"The blood trail does lead in that direction."
Jennifer moves to the rear door, and if it needs to be opened, she does so.
Median sees a smear of blood on the door to the Security room and motions everyone to stop. Then she opens the door and leads with her rifle, ready to shoot unless she gets an immediate surrender.
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"Hey, the blood trail leads this way! Where you going?!"
"No. Meridan has the right idea." Joseph has his suppressed revolver out and ready.
Zaoth mutters a curse that could probably shatter minds if anyone else heard it before following Median and Joseph. These mortals were competent. Unfortunately.
The thief is furiously typing on the security room console. They look over briefly when Median enters, but does not stop typing.
"Step away from the console, or the last thing you think of is how you should have listened to me!" Joseph barks, revolver drawn.
Unless the thief stops in that split second after Joseph shouts and Median pulls the trigger, she continues her planned action and shoots.
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"What's going on?" Jennifer asks from outside the room. "I can't see anything around this horse ass!"
Centaur ass Median corrects.
"Noted."
It is unclear if the order to surrender worked or not as Median's round punched them back, leaving them slumped over and bleeding out. The chest wound bubbled in a worrying way each time they wheezed a breath, but interestingly the blood faded into there gear. They definitely stopped typing, however.
Median formshifts back to human and moves aside to let Jennifer through, a little disappointed that more running wasn't involved. Short-lived joy was still joy though, and she smiled, still high on the raw sense of pursue-and-capture.
Much shorter now, she finds it easier to scan the screen to see what the dying thief had been working on.
As Median examines the screen, Joseph keeps his weapon aimed at the thief, in case he tries anything.
The screen holds a complicated mass of computer code, although it's difficult to say what exactly it might do without a closer examination. Something does seem off with the code, even to those unfamiliar with the intricacies of computers and the dark technomancy required to make them behave - this one has what appears to be alchemical symbols and runic notations buried within it.
Several windows are open behind the mass of code, and a window on the taskbar blinks accordingly.
"Is he a thief, or is here to sabotage something?" Jennifer mutters as she starts "helping" at the computer, hopefully not in the exasperating kind of way that the other person doesn't just keep sighing and wishing she'd go away.
Jennifer doesn't recognize the spell, although she spots enough to think it has something to do with doors, entry and locks.
On the other hand, clicking the other windows on the taskbar is easy enough, revealing the security system floor plans along with an additional feature - some kind of hidden room in the basement. Needless to so that wasn't a standard feature in most museums.
A final window shows seven dots around the museum grounds, formed into a rough star. Three of them are blinking in an alarming red fashion with a camera icon next to them.
With Jennifer's help, Median attempts to hack into the program.
With Median's aid, the spell is deciphered as a giant version of the knock spell, designed to open every door and passage in the museum - including the hidden vault below. It may also leave it somewhat more susceptible to the supernatural, but given the current circumstances that is probably not the worst issue. Probably.
Median looks at Jennifer
So, the secret basement room then?
Before she triggers the knock spell though, she checks the camera icons... what is going on out there? She doesn't want to let something worse in here... though, in an existential crisis like this, she isn't sure what could really threaten them more than non-existence.
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"Obviously."
The body contains a small tablet, standard and electronic lockpicks, and a stun gun with a strange marking on it. The oddest thing is the armour, which is lined with purple material that seems to suck in light, and a sash around there waist which was, in fact, a double side cloack, with one side gold and silver and the other matt black.
The being beneath the mask has blue skin and pure white eyes, marking them clearly as non-human.
Joe picks up the stun gun and tries to decipher the strange markings.
Median casts detect magic and tries to identify the items
_____
Median nods at Jennifer, looks around and sees Joseph close as well and says to both of them
I am going to trigger this and then teleport down there. Grab onto my arm if you want to come with.
She then triggers the giant knock spell, casting dimension door immediately afterward, calculating the teleportation location based on the map they found in the computer.
Joseph takes an arm.
Jennifer grabs Median's other arm, and then reaches out to grab and pull in anyone else nearby.
"This is very exciting!"
Zaoth grabs Jennifer’s arm. Relying again on a mortal wounded his pride, but if he didn’t he’d be a goner for sure.
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Joseph deciphers the runic inscription on the stun gun as Old Norse - hlýða hríð kvǫð, prayer of the Storm Dance. You suspect that the stun gun might be rather more...potent than it's insulated cover suggests.
Median believers the armour, beyond a light enchantments for better enchantment, is woven with Druchite, a material that absorbs light and make the wearer unusually hard to hit. Although not, as the bullet holes in the item attest, anything like impossible.
The party vanishes down into the basement without a problem, although the dimensional shift seemed distinctly...grating, like you were rubbing too close to the edges of reality with the spell. Maybe it was because the spell was a touch overloaded, or perhaps it was the fact that your reality was now compressed enough that someone with a good throwing arm could probably hurl a baseball from one end to the other.
The area that the group has teleported into is clearly far too old to be part of the Museum, as such, suggesting that the the newer building was put here at least in part to guard it. The door back into the museum is open, a cunningly hidden panel through which a cold chill oozes out. The room in here is cold enough to see your breath, if you happen to be warm blooded.
