Outside: Grass touch place

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Well, that's certainly something. Jace was about to say that he might have to come by here for a rest later when he notices the body.
He steps forward and kneels down to look at the body. The one in the pit might simply have been an adventurer who tripped or some unfortunate but this is hard to spin in a look other than a stereotypical murder (or a sudden heart attack if there's no wounds). Jace still wonders how this place works. Could people really live here?

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Sekhmet's really not sure what to make of all that rambling. "Uh, that's okay. Good to hear you have a plan, I guess." She doesn't understand the comment about freckles, so she stays on the rock.

[Japaraita]

June starts slowly swimming around., and splashes her head underwater for a moment. "Yup!" she says.

"How about you?" she ends up asking after a little bit. "What's your plan? I mean, you came here on vacation, right? What's your plan for after?"

[Riftline]

Without a hin Zefir has no intention to stop the cloaked man. He just looks after him as he goes away.

"It wasn't that impresiv. I just noticed who I deal with."

He then looks outside to see the storm. Not that he can see much more then the rain pushing against the window.

"We might be here for hours. The rescue team will need some time and then the storm needs to calm down." Thats not what he assumed happens when he tooks the ride with this.
"You might either take a nap or just talk. I haven't brought anything with me."

[Riftline]

"No, it really was impressive," Violeta insists. "I didn't see anyone else getting up to do that."

She looks out the window; lightning strikes again.

Some time passes.

She sighs.
"Ugh. This sucks. I don't really have the time to wait..." Violeta says.
She glances back at the creepy cloaked guy.
"...and I'm definitely not going to take a nap."

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

The body is female, and semi-humanoid, though assessing her age is quite tricky- she's not got a humanoid face, instead having a cluster of tentacles surrounding a rubbery hole in her face, presumably a mouth. Her eyes are also on rubbery stalks, and she's wearing a robe. Her arms end at the elbow, a cluster of tentacles below wrapped into a simulacrum of a lower arm and hand, a straight yew wand gripped in the left. There's a large hole in her chest, something having impaled her- that's the fatal wound, most likely.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Luckily only Zebes is around to hear Jace’s surprised noise as he looks at that face. Not what he was expecting. He reaches out to take the wand.

It feels strange but given the nature of their surroundings they’ll have to abandon the body and press on. Jace could be convinced to bury the bodies he found elsewhere but here he doesn’t think “tossed into the mist” is a real burial.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

Unfortunately, Jace and Zebes don't get the chance to press on immediately. As the wand is being extracted from the surprisingly grippy tentacles, the wardrobe bangs open, and out flies a pair of bat-like fiends with a pair of clawed hands, a single very large eye, a segmented tail and small horns. One of the Meda Bats attacks immediately, blasting at Jace with purple-black energy bolts produced by its eye, whilst the other flies around to try flanking the sorceror.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Oh no combat? In MY dungeon adventure? (It's more likely than you think)
Jace brings up one of his bracers to block the projectile, though it's likely to still result in a rather painful burn even if the force-armor bracers soften the damage.
But of course, Jace is very adept at return fire and responds by swinging his other hand around horizontally and conjuring a cone of icy spears at the two bats while they're still mostly close together.
At least he's experienced enough to know not to use fire in a small, flammable room.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire for Blue

The dark energy of the bolts does burn, but burns cold. Still unpleasant, however.

The icy spears pepper the two fiendish monsters, both popping like balloons filled with horrid green ichor. Fortunately, the ichor isn't acidic or otherwise dangerous- but it will stain, and stinks of rotting citrus.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Jace gags at the smell. Luckily his cloak's magic makes it resistant to stains! I mean, how else could it possibly still be solid blue after he went through so many adventures with it? Lots of blood and mud during adventures.
The sorcerer will carefully step over the pools of gross nasty ichor as he does a sweep of the room for any helpful items. Including that wand that the bats oh-so-rudely interrupted his retrieval of.

