The Ossuary

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust protectively curls around the kitten in his hands as he realizes he's falling. This means he falls hard on his back. Which isn't super pleasant but the snow is soft enough.
"S-sorry for getting you involved. I did specify just me and Aizkora."

He tries to help pull Aizkora up. Father Smilodon can fit in his jacket pocket right now.
"The big thing on the hill is too obvious to not be what we're looking for. Let's just get there ASAP before I freeze."

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Joining the displaced displacer and Rust are a few others. First is a large, lithely muscular female smilodon clad in a few rags and scraps of cloth, and a mostly intact leather jacket with a skull over crossed wrenches and the words 'Road Pirates' emblazoned upon it. She looks around, and shifts into a squat and muscular female neanderthal, still wearing rags and the somewhat tattered jacket, which she takes off and hands to Rust. "Here. I can get fluffy, I don't need the warmth as much as you do."

Also is a half-elf struggling to his feet, barefoot and wearing a pair of stained jeans and a shirt, unable to use his boneless arms which are flailing around, though slowing down and he winces as the bones reappear- once he's stood back up. "Not your fault, lad. You didn't know what that snake dragon'd do. Where the hell are we, anyway? I smell death." He shivers, and looks at his feet before growing thick black fur and a long tail. He flicks his ears and turns to look around. Just about visible on his coat are spots, a different shade of black upon his fur.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

Unlike most of the others Beagle is NOT fluffying out thanks to the fact that he arrived at the bar in warm clothing. He's regularly outdoors and exploring odd places. As a matter of fact, he pulls out a little palm-sized quad copter and releases it into the air, whereupon it begins filming everything that's going on.

"I WAS just going to get pissed this afternoon but change of plans! Looks like me and the mates got dropped out woop woop," Beagle says, the camera panning over the other were-creatures (and ork and cat) nearby. "Hey youse don't mind a bit of narrating on my part, huh? The sponsors love it when I jabber in these videos."

Oh.

So that's how Beagle makes his money. He records exploring weird places and has sponsors.

The 'where' is a little less apparent. Beagle pulls out a smart phone and pokes at it a few times. "North-east end of the Ossuary, looks like. Mammoth bone-yard. Ah sick, no one's mapped it yet even better."

He seems pretty okay with the change of scenery.

And then he says to Rust, "Well you take the lead, mate, you know where we're going."

The hill isn't terribly far away. And thankfully it isn't bitterly cold, either. Maybe an hour worth of walking if they go straight there? Only problem is that 'straight there' leads through some tarry looking terrain with blackened mammoth bones sticking out of it. They could take the long way around to the west though a low laying open area where vague misty shapes are moving. Or they could climb atop that ridge to the east and walk along there to the hill, but it looks precarious.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust nods to Beagle and accepts Aizkora's coat, slipping it on over his thin jacket.
"Well unless someone can fly the tar pits are out. I'd say we take our chances with the locals over trying to do rock climbing without any equipment."
He glances at the shapes as he starts to move towards them.
"...Aizkora can your partner bite ghosts since she's a spirit? If they're ornery?"

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

"If they're real enough to hurt you, they're real enough to get mauled. I don't have issue with bein' on camera, Beagle. Uh, it OK to call you that, or is there an interweb name we should use, like Displaced Beast or something?" She's got absolutely no fear of the ghosts, and genuinely believes they can't hurt her- and if they can, then she can hurt them.

"Nah, I don't have an issue with it. But, uh, keep the camera away from me. My blessing don't play nice with technological images. It's why I got a splatter and not a CCTV setup." Weird William stretches his arms out and cracks his knuckles. He's also going to passively interfere with the recording if he's on it; mostly when he's visible, but even when he isn't if the microphone picks up his voice there might be some visual distortion.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

"Nah, mate, Beagle's fine I don't do any of that screen name stuff," Beagle (who hasn't bothered transforming) replies.

...someone HAS seen him actually do the displacer beast thing before. It is absolutely a real thing he can do.

It just hasn't ever happened while Rust is watching. Maybe it'll happen today? Though... his clothing is pretty nice. The sort of warm but breathable whilst also supplying some degree of protection adventuring attire one might expect a professional explorer to be wearing. With some prominent logos. If he transformed it would probably be ruined! Unless his sponsors got him gear that changes with him.

That would be pretty fancy.

"Sure thing, Will, I'll keep ya off the telly. Alright mates welcome aboard for Voyage of the Beagle! We've got a real treat for you today it's the Northern reaches of the Ossuary! Pure, untouched, unmapped, and crikey is it ever spooky!" Beagle begins narrating as he moves down the hill toward the misty valley. He gestures at the camera and it turns toward the pair of cat and former cat, doing a good job of keeping Will out of the frame. "Got my mates Rust and Aizkora here with me today to kick around some mammoth bones and wrangle a ghost or two!"

