Outside: Grass touch place

[Earl of Purple]

Welmet

"Who do you think the chicken would prefer then, if you're going to be gobby? The fat merchant? The mayor? A princess, if this community has one? Those are traditional for giant ravenous monsters, aren't they?" The clicking around the Vault-Dweller intensifies as she's getting a little angry- and literally heated, though she's not yet producing enough radiation to glow or get hot. She also pulls out her pistol, though she's not waving it or pointing it at anything in particular yet.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Forest]

They ARE kind of like zombies in that regard.

Unlike zombies they appear to be relatively intelligent and quick.

Most of his foes manage to leap out of the way of his tail sweep, circling him cautiously, but two aren't quite fast enough and get laid out. That gives Kothar time to smash the processor of a second foe. Unfortunately the other creature manages to scramble away in the mean time. The remaining four weapons are approaching him more cautiously now.

Matters are complicated as the golem stomps closer, its head detaching and firing its stream of burning energy at him.

Khannie and Sirius continue their furious hacking! For whatever reason the little device Khannie has plugged into the refinery is making sounds akin to someone mashing the keys on a keyboard really quickly. Alas, Kothar probably wouldn't understand the significance of this.

[bc56]

Neon Forest
Good, be cautious. Kothar is every bit as dangerous as he appears.
Blocking the energy beam is easy. He's a master at using a shield. But he's not much for clearing out groups of enemies. He'll just have to bring them down one at a time.
And you know what they say. The best defense is a good offense.
Kothar charges, aiming to strike down another of the frogs before they can react. Then he'll dodge back towards Khannie so as to not leave an opening while he prepares for another attack

[Ironsmith]

[Junkyard]

"...Fine, then. See what happens when you disregard a fucking fire warning." comes the reply after a brief pause.

Then, a figure steps out of the ladder truck and forward, shutting its door behind them. They're wearing a saturated red firefighter's outfit, complete with hard hat but carrying little equipment apart from a high-powered flashlight, flare gun and walkie-talkie. The helmet-screen and red metal hands with long, spindly fingers serve as tell-tale signs that this is a TA-series robot. Most strikingly, a medium-sized turquoise orb of electricity hovers in a circular pattern behind his back.

The robot faces down both skeletal dummies, before raising both arms to point finger guns at the both of them. Almost immediately, a precise beam of heat is fired at both of them, intense enough to thermally cut metal and intending to do so with the material between their eyes & inside their skulls.


As for Mia's checks, the truck isn't stolen and is in fact legally owned by Zeeland himself. The license plate even reads Z33 LAND.

[Junkyard]

If the beams can cut through, say, a beam of steel, then the plastic that makes up the robots' "skulls" will give way almost comically easily. Unfortunately, the compact designs of the interiors of said skulls means that, without reliable information on their configuration, there are a number of important components that the TA-series robot could hit, which could have unintended consequences. If he hit their power cores, small as they are, the amount of damage he could actually do would be limited; as both are powered by quantum sail turbines, passing intense heat through them would, in all likelihood, simply increase the output of the device, which could be disastrous for the robots themselves and everything in the immediate area, though not immediately enough to be of any concern. If he hit their processors, they would likely be incapacitated, effectively brain-dead, but still carrying functional power cores that would overheat as a result of all the short-circuiting that would now be occurring.

Fortunately, the TA-series robot lucked out, and managed to hit them both in their archival memories. As neither of them has had a lifespan of more than a few hours, said archives are more or less empty, and there won't be any data lost this way. So while they have a pair of holes in their heads, there's no danger of a catastrophic system-wide failure.

Just a regular one, as both are programmed to simulate when sustaining any sort of physical damage.

thud. thunk.

The dummies fall to the ground, motionless, contributing nothing more to the events that unfold afterward than a pervasive smell of burnt plastic.

Forsaken Cathedral
"She's not very good about using it," Charcoal answers, "And it doesn't get any... What do you call it? Signal? In the Depths." That means there's a chance but not a high one.
Miranda tries another option. A liquid form would be incredibly useful in this situation, but it's unlikely she'd be able to assume such a shape - she has no idea how it feels. From watching Mary's shapeshifting lessons (and maybe participating herself?) she should have picked up by now that it's difficult to take a shape radically different from your normal anatomy. The workaround Sekhmet has been using with Mary is to transform her daughter and then allow her to use that form for a while.

