Luna wasn't sure what to say and just shook her head, making her way out to investigate the cause of the latest noise and hopefully someone that hadn't 'changed' yet.
Sterling watches Luna leave with a shrug. Remnants of joke float to his conscious. Queen of Di Nile
Waving at Jacob, Lumpy says How about a song? Are you taking requests?
"Ok, thanks. Let me know when it's Done. I assume you get grub at the Inn right? I mean there's no mess here or anything?"
I vill, if ju like. I vas opera trained, as a child...or I can play percussion und back him up...
Kong devours another mouthful, and washes it down with ale.
Rupert laughs. "Nah boss, the wife'll have supper at home. I think a few of the crew might eat at the inn, but I don't know who."
Lumpy laughs with delight. Yes Kong. I'd love to hear something The alchemist gets comfortable in a chair and leans back
Neri heads out of the volcano, a slight spring in his step, despite his exhaustion. He seems to be moving faster down than he'd moved up, but that could only be expected. He was wearing a suit of strange red hide, which he was presently tugging at with one hand, while the nine-ring sword dangled from his hip. His hair was still blue which utterly clashed with the red armor and blade, but it wasn't of much consequence.
"Id. This armor is really heavy, and really uncomfortable. You have terrible taste. Your sword, likewise, is far too heavy. I have no idea how you lived this way. We're going to have to make ourselves something a bit more... fluid... at Harry's place."
A pouch dangled on the side opposite his sword, its contents clacking as the rings on the sword clinked. He waved at Luna on his way out, he had a smile on his face. "He doesn't have a bed in the volcano, from what I can tell. Lots of heat, though! I'm hungry, I want to sleep, and I need to work out making some real equipment, not this bearhide and greatsword stuff. Also, it'd be lovely to be able to figure out how these straps even work, so getting out won't be much fun. Was nice to have the automatic parachute pop out when everything got rough though."
Kong finishes a last bite, and gathers up a few items...looking for wooden bowls and flatware, primarily, but he tests the sound of some bottles, crocks, and whatever he can find...taking his time, he arranges them on stage...thinking about it, he goes into the kitchen, and comes out with a couple of pots, and a wire brush...
Not my fault you've got noodles for arms... Like a brand. You'll like it when it keeps your balls from roasting...
I must improvise. I apologize...it takes time.
Kong continues to set up his percussion set...
Luna frowns when she sees Neri has 'changed' as well and seem more focused on making a home here than finding their old one, she nods as he passes.
"Right. Then the Inn it is. I'll see you tomorrow then. I could use a bit of shuteye. Been a long day. " and he will head for the newly restored in.
Once he gets inside he will order some beer and likely a simple sandwich or something basic. As weird as this place is I don't really want to take chances on the food.
He is not overly interested in chumming it up with his fellow castaways, and he will pretty much keep to himself while he eats.
Neri doesn't pass, though. "Why the frown?"
Yes, Id. It will come in handy when I'm making its replacement. Maybe even later down the line, if I can figure out how to move in it.
She straightens her stance."Nothing, The others are at the inn. I'm sure they will welcome you.
...after a while, Kong starts up a rhythm...stark and powerful...and slowly brings up some rather stark vocals...more of a chant than a song...
...his version of Nitzer Ebb's Join in the Chant.
...then he moves into Control, I'm Here
Neri frowns. "Alright, then. Can't help if you don't want help. Or at least, I shouldn't really try if I can. On the bright side, I did just set fire to a volcano. On the downside, I'm going to eat in my room and then crash for a day or so. Harry and Jacob seem to be making the best of this without being completely insane, from what I can see, I figure if anyone can get us home, it's the former-guide. If you need anything, you'll know where to find me." he looks pensive for a moment, then steps into the doorway, where everyone else can hear, if they pay attention as compared to the music.
"Doesn't matter, really, I guess. Once I come down from the adrenaline high, eat, and sleep, we should start planning on what we need 'in the now', like getting a ringmaster in place. We'll get a lot more done if we have some sort of plan in mind."
He points to the bartender, "Room. Something solid for my stomach, and for god's sake, something cold to wash it down with. I have seven dollars, and I'm quite willing to spend it all in one place. He looked back to Luna, "Speaking of, still have my jacket?"
Better. Sorry, it takes a little time to get accustomed to...makeshift...improvised instruments. The first time. If jou prefer, I can do an opera solo...but I prefer...more primal music.
Kong looks at his audience and idly taps on an upturned bowl.
