Ivy and Chrome PbP Forums

Chapter 109
Unlikely Alliance

"Let's take this slow ..." Tyran states to Bill. In his mind, however, Tyran intends on doing no such thing. The statement, in fact, was simply intended for the benefit of anything that might happen to be listening in. As soon as he steps into the rift, Tyran begins casting another spell. As he does so, he watches carefully for any signs of an impending attack.
The second the spell is complete, he dives through the mystic portal he has created in the side of the tunnel, with the other end of the portal opening right at the visible tunnel exit...
As he steps out of the tunnel into the daylight, he immediately lets his dimensional portal close, looking around to try and determine if he recognizes anything which might tell him where he and Bill have ended up.
Bill and Tyran step into the brightness of day, unsure of the time of day, however, they both realize that they are at the crossing of two of the ley lines that are near his small home, near Louisville. Nothing seems out of place.
With the dimensional portal closed behind him, Tyran takes a minute to focus his dimension sense, to ensure it is indeed his home dimension and nothing is out of place. Assuming it is, he will then begin to draw on the energies from the Nexus, with the intention of opening a portal to the guild room and returning to Drake, in order to give him an update. He finds that he is truly home in the tri-nexus area of the woods. He then hears shouts in the woods, towards the direction of his small home as he prepares to use the nexus for another jump.
"What now ..." Tyran thinks, as he continues the preparations for his spell. Something else he was going to have to check on. It sounded like perhaps someone was in trouble back home...
... He'd have to trust that Nilsomar was on top of it. One of the villagers may have run into some trouble in the woods, but Alec and Jenna were most certainly in trouble back in Ishpeming. And when it came down to it, after all that he had learned the last few days, and with Jenna, Alec, and Drake's involvement with these mysterious pendants, he grudgingly conceded that whatever had ambushed him in Ishpeming would have to take precedence over whatever might be happening right now in Louistown. For all he knew, it could be a trap; the same source that had captured him the first time, one of Noctis's lackeys no doubt, attempting to prevent him from completing his escape. Vowing to return to check on things just as soon as he could retrieve Dirk and determine the fate of the others in Ishpeming, he continues the casting of his spell ... attempting to open a portal to the room where he hoped to find Lori, Drake, and the others.
"What now ..." Tyran thinks, as he continues the preparations for his spell. Something else he was going to have to check on. It sounded like perhaps someone was in trouble back home... He'd have to trust that Nilsomar was on top of it. One of the villagers may have ran into some trouble in the woods, but Alec and Jenna were most certainly in trouble back in Ishpeming. And when it came down to it, after all that he had learned the last few days, and with Jenna, Alec, and Drake's involvement with these mysterious pendants, he grudgingly conceded that whatever had ambushed him in Ishpeming would have to take precedence over whatever might be happening right now in Louistown. For all he knew, it could be a trap; the same source that had captured him the first time, one of Noctis's lackeys no doubt, attempting to prevent him from completing his escape.
Vowing to return to check on things just as soon as he could retrieve Dirk and determine the fate of the others in Ishpeming, he continues the casting of his spell ... attempting to open a portal to the room where he hoped to find Lori, Drake, and the others.
Tyran continues to cast as he gets a nagging feeling that something is wrong. So many thoughts running through his head. Dirk, Drake and the group, Jenna and the fiasco there, the strange pocket dimension, strange astral beings, Noctis and his lackeys, the Chrome, Centak, his grandfather... Suddenly, Tyran's pager's buzzer begins to rattle the inside of his pocket, almost interrupting his ritual.
"Crap ... trouble!" Tyran states, as soon as he feels the vibration in his pocket. Aborting his ritual, he does a barrel roll away from where he was standing, and attempts to redirect what energy he was drawing into a protective 'energy field' spell. He hears two distinct 'thunking' sounds in a tree near where he was standing. He finishes his spell.
Taking a quick look around, he follows this up by casting chameleon, Tyran notices two darts, filled with a strange fluorescent green substance, are protruding from the bark of a tree, in direct trajectory of where he was standing. He finishes his spell as two more shatter against his field of magical energy. He spots two men sitting on a makeshift platform, built into the trees, looking through sniper scopes directly at where he is standing, however, they seem to be shaking their heads at each other. About 200 yards away from his concealment of chameleon, the two men jump down and sling their rifles over their shoulders, grumbling to each other. "Boss isn't gonna be happy if we can't even talk to the pipsqueak..." The other one nods, both wearing camouflaged huntsman armor.
The other responds, "Well, using these darts isn't going to get him to talk if we don't get the antidote to him in time."
"Damn finger wigglers. He could be anywhere about now." And then he points... straight at Bill, "What is that thing? Looks like another d-bee.”
His mind racing once again, Tyran tries to determine what to do next. Who sent these people after him, and how did they know where to find him? Did they really not know where he had gone, or were they also spellcasters, and could this simply be a ruse so that they could come within range of some deadly spell?
Deciding he needs more information before he can decide how to respond to this threat appropriately, he begins to quietly whisper another incantation under his breath. Carefully watching the two for any signs of a response to his casting, he casts his spell, feeling his body go intangible as it melds with the ley line. Sending a ley line transmission to Bill (only), he will say .o0( I'd like to know who this Boss they speak of is, why they've attacked me, and what the contents of those darts would do if they struck; but they're too far away for me to be able to encourage them to tell us right now. Can you sense anyone besides the two of them?)
Bill's voice enters Tyran's head, "No other presence that I can tell. I need to hide!" With that, Bill quickly moves into the foliage and tries to make himself scarce. The two men walk right up to where Tyran was standing, looking around. They begin following something as the walk along; both seem quite ready for anything and very jumpy. They walk to right before the ley line, where Tyran had used his phantom spell.
"Shit!" One exclaims as he punches a tree beside him hard enough to chip all of the bark off of where he had struck. "What do we do now?"
The other one shrugs, "He was right there! And we both missed! He couldn't possibly have seen us."
The first one sighs, "Well, the boss wanted us to deliver a message, so here goes." He leans back and begins to yell loud enough for anyone within half a mile to hear, "Hey kid! Fine, we won't hurt you! We just have to deliver a message! Sorry about the darts but we didn't want you to run! Come out and we can talk. I’m putting my weapon away, okay?" With that, he slings his rifle, which Tyran can closely see had a dart gun attached to the top of it.
The other simply lowers his rifle, but doesn't put it away, "You're crazy if you think I'm gonna put this thing on my back. What about that wierd worm thing? In a place like this? No way man. I'm gonna stay ready for anything. That worm probably will burrow into my leg and enter my brain or something and plant eggs."
"Oh, shut the hell up, you sound like you've never been outside of the city."
Listening to the banter, as the two approach, Tyran allows himself to drift slightly to the side, counting on his chameleon spell and phantom form to help prevent him from being seen. As he does, he will watch to see whether the two make even a subtle adjustment to their path as they approach. As they banter, Tyran will focus his mind, attempting to use telekinesis to remove one of the darts from the tree. If successful, he will throw it into the ground between the armed mercenaries’ feet.
Neither of the two seems to notice as Tyran drifts enough to see them clearly. They continue bantering about clues to finding him and staying away from Bill. Seconds later, Tyran yanks one of the darts from the tree, the green liquid dribbles from it as it suddenly spikes into the ground between the two. They both notice and jump back, both scrambling their rifles up and aiming at the tree that it had come from.
"Damn it. Where is he?"
"Why don't you go look?" The taller one, who didn't have to scramble to simply get his rifle, replies.
"Uh huh... nice try. Maybe if we wait around long enough, he will just show up."
"Yeah, slinging spells of mutation at us. I say we just head back to his cabin and wait. The boss said he would probably go back there sooner or later. We have enough food."
Tyran smiles, watching the two look around fruitlessly. Convinced their show wasn't simply an act, he decides that perhaps he's ready to reveal a little more about himself, just to figure out exactly who these two are.
Using telekinesis, he rustles the branches of a tree or bush, trying to make it look like he's hiding behind/climbing up it. He'll be sure to choose one that is deeper within the ley line, trying to draw them into the actual ley line proper.
If their immediate reaction is to shoot, he'll have to reconsider his plan. But if not, he will drift slightly behind the two, and allow himself to float up above them. Once in position, he'll speak (in a deep, menacing voice ...) "What's the message, and who sends you?"
"Our contractor, Josiah, sends us to make a deal with you. He wants the rat, Radament, back and he will give your bird back. That's it." replies the tall one. "You're supposed to meet him in two days in the woods near your cabin and leave the rat when you hear him."
“Your contractor, Josiah? I know no one by that name. And yet he claims to have something of mine ... a bird, of all things ... and that I'm to meet him in two days in the woods. Are you sure you've got the right message ... or the right recipient?
“But of course, you must be, if you're willing to risk your lives by attacking an unarmed stranger. Just how much was it worth to have you deliver this message? I'm a reasonable businessman ... Perhaps I can pay you to deliver a response of my own.” Tyran will watch carefully for any signs that the two are about to flee before he's ready to let them go ... if they do start to move towards the edge of the ley line, he will fire a magic net at them ...
They don't run. Although, the shorter one looks as though he is ready to bolt.