[Forsaken Cathedral]

That's fair. While Miranda knows Eun and Vlad contributed some upgrades to Sekhmet's security systems, cell towers were not one of them. And it's notoriously hard to get a signal across the dimensional barrier anyway. Or, on a more mundane level, through fifty or more meters of rock.

Still. They'd be remiss if they didn't even explore the option. Miranda pulls out her communicator and attempts to dial Sekhmet, setting the device on speakerphone and putting it aside in case by some miracle a call did connect.

It looks like her shapeshifting plan isn't bearing any fruit, either. Miranda saw merit to Sekhmet's method for teaching her daughter, but even if she asked for the same degree of training (she didn't, to her regret), she doubts Sekhmet would agree to transform her into a featureless blob and try to sort herself out from there. That sounds like a disaster in the making.

Okay, so the magic they had immediately available wasn't going to save them, and the technology wasn't likely to do much, either. With those options closed off to her, the situation was looking... a bit bleak.

She needs to stay calm. She might not have any ideas on how to get out of their present predicament yet, but they still have some time to figure it out. And when she needs ideas, the best thing she's found to do is to keep looking for more facts. How far down are they, really? How much of the cave collapsed? Do they need to dig up through fifty meters of rock, or will simply making it back to the crevasse do the job? What's the composition of the stone they're buried under? All information she can try to find out with various apparatuses from her Hotbox.

As she works, she quietly and succinctly explains what each of the devices do, and to the best of her knowledge, how they work. The purpose of this is twofold; first, she wants to do what she can keep Charcoal calm and assured that they are, in fact, making progress, even if it's not readily obvious, while second, she's hoping that saying this out loud will result in something jumping out at her.

Not likely. By design, the measuring devices don't really do much to the rock around them. But she might still get lucky.

[Hraithre]

[Welmet]

"Hey, you stupid birds." Hiep turns to the crows. "Do we go around telling you how to make eggs? No? Then lay off what we do for fun." She seems a lot more concerned about their criticism of her lifestyle and sexual choices than the impending threat of being devoured by a giant rooster. "Hey, you! Giant cock!" Did she... make a vulgar joke just now? It's really hard to tell. "Do you really want to eat me? I can't possibly be big enough for you." Despite her tone or voice not changing one bit, the rooster will be able to understand her - as much as its intellect allows, but still more so than even a trained animal can understand humans.

"Who do you think the chicken would prefer then, if you're going to be gobby? The fat merchant? The mayor? A princess, if this community has one? Those are traditional for giant ravenous monsters, aren't they?" The clicking around the Vault-Dweller intensifies as she's getting a little angry- and literally heated, though she's not yet producing enough radiation to glow or get hot. She also pulls out her pistol, though she's not waving it or pointing it at anything in particular yet.

Oh, the giant rooster understands Hiep, or "Mai", just fine. It is conversant in languages of men, even if it rarely bothers to speak them itself. It is quite amused by her words. Namely, that she thinks it was ever going to eat her. Maybe she can interpret its thoughts from its crimson eyes as it looks down at her along its massive beak.

"Oh, do we have a new volunteer?", the smaller rooster asks, aiming its words at the vault-dweller, "or do you fashion yourself a hero, coming to save this fair lady from mob justice?" It looks at "Mai". "Or maybe a sloven strumpet would be a better portrait? Well? Will you place yourself at peril for sake of this sinner, this complete stranger?"

The villagers don't really know what's going on, but they do know they do not want to be part of it. They push "Mai" towards the giant rooster, then start backing away.

"Caw! Where are you going? The show's over yet!", the crows mock from the trees, "Don't flee! Stay around and see what you have brought upon yourselves!"

[Rebonack]

[Neon Forest]

A master of the shield, yes, but that continuous beam of searing power is tricky. He needs to keep the shield between himself and the floating bit at all times lest he get scorched. And when you're moving around and fighting off a small mob of cybernetic minions that can be difficult to accomplish!

Thankfully Kothar is quite accomplished.

Another grunt goes down as the golem suddenly lurches forward with surprising speed, aiming to bring both of its massive fists down on top of the paladin.

Getting clocked into the dirt by that thing probably wouldn't be helpful.

"Keep it up!" Khannie calls out. "I've just about got it!"