Jacob places a hand over Luna's. "I'll do everything I can to get us home, Luna. But even though I don't understand everything about these changes, I know I am more likely to survive with them than without. And you can't get home if you don't live to see the chance. It looked like each of us was connected to a building. I think it would be a good idea if you found yours."
Jacob nods to Kong's suggestion to perform, and he turns to Sterling. "Lumpy, right? You looked pretty well-off yesterday, suit and all. One doesn't get that way by being dumb. But even though you're smart - and probably right about a lot of things with this transition - you don't need to be a bully about it. This is hard on some of us, more so than you it seems. Luna might need some time. We need to give her as much as we can afford."
Sterling was a type well-known to Jake; it was him before Drake came along. Cold and cruel. I hated others as much as myself. That deleterious nature was something he could not allow Sterling to inflict the group's morale with; it could be the death of them in this alien realm.
Yet the man was bright, and his intellect was vocal about the fruits of its labors. Jacob decided to highlight his own talent by filling a cup with water from his bare hands. He took a drink, then continued his conversation. "I'm not sold there's no way back. Our captors would want something to hang over the head of someone like Luna who simply wants to go back. You seem to be adapting well though. I'm at a bit of a crossroads, myself. Water seems to respond to me, and it seems I am to be a friendly inn owner of some sort. I had owned a fudge shop on an island, so both parts of this new persona seem to fit. But I have a feeling in my bones you are right, there will be a test of some sort laid before us for our survival. Miss Woodsong mentioned something about a dragon, for example. Yet I fail to see how I would be of much use there."
Speaking to Lumpy helped organize the bard's thoughts, but it also served to warn the man: They had plenty to worry about without adding infighting to the mix.
"I didn't touch it, it's where you left it." Luna called out without turning to him, she had no real option left she had to 'change' or be left behind she knew Jacobs words were true she walked to the middle of the town and mentally marked off the buildings she knew the others had went in then going off of only what she had, the thought that first came to her when they found the town, she began to look for the building that stood out by not standing out anything bland was fair game and began to slowly explore each.
Sterling Bristles. No, It's Mr Lumpkin to you. And I bully noone. If that girl doesn't face the reality of the situation, A carnivorous deer may kill her. He points at Jacob If you coddle her and it kills her, It'll be on you
We will need to start exploring soon. I say we use our new talents to prepare for travel. And stike out when ready. It's the only way to find our way back.
"Right. Have all that ready, when I get back, and put it in my room, please." and with that, Neri went to collect his jacket, and then have a quiet meal in his room with much sleeping... assuming the place was willing to feed and slake him. It had been a -long- and exhausting day. Jacob's strange speech gave him some degree of indication as to what was wrong with Luna, but it didn't matter... he just wanted to take a break after exploding a mountain. Something about a dragon could wait.
It'd be nice to have a pet dragon.
As Luna looks around, she finds nothing but outlandish buildings. The closest to normal is the inn and the mansion, but both of those are taken. Then on the third scan, she realizes there's a stone framed wooden building to the southeast of the lake. It was a simple looking thing, stones on all four corners with wooden walls and roof. It looked so much like a turn of the century apartment building she just went right past it.
Approaching it she finds the doors are locked, but damaged, so that it's fairly easy to reach a hand through to turn the heavy old fashioned bolt and unlock it.
Stepping in, she finds an entry way into what would have been a fairly standard looking apartment building. The rooms on the first floor are all filled with simple furniture, all of it aged and breaking down. None of the doors are locked.
The second floor is the same thing, simple apartment room after apartment room. All full of unused furniture, all run down with age.
The third floor is different, the doors are in better shape, and they are locked. Well, at first Luna thought they were locked. But after trying to break one in, she realizes the doors are fake. Every single one... until the last one she tries. On the previous two floors, it was a door leading into a small closet with buckets and mops. This one is locked, but the hinges have broken off, so it's easy to pull the door out of the frame.
A short hallway leads to another door, also locked. This one is in very good repair.
Hmm... a locked door.. if something's locked.. there's usually a reason..
Jacob remained adament. "Everyone adapts at their own pace. If you want to accelerate her process, you need to be gentler. You could say that smoothing-over to e would!d prepare both of you for the road ahead if need be."
He finished his water. "If there are other townsfolk about, perhaps they know something about this world that could help us. I plan on asking around here." With that, Jake excused himself and went to the sink to help with the dishes and gather information about their temporary home from people nearby.
Yeah, well. The U.S. did not get to be a superpower by searching our feelings Lumpy stands up. I'll leave you to the local gossip, innkeep. I'm heading back and prepping.
