The Nexus

It was inevitable, honestly, that the Nexus would extend its tendrils once again into all the weird places beyond the material world that exist out there. Sure they showed up now and again in one of those plot threads or every now and again Outside if someone was really desperate, but at this point they really need a nice, cozy meta-location to call their own.

Planeside is all of those places that aren't the material plane we all known and love. Here you'll find the various realms of the dead, the hells, the disco infernos, the realms of madness, the twilight of the faeries, the plane of lost things, the geometry purgatory, the city of doors, the paraelemental plane of ranch dressing, and many, many more. If you plan on having a summer vacation in the Highest Heavens or really need to punch a devil in the snoot to assert authority, then this is the place to do it.

The usual forum and FFRP rules apply. Don't be a jerk, don't godmod without permission, spoiler any gratuitous fan-service taking place on the Plane of Busty Demonesses, have fun!

Recaiden wrote:[Brefaisil]

Marcie slides closer, making no sound as she approaches, and nods.
"I found a Lord who can help." She waves at Gryffaf before explaining in a soft voice.
"It's about Seth, who originally accompanied me to your city. He's been murdered fairly thoroughly, apparently by Lord Braeg."
"I would like to understand why Braeg would take such a risk, and if it has any implications for the state of the world."

[Brefaisil]

The queen frowns. "Lord Braeg? Are you quite sure? He's supposed to be dead. Ten years ago, by my count. He disappeared around the time the cataclysm started; we always thought he was one of the first victims. He was... unpopular, to put it mildly." She sets her harp aside and looks at Marcie scrutinously. "If what you're saying is true, I can only guess as to his motives. Never mind how he could possibly use magic."

[Brefaisil]

Marcie nods. "This Braeg has been in the world I come from for quite some time, perhaps years, though I met him less than a day ago. But he was recognized by a couple people here, and I can't imagine who would pretend to be Braeg in these circumstances..."
She spreads her hands to show equal bafflement.
"He seemed to think that my work was as good as done, and he could go back to doing whatever he wished - chasing after his old enemies, pursuing romances, whatever. Though he was seemed most upset upon seeing the state of the cataclysm, by now he was acting quite casual."

[Brefaisil]

"...If we were not already in the world's death throes, I would have taken you to be mad. Lord Braeg has never had much concern for our world before. Quite the opposite; he has a long history of tormenting settlements and cities for the crime of simply being. One would think seeing us in ruins would..." Breonite's lips twist into a deeper frown. "...Perhaps I have the wrong measure of the man, but either he has decieved us for hundreds of years or he is decieving is now."

[Brefaisil]

"Disappointing to hear that. But I must say that it would be simpler to deceive us know. And that is more likely than his entire long history being an act."
Assuming that she can trust the queen, but everyone else seemed to have similar opinions of Braeg.
"What can be done about him now?"

[Brefaisil]

"Truthfully?" The queen sighs and massages her temple. "If what you've told me is true, there's nothing much I can do about him at all. He was a menace we weren't equipped to handle when we could all still do magic, and the power gap has only gotten wider since then. If he really wanted to, there would be nothing stopping him from simply walking in, declaring himself king, and incinerating anyone who objected."

Not a pleasant thought.

[Brefaisil]

Oh, this is going to get expensive, isn't it?
"I've heard as much, but - how has he come to be so powerful? Aren't there a number of Lords and Ladies who ought to be just the same?" Marcie looks pointedly around the room.

[Brefaisil]

The queen shakes her head. "It's not quite that simple. While Lords and Ladies are all above mortals with their power, parity with each other is no guarantee. Some Lords have held dominion for hundreds of years. Some, little more than ten. Still others come from an era we only refrain from referring to as myth by their memory. One can hardly expect a warrior who predates steel to be lesser to a knight of the present day, given all of that time to refine their art." Breonite sets her instrument on the stand next to her and sits upright in her chair. "Braeg has, and had, the distinction of being skilled in a rather versatile form of magic. One which he could empower further by gathering followers, lovers, and friends to his side, whereupon he would feed on them. By the time we knew of him, he was more than a match for even our finest. The best we could do was sabotage his reputation, keep him infamous so that he would not be able to fool more than a handful of people every few decades." Breonite sighs. "Fortunately, up until now, that has been enough."

