"And while she's doing that....Tryko'Sam, since you look like you don't recognize me....I'm Professor Aananda Sunwake. You should call me Aananda. I'm your academic advisor. You're working with me to program the SIM rooms for PE classes since I need to cut back on my working hours on account of the morning sickness really taking it out of me....we went over this ....yesterday? The day before? I thought it was yesterday....but things have started to blur a bit. I haven't exactly been sleeping much what with all the security issues lately. And apparently we now also have a hostile demon running around the school. Cause we needed more problems....anyways....are you sure you don't recognize this woman? Have you had another head injury since I last spoke to you?"
Nodding a few times at Aananda, Tryko'Sam says, "Just thinking too much, I do recognize you. Scan room, plus the SIM assignment. As for the lady, I want to say yes, but, that's only third person-- you were there at the last stand, right? Boosting me, with someone else?"
Maya nods at Tryko'Sam and says, "That's right. With Menton's augmentations, we three did the final act, opening that black hole on the central hub of the machine spiders. Theoretically, long enough to destroy the build up consuming our world before they spread further. You're looking well, tattered clothing as usual." She smiled bemusedly at his outfit.
With a chuckle he replies, "Oh, did a bit of an uncontrolled fall into some jungles after a spacing to KO myself. Guess it paid off. Not feeling angry now. Odd shit going on here, which I figure you'll figure soon enough. Sorry if I'm not remembering you well-- something crawled out of my head a day or something ago." He doesn't seem thrilled by that comment.
Maya then says, glancing at Aananda briefly, "We might be able to assist there. But, let's sort this current demon thing out?"
Tryko'Sam nods and then says, "I need a new outfit though."
Seems as if these two were ready to 'get to it'.
"I....okay....it's not so scary with the light....just a music room," she said, voice shaking. She stood up, gripping her elbow tightly with one hand to try and minimize the appearance of how much she was trembling. "I...no! No, of course it wasn't intentional! I didn't know I could do that!" she exclaimed, wide-eyed. "If I'd known I could go through walls I would never have stayed locked in that tower all those years! I....is this going to start happening a lot? Umm...yeah....yeah, we should go back," she said with some hesitation, reluctantly taking his hand.
Royston nodes then translocates them both back into the Sim room apiring where they had fallined throw the floor.
"Miss Jones would be the best one to talk to about your new found power I feel"
"Indeed. Now, while I won't be able to get much in the way of clear information due to the effect dispelling, may I please examine you for traces of magic to see if I can glean any information? In addition it would be very helpful to this investigation if I could examine your memories of this Shaypeer. Do I have your permission?"
The feathered serpent 'slithers' through the air towards Miss Jones slowly and rests her dragon-ish head on the ground in front of the Enchantment Professor, so that Miss Jones need only extend a hand to touch Rena's snout. "Yes, you have my permission." Rena says quietly, with a glance to Tryko'Sam. She wanted to comment, especially since her tail was still grasping his hand, but decided to remain quiet for the moment and let Miss Jones work. The whole of Rena's bulk is curled along the ground now, instead of floating as it typically does.
Jaiye might think that Rena slightly resembles a Coatl, though there are some key differences that would indicate that she is not among their number.
Maya, however, may note (depending on her history and experience) that Rena is extremely close to a Mesoamerican deity - Quetzalcoatl - with the latter typically being represented by a feathered and winged serpent.
For the moment, Vare blinks, listening to the exchange between the newcomer and Tryko'Sam, his thoughts appear to be working in overdrive.... then it is as though something clicked in his brain. "Tryko'Sam... do you have any idea how long it was since this... 'Last Stand' of yours was? I do not know what a 'black hole' is, but... am I wrong in thinking that your entire world was destroyed?" Vare has a suspicion... and he sincerely hoped that he was wrong in that.
Belsayv
Yrrin's spell is enough to douse the non-magical fire, and the forest is once again quiet.
After a moment, the corpse of the N'gathau vanishes, leaving behind nothing but an imprint of where he had fallen.
For the moment, Vare blinks, listening to the exchange between the newcomer and Tryko'Sam, his thoughts appear to be working in overdrive.... then it is as though something clicked in his brain. "Tryko'Sam... do you have any idea how long it was since this... 'Last Stand' of yours was? I do not know what a 'black hole' is, but... am I wrong in thinking that your entire world was destroyed?" Vare has a suspicion... and he sincerely hoped that he was wrong in that.
Aananda looked at him oddly, but stayed quiet. Ephebe had told them that Tryko'Sam's world had been destroyed, but perhaps Vare had found an inconsistency in the story that the rest of them had missed.