[bc56]

Forsaken Cathedral
That seems like a safe assumption. With Mary, Sekhmet's stuck with vertebrate animals. It seems unlikely she'd diverge too far from that with Miranda, at least at first.
It's limestone, they're 71 meters under, sonar indicates that the upper chambers are damaged, but still there, and there are narrow cracks and gaps that might lead back to the crevasse, too small for a person to fit through.

Neon Forest
Perfect. Kothar ducks to the right to let the golem get between him and the beam. He remembers the energy shield; he's better off attacking from the rear, but he's not in a position to do that right now. He strikes low, at the golem's leg, then turns to bash it with his shield, hopefully unbalancing it so he can finish it off quickly. Especially if he can get backup from Khannie.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Forest]

Kothar's one two punch sends the golem staggering away, though that shield prevents the flames and divine power from actually reaching the machine. It's like chopping at an absurdly dense tree. Damage is done, but it's more chipping away than a felling blow.

"I got it!" Khannie yells as she twists the console and yanks it open, only to have a grunt immediately tackle her-

-and pass right through.

Her form swirls like mist before resolving again right as she grabs the core out of its slot. It's pretty clear that component isn't meant to be removed in that way given the sound of groaning wood and screeching metal that just assaulted the ears of our heroes.

And speaking of assault all the grunts are going after Khannie.

The golem, meanwhile, attempts to shoulder check Kothar into the ground.

[Morty]

[Welmet]

By Jupiter, these crows just keep going. And keep kinkshaming her. Feathery blighters. Still, Hiep can tell this giant bird doesn't want to eat her, so she'll play along until she can see what this is about.

"Just get this over with." She sighs. "Makes sense I'd end up getting eaten by a giant cock. Until now it's been the other way around."

[Shadowcaller]

[Hog Heaven]

"You're asking me to pay a chunk of change for the chance to diversify my customer base here! I'm taking a risk! Doesn't that earn me any concessions, huh?" Tsumi asks, her smirk wolfish. She pours a couple drinks for parched customers, but her attention mostly remains on Dena. "You should know that video doesn't hold a candle to the real thing, miss. Just what can I do to help make up your mind in my favor?"

[Hog Heaven]

"I'm not sure, what can a bar owner offer me exactly? Either a big pile of cash or you'd have to match the personal commitment I'd make. But I dunno what that exactly would mean coming from you." Dena gestures to the oni. "The downside of being so unfamiliar with one another I'm afraid."

[Murkus]

[Hog Heaven]

"Just what kind of personal commitment are you making with a dance, hm?" asks the oni. Tsumi raises her eyebrows. "Maybe we can familiarize ourselves a bit. Say, over dinner?"

[Ironsmith]

[Forsaken Cathedral]

Limestone... well, that's potentially useful. What does she know about limestone? It's abundant, composed of calcite and dolomite, pretty durable as a building material. Which is bad news just now; it's not going to be an easy substance to dig through. Not that digging through it would be a particularly viable option; she'd need a place to put the waste material, and the hole they've managed to make is tiny. She's not going to be able to do much more than shuffle a few things around.

As Miranda puts her sonar device back into her Hotbox, she suddenly realizes something. That... really isn't going to be a problem, is it? She's basically got an endless sink for matter on her hip. Waste material doesn't have to be an issue. All she'd need to do is find some way to tunnel up through the rock.

Much easier said than done. Chipping through it would be a long, slow, difficult process. Seventy meters of rock, at a somewhat-optimistic rate of a meter per hour, that's almost three straight days of digging. Maybe she'd luck out and hit the tunnels first, but even then, that's not likely to kick in until the very end, cutting out the last few hours of excavation.

...Of course, the hardest part would be starting. She's got no room to swing a pick, or even a chisel and hammer, or any other excavation tool. She'd need more room to operate. She'd have to tunnel out more of a cavity, which she can't do because she doesn't have room. She'd have to get the rock to pull itself apart someh-

"...Limestone." Miranda echoes to herself, looking down at the ground beneath her feet. "I think I might have a plan."

It's a chemistry experiment everyone does at some point. Calcite and vinegar. Mix them together and you get a brittle salt and carbon dioxide. Since the air issue is already covered, that wouldn't be a problem. And she can get vinegar- a lot of vinegar- fairly easily. It's a kitchen staple, something she picked up a long time ago when she was planning to do more at-home cooking. It won't be as helpful going up, but if she needs to get the floor under her to break up in a hurry, gravity will do a lot of the work for her.