[bc56]

Japaraita
"I'll probably travel a bit further, then go home and rest," Sekhmet responds, "Maybe do some swimming." she pats her mermaid tail for emphasis.
"Do you know anything good to see or do in the nearby towns?" She doesn't really have a plan. This "vacation" thing is new to her.

[Ironsmith]

Little Sattleborough

Into the tower goes Jubilee! The ground floor has a tightly-wound helical staircase in the middle, but is primarily dominated by toys and bright colours. It's clearly used as a nursery; there's toys all over the place, and a large toybox has been made especially with a rounded rear so it fits nicely in the room. The room has been decorated with painted handprints, though many of them are quite old and faded; if Jubilee looks carefully, she'll be able to find those made by Samantha; she favoured green paint, and her missing digits are rather obvious. There's also a raised area opposite the door, with a trapdoor in- this tower apparently has a basement or cellar.

[Little Sattleborough]

Great. Another fork in the road.

At this point Jubilee is sorely tempted to intensify the fire around the entrance, let it burn out the first floor entirely, and watch the tower collapse under its own weight. Do the world a favor and polish off any curmudgeonly old wizards that may happen to be in it at the same time.

But... Samantha's great-niece lives here now. And she doesn't seem to have done anything that would warrant that kind of treatment, so she can't picture her apprentice being too happy with her about that.

So Jubilee backs out and changes tack, stepping back outside and looking for the displaced family, conjuring a second ring of fire around them at the first opportunity to keep them for escaping.

If that works out, she'll walk up to them, the droning of the dullahans still drowning out her steps, and ask in the most cold monotone she can muster:

"Jackson North. Where is he?"

[Zefir]

[Riftline]

"No, it really was impressive," Violeta insists. "I didn't see anyone else getting up to do that."

She looks out the window; lightning strikes again.

Some time passes.

She sighs.
"Ugh. This sucks. I don't really have the time to wait..." Violeta says.
She glances back at the creepy cloaked guy.
"...and I'm definitely not going to take a nap."

[Riftline]

"Not really much of a choice other then staying." he replies and followes her glance.
"Only if there would be a thread in here thats wors then the storm."

He is not really sure how to take the hooded man. After all those guys are quiet common were he grew up. just that they were spellcaster with a cult or something that had a dresscoat like that.

"Anything bothering you?" he asks trying to be quiet so only she can hear, what doesn't wor much with the thunder and rain making lots of noise.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

The wand is retrieved! It's a wand of summoning, capable of summoning more meda bats. Not capable of dismissing them, however. The wardrobe is now empty besides some plastic coat hangers and a desiccated mouse curled in the bottom. The writing desk provides more loot; an enchanted quill, capable of turning text written with it invisible by saying 'asparagus' when it's dipped in ink, the text remaining invisible until either hit by anti-illusion magic or someone saying 'aspergillum' whilst holding the text. There's also a pot of ink, but no paper to be written on. In a drawer of the desk is a bag of thirteen gold-painted acorns, but pulling an acorn out disguises it as a gold coin with illusion for thirty minutes, and also a twelve-inch wooden ruler that rather handily isn't of fixed length- it can be pulled longer or pushed shorter, to fit the user's needs.

In the corpse's pockets are a bag of mints, a dead snail, and a sheaf of papers covered with squiggly, messy handwriting detailing all the uses of a unicorn's body bound with a purple silk ribbon.

Little Sattleborough

The niece in question (not great-niece, if Michael is (as Jubilee hypothesises) Samantha's younger brother, unless Jubilee is very confused and thinks Samuel North is Samantha's great-niece as opposed to great-nephew) is running towards the town. Conjuring a ring of fire makes Meredith shriek and fall over hard onto her bottom, holding her baby tight. She cowers away from Jubilee as the pyromancer approaches, shielding her child from the approaching figure of death. "Jackson? He died. Fell down the stairs when I was a baby. Go to the Priest's Head, Dad should know more. That's, uh, Jackson's son, Michael North. Dad works in the kitchens there."