"Well then, let us begin. I'm sure you already know my name, and the dee-bee you speak of is known as 'ta'maraiel-alvarron'." Tyran purposely disguises the incantation, casting a compulsion spell on the mercenary who had refused to sling his rifle. "To begin, tell me everything you know or have experienced related to this 'Josiah', and how you came to be under his hire." Pausing, Tyran waits to see if his spell has taken any effect, the object of the compulsion being the desire to share everything they possibly could with him, as per his following statement.
The taller one instantly begins speaking as soon as Tyran's hands stop moving, "He just said that this mouse or rat that he is looking for is important. It's worth a lot of money to him and that it is 'special' in some way. He had been watching you for about a week and when he saw that you and your familiar, whatever that is, were separated. He took your hawk and put it in a cage or aviary somewhere. He met us in Ishpeming and paid us one hundred thousand credits to come and deliver this message. He's an interesting fellow, this, Mr. Josiah." The shorter one stares at his taller counterpart in disbelief. Yet, the taller one continues. "He's a rather large man, with almost reddish eyes and a smooth tone to his voice. He always seems to wear dark robes and is armed with a shotgun and a few other strange items. I never got a good look at them though. He's a bounty hunter as far as I know. His bounty is to get that rat and he will give you the bird. He also says he has seen you in different realms... whatever that means. I guess he knows a lot about you."
"What are you talking about?" The shorter one asks, almost standing in front of the taller one, "Why are you spilling your guts to this guy? He's not the one paying us. And why are you holding out on me? I've never even heard of this tameraliavalon dude."
"Hey chill out," The other one replies, "I know what I’m doing and this kid can't do much. He hid from us. That makes me believe we can win if he tries anything," He turns back towards Tyran, "Anyways, he’s not hard to miss. He has the oddest red eyes, he's large and rather freaky looking. His hair is light brown... I think..."
Drawing on the nexus for some additional energy, Tyran looks to the second mercenary.
"I said, the Dee-Bee you saw me with is named 'ta'maraiel-alvarron'. You should do everything within your power to assist me in recovering this bird unharmed, since we're going to be doing business." Tyran recasts the spell, targeting the mercenary who is not already under a compulsion spell - the object being his helping in recovering the bird, however he can. "And telling me everything you can remember about this Josiah would be a good start," he continues. With that done, he will lay heavy into the questioning. "So this Josiah paid you in full, up front? I'm certain he must have made some arrangement for you to communicate with him to confirm his message had been delivered ... when, where, and how?
"Where exactly did you first meet him, how many times have you met him, and when did you meet him ... How long ago was that, and on what exact date?
"What is in the green liquid in the vials, and where did you get it? What does it do? What and where is the antidote?"
Tyran also continues to ask questions regarding what this 'bounty hunter' looks like, whether they'd met him before, previous work they may have done with/for him, and all of the specifics of their meeting; attempting to match the bounty hunters description up with any of the people who were in Ishpeming when he was ambushed. He also asks questions which allow him to deduce how much time has passed while he was in the rift, and what the current date might be. As he speaks, he watches their clothing, speech, and mannerisms, in an attempt to determine what (if any) mercenary group they might belong to. While he is talking to them, Tyran will attempt to send another ley line transmission to Bill.
"Probably best to stay hidden for the moment ... I'm just trying to figure out why these guys attacked me, and who sent them ..."
He will also attempt to send a ley line transmission to Nilsomar, assuming he is in the village.
"I heard some shouting in the forests around the village when I arrived ... just checking to see if everything is all right? I had a couple of mercs try and ambush me here when I arrived as well ... I've got the situation under control, but thought I'd see if you might have any use for them before I let them go - I don't really want to let loose two trigger happy mercs anywhere near the village unsupervised, but I've got an issue that needs my immediate attention and I don't really want to take on someone who's shot at me as a new travelling companion, either."
He finds that the tall one will not give his name and the shorter one simply likes to be called "Kickback". They seemingly are just freelancer bounty hunters who were hired on by a more prominent and successful bounty hunter simply known as Josiah. The name doesn’t ring a bell and he doesn’t seem to belong to any mercenary group, however, the nature of the guy seems to radiate something else. Tyran can’t put his finger on it though.
The mercs stand there waiting, however, the second merc frowns and asks, "So, is it a deal, can we get the rat and we will return your bird?" Tyran nearly bites his tongue as he hears the mercenary's final question, but recovers his composure. "Your tongue betrays you, mercenary," Tyran responds. "You said that I was to bring this rat here, and your contractor would return this supposed bird of mine. Now you say that 'We' will return this bird. You were hired only to deliver a message, and now you're an integral part of the exchange. Your story is inconsistent ... it leaves me little reason to believe you." Tyran attempts to keep the mercenaries off guard with his veiled accusation.
"And now you ask if we have a deal ... but I am unclear on what the terms of this deal are supposed to be. A rat for a bird and you're being paid enough for the exchange that you would risk an unprovoked attack on an unknown foe? What is so valuable about this rat ... or this bird? How am I supposed to trust your story, when you've contradicted yourself in the first thirty seconds of our conversation?" Growing fed up, Tyran switches gears ... releasing a magic net at the two mercenaries.
"So ... just how much is this job worth to you? Is it worth your life? I strongly suggest you answer my questions."
"I am sure the members of this village do not take kindly to mercenary attacks on its residents ... or should I re-open the rift which brought me here and send you both to face the demons which lie within? Perhaps I should introduce you to a few friends of mine ... they tell me that hired mercenary tastes a little bit like chicken ..."
His bluff played, the 'invisible threat' will begin to assault the two mercenaries with a relentless onslaught of questions, looking for answers to his previous questions. "When were you hired? How much were you paid? How are you supposed to confirm the message has been delivered? Have you worked with this Josiah before?"
While firing his questions at the mercenaries, Tyran will use Telekinesis to remove another neural dart from the tree it struck, and dance the dart around the entrapped mercenaries ... darting in and out towards them within the confines of the net.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" The tall merc shouts, staring at the dart's tip carefully, "He hired us a few months ago; it took us a while to locate this place. This is our first job with Josiah. He is paying us about 500K each and it will let us retire if we finish. Can the dart go now?"
The shorter one tries to squirm behind his partner while he adds, "The only thing I can remember NOT telling you is that Josiah said that the rat is important. He says that the bird is yours and important to you. It's a hawk, I think." He gives up trying to squirm behind his partner and simply stares from the dart to Tyran.
Dirk comes to mind as a message ripples back through the ley line. Nilsomar's voice returns with, "Young man, what you have gotten yourself into this time? I was wondering what the noise was. I sensed a massive amount of ley line energy being released, I was wondering what was going on."
Letting the dart hover out of reach of the mercenaries, Tyran sends a ley line transmission response to Nilsomar. "I was ambushed in Ishpeming ... went for a bit of a dimensional detour, and it took quite the effort to get back home. I heard shouting when I arrived ... anything to worry about? How much time has passed since I last left Louisville?"
Nilsomar: "It's been a while, but not entirely too long. Ishpeming? What is so important in Ishpeming?" There is a pause, but the transmission still open. Then to Bill, another transmission.. "Search the area around here ... see if you can find their vehicle. I think we should delay them getting word back to whoever hired them to attack me."
Bill responds with, "I'm already looking."
Turning his attention back towards the mercs again, Tyran has the dart make another sweeping pass at the two inside the net. "So ... months, eh? And the message is that I'm supposed to meet him here in a few days? Well, then, that means you MUST have arranged some means of contacting him to let him know his message has been delivered ..." The dart shivers with anticipation, hovering over the two as Tyran's voice takes on a menacing tone. "Details ... What is your arrangement? How are you supposed to contact him?"
The taller merc shivers, "N.. Northern Gun. He works through one of the bounty offices."
Nilsomar: "Are you still using alot of magic energy? There is a massive amount being discharged not farm from here."
Tyran uses the dart as a pending threat in order to get answers to his questions. "Where did this meeting take place? What town, what building, what room, what chair? I want specifics."
The smaller man answers this time, "That Company does the communications for us. The one time we met him, he caught us outside. We never really saw his face. The hood..."
"How did you find this place? How did you get here?"
The taller man answers, "This is where he told us we would find you."
"Did you collect up front? What were the terms?"
Taller man again, "We got advanced pay for traveling funds and for upkeep on equipment. We were to contact you and inform you to return a certain rodent to him under his conditions, which Im not entirely sure of, for exchange of some hawk, eagle or falcon that you would probably show interest in. That is the entirety of the mission. He told us he would handle the rest after we found you."
Tyran draws the dart back and lets it softly drop to the ground, his voice taking on a much calmer tone. "Listen ... I'll tell you what's going to happen here. But first, there's a few things you must know. This Josiah ... He's working on behalf of another. And his contractor is certainly someone you do not want to be involved with. I've dealt with this being before ... and note that I say 'being', not 'man'. Your contractor's contractor is a demon, who in turn is working for yet another demon. One who I doubt even Plato would want to find him alone in a room with. I've watched this demon slaughter over a thousand people in a single hour ... he holds no regard for humanity. And ... here's the part you want to pay very close attention to...
"... This demon is extremely careful about guarding his identity. And because of this, anyone who has ever had anything to do with him, except for me, has ended up dead as soon as their given task is done. Whether direct contract or sub-contract ... I know of dozens of unfortunate suckers just like you, who have done his business and ended up dead when they tried to collect. That's the true reason your contractor wants to find this boy. The two of you are being used ... and as soon as you deliver your message, you're dead. Think about it ... You know it's true. Nobody makes a million credits just for delivering some stupid message about a bird and a rat. There's an old pre-rifts saying ... If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Half a million credits will certainly last you the rest of your life ... but don't expect your life to last as long as the money.”
"Now ... here's what's going to happen. You two are going to drop your weapons ... all of them, and then I'm going to drop the net. You are then going to remove your helmets, march on into town there, and head to the inn. Once there, you are going to sit down, order a meal on the boy's tab, and think things over. In the meantime, I'm going to send a message to the boy you're looking for. You didn't expect him to jump through a rift without sending a scout first, did you? In any event, he will come meet you there, and you can deliver your message then. Of course, if I were you, I'd simply keep on walking right through town, make myself scarce, change my name, and simply forget I had ever met Josiah or heard about this rat bird mission crap."
Tyran then stops to give the mercs a moment to consider his words. "Are we in agreement?" The two look at each other then nod in agreement to each other. Then turn their attention to where the dart had fallen and nod.
At that moment, Tyran feels the ground vibrate slightly, as though a large object had bounced on the ground several times, but distantly, maybe a mile or two. Then the faint sounds of distant branches snapping catches his ears. Maybe as distant as a mile or two also.
Tyran looks to the mercs, who appear to be in agreement with his suggestion. Taking advantage of the ley line telepathy abilities in his phantom form, he decides to send them off in style. "THEN DO IT!" he yells directly into their heads, cancelling the magic net as soon as they've released their grips on their weapons. To anyone listening, he doesn't make a sound...
The two jump up and scramble towards the north. Trying to scurry away without a word.
Turning his attention back to Nilsomar, he responds.
Nilsomar: "Are you still using a lot of magic energy? There is a massive amount being discharged not far from here."
"I'm afraid not. That’s not me. And it's not these two mercs I found here, either ... there's something else out here, and it's big."
"Bill ... I'm heading in to town, which is about a mile (north/east/ south/west) of here. I'm not sure what's stomping around out there; you're free to come into town with me or stay out here ... whichever you prefer. If things get heated, just call ..." With that, he will take off into town, flying along the ley line as quick as possible.
Bill quickly joins Tyran as Nilsomar messages back, "There seems to be a battle amongst two magical factions going on somewhere within the woods. By the look of it, they are both using some rather powerful arcane knowledge. It would be unwise to pass straight through towards us unless you are moving along the ley line."
Moments later, as Tyran is floating along the ley line, Tyran notices a rather large skeleton of a some giant marching along, wearing armor made of other undead parts and a rather large cannon mounted on its shoulder. Its pelvic girdle seems to have been remodeled to fit a human sized occupant. Upon closer look, the giant skeleton is carrying a club, made of what looks like a zombie! Legions of zombies walk behind it. They are heading away from Louisville, towards where Tyran would figure the battle is.
"Did you know that Ethan disappeared? Have you seen him out there?" comes another question from Nilsomar.
Tyran takes a quick glance, but does not stop; since the zombie army is moving away from the town, in the opposite direction of where he's going. However, he slows long enough to get a good long look at the giant skeleton, in an attempt to determine what exactly it is.
After a moment of close examination, Tyran notices that the animated skeleton is some sort of giant humanoid, but is also a zombie. The type of magic used to create such a thing would be more in the necromantic arts. Almost exclusively necromantic if he didn't know any better.
Then, turning his attention back to Nilsomar's statement, he replies with "No, hadn't heard and haven't seen him. But I think I've found one of your magic factions - there's an entire army of zombies out here, headed away from the village. Friends of yours, I assume?"
Watching to make sure his passage hasn't drawn the attention of the zombies or giant skeletal figure, Tyran continues on into town at full speed. The zombies take no care of Tyran's presence; they seem to be on their own little mission. Tyran moves quickly and makes it back to town. Nilsomar quickly greets him, cloaked in his robe and a regal presence to him. "Interesting day, wouldn't you say?" he says with a grin of excitement, letting the hood of his cloak dangle over his brows. "I wouldn't know whose zombies those are, but if there is more than one spell caster, then we are in for quite some excitement soon."
At that moment, Tyran notices Michelle leaning against the taverns outside wall, watching him with sad eyes.
"It's been a little TOO interesting, if you ask me," Tyran responds. "I wasn't planning on being forced to make an unexpected trans-dimensional jaunt this morning ... it took quite an effort to get back home safely."
"As for the zombies ... my first guess would be that Mors is still in the area, and I'd bet they are somehow related to him."
"Do you have a quick and easy means of contacting the guild in Tolkeen?", Tyran will ask, "When I last left Drake, Lori, and the others, they were waiting at the guild house for my return ... I'd like to get a message to them that I ran into some trouble and won't be able to get back for a little while."
"And that's not all, I'm afraid ..." Tyran continues, in a much quieter voice. "Apparently, my familiar has been kidnapped and is being used to blackmail me ... I can only assume that was the motive behind the attack which knocked me through that rift. Unless you need me here, once I get a message to Drake, I think I'm going to have to return to Ishpeming by the fastest means possible to try and track down Dirk."
Nilsomar frowns, "Maybe a tactic to separate us before they make an attack on my town? I expect that my nephew would track me down sooner or later. Maybe you know him? As for you returning to Ishpeming, I don't have an immediate way to get you there without draining myself and leaving the town defenseless." His cheerfulness from moments before fades with every word.
"Oh ... I wouldn't ask that ...” Tyran responds. "But I suspected that you might at least have a quick and easy way to send a message to the guild hall. As for the transportation, I can generally get myself where I need to on my own without too much trouble ... it's taking others with me that's difficult." Then Tyran realizes he's glanced right over something that Nilsomar said. "Your nephew? Who is he, and what would make you think he's behind this commotion?" he questions.
Nilsomar frowns, "My nephew is Alistair. He has yet to find me and I would rather it stay that way." He glances back at Michelle and nods. She covers her eyes and runs inside of the inn, sobbing, almost as though her elder had just destroyed her relationship with Tyran. "I have no open contacts that far north. None that I would be sure are there. He may be behind this ruckus, but I doubt it. We are well secluded."
Not making the connection, Tyran watches in confusion. Turning back to the task at hand, he responds: "Well ... I could be rendered defenseless at any moment if Dirk is in trouble ... but if you need me here, just say the word and I'm at your service."
.o0 This better not take too long 0o. He thinks to himself. "Bill ... looks like there might be bit of a ruckus coming up, and we could get separated again ... would you prefer to be out there, or would you like to wait it out in my home?"
Bill's message comes back clear, "I’ll wait at the house." Only an instant later, two individuals wearing tattered clothes come bursting through the vegetation as though they are in a hurry to get to town or running from something. It takes a moment for both Nilsomar and Tyran to notice, but their eyes, they are glazed over as though they were brain dead. But how fast they are moving only means that they are far from dead.
"Damnit!" Nilsomar shouts, "More of them! Second time this week!"
Three more figures come from the vegetation, making a total of five, almost all grouped up and charging from nearly a hundred yards away. It looks as though they may cover that distance in a mere matter of seconds.
"What are they?" Tyran asks as he unconsciously checks for details which would allow him to answer his own question. (Lore: Demons & Monsters, Lore: Magic)
Judging by the looks of them, they aren't zombies, they display more agility than the standard zombie... after watching Mors. However, they seem about as mentally capable as one. Tyran has heard stories of this and only one word can surface his mind; Nxla...
His automatic instincts kick in as well, mentally calculating how much time he had left on his ley line phantom, sense evil, sense magic, and chameleon spells (cast either just before or during his quick conversation with the mercs, and the very short flight to town in phantom form). Drawing on the energy from the ley line, he takes a couple seconds to assess the potential threat...
Tyran finds himself casting Sense Evil and Sense Magic over again. They are definitely evil and magical in nature. Tyran can hear Nilsomar casting his own powerful spell. Tyran can actually feel the fabric of the dimension between Nilsomar and the Xombies shifting.
$* * * * * * ***************************$
Maranna feels for her knife and takes off the horn right at the skull. Who knows what she will need this for. She contemplates if she should take the fur of the animal off knowing it will take some time but it will be put to use one way or another...The hooves will be gory and she wonders if she if she should or could do it. Before she starts to skin the hide of the animal, she feels the tail to see the length of the tail and to see flexible it is and to see what she can use it for. Maranna finds that her knife will not cut into the horn at all, instead, it seems to be making her knife more dull.
After Maranna realizes that her knife becomes duller as she tries to cut off the horn, she decides to leave it and moves on to see if she can find a way out of this darkness.
$**************************************$
Reaper now decides to leave the body and move on. Reaper continues to talk to himself, "looks like someone else has been here besides me and the corpse or two people. Now for me to find my way outta here." reaper looks around in the darkness as he walks to see if he notices anything.
Reaper finds himself bumping into a few walls after about half an hour of walking, however he quickly finds his way along the passages. He begins to get thirsty, but nothing life threatening. Then, he sees and smells a pile of horse or cow poop lying in the middle of the passageway.
Reaper smells something like horse or cow shit and he asks himself, "Damn what died? I think the horse or whatever it is left a big smelly and rip pile of crap on the floor. Just what I need and on top of that, i'm gettin thirsty. I'm gettin the raw end here it looks like. Damn." Reaper holds his breath a little and continues to walk on down the corridor. Reaper walks along and eventually the smell goes away. He then hears a lot of voices from up ahead.
After hearing there are other people ahead of him , he shifts into his facade .. All Reaper hopes for is that the voices have water with them.. .if not oh well... Then reaper decides to ask out load with a curious tone in his voice, “hello, any one there?”
Reaper continues to walk towards the voices and breathes normally and gets mentally prepared for anything... That means being ready to shift back into his morphus and use his fear inducers if necessary. Reaper hearing the voices... “Hello? Anyone there?" Reaper starts walking slower than his normal pace... Unknowing what is gonna show up.

&****************************************&
Redrum replies, "Who is that, where are you?" He looks at the rift and tells his juicers to be on edge. The rift is large, but he cannot see what is on the other side of it. The voice cries out again, "Help me, I’m stuck in this rift, please, I can pay you!"
$****************************************$
Cirrus tries to see if he can figure out what is making the noise while getting ready to fight. Karakt looks and sniffs about for the source of the crackling sound, to make sure its not a threat. Karak't begins to smell a massive amount of psychic energy gathering up only an instant before a massive dimensional portal tears open. Cirrus feels his heart skip a beat upon seeing the rift in dimensions. This abomination stands for everything that he is against an object of magic and evil.
Before either can react, Karak't and Cirrus find themselves both sliding backwards through darkness. Almost as though they blinked their eyes, they find themselves in a room about thirty feet wide in all directions with one hallway leading out. The walls and ceiling seem to be completely made of ley line energy, so bright that it cannot be seen through. The floor would be non-existence except for the fact that the two are lying on something solid underneath themselves. Only pure blackness exists below them.
They can see how they had gotten here, they didn't even feel anyone grab onto them.
Karakt looks about and sniffs at the strange walls, feeling very uncomfortable in this bizarre place, starts slowly down the hallway giving the occasional sniff for any other scents besides Cirrus.
Cirrus pulls his pistols preparing for trouble and asks Karakt "What do you think is about to happen? Do you have any idea where we are or have you ever seen anything like this?"
Karakt simply shakes his head in reply to the questions but takes note of cirrus readying his pistol and follows suit, taking grip of his own giant rifle and giving it a quick check over before continuing down the strange corridor.
The two walk along, for what seems like a few hours, into almost complete darkness. They find that the walls are so dark; they don't even look like they are there. Eventually, they hear the echoing footsteps of someone else up ahead as a woman comes around a corner that they never even knew was there. She is semi pretty and carrying a survival knife.
After Maranna realizes that her knife becomes duller as she tries to cut off the horn, she decides to leave it and moves on to see if she can find a way out of this darkness. Maranna continues on in the darkness. After another twenty minutes of walking, she comes around a corner to see a large lizard, resembling a raptor, with some sort of cannon on its back, and a large humanoid man, measuring around eight feet tall, carrying two pistols.
Cirrus asks the female, "What are your intentions? Are you friend or foe? You'd better answer honestly or else we will know it. You understand?"
She hears the massive, tall man ask, "What are your intentions?" and a second question, "you friend or foe?" Maranna listens and replies, "My intentions are to find out where I am and how am I getting outta here. As for your second question, I am friend... What are your intentions and are you a friend or foe? At this point of asking back the questions, she can't help wonder what she’s run into now and what she’s going to do.. She starts to prepare herself just in case things go wrong.
Karak't approaches to about 20 feet from the woman and sniffs at her for any "strange" scents.
As she stands there and watches the lizard sniff her, she calmly asks, "What's going on here and why haven't you answered my questions?"
Cirrus looks at Karak't and asks, "Well, what do you think? Is she a threat?" Meanwhile Cirrus starts to put his weapons down as Karak't finds no psychic trail or supernatural smells coming from this woman.
Karakt sensing nothing unusual he nods to Cirrus and stows the giant rifle. Maranna senses things are a little calmer but still being cautious, she asks "so how did you get here and is there a way out that you may know of?"
cirrus looks at the female and says "we are not quite sure ourselves? how did you get here ?? "then cirrus looks at karakt and asks" what do you think is going on here??
“I don't know but we might as well work together and see if we can get the hell out of here...at least with three of us we can help defend each other and see if we can find a way out of here..” she replies.
The sound of a distant bang can be heard from behind Maranna. It sounds as though it could have been a long ways through the passageways.
Cirrus looks at karakt and the female and says" let’s get ready to battle and head towards the sounds maybe we find a way out. By the way, what is your name lady?"
“My name is Maranna... so let’s get going and see what’s ahead of us..I just want to out of here... and I'm sure you’re with me on this one.”
Karakt readies his rifle again and takes the lead as they head towards the sound, sniffing every now and then for signs of anything up ahead.
Cirrus readies his rifle closely following karakt keeping an eye out behind them as well as, asking Maranna" what was the last thing you remember before being here where ever here is?"
Karak't smells a foul stench in the distance, quite similar to farmyard manure, otherwise, maybe the scent of a few humans, if it isn’t coming from Cirrus or Maranna. The three move on, only finding the misguiding corridors, which require touching the walls in search of new corridors. Karak't tracks the foul smell to an actual pile of horse poop. The road apples couldn't be more than a day or two old.

Nothing but more dark corridors and she wonder if they will ever make a way out. Then she notices an oddity about the lizard. "So there seems to be something that’s bothering your lizard there, Cirrus..What is it? Is he sensing a way out?
Karakt hisses angrily at Maranna when she refers to him as "your lizard" and squawks out his name, which as usual takes a few tries before it sounds right, he then examines the drops a bit before continuing on into the blackness.
Karak't finds that the droppings are truly from a horse, which has eaten rich grass. The three continue on, into the darkness, as Cirrus keeps close to Karak't his, juicer assassin's rifle at the ready. Maranna finds that Karak't is more human than animalistic, at times.
Eventually, the trio moves up several corridors, for a few hours, to come across darkness after darkness. Only being lead by their sense of touch to find the almost invisible walls of darkness. Finally, they round a corner to see a doorknob jutting out of the wall. It looks to be made of brass. It is impossible to tell how large the door is, since everything is darker than even black when dealing with the wall, floor and ceiling.
"Well, there’s got to some way to figure out how big this door is, don't you think? Why don't we try to measure it least by hand and get an approximate measurement and see what we can do from there? Matter of fact, let’s see if we can't just open the door,” suggests Maranna.
Cirrus looks at Karak’t then at Maranna and thinks for a moment, then gives the door a huge shoulder shove with everything he has.
"Well there’s got to some way to figure out how big this door is, don't you think? Why don't we try to measure it least by hand and get an approximate measurement and see what we can do from there? Matter of fact, let’s see if we can't just open the door?'
Cirrus looks at karakt then at Maranna and thinks for a moment, then gives the door a huge shoulder shove with everything he has.
Maranna sits back and watches to see what’s going to happen next. "Is this finally our way out or is it more halls of darkness...or is there danger awaiting us?"
Cirrus bounces off of the door as though it was made of starship alloy. The door is unharmed. Karak't smells a supernatural creature close by.
"Good God! Are you alright?' Then as she notices Karak’t smells something she asks what. Then out of curiosity, Maranna tests the door knob to see if it opens toward them. At their amazement, the door knob turns and Maranna opens it.
Karakt grips his rifle as he tries to get a fix on what smells and where the sent is coming from. Cirrus readies his rifle and asks karakt, “What is it you smell?” -
As the door opens for Maranna, the three can see a borg, an attractive, almost naked female human, a horse with a man in strange outlandish armor, sitting on the ground sulking. None of them seem to notice the door having opened, they seem frantic about something. The room has a dial on the wall, next to a large metal door and a digital display with a ten key number pad underneath it. In the middle of the room is a large fountain with crystal clear water. The room looks rather large.
Karakt smells the supernatural psychic scent coming from the room.
Karakt motions about the room, uncertain what is causing the smell, as he slowly enters, mostly ignoring the people and moving to sniff the water to be sure it’s safe to drink.
Maranna herself feels an uncertainty but doesn't quite know what it is or means...While Cirrus and Karak't are ready for the smell and seeing if the water is safe to drink and what is the strangeness in the room, she wanders over to the borg and asks what’s wrong with the man sulking one the ground... "What seems to be the problem with your friend here? And how did you guys get here?"