They can feel free to wave at the camera.

Before they reach the marshy lowlands itself our heroes will encounter a fence of mammoth bones with a pair of mammoth skulls set up on rocks at either end, garnet eyes leering. Or at least it looks like that's where it is SUPPOSED to go. One of the skulls has fallen off its boulder missing an eye and the other looks like one of its tusks was pulled out. At the center of the wall stands a gate made wholly of mammoth ribs. It would be pretty simple to just walk around it; the detour isn't that long.

Several small, squat structures stand nearby on the near side of the wall. They look like they might have been huts of some kind? Roofs of mammoth hides once provided protection from the elements though it appears as though time has taken its toll, leaving them ruined, dark, and cold.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust waves to the camera and continues on his way. The huts aren't a concern to him; he's not here for looting and that would be pretty disrespectful anyway.
Speaking of respect, he does feel bad for the skull that's fallen off. He can't replace their missing eye and tusk, but he can at least fix the obvious issue. He picks up the fallen skull and places it on the boulder as it was clearly intended.
"Sorry I don't have a spare jewel for you, buddy." he mumbles, dusting the snow off the skull.
Then he tries to push open the gate. It's pretty big but seemingly the intended way to enter. If it's stuck or too heavy to move he'll just go around.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Will doesn't mind being filmed, but he knows he doesn't show up well. "I'm here too! But won't be on camera much because of a supernatural blessing I can't turn off." And even his voice, as he announces his presence to the cameras, will interfere with the footage a little. Mostly he's keeping an eye out for trouble, as somebody has to and he doesn't think Rust or Aizkora are. Beagle might be, but he's also narrating to a camera so how much attention is he paying to his surroundings, really? This also extends to poking his head into the closest hut, to be sure it's empty.

Aizkora also waves at the camera, and she'll try pulling the gate if pushing it doesn't work. She's also going to help Rust with the skull, since that thing's big and skulls tend to have thick bone. It's probably quite heavy, even without one tusk.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

Hefting the skull back onto its rock really isn't THAT difficult, especially since Beagle also moves to help them out. He still isn't getting fuzzy BUT he's a pretty fit guy! So with a bit of pushing and pulling and grunting our heroes manage to get the skull back in place! Good job everyone!

Will peeks into the nearest hut and almost immediately a skeleton holding a mammoth tusk with a great big garnet lashed to the end tries to clobber him over the head with it!

Normally getting bonked with a rock on the end of a bone is bad enough on its own, but this situation is made quite a bit worse by the fact that the skeleton's bludgeon can also clobber someone's spirit right out of their body!

This is, of course, not something that is desirable.

Unless Will wants to (temporarily?) be a ghost.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Will's got enhanced reactions, and is able to interpose an arm between his head and the descending garnet. The blow makes his hand and lower arm numb, but not too numb to dissuade Will from snarling and lashing out with his other hand, fingers splayed and feline claws emerge from the tips. He's aiming for the skeleton's skull, and whilst he's not exactly super-strong, he has got very sharp claws and musculature enhanced for faster reactions, meaning those sharp claws are travelling very quickly.

Aizkora hears the snarl and turns to look, the Smilodon within reaching further out and she turns fully into an extremely large sabre-toothed tiger that lopes towards the hut and William.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust turns to see two very angry cat/cat-people fighting a skeleton. At this point he's learned not to get between a smilodon and something it wants dead, so he helpfully does nothing and trusts Aizkora to smash it to bits for now.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

And of course the commotion attracts Beagle's attention.

"Would you LOOK at THAT! Me mate Will has found himself an ambulatory skeleton! The Ossuary's known for its cursed dead and here's one now! Feed's a little fuzzy on accounta Will but let's switch to magic-vision and have a look!"

Our heroes won't see what's going on here but the augmented reality glasses that Beagle has got on are apparently doing something.

"See how the magic holds the bones together like invisible tendons? Crikey, ain't she a beute! Too bad me mates are going to smash her, but that's how the biscuit breaks when it comes to skellies."

The claws take a pretty good chunk off the skeleton's skull, revealing a mass of inky tar inside of the bones that's now oozing out of the face-hole. The tar is absolutely saturated with malign magic and the smell of death might cause some trouble to the sensitive noses of the cats.

It doesn't look like Beagle is going to dive in there. Mostly because the hut is already full and his presence wouldn't do much good that the smilodon won't already accomplish.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Especially now he's furry, William's going to continue interfere with electronic recording devices. This might even include the magic-vision mode of Beagle's camera, depending on if it's achieved through technology or magic.