Of course, there are a few drawbacks.

"This is going to sting." Miranda cautions, tilting her Hotbox to pour out the first round of vinegar onto the floor. "...And it's not going to smell great, either."

[Earl of Purple]

Welmet

"Wasn't saying that, was I? I meant. since you got some idea of what the chicken wants, why don't you share with everyone an example of a better choice? Since it occurs t'me a creature that big won't be easily sated just by one human-sized meal and the villagers might want to think of who should be the second course- if they want to continue with the venture, anyway." They might just pick Harriet for the second course, in which case she's got to be a little cautious... But then, it seems that most of the Welmetters are cowards, and she's very visibly armed. And if they're familiar with Geiger counters, they'd likely recognise the ticking coming from her wrist as well.

[Keeper]

The Triple B

Lydia considers the point for a moment before conceding it and giving a slight nod. "Fair enough. I can't really say too much from my own experience given I've only three shapes to my name, but why not give it a try regardless? Try to be as small of a pixie as you can be, or a one of those large twenty foot tall giantesses." She offers before pausing and looking around. "Well, not in here if at least if you want to try the latter. I do quite like my club."

The Triple B

Anri gives an odd look and blinks, rapidly shrinking into a foot-tall pixie. She drops to the counter, staring aaaaaaall the way up at Lydia.
"Ok yeah wow I definitely don't think I like being this small. I'll hurt my neck." she says, though it may be difficult to hear her.

[Hraithre]

[Welmet]

Before Harriet receives a response, the earth begins to quake. Or that's how it feels, at least. In truth, it is the giant rooster growling that causes the sensation. The logs creak and shake as it stretches its neck high and bristles its feathers. The smaller rooster lets out a startled squawk and flits away. The crows take flight and fly over Harriet and Hiep, crowing insults as they do.

The villagers break into a run. Cowards, they may be. But they are rather mundane folks. They might be able to a handle a bear, or a hungry pack of wolves, or a malicious wanderer... heck, maybe even a vampire or such, in a pinch. But this? This is too big for them to handle. They heard what happened to the one who braved the rooster's wrath in Weirding Wood. They have no desire to share that fate. Better these two strangers, than them.

The beast look at the two people remaining, insignificant wretches that they are. "I am not here to sate my hunger. I am here to sate justice", a voice rumbles from its throat, "I care not for eating either of you. I only care that you die." The rooster gives that a few seconds to sink in. It could strike immediately, fast as lightning. But that would defeat the point of the grand performance.

[Thursday Violist]

[Dysphotic Swamp]

Seraphina puts on her waterproof gloves. "That's a really good thing to have," she tells Khannie, as Khannie rises in her estimation. Most people wouldn't think to carry around a first-aid thing when going out to some random swamp.

....

She quickly looks around, making sure there's nothing sneaking up on them.
She doesn't say this aloud, since it just came to her and is probably the spooky atmosphere playing tricks on her, but leaving behind an injured person is exactly the sort of bait an intelligent predator would do. Maybe. She's been in this swamp too long, the dim lighting and spooky atmosphere is getting to her.

Khannie is correct, though.
With all this cold sweat, the injured half-orc is running pretty low on water.

The arm has a gash in it. Pretty deep, too! But not bleeding at all anymore, thanks to the tourniquet. And the black goop is focused around the wound, even getting inside the wound.
Sure, it smells like death.
But not exactly the bad awful smelly rotten kind of death.
Instead, it's more of a floral kind of death. Like, if death put out a perfume line, then this would be one of the floral eaux lines.
"In that case, I'll keep watch. If you need help, just say so," Seraphina says, relieved that she doesn't have to worry about Khannie getting infected.
She twirls the cooking pot in her hands, takes a step away to make the groaning sound a little quieter, so that she can pay more attention to the other sounds around them. So far, mostly nature sounds and water lapping and branches brushing against each other.


The half-orc woman drinks the water greedily. Starts coughing, even! since she was a little too greedy and accidentally tried to inhale some of it.

[Rebonack]

[Dysphotic Swamp]

Khannie ALWAYS brings her backpack full of heroic supplies when going out on adventures.