Josiah languidly looks from Nelson to the rift and back, glowing blue eye lenses betraying no emotion. Then he shrugs and casually knocks the end of the massive drill rod taking the place of his right hand against the underside of his metallic foot, thus dislodging a good deal of grit and pulverized rubble. With only two long strides he makes his way to an improvised cubby hole he has carved within the living rock and retrieves a large pack containing his gear. He slings it over his armored shoulder and returns to the comparatively diminutive scholar. "Don't rightly know what the likes of me can do if'n y'all run into any of them demons or some such," he says, "but so long as you're the one with the gold, you got my attention." Then, sparing another glance at the ominously glowing anomaly, he adds, "Never been this close to no rift before. Don't suppose either of you scientist types reckon on what we'll find in there?"
Upon scanning the rift, Josiah finds that he cannot see beyond the portal itself, however, Siegfried is the first to answer him, "You can expect at least some amount of danger, although, a rift like this is usually unmolested and ignored, having been buried this long."
Nelson smiles, stroking his black goatee to a point and giving a knowing grin, "Thank you, Josiah. I knew we could count on you." Nelson strikes Josiah as the smart one with clever and witty remarks. However, he looks constantly in thought lately. He snaps out of a daydream and seems to spring into action with orders, "Siegfried, I'm coming with also. The crew will know what to do if things get hairy on this end." He grabs his gear and gets ready to step through.
Nelson is already moving, gear in hand, he walks into the rift, disappearing into it as though he stepped into vertical surface of glowing bluish water. Nelson shakes his head, "Brave...” He looks to Josiah, "Would you do me the honors of going first? I think that my skin wouldn't break the tooth of some demon if I were to step through. You will be compensated if your armor is scratched." He motions with an open hand towards the door in an almost aristocratic manner.
"Either brave or a durn fool. Well, I reckon I better save him from gettin' his head bit off. Just make sure you have a doctor standing' by just in case." Josiah hefts his right arm to examine it, gives it a few pulses of power and nods approvingly as the powerful rock drill spins menacingly. Then he steps through.
Josiah steps through the rift, right behind where Siegfried had stepped through. Eventually, Nelson, Art, Gene and Marlin step through behind him. The time it takes them to step through is rather slow. All around Josiah and the crew is what looks like a wall of ley line energy. The ceiling even is made of it. The floor is so dark, that it looks as though it doesn’t exist or is invisible, as though they are standing on an invisible floor above the vastness of some dark void. Siegfried and Nelson looks around as the three other large men take up positions with small firearms in case anything happens.
Nelson then complains of the faint smell of farm animal manure and notifies everyone. At that moment, the faint sound of someone talking can be heard from what looks like a hard-to-make-out corridor of the energy, leading into just blackness.
Josiah secures his pack and brings his sensor hand and finger laser to bear, willing his cybernetic senses to strain into the mystic corridor. Balancing in a ready stance and holding his drill arm slightly behind him, ready to thrust it forward like a sword, he mutters, "Place stinks like pa's hog pen."
Siegfried, Nelson, Art, Gene and Marlin cautiously follow Josiah down the hallway, quiet as possible, leaving only Josiah's heavy borg footfalls against the ground and the sound of a male voice calling out from the darkness. "hello? Anyone there?"
Reaper walks along, hearing the heavy footfalls of something heavy against =the ground. Sometimes he can even feel the vibrations of it. Until...
Josiah comes around the corner to see a guy in a tattered leather jacket and black leather pants. They look almost as though the butt of the pants have been torn out, but unless the guy turns around, he doesn’t know if its the guy's bare butt showing. The thought of a massive amount of flatulence may have caused the rip in the pants. This would probably make most happy to be a borg. No need to bask in the ambience of a powerful fart if you don't have to.
Reaper rounds the corner to see five men following a large mining cyborg. Josiah relaxes, but only slightly, still keeping his drill arm ready. Locking his gaze with the eyes of this newcomer, he says, "Afternoon, stranger. Mind tellin' us what y'all are doin' comin' out of a rift all by your lonesome?" Then he looks downward slightly. "And if'n a demon done bit your behind, maybe you'd oblige us by gettin' clear of the varmint. This here ain't no place for a lone drifter."
Reaper looks at the drilling Borg and laughs , "a demon done bit my ass? Well put it this way metal man... A demon put me here... it pushed me into a rift and I landed somewhere back there.“ Reaper points behind him " and how bout you and this whole group here .. how you end up here , where ever this is ... and how can we get out of here huh?" Reaper still ready for battle but easys himself alittle ...
Josiah risks a glance back at Siegfried and Nelson. "Your call."
Nelson nods back to Josiah, "We are a mining expedition that found an underground rift, rumored to have an artifact from ancient times before even the golden age. Here we are. Only problem is, we didn't expect not to return through the rift. This might explain things a bit."
Art frowns as he sidles up beside Nelson, "What the f**k are you talking about, 'this explains things a bit' bullshit?" He emphasizes mimicking Nelson in extreme sarcasm, "You thought that you would leave that bit out? Now this guy," pointing at Reaper, "says that there are demons? How the---"
Siegfried interrupts, "None of the other recorded expeditions ever returned from their venture into the rift. None..." Gene and Marlin look at each other in disbelief and shake their heads. Art simply sidles up beside Nelson, who is giving a confident smile. Art suddenly launches an elbow into Nelson's face. Nelson flies backwards and into the arms of Gene and Marlin. Blood begins to pour from Nelson's nose as he laughs, "Thata boy, Art! Make enemies with the two people who know more than you about this."
"You f***in rights! You lead us into a goddamned trapped place? I'll beat your ass!" Art begins to advance forward to finish the beating he is about to give Nelson as Siegfried watches, horrified.
For a moment, Josiah rapidly looks back and forth between the newcomer and the rapidly escalating brawl. Then, sparing a glance at their new "companion" he says, "One sec." He then proceeds to interpose himself between the bloodied Nelson and his assailant. "Steady there, partner. You weren’t hired to beat on nobody. I reckon that's my job. Now y'all take a step back if'n you know what's good for you. "And as for you," he says with a glance at Nelson, "I calculate you got some explainin' to do yourself. I didn't sign up for a one way trip. Suppose it's my own fault for not seein' the fox glare in your eyes these past few days, but that don't excuse you none."
Reapers seeing the fight start to break out; he steps in to help break up the fight. he looks at the two humans and says in a degrading tone, " one way trip and the both you are fighting like to stray cats .. " , reaper looks at the one called nelson , " you knew this would be a dead end but you just don't give a fuck bout anyone or anything , just your own ambitions.”
After everything is settles down then he starts asking the questions, "Borg, you have anything that can give us a direction here? And what is this artifact and what is the golden age? How does any of you gonna figure out how to get us outta here?"
Josiah holds up his shovel/sensor hand palm inwards. "Gotcha covered. Onboard gyrocompass. If'n y'all know what direction we gotta go in, I'll get you there, assuming o'course that this here rift is gonna let us. 'Fraid I can't help with the rest. Guess I ain't been paid enough to know that."
Reaper smiles, " looks like Borg we both are in the dark bout this ... we could try where you guys came out? .. or we can travel back from where i came from? .. its up to you ...." reaper stands there lookin at the group of misguided men and wonders how this is gonna work out.
Josiah adds his cold cybernetic gaze to that of the newcomer's and thanks the Lord above that his metal face does not betray the frustration he feels. All the while, he keeps one eye on Art, ready to knock some sense into the fool's skull if he attempts another childish tantrum.

Art's face turns as red as an angry d-bee on a sunburnt day as he points his finger at Nelson, then Reaper and then Josiah 7, shouting, "You f***ers don't think I can figure out my own way out of this bullshit?" He points at Nelson, "He lied to us once, what else is this piece of dogshit hiding?" He moves back to where Marlin and Gene are standing, which is away from Siegfried, who are letting go of Nelson and moving away from him also. He grabs his pack and slings it over his shoulders, "I used to work the coal mines in the deep west. I can handle my own share of spelunking in this shit, who's with me?" Gene and Marlin move beside him and nod.
All the while, Nelson wears a smug grin, "Art, it's really best if we stick together." He wipes his nose off on his sleeve, leaving an artistic red streak from cuff to elbow. "That boy can hit." Art begins chuckling as he hears Nelson complain. Nelson picks up a few things that hit the ground and stands up, looking at Reaper and Josiah, "I figured that you all knew the risks of jumping through a rift. I only know of one man not leery of jumping into one."
Siegfried nods, “Yes, a man who went by the name Toryth Lockheed, who was a crazy old coot, but a powerful practitioner of the magical arts." Siegfried's grandfatherly smile echoes his experience and knowledge of age, "His entire town was destroyed along with him because of his experiments in the evils of magic. I moved away a year before that terrible event. I hear a young boy was found who could have been his grandson. It's just a rumor though. I would be scared if that boy follows in his grandfather's footsteps. It's best if we get moving and Art is a good explorer of caves, which is why we signed him on. He has a natural knack with underground direction sense."
This is when Josiah checks his gyrocompass, which is spinning around. There is no definite north, south, east or west. Art nods almost triumphantly, walking past Siegfried, and turning to face Nelson and look him directly in the eye. For a man without weapons, his sheer size and icy glare is piercing enough to wipe the smirk off of Nelson's face. Art gives an amused chuckle, "Looks like he's right. And I don't think that there is much you don't know that we can't figure out." Art's grin fades somewhat, only leaving a small smirk as he turns and gives a look at Josiah and Reaper, "Welcome aboard, boys. Let's figure this goddamned shit out."
At that moment, a distant bang can be heard coming up the tunnel. It could be from anywhere beyond the tunnel, yet, it's a sign of other activity. Marlin seems a bit shaken, however, he looks to have had his own share of adventures, signified by the scar spanning from his right eyebrow, down to his lips. "Golden Age of man; before the rifts came, when the gods supposedly smiled on humankind." He begins to follow Gene and Art, whom are taking lead up the tunnel.

"Dang fools," Josiah mutters as quietly as his voice synthesizer will allow. Then turning to Siegfried and Nelson, he says, "Reckon we'd better follow 'em, unless you'd rather stay here. I don't calculate they'll come back on your say so. Just remember you're still payin' my fee."
"By the way," he says, turning to the stranger (OOC: Reaper), "We ain't been properly introduced. Name's Josiah. Josiah 7. I'd shake your hand, but I got more dirt on me than a politician."
Reaper nods to what Josiah says bout the others. “Dirt don't bother me. Name’s reaper. As for this golden age, I can show you what this golden age did to me. It’s a long story... but I can show you all... Maybe that can wait for later... so, which way we gonna go?” Reaper waits and sees what’s going to happen next.
Josiah looks at Siegfried and Nelson. "Unless y'all have a better idea, I say we follow them," he says while jerking his thumb in the direction of Art's retreating figure. "Don't know about the rest of you, but this rift is gettin' old for me. Of course it's your decision."
Reaper looks at Art who up and leaves and decides to go with him. He hollers back, "come on Josiah, let’s go if they want to come, they will, if not then they stay to die right there," Reaper starts walking after Art.
Josiah looks to the two scientists. "Well ain't this a hoot. Well now, you two scientists got a choice to make. I came into this thinking you were on the up-and-up. Now it don't look like you planned on anything except makin' a name for yourselves. If'n that's how things stand, I reckon this job's over. I don't plan on sacrificing nobody for the love of gold nor lore. So unless you can convince me otherwise, you better haul your carcasses after us, lest you want to be left behind so's the demons can pick the meat off'n your bones."
With that, Josiah turns on his rather substantial heel and follows Reaper. "Craziest day I've had since them polecats got rifted into shaft 9," he mutters.
“Polecats? Josiah what the hell is a polecat? “ Reaper asks his new friend, who is right behind him.

Josiah looks as aghast as a cyborg can. "Skunks, partner, skunks. About a hundred of 'em. Come through the rift from some place. Took three months to get the stink off. Ever tried buffing bionics with tomato paste? Well don't!"
Reaper starts laughing so hard his gut starts hurting. “Skunks .... Damn man ...... you can never get a break." Reaper then remembers when skunks were the least of his problems... “Josiah how you ever manage to go through life with no sense of humor?"
Josiah gazes at the high-powered rock drill where a human arm once was. He is silent for a few moments, then says, "Guess it's easy when you've had the right kind of life."
“Guess it’s easy when you have the right kinda life? Oh you got another thing comin Josiah. I am the last of my race... I try to survive in this world... My life is far from the right kind... speaking of, how you got to be what you are now?" reaper just walks on ahead, but allows Josiah to catch up with him...
Josiah clumps along, content to lag behind slightly while constantly scanning his surroundings. "Guess I ain't no different from any other miner 49'er. Weylan Kendrick, my old boss, always said, 'If'n you got the time, I got the metal.' I did and he did, so here I am, professional tin can and proud of it. "And don't mind my bellyaching back there. Don't mean nothin'."
“Interesting ... With me ... Creatures called the night lords made me what I am ..
I was just a normal human being." reapers laughs "till they showed up. Their very presence made people change... since they showed up on at my home. People called it “the dark day “. For a good two days straight there was no daylight... people went outta their minds... Some didn't...” Reaper looks around as he walks.
Josiah grunts his acknowledgment. "Well, shoot, that's a lot more interestin'. Must be you're from another of them di-mensions, cause I ain't never heard of no night lords. Sorry if you had a rough time, son. The world's like that sometimes. But maybe if'n we stick together and don't get bushwhacked by no rift demons, maybe someday we'll make it to good ol' Silvereno so's I can buy y'all a drink at the 'Shaft.'"
Reaper smiles at the thought of a friend, “that sounds good ... so what’s the deal with the jackasses that came in here with you? Have you tried to get out the same way you got in? It’s a thought ... where is Silvereno?" Reaper continues to walk.
"I see y'all are a man that likes questions," Josiah observes while not taking his eyes off of Art's party. "Well, that's okay, there ain't much to tell. Old man Kendrick's party line done stuck real good with me. Siefried had the money and I had the metal. As to them, I vow afore God I don't know what they want nor what they're a-tryin' to do.
"Speakin' of which," he calls to Art, "y'all mind tellin' me an my friend here where y'all are bound? I ain't exactly taking a shine to bein' stuck in this here rift on account of no aimless wanderin'."
Art calls back, "Anywhere but back there. My guess is that our seven person party isn't the only group down here if we found that guy," he points in Reaper's general direction.
Nelson grins, "Josiah, he is our best tunnel navigator. Trust me; this will be a snap and a piece of cake. Nothing to worry about. You'll see."
With that, Art, along with Marlin and Gene, lead everyone through a maze of dark hallways. The walls are so dark that the word black cannot even describe them. The only way to know where the wall, floor and ceiling are is to actually touch them. Finally, the group begins to come across something. It sounds like voices.
Reaper hearing voices he stops for a second and hollers out in to the darkness, “Hello out there anyone here me? Is there someone else out there? "
Reaper starts to walk again in the direction of the voices and hopes it’s real and not of his imagination...
Josiah strains his senses into the darkness and lifts his drill arm before him, his steps taking on a cautious gait and his head swiveling to and fro. oOPlace gives me the creeps.Oo
Reaper looks at Josiah, “what you pickin up Josiah? Other people?" Reaper just waits for the answer and mentally gets prepared for a fight.

He looks warily at the door knob. "If door is even maybe way out, then I will try it." With that, he stares intently at the knob, reaching out with his mind. Mentally, he grasps the knob and turns it, pulling as he would a normal door, hoping that this would be the way to sustenance for him and his horse.

"Well I know how good it is to have a right arm, I have two. Each with their own Vibro-blade even, “It is at moments like this To'Mas wishes he could smile.”Then," Ken says through clenched teeth and with a furrowed brow, “you are to understand what loss of mount would mean to me."

