Outside: Grass touch place

[Rebonack]

[Ruined Observatory]

Khannie, by contrast, is feeling great! Like she's been supercharged thanks to destroying all this corruption. "Did it work?" she asks, looking towards the ruined tower.

Previously the observatory existed in some weird indeterminate state of both destroyed and not destroyed. But now it's just a heap of mundane ruins. The eerie unlight leaking from it is gone. As are the stellar fissures in the earth.

It looks like they managed to shut the bridge between the world and the lightless depths of the void.

Which is probably a good thing.

"Umm... you guys are looking pretty beat. Do you think you can make it back to town or should we make camp out here?" Khannie asks.

[Morty]

[Damundra Canyon]

Thariza rubs her snout and sighs.

"That's a decidedly more pedestrian problem than I was expecting. I don't like our chances on these stairs. We need to unlock the elevator."

[Ruined Observatory]

"We're not really prepared for camping, are we?" Hiep, for her part, seems to be recovering somewhat. There's an indefatigable stubbornness to her. "It's probably best to go back to PREP and rest."

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

"I disagree," Emily says, some amusement seeping in through her dark emotions. Unless Thariza moves to stop her, she'll reach out to the wall and simply haul herself upwards.

Something she doesn't have much opportunity to show off these days is that she's actually something of a skilled climber and athlete. Parkour is a wonderful skill to develop when you have to follow people all over a city, and it's going to be suitable for this place as well. Long arms and legs means fewer handholds are necessary to get where you want to go, and even should Emily fall she has a backup plan for how to get down safely.

Though, she will stop at the top of the wall, and hold an inviting hand down to Thariza, offering the charr to come along with her.

[Ruined Observatory]

"I am willing to sleep beneath the stars, should it prove necessary," Skye says, her voice hoarse, "I would not mind the rest, either."

[Ironsmith]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

Blank finds himself stopping in his tracks as soon as he realizes Ginger is off his back, which is a little ironic, considering how much faster he should be able to move without her. This... doesn't feel right, trying to run away while his girlfriend and a pair of strangers fight the monsters. Rationally, he knows there isn't a whole lot he can do, at least not that isn't especially risky to himself, and getting the civilian out of the way really should be his priority. But that doesn't do a whole lot for his feeling of complete uselessness.

Ugh. There his stomach goes again.

"...Come on, guy. Let's get you out of here." Blank grumbles to the shepherd, turning and bolting away from the fight.

[Shadowcaller]

[Damundra Canyon]

The rockwall is climbable but a very rough estimate would make them guess they're around 200-300 feet above the canyon floor up here. Emily, who at least has some climbing experience, can tell as much.
Depending on how quickly Emily can get down safely it might take a while, assuming of course that Thariza is willing to take this risk instead of either forcing herself down the stairs or grabbing the keys.
There is a detail that they can notice while standing up here looking down at the canyon below. There seems to be a lot of holes in the ground. Furthermore, there appears to be some broken down machinery mixed in with the dragon skeletons, but there are likely a far more recent addition.

[Rebonack]

[For Whom the Bell Gnolls]

With Blank protecting the shepherd (arguably the most important job) and Octavia and Ginger dealing with the ravenous gnoll, Khannie turns her attention to the mob attacking them. The holy chastisement seems to give them momentary pause, which is just enough time for Khannie to form an orb of darkness above her head that drinks in all the shadows around her.

Though the shadows aren't really what she's after.

She's after the javelins.

The weapons all veer wildly toward the unicorn, though they don't stab her full of holes. Instead they get caught in her magic and begin orbiting the black sphere faster and faster and faster until, one by one, she releases her grip on the projectiles and sends them whizzing back at the approaching gnolls.

Octavia does a pretty good job of blocking the ravenous gnolls slashes this time around and blinds it with a flash of light, causing the monster to stagger back, covering its face with one paw as it lashes wildly with the other in Octavia's general direction. That leaves it wide open to getting stabbed in the ribs by Ginger.

So as it turns out the ravenous gnoll isn't really that much more durable than the regular gnolls, it's just faster and smarter. And when those advantages are largely nullified by being dazzled all it takes is one solid hit. Something inside the gnoll bursts into holy flames as Ginger strikes true, the monster's body burning from the inside out into consecrated ashes.

