fitting location tag.

"Last rites?" Khannie asks as she steps over a skeleton sprawled across the hallway. "What's that?"

Meanwhile, the box begins aggressively bumping into Morne's boot.

[Hattish Thing]

[Mysterious Meteorite]

The skeletal figure's arms continue to rotate like clockwork, spending several seconds lingering in specific poses before continuing in an eldritch pattern. The spellcaster's enormous robes float and sway as if blown about by a particularly strong wind, although none can be detected, while all the while, the lich whispers to itself, performing a highly complex incantation. Several moments pass as several lines of foul green runes begin to appear in a sinister semi-circle around the spellcaster, spinning about the lich, accelerating as the spell reaches a horrific climax.

As the last eldritch word is uttered, the runes crackle violently with necromantic energies, turning black as the three-hundred foot long blighted region begins to rapidly expand, each claimed shred of life becoming absorbed into the lich. Infused with power and fully awakened from its ancient slumber, the lich finally, ominously begins to float back down to the ground. Casually, as if unweighted by any sort of pressure or worry, the skeletal spellcaster strides back into the comet, summoning into existence several vials.

A precise waggling of its bony fingers causes the horrifically toxic sludge to appear within the vials. It begins to turn away again, glancing first towards the area in which Velvet once stood, then towards War, who he only now fully acknowledges. With a voice as coarse and quiet as the dead, the lich speaks, toxic sludge dripping out from it's skeletal mouth, each word seeming to last for a lifetime.

[Deathkeeper]

[Neon hallway]

Morne shakes his head.
”It’s the stuff you do to people’s bodies before you lay them to rest. Sometimes people’s spirits get antsy if they don’t get them.”

With a sigh, he flips over the box with the toe of his boot.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Facility]

"So like for those skeleton guys?" Khannie asks, pointing at a skeleton clad in ruined tactical armor pocked with scorch marks. They could probably do with some last rites. Doesn't look like they left this world very peacefully.

Then?

The box is kicked over! Below is a boxy black spidery looking robot that immediately leaps at Morne's leg, plasma cutter blazing!

Aggressive maintenance!

[Deathkeeper]

[Neon Facility]

Morne nods. "Yes, I'm going to remember them all and perform rites on them once we've neutralized any threats."
And then tiny robot! Morne sighs and cracks down with an open palm, blasting with a wave of force roughly equal to a very strong person throwing a good punch. It's easier and faster than trying to stoop down to swing with a blade as short as a khopesh.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Facility]

"But what if you forget and these guys just sit here forever being dead and stuff?" Khannie asks as the maintenance robot is unceremoniously scrapped. "Does that mean they'll turn into ghosts?"

Honestly, she isn't sure how the whole ghost thing works. Technically, her dad was a ghost type. But she isn't sure how different a ghost type Pokemon and a ghostly ghost are. Heck, when she uses her mega stone her type changes to ghost/normal. But she's pretty sure that doesn't make her dead.

Answers beyond her grasp, she decides to grasp something a little more tangible instead. Khannie shoves a few boxes aside, grabs a lever hidden behind them, and yanks it up. There comes a loud snap followed by a gradually spooling down hum.

One of the nearby forcefields flickers off.

[Devixer]

Bunker

Faudre is in the bunker, without so much as her smallclothes. Without her armor and clothes, it's much easier to see her body, toughened from a near lifetime of battle, and practically riddled with scars. The knife wound was merely an addition to her collection now. She touches the place she was wounded and winces, before managing to sit up, and cast the blanket to her side. "Wh..ere am I? And where is Haar?" she eventually manages.

Even if he wasn't fed, Haar doesn't do much but stay at the entrance, worrying about Faurdre.

Clearing

"It is how I, and all others of my country seek our way in life. In keeping with the Path, even the simplest of man can achieve something divine." Though her words are not laced with any sort of magic, her words have a sort of weight to them, as an ideal to aspire to. "It is different for everyone. Our Path is revealed to us through meditation on the past, the present, and what the future may hold."

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteorite

"Death rides before me in a ride of blood, and fear stalks behind me to pick off the stragglers. The creatures of war are mine to command." War's voice is calm and level, completely confident. "Who are you?"

[Ashen Lilies]

[Dragon Mountain]

"Their intentions may be different to yours," says Cassandra, peeking cautiously into the cave. She's able to easily see into hollow - the extent to which her senses had increased had been difficult to get used to, at first, but it's a welcome boon nonetheless. "We may be dealing with nothing more than treasure hunters."