Kong collects himself and heads to his inherited bone house, with the intention of spending some time...in preparation.
I sink maybe they are more of a country and western crowd. Gah.
Luna feels slightly more at home in an apartment but scolds herself for feeling that way, this isn't her home. She took her time inspecting each part of the home expecting some kind of horrible trap or attack to change her like the others.
When she got to the door she tried to pick the lock,years of studying security system has taught her the basics but without the proper tools it would be difficult.
The lock doesn't budge an inch. It's a rather old fashioned type lock, but very complex for it's primitiveness. As she takes a break from attempting to pick the lock with a couple of splinters and a nail she found, none of which are at all of any use, she leans against the wall.
As she does, her fingers move back and forth, stretching and relaxing, to work out the kinks from the arduous attempt to pick the lock without getting splinters. As she does, she feels a bit of wood yield under her fingers. Turning around, she's surprised to find a small piece of the wood loose.
At one time, the wood would not have moved at all without pressing on it just right, but age and neglect have warped the wood in the walls, and the small secret compartment no longer fits as snugly as it once did.
Inside the compartment she finds a few dead cockroaches, a dessicated spider, and an old leather pouch that's cracking with age.
Inside the leather pouch are very old fashioned, but also well made and balanced thieves tools.
When Kong finally stops playing, he notices that all the patrons, and the bartender and waitresses too, are eyeing him strangely. There's scattered clapping, although the clapping is hesitant, as if they were afraid of not clapping, but didn't have their heart in it.
The locals don't appear to have found Kong's music... appealing. They actually seem to have found it strange.
Not only did they find the music weird, they found the concept of Kong playing music.. wierd. As if a fish had flopped it's way in and played jazz.
Luna sighed."Guess this is the first step." Speaking to herself helped her think.
She tried the door again with the newly acquired tools.
The lock clicks and snicks, the door opening. An old trap goes *sproing* as it fails to engage. Which is likely good for Luna, as the blade that would have dropped would have surely cut off her hands.
Stepping into the next room, she finds why the doors in the hall were false. The entire half of the building is one large room. It's been somewhat protected from age. There are old, primitive, exercise equipment. The equivalent of pommel horses and parallel bars, a tight rope that is a foot off the floor and 30 ft long, heavy iron weighs in the shape of bulbous barbells, an old leather punching bag. There are also wooden training dummies, as well as what looks like targeting boards. Also locks. Dozens of them, in various types and configurations. Also what look like traps of various kinds, from spring loaded needles to dropping blades to explosives.
A small hallway at the end of the floor, hidden from the hallway by clever woodwork, leads to the other side of the building. Here are several bedrooms, a small utilitarian kitchen, a commons room, a small dining room, and a small library. Also is a small workshop for making what looks like locks and traps.
Within the library, in glass cases, are various thieves tool sets, made in various styles and sizes and from various metals.
Ah.. good place to practice... The thought sneaks into her own while she's examining the exercise and training area.
Harry will ignore his fellow member's caterwauling, and get a room so he can get some rest. OK, this was a lot to take in. I need some shuteye to sort this crap out. Maybe it'll make more sense come tomorrow.
and he will head up to his assigned room, make sure the door is secure, get off his heavy, uncomfortable armor I really gotta get something better to wear than this creaky set of weights and go to bed. He will keep the warhammer handy, since he does somehow feel that he actually knows how to use it.
Come the morn, he will have some breakfast in the Inn's main room, and then head back over to the forge to check on progress. He will seek out Rupert since that's the only one of the workers he actually knows by name.
"Hey Rupert how's it going? Find all that stuff you need to start on the bow? Need anything from me?
Luna took her time slowly exploring the area careful to watch for more traps as she did.
If nothing stopped her she made her way to the library and opened the glass container to examine the other tools.
Luna's about to open the glass display when she realizes there's a nasty needle trap. Looking closely, the needle has something black and sticky looking on the tip. Obviously a poison of some kind.
Luna wonders if it would be better to break the glass and set it off but decides against it, if she could she would try to get behind the trap if possible or anyway that if it went off during her work it wouldn't hit her.
The lock easily succumbs to Luna's skill, and she opens the case without any issues with the trap.
As she examines the tools in the case, a small shiver runs up and down her spine. The tools in the old case she found in the wall were superb. These are exquisite. The metal is a dull white metal, she's not sure what it is. But the tools are very finely crafted, and they seem stronger than the steel ones she has in her hands. There's also a well oiled leather pouch for the tools rolled up in the corner of the case.