Even if it was an adventure that basically would have amounted to 'check to see if some bad guys where out here and then leave.'

Because if there's one thing you can count on when it comes to adventures it's that the adventures aren't going to be going the way that you think they are most of the time. Most of the time you face all sorts of absolute nonsense that you weren't expecting to have to deal with.

Expect the unexpected!

Which means carry first aid stuff.

Anyway, water first.

Then pouring water on the wound. "I'm Khannie. Can you tell me what happened?"

Then opening up the first aid kit and working at cleaning the wound. Water. Gauze. And then pulling out what looks kind of like a high tech can of shaving cream and spraying some foam into the wound. It feels tingly. And deadens the pain. So far so good. Nothing too weird yet, right? Once all the black goop is cleaned off Khannie takes that fancy looking high-tech bandage she was balancing on her knee and begins pulling on the patch, causing it to stretch until it's a little longer and wider than the gash in the half-orc's arm.

"This'll help close the wound and help it heal and prevent infect and stuff. But it's gunna itch, okay? Don't scratch at it," Khannie warns. Once all the black goop is cleaned off Khannie pulls the backing off the bandage. Instead of there being a white adhesive strip or something instead it looks iridescent and kind of prickly, maybe? Then she'll place that over the wound.

Upon contact the active surface of the patch will bind to the half-orc's skin and begin the slow process of working together with the trauma foam to knit the wound back together. Also it itches. And this point Khannie will be able to work at getting the tourniquet off so the woman can get blood flow back to her arm with the foam/patch combo working as a really good artificial scab.

[Zefir]

[Junkyard]

Mia will share her information with Wenomir. She keeps the robot dummy ready to fake the dimensional teleport if Zeeland get's to close, but unless he does something directly to the dummy she will stay down.
Thought the orb behind him might be trouble. She attemps to scan him through the dummy to avoid getting noticed and will share and information Wenomir might need in this combat.

[Morty]

[Welmet]

"Meting out justice by burning random people too hungover to run away? Ugh, one of those again."

Hiep shrugs her shoulders, flexes her muscles and the ropes fall away from her in tatters. Even though no fire has occurred yet, the ropes smell distinctively of smoke. The identity of Mei the worker sloughs away from her just like the ropes. What's underneath is her real self, whom no one will remember once she leaves.

"Do your worst and we'll see about justice."

[Junkyard]

Wenomir nods to Mia in acknowledgement of her information, then steps out of cover. If they tarry too long, Zeeland might get away. Best to seize the opportunity.

"That's a bit of a harsh response, isn't it?" he asks conversationally.

[Earl of Purple]

Welmet

"Can't say dying was on my to-do list today." Harriet smiles and raises her pistol, firing several rounds at the giant cockerel. The bullets glow red-hot as they fly, and burn when they hit. She'll only fire three times because she's not very good at using it, and isn't compensating for the recoil properly and it's making her hand sting.

[bc56]

Neon Forest
Remember when Kothar was having trouble throwing the golems around because he couldn't get leverage?
Well, this time the golem has kindly provided some. He ducks down and attempts to use the golem's momentum to throw it over his shoulder and into the ground.

Forgotten Cathedral
The floor is reacted into brittle salt, which can then be smashed and fed back into the hotbox. It's definitely faster than chipping through rock, but it's still a slow process - one layer is reacted, then removed so the next can be exposed to the vinegar. And this stuff isn't pleasant, just more fragile than rock. But after a while, Miranda's made some extra space, enough that the two of them aren't smushed together anymore.

[Rebonack]

[Neon Forest]

Yes indeed that works quite well! The golem gets flipped through the air and lands rather comically on top of one of the grunts.

Well.

Comically for everyone else.

The grunt gets absolutely crushed since that golem probably weighs near a ton.

Now flat on its back, the golem is making an effort to get back up again while it's bit continues to fire on Kothar. Interesting it's death ray still seems enfeebled thanks to whatever Khannie did to it earlier. That ghostly miasma that clings to it seems to be weakening the strength of its ray.

Speaking of Khannie! She sort of... explodes when the grunts pile on top of her. Just bursts into a cloud of snowy white mist short through with bloody crimson. The mist swirls around the confused (and suddenly very cold looking) grunts before quickly reforming into the girl whilst in mid-swing with her baton. The weapon blazes with raw fighting spirit as she brings it down on top of one of their glossy black helmets, shattering the device and leaving it to slump over.