"Hmm... While I am attached to my arms and technology, all of my parts seem to be pretty much replaceable. Also while you must be attached to your horse, I am certain that there are other horses in the world and while it might be a loss, you might find a better horse later." To'Mas replies, "To create too much attachment to anything can cause you to be burdened in life. You of all should know this as the Warriors of Nippon must rise each day light as a butterfly ready to meet your death. Freedom from such worries and attachments for me allow me to focus on other things."
As Ken opens the door, a bright tall rectangle of soft light pours out from a rather large room. A room illuminated by more ley line energy, however, the light illuminates absolutely nothing in the hallway except the group and their belongings. In the inside of the room, Paige, Ken and To'Mas notice that the cieling is made of some strange metal and the far wall has a door on it which has a digital dial and a red button. In the middle of the room is a water fountain. There is a note on simple tablet paper taped onto the far wall, the writing is too small to normally see, however, it looks old, yellowed and brittle. None of the three have entered the room yet. "It's full of stars!" To'Mas gasps. Otherwise now that Ken has given the knob a rub and holds the door open, To'Mas proceeds to walk into the room to take a look around. Though I am not going near that fountain, never know when it might be a fountain of youth and suddenly I break forward being a naked human instead of as a powerful Borg.
Ken immediately leads his horse into the room, looking everywhere for potential adversaries and traps. He reads the note on the far wall, trying to gain as much information as possible.
Ken stares at the note, trying to discern what it says, yet, he finds that it's impossible for him to read. It's in a different language.

After reading the note, he will cup some of the water into his hand for his horse to drink. He'll continue to do this until his horse's thirst is slaked. He will then fill whatever water containers he has and drink what he can safely handle.
To'Mas waits while the soft fleshy things satisfy their physical requirements.
Ken and his horse both satisfy themselves and fill up their containers full of the life sustaining hydrant. Paige stands beside To'Mas, taking in the room and looking around. She thrums her talons on the floor, as though waiting for something to happen.
Not satisfied with looking at the room, To'Mas attempts to read the note. If he is unable to, he will ask Paige to give it a go. Failing that, he will start to tap on the walls.
To'Mas begins to attempt to read the note. He then remembers that he has never been able to read. He turns to Paige and asks her to try. He looks up and about 50 feet up, he notices that there are a multitude of indents on the ceiling, as though they were access hatches.
Paige simply walks up and grins after reading it as To'Mas taps on the walls. The walls are made of thick super alloy metal. There are a few dents in the wall, but they look to have been from a long time ago. Ken stands patiently watching as Paige begins to speak, "It says, Welcome to the rest of your life, beyond this door is the path to the nexus of my reality. Failure means death. Prepare yourselves. The red button will open the Door if you can find the right pass code." She then begins examining the digital dial, "There are sixty numbers on this dial." She announces, and then sees something and slides back a piece of metal to reveal a ten numbered keypad with a digital display above it.
To'Mas says, "Okay then Paige, seeing as this is getting more interesting by the minute, did that note give any idea on how to get the Pass code?"
Ken says "More technology!" He seems more annoyed than anything else and does his best to remain calm in yet another impending doom. He stands and thinks, his eyes closed in concentration as he listens to everything around them. His eyes fly open as he asks Paige, "Perhaps the code is on the back of the paper?" Ken asks, "Do either of you know about the solving of code puzzles? I have no skill with these." Ken stands to the side, examining the walls, looking for hidden panels that might give clues.
Paige frowns and seems to concentrate. Her body shifts and forms as Ken and To'Mas find themselves staring at one of the most attractive human women they've ever laid eyes on. At 5-5, she has long black hair in tiny braids and pulled back off her face and styled up behind her head. She's curvaceous yet slender, very shapely with a slightly tanned golden skin. There's a tattoo across her chest, starting at one shoulder and moving across her chest just below her collar bone to the other shoulder where it ends. It's sort of abstract and geometric. Similar tattoos are along the outsides of her upper arms. She has piercings on her nose, and several in her ears. She has fine small eyebrows that conform to her moods subtly lifting, knitting and dropping. Letting the whole metamorphosis from dragon to human complete, she reaches over and crumbles the bottom of the paper, trying to flip it over. She gets an attractive concentrative purse in her lips as she ducks down, peering up under the paper and shakes her head. "No code on the back."
She walks back and forth, looking around the room. "So we have a room with dents in the wall," She then points at a corner of the door, "And faint claw marks on the door, as though someone was desperately trying to get out. There is blood too." She says, pointing at a few old faded and smeared blood stains on the floor. "Then we have this dial on the wall that counts to sixty. We have a digital display for a pass code and the buttons to punch the numbers in right underneath the dial. We have a huge red button, who knows what for? Finally, we have access ports on the ceiling," She says, pointing straight up at the five indentations in the ceiling. "Something doesn't seem right. At least we have water for you two though."
"Well Paige, that was a nice little surprise there with your transformation thanks for the concern about my water levels, but they are fine for the moment. Though I think I will need to obtain a nutrient pack within the next couple of weeks." To'Mas adds.
First To'Mas looks up to the ceiling trying to determine if the indentations on the ceiling form any kind of recognizable pattern. Failing this, To'Mas will suggest: "How about we just hit the red button and see what happens. I for one am not about to stand here forever if we are not provided any clues to the way out."
Ken seems to contemplate the room. He turns slowly, taking everything in. "Is simple, thinks I," he begins. "We am meant to enter numbers into pad, and the dial marks time for we to do so."
"Problem is that if we enter wrong, will die in the room we. Red button must be when think have right code... or when give up hope." Ken shakes his head. "Is bad for us to endure, but is the next step on the path. Is to either of you good with the technology? I am limited in its use and it may be necessary to determine code."
"I will prepare for whatever may come from the ceiling holes." With that, he kneels, his face taking on a look of serene contemplation as he strives to combat the unseen and prepare for the unknown.
Paige, with her hand still over the red button, looks at the other two and asks, "Well? Push it or try and dream up a number? I don't have a clue on where to even start looking."
"I cannot fathom these stupid clues. Push the button and let’s see what happens" To'Mas says as he readies his NG-7's. Paige shrugs as she slams the palm of her hand over the red button pushing it in. The digital display, above the number pad, flashes to life reading, "Please enter the five-digit access code," As the dial slides over to 60 and begins counting down, second per second.
Meanwhile, the five indentations in the ceiling open up to reveal five descending high explosive fusion blocks, lined with steel balls, creating a deadly claymore mine each. The timers on each block is clearly visible, reading 59 seconds, 58 second, 57 second, all in synchronized timing with the dial next to the large metal door. It is clearly apparent that they would do enough damage to be lethal to even Paige. The only thing that she can utter is, "Uh oh, that isn't good."
To’Mas weighs the clues in his mind: Number pad needing a five digit access code, big red button, dial with 60 numbers (counting down in unison with the time on the fusion blocks. There are scratches and a few old blood smears near the door. A fountain in the middle of the room, A note, which seems quite foreboding and not much help, reading, "Welcome to the rest of your life, beyond this door is the path to the nexus of my reality. Failure means death. Prepare yourselves. The red button will open the door if you can find the right pass-code."
Ken asks "Why do we not place these things in the water? Is not something that can stop exploding things water?" He gets up and strides to the key pad and says, "Why not also try combinations as we can? I will attempt." Only with confirmation from the group, Ken will punch in a random set of numbers.
"Water? In the water? Water is only going to mean we get our corpses wet!" At this point To'Mas begins to shoot the fusion blocks.
To'Mas begins firing up on the fusion blocks, only to find that some invisible barrier prevents his shots from actually reaching the ceiling. With that, Ken begins quickly typing in random access numbers, receiving in large red letters, "ACCESS DENIED!" after learning that he must hit the red button each time to finish the code. As the timer gets down to ten seconds, Paige quickly grabs the dial on the wall and forces it back to sixty seconds. Ken and To'Mas watch as the timers on the fusion blocks also go to sixty seconds. Paige holds the dial still. The fusion blocks' timers all stop at sixty seconds. "I suggest putting in access codes really fast." She exclaims as she looks around with a frown.
"Perhaps is the end?" Ken says as he pushes all nines and hits the button. He then tries all zeroes. Neither of the codes work, both reading back in red letters, "ACCESS DENIED!" Ken screams out, "Baka sukoshi chempo kama!" then sits and closes his eyes, deep in thought or not at all. Who knows except Ken himself? As he meditates, thoughts come to mind of the situation. Dial coincides with blocks; so far none of the pass codes will open the door after hitting the large red button. Yet the button is obviously what sends the access codes to the digital display. However, the fusion blocks are definitely deadly looking, how did they get up there? Who is running the show? How many people have made it through that door alive? At that moment, Paige looks towards the wall where the three had entered, letting her eyes narrow, however she shrugs. She grumbles, "I sense something approaching," is her only remark. She then flips the dial back to 60 seconds. Of course, the fusion blocks follow suit.
Ken's eyes spring open as he rises fluidly into a preparatory stance, hands resting on his sword hilts. "maybe code deals with time on devices. Maybe with the number of devices, perhaps with something on devices like To’Mas suggested. Perhaps one should look over devices? I will watch door for what may enter." With that, he stands ready for perhaps a more immediate threat.
To'Mas quips "Oh goody, we are in a room we cannot get out of. Stuck in a perilous situation we cannot fathom and now we have a visitor? Gosh and here I am fresh out of tea and scones. Whatever will I do?" Otherwise To'Mas lets off a few test rounds into the walls of the room. "I'm not going to end it all pasted against these walls without having fired my gun at least once." To'Mas thinks to himself.

As To'Mas lets off a few rounds, one of his rounds narrowly miss three figures which appear from the wall in a bright flash. They look as shocked as anyone could be. There is a lizard that looks like a velocer raptor with a huge laser cannon mounted on its back, an 8 foot tall behemoth of a man, who To'Mas immediately recognizes. Cirrus from Drake's party! A semi attractive blonde who walks over to Ken and asks, "What seems to be the problem with your friend here? And how did you guys get here?” Cirrus ready's his rifle and asks karakt, “What is it you smell?”
karakt motions about the room, uncertain what is causing the smell, as he slowly enters, mostly ignoring the people and moving to sniff the water to be sure its safe to drink.
Maranna herself feels an uncertainty but doesn't quite know what it is or means..While Cirrus and Karak't are ready for the smell and seeing if the water is safe to drink and what is the strangeness in the room, she wanders over to the borg and asks what’s wrong with the man sulking one the ground... "What seems to be the problem with your friend here? And how did you guys get here?"
Upon entering the room, the borg with four arms takes a rifle and fires at the walls, one of the rounds almost hits Cirrus and Karak't. The warrior on the ground stands and begins walking upon seeing the group; he stops as he is asked the questions from Maranna.
"Welcome to the Hotel California my friends! We are trapped in here, like you now are, with a perilous situation where we have to figure out a 5 digit code to disarm these fusion blocks and no idea how to create this code,” To’Mas continues, "Otherwise the water seems safe to drink for those who require it, sorry about almost shooting you earlier. I was just testing the integrity of the walls."
As Maranna drinks some water she contemplates on what she can do..As she thinks about it she asks the borg to come over to the door and lift her up on to its shoulders so she can inspect the dials and look into the possibilities of what To'Mas has suggested..As she fully concentrates on all the possibilities she thinks she may have this figured out but wants to make sure.
The door that Karak't, Maranna and Cirrus stepped through is no longer there. It’s just a wall now. The water is quite refreshing and gives new added energy to Maranna. Cirrus, Ken, Karak't and Paige simply stand there, waiting to see what Maranna decides to do.
Cirrus asks Karak’t” So what do you make of these claymore’s, do you have any ideas on disarming those things?" and he introduces himself to all the others that doesn't already know Cirrus" My name is Cirrus for those of you that are interested."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance Cirrus, as for disarming the blocks we are supposed to enter a 5 digit code. But as for divining this code, I have no idea."
Karakt has a drink of the water as well and then tries to inspect one of the claymores as best he can, in response to Cirrus' question he fishes around in one of his packs, digging out a note pad and scribes "what clay more" on it before showing it to Cirrus.
Ken takes a calming breath, feeling little danger at the moment. He slowly removes his hands from his swords as the attractive female approaches him. "To’Mas is upset at situation. Felt need to fire his gun as is flustered." He whispers slightly, "Am thinking much technology has made him slightly uneven.""Welcome, new companions. We are now all in danger together. Ken and steed came through rift and arrived in darkness. Then met the honorable Paige and To’Mas. Perhaps you are able to determine code for safe leaving?
Cirrus looks at Karak’t and says, “the explosive device on the ceiling." Cirrus also takes a drink of water.
Maranna introduces herself; "I’m Maranna..I don't quite know what to make of this whole thing... Let’s get together and put our two cents worth in and see what we come up with so we don't make a mistake and blow ourselves from here to kingdom come and get the hell out of here."
Paige watches the whole scene and finally frowns and bellows, "Oh to the hell with this!" and lets go of the dial as her body shifts and stretches, forming into a large 20 ft long wingless lizard.
The fusion blocks count down. *56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50*
As she looks around for some way to figure out what the hell to do now that it set off and asks: Is there anyone in the room that knows anything about demolition disposal?" Also she wanders over to Paige and asks if she can lift up whoever who knows how to dismantle the blasting caps so it saves everyone’s ass.
Cirrus says, “that would be me, “ So he proceeds to take care of disarming the devices.
Paige shrugs, "pshhh regardless, even if I could, my combined height on my haunches with arm outstretched and the height of the tallest human here couldn't reach the blocks. To add to that, there is some strange force field around the blocks. We can't disarm them."
45...44...43...42...41...
"Ok, so what’s next? Does anyone have an idea how to get out of here? By the way Paige do you know how to open a rift so we can get out of this place?" Maranna hopes that now maybe someone can do something so they can get out safely and go about their business and get something to eat... "Oh boy does a steak and potatoes sound good and a good stiff drink!!"
Paige shakes her head as she looks down at Maranna. "The intelligence of humans is so astounding. Yes, I do have a open rift spell right here. I just wanted to stick around here and understand what it feels like to die first." She grumbles, "No... I don’t..."
36...35...34...
karakt wanders over to look at the key pad, sniffs it a bit, looks at the others, then starts pushing buttons at random. Karak't manages to push 23255 and then pushes the big red button. Large red letters display across the digital readout, "ACCESS DENIED!" He then pushes 44760, then the big red button, "ACCESS DENIED!" 11594, "ACCESS DENIED!"
30..29..28..
Ken walks to the keypad and looks over the lizard's shoulder as the buttons are pushed. "Not forget to press big button after number. Is necessary." He looks at the person trying to get to the bombs on the ceiling. "Excuse, those are covered in energy field. Stops entry, but not exit."
Paige sighs, "Well, how much armor does everyone have? Maybe we can make a thick tent of it over ourselves for when the bombs detonate?"
25..24..23..
To'Mas still has no further ideas.... I am just waiting for an obstacle that I can overcome instead of the impossible...
Ken says tightly "Not much armor," as he gestures at his own stylized samurai armor. He watches the timer count down and, in a fit of frustration fueled by impending death grabs the arrow Paige had grabbed earlier and yanks it from the face of the timer. He then takes it and with a mighty yell stabs it into the keypad. Breathing heavily, Ken speaks "Yes, yes, feel much to the better now."
Cirrus asks Ken, “Why did you do that?"And cirrus pulls out his uv searchlight and shines it all over the floor, walls and ceiling looking for anything that might help figure out the code.
"Well, I sure don't know what to do and we are running out of time in a hurry... someone’s got to figure this shit out right away or were all goners!" Maranna tries not to show how scared she is and just tries to concentrate on being strong for everyone and not panic and help in whatever way she can.
Karakt looks at ken in confusion for a while before seeming to get a good idea; he pulls the arrow out of the key pad and ... starts stabbing keys with it figuring he must not have been pressing them hard enough before.
“There’s only one other thing to do so let me put it out to everyone and see what I get as a result since there’s been no way to stop this thing yet...Paige,, why don’t you come over here so I can try something we haven't tried yet.." Maranna then hides behind the dragon and flings her knife with all her strength at the marbles on the fusion block... Everyone then looks in wonder if this will actually work.....kabam kaboom each marble is picked off the fusion block....’Where now will this lead,’ Maranna wonders.
Karak’t says, “Frankly the only thing i have been able to think of this whole time is pushing random buttons, which is exactly what I’m doing .... That and who the hell are these people and how did I end up with them, he he.”
To'Mas exclaims, “Okay, Okay!! So we have tried changing the numbers, shooting at it, screaming at it, begging and pleading with it, heck we might as well try making love to it but this console doesn't seem to want to let us out." In a final burst of frustration, anger and general farm-fresh RAGE To'Mas fires both of his NG-7's into the walls all around the room.
BADADADADADADABAAM!!
"Well, I feel better now.” And To'Mas proceeds to deliberately turn the dial to.....
....zero. Click.
Ken grabs hold of the dial to the timer and pulls it out as To'Mas unleashes the rest of his clip into the walls of the room, only welding small welts into the walls. Cirrus is busy scolding Ken as Karak't quickly begins punching in numbers trying to finish the code and find the access code out of luck. No hope... ACCESS DENIED. Maranna stands her ground as To'Mas finishes emptying his clip and turns and tries to grab for the knob and turn it to zero. There is no knob; it's in Ken's hand.
2...
1...
Click...
The fusion blocks rise back into the ceiling, as little panels close behind them, concealing them as before they even came out. The digital pad reads 31003.
Paige dives her whole dragon body into a corner of the room, hoping that the steel balls avoid her in the cover of the corners. However, there is no explosion. Just the numbers on the digital pad, Karak't knows that he never punched the numbers in.
Ken looks at the retracting mines. He stares at the places they retract into the ceiling. He sits, He laughs. He laughs long, He laughs hard. He laughs with an almost hysterical edge. After wiping his eyes, he stands back up, adjusts his armor and begins to search the room for an exit or new opening or new writing. All the while, he mumbles in Japanese "'Go search for the threat to existence,' she says. I go. 'Go if you love me' she says. I go. I am the joke of all the gods." In English Ken says, "It seems as life may have more in store for us. These times are interesting, yes?"
"Well Ken, what do you find so bloody funny? Some dickhead is playing silly buggers with us, and if their parts aren't in position to fit that description, then I will be pleased to undertake the surgery." To’Mas exclaims, "Paige, good to see what kind of person you are; when things seem dangerous you hide in a corner. Don't worry, I won't mention this again. But in future I will know which way the danger is because I will see your yellow tail heading in the other direction!"
Karakt looks at the keypad confused, sniffs it, licks it, then types in the numbers 31003 and presses enter just to see if anything happens, over hearing the comments about Paige he takes a look at her tail, then fishes out a note pad again and write "tail not yellow", shows it to To’Mas while thinking to himself that these new people are very strange.
"Karak't your powers of observation are clearly greater that your capacity to speak and understand social idioms. I was calling Paige a coward, how's that?"
Cirrus starts to look around and tries to figure out what just happened.
"Well I sure hope this does the trick and what the hell are you doing in the corner, Paige? I thought you had a little more in your spine then to turn and hide!" Marana laughs.
"Ken laughs because it being a funny thing that even after we show as failing, the solution appears and we are not deaded," says Ken. "Is funny, cause otherwise, is so sad and painful."
Paige glowers at everyone as she adds, "I’m not foolish enough to allow a claymore, made out of a small nuclear explosive, shred me to pieces like the rest of you were going to allow. So, if you will excuse me, I’ll be..." at that moment, the large metal door swings open. Everyone can immediately see what is on the other side; a long metallic tunnel that ends in a bright light.
As, To'Mas looks out from the room, up the tunnel and into the bright light, he can see a landscape. It looks barren and desolate, almost like the deserts to the west of Lone star.
A voice seems to call out from all directions at once. "Welcome to my domain. You have one last adventure to fulfill and you will be allowed to leave this nightmare of a world that I call home. Welcome to Sitcon, the lost world of the legends long forgotten. Simply exit through the tunnel and let your journey begin."
To'Mas proceeds to look down the tunnel and then fires a twin blast of both NG7's down the tunnel. Providing there is no resistance, activity or force fields To'Mas runs head long down the tunnel and into, what looks like desert. "The world of Sitcon eh, I hope this doesn't turn out like some crappy science fiction television show." To'Mas muses to himself.
Karakt looks down the tunnel and sniffs the air a bit before heading for the apparent exit, still a bit confused over why the others are calling the dragon a coward, anyone knows that curling up protects vulnerable origins and with the dragons thickest scales being on its back it seems logical that all she was doing was maximizing her natural defenses in preparation for the explosion, also a corner was more likely to deflect more of the shrapnel..... But then humans always were silly.
Ken looks strangely at Paige and To’Mas. "Is nowhere to hide, so smalling damage is wise?" He looks to the exit and leads his mount to the door after To’Mas fires down the corridor and follows behind him. He looks at the land of Sitcon and wonders at the last challenge, especially the remarking of lost legends.
Cirrus decides to follow Ken down the hallway, readying his strongest rifles.
Maranna is cautious but yet in a hurry to get out of this hellhole. She waits to see what everyone else is going to do and decides to make her way thru this tunnel and hopes all will follow to see what lies ahead of them
Eventually, everyone makes it outside of the tunnels through a large bulkhead door. Upon turning around, the tunnel is no longer there, just an out jutting rock in the ground. Paige immediately shivers, her dragon body almost convulsing as she says in a shaky voice in Dragonese, "I really don't like this place. I feel weak!"
Cirrus distinctly feels it also. There is something about this place that seems to make him feel as though he were a crippled child facing off against a world class karate champion in his prime. For an 8 foot tall towering mass of human muscle, Cirrus finds himself leaning against the rock to catch his breath for a moment before he feels mostly normal. To'Mas and Maranna don't feel any different, however, Ken feels something odd about the place around him, as though it were a place of great ancient history. Almost sacred.
Karak't has the keenest understanding of the place. He obviously knows that they aren’t even on the same planet anymore. This place is different, but as real as Earth. Sitcon, eh? Karak't can sense the evil which taints the very fabric of the forces that hold this dimension in existence. But there is something more. Something he recognizes in his senses, but cannot place. The sun shines overhead as it would on Earth. The desert plants look the same in this barren landscape. Even the little two legged lizard that scuttled by To'Mas feet and into a hole in the ground. In the distance, which would probably be east, the hills look to slowly change into grassland. The sky is blue as would be on Earth. For all means and purposes, it could easily pass for Earth. Yet, Karak't can smell and sense something unusual about the place. It is tainted. The smell of seawater reaches his nose, coming from the west. The wind is coming from that direction also. It is faint. Upon looking back to the east, beyond the edges of the grasslands, the tiniest pillar of smoke can be seen rising from the horizon.
Cirrus looks at everyone, suggesting, “What do you all think we head towards the pillar of smoke to see what we have been put into?”
Karakt gives Paige a concerned enough to make sure she is alright before pointing to the smoke and nodding to cirrus, then starts heading that way, keeping an eye, and nose, out for anything along the way.
"I think that sounds like an acceptable idea, does anyone else have any other ideas"? To'Mas says to Cirrus and the group. To'Mas activates his psionic levitation skill. Combined with a power jump from his cybernetic legs he attempts to gain as much height as possible so as to get a better look at the surrounding area. "Bet these buggers didn't think I could jump THIS high" To'Mas muses to himself.
Ken checks the packs on his mount, making sure of their contents and locations. He watches the others as they gather together and separate, moving fluid amongst each other. Scratching almost absently at his wrists, Ken sends a slight thought touch to his swords, asking if they know this place, if they have the sense of the ancient and sacred. "Can any here float up?" Ken asks pointing to the sky.
Maranna looks at the surrounding area and sees the pillar of smoke. Maranna starts walking towards the pillar of smoke, as she walks she asks To’Mas if he sees anything.
Ken stands as To'Mas leaps up. Maranna, Paige and Karak't begin walking up the hill, towards the rising stream of smoke coming from behind the peak of the hill. To'Mas continues to rise up, using every bit of mental energy it takes to rise up and maintain the height. He isn’t sure how long he can maintain it without dropping violently to the ground. Reaching a maximum altitude of sixty feet, he spies what looks like the top of thatch roofed buildings. They could be towers; however, everything looks made of wood. His optics doesn’t show anything of interest.
As Paige, Karak't and Maranna walk on. They notice as the grass becomes more of sparse tufted patches here and there. The sand is fine with the occasional granite rock jutting up here and there. Maranna notices one rock, which seems to have glyphs of some sort on it. She knows no one else has noticed, however, they look foreign to her. Maybe even ancient as though the rock may have been part of some great building or altar.