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Jace takes the items with a smile. Khannie might get a kick out of the quill and ruler. He frowns at the papers with distaste, though. So this person must have died while hunting the unicorn for its body. Nasty business, that. There's probably unicorns that aren't quite the noble mystical creatures he's thinking of...but from the legends this one isn't that.

Leaving the papers behind Jace returns to the bridge to go to the other end. They're close. He can feel it. For real this time. They were wrong about the spiky building. But for real this time!

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
"I'll probably travel a bit further, then go home and rest," Sekhmet responds, "Maybe do some swimming." she pats her mermaid tail for emphasis.
"Do you know anything good to see or do in the nearby towns?" She doesn't really have a plan. This "vacation" thing is new to her.

[Japaraita]

June just floats on the surface so she can hear better. "Nearby towns? Hmmm...well, only big town I know nearby is Shadowhaven," she says. "All the other ones are pretty tiny. Shadowhaven's underground, so if you haven't hung out in an underground city then might be fun to visit. It's got an underground lake in the middle, too! The whole city's shaped like a donut, it's pretty cool." She starts drifting in the water. "They've got caves and other things you can explore around there, too. And I saw some fancy hotels. I dunno, though, I haven't been in too many places around here yet. Was planning on visiting a couple more first."

[Riftline]

"Not really much of a choice other then staying." he replies and followes her glance.
"Only if there would be a thread in here thats wors then the storm."

He is not really sure how to take the hooded man. After all those guys are quiet common were he grew up. just that they were spellcaster with a cult or something that had a dresscoat like that.

"Anything bothering you?" he asks trying to be quiet so only she can hear, what doesn't wor much with the thunder and rain making lots of noise.

[Riftline]

Violeta Escarlate gives a tiny nod. Somehow she still managed to hear him, even over the rain.

With her eyes, she tries to point in the direction of the creepy cloak guy.

She then closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath in, and then out. To be honest, she has no idea how much of a threat this hooded man is. She just knows that he knows way too much and that she's worried about what would happen if she ever is alone with him. And...she's also worried that the only thing keeping him from coming up to her is Zefir's presence. Even after the rescue arrives, she's sure this guy will keep on following her, and she can't keep on imposing on Zefir forever. Leaving the train during the storm is too dangerous, she thinks. There's no way she could make it out safely.

She starts thinking about what her options are. Option one, she sticks close to Zefir the whole time they're in here and hope that, after rescue arrives, she gets an opportunity to escape and lose him. Option two, as soon as the storm passes but before the rescuers arrive, she leaves the train without being noticed. And, option three, she makes the cloaked guy think she left the train while she stays inside the train, so he heads out to try to chase her.

Option one would obviously be imposing on him. She doesn't want to do that. Option two is risky, since she has no guarantees of safety. As far as the foxgirl can tell, her only real choice is the third one.

She opens her eyes, and just hopes Zefir can read her intentions well enough to help out with this.

Violeta looks out the window; her body language appearing like she's seriously considering heading out there. (Her eyes tell a different story, however, since she knows the creepy guy sitting behind them can't see her eyes from back there.) "Hey. Um...one of the forward train cars, up ahead, has a bathroom, right? I think I need to wash my face." Her eyes show pleading, as if she is praying that Zefir can read her intentions and thoughts, that she wants to trick the creepy hooded guy into thinking she's going outside.

[Ironsmith]

Little Sattleborough

The niece in question (not great-niece, if Michael is (as Jubilee hypothesises) Samantha's younger brother, unless Jubilee is very confused and thinks Samuel North is Samantha's great-niece as opposed to great-nephew) is running towards the town. Conjuring a ring of fire makes Meredith shriek and fall over hard onto her bottom, holding her baby tight. She cowers away from Jubilee as the pyromancer approaches, shielding her child from the approaching figure of death. "Jackson? He died. Fell down the stairs when I was a baby. Go to the Priest's Head, Dad should know more. That's, uh, Jackson's son, Michael North. Dad works in the kitchens there."

[Little Sattleborough]

"...Son of a bitch."