[Dragon Mountain]

Damon gives an irritable hiss at the sight of the hole. Complications are unwelcome. "Perhapss our competition iss not interessted in the prize for the ssame reasson asss uss. Perhapss they mean to harvesst the dragon? That would be quite the treassure, wouldn't it?" As you might expect from a creature who shields his eyes from the light, Damon has perfect vision in darkness. Were it not for his black fire, he'd be as blind in the day as your average human would be in total darkness. Damon shrugs and heads into the cavern, drawing his sword and coating it in black fire as he goes. "I sshould go ahead. Darknesss iss a boon to me."

[Dragon Mountain]

Stepping inside the mountain is an immediate change of atmosphere. The air there is hot, dry and heavy, but also continually moved by gusts of wind travelling from different directions. The wind has the smell of smoke and sulfur.

Damon will find himself in a fairly small cave, filled with stalactites and stalagmites, the walls riddled with cracks and openings like those you'd find in dry ground. The rock around him is white, looking sun-bleached despite sun never reaching here. It's difficult to track here, but it seems someone did pass through here, breaking off some of the rock formations and disturbing the stillness that had reigned here for millennia. In the distance, he will hear steady breathing.

[Dragon Mountain]

Marshall will give Damon a second or two to get further inside before pulling a flare from his pocket and cracking it, bright red light spewing forth from the tip. Hopefully they haven't damaged it already. That could complicate matters. He says to Cass, before heading into the mountain after Damon. The earth spirit happily follows along.

[Dragon Mountain]

Damon follows along the trail of whoever-it-is that can through here before them, running his hands along the stalagmites as he goes, leaving a little trail of black fire behind. He pauses once he hears the heavy breathing though, raising a hand to signal to the other two to stop. Regardless of whether they do or not, he crouches down and advances slowly, trying to get a view of the source of the breathing.

[Dragon Mountain]

Cass follows the path in as well. As she does so, however, a briefly murmured incantation sends a subtle pulse of magic before them, rippling forward through the cave in a plane unseen. It should return after not too long, bringing back an echo of any magic - active spells, magical items, or other traces of enchantment - that might be awaiting the group further in.

It's nice to be forewarned of these things.

[Earl of Purple]

Bunker

Haar will be fed regardless, because they don't want a hungry giant flying lizard so close to their home.

"You in safety. I Grandmother Sharn. You save granddaughter. You family now. We patchey up, best can. You always welcome. This our castle. You the knight, yes? We feed dragon. He up surface, on castle." Grandmother Sharn sounds very happy to have Faudre here, and all her clothing, armour and weapons are nearby. "You still want princess kiss?"

[Deathkeeper]

Neon Facility

Morne chuckles.
”They could, in theory. But I won’t forget. I’ve got it memorized.” he assures her, tapping his helmet where his temple would be.

Curious, he peers at the space the forcefield has revealed. Has she been this far in before?

[Morty]

[Dragon Mountain]

Cass' magic pulse will find laden with so much magic that it may be hard to sift through it all and pick any specific thing. This entire place is old, and soaked with old, inert elemental power. Once, it was vibrant and full of life. Now it's asleep... but can be roused. Depending on how precisely Cass can filter out the input, she'll also recognize that the old magic filling the whole cavern system is ebbing and flowing in rhythm with the breathing.

Beyond all this noise are a few more precise readings. Pockets of the same power, but alive and awake, concentrated in a few moving spots. Some are stronger, others weaker, and all intertwined with the permeating presence. Finally, there's a different source of power ahead. It has an artificial and orderly flavour, that stands out sharply from the half-asleep elemental power around it. It's sorcery. It's pretty far ahead and doesn't sound like any kind of wards or traps.

On a more mundane plane of existence, the trio will pass into a... grove? Sure looks like one. It's still very much underground, but this cave is filled with trees. They're so old, grey and seemingly brittle that they look more like old bones, but trees nonetheless. The traces of the previous party's passage are visible through broken off branches here, but Cass might realize that sorcery was used here as well. Up high, something slithers through the dead branches, trying to be stealthy. It's not good at it, but it is not very visible either, even in the flare's light.

[Hattish Thing]

Mysterious Meteorite

"Death rides before me in a ride of blood, and fear stalks behind me to pick off the stragglers. The creatures of war are mine to command." War's voice is calm and level, completely confident. "Who are you?"