Memory eats her burger, "these are great," she says to Carol with a smile on her face. Memory will do the whole small talk while she eats. Once she is done eating she smiles and says, "I hate to have to eat and run, but I have to check on the shop before I head home, so thank you very much for the food, and I will see you both tomorrow." Memory looks up at Gor, "umm can you call me a cab? I forgot I didn't drive here."
At that moment, Gor and Memory hear an alarm sound. Not even a split second later, there is a loud clap as the three find themselves flying backwards through darkness. Pitch black all around them showing nothing but each other. There is ground underneath them. The ground is so black that it doesn't even look solid. Carol, Gor and Memory come to a sliding halt in a strange area, surrounded by ley line energy so thick that it cannot be seen through. It covers the ceiling, walls and seems to have only one way out, leading up a corridor of this same mystical energy. Carol stands up and checks herself for broken bones. She winces when she checks her knee, which has a friction burn from sliding.
Memory finds herself lying on her side, still clutching the hamburger while Gor is still holding his spatula. Everything happened entirely too fast to tell what exactly happened.
Gor will activate his three in one Tattoo then drop the spatula on the ground and grab for his axe. Then will ask Carol "are you all right my love? Memory are you all right?" then Gor will draw PPE from the energy from the area. Then Gor will take carols hand and scout around to see were there at. Memory looks around, "who the hell did we piss off now Gor," she asks. While she waits for a response from someone she will take a bite of her burger, "these are really good," she whispers to Gor.
Carol winces upon touching her knee, "Yeah, I'll be okay. It's just a scrape." she looks up at Gor, with her mesmerizing eyes and flame red hair. "What now?" She asks as a faint aura can be seen around Gor as he activates his tattoo. He then tries to concentrate the flow of psychic energy from the ley lines around them; however, he finds that he cannot receive any.
Gor will say "Shit I don't know we piss so many people off." Then Gor will say "Well let’s take a look around and see if we can figure where we’re at and if anyone else and see if they know where we’re at." then Gor will help Carol to her feet and then help Memory to her feet. The Gor will tell them "stay behind me” then Gor will go to what he thinks is south.
Memory pulls out her Wilks 320 Laser Pistol and then activates her armor of ithan and armor bizzare. She then begins to walk behind Carol so carol is safer. Memory smiles at carol, "you stay between us, I don't want to have to save you again," she says.
Gor says, “let’s move out and be careful." then walk south. Gor thinks to himself ‘I wonder if this had anything to do with that rift.’
The trio begin walking, entering the dark hallways. The walls are so dark that black couldn’t even describe how dark they are. They almost seem like an invisible barrier over the vastness of some infinite void of nothing. Even so, the three continue on. After so long, Memory and Gor's magical protection wears off and everyone is either becoming tired or bored of walking.
The three, after feeling along the walls for junctions of corridors, find that there are several turns and intersections of other hallways. Suddenly, for a split second, Gor and Memory swear they see the demon, Dro'Lazz run past through one of the intersections.
"Dro'Lazz! Is that you? What the hell is going on?" Then Gor uses the armor from his axe. Then he says to Memory and Carol, “get ready I don't know what’s going to happen next" and if there is no response, then they will set and rest so Gor can gain some energy back.
Gor sits and rests, gaining back some energy. After so long, he hears Carol snoring while leaning against the wall. Her head lolled to one side, letting out an almost silent rumble as she inhales.
Memory sits on the floor looking around, "ok this is just gay, I’ve never been so damn bored in my life," she says as she stands up. "What the hell do you want," she yells impatiently.
Gor will say" Quite Carol's asleep and she going to need her rest and so are you. We have no food or water so we need to conserve or strength. “Then Gor will go back to meditating.
For a brief moment, the sound of a very distant explosion can be heard. Which way it came from is unknown; however, it was definitely the sign of something going on. After several moments, Gor and Memory feel a slight wind come down the tunnel from ahead of them. Carol continues snoring as Gor focuses on being blank, letting his personal psychic reserves restore themselves.
Meanwhile back at New Savage, Milo invites his girlfriend whatever her name was in Tolkeen to come back to New Savage so he can spend some quality time with her.
Memory quickly stands up, "ummm, Gor there is definitely something coming towards us from the front, I think it’s time to wake your wife and get ready." With that she puts all her armors back on as fast as possible, "I’m ready," she says as she looks down to Carol.
(******************************************)
Milo and Tanya spend some quality time in New Savage, checking things out when he finds that there is no really good entertainment within the city, well, not without a guard watching. Finally, Tanya asks Milo, "Why don’t you show me where you are from?"
"Ok but I think it’s still a bit dangerous because when i left Northern Gun there was a street war going on but sure lets go" Milo says then he will radio his second in command and say "I need you to take over for awhile. I’m going to take a trip to Northern Gun and talk to an old friend and show Tanya around there for a couple or more days. Ok?"
"Ok but I think it’s still a bit dangerous because when I left Northern Gun there was a street war going on but sure lets go" Milo says then he will radio his second in command and say "I need you to take over for awhile. I’m going to take a trip to Northern Gun and talk to an old friend and show Tanya around there for a couple more days. Ok?"
"Roger that, sir." His second responds.
Tanya takes Milo's hand and walks towards the transport chamber in the main NS market. The moxim there nods and asks, "Where do you wish to go, master Milo?"
Milo says, "We would like to go to Northern Gun." When they get there Milo shows her everything, like the building where he lived where he worked.
The moxim nods and begins moving his energies into the circle. Milo is able to physically see the bluish white energy forming as the rift tears open. Tanya looks a bit uncomfortable with it however; she looks to Milo to lead the way. The moxim nods and gives a slight smile as he looks to the ground, like a good slave.
Milo gives Tanya a reassuring grin as he takes her hand and steps through the rift. He comes out in Alec's garage; the Dodge Rocket still sits there, the bullet hole in the back bumper as it always has been. A reminder of some sort to Alec. Tanya looks around wide eyed throughout the garage, noticing mounts for guns that should be there, but aren’t. "Where are we again?" She asks confusedly.
(((******************************************)))
Gor uses the magical armor from his axe then tells Memory and Carol, "Behind me and let’s move," then Gor will move in the direction the wind came from."Memory, get ready and watch our backs," then Gor creates a globe of day light 100 feet in front of them and keeps there as they move forward.
Carol wakes with a start as Memory hastily dons her armor. Gor feels his body becomes invulnerably protected as he moves forward. After about ten minutes of walking, Gor finds the remains of what looks like rear thruster to some power armor. The air smells somewhat sulfuric, as though a small battle may have occurred here. There are no other clues as to what happened here.
Gor yells out, "Is anyone out there still alive?" then he waits for a sec then says, "I am not the one who attacked you I am trapped here just like you and maybe we can help each other to get out of here," then Gor reaches into his pocket and pulls out his sunglasses then activates to see the invisible looks around real slow to see what might be out there. Then Gor says, quietly to Carol and Memory, "be ready for anything"
Gor looks through his glasses and tries to see what is there. He notices that nothing is invisible; however, he is surprised when there is a sudden flash, like a camera strobe, but much more intense. Gor finds that he is trying to blink the light spores from his eyes.
Memory and Carol are both lucky to have blinked at the moment of the blinding flash. Something darker than the darkness leaps up and towards Gor. Carol shouts out, "Honey! Watch out!"
The darkness, being difficult to see, moves far too fast for Gor. "Shit! what the hell?" However, Memory manages to knock Gor sideways. The darkness's attack instead, strikes Memory, there is a bluish-white flash, quite like magical energy visibly being released as Memory is launched backwards and strikes into a wall. Memory can feel all of her mystical energy drain from her as the wind is nearly knocked from her from just the impact. Whatever it is focuses on Gor. Gor can feel himself touching his tattoos, rearming his tattoos. He feels something hit him hard enough to flatten him to his butt. He feels his mystic energy drain from him. Gor's vision begins to return. Gor looks for what attacked.
"Well, now that sucked, it drained my energy," Memory says as she gets back to her feet.
At that moment, Carol leaps to protect Gor, sobbing as she does so. Gor knows that she is basically committing suicide by trying to protect him. Out of instinct, Gor tries to save his wife. There is a flash!
(((((((((((****************************************))))))))))))
The white brick of the walls seem to have no seam, almost as though they were carved from the stone. The hallway in front of Gor leads to a dead end, yet with three sets of doors, on either side of him, up ahead. Gor finds himself walking along the cobblestone floor, somehow knowing which way to go. He walks to the last door on the left and opens it.
He stares at a room that could have been used as a guest room in an older human setting; it looks as though it could be a nice room in Tolkeen or Lazlo. There is a table with a fruit basket full of apples, bananas and grapes in the middle of it. The wood on the table looks old, yet sturdy. There are chairs on all four sides of the table and the floor has a more of a sooty, dirty look to the cobblestone. A comfortable chair sits in front of a fireplace, rocking back and forth.
Gor compellingly walks towards the chair and walks around slowly. It looks like a man sleeping and rocking, until he gets around facing the man. The heat from the fire is soothing, unlike the unnatural chill in the room. Yet, the heat doesn't compare to the eclipsing chill that he feels next. The right side of the man's face is missing as though it was blown out from the inside. What could have caused that?
"Welcome slave." A voice comes from the darkness of the back of the room, from where Gor had walked from. The door to the room closes as a dark figure steps into view. The dark cloak covers a man from head to toe as the hood hangs low enough not to reveal any facial features. The man's hands stick out from the long sleeves, showing that he is probably human, yet his eyes. Something about his eyes... The crescent moon pupils seem unnatural as they give a faint glow. "Do you remember what happened?" He realizes that Carol and Memory are nowhere to be seen.
An unnatural laughter fills the chamber as Gor realizes that his only way out is past the figure. He finds that his head is mottled. He remembers fighting the dark creature and Carol and Memory trying to save him. The laughter dies down, "You seem confused... Just remember that you have learned to fight evil with evil. We shall talk again, Atlantean. Sooner or later, you WILL serve me! But to display my power, let me leave you with a reminder..."
At that, the poor soul in the chair opens his good eye, revealing nothing but a ball of blood. No pupil, no iris or cornea, just blood. His hands shoot out towards Gor as with lightning speed he leaps forward. The sudden movement and scene actually scares Gor for an instant as he is a second too late to react. Unnatural strength seizes him by the underside of his chin as the man actually lifts Gor a few inches off of the ground, his fingernails on his thumb and fingers digging into his cheek. Gor does everything in his power to fight back, moves that worked on some of the toughest of creatures in his battles... nothing works. He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to push with his legs against the man's chest as he tries to pry his jaw free of the man. He hears his flesh tearing and jaw dislocating.
Blackness...
The blurred haze of waking up is usually never pleasant when waking up with a headache to accompany the ritualistic phenomenon. Gor pushes himself to his feet and finds that he is on top of a hill, overlooking a massive expanse of jungle, which stretches as far as the horizon. Behind him, is nothing but grassland and the faint scent of rain in the sky? Only a few clouds roam the sky here.
Gor shakes his head, trying to remember what happened. Instinctively, he feels his cheeks and the sides of his face. It was just a dream... or was it? Where is Carol and Memory? A swarm of birds or maybe even insects swoops down in the horizon. It could have been a dark cloud with a mind of its own, but birds seem more like it.
What happened? Memory and Carol... The beast... the screw up with the rift jump... The man with the moonlike eyes...
(((((((((((*******************************)))))))))))))
Meanwhile, Memory wakes up, finding herself alone, still staring up the same dark passage that she was in, with Gor and Carol. What now?
Gor senses no ley lines nearby, however, he sees a few lizards running along and hiding under some rather large rocks. Whether they are edible or not, he doesn’t know. He then spots what looks like a deer running among some trees that vaguely resemble bushy palm trees near what could be the edge of a stream, however the foliage gets thicker there. Beyond that, is the forest. Behind him, is open grassland. There is a plume of smoke climbing up in the far distance; he cannot smell smoke so it must be quite a ways away.
Gor makes it to the stream and the water is unbelievably clean and fresh. He then stalks closer to the deer, getting his dragonthunderer ready to smash the thing. When the deer spots him and takes off... flying... A peryton! They are creatures of myth and Gor has only ever seen one before in arenas in Splynn!
This leaves him hungry and having to set camp. Not being very good at surviving in wilderness settings, he sits and begins to meditate. He hears faint shouts what could be melee combat in the far distance towards the smoke.
Feeling more refreshed, but not quite to full mystical capacity, Gor stands and notices that the scene isn’t much different. It’s nearing evening by the look of things, but not dark yet.