That leaves just one grunt left along with the golem.

[Hraithre]

[Welmet]

The rooster cocks its head in confusion as it regards the woman shaking off her bindings. Where does this defiance come from? Or is it drunken resignation? Either way, she is clearly of different stock than the locals.

As for Harriet, she would have to mishandle her gun way worse to miss a target of this size from this close. The three shots hit the rooster's breast and neck. She can see the bullets shatter against armor-like feathers, the molten-hot pieces falling down and disappearing into the pile of felled trees. Bitter smoke rises from the dented feathers, but overall it looks like the damned bird didn't even feel a sting.

Then, the beast brings its beak down on Hiep, with such speed that an ordinary mortal could hardly dodge, and such force that an ordinary mortal would be reduced to a red smear at the bottom of a crater. But she's not an ordinary mortal, is she?

[Gold]

[Junkyard]

The robot lets out a small chuckling noise as the twin dummies go down, then begins sauntering towards the fake TARBot.

When Wenomir comes out and begins addressing him, the bot stops and turns to look at the commander. Raising a finger, he says "Harsh, my ass. I warned them, they didn't listen, they got burned. Whose fault is that?"


Mia's scan might reveal that the turquoise orb circling Zeeland's back is a Power Core, almost identical in makeup and energy signature to the one that TARBot had, with the key difference being that this one's abilities are not dimensional, but time-related. Also viewable is yet another Power Core, this one actually embedded in Zeeland's chest and thus obscured by his clothing. This one appears to control heat, which is what allowed for Zeeland to have such high-powered finger guns.

[Thursday Violist]

[Dysphotic Swamp]

The injured woman winces, as her way of confirming that she can.

Actually, though, the fancy shaving cream is really helpful at making it easier for the woman to be coherent. As it numbs and she gets water in her, her body calms down a bit. "We - we were attacked, most of us got injured," she says, more easily than before. "Came back to camp to recover. In the...in the morning, night watch was missing and....and...."
She takes several deep breaths, then gestures at her arm with her head. "...this happened." The black planty death stuff. "Too late for...for...for..." Even though things have calmed down a bit, her breathing is still a little heavy. "Zorah left to get help."

With significantly less pain, though, her adrenaline goes over its peak and she finds it hard to keep her eyes open.

When Khannie reaches for the tourniquet, though, the half-orc tries stopping her with a "Wait!" she says with as much urgency as she can put into her voice. "Don't touch that." She'd rather lose her arm over risking becoming like those people she tied up in the tree, and the black stuff has already gotten into her arm. "...unless that cream is very strong magic, don't touch it, please."

Unfortunately, to complicate the patient-consent quandary, the woman's body figures that, since adrenaline has crashed, her body decides this is the perfect time to rest and recover.

-----

Seraphina hears something that doesn't sound quite right. Maybe a splash?
She quickly looks towards it, but the water right there is a little too in-the-shade to see everything there. She can see ripples around, though.
She backs up to the flashlights she saw on the ground, by the tents, and crouches down slowly (so she can keep on looking in the space around Khannie and the injured woman as she does this), and tries out a few more of the flashlights.
"Might just be a frog, but there's something out there," she cautions.

She finds one that has battery still, and turns it on.

[Rebonack]

[Dysphotic Swamp]

Khannie waits.

And gives a little nod.

The foam nor the patch are magic at all. At least, Khannie is pretty SURE they aren't magic. It's medicine from one of those neon bunkers. Whether it's actually magic or not Khannie has got no idea. Weird robot magic? Who knows. Either way, it sounds like they need to get this lady to Inari's or something.

"We'll get you outta here," Khannie promises, because promises are important.

Promises can keep you going.

But then.

Splash.

Khannie looks this way and that, letting her disguise partly peel away. The human disguise is VERY realistic. It even muddles her senses when she uses it. And with it peeled away from her head like a hood she's got her fox eyes and fox ears and fox nose the peer and swivel and sniff.

"Lady passed out. How big of a frog are we talking?" Khannie inquires with her phantom voice.