Well!

That works nicely.

Several of the regular gnolls, meanwhile, get knocked off their feet by the unicorn's javelin counter attack. A few are injured or stunned, and one looks to have been killed by a lucky shot. This, of course, means the nearest gnolls are suddenly turning on their fallen packmate and paying little attention to our heroes.

And Blank gets the shepherd safely away from the battle! "Thanks talking wolf," the shepherd says, reaching out to rub Blank's ear while one hundred percent not thinking about the warning to avoid touching the fur.

[Ironsmith]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

"...Please stop doing that." The shepherd says to his counterpart, nudging his hand away from his now-very-much-not-canine ears. At least he's not angry. More mildly annoyed.

Blank points out to the horizon, back the way they came from. "Town is back that way. Think you can get there safely on your own from here? Or at least into hiding?"

[quillpleasant]

For Whom the Bell Gnolls

Octavia rolls away from the ravenous gnoll's blow before springing up, ready to attack once again- just in time to witness Ginger's blow burning it to ash. She raises her axe in a salute, the weapon then dissolving back to form a swirling ball of light above her neck.

-thank you for assisting me! always good to meet a fellow holy warrior- she says, bowing. Then she turns to look at the remaining gnolls. -introductions can wait until we've finished this. don't let them eat each other!- That's how you get a gnollk.

Her injuries not slowing her down in the slightest, Octavia teleports to the closest group of gnolls she can find, grabbing her halo once more. -Orbiting Serpent Slices Thousands- she intones, and in her hand the halo transforms into a luminous whip, which she spins in a deadly arc overhead. She's definitely shorter than most gnolls which will make it hard to duck under the attack, and any caught by the whip will find that it can slice through flesh as easily as any sword.

[Morty]

[Damundra Canyon]

"It's a really long way to climb down without any tools." Thariza doesn't sound enthused. "We should at least try to unlock the elevator first."

[Ruined Observatory]

"You're the one who spent hours doing a ritual," Hiep concedes. "And I'm no stranger to roughing it. So let's find a relatively sheltered place around here."

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

"Are you scared?" Emily asks, waggling her eyebrows, "I was intending to carry you down, but if you can't even handle that..."

[Ruined Observatory]

Skye nods, and, leaning on her spear, she'll help to find a nice, quiet spot where they can pitch a camp without worrying too much about wild animals or Random Encounters.

[General Shrimp]

Overly Adventurous

Despite her first instinct being to pull back further from the slightly painful touch, Kestrel begins to relax with a sigh as the healing magic does it's work and the wound begins to fade. Her blush firmly stays put though. "Well, yes, I... I remember, b-but that's not the point!" Even as she protests his teasing there's signs of a shy smile creeping onto her face.

Overly Adventurous

"Hah. Don't think I don't see that smile, Missy. Arright, that oughta just about see to it. C'mon, birdgirl, up on yer feet." Atreyu stands up, offering Kestrel a hand up as well. "Lemme see ya walk a few paces, make sure it's healed right."

[Rebonack]

[Ruined Observatory]

Given how often Khannie is off exploring unusual and remote places for her Action Archeology it probably shouldn't come as a big shock that she's got camping supplies squirreled away in her pack. They definitely shouldn't be able to FIT in her saddle bags but then again her dad does enchanting services for a living. Whipping up some Handy Havery-Saddlebags really isn't THAT huge of a deal.

The unicorn will begin setting up the shelters to keep the weather off and leaving the others to getting a fire going.

"That... um... goose? The goose was really bad. I don't think it was actually a goose though," Khannie says, straining to reconcile her memory of what she did to bring down a perfectly normal goose that had flapped out of the ruined tower.

[Morty]

[Damundra Canyon]

Thariza huffs.

"You sound awfully confident you can get down there. It's a big canyon. And I've already died once, so I doubt I'd get another do-over."

[Ruined Observatory]

"It might have been a goose once. Then it wandered here and got twisted." Hiep stretches out under a wall. "I've seen a lot, but this... was something else."