Walking through the streets of Ishpeming, the capital of Northern Gun manufacturing, is rather easy when you can pass you can pass yourself off as a dog boy on vacation. Tracks finds himself browsing the shops and searching for something nice for his friends back home, however, there seems to be trouble brewing in the streets.
Early morning of early September, 104 PA Earth time finds Tracks heading to a renowned bar/restaurant known as the Eagle Bar and Grill four blocks from his destination for a nice juicy steak. He sees what looks like an actual Oni (most known beings that they mostly allied to the CAF and some slaves of the TGE, however, a large demon seems to be making this Oni his punching bag as it hoists the Oni up over its head. A dimensional rift tears open next two the two as they struggle.
Tracks has heard of other soldiers coming to this planet from Phase world, however, it's rare and even rarer to come across one this far into human territory. A semi-truck is parked on the street where the two fight along with a woman who is scared out of her mind, huddling in the doorway of the bar and a teenage boy who seems to be monitoring the fight, trying to decide what to do. Tracks knows that he can't get there in time before the demon tosses the Oni into the rift, unless it can hold the demon just for half a minute while Tracks could sprint there. Yet, who is in the wrong or right?
Tracks browses a few shops around town looking for the perfect sized teddy bear for his "Friends", finding a cute red and white talking souvenir teddy bear, he buys it and cuts a hole in its bottom side, cutting the pull cord and extracting the talking electronics, he replaces it with a concussion grenade and attaches the pull string to the pin, chuckling to himself as he has it boxed and mailed to his previous companions last known locations with the note "To show there’s no hard feelings! -trax".
Tracks feeling happy and clever with his payback method continues on his way to the Eagle Bar and Grill, Tracks is slowed as he observes a fight in front of the bar, grinning he says “it’s been awhile since iv had any entertainment!" zooming in with his optical eye he catches a one sided fight between some kind of demon(demon lore?) and a pretty beating up fellow off worlder Oni, Tracks tries to tune in his ultra ear and sound filtration to hear what is going on, he picks up speed as a rift is opened and the Oni is lifted up, he decides to help out the weakened oni out of his respect for there kind and the seemingly evil actions of the demon. He barks out at the demon like creature as he charges forward trying to get its attention "Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" aiming to do a full speed tackle on the demon as soon as he gets close enough, hoping the Oni still has a chance.
& ^ % $ #
Apok takes his free hand and reaches behind his head wrapping his hand around the demons. If the demon tries to throw him in he will pull him in with him. While doing this he takes the giant pistol points it directly in the demons face and fires while screaming, "I SERVE NO MASTER!".
Apok finds that the demon is slightly quicker as it goes to chuck him into the rift. Yet, Apok is faster as he grabs hold of the demons wrist and hangs tight. Suddenly, what looks like a wolfen comes out of nowhere and collides into both him and the Tekt'su, just as the demon throws him. Apok fires off a round, but with the chaos of being thrown and tackled at the same time, he misses.
Tracks collides full bore into the demon as he hears the Oni scream, "I SERVE NO MASTER!" and fires a round, which nearly hits him. Tracks finds that the demon is much stronger or better balanced than he expected and finds himself sailing sideways with both the Oni and demon.
There is a flash

* * *

Tracks and Apok find themselves sliding sideways. Apok finds that the demon's suddenly disappears from his grasp just after hearing, "No, YoU fOoL!"
The two come to a halt in a room, with walls made of ley line energy. The floor looks so dark that it could be invisible over the darkness below it. There looks to be only one way out and that is up a hallway made up of this same leyline energy, leading into darkness. Apok sees a wolfen, who seems to be looking at him just the same.
Apok is approximately 7' tall, weighing approximately 350lbs with a broad muscular build. He has his long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and his eyes are larger than a normal human and are solid black. He is wearing tattered fatigues, shirt, boots and a cloak. He has two very large revolvers on his legs.
Apok slowly gets to his feet while looking around. He quickly opens the chamber of the revolver pulling out the spent round and replacing it with a fresh one. He pockets the shell casing, flips the revolver shut. With a spin of the chamber he re-holsters the pistol and turns toward the wolfen "Well, I don't know who you are, but I do appreciate the help. My name is Apok."
Tracks is brown/white wolf like humanoid, you could easily confuse him with a dog boy, standing about 8' tall, weighing in around 450lbs, he has a average to above average build to him but somehow manages to seem heavier and stronger than a normal wolfen his size might. He is wearing a brown western style trench coat w/gloves, black leather pants and a shined gunmetal black breast plate, he has a backpack with a black shotgun clipped to it, a few grenades are clipped to the side of his belt along side of some thick handcuffs, and a silver revolver and knife hang from his shoulder holster.
Tracks comes to a sliding halt shaking his head, slightly disorientated from the rift, sitting up he looks around for the demon growling slightly, standing to his feet he pulls the shotgun from his back pumping a shell (mdc) into the chamber "Damn! He looked smaller from a distance!" Tracks punches a wall hard "and I really could have used that steak!" Tracks turns his attention to the Oni who is reloading his revolver "The name is Tracks" shouldering the shotgun and holding a hand out to greet Apok "and don’t worry about it, I was in need of a good adrenaline burn" turning around readying his gun "so where did your friend go?”
Apok smiles and returns the handshake, "I am not sure, he appeared as quickly as he disappeared. But regardless of that I think we really only have one path ahead of us." He says motioning toward the hallway.
At that moment, the sounds of multiple footsteps, like that of a business man wearing dress shoes, echo from the hallway at a distance. The footsteps are compounded by the heavy footfalls of some large creature or machine, walking with the footsteps. Both Apok and Tracks figure the voices and footsteps are about 1/2 mile in distance due to the minute amount of reception they are getting. It is probably coming from around several corners, becoming distorted through echoes and other disturbances. There is no sign of the demon anymore.
Tracks grins, starting to walk forward down the hallway "Kinda sounds like we have company somewhere in here with us, I’m kinda interested, so whada yah say we check it out yea?" as they move down the hall Tracks asks Apok "What brings you to earth? You’re the first of your kind I’ve seen here, not that I’ve been here to long myself?"
Apok falls in step with Tracks, "Well let’s just say that I was on the run and kind of found myself there. So, what about you?"
Tracks takes a moment to think about it, hmmm kinda like a paid vacation i guess, earth reminds me of terra prime my home planet, and there’s lots of bounties out around here to keep me busy.
Apok smiles, "Sounds like fun. So what bounty were you last tracking down?"
!@#$%^&*(*********************
Art, Gene and Marlin fall back, letting Siegfried and Nelson catch up as Reaper and Josiah also gather together. Voices begin becoming more prominent as two large, humanoid figures come into view from the darkness...
Tracks grins, starting to walk forward down the hallway "Kinda sounds like we have company somewhere in here with us, im kinda interested, so whada yah say we check it out yea?" as they move down the hall Tracks asks Apok "What brings you to earth? You’re the first of your kind iv seen here, not that iv been here to long myself?"
Apok falls in step with Tracks, "Well lets just say that I was on the run and kind of found myself there. So, what about you?"
Tracks takes a moment to think about it, "hmmm kinda like a paid vacation i guess, earth reminds me of terra prime my home planet, and there’s lots of bounties out around here to keep me busy"
Apok smiles, "Sounds like fun. So what bounty were you last tracking down?"
The two round several corners, having to feel along to figure out their bearings. Finally, the two round a corner to find seven individuals gathered around. Three large burly men, two skinnier older men, one being older than the other, wearing what looks like attire fit for a conversational room. Finally, there is a man and a borg behind those two.
The borg looks to be a mining borg and the man looks like he could use a better option of clothing than ripped up leathers. His pants and jacket are both leather. Apok immediately recognizes Reaper upon looking at him.
*******************************
Reaper and Josiah spot what looks like a massive dog boy and to Reaper's surprise, APOK! Reaper says, "Apok how the hell you get here? The demon got to you too huh? I imagine you put up one hella fight. So who is your friend there? “Reaper then takes a step back and says “Apok this is Josiah. He’s stuck in this place kind of like the rest of us here. From what it looks like... oh and the others here. Well I will let them make an ass outta themselves..." reaper smiles and watches knowing full well he can see in the dark but the others don't know that...
Tracks replies, "Some assassin trying to make a name ended up ticking off the wrong outfit. let’s just say I used a bit to much plastic explosive to disable her motorbike, flaming tires, flying handlebars, tailpipes an incredible explosion!" Tracks grins "I loose money doing that, but every once in awhile its fun" using his multi-optic eye tracks changes to passive night vision in the darkened area trying to navigate a bit easier rounding the corner tracks is a bit surprised to find seven others, but that would explain the noises, before he decides to say anything the tattered looking human speaks up at Apok, tracks shoulders his gun again well the two talk, checking the others out carefully "The names tracks! And I gatta learn to stop playing with big demon things around open rifts, I’ve done my good deed for the day, who can point me toward the exit?"
Josiah briefly rubs his chin (a habit from the days when he had stubble to worry about) and sizes up the newcomers. "If'n my compass weren't dancing around like a frog on a frying pan, I'd say it was back there a ways," he says while jerking his thumb behind him, "but as it is, your guess is as good as mine. "By the by, glad to see y'all are friends with Reaper here. We don't want no trouble, we got enough of that already."
Reaper nods to what Josiah says and adds in, “where in this place the two of you hop in at? Maybe we can exit basically the same way we came in ..." reaper starts looking around for anything that might resemble a door... or a way of an exit of some kind.
“Hmmm... Unfortunately we came in at a dead end; damn rifts keep getting me in trouble like this! but hell, I’m board! Let’s get outta here,” Tracks grins.
Reaper laughs a little and says sarcastically, "you’re board? Hell ain't we all. So where do we all go, besides to hell? Oh wait. I think we're in it." reaper smiles a cruel sadistic smile.

Josiah grunts as he pulls out and dons his poncho and cowboy hat, pulling the rim low. His ice-blue optics are unreadable. "Hell, huh?" he mutters. He slings his pack across one metal shoulder and silently gazes into the dark.
“Yep this must be hell, cus we all here. Anyone got any idea of where we all at? Or how we get outta this place?“ Reaper looks around beyond the group…
Art, a man with narrow, steely eyes and a husky frame, steps forward, "Look at this, boys!" He laughs with an amused smile, "We've got a dog and a... well... d-bee to come with us. What a happy family we are making?" He looks back at Nelson, "And still no f***ing way out of here. Nice going..." He gives Nelson and Siegfried, the two rather well dressed men, a cold stare and walks long past Tracks and Apok. Gene and Marlin follow closely after.
Nelson gives Siegfried an irritated look, "I'm beginning to get irritated with Art."
Reaper turns towards nelson and art and says in a very cold voice, “if you two don't knock it off , then you will be seeing the afterlife very soon . You catch my drift boys?” reaper turns to follow Josiah and catches up with him .and hollers back to the rest of the group, “you guys coming or you just gonna sit like fish in a barrel there?”
Josiah appears lost in thought, though he periodically glances out from under the brim of his hat to stare at the undefined space ahead of them. The fingers of his left hand keep readjusting themselves as they grasp the strap of his pack.
When Reaper appears next to him he does not meet his companion's gaze, but instead speaks in a low voice that Reaper only hears with an effort. "I'm assuming' y'all know the players here, partner. Y'all keep one eye locked on them two varmints. Y'all know who I mean. I been through the mill, and I know a snake when I see one." He pauses then adds, "Or two."
“You mean the humans or the other two? Believe me when i say i can more then take care of myself Josiah. “ Reaper replies to Josiah’s commit in the same low voice as he heard from Josiah.
"It ain't you I'm worried about," Josiah says with short chuckle. "I just got me a feelin' that the two coffee boilers back there are trouble, especially Nelson. He thinks more than he lets on. Y'all might be able to protect yourself, but I reckon that Art and the boys'll be first in line to be demon chow if'n Nelson gets it into his head that we're expendable. "Just watch 'em. It'll be up to us to make sure that the boys are treated like men and not meat."
“I rather just kill em' man. That be the better thing, ya think?" Reaper smiles ad chuckles at the thought of murdering those two guys. Reaper looks around and hopes to find something useful in the area...
Josiah laughs quietly. "Well, after they pony up with my money, maybe we'll see about that."
“And what if they don't cough up the dough, then what? I say we just give them something serious to think bout... Like me in my other form. I’ve been known to get things done that way." reaper laughs quietly and grins. “What do you say Josiah?”
Josiah looks quizzically at Reaper, “Other form?"
“Yes my other form. You see, i am what you could call a night breed. I am the last of my kind... So I am unique. When the time comes you see my “other side”. Reaper continues to walk ahead looking for any kind of an exit.
Josiah slows his pace a little, letting Reaper gain some distance. Meanwhile, whirrs and clicks quietly sound from his glowing optics as he studies the retreating figure of his companion. oOSomething else I didn't know. Guess we all got our secrets here. Just what are you, hombre?Oo Then he risks a glance back at the furtive faces of Nelson and Siegfried. oOThe day's a-comin' when we're all gonna lay our cards down. I wonder who's got the winning hand?Oo
“What am I? Well Josiah, I may be your guardian angel, or i may be here to collect your soul. You will have to find out metal man. . You see anything useful here? Like how tall are these walls?" reaper walks on ahead thinking of how to see what is the height of the walls.
Siegfried and Nelson continue walking, taking in the scenery in silence. Nelson glances at Josiah as he glances back. Nelson simply gives a slight smirk and keeps walking. Art, Gene and Marlin continue bitching amongst themselves. Reaper and Josiah notice that Tracks and Apok are simply standing back and not moving...
Reaper notices that Josiah started to linger back a bit so he slowed down his pace to match his friends. When they get back to a even pace he says in a low voice," if you want i can show you my “other side “. But let’s get far enough ahead of these jackasses so they won't see it . And on another note, you noticed Apok and tracks just kind of stand back there? Kind of odd... but it all up to you ..." Reaper just walks quietly with a smile on his face.
As the featureless gray-black of the otherworldly realm slides interminably past, Josiah realizes that for the first time in many months, he is alone with his thoughts. Josiah never liked their company. oOYou'll never know I'm gone.Oo Those were his last words to them. They were the truth. And now they moldered in the ground, along with his mindless corpse. Buried. For the first time in a long while, Josiah wishes he could cry.
Josiah grunts noncommittally. "Not that I ain't hankerin' to take a gander, you understand... I just got myself a-wonderin' if it might be the smart play to hold your cards close and pull in your horns. I appreciate y'all tellin' me, but I don't think we ought to be tellin' too many others. "If'n we get trouble from them..." (he nods toward the party trailing behind) "...y'all know what to do. Till then, we got an ace up our sleeve. Just my opinion is all."
"Keep the ace up our sleeve huh? How tall do you think this ceiling it Josiah? Maybe I can find a way out this by going up, or maybe we should walk along and see if we find another blue corridor? What do you think.“ Reaper walks along with him till the answer comes into view more.
Josiah glances at reaper under the brim of his hat. "Y'all sayin' you can fly in your other form?"
“Fly? Hell ya man. And I can do more than just fly. But I like to know how much room there is here before i try this little shin-ding. You catch my drift man?" Reaper smiles and thinks how much this will freak Josiah outs the party walks along, Josiah scans the area. The walls, ceiling and floor are there and solid. Its just that to the visual eye, they are so black, that black doesn't even describe it. It almost looks as they don’t exist. The ceiling is forty feet up. The walls give a wide 30 foot hallway for them to walk along.
The sounds, of something up ahead, catch Josiah's attention. His eyes spot what looks like the shape of a spider way up the tunnel. A LARGE spider. It must fill half of the hallway and is approaching fast. Even Reaper and the others haven't noticed the spider. Upon visual scan, Josiah notices that only his infrared and heat sensors were the only things to detect the arachnid approaching.
Reaper looks at Josiah, “what is it man? What caught your eyes there?" Reaper noticing that this won't be good. He gets ready for the fight and takes off his shirt and prepares to shift and take on whatever is coming up this way. “Josiah what are we working with here?" reaper asks quickly.