"Indeed. Now, while I won't be able to get much in the way of clear information due to the effect dispelling, may I please examine you for traces of magic to see if I can glean any information? In addition it would be very helpful to this investigation if I could examine your memories of this Shaypeer. Do I have your permission?"The feathered serpent 'slithers' through the air towards Miss Jones slowly and rests her dragon-ish head on the ground in front of the Enchantment Professor, so that Miss Jones need only extend a hand to touch Rena's snout. "Yes, you have my permission." Rena says quietly, with a glance to Tryko'Sam. She wanted to comment, especially since her tail was still grasping his hand, but decided to remain quiet for the moment and let Miss Jones work. The whole of Rena's bulk is curled along the ground now, instead of floating as it typically does.
Miss Jones turned all her focus on Rena, closing her eyes to make the memories easier to distinguish as she first examined Rena's mind for any lingering traces of magic that might give some clues and then located the memory of Shaypeer in order to examine it.
Asha appears back in the SIM room along with Professor Royston. She looks around uncertainly. Everyone seems to be pretty much where she left them. She blushes, embarrassed now to have made such a fool of herself when she was startled. Not that she'd even known that she could do that....but still.
Sadie finally managed to catch up with the others, only slightly out of breath.
"So...I basically missed everything?"
With the defeat of the creature, Vai finally looks around, noticing where they were and stiffening up, her wings folding as she comes to a gentle rest on the ground. Her knuckles are white from gripping the hilt of her sword so hard, and she is trembling slightly. Her face is pale, and she is definitely keeping her gaze away from the sacrificial stone.
"I don't think it's over yet Sadie. What in Lathander's name was that thing?" Vai asks, her voice small. Either she is afraid, or doing a very good job of holding in her temper.
It was a N'gathu, a demon of pain and torture." Yrrin says softly,letting her understand its implications
This creature is a N'gathau, a race of twisted and evil Outsiders which hail from the Plane of Agony. Very little is known about the n'gathau, except that they twist flesh and creatures to create new n'gathau, experimenting with creating better creatures. Kidnapping a whole village for their twisted experiments would fit well within their M.O.
It is possible that, based on Vai's account, the n'gathau were drawn to this planet and area by the intense pain and suffering inflicted by the rituals this town practiced, and by Aegythrax himself.
The fury seems to erupt out of Vai all at once after the information that Yrrin had shared. She swings her blade a little wildly, slashing at the air in impotent fury. "Even after he's dead, he's still bringing pain and suffering down on people?!" she shouts, and to those who know her story she's clearly speaking of Aegythrax himself. "DAMN HIM!" she shouts again, her eyes finally landing on the rock and she sees something to vent her anger on, dropping her blade in the grass and jumping into the air, becoming a dragon mid-jump. The blue dragon flips over and brings her bulky tail down on the sacrificial stone with all the force of her rage and of a juvenile blue dragon, cracking the stone down the middle but not shattering it. She smashes the stone a few more times with her clawed hands, not nearly as effective as her previous maneuver but obviously cathartic. After about 30 seconds of taking her rage out on the stone that she was bound so helplessly to, Vai finally slumps, returning to her half-elf self and falling to her knees on the ground. "When does it end?" she asks nobody in particular.
For the moment, Vare blinks, listening to the exchange between the newcomer and Tryko'Sam, his thoughts appear to be working in overdrive.... then it is as though something clicked in his brain. "Tryko'Sam... do you have any idea how long it was since this... 'Last Stand' of yours was? I do not know what a 'black hole' is, but... am I wrong in thinking that your entire world was destroyed?" Vare has a suspicion... and he sincerely hoped that he was wrong in that.
Giving Vare a shrug and motioning at his wrist, he says, "Lost my watch a while back, but... No idea, sorry." His mirthful manner halted seeing Vare appear to be curious on something.
"The intention was to open a permanent gateway to the center of our galaxy, around which everything rotates for our celestial cluster. A black hole is a collapsed star, vastly dense matter falling into itself, gravity physics thing. Seeing as I had the ability to do so, and potentially keep doing so, with the help of the lady here and another, we rigged up a mental loop to keep things opened while gravity did its thing-- plus, the extra push to reach that far. Good enough trap, or so we figured. I certainly hope so-- didn't think it was the right choice, but I'm always saying 'never quit'. Maybe I just proved the Big Bang Theory valid, heh. So, yeah, no idea how long ago. Sorry. Dimensional thing, maybe? Could have easily ripped the fabric of space, not to brag, but we really were messing with cosmic level powers."
Tryko'Sam shares all that, casually, while seeming to think back on it. "Mind you, this is third person memories. Doesn't feel or remembered as my own. Living takes its toil... I have a ton of memories of space, and darkness while in space." He grins at that. "I could probably paint some nice pictures if I were an artist."