As she looks them over, a longing to try them out on the locks and traps in the training area steals over her.
Luna looks at the tools confused, was this her 'change' they others seemed completely different and all she wanted to do was pick a lock just for the sake of picking a lock. She shrugged and moved over to the training area to do as he whim told her.
The lockpicks are a gem to work with, perfectly balanced, and after the first lock opens like flower blooming, she can't seem to stop herself. One lock after another, then the traps, one trap after another. Occassionally she messes up, and getting used to the armor is a bit much to deal with. But she buckles down and keeps going.
With some annoyance, she finally realizes she needs to get the armor broken in, and moves over to the exercise equipment, practicing her balance in the armor, doing flips on the parallel bars, hand stands, all the acrobatics work needed to break the armor in.
As long as she's there, the whip get's a work out, hitting the targets with the metal tips of the whip, the crack of the whip breaking the sound barrier filling the exercise room.
"Ms. Bar.. Bar.. Ms. Rook, you should take a rest, you look peaked." A cultured voice says, tapping her on the shoulder. The butler hands her a towel to wipe her hair with, and holds a chilled fruit juice on a platter for her. "I've drawn a bath, hot the way you like it, Ma'am." The butler is an older gentleman, in his 50's, with graying hair and painfully thin.
Wiping down and then draining the fruit juice, Luna suddenly reals. She realizes that the wonderful sounding hot bath will have to wait as she crashes to the ground in front of Plank, the butler.
Luna awoke in a panic, what had that freak done to her?, She quickly puts the leafweave armor on, straps her whip to her hip, and pockets the case of lock picks before leaving she wanted to be free of this house and that man.
As she goes to leave, the housekeeper, an older woman with gray hair stops Luna. "Oh, deary, you collapsed! Are you feeling better? I cleaned you up and got you to bed after Plank made sure you weren't dead or anything." She sounds worried. "You shouldn't work yourself so hard..." The woman places the back of her hand to Luna's forehead (unless stopped), checking for a fever.
hahahaha
Luna stops her by moving one foot back and placing her right hand in front of her and her left on the whip hilt not drawing it yet.
"Ne me touchez pas! I'm leaving."
Luna made her way to the exit as quickly as she could.
The second day in the valley dawns with clouds and a light drizzle. The rain obscures the mountain, and the shimmering wall of light, making the woods and valley look almost normal.
Luna finds that while she slept over night the building has repaired itself. The doors are all hanging correctly now, the stairs have no caved in steps. People are living in the apartments again, several of the inhabitants give her smiles as they leave their apartments and walk out the front door of the building, as if leaving for work. However, they vanish as they step out the door, as if their reality is only valid within the building.
Once Harry get's to the foundry through the rain, the heat of the furnaces rapidly dries out his clothes and hair. Rupert looks up at Harry's question about the bow, and nods. "Oh it's in the works, Boss. You know you can't rush stuff like this, it'll take a week or so to work it up. Quality takes time."
"Right, a week. So in the meantime, I smack things with a hammer. Great. Well since things take time, how about you use what you have in adamantine and mithril to work up some speciality arrows. Also, how about some in cold iron? "
Then he will help with some of the work (since somehow he seems to actually know how to do it now). Actually he did take Mythic Craft, so he should be able to speed the process along (and has the relevant craft skill).
Eventually he will head back over to the Inn for lunch and see what the others are up to. Hopefully the deathmetal loon won't croak up more noise so I can eat in peace. We should probably start figuring out if we have plans.
Rupert nods. "Sure, I'll get Tins and Breetle started on the cold iron. How many you want of the mithral and adamantine, or stocks are pretty low. Also, the Adamantine are probably going to need your expertise Boss, although I think I can swing the mithral."
------------------
The inn is quiet in the mornings, a few people drinking coffee and eating eggs, bacon and mushrooms. The inn does a 'buffet', in that the bartender sets the food out in big trays, and you pay your bits and get a bowl and a cup of coffee. Each trip is paid for separately.
Although he's said often enough that friends of the boss eat free.
Harry will put himself on working up the bow today, and take on admantine arrowheads tomorrow. How many arrowheads can be made from the current stocks?
Neri slips out of his room, wearing that annoyingly overthick red-armor, and spots Harry... and the food at the same time. He grabs food, heavy on bacon and eggs, looking around for some sort of bread if it was available; mushrooms just seemed a bad idea, along with a glass of water, and slid in across from Harry. "I haven't checked in with anyone since the volcano thing. What have I missed?"