Josiah temporarily shucks his pack and brings out his NG-L5 rifle. "We got company. IR's pickin' up somethin' comin' up fast. Looks like a really big spider. Guess we're gonna see that other form of yours, partner." Josiah turns his head toward the group. "Heads up, y'all. We got incomin'!"
Reaper smiles a grim smile. With his shirt in hand he shifts into his morphus , "Josiah I hope you’re a damn good shot with that rifle." he says to Josiah as a stench of a dead corpse starts to fill the air , massive bat wings appear sticking out of his back and a 8 foot prehensile slides out where his tailbone was , "Think it’s play time kid," Reaper thinks about how to take this thing on.
Momentarily startled by Reaper's sudden and disturbing transformation, Josiah forces himself to accept it with his usual stoicism. "Dang, son, don't take this the wrong way, but y'all look terrible."
Art, Gene, Nelson, Marlin and Siegfried begin running the other way, unconcerned about running into the almost invisible walls.
Reaper looks at Josiah and laughs, "well that’s what you get for lookin like a 3 day old corpse." reaper looks forward down the corridor and says in a loud voice, "hello who are you ?" at this time Reaper has every spell ready for casting .
Josiah takes a brief moment to calm himself at the sight of Reaper's horrific and unearthly visage. oOWell, like my pa used to say, 'Every man's got a ugly secret.' Guess some secrets are uglier than most.Oo
At last Josiah turns his attention to the battle. His cybernetic senses now focused on the approaching creature, he turns to face his adversary, placing himself between it and the rest of the party as if he were a gunslinger of old. With two heavy clumps, the massive cyborg plants his armored feet firmly in place as if daring anyone to move him. His glowing optics barely showing under the brim of his hat, he holds the rifle and his drill arm outwards like twin six-guns, the folds of his poncho draped partially over the barrels. "All right, critters," he mutters. "Let's dance."
Reaper sets himself in a side stance and creates 2 dark whips dumping extra energy into them making then strong as he says to Josiah, "how bad you think this will hurt kid? I hope them assholes behind us can fight and not just run like little bitches they are." reaper looks at the appending trouble and wishes he had a light to see with and not just his bare eyes ..
Reaper finally sees something moving in the distance, and then fades back into the blackness. He can hear it approach as two large whip like tentacles pierce out of his body and prepare to engage the strange arachnid approaching them.
Josiah grunts in reply. "Let's find out. Just watch it. That thing may not show up on visual. I just picked up the heat." As he speaks, Josiah aims carefully with his rifle at the thorax of the approaching monster and fires.
Reaper stands there watching as Josiah fire and gets ready to fire shadow blast at the same spot. " Josiah if your rifle don't hit its mark i think i may have something that could do the trick as well" reaper makes his tail move to in front of him and be ready to use as a shadow blast rifle .
Josiah's blast travels true as he watches the spider get dangerously close. His blast nails the spider in the butt end, spraying some liquid that is visible to even Reaper. It almost looks like ley line energy, but then fades to blackness after a moment. The spider falters and then continues coming forward, but this time with amazing speed. Josiah gets the impression that he just pissed the spider off.
Reaper seeing where the shot landed uses his whips and aim's below where Josiah’s shot lands and hope it hits the head." Josiah I think we pissed it off... I think we might want to run like hell man!" Reaper thinks of possible escape routes...
For one terrible moment Josiah is paralyzed, and Reaper's voice registers only as a faint cry in some forgotten corner of his mind. Again the images of the broken bodies of Caroline and the kids are thrust before him, torn to pieces by an unknown force, their distorted mouths distended in soundless screams that have echoed in his nightmares ever after.
His mind almost refuses to accept the scope of what he sees or fancies that he sees. Horror surrounds him: the malignant corpse beside, the charnel remembrances within, and the demoniac scuttling terror bearing down on him combine in a ghostly psychic saraband of lurid and mocking phantasms.
His brain reels and his metallic jaw slackens through some vestigial genetic imperative overriding his machine body. By the time he can shake off the intruding feelings of utter repulsion and terror it is too late. The scurrying thing is upon him.
Reaper looks at Josiah and hollers at him, "Snap out of it you damn fool , or you are gonna be in a worse place then that body..." reaper trails off on that thought as he fires at the creature ahead of him and hopes that his shadow blasts will do damage as it's darker that black stream strikes the spider dead center. All that is left is a bluish white glowing substance that flows out of it and dissipates into nothing.
Art cries out from behind, "Well, I think that it's dead."
Nelson smirks as he avoids Reaper and walks over towards Josiah, "Cat got your tongue?"
Reaper looks at nelson with a sadistic smile and says, “You want to find out if its dead boy?” while he says this, his tail quickly moves to snatch nelson by the waist and temps to throw him where the spider way. After tempting the body throw reaper looks over at Josiah and says harshly, “if I have to save your sorry ass again, then I will feed you to whatever is after me. You got it Josiah?”
He hadn't felt that for a long time. Not since the graves. At last, his auditory system registers the rebuke and he sees Reaper standing there, a thing from a nightmare, damning him for the sins of his youth and the weakness of his will.
Ignoring Nelson's odious smirk, he calmly, quietly slings his pack over his shoulder and strides over to where Reaper is glaring from out those corpse-like eyes. Josiah's twin sight panels glow like two blazing azure jewels and return his companion's gaze steadily. Then he drops the laser rifle at Reaper's feet. "Feel free," he says in a cold metallic whisper. Without another word and ignoring any other attempts to speak to him, Josiah, head down, strides away into the darkness.
Reaper picks up the laser rifle and hands it back to Josiah, "without that shot, I would have never seen that damn thing. We both know, as all have fears. You let them get to you, and then you are dead... I told you my “other side “wasn’t pretty. As for those jackasses who didn't help. Let’s hope that fear eats at them.”
Josiah says nothing, ignoring the preferred weapon as he penetrates ever deeper into the dark. He had hoped to evade the past and place behind him the hours of alternating incoherent howls and deafening silences that flowed from his soul and onto the endless rolling plains.
In mining, all was easy. The stone gave way before him and little by little sloughed away into the nothing of forgetfulness, as if each wave of the living rock was a bit of himself that he had vowed to tame and crush in the clenched fist of his self-aggrandizing will. He had though himself immovable as the stone. Nay, more so. Then another kind of drill had been put to his soul. And he had crumbled, just as he did when he saw the bodies.
Reaper looks at Josiah and shrugs his shoulders and slings his new rifle on to his back, “well damn if you want to be a jackass Josiah, be my guest, but this is how you honor you family. All you are a damn coward you useless walking can opener.” Reaper just walks toward the spider to see if it’s still living or not.
Josiah pauses long enough to incline his head at the insult, his features obscured by the darkness. That's all he was. A can opener. A machine. Whatever had been Man in him had died on that day long ago. The tender touch and the whispered affection were not for him. The light laughter of playing children and the hearty warmth of close friends were not for him.
Toasters had no such luxuries. They had no need for such... trivialities.
He was a drill with legs. He has work to do. And it was time he was about it.
Turning on his heel, he abruptly strides toward Nelson. Before the smaller man can react, the hulking cyborg grabs him by the collar and lifts him off his feet. His eyes are like cold flame and his voice is deep, slow, and menacing. "All right, four-flusher, y'all better start ponyin' up with some truth. No more games. No one but a fool or a liar sends in good men into a box canyon when there's good chance of them gettin' shot in the back. Y'all know somethin', and I want to know what it is."
Before Reaper can get to the spider, he hears the whirring of Josiah's hydraulics lifting Nelson in the air. Nelson seems to have a genuine look of worry on his face as he stammers to answer, "Th...They said that there were archeological finds from before the Great Cataclysm in here. We needed you because we figured that the dangers were purely environmental, not...” he points at the spider, past Reaper, "that... They are paying me to come here to find some records and a book; I can’t remember the name of the book." He glances at Siegfried, who has a straight face the whole time.
As Nelson is finishing up, Art, Gene and Marlon are at Josiah's side, screaming out things such as, "Let him go!" and "Don't do it! You'll regret it!" and "Here we go... our doom is near."
Meanwhile, Reaper turns around and looks at the still twitching spider. It simply looks like an enormous spider with what looks like the glowing energy of the ley lines leaking from its thorax. Reaper gets the feeling that it wasn't alone and that more could be on the way. If he remembers one thing about spiders, spiders tend to share hunting grounds.
Josiah notes the furtive darting of the man's eyes and fixes his gaze on Siegfried while continuing to hold the struggling Nelson aloft. He tenses slightly as if expecting more trouble. Never taking his eyes off Siegfried, he draws Nelson closer and says to him, "And who's 'they?'"
Reaper looks at the spider and thinks to himself out load, "ah shit,” he then turns back to Josiah and hollers,” I think we got company Josiah ... " he runs back to Josiah and tells him while handing the rifle back to him , " hey Josiah we got a big fucking problem .. If I remember right, most spiders share hunting grounds." he looks at the humans there, “at least we have bait.” A very evil and bone chilling smile appears on reapers face. I need you to spot them and plank em, so I can kill em. Can you do that metal man? "
Josiah turns his head toward Reaper and nods wordlessly. He abruptly lets go of the petrified archaeologist, who, with a squawk of surprise, drops to the featureless black ground. Josiah accepts the rifle once again and pokes the hexagonal drill bit of his left arm into Nelson's chest. "This ain't over, friend. Not by a long shot. If we ain't buzzard food at the end of all this, we're goin' to have a serious jaw."
Then he looks at Siegfried. "All of us." Ignoring the rest of the flustered party, Josiah takes his place beside Reaper and readies his rifle. "Don't know if I'll do you much good," he says solemnly, "but maybe I can break a few teeth when they're chewin' on me."
Reaper says to Josiah as he stares into the darkness, "Forget the teeth, how bout we just kill em' all. I like that idea myself. You see anything out there? If not then let’s move out if those flesh bags want to join us, then they will follow." Reaper recasts his darks just as strong as before and grins as he thinks bout scattering into bout 30 or so bats to look around...
Josiah moves forward and begins to scan the area ahead of him with every sensor he can muster.
He asks Josiah, "hey, you see anything?” Reaper moves forward as Josiah does with whips ready for the punishment they will inflict.
Josiah scans and sees the spider's last heat turn cold as it's nerves stop twitching and its legs finally go still. Reaper walks along beside the two as they go past the spider. Something seems strange up ahead and then the light to Reaper's right catches his eye. The light is a bright bluish-white. Josiah looks also. It's a rift! And it’s one of those rooms like the first one both remember coming out of. The walls almost seem to be made of ley line energy. Both noticed it before and would have missed it if it wasn’t for the light. The hallways are narrow, yet wide enough for even Josiah to fit up. Upon looking back the way they came, Nelson and all of the others are all gone! Either they ran away, or something got them.
For a moment, Josiah stares at the rift and dares to hope that he and Reaper might be getting out of this alive. He turns, intending to beckon the rest of the part onward. Then he notices they are gone. "Hang it all," he grumbles. "Now where've they got to? "Nelson? Siegfried?" he calls, while scanning for heat signatures or anything which might indicate their position, yet he notices nothing. Reaper is the only other heat source around.
"Where in Sam Hill did they get to? Figures they'd shin out just when we're almost out of here." Then Josiah looks at Reaper. "You see what happened to them?"
Reaper looks back where they were, "Did I see where those can't flash bags go? No, I don't and I don't care. But I say we get the hell outta here... time for us to head to the light and get outta this place," Reaper spreads his wings out and starts to walk towards the light, "I just need to you keep an eye on what’s ahead of us Josiah."
Josiah growls, a rasping metallic thunder. He shakes his head. "Shoot. They may be a pack of chiselers, but I can't leave 'em." He looks at Reaper. "Go on ahead, if you like. I can't just leave 'em here, even if they are a pack of hard cases. It ain't right." Josiah begins to walk back the way he came, scanning for the remainder of the party.
Reaper looks at Josiah, “Fine, be spider kid. But I’m not gonna be anything’s food. “ Reaper turns to walk towards the light down the tunnel.
Josiah finds that there is no sign of the other five, they simply disappeared. Unless there is some tunnel that he didn’t see. Maybe a trap door?
Meanwhile, Reaper steps through the rift. There is a flash. Reaper finds himself standing a dense forest of strange trees. Most of the trees are made of a strangely gnarled wood with long or giant leaves. The sounds of unfamiliar roars of unknown creatures echo through what sounds like a valley. Reaper can hear the sounds of water trickling through a stream, but cannot see it through the thickness of the vegetation around him. Around him, he sees five slabs of flat, gray stone. Each of them has glyphs on it in an unfamiliar language. The ground begins to thud in a frequency which suggests a very large creature walking not too far away. Yet, even the canopy of this great forest shields his ability to see daylight. It is quite dark here.
Reaper looks around him and sees that, the forest and everything is not like anything he's ever seen. The leaves are far different than anything he's seen before... The sound of the animal roar doesn’t sound good. Reaper decides to shift into his facade form and run to some type of cover and gets ready for anything that comes his way. Reaper thinks out loud to himself, “Damn, now where did I end up? Back in the dinosaur age? I hope not...”
Josiah pulls out a flare from the small compartment on his left leg, ignites the device and holds it aloft. He then does his best to trace the path back to where he left the troop. oO I knew they'd cut up diodes if I didn't watch 'em like a hawk. If I have to save their sorry hides one more time...Oo
Reaper quickly finds a copse of ferns and hides underneath them. A moment later, a large reptilian looking, three talon foot, stomps down where he had been, pushing the five stones down into the soft mud. The foot disappears as quickly as it had landed as though the large creature that it belonged to is running. Another roar, reminiscent of the back draw of a handsaw, yet ten times as loud. At that moment, Daniel hears a hiss behind him and feels something sliding over his foot and somewhat heavy...
Reaper feels something like a snake on his foot and something big behind him. Reaper decides to shift back into his morphus and temps to cast night bringer and temp to escape the area. If he has to, he will just have to self swarm and fly out in the form of a lot of bats.
Reaper feels as the snake begins to constrict around his leg as he looks down to see a creature much larger than even the largest of snakes he had ever seen. Upon reaching his full morphus state, he swarms himself into swarm of winged rodents as they take to the sky. Reaper looks down on a heavily jungle terrain. It stretches for as far as the horizon.
Reaper looks to see just a mass jungle. He tries to find something of a cave and he flies what he thinks is south and flies hard...
Reaper flies along, noticing way too many exotic plants and animals and predators to suit his comfort. He passes over scores of hills and valleys of nothing but thick jungle. He finds himself slowly draining of magical energy when he finds a cavernous tunnel as the jungle towards the horizon seems to thin out. Upon entering the cavern, he hears the screech of some medium sized creature. Whether it's harmless or not, Reaper can only guess. Dozens of small lizards scurry out of the cave as Reaper steps into the darkness.
The cave seems to give off a faint greenish blue glow from the ceiling. Too far up for him to reach, but visible, giving a slight amount of illumination for him to see outlines and shapes within the darkness. Reaper looks forward when he hears something heavy scrape rocks under its weight no more than just a few feet to his right.
Reaper sees the greenish blue glow. Cancels the self swarm spell and starts to back out the cave. As reaper backs out the cave he watches this glow and listens for that sound and has shadow blast ready just in case if he has enough energy to use it.
As Reaper forms together, several humanoid silhouettes with snouted almost snakelike faces step from the shadows and clenched talon fists. They look hungry and there looks like a lot of them. Obviously, this case is these creatures dwelling.
Reaper noticing the humanoid snake people in front of him. He says out loud for them to hear him, "I ain't nobodies food, and who are you people? Too many to like my race. Then again i seriously doubt there is any of my race here... " As reaper starts backing up he looks for ways out and fast .
One of the snake people steps forward, "Food? No, not food. The Laborians obviously sent you as our sacrifice!" it says in Dragonese as the others behind it begin chanting while brandishing odd looking hooked swords, "Sacrifice, sacrifice sacrifice!"
Reaper looks at these lizard men as he backs up, "Sacrifice? Oh no, I'm no sacrifice for no one. “ Reaper gets his night bringer ready . He warns the lizard men, “You come near for any reason, I will bring the night upon all of you!!” Reaper starts to look around and tries to see if there is a way out of there and quick.
They continue to advance forward, chanting, "Sacrifice... Sacrifice... Sacrifice!" As Reaper notices that the entrance to the cave had an edge and walkway wide enough to safely walk back down to the bottom of the mountainous hill.
As Reaper backs up and sees the walkway. He looks at the lizard men and says, “Well, since you don't listen, kids, then I will make you!" Reaper casts night bringer and backs down the path. After the night bringer is casted he readies his dark whip spell and moves faster down the path.

