Haggered Appearances, part 10

Log Info

• Title: Haggared Appearances, part 10
• Emitter: Whirlpool
• Characters: Braelnoir, Cryosanthia, Baz da Ork, MAC-B1G, Edinaz
• Place: Kor's Battleground, then the RedRidge Mountains days from Alexandria
• Time: Thursday, January 07, 2021, 8:41 PM
• Summary: The house has relocated with a bang, destroying the Vrocks. The adventurers explore further, hearing sounds of battle and finally see outside. They've reached HEAVEN! For Korrites. They look upon a vast and unending war, with bodies constantly joining and falling. The house is hit by explosions. Baz, Braelnoir and Edinaz feel a strong urge to join. MAC-B1G shuts down. Cryo hesitates, calling everyone back to try again. They have the mission to finish. Reluctantly, they follow, though Baz is easy to convince as he believes they have landed in Tarien's domain, and outside is a trap to steal his boots by pervy gnomes. The ork insists they leave, so it's back to the control room and more randomness. Another crash, and a look outside and it's close. The Prime Material Plane and not that far from Alexandria, only a few days. This is enough to convince them to lock up the house, leave, and return to Alexandria with Zaya and a piece of a Dead God. Mission Accomplished!

The Adventurers retreat from the Vrocks, heading to the control room. Edinaz, Baz da Ork and MAC-B1G hold the door closed on the demons while Braelnoir and Cryosanthia attempt to figure out the controls. They are the group's best hope, and they're not very good at it, resorting to randomly pulling levers and pushing random buttons and switches. All they accomplish is a sudden lurch of the house that throws everyone to their feet. Cautiously exploring outside the control room, they discover all the demons have been shredded by the house's response to their rough controls. They are safe, for the moment, but again lost somewhere in the planes.

Previously

Braelnoir moves up behind Cryo, ready to yank her back at the first sign of hostility from outside, evident by the way she plants her feet, "Last place I's in with brains in't was the Godsdammed Corpse Wagon." she muses bitterly. She's told that story. It took some drinking to get her through it all.

The whitescale nods, she's kept that in mind. Cautiously she signals to the boys to let the door open enough she can see, and she's ready to stab anything that rushes through.

... opening the door reveals the the outside of the passage to the control room is absolutely *flooded* with demon bones, demon blood, and demon bits.

... seems the house rearranged violently while you were in there.

Good thing that didn't happen to you, right...?

Of course, that leaves the question: where are you now?

Now

The answer is elementary: they are in the control room. This is MAC's assessment, of course. It cannot do further assessment directly, and therefor requests of unit designate Braelnoir, "Provide updated threat status."

The big Ork has his shield pressed against the door. At least until it's opened. He looks around at the assorted gore and violence. He nods slowly and then bends down and lifts up a demon skull with his free hand. Tilting it this way and that, then sticking it on a hook at his waist. "Right, got me souvenier. Gonna call dis one "PervyGnome" cause I founds him at me feets." The ork blinks a few times and then scratches his head. "Did we save deh girl?"

"She's on the chair downstairs." Cryo answers, looking up and down the hallway, watching Baz pick up a skull. "Don't get too far from her, she has a Magic Circle Against Evil that has an hour still. I'll get her."

Cryo light-foots it down the stairs, picking up Zaya. The girl isn't heavy, she still grimaces, "So, same as before? Have a look outside, see if they're is something to fight? Run back here if we're not in the right place?"

Braelnoir hrm's as she surveys the mess, "Unless someone's got some way o'knowin' where the hell we are, probly best ta do it that way." she suggests. She looks back at Zaya, then to her team.

Edinaz nods. "Let's go see. I have my eyes, and that's about it." He grabs a sword, and holds it low, just in case. Then he, too, goes to see.

Zaya is still exhausted as it is.

She can barely keep her eyes open, when she isn't unconscious at all. Seems holding the shard took a rather huge toll on her.

A moment later, you hear it. A great roar...

...no, not a roar. A *crowd*. A huge one. And the sounds of ... battle?

MAC-B1G says, "Assessment: this is where we lose Baz forever."

"Oh... it sounds like we got all our audiences at once." Cryo says, carefully carrying Zaya, "Well, let's go look. Stay close and move together."