Several plinths hold the missing artifacts from the museum, although two are currently empty. However, despite the intricate puzzle being incomplete, the jade double doors to the North stand slightly ajar.
A stele sits on the South wall, opposite the north doors, tight, neat writing coating the area around the edges. The centre is dominated by the image of something...unpleasant.
Jennifer pokes her head out into the hall, checking to see if there are any guards or the metallic ooze in the hallway beyond.
Median tries not to look at the unpleasant thing, but nevertheless goes forward to try to read whatever is written on the stone slab, trying to figure out what is going on, and if there is a chance that it can save them.
Jennifer glimpses outside and sees the metallic ooze slowly forcing the door open. This is proving notably difficult as the cold of the room seems to the slowing it down, causing it to freeze, break, move forward and repeat.
The stele tells a story of when the settles first came to Fever. The settlers could not find anyone or anything in the area, and built there home, taking trees and animals from the forests and woods, mining and trading as they needed.
On the third winter a terrible winter struck, snow falling weeks too early and killing crops and livestock. Three women - beautiful, clad only in light dresses and laughter, appeared in the town centre. They offered a trade - any who set aside iron and the Christian God would be spared.
Needless to say, the town refused, and the women left on multicoloured wings. Then, the children began to go missing...
At that point a noise could be heard behind the doors to the north.
Other than glancing up and putting a new clip in her gun, Median ignored the sound and continued to read, needing to understand. The iron and the fact that they were untouched by cold pointed to the fey, but did this story have any relation to what was going on now, or was it just historical trivia?
The fact that it was down here in a secret room suggested some kind of significance, but what? How could invisible entities, some living metallic substance trying to kill them, and a clearly non-human thief ... how did all of this relate to *fairies*? Was the dead thief an alien or just another magical but hidden race--and did any of this matter in the middle of a collapsing dimensional bubble? Seriously. She needed to know.
As the children vanished, the town panicked, for the children are the future. They are the cusp of change, untapped potential, and so the fair folk value them in many ways.
The sisters returned. You can live with the cold, they said, you can manage with so little food. But we can protect your children. Your iron has not saved you. Your God has watched and done nothing. But we can help. Set those aside, and we can help you.
And the township trembled, as there need to help there children was heard in the wailing of parent's loss.
But the wise among the village knew as the fair folk, and noticed they never said they would help. The feared that they were the sources of the problems, the winter and the children both, but that giving them what they wished would give them control.
So they took a woman, a slave freshly converted and strong of faith, and used her to forge a relic, a cup akin to the Grail of tales old. They used the power to capture the sisters when next they came, to bind them in chains of magic and iron and blood beneath the town.
As they were drawn down by the grail's truths and screams they cursed the town, and revealed there truth - they were but the harbingers.
---
The doors to the North started to move.
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Jennifer dons her clawed guantlets and moves to the moving doors.
Three women were opening the doors, two pushing each door while a third guarded them. They were similar enough to clearly be related, if they were human, and each had a pair tattered rainbow wings on there back. There was a few seconds before the heavy stone doors would be open for one to slip through, longer if they intended to move through together.
Or ranged attacks could be launched through the gap. How they would respond...
Harbingers of freaking WHAT? thought Median, having enjoyed the story, but hating the cryptic ending that explained exactly nothing about what they were supposed to do now. Historians never thought enough about warning the people in the future... just telling stories from the past. Ugh.
She glances at the "unpleasant" picture for a moment to see if it would add any additional insight, but if not, she just focuses on the women coming in from the north.
These were clearly the women from the story... probably evil, but also a little wiggle room on that from the story. Also clearly immortal... possibly the cup could trap them in some way, but it didn't explain how, especially since the person in the cup that they had talked to earlier seemed to imply that there could just be one person at a time in there... one person replaced the next person.
And there was still that persistent imminent-collapse-of-the-dimension thing... what good would it do to fight? There were no children here to save, or sacrifice. Iron? She had no idea what her gun was made of, but likely some conglomeration of metal and plastic, nothing that would likely threaten them. Her handcuffs were steel, which was an iron alloy. She wondered if that would matter... if any of it mattered, really. Shoot or not shoot?
As a delaying tactic, she said
Wait right there. Explain who you are and why you are here. We're having a really bad day, and it seems like everything is trying to kill us, so you'll have to excuse the rudeness.
She raised her gun.
She reached out with her mind to see if she could get an idea of what their intentions were, and glanced at the others to see if there was a consensus about what to do.
Joseph stands next to Median, his magic revolver also drawn.
Standing right in front of the doors, Jennifer looks at the center figure and offers a bright "Hello!"
Wait right there. Explain who you are and why you are here. We're having a really bad day, and it seems like everything is trying to kill us, so you'll have to excuse the rudeness.
"What she said!"
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Zaoth bides his time, standing stiller than any mortal should be able to.
His eyes snap to the women, and he says, ”This has been an odd sort of day, what with the dimensional horror trying to eat this shred of our reality.”