[Brefaisil]

Probably not as expensive as the defiler thing or the rewrite thing were though. This isn't such bad news.
"However now he has had a new place to hunt in for all these years, I understand." Marcie says, forgetting to be quiet.
"Perhaps you should seize whatever might let you catch up to him. But if he only wants to take revenge on his old enemies...most of the world could be saved all the same." She doesn't like it, but stopping Braeg from murdering people isn't why she's here. The universe is much too big and wrong to worry about every little immortal super-powered villain.

[Brefaisil]

"Perhaps. Though I find it disheartening how often I find myself being forced to do nothing about our enemies, simply because there is nothing I can do." The queen's shoulders sag as she says this, the regal mask momentarily slipping. "If there does exist some means to catch up to him, I do not know of it. And I do not have the soldiers to spare to seize it."

[Brefaisil]

"Breag is the only one left in the world who knows this sort of magic, or anything like it?"
This place seems to get more and more doomed the more she learns about it.
"Then, as you have said, I see little to do now except stay out of his way. I expect in time he will return to the Nexus, perhaps he can be kept from coming back then."
"Lord Gryffaf, have you any insight on the whole situation?"

[Brefaisil]

"The only one for whom it works, at least." The queen confirms. "Nominally, we use the same magic. There is no reason why it should work for him, and not for me, and yet it does."

Gryffaf shakes his head. "I have no insight to offer, miss. What I hear is one impossibility after another. Braeg alive and empowered with a magic that is gone from our world, killing a man through means that should not be possible, and leaving through a means by which he should not be able. While it is far from me to question your integrity, were I to hear this story in any other context, I would dismiss it as false."

The trains spit the little MERC group out somewhere in outside, on the edge of a very picturesque set of mountains. From here it's quite a walk - or ride, in Xun's case, as the velcro on the back of her wolf's jacket turns out to be for cat claws. Finally, the group reaches the edge of...reality? Or at least what passes for normality in nexus. The rocks they'd been looking at for the past several hours seem to float in the air, becoming less stones and more masses of amorphous raw substance, connected to each other by shimmering ribbons of all colors imaginable that slowly coalesce into solid substance and uncoalesce back into raw shape.

"So, I'll just get out my Tonal-Alignment-Device." Apparently, during the train ride and the walk, Jerick had been creating a set of devices meant to tune and capture errant energies out of spare parts and scraps of things. It looks like a small tuning fork with coils on each of the ends and a wire leading from the bottom of the fork to a small cylindrical capsule that will contain the energies for later use. Jerick then jumps off of the cliff. He slowly floats down, affected by some kind of gravity distortion.

[On The Edge]

"Huh. I've never seen anything like this before." Olvisin is wearing a backpack containing a variety of gear. It's surprisingly big. Given that cybernetic arms don't help with carrying a backpack, maybe goblins can just carry a lot. "Let's make sure the ground doesn't vanish from under us."

On The Edge

Xun calls down to Jerick. "Tonal-Alignment-Device, yes? Do you think you could tune a campsite area maybe, just for a test run? It is getting late. The cat climbs down one of the rainbow ribbons of unreality, somehow using her claws to hold on.

[On The Edge]

"I'm guessing falling would be a very bad idea," Olvisin says, staying away from the edge and on (mostly) solid rock.

On The Edge

Jerick's voice rings from down below. "Don't worry, I'm fine! It's really cool down here! You should take a look for yourselves!"

[Brefaisil]

Ironsmith wrote: ↑Sep 24, 2022 5:30 pm"The only one for whom it works, at least." The queen confirms. "Nominally, we use the same magic. There is no reason why it should work for him, and not for me, and yet it does."

Gryffaf shakes his head. "I have no insight to offer, miss. What I hear is one impossibility after another. Braeg alive and empowered with a magic that is gone from our world, killing a man through means that should not be possible, and leaving through a means by which he should not be able. While it is far from me to question your integrity, were I to hear this story in any other context, I would dismiss it as false."

"..."
"That is terrible news. And I understand your skepticism. It would look better if I was being deceived in the end."
Marcie also slowly shakes her head.
"With your leave, oh queen? I have told all that I saw, and wish to return to the topic of Absum."
Meaning, she really has no need to stay in this room, whispering and occupying the queen's time, right?

[Brefaisil]

"...As you will, then." The queen makes a dismissive gesture before returning her attention to her bedridden husband, who mumbles something incoherent as Gryffaf leads Marcie from the room.

"I take it the plan is to commune with him now?" The bull-headed knight asks, once the door is shut behind them.

[On the edge]

Xun is still climbing down one of the rainbow ribbons. How that works with cat claws is anyone's guess. It is, but can we get somewhere set up to sleep please? It's getting late.