Braelnoir rolls her neck a little, getting some soft little pops, then she indexes her scythe, "Alright, let's see what we got, then. Get any contact, we probly wanna pull back to a choke point."

The big Ork blinks a few times as he looks around. "So wot we gonna do? I mean can we take dis house wit us? It did a good job kill'n all these demons. We could make dis part of the act. Hire mercenaries and dere wonderful house of making people into messes." The Ork chortles deep in his chest and raises up his right foot, then brings it down on another less impressive bloody skull with a crunch.

"Maybe?" Cryosanthia says, shrugging and adjusting her hold on Zaya. She's stepping around the bones. Blood shows nicely on white and she's trying to avoid crimson footwear. "We're either going to break it or figure it out. I'm hoping we find someplace we recognize before breaking it. If we figure it out, well, it's not the Shard Tower but it is handy."

GAME: Baz da Ork rolls perception: (1)+11: 12 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Braelnoir rolls perception: (1)+8: 9 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perception: (3)+6: 9
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "DAMN YOU DICE. WHY? WHY NO 1!!!?"
<OOC> Cryosanthia whimpers. Isn't Epic. Just fail. Sniff.
<OOC> Braelnoir snugs sister, "Ur ulweyz epk 2 mii"

It just sounds like an immense battle out there.

The house shakes once.

Not like an imapct into it, but like there was a little explosion somewhere that made it vibrate. The sounds of battle are loud enough to actually obscure this.

The good news is that the Vrocks are definitely ... splattered.

The bad news is that when you finally do get to a window, you finally are able to see outside and there's ... battle.

Battle as far as the eye can see. A great, milling throng of warriors of all shapes and sizes, engaged in a great, frenetic melee. You see men chopped down, swiftly, in countless numbers, only to be replaced with more flooding into the area. The sky is orange and hazy, filled with smoke and the smell of blood fills your nostrils.

GAME: Braelnoir rolls intelligence+2: (16)+1+2: 19 (Human Improv K/the Planes)
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "I think of my ancestors for a +2 bonus!"
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/the planes+2: (4)+7+2: 13
GAME: Baz da Ork rolls knowledge/religion: (1)+4: 5 (EPIC FAIL)

As the house rattles, and rattles in a way that can't be heard over the sounds of battle that surround it, the whitescale gets colder feet, so to speak. This grows worse when she can see outside. She stares out the window. "This might not be the best place to hop off. I mean, that is a fight. And it would probably be Epic and I'm sure Kor would be pleased, and Ceinara at least amused at me trying to keep up..."

She smiles carefully, "... buuuut I would like to get back to my youngling, and save Zaya, and not find the Pointless Death today. So maybe we could go give the levers another try and see what the carousel brings next."

She stops and steps back, to encourage the others to follow. Eyes fixed on the scene outside, which shakes her down to her blood and the memories therein.

Baz stares out the window, his large nostrils flaring at the smell, the blood the smoke. The sounds perking his chewed up ears. His heart races, his fingers flex and squeeze in the armored gloves he wears. "Dis, Dis I know dis place!" Then he turns away from the window his eyes bright with rage. "DIS IS THAT BASTARD TARRIEN'S REALM! He's trying ta trick me! Deres a horde of Gnomes out dere thirst'n for me piggies. DEY WANT ME FEETS!" The long curved blade flicks into his grip. "We gots ta move da house, we gots to move it again now. I won't lose another pair of boots!"

Edinaz stares out the window, pupils dilating with pleasure. Out there, endless battle. His hands flex unconsciously, and there's a distinct pause, like someone just hit reset on his mental faculties.

Braelnoir creeps up, ready to back up her sister and spiritual advisor, should anything attempt to befall them. As it turns out, she lays her eyes on the expansive joys beyond the house and she exhales an exultant, "Kor...!" Her spikey hand clatters upon spikey shoulder. Her face turns to the priest and she beams her wolfiest grin, "We're on Kor's field! Ha!" She sobers quickly, looking out into the energetic brawl beyond and she utters a soft, "Rolson...?" before the mission she's been reminded of... the contract... take hold again. She shakes her head, "Soon. Not... not now. Soon." she says to no one in particular. with a brief glimmer of a look akin to resolving to chew off her own limb to escape a trap, the mercenary, oathbound, drags herself from the window, "Job's not done. Let's get outta here."