This Broken God was dragged down by the beings he had was linked to with chains forged by there souls, bound into slumber by the broken soul in the failed grail and the wisemen's lives for fuel. He lay below, bound and broken, in the magma below his herald's feet. So long as they are bound he cannot awaken. So long as he sleeps he cannot die. So long as he lives he cannot forgive.
Know now the last part of the Broken Gods name.
The rune below the writing is clearly fragmented, only partially complete. Nevertheless it transfer a fragment of what the broken, mangled thing it represents was, there nature and there maiming.
It is far more than a mortal mind was meant to bare.
The siblings regarded Joseph's pistol with clear trepidation, and the middle sister touched a scroll on her waist. A wall of force sprang up between the doors and the creatures as they finished opening it. "Lay down your arms," one croaked, and a second demanded, "And your iron," while the final said, "And your gods, and be spared." The three sisters gazed into the party's eyes, a feeling of safety and warmth flowing into them...
"I just wrestled an actual demon with my bare hands, lady. Go fu<k yourself!"
Median finishes reading, pulling her eyes away from that last rune, and looks down at herself, emaciated and pale, a reflection of the ravaging that her mind has taken.
Luckily her body's ability to heal itself kicks in right away, and she starts to recover.
... All that and still nothing. What was the purpose of writing all of this anyway... especially that last rune? Must have been some sort of sadist historian, wanting to make sure that his history of mindless pain was carried forward to the next generation?
There might have been something in that last part though... if they remain bound he can't awaken, which actually sounded good. But if he sleeps he can't die... was there a chance to kill him? Deities weren't usually mortal and subject to petty things like bullets, but having him dead would be good... although she still had no idea why you would want forgiveness from someone that stole and broke people. Sounded to her like it was a good idea to bind him away...
But actually none of this really mattered. It still didn't help them with the dimension problem. Were these women offering them escape from the collapsing dimension in return for ... giving up free will and what made them human? Quite a cost, and not one she was willing to pay... and if so, she thought it likely that they had something to do with the rift in the first place.
She saw that they were affecting the others in some way, so she tried to avoid looking directly at them, and instead, after thinking all of it through and determining that there was no point in listening or accepting, and that they were definitely bad, she opened fire.
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Standing right in front of the doors, and therefore very near the three newcomers, Jennifer gasps and smiles in pleasure at the feelings that overpower her for the moments before the sound of Joseph's gunfire brings her back to lucidity.
She makes note of the wall of force between her and the women, so she sees if she still has the ability to channel the energy of her possessor into arcane effects.
She finds that she does! She slips into a bloodrage to help counter the effects of the fey women in front of her, and raises one foot and stomps it down. Her stomp echoes with power, and a shockwave travels along the floor (hopefully under the wall of force) towards the woman in the middle.
Zaoth was also affected by the trio's gaze, shuddering under there eyes as well.
The wall of force absorbed the shots fired against it, although Median's shot did leave a noticeable chip in the otherwise shimmering barrier.
Still, the wall collapsed for some reason. Nowhere near enough damage had been done.
The middle woman smiled. "Here, in a place without time, without gods, without faith can our Lord be called. Let us show you what that world will be like."
The room changed. It was Fever, but dead. A cold so terrible that even the frozen trees steamed in the bitter air dotted the main street, the ruins of the town dead. Even the stone seemed somehow less, as though even it's potential to be something had been drained from it.
A rolling wave of ice brought the bite of the cold to your flesh.
(fail... cold damage takes her down to 3 hit points)
(pass)
Barely alive, Median struggled to remain standing and in control of herself. It didn't seem like she was going to live through this, but she shot again anyway, aiming at one of the fey she spotted through the illusion. She figured it was the same difference, getting killed now or being obliterated when this pocket dimension collapsed. Fighting evil wasn't a bad way to go, if you had to go anyway.
Despite the onslaught, Joseph's keen eye sees the injured..um..centaur lady barely holding on.
"Come on, Median. Stay with us, girl. We live through this I'll take you out for a nice steak dinner. You can tell me all about your latest book. Maybe some dancing. It'll be fun."
The godling aims at one of the two fey on the left.
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Jennifer recoils as the sudden frost surrounds her. Looking through the illusory town, Jennifer spies two of the people responsible for what's going on, and decides to violently convince them to stop. With a healthy, angry yell, she runs at them, but stops short when her yell turns into a gout of soulfire aimed at the two fey.
Zaoth yells in pain as the cold surrounds him. Moving a body quickly is clearly not something he's used to.
Despite the confusion caused by the fey's glances, he reaches out at the middle woman with tendrils of telekinetic force, trying to entangle her and keep her from casting any spells.
Jennifer's abilities caused the wave of cold to spend itself around her - revealing it's source to be magical rather than a part of whatever else was going on.
Median and Joseph's attacks failed to find there mark, Jennifer's soul fire seared into the two creatures. They moved out the way with impressive speed, but the fire part of the damage was somewhat lessened. The Good aligned damage caused them to shriek.
Zaoth reached out and grabbed the Middle Sister, who stared at him n response. "Please release me." The magic in her voice made it hard to resist.
The other sister danced forwards, a crystalline rapier lashing out at Jennifer.
The Bloodrager felt magic pulse through the thin scratch the blade left, threatening to cause far more harm.