[On the edge]

Olvisin follows Jerick in jumping down, looking considerably less confident. Goblins don't feel comfortable without solid ground under their feet.

"Yeah, a campsite would do fine. Just somewhere big and solid enough to put up tents."

[On the Edge]

When both Olvisin and Xun make it down to the ever-morphing ground, Jerick pulls out the other two Tonal-Alignment-Devices, one for Olvisin and the other especially made to suit Xun's cat form. "Okay, making this campsite is going to take all three of us, so I'm going to demonstrate how it works. So first, you deactivate the safety switch to activate the energy chamber." As he says this, he gestures towards the small cylindrical capsule that he has attached to his belt using a bit of rope. "This will allow the outside energy to flow into the energy chamber for storage and later use. Then, you have to adjust the Frequency-Changing-Nozzle to account for the rapid changing of the materials. To do this, you must spin the two knobs on either side of the nozzle, the one on the left accounting for the starting material and the one on the right determining the result. When you've finished doing that you may pull the trigger right behind the nozzle to begin changing and capturing the latent energies around us." When Jerick is done saying all this, he shows the device in use, making a small campfire out of one of the ribbons of energy, adjusting the right knob to make the wood then ignites it using a small amount of electrical energy again produced by the device.

[On the edge]

Jerick finds himself the subject of the most withering look a feline can muster. Let me guess, you forgot that not everyone here has opposable thumbs.

[On The Edge]

"Oh sorry. I customized yours into a harness so that you are able to carry it without having your movement severely impaired and implanted a gem that will allow you to control the components with your mind. Other than that, it should work exactly the same." Jerick gives both the original model and the harness version to Olvisin.

[On the edge]

Olvisin fiddles with the device, a look of utmost concentration of her face. She then points it away from herself, pulling the trigger and manifesting a small, sturdy tent. It looks decidedly goblin-sized but then everyone here is goblin-sized or smaller, except for Luna.

[Brefaisil]

Ironsmith wrote: ↑Oct 07, 2022 4:02 pm"...As you will, then." The queen makes a dismissive gesture before returning her attention to her bedridden husband, who mumbles something incoherent as Gryffaf leads Marcie from the room.

"I take it the plan is to commune with him now?" The bull-headed knight asks, once the door is shut behind them.

Marcie follows the Lord out. Poor queen, poor king.
"Yes. Information is still our most-needed thing."
And if Absum actually takes issue with what she's up to, that could cause a lot of problems, so if they can avoid that...all the better.

[Brefaisil -> Shrine to the Lovers]

"Right." Gryffaf straightens and hefts his pick over his shoulder. "In that case, it's a long way to the shrine. If you are prepared to leave, we can go immediately, but expect that we will be on the road for a few days."

Approximately one sentence, in post time.

Unlike the surrounding area, the shrine itself is actually surprisingly well-illuminated. The whole building is an open-air structure, consisting of a large dome with a circular hole at its zenith, held up by a series of columns around its edge. The ceiling is decorated with a mural of two elderly figures in flowing robes swirling around each other, holding the aperture between them. On the floor, there's a circular reflecting pool, ankle-deep, reflecting the starlight in its waters. The whole room is bathed in a gentle golden glow, emanating from a series of gold spheres on stands around the edges of the pool; there are a corresponding set of tarnished, silver spheres alongside them, forming an alternating pattern.

"Here we are." Gryffaf puffs, sitting down next to the reflecting pool. "I should warn you, I am not certain how long I will be able to commune with Absum, even here. Before we begin, I would know what questions you would ask of him, as I do not think we will be allowed time to improvise."

On the Edge

Xun examines the device carefully, inspecting each wire and dial for a long time before shrugging into the harness, then spending some more time spinning and adjusting everything until her curiosity is satisfied. Finally, she squeezes the nozzle carefully with a paw. The others have managed a fire and campsite, so she carefully shapes the energy into a stream with fish wriggling in it, and then a wide, flat rock next to it - big enough for all three to sit on and eat. Anyone brought fishing gear?

[On The Edge]

"I don't have a fishing rod, but I do have this crossbow." Jerick retrieves the crossbow from its holster on his back. "It has a net attachment and a roped harpoon attachment. I made those to assist me in restricting the movement of not-so-nice-people, but they can also be used for fishing just as well." While Jerick answered Xun's question, he wondered how the cat managed to use the device to create sentient life in the form of fish when it was not potent enough to even create slightly complex objects like a bedroll. Normally, the user would have to create the components individually. That will have to be a question for later.