Edinaz walks slowly backwards, away from the window. "We'd--- we'd better go, before we never leave."

"Agreed. Job's not done. C'mon," Cryo says, speaking somewhere between an order and a soft suggestion. She sees the look in her sister's eyes. She knows the name, the significance. It's growing colder around her because this is not the place to be, even if it's Heaven for her, for them. "Edinaz, Baz, Mac Bee. We need to go. This isn't the right place now."

She tries to draw them back with her words, reversing towards the control rook.

"It's a trick!" Baz repeats, pushing into the room with the controls. "Push the buttons. Push dem button fingies. Want tae be somewhere else." The big Ork touches the bedazzled Korite symbol on his armor. "Great God Kor, we carry forth in your name! Aid us in finding the place of our proper battle! Find the way to end our quest in victory, victory in your name, and escaping pervert Gnomes who want tae sniff me feets."

Braelnoir is the last to leave the window after that, and for reasons known to few, she raises her Kor branded fist and utters a warcry of, "SCAAAAAARRRRRRAAAAAAAAAB!" so he knows.

He'll know...

Soon the merc is back in the chamber and drifts back toward the controls, "A'ight, everybody in here we want?" she asks in a coached, businesslike tone and starts to eye the levers. Kor show us the way...

Edinaz looks back wistfully towards the windows. "I can always keep watch, make sure we're safe while you're figuring all of this out..." He lingers, staring back at the now doorway. He knows, but it hurts.

GAME: Baz da Ork rolls perform/percussion: (6)+2: 8
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perform/percussion: (7)+20: 27

Cryosanthia sets Zaya down in her chair, then faces the control board again. She tells it, the house, "You have to make sense. You weren't created by idiots. It would be nice if you were created for idiots, but we'll have to live with esoteric reasoning. Think, think, think."

She takes herself by the horns, hands back and holding the tips. "Make sense. Just make sense. The planes are the prime, surrounded by the elementals, with the outer planes in a double ring and chaos outside. And... some breaks. Because infinite is hard to stick beside infinity."

"So which of you makes us go widdershins!"

GAME: Braelnoir rolls intelligence+2: (2)+1+2: 5
GAME: MAC-B1G rolls Craft/Artifice: (3)+16: 19

Braelnoir, meanwhile is approaching this more on a 'Twist that, slide this, oh yeah, red thing. Push the button.' basis.

... good luck.

You're going to need it.

That seems to be the general sensation you get when you return to the control room for another go at the control. The house is once again groaning and creaking, screaming almost, and then the next thing you know, there's a thunderous crashing sound that shakes each of you all the way to the very core.

Well, it wakes up Zaya, at any rate, who screams in surprise.

Edinaz curses, and puts his sword away. Then, then he starts the familiar route back towards a window - to see where they are now.

Cryo moves to Zaya's surprise. Hopefully a large and slightly bloody lizard person isn't a startling sight. The blood is mostly on her feet. She smiles in a friendly way, which has lots of teeth, but they're cute teeth and she takes good care of them. Always flosses, brushes. Never eats the bird that ends up pecking her mouth when she falls asleep on a sunny day.

She crouches beside the girl, a cool hand steadying her shoulder. "It's ok, we're... we're where we are and you're with us and... hopefully it's nice outside, which we're going to go check now."

Braelnoir winces and covers her ears at the crash, but looks around and reaches out to nudge Cryo with her knuckles, "Mebbe we dropped the house on yer Mouser?" she jokes lightly. That done, she looks to Zaya a moment, "Easy, luv. Just us tryin ta get home." to reinforce Cryo's assertions. She, herself is still kinda spattered with demon blood, and some of her own. but she's all healed up now, so... she just hasn't had a chance to take a bath after work. She ventures out to back up Edinaz's play, in case there's unhappy out there that gets froggy.

The big Ork leans away from the screaming girl. Then he leans back and roars at her. "Oy! None of dat! We bust'n our asses for you." He snorts then and peers. "Wonder where we are now?" Flexing his hands the big Ork seems to glow slightly with divine energy. "I still gots most of me magic it seems. I can ask Kor tae clear some of the injuries or effects things if anyone needs it. We best be ready for the next nightmare we runs into."