Will's going to back away and cover his nose, partly from the smell, partly because his arm's numb, and partly because he's heard Aizkora bounding closer and wants to remain unpounced. Unlike the skeleton, which now has a large and dangerous extinct predator jumping at its head.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

"Well, I think we found our grave robber." Rust observes to Beagle as Aizkora (hopefully) mauls the skeleton to pieces.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

The skeleton absolutely gets mauled to pieces.

It really wasn't that durable to begin with and apparently every cavity inside of its bones has been filled with necrotic tar. It looks and smells pretty awful.

But!

Now our heroes have acquired a tusk and a large garnet!

"Crikey, what a show! Now this here's a classic adventuring puzzle. Statue or a skull missing an eye or two? Just find it and shove 'em in the right hole to open the way forward!"

Very helpful commentary from Beagle there. He's probably going to do something actually helpful eventually, but that time has not yet come.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

"Good job." Rust says with a smile, reaching down to pick up the tusk since Aizkora currently doesn't have hands and Will just took a pretty nasty hit. He might as well pull his own weight by lugging the thing around. Luckily he doesn't have too far to go. He uses his knife to separate the tusk from the garnet, and then replaces them on their respective skulls.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

William rubs at his shoulder and follows Rust to the gate, staying in his hybrid form though slightly shifting back so he has fingers better suited to rubbing the numbness from where he blocked the blow.

Aizkora, meanwhile, purrs deeply and rubs her head against Rust's side as she follows, remaining a gigantic feline predator with none of her usual humanoid features.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

The tusk and gem are replaced and with a dusty groaning sound the gates open before our heroes. They might be somewhat surprised what they encounter on the other side.

Rather than the bleak snowy landscape that surrounds them they spy through the gate a lush, temperate pastoral river valley full of mammoths, hippos, and other megafauna not unlike those that once dwelled in the lands that sunk below the English channel.

What were before vague meandering spirits now appear to be very living animals. The spirit well stands bright on a hill not terribly far away surrounded by the tell tale fires of a human encampment.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust blinks.
"Well, then. Uh. Well, stay close, Aizkora. I might need you again. Maybe we can just negotiate with the locals to use their well. If we can slip by all these big animals." If they're lucky they can be quiet and the animals aren't too territorial. Rust tentatively starts to walk towards the well.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

The smilodon that is Aizkora purrs in agreement, padding softly ahead and keeping herself alert and ready for danger. If this truly is Doggerland, then she's not going to blend in very well; the local scimitar-toothed cats were smaller than smilodon, and competed with cave bears and cave lions.

William also follows, trying to massage feeling back into his arm.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

Is Rust really that apathetic toward a portal that apparently leads into the distant past?

Hopefully this is just some sort of pocket realm as opposed to actual time travel. That can cause some pretty nasty paradoxes if they upset the wrong person and irrevocably alter history.

Beagle brings up the rear, providing commentary on the trek and thankfully not leaping on any of the animals nearby.

Not that doing so would be a great idea.

The wildlife seems mostly disinterested in our heroes. There's a heard of mammoths but they're keeping their distance. And the hippos in the river are eyeing them suspiciously. As they draw closer to the village a wildlife of a DIFFERENT sort notices them.

"Hey! Hold!"

That would be a trio of, what? Hunters? Guards? Scouts? They were spotted by some sentries from atop the hill and the people have come to intercept them. Two sapiens holding long narrow throwing spears and a neanderthal with a heavier thrusting spear. They eye Will, Rust, and Beagle's camera drone uncertainly. The giant sabre cat seems worthy of attention, too.

"Are you gods? Or spirits?" the neanderthal man asks, jerking his spear toward Will. Thank goodness the Nexus Translate is still working here. Our heroes will get the impression that 'gods' might not be the best word here. More of a general 'spiritual beings that live in heaven' as opposed to 'spiritual beings that leave on earth.' Either way, he doesn't seem to think they're mortals. Considering their appearance that might not be a terrible assumption.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust's family is from a world where all these things are all still around somewhere. To him it just seems like the gate had some sort of magic hiding this from the outside. He doesn't have any reason to think this is the past.
"I come on behalf of a small god, who has been cursed. He needs the help of the spirit well here to be free of it." Rust tells the hunters in a vague but mostly accurate summary of events.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

William is likewise from a world where such things still roam, though not the areas he used to live in. Jaguars are far too tropical for this area. And Aizkora might actually be from around here, before a time-portal led to her tribe getting wiped out and herself adopted.