Jubilee sighs, waving her hand and dismissing the ring of fire. "Lovely. Just peachy." She grumbles. "I spent the whole ride up here planning out how I was going to confront that bastard, and he was dead years before I even heard of him. Wonderful."

Jubilee plants the haft of her scythe into the ground and leans on it despondently. "All right, Samantha, you can come out now." She calls half-heartedly, as the dullahans cease their moaning. It's just annoying now that there's no asshole wizard to terrorize.

[bc56]

Japaraita
"I don't know. Uh, living underground, in the dark sounds, uh, dismal," Sekhmet says. "That, uh, doesn't really sound like something I'd enjoy." She rules a more or less underground city already. Sure it's technically not underground but it is sunless and dismal.

[Zefir]

[Riftline]

Violeta Escarlate gives a tiny nod. Somehow she still managed to hear him, even over the rain.

With her eyes, she tries to point in the direction of the creepy cloak guy.

She then closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath in, and then out. To be honest, she has no idea how much of a threat this hooded man is. She just knows that he knows way too much and that she's worried about what would happen if she ever is alone with him. And...she's also worried that the only thing keeping him from coming up to her is Zefir's presence. Even after the rescue arrives, she's sure this guy will keep on following her, and she can't keep on imposing on Zefir forever. Leaving the train during the storm is too dangerous, she thinks. There's no way she could make it out safely.

She starts thinking about what her options are. Option one, she sticks close to Zefir the whole time they're in here and hope that, after rescue arrives, she gets an opportunity to escape and lose him. Option two, as soon as the storm passes but before the rescuers arrive, she leaves the train without being noticed. And, option three, she makes the cloaked guy think she left the train while she stays inside the train, so he heads out to try to chase her.

Option one would obviously be imposing on him. She doesn't want to do that. Option two is risky, since she has no guarantees of safety. As far as the foxgirl can tell, her only real choice is the third one.

She opens her eyes, and just hopes Zefir can read her intentions well enough to help out with this.

Violeta looks out the window; her body language appearing like she's seriously considering heading out there. (Her eyes tell a different story, however, since she knows the creepy guy sitting behind them can't see her eyes from back there.) "Hey. Um...one of the forward train cars, up ahead, has a bathroom, right? I think I need to wash my face." Her eyes show pleading, as if she is praying that Zefir can read her intentions and thoughts, that she wants to trick the creepy hooded guy into thinking she's going outside.

[Riftline]

Well Zefir was an assasin in his past and he had to predict the targets moves by their body language. It's just bad she isn't using magic here because that was the most things he had to deal with. What spell will he cast etc. Only a few people in his past relied to action rather then magic. So he just got a guess. For him he doesn't assume she will trick to go outside, after all it's like suicide. For him she appears as an attractiv foxgirl, but so far without any ability to withstand the weather and other dangers that might lurck outside. So his idea is that she wants to catch the hooded man in some way. Confront him with whatever problem he has.

"Yeah, I think. Otherwise the train worker are in that direction and can show you the way."

Other then Violeta assumes he has another plan and that first involves making hooded guy unhooded. He will need her to go through the door to cover his attemp and he doesn't want her to find out that hes not only able to use water.
His plan is when she goes up he also stands up looking back at the atistocats like he heard something. When she opens the door he uses his controll over the wind to create a strong wind, like when you open a door and outsiide is a storm. He will control the wind so the hood of the hooded man will come of and reveal his face, making it look like it was just the gust of wind from opening the door.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

Off to the bridge he goes! And the bridge leads to a... rather odd thing. The archway leads into an enclosed garden, with a decorative pond, several ornamental trees, and flowerbeds, but there's a window to the west that doesn't appear from outside the garden. It appears to be dusk, the sky tinted oranges and reds with clouds frozen in place against it. There's a stone path leading from the door to the pond, seven large stones set into the grass.

Does Jace go to the pond using the stepping-stones, or does he avoid them and go to the pond, or head instead towards the window to see what may lie beyond?

Little Sattleborough

"Who are you? What do you want with him? From what Dad says, he was a right bastard. Will you replace our door?" Because Jubilee burnt it down and now people can just walk into their living room.