So the good news is that you're definitely not on the planes anymore. This time, you seem to be snugly resting against a mountainside, given the view and the creaking of the house and the whipping wind and the snow fall and the distant view of the Alexandrian country side. Perhaps the mountains that run between Alexandria and the Desolation?

GAME: Braelnoir rolls intelligence+2: (1)+1+2: 4 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Cryosanthia rolls knowledge/geography: (20)+3: 23

Cryosanthia has followed, coaxing Zaya to come along to keep everyone together. She absorbs the view outside of the window. "This is nice, this is better. Let's go outside and see if there is a hole in the sky. If not we can lock up, leave a little 'No Solicitors' sign and head back to town."

She peers a little harder out the window, "I think I know that. And that. Oh! I know where we are, exactly where we are!"

The whitescale whips around to face the others with a grin and a little dance. "Good news! We can walk. We're several days from Alexandria on foot. Even Gooder news! We're in the Red Ridges Mountains. There's little mining villages everywhere, a whole grid of them. We can get to them, and they can get us to an Airship station, and then we're in Alexandria lickity split!"

GAME: Cryosanthia rolls profession/airman: (8)+2: 10

She thinks a bit, "Well, depending on the airship schedule. But much faster!"

Edinaz steps outside, and looks back and up for a hole in the sky. He's really not taking any chances here.

Braelnoir stares out into the frozen expanses and seems genuinly perplexed, "You sure that's Alexandria...? Looks kinda... bluish fer Alexandria." She listens to her sister, seeming dubious, yet, but she scans the sky for more hostiles before shrugging, "A'ight... we got any magic t'andle the weather? Some of us got gear for't, but I'm wagerin' Zaya doesn't."

Following the group Baz grumbles quietly. "I think we should burn dis house when we leave it. It's dangerous, we don't want anyone using it for silly stuff." While everyone else looks up at the sky, the big Ork bends forward to look down beneath the building. His dark eyes searching for ambitious vile little Gnomelings that might have clung to the outside.

"It might... unburn itself." Cryo says, watching Edinaz outside. "It repaired itself when the roof was pulled off. I'd like to come back with someone who can understand it and get it under control, but... you're right. Burning it might be best. I don't have a spell that will light it up."

The whitescale looks at Braelnoir, Zaya, "I have an Endure Elements scrolls, that would be good for you for a day, enough time to get somewhere and some new clothes."

"It'll get dark soon, we should set out if the coast is clear."

Zaya remains fairly addled, just sort of nodding along. She's clearly not entirely with it still. The exhaustion is real.

...at least there are no vrocks.

Edinaz nods, looking down at the house now. "We should burn it -- I used all my fire bombs on Charnese death machines, though." He sounds... sad. A pause. "It's more important to start moving, though." And he turns to start pathfinding.

"Thunderstone's the last o'my alchemical loads. Burned everything else already." Brae concedes with a shrug. She focuses on her Manygarment sleeves and shifts to something a little more 'cold weather', though it will only work so well.

"Oy, if we gonna march, she can't go like this." Baz says as he stomps up alongside Zaya. "She either rides on me back, or I have to spend some magic getting her strait. But even den, I'm burning good magic and she ain't gonna make it too many miles before she's tired again. Not an ounce of muscle on dis one. Lets get her up on my back and I'll huff her along the path, right?"

"Yes. That's the best plan Baz. I'll use the Endure scroll, I can get another one." Cryo says, patting Zaya carefully and looking her in the eyes. "The big Ork is going to carry you. It will be ok. We're getting you home."

She hands the girl over. helping to boost her up on Baz's back. "I'll... carry the other thing, for now. We should decide what we're going to do with it. If we hand it over to someone we become Spear Carriers in their story. They determine what happens and we have no say. We could end up bowing to some wanna-be God-King, or worse. There's only a couple people I'd trust to protect it."

"We can talk on the way." She takes a scroll out of her haversack and casts it on Zaya.

Braelnoir continues scanning about to make sure nothing's flying down on them, "Let's shut this place. Mebbe we can send Morg up this way, or Mer and we can figger out how't works." She almost keeps a touch of homesickness completely out of her voice, "She starts getting heavy, I can take her fer a bit, too."