[Ruins]

Another day, a warm and sunny one, a lone Charr is sifting through overgrown ruins of what probably used to be an outpost of some kind. According to Ambrosia, it belonged to the empire she comes from, but was transported into the Nexus through its usual capricious means. She doesn't expect to find anything particularly interesting here, but in the interest of thoroughness the place has to be scoured and catalogues. Which currently involves using a hatchet to cut through the thick vegetation covering the walls of one of the buildings.

[Meowmai]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

In all honesty, Ginger did not expect her blow to land. This gnoll had looked fast, and her last fight had been quite a struggle. Mind you, she hadn't been prepared in that one, and she did not have any allies then either. She especially did not any that could blind their foe. So she was genuinely quite surprised when not only did her blade find purchase, driving deep into the gnoll's chest, but the gnoll immediately burst into flames much like the one before. The warrior in her was almost a little disappointed.

She turns to Octavia, blinking a little as she gets a closer look at her, especially with the weapon turning into her halo. Definitely a bit of a departure from the angels back home. But undeniably a strong ally. "Nice to meet you too, Miss." She about manages to say, before the angel teleports away, and Ginger sighs. Wish she could do that.

She pauses for just a moment, taking in the battle, before breaking into yet another charge to rejoin it, slashing upwards at the nearest gnoll. When she gets there, anyways. Legs can only take you somewhere so quickly.

[Zefir]

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

"I live in a bungalow, over... uh, that way I think. It's a small place, really, near Greenglass Fields Farm. My partner works there as a labourer, but it's a busy time of year so they're not staying with me right now." The woman points in a direction, which the cyberguys might remember having large greenhouses in it, or possibly they could find the greenhouses with their drone, and the bungalow isn't that far from it. Perhaps fifteen minutes of walking.

"My name's Arbastutanif, I'm a nurse and vet. I work for quite a few of the local farms as their emergency medical provider. Anything else you want to know?" The pyjama-clad woman shivers as she starts to lead the way.

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

They will send the drone to verify what she says, especialyl since she might not know where to go from here. after all she was kidnaped here and druged or in any way made sleeping.

"I think that's it for now. Let's get moving befor you catch a cold." the man replies. The others have grabbed their stuff and got ready to move.

[Earl of Purple]

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

She's correct, and they can leave to take her to her bungalow. She'll invite them inside for a coffee, if they want to, and the security footage reveals she sleepwalked to the door, unlocked it, and left the door open. The knight didn't enter the house, he just picked her up outside.

[Rebonack]

[For Whom the Bell Gnolls]

With her supply of spears exhausted and with friends running into the fray Khannie switches from offense to defense. She perks her ears forward, carefully observing the melee from a distance and sending her own shadow snaking through the grass. When a gnoll hurls a javelin or stabs at one of our heroes a tendril of darkness will lash up out of the grass to pull the weapon wildly off course. Trying to restrain all the gnolls at once would be tough, but yanking on a spear here and there? That's easy.

With Octavia and Ginger laying into the gnolls and Khannie defending from the fiend's savage attacks the gnolls aren't doing so hot. Octavia's attacks cleave through the monsters and Ginger's holy fire immolates them utterly. It doesn't help that animated shadows are interfering with their ability to fight back.

The shepherd, meanwhile, looks very confused to be staring at his double. After a few moments to process he nods and says, "Thanks. You heroes saved my life."

And then off he goes!

[Ironsmith]

[For Whom The Bell Gnolls]

...Yeah.

He did help with that, didn't he?

Blank turns back to the fight and sighs. Yeah, okay. So there wasn't much he could do before. But he's helped one guy get away, and that seemed pretty important to him. Maybe he's selling himself short just a bit?

...No. Absolutely not. Is anyone else seeing what's going on right in front of him? He is woefully outclassed.

...But not useless.

Blank turns his attention in particular to the fight between Octavia and the teleporting gnoll. The back-and-forth between them looks like it could stalemate quite easily... unless he could find a way to mitigate the gnoll's biggest advantage.

...Okay, a plan comes straight to mind and he hates it. But it's one of those thoughts that seems to just embed itself once concieved and he can't think of anything else.