Aizkora, speaking of, sits and stares at the newcomers, tilting her head to one side and looking... not intimidating, exactly, but she's a very large predator, sat in a way that makes the length of her spine really obvious, as well as her teeth. Her claws are safely stored inside her massive murder mittens for now, though. William stretches his arm, which seems to be working again, and doesn't look at the strangers. He's making sure there's nobody else lurking in the undergrowth waiting to pounce.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

"You're pilgrims, then? Strange ones. With strange clothing," the neanderthal replies, looking our heroes up and down.

"What beasts could have skins like those?" one of the sapiens muses aloud, trying to make sense of the modern clothing everyone sans Aizkora is wearing at the moment. She apparently doesn't have any real conception of textiles, which is understandable. Everything the trio is wearing is made from the skins of animals. It isn't primitive by any means, though. The clothing is layered and tied off to keep the wearer warm and dry.

These aren't stupid people by any means. They just don't have a modern technology base.

"If you're pilgrims then you've brought an offering, yes?" the male sapiens.

Of...

Uh.

Of course! They did. Totally brought an offering.

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust considers this.
"We've brought several things that could be offerings." he tells them.
"But we couldn't find out what would be most appropriate." Rust would be happy to donate one of their modern jackets to these people in exchange for their help. The mammoth skulls were decorated with gems too, so he would also be fine with leaving something shiny and valuable like one of his gold coins.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Aizkora is too fuzzy to talk, just sitting there casually.

William also speaks up. "I got a bottle of beer in me pocket, would that do?" William reaches in, and pulls out... Well, it's a bottle of beer, but somebody's already had a swig or two. Now the question is, have these individuals discovered fermentation yet?

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

Being too fuzzy to talk is a real problem.

Or maybe a real solution.

Don't feel like chatting with people?

Be a smilodon!

Problem solved.

So! Rust says some words and then doesn't actually DO anything. Will, however, gets some attention when he pulls out the bottle of beer. The male sapiens will try to take and examine it. Should he grab the thing he'll give it a few shakes and look puzzled. "How did they chip this stone so smooth?"

"Beer is a fine drink offering to the spirits," the neanderthal replies. He's curious about the 'bottle' as well. The only bottles he knows of are the ones made of skins or gourde husks. How would someone make a bottle out of stone? "Come. Follow us back to the camp."

[Keeper]

The Boneyard

Rust was fishing for a hint from the locals to be honest.
But this turn of events seems good so with a nod he'll follow the locals.

[Earl of Purple]

The Boneyard

Also works at getting through crowds! Except in Inside. For some reason, extinct alpha predators don't attract a lot of attention in Inside. Aizkora's just going to pad after Rust. She doesn't really want the locals to know she's not just a gigantic predator- it might come in handy if they need to fight or learn something, though the neanderthals in the group are interesting her quite a bit.

"It's called 'glass'. They get some sand, heat it so it melts, then blow bubbles into it with a tube and cool the sand down so it sets again." Which is all William knows on the subject of glass production, and he's either changed history or potentially killed these guys due to the difficulty of producing glass when so little is known of how it's made. He doesn't fight the human from taking the bottle and shaking it, though the cork in the top ensures none is spilt. There's a label on it too; a paper label with a picture of a platypus smoking a pipe and giving a thumbs-up on it and the words 'Sir Edmund Barton Brewery Premium Lager'.

Both Aizkora and William are keeping note of the local smells as they go around, a trick to help them navigate if they need to get back here without a guide.

[Rebonack]

[The Boneyard]

Nothing like BEING A HUGE CAT to get people to get out of your way.

Or possibly pet you.

Depending on how crazy they are.

And Rust just needs to be a little more proactive! These folks are clearly assuming our heroes know what they're doing, given that they're dressed with clothing that is fantastical and appear to have the appearance of both beasts and men. Except Beagle. At the moment. That might change in the future, though. He's totally following along and supplying enthusiastic narration.

"Melting sand? Like you melt copper?" the sapiens asks, a tone of wonder in his voice. "How hot of a fire could accomplish such a thing?"

He can't imagine a camp fire every possibly getting hot enough to melt sand.

Either way, he offers the bottle back to William.

Our heroes head up the hill, getting some awestruck looks from the locals. Locals that consists of mostly sapiens, but quite a few neanderthals and denesovians as well. The latter two look pretty similar, though the neanderthals can be picked out by their hair that often tends towards red tones. It's quite the little village up here, honestly. Huts made from mammoth bones and hide, mostly. There are a few copper tools to be seen, but most everything is stone. Copper is notoriously soft and doesn't cut as well as a good obsidian or flint blade.

"We are holding a feast in honor of the gods of above and below," the neanderthal who met them says. "And we're honored that the gods sent you to join us."