(Singing) "He'd fly through the air with the greatest of ease, That daring young man on the flying trapeze. His movements were graceful, all girls he could please."
To'Mas takes great pleasure in his attempt to reach escape velocity as he sings quietly to himself about old Earth hero's. After gathering his bearings To'Mas attempts to fix his current location (North, South, Upwind, Downwind etc) he then proceeds to allow himself to slowly fall back to earth. Assuming this is done successfully he runs to Maranna and says "To the north/south we have what looks like a small town. It seems to be a dreary little place with not a sight of high-tech or magic, just a bunch of dirt farmers.
"Let’s go say hello, shall we?" To'Mas suggests.
“Well, let’s go check this out and maybe we can find out some answers.” Maranna then starts walking towards the town. As she starts to walk off, she asks if anyone is coming.
To'Mas: "Sure, I'm in. Anyone else?"
Karakt stops for a moment to look at To’Mas, wondering what a trapeze if and how it makes humans fly, then just shakes his head and continues towards the town, these people were the strangest yet, smiles to himself as he wonders just how strange people can get.
Ken responds "It is good that we learn about this place so we know where to go and what not to doing. We should be cautious." With that, Ken leads his horse, careful to let it rest as they walk. He keeps his eyes open and alertly surveys the horizon.
"What’s the matter Karakt cat got your tongue?” asks Maranna.
Karakt looks confused at Maranna and opens his mouth wide so she can see his tongue is still where it should be.
To'Mas muses to himself: ‘well I don't know if I should hate or like this DB. He has his own dimension and belongs there, but his sense of humor is worth keeping around.... Let’s see how this works out.’ Finally, out loud he says, "Oi, Lizard. Can you talk or what?"
Karakt looks to To’Mas and lets out a few squawks and warbles, the scratches in the sand "not speak ken rite" both in American and Spanish not being sure which language they can understand, then wonders how many of these people can read at all.
Paige suddenly shifts and morphs back into that beautiful female with piercings and tattoos. Yet, she is naked, all curves and sway as she walks. If it wasn't for the fact that she was a dragon, the men in the party may find her irresistibly sexy. She turns her head straight forward, with her nose in the air, and replies, "Karak't is a rare breed of predatory lizard, known as a blood lizard. I don’t know much more other than he is smarter than he looks."
The six of them walk up the hill, which seems to take an eternity, even with interesting conversation. An unlikely party. Cirrus, the muscle bound human giant. Karak't, the intelligent lizard. Maranna, the beautiful blonde with a knack for sarcasm. To'Mas, the borg with a sense for comic relief. Ken and his horse, both with a sense for honor and the ancient ways. Finally, Paige, who is an arrogant dragon hatchling, who could probably care less about the party. Each with their strengths and weaknesses to compensate for the other, all becoming apparent in their conversations with each other. It is obvious that Karak't can communicate, but just not audibly. Cirrus is a man for little words but always ready to use his muscle. The top of the hill seems only a few feet away.
Something is wrong though. The faint shouts of men can be heard up ahead. And then the occasional scream. Upon reaching the apex of the mountain, the group looks over a moderate sized town, which is about one mile from one side to the other, filled with thatch roofed huts made of wood, grass, mud and straw. The roads through the town are well travelled and packed dirt. The highest technological achievement of the town would probably be the horse drawn wagon pulling what looks like dead bodies out of the town towards what looks like a pit, where the smoke is coming from. There are men in strange looking black and red armor, dragging a woman out of one of the huts by her dark hair. A second man quickly ends her flailing and screaming with a curved sword across the back of her neck, cleaning cleaving her head off. Her body convulses and then lies still, only interrupted by the occasional twitch from nerves.
Elsewhere in the town, a man tries to fight against the men in the odd-looking armor, doing quite well in fending them off with a pitchfork, only to have an arrow stick out of one eyeball from an unseen source. He falls facedown, driving the arrow farther in. Luckily, he was dead before he even began to fall. There are plenty of horses, mostly with the men in the strange armor. One of the men holds a banner on a long stick, bearing a red and black symbol of the Jolly Roger skull and crossbones. The man beside him, who looks to be the commander of these soldiers, raises his voice, barely audible to the group, "This town is now under the rule of Lord Pierce. You have failed to pay his taxes and the punishment is death to 20 of your citizens. Continued failure to pay will be double the price!"
Upon looking back, the woman's head has been placed on a pike in the middle of the town, for all to see what breaking the law brings. Young boy stares, too numb to cry over the death of the slain woman. Townspeople all around hopelessly hang their heads or stare dumbfounded at the woman's slack mouth death stare from atop the pike. The officer seems please with the results of his brutality.
Paige sniffs, "There are about six dozen soldiers down there, not including the ones who are probably inside or behind the buildings. None have anything better than a crossbow or great sword for a weapon." She turns her gaze to To'Mas, Ken and Cirrus, "Should we go around or take a risk?" She eyes Karak't and Maranna warily.
To'Mas readies both of his NG7's. CLICK CLICK! "I think that says which way I want to go. Bullies only armed with crossbows? My favorite kind of bully!"
Karakt tries to get a count of the dead, from how many bodies he can make out visually and by the mixed smells of the burning, to work out if the attackers are starting their rampage or finishing it.
Ken readies his swords and mounts his horse, placing his helmet on his head. The demonic faceplate seems almost alive as he looks at his companions. "This is not honorable. Not right. This is poor treatment of those that work for a lord," he says in a cold voice. With eyes that seem hard and black under his helm, he utters "They shall be stopped." With that, Akio Ken takes his mounts reins and waits until the rest of the company is battle ready.
Karak't realizes that they are in the middle of whatever they are doing as Ken watches as To'Mas makes him ready. Paige nods to the two and begins walking down the hill towards the town. Her voluptuous figure and long braided hair swings as she walks at an uncomfortably casual pace.
Meanwhile, down below, the carnage continues as more people are drug from their straw houses and either swiftly beheaded or gathered into a growing crowd of prisoners.
Karakt gives a nod to ken and then charges down into the village, headed straight for the nearest group of raiders with the intent to plow over as many as possible, jumping if they are mounted so he can knock them off their horses, and hopefully build up a good shock value.
To'Mas heads in the same direction with the intention of separating as many raiders from the corporeal bodies as possible. Action: I fire body shots at as many raiders as possible, alternating shots from each gun in turn.
Ken rides into battle, swords drawn and whistling in the wind, he engages the enemy, striking them from behind if possible as they have shown themselves to be without honor.
Maranna catches up to Paige, who is still casually walking down the hill, drawing her pistol and making sure the safety is off and fully ready for combat. Ken and Karak't quickly pass the two as they catch up to To'Mas. Ken lets go of the reigns as he grips his swords and rides in. Meanwhile, far behind, Cirrus strolls down, covering Maranna and Paige's flanks.
Down below, the soldiers quickly notice, one after another, as the group comes down the hill. They quickly rally up, forming a defensive line of pike men followed by swordsmen. The archers take up the rear and begin quickly firing arrows at To'Mas, Karak't and Ken.
The hail of arrows unexpectedly swarms in like a plague of locusts, almost blotting out light for an instant, as the group closes in. To'Mas quickly leaps to his left as three arrows actually penetrate his armor! Ken tries leaping his horse forward to outrun the hail. He nimbly ducks as he feels the wind from the flights pass over him. Karakt is not as lucky as he tries to jump the opposite way from To'Mas and is pierced by four arrows, they actually pierce his skin!
Maranna, Paige and Cirrus watch as only a hundred yards ahead of them the ground prickles with arrows like a porcupine has quills. Paige begins to walk slower, eyebrows furrowed, deep in thought.
The pike men set their spears as To'Mas begins firing back. His first shot scores a direct hit, but the soldier's armor seems to absorb it! Immediately, half the pike men drop their spears and brandish shields to give cover! Three of To'Mas' shots burn into the shields as three break through the gaps in the shields. Only two of the remaining shots seem to find a weak point in the soldiers' armors dropping two pike men. Worried looks pass over the soldier frontline as the three continue barreling forward.
"NOT SO BRAVE NOW ARE YOU MUTHAFUKAS!!" To'Mas screams as loudly as possible through his speakers. "VILLAGERS, MEN AND WOMEN. WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU, LET US DRIVE THESE BASTARDS BACK TO THE ANUS OF HELL FROM WHENCE THEY CAME. UNITE TO DRIVE THEM BACK."
To'Mas proceeds to fire upon the pike men with his secondary (lower gun) as he stores his primary gun (upper) and extends his vibro blades on these arms. Depending on how the combat goes / who comes to support him, To'Mas either continues to pick them off as they cower behind their shields OR rushes in to cleave their heads from their shoulders in close combat.
Karakt hisses in irritation as the arrows sink into his flesh and makes a metal note that bows must be stronger here then where he comes from, also figures the pikes might be able to hurt him as well, perhaps they are magic or powered by some weird technology ... it then dawns on him that he has a rifle, and it even got fixed recently, he slings it around and fires a shot at the enemy soldiers, remembering that is pretty devastating back home so it should take out a few, or so he hopes, then starts running in a zigzag pattern as he continues toward the enemy
If To'Mas notices that Karakt begins these maneuvers, he attempts to give firing support against units that are targeting the ugly lizard.
Ken guides his mount around the group of pike men and archers, closing the distance, counting on his speed to help the flanking maneuver he aims to accomplish. He slashes at the edges, of the group, trying to create confusion.
In the time that the hail of arrows has started and the three up ahead begin their onslaught, Maranna, Cirrus and Paige have only taken a few steps.
Karakt is the first to react as the pikemen try advancing into the three. He fires his cannon into the crowd. (OOC: OMG! N20!) At least a dozen men become bits of flying armor and sizzling flesh as a large gap in the ranks opens up. The men closest to Karak't scream out, "The demon can breathe fire!" In plain American, with a strange accent.
The pike men try to stab at Ken as he tries to flank their lines. Ken easily knocks their weapons away using the height advantage of his mount. He slashes back at two of them. The first swing cleanly cleaves the head off of one of the soldiers. Only to have another soldier leap over the falling headless soldier to defend and almost perfect swing from Ken (N20 defended by N20!)
To'Mas has three soldiers with swords charge out from behind the line to engage him. They are fast on their feet as the three come in with precise sword slashes. To'Mas simply steps back and retaliates with a double vibro-blade strike from two of his arms at the closest swordsman. The skilled swordsman deflects one slash, only to take a second across the face. To To'Mas' surprise, the man begins standing back up, blood pouring from three deep gashes across his face. The other two give him no quarter as he notices more soldiers begin surrounding him to form a circle of combat. They both slash; To'Mas fumbles as they both connect with their strikes, cleaving into his armor!
To'Mas slashes back, two hands at each soldier all simultaneously. One soldier is smart and just steps backwards, the other isn't as wise as To'Mas impales him in the chest with an uppercut, raises him into the air and takes the soldiers head off. More soldiers begin to move in, but not before To'Mas takes the opportunity and fires into the face of the soldier who took a step back. The soldier tries to duck, only to get blasted full in between the eyes. A burnt fleshy crater is all that is left as the soldier falls to his knees, his last breath, gushes out through the hole that is now his face. Things aren't looking good as more soldiers pour in, screaming something that sounds very much like, "Die! Metal Demon!"
Meanwhile, the defensive line is breaking apart as Karak't fires at another large group of soldiers. However, most of them are nimble enough to dive out of the way. The shot misses and tears through a wooden hut, collapsing it. Several archers steel themselves and fire back at Karak't. Karak't leaps away avoiding all shots as they begin reloading.
Meanwhile, the soldier on Ken leaps into the air as various soldiers begin trying to surround Ken's horse. The warrior gets past Ken's superior defense and cleaves into his armor! Ken feels the sword slide across his flesh, he isn’t sure if he is injured or not, but the sheer force of the blow hurt enough! Ken swings back as the soldier lands and tries to swat his double swipe away. He is caught off balance as Ken nearly cuts the man into three pieces. As the corpse falls to the ground, Ken notices that the soldiers are surrounding him to try and let archers pick him off of his horse. There is only a ten foot gap to fit through if he is fast enough.
From above, Paige watches as the scene begins looking more gruesome for the others. Paige begins running downhill. "Stupid..." she says under her breath, leaving Cirrus and Maranna behind.
Karakt see the archers as the bigger threat, to the others as well as himself, karakt tries to charge into a group of archers, or firing a shot at them if a charge isn't possible, while thinking how much he loves his lost companion for the wonderful gift she gave him, mental note to hug his rifle when this is over.
Ken urges his mount for the gap, striking the two closest opponents as he moves through it.
Cirrus pulls his C-14 _Fire Breather_ and heads into the action as well as making sure his weapon is ready to fire. Cirrus opens fire into the solders.
"LETS HAVE YOUR SO CALLED METAL DEMON SHOVE SOME METAL UP YER ASS". Noticing that things are getting a little out of hand, To'Mas makes a charge towards the nearest soldiers attempting to impale them as he comes through. Once out of the group he will shoot as many targets in the group as he can and charge back so that he is no longer surrounded.
Maranna is left standing as Cirrus and Paige begin speeding down the hill. Cirrus unshoulders his Coalition laser rifle and prepares to fire it.
Meanwhile, down below. The soldiers begin nearly close the gap as his horse Ken defends a wave of spears lancing out towards him. He retaliates back at two of the soldiers as his horse barrels through two pike men, narrowly avoiding being impaled by trampling through before they could set their spears. The soldiers easily defend as Ken feels three arrows plug his armor, one of the arrows actually gets through and pierces into the back of his shoulder. By the feel of the arrow, he doesn't think it sunk in too far, however, every time he moves, it slices more.
Karak’t’s attempt at a charge is met with two pike men moving to block his advance. They get the jump as they stab at him. Karak't manages to knock one pike away as the other sticks him at the base of his tail. He fires back with his cannon, trying to line up a good shot, but the soldiers have caught on and all move out of the way in time. Other archers move to different positions, trying to get an angle as two fire arrows into Karak't, causing his right thigh to bristle and start bleeding.
To'Mas races into a crowd of readying soldiers getting ready to gouge a few more out of the circle. They meet his advance with three pikemen trying to stab him backwards. To'Mas easily defends and passes the pikes and stabs at all three the first one brings is pike up and blocks To'Mas' arm like he was now using a staff. The other two are slashed easily. One stumbles backwards, howling in pain. The other is dead before he touches the ground. Two arrows whiz past his head as he finds that Mr. staff spear man can actually fight as the spear tip come back at him, yet, To'Mas has seen the move before on many movies and simply cuts the tip off and slides past the spear and all four of his sets of claws into his ribs and face. The man is still in his jerking death throes as two more arrows fly in at him. To'Mas weaves out of the way of one, only to be stuck by the second.
Cirrus fires a few times into the soldiers, missing all three times. Its hard to shoot while running downhill. Paige continues loping down the hill at an angle, shouting, "Get back up here! They have you outnumbered!"
Maranna starts surveying the area scrounging any weapons possible..after doing so she uses her pistol to take out whatever enemies she can at the distance she’s at, staying back enough to not put herself in danger.
"Meh, just a flesh wound" snips To'Mas. Holding the body of the eviscerated soldier up in the air, To'Mas attempts to use the body of the soldier like a shield. After all, he has seen this done in the movies with high velocity rounds, arrows should be Cake & Pie.
"FOR PONY!" To'Mas yells and proceeds to hack and slash while shielding himself from any archers using the soldier’s body. All the while through the killing of these soldiers, To'Mas ponders if it is art imitating life or life imitating art and the irony of a cyborg killing machine using an organic shield.
After getting some distance between him and the pike men, Ken reaches back and pulls the arrow from his shoulder. He examines the arrowhead as he races back up the hill, dodging and ducking, trying to become less of a target, heading in the general direction of Paige.
Karakt hearing a female voice telling him to fall back, without even pausing to think karakt kicks off, launching himself backwards with his powerful legs, landing a few dozen feet back he lets off a shot, again hoping to hit some archers, then turns and runs up the hill to the others.
Cirrus, hearing Paige and seeing what is transpiring, decides to go to Paige while pausing long enough to fire a few shots at the solders.