Samantha will also climb out of the carriage. "What's up? Did you find him?" Earl has forgotten if Samantha knows Jubilee's name, just that initially she didn't tell it to the girl. But also Samantha right now doesn't know if Jubilee wants her identity bandied about, given her efforts to be all mysterious and creepy.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Jace uses the stepping stone path to check out the pond as Zebes flutters off to glance through the window. If the window isn’t one they can pass through there’s no other visible exit and no unicorn in sight. Which would be a little distressing since this is the last path in the place.

[Halae]

[Lost in the Wyld]

Skye, our heroic individual, has been outside reality for a good while at this point. At least three weeks, having prepared for the journey with canteens and trail rations, but now she's out, relying on the innate power she wishes she didn't have to keep her safe from the twisting nature of unreality; not something that would stand up to a directed assault, but power enough to ward off the passive effects of chaos that could reshape her from the ground up.

But now... now she's begun stepping back into a place with cohesion and structure. Where the boundaries of reality are no longer thin. A place where the rules make sense again.

She kind of hates it. She left her homeworld by traipsing beyond the borders of reality to save people from the corruptive nature of her power. But now that she's found another place like this, she can't seem to bring herself to leave once more and go back the way she came. It was terrifying out there, nothing was stable. People aren't meant to live like that, and she's basically out of supplies as well.

So, for the moment, the young woman, wrapped in her travel cloak, curls up under a tree. She doesn't need to be quite so vigilant anymore. She won't drift away on currents of unformed ideas just for taking a nap.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

The window is shut, but does look like it can be opened from outside. Beyond there's a room with a fire burning in a grate, though oddly the flames are blue. The only other item of furniture in the room is a large chaise longue, with an injured unicorn lying upon it. The unicorn's fur is burnt in places, and one eye is missing. It's hard to tell if the unicorn has blue fur, or white fur tinted blue by the light of the fire.

Jace, however, has larger issues than what Zebes is looking at. After three stepping stones, there's a hiss and the stone underfoot moves. So do the others, ripping legs free of the earth and revealing themselves to be unusual crabs, with hard stony carapaces. There's seven of them, and Jace is standing atop one of them. The crab that was the previous stone brandishes its claws and spits a stream of sticky goo at Jace's head, the slime with enough force it might knock Jace off the crab- which is not great, since then he'd be in claw range.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

[Jace, target spotted, not looking good. Let's- oh crap.]
Jace twists and takes the goo to the shoulder, stumbling off the stone several steps. The crabs resemble a certain pokemon he had a bad experience once.
"I do not have time for you." he growls at them, and promptly throws a blast of scintillating colors at the bunch. Color Spray doesn't really work on anything particularly tough but for little monsters it tends to do just fine stunning and blinding them so you can just walk away. Khannie would be proud of his illusion work.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire for Blue

The crabs hiss and raise their claws, before the blast of colours hits them. One scuttles off in panic, until it hits the wall. Then it sinks down into the grass and pretends to be a rock. Two more also flee, but bump into each other and start attacking each other. They can't see what they are doing, so their claws aren't able to get a good grip on their carapace or do much damage. One runs into the pond and disappears, two hunker down and return to pretending to be stones. The final spits goo at Jace, but without seeing him its aim is terrible.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Jace doesn't bother to dispatch the little things. They aren't that much of a threat and he has more important things to do. He simply ignores them as they wander around and joins Zebes at the window. He has to help with the latches of course because Zebes has adorable little claws and he's too lazy to shift into something bigger.
Assuming the window is thus opened Jace manages to squeeze himself through it, entering the room with the unicorn. He bows, though the creature's condition makes him grimace.
"Hello, Wise One. I have come seeking you...but it appears we've come at a bad time." For the creature's fur to be burnt that must be a semi-recent injury.