[bc56]

Neon Forest
Now they're in a good position. Kothar raises his shield to block the energy beam again, then strikes with his axe down at the toppled golem, once, then again, then again and again. The shield protects it from the powers imbued in it, but the enchanted edge stays sharp no matter how many times he swings. He just wants to deal as much damage as possible before it can get up, and his strength should make it easy for each blow to knock the golem back flat onto its back for the next blow to strike.

[Ironsmith]

Forgotten Cathedral
The floor is reacted into brittle salt, which can then be smashed and fed back into the hotbox. It's definitely faster than chipping through rock, but it's still a slow process - one layer is reacted, then removed so the next can be exposed to the vinegar. And this stuff isn't pleasant, just more fragile than rock. But after a while, Miranda's made some extra space, enough that the two of them aren't smushed together anymore.

[Forgotten Cathedral]

As soon as the room's available, Miranda will make another attempt at stuffing Sapphira's artifact in another cylinder; if they're going to be stuck in here for a few days, she really doesn't want the former queen's influence to mess with things any further.

Especially since things are already going to get... weird. Between Charcoal and Miranda's natural body heat and the exothermic properties of the vinegar and calcite's reaction, it's going to have warmed in here considerably. If that keeps up, Miranda's probably going to have to stsrt removing excess clothing to avoid hyperthermia, plus she's probably going to need to apply various ointments and salves to mitigate the chemical burns from the calcium acetate and vinegar, as well as the inevitable scratching and bruising that comes with a large tunneling project. Mixing that with necessarily close quarters with a succubus sounds like exactly the sort of scenario Sapphira could sabotage.

[bc56]

Forsaken Cathedral
To her credit, once Miranda shows her what to do, Charcoal works right alongside her. The succubus doesn't suffer chemical burns, bruises, heatstroke, or exhaustion, which means she continues working even when Miranda has to rest (she does have to take breaks occasionally because of boredom, there's not much to do here and she knows Miranda's not interested)
Conditions in the little hole are, as predicted, awful. The temperature goes up, clothes come off, people are exposed to toxic chemicals.
At least Sapphira's relic is contained. But around the start of the next day (at least according to any timepieces Miranda might have), she has an idea. "They've got to be looking for us by now. Her Majesty was able to detect the relic from a distance before, if we unsealed it, maybe we could use it as a beacon?" Of course that would risk exposure, since it would take any search parties time to reach them.

[Ironsmith]

[Forsaken Cathedral]

When Charcoal gets around to asking her, Miranda shakes her head, breathing raggedly through her respirator. The device was designed to support her in a low-to-no oxygen environment, but it was intended for regular breathing, not aerobics. If she exerts herself too much, it can't keep up with the oxygen deficit and she has to back off before she asphyxiates. Yet another factor slowing down excavation, which she's trying to fix with a carbon recycler in the bottom of their cave... thankfully, if she can get it up and running, it would pull double duty as an air conditioner.

"We can't... can't risk letting Sapphira... have too much... exposure." Miranda rasps, pressing her rebreather tightly around her mouth and nose. "We can... send out other... signals... that don't involve... turning a demon... loose on the world. No offense."

Wait, this is one of those circumstances where saying "no offense" carried offense, isn't it? Ugh. The lack of air is really getting to her.

"If you're worried... about how... how long it's taking..." Miranda offers, pointing up at the disappointingly-low ceiling. "I'm open to... open to suggestions... for how we can... dig faster." She wipes her forehead against her bare forearm and leans against the wall, eyes closed as she takes a moment to recuperate. "...I haven't slept... in sixteen hours." She adds, massaging her temple with her fingers. "If... If I pass out... don't let me sleep, okay? I don't think... don't think it's safe, to do that down here..."

That's not going to be the only issue, either. Without a readily-breathable atmosphere, Miranda's not going to be doing so great on food or water, either. And it's not like her caloric or hydrational needs are low in this environment. She's already done everything she can to mitigate the latter, stripping to the skin save for a hip-and-thigh-mounted climbing harness to maximize ventilation and therefore minimize the need to cool herself with perspiration, but that might not be enough. She found a cooling gel in her Hotbox's recipes that helps take the edge off further, but even so, she's likely to reach debilitating levels of dehydration before they reach the halfway mark.

Of course, it's not likely any of that is going to be an issue for Charcoal. And if Miranda does pass out, she won't be able to object to whatever plan the succubus wants to implement.