The lich glances away, his sinister trio of radioactive crystal-eyes staring out at the toxic wasteland he'd created, assessing the damage. It would be a suitable start for what he intended. Raising his skeletal, rune-carved hands back up into the air, the undead spellcaster begins to chant and waggle his long, ring-covered fingers, muttering eldritch incantations as the corpses of all manner of creatures slain by the blight begin to animate, eyes glowing with a bright and violent green light as they begin to march towards the crater. As the zombified wildlife shuffles forth, knobby-knees quivering as foul sludge leaks forth from infected pores and burnt-wounds, the crater itself begins to glow with an unearthly light.

As it does so, the spellcaster responds to the man upon the horse, tone low and ominous.

--

At that, the figure clenches its skeletal fists, watching on with a neutral expression as the undead begin to submerge themselves within the lake of vile sludge at the bottom of the crater, flesh melting away into component parts.

---

[Ralton Falls]

Anulhi stifles a giggle as the elf moves forward, going about it all wrong.

"No, silly! Here, I'll help. You'll want to quiet your mind."

--

At that, she reaches for Anika's hand, pressing it up against a specific piece of bark.

[billtodamax]

Dragon Mountain

Marshall doesn't seem to notice the thing slithering through the branches - he's more interested in the trees themselves.

How did these grow in here? He says, holding the flare up as he inspects a nearby tree, trying to snap a branch off to inspect it. The sun can't get in...

[bc56]

Mysterious Meteorite

"The nations of the world hear my call, and their men are given over to my clutches. To some, I promise a future, to others power and glory, but to all, I bring only death. I control the soldier in life and in death. I am War." War doesn't seem impressed by the lich's pronouncements or his zombies.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Facility]

Khannie just nods at that. She'll remember that promise! No forgetting those ghost guys!

She wriggle around Morne's, shoving boxes aside and slipping behind them. On the other side? A hole in the plate metal that looks like it's been smashed in from their side.

"The door to this part of the secret base was broken, so I just found a narrow spot on the wall instead."

Narrow?

That looks like two feet of solid, reinforced alloy.

"Be quite, okay? There are probably gunna be goblins on the other side," Khannie whispers. And sure enough? Goblins.

Weird green skinned cyborg things with a dark plate of metal fused to their heads. Most of them are milling around aimlessly on the other side. One keeps picking up a box, moving it to another pile, then repeating the process with a new box.

[Deathkeeper]

[Neon Facility]

Morne nods and crosses into the other room.
Morne takes a look around and decides that this seems like a good place to start up.

He immediately chucks a glob of purple energy at the goblins farthest from him, which will split into two seeking purple missiles once it hits the ground. Morne is hoping to blast two of them while he goes to town on their friends, attacking with his sword with heavy, lunging slashes.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ralton Falls]

Hey! Just because she was a druid didn't mean she knew how to deal with magical halfling trees.
Anika seem somewhat reluctant but let her hand be guided to the tree. Hopefully there would be some undead punching soon, or maybe they would actually find a way to save these people? Who knew?
She is taking a defensive stance though, ready to fight as the magic-tree is supposedly teleporting them (why did they have a magical teleportation tree anyway?)

[Rebonack]

[Neon Facility]

Nooooo!

He's stealing all the EXP!

The initial blast sends a pair of goblins tumbling into opposite walls, stunned by the explosion. They look badly damaged, but they're trying to pick themselves back up. Where they've been wounded they sport bright magenta flesh with a few hints of metallic bits under it. This is probably why Khannie didn't feel bad about beating them up. They don't talk, and she's pretty sure they're some sorta robot.

And if Samuri Jack can wreck robots all the time without being a bad guy, she can too!

Khannie darts into the room and cracks the box-moving goblin across the face with dizzying right hook, leaving the creature momentarily staggering. And, thus, totally unprepared for her follow-up. She hauls back her left hand with a, "Raaaaagh!" as her whole fist suddenly ignites white hot. Then she plunges her hand into the middle of the goblin's solar plexus. There's a nasty sizzling sound as the synthetic meat is broiled away and the underlying metallic components warp from the heat.

The goblin tries wildly flailing at her, but manages to simply smack face-first into the nearby wall instead, leaving it helpless against a flurry of fire punches.

By the time she's taken down her one opponent, Morne has already wiped the floor with the rest.

"Stupid robot goblins," Khannie huffs, giving the thing a kick.