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

The unicorn is not just injured; it's quite clearly dying. The fur's burnt in four places, circular patches surrounding holes in the mystical beast's flesh, some quite deep. Blood is weeping from the wounds and running down its fur, and it turns its head to regard Jace and Zebes with its intact eye. Your determination pleases me. And you arrived today, not tomorrow. That is, without doubt, a good time for me. And you. What do you need? The unicorn's voice is deeply masculine, with a wry edge when discussing its imminent demise.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

"Well, I had sought your assistance in a matter of a curse. The rather nasty individual who cast it declared that it could only be broken by a blue unicorn. Which the locals did say there was one such in the area." This one does seem to be blue with some silver/white in its coat. Or maybe it's just the lighting.
Jace reaches into his pockets and retrieves a bottle of fizzy red liquid.
"Can I offer you something for those wounds? I'm not sure if it will help but it might at least lessen the pain. What happened to you?" Sometimes there's injuries that potions simply can't help with. Usually ruptured organs are involved.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lost in the Wyld]

Skye, our heroic individual, has been outside reality for a good while at this point. At least three weeks, having prepared for the journey with canteens and trail rations, but now she's out, relying on the innate power she wishes she didn't have to keep her safe from the twisting nature of unreality; not something that would stand up to a directed assault, but power enough to ward off the passive effects of chaos that could reshape her from the ground up.

But now... now she's begun stepping back into a place with cohesion and structure. Where the boundaries of reality are no longer thin. A place where the rules make sense again.

She kind of hates it. She left her homeworld by traipsing beyond the borders of reality to save people from the corruptive nature of her power. But now that she's found another place like this, she can't seem to bring herself to leave once more and go back the way she came. It was terrifying out there, nothing was stable. People aren't meant to live like that, and she's basically out of supplies as well.

So, for the moment, the young woman, wrapped in her travel cloak, curls up under a tree. She doesn't need to be quite so vigilant anymore. She won't drift away on currents of unformed ideas just for taking a nap.

[Lost in the Wyld]

There's a soft noise which almost sounds like someone playing a harp as what normally only can be seen occurring on the night sky takes place before Skye.

It looks like a star fall. Or at least what people light years away from the actual phenomena perceive as such. A mote of light not just falling but landing on the ground before her. Though rather than a explosive impact it lands like a rain drop would land on water. With a soft splash.

Then from within the fallen light appears a humanoid woman that seems made of hundreds of miniature versions of the star which just appeared to fall. Her form can be best be described as vague. As if looking at someone through thick fog. But her eyes are piercing bright.

"Aha! What do you think of that?!" She exclaims, now already offering her hand to Skye. "Pretty cool, huh? Been working on my descriptions-" Then she changes train of thought as a moment's notice. "I'm Libra by the way, let me welcome you to the nexus, lady."

[Earl of Purple]

Desire For Blue

You have found a blue unicorn, indeed. Thank you for the offer, but there is little healing magic can do for me. All it would do is prolong my life, and not in a very pleasant way. The spell that killed me still burns inside. Healing won't help unless the spell is removed first, something that is beyond the unicorn's own abilities. It takes determination to find me. Determination fuelled by greed was enough, and apparently the contents of my spleen cures some forms of blindness. I understand some people are willing to pay a lot of money for that. This was included in the notes carried by the tentacle-faced woman, the one who had an injury to her chest the same dimensions as this unicorn's horn.

[Keeper]

A Desire for Blue

Jace approaches the unicorn anyway, kneeling so he can look him in the eyes.
”Then you are in no condition to be making a trip to the city. That’s quite alright. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Jace turns his head, glancing at the wounds to look for the spell. In theory he is decent at dispelling magic. But in practice it seems the damage is already done. And if it’s a spell from outside his setting or from a more divine source it would become outside his proficiency as safely extracting it from a magical creature’s body would already be incredibly difficult.

[Halae]

[Lost in the Wyld]

Skye regards Libra for a long moment, "Ah, another Raksha, then. And here I thought I found a patch of stability somewhere in the massive chaotic expanse."

She'll stand up and brush off her trousers as she regards the... entity before her. When she speaks, she has a note of resignation, as if she's heard all this before and it's not going to be any different, "Who exactly are you? What is the Nexus?"