Blank shoves his foot into the dirt and collapses onto the ground, swearing loudly. His allies might know what's going on, but the gnolls, especially the riftwalker, might not have been paying so much attention, and will only see one of the people they were planning on eating with his foot stuck in a burrow.

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

Thariza huffs.

"You sound awfully confident you can get down there. It's a big canyon. And I've already died once, so I doubt I'd get another do-over."

[Ruined Observatory]

"It might have been a goose once. Then it wandered here and got twisted." Hiep stretches out under a wall. "I've seen a lot, but this... was something else."

[Damundra Canyon]

Emily just shrugs, "I've survived longer drops unharmed. Really! And I wouldn't drop you; you can just cling to me and I'll be the one to make our way down."

She seems... oddly eager.

[Ruined Observatory]

Skye regards the goose corpse, bone-deep exhaustion in her, "I've seen many things like this, but never quite in this configuration. I am glad the ritual availed us. Though... could I get you to find a suitable camping spot? I'm afraid I need a little time off my feet."

[Morty]

[Damundra Canyon]

Thariza sighs in defeat, her tail slumping behind her.

"Fine. But if I die, I'm coming back to haunt you."

[Ruined Observatory]

"Right. I can do that much. Sit tight and I'll be right back."

Hiep sets out to look and does find a good place to camp (as good as you can get here) remarkably quickly. It's under one of the more intact walls, with part of the roof still above it, slightly elevated so it's drier.

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

Emily gives Thariza a winning smile, before picking the charr up and beginning her descent.

What follows is likely to be a kind of horrid experience for Thariza, as Emily's descent is full of jumps from handhold to handhold, sliding between ledges with aggressive disregard for the danger presented to them, and at one point she grabs a vine that's clearly not fully secured to the wall that tears out under their combined weight, only for Emily to use it to swing to another spot.

If the revenant is watching carefully, she may actually notice there's a bit of magic at play, flaring up from the cape on Emily's waist.

[Shadowcaller]

[Damundra Canyon]

While such a long climb without any equipment would be seen as dangerous by anyone else, it probably isn't Emily's hardest climb. Since while it's far to the ground the rockwall is amazingly flat without any unexpected outcroppings or crevices that she runs into on the way down.

If either of them keep an eye on what's below they might notice three things.

1. The dwarves appear to have made roads down in the canyon but they're mostly covered by dust which is why one can't make them out easily.
2. There seems to be a pattern to where the dragon bones are placed as few of them are actually in the center of the canyon. Instead they're all spread out along the walls of it.
3. Like they observed earlier, there are a lot of holes down here and its apparent they're man-made (or dwarf made more likely). It is difficult to tell how deep they are but while Thariza could probably fall down in one Emily would likely get stuck.

As Emily climbs it might also come to them as the dwarves likely picked this section of the canyon to build their fort due to the flatness of the walls here. Would have been difficult to build the elevator and the stairs otherwise.
But after however long it would take to climb them both down an about 300 feet tall cliff wall, they will finally reach the bottom.
They didn't see any traces of Ambrosia from above however so if they want to find here they probably need to look around. But considering the sheet amount of people that must be moving around here such tracks will likely be difficult to find.

[quillpleasant]

For Whom the Bell Gnolls

Well, this battle is going a lot better than the last one. Chalk it up to experience- and having a powerful new ally on their side. Octavia studies Ginger as they fight. It's a little confusing that she's a gnoll herself. Since before today Octavia hasn't even heard of gnolls, she had been thinking of the demonic little vermin as the default, so a holy gnoll is very interesting.

-so, if you don't mind me asking- she says casually to Ginger, even as she continues whipping apart any remaining gnolls within reach, -what is your designation and where did you originate from?- It's a polite way of asking if she's one of the demon gnolls who somehow evolved into a paladin, or if she's from somewhere completely different.

-my designation is octavia and i come from galgallin superchoir 818. and also from prep highschool- She gives a cheerful bow before her whip splits into eight lengths, each lashing out at a different enemy.