Edinaz pushes out to take point, leading the way. He doesn't speak much now -- he's got a faraway look in his eyes, still thinking about the things he's seen.

"Heavy?" The big Ork fits the girl up on his shoulder, the armor surprisingly made to allow someone to nest on his shoulder and not be impaled on the spikes. Though the 'seats' are intended for his two Goblin daughters, they serve well enough in a pinch and the big Ork's steady stride and gait help keep her in place. "Dis one weighs less den me lunch. If I feel like I'll be getting tired I can probably just stop and piss her weight out on some tree." The big Ork snorts, and then starts singing the most ancient of Ork war songs. "We don't wanna go tae war tae day, but the master of the lash says: nay-nay-nay! We're gonna march all day, all night, all daaaaay."

Cryo adjusts her clothing and straps, squaring up her haversack and making sure she hasn't left anything behind. She pats the doorframe on the way out. "Thanks House. Stay locked up." She checks under the doormat for a key, just in case, and darts after the others. Then Baz starts singing and she must join in. Ceinara demands it.

"Hey I like that! We're gonna march all day, all night, all daaaay. Wooo!"

...time. it takes time.

Soon, you're on your way through the trails of the mountain to one of the naarest villages you can find. They seem rightly skeptical of you, given that they saw the house 'appear' from one of thier high up vantage points, and it takes you some time to convince them that you're not a threat.

Still, it will be a time before the next airship arrives for transport at the nearest docking point.

Edinaz is a threat? Him? He looks so harmle--- right. He just tries to keep quiet until more charming people break the poor bastards down.

Braelnoir is probably a threat, being spiked in places, in winter clothes and all that weaponry. Also? Scythe. That tends to rile some folk. While the song's lyrics aren't familiar, the cadence is, and so she starts to try and sing along at least with the bare notes, until the time comes for a repeat, when she's picks up some of the words. The wait for the airship mostly involves keeping watch in shifts, occaisionally flirting people away in that overbearing Merc way she's seen her brothers fail with in days past, that sort of thing.

Cryosanthia does her best to convince others she's not a threat. Inwardly, she's wondering why she has to at all. Her combat successes have been rather comedic of late, while her actual comedy, the jokes she does make, don't go over so well. Perhaps a tall, heavily horned sith'makar woman that moves a lot quicker than her size suggests she should is hard to relax around. Her flexibility is good, her scales are just half-lead you see. Why does no one ever believe.

Once her jokes are aside, she makes an effort to keep Zaya conscious and comfortable, getting her some clothes, warm food and a brush for her hair. She encourages her to do something the the brush, she has no real idea herself. And she waits on the airship.

Yes, the heavily armed adventurers may have a difficult time getting people to immedaitely open their doors to them, it's true.

Eventually, however, you do make it to the airship station, where you are able to board. It's a nerve wracking thing. Here you are. On an airship. Flying back to the city. With ... a little bit of *dead god* in your hands.

....and you don't crash. In fact, you make it back to the city in one piece. How's that for unlikely events?

You disembark, but the city *feels* different. Somehow. Perhaps it's just the sense of all the eyes that you 're aware might be on you, if they can sense what you brought with you.

OOC Stuff

<OOC> Cryosanthia grinz, "how many RPP to buy the house?"
<OOC> Whirlpool snort. XD
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "I don't thin k RPP rules cover 'buying a planar-tripping artifice house'."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "At least not at the moment xD"
<OOC> Baz da Ork casts searing light through a pair of glasses and ant-fries this house.
<OOC> Braelnoir pupyeyes.
<OOC> Cryosanthia says, "But I want to be the 14th Doctor Who! A white lizard woman is exactly what is needed"
<OOC> Baz da Ork says, "Might be the only thing that'll get the raitings out of the toliet."
<OOC> Braelnoir says, "I didn't say it."
<OOC> Cryosanthia swishes her sexy tail, "I would rock it."
<OOC> Braelnoir gives Cryo a scarf, and brocoli.
<OOC> Whirlpool facepaolms XD
<OOC> Cryosanthia even drives like the Doctor. Parking brake on.