[General Shrimp]

[Ruins]

Another day, a warm and sunny one, a lone Charr is sifting through overgrown ruins of what probably used to be an outpost of some kind. According to Ambrosia, it belonged to the empire she comes from, but was transported into the Nexus through its usual capricious means. She doesn't expect to find anything particularly interesting here, but in the interest of thoroughness the place has to be scoured and catalogues. Which currently involves using a hatchet to cut through the thick vegetation covering the walls of one of the buildings.

Ruins

There is someone else exploring these particular ruins. Or, well, less exploring, more buried somewhere with the mess of vines at the moment, but they're not thrilled at the plantlife getting hacked through at the moment. The vine being swung at swishes out of the way of the blow.

[Zefir]

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

She's correct, and they can leave to take her to her bungalow. She'll invite them inside for a coffee, if they want to, and the security footage reveals she sleepwalked to the door, unlocked it, and left the door open. The knight didn't enter the house, he just picked her up outside.

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

Well that is a bad thing. For once the knight might just see that and think she is sick. On the other hand he reacted strange and the sleepwalking might be also part of the whole thing.

"That is bad." the man says after he got the new informations. "Still nothing we can do. You might tell your partner that you need another person to watch over you and maybe see a doctor. I don't think there were any sleepwalkers who can open locked doors."

[Earl of Purple]

Outside the Delve of Dripping Dread

"Yeah, I agree. I'll get them to come over, and see if anyone else nearby has seen anything. I'll do it in the morning, though. Most will be asleep at this time. How about you, what're you guys gonna do? I'll be safe here tonight, I reckon." She's not planning on going back to sleep, as it happens. Can't sleepwalk if you're not asleep. She'll stay awake until dawn, and probably nap tomorrow.

[Morty]

[Damundra Canyon]

Thariza doesn't notice the magic seeping off Emily, because she's too busy holding on tightly while holding her eyes shut. It's going to take her until the bottom to start paying attention to anything.

[Ruins]

"What the-" Thariza steps back, lowering the hatchet. Did she just see what she thinks she did? "Is someone here?" She hopes so, since if the vegetation here just moves of its own volition, it will be harder to deal with.

[General Shrimp]

Ruins

There's a deep, rumbly growl from somewhere within the ruins, its source hidden by thick foliage.

Well that settles it, Thariza's definitely not alone.

"Hrmm? Someone there?" A deep, snarling voice calls out, somewhat muffled.

[Halae]

[Damundra Canyon]

Eventually, Emily reaches the bottom, and shakes out her hands for a moment, and she feels a lot more balanced now that she's done something so kinetic like that, "Hoo! That's always a good workout. You can let go now, Thariza."

It seems they've arrived! Hopefully, they can find Ambrosia down here.

[Meowmai]

► SHOW SPOILER

Overly Adventurous

"Hah. Don't think I don't see that smile, Missy. Arright, that oughta just about see to it. C'mon, birdgirl, up on yer feet." Atreyu stands up, offering Kestrel a hand up as well. "Lemme see ya walk a few paces, make sure it's healed right."

Overly Adventurous

Kestrel rather sheepishly takes Atreyu's hand, letting herself be helped up to her feet with a grunt. She winces just a little bit, wobbling a bit at first but soon back and moving just fine.

"So, uh, long time no see, huh. What have you been up to since we last, uh, met?"

[For Whom the Bell Gnolls]

Having one ally running rescue and distraction while another plays defense certainly makes combat a lot easier and safer. Safe enough that one can find themselves starting up conversation despite the heat of battle, apparently.

"Name's Ginger." Ginger grunts as she blocks the blow from a gnolls claws with her blade, shoving it backwards off her before driving her blade forwards. "I come from the Mwangi Expanse, out in Golarian. Far fro-" She ducks under another blow, her arm getting just barely grazed by a javelin. "Far from here." She delivers a kick at another gnoll, before arcing her blade across to try decapitate it. "So I'm nothing like these abominations." She knows why Octavia asked, no point in dancing around it politely.

Although really, the truth of the origin of gnolls was a little bit uncertain back home. Those gnolls who worship the demon Goddess Lamashtu , the Mother of Monsters, claim it was She who created them. However the Kholo, Ginger's folk, hotly dispute this. Regardless of which is true, they have free will to choose how to live their lives, which seems quite unlike these monstrous gnolls.