Miss Jones turned all her focus on Rena, closing her eyes to make the memories easier to distinguish as she first examined Rena's mind for any lingering traces of magic that might give some clues and then located the memory of Shaypeer in order to examine it.
As before, clean slate I terms of 'magic' lingering from any enchantments or spells. As for the memories of Shaypeer, those are easily spotted. He and his 'magical' book are easily seen in Rena's memories.
Asha appears back in the SIM room along with Professor Royston. She looks around uncertainly. Everyone seems to be pretty much where she left them. She blushes, embarrassed now to have made such a fool of herself when she was startled. Not that she'd even known that she could do that....but still.
"Hey there. Welcome back. Gave us a bit of a startle." He grins at Asha, but keeps his attention on the going ons in the room.
The fury seems to erupt out of Vai all at once after the information that Yrrin had shared. She swings her blade a little wildly, slashing at the air in impotent fury. "Even after he's dead, he's still bringing pain and suffering down on people?!" she shouts, and to those who know her story she's clearly speaking of Aegythrax himself. "DAMN HIM!" she shouts again, her eyes finally landing on the rock and she sees something to vent her anger on, dropping her blade in the grass and jumping into the air, becoming a dragon mid-jump. The blue dragon flips over and brings her bulky tail down on the sacrificial stone with all the force of her rage and of a juvenile blue dragon, cracking the stone down the middle but not shattering it. She smashes the stone a few more times with her clawed hands, not nearly as effective as her previous maneuver but obviously cathartic. After about 30 seconds of taking her rage out on the stone that she was bound so helplessly to, Vai finally slumps, returning to her half-elf self and falling to her knees on the ground. "When does it end?" she asks nobody in particular.
A few moments as the dust starts to settle, Anahita appears near Phaezeriel. She doesn't appear any worse or better than before, though no starcaster in sight.
"I've returned." She indicates to Phaezeriel while looking about at the assembled and surroundings. She seems to get acquainted with her surroundings quickly.
Walking the steps closer to Vai, she asks the kneeling blonde, "Vai, are you well?"
"The intention was to open a permanent gateway to the center of our galaxy, around which everything rotates for our celestial cluster. A black hole is a collapsed star, vastly dense matter falling into itself, gravity physics thing. Seeing as I had the ability to do so, and potentially keep doing so, with the help of the lady here and another, we rigged up a mental loop to keep things opened while gravity did its thing-- plus, the extra push to reach that far. Good enough trap, or so we figured. I certainly hope so-- didn't think it was the right choice, but I'm always saying 'never quit'. Maybe I just proved the Big Bang Theory valid, heh. So, yeah, no idea how long ago. Sorry. Dimensional thing, maybe? Could have easily ripped the fabric of space, not to brag, but we really were messing with cosmic level powers."
Tryko'Sam shares all that, casually, while seeming to think back on it. "Mind you, this is third person memories. Doesn't feel or remembered as my own. Living takes its toil... I have a ton of memories of space, and darkness while in space." He grins at that. "I could probably paint some nice pictures if I were an artist."
Vare looks confused by all the celestial talk babble - clearly not his strong suit. After all, as an Agarthan native, he only discovered the outside world some five months ago. He doesn't comment on that.
Though when Tryko'Sam does mention that he has lots of memories of floating through the blackness of space, Vare's face darkens slightly, looking grim.
"I... I am hesitant to share this, because I may be mistaken. I'm sure those present know a little about the Legend of the Tarrasque?" he puts to the group darkly, his eyes holding the strange never-stop-moving gaze on Tryko'Sam, with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity on his face, though his voice is grim. "I do not mean to be an alarmist... but Tryko'Sam here may be what the Legend tells of."
Silinrul is definitely confused and quite lost with everything that is going on. He stays near his sister, hoping she can explain what is happening later.
He does not like this man who talks of things like black holes, and dimensions, and other weird things. He seems an aberration, and those are to be put down as soon as possible.
Vickory looks over the new arrivals, "Well, these creatures are likely to transform their captives, so we should...hurry" she paused to watch Vai's outburst with a very quizzical look.
She then touches rune on her cloak, and closes her eyes for a moment, then a small image of the defeated creature appears in the air before her which she examines for a moment then waves her hand dismissively and it fades.
"Are we ready to move or we should get introductions out of the way?"
"No need. Just show me what needs to die. Demons of pain are good, no redeeming qualities? No reason to hold back."
adon clenches his sword, ready to attack at a moments notice...
"The Legenda sanctorum professor Vare ?"
Royston asks
Again standing static, studying.
"The Legenda sanctorum professor Vare ?"
Royston asks
Again standing static, studying.
The young man shakes his head, glancing at Royston before speaking. "I do not know what that is. I read about the Legend in a text some years ago, a book I do not know the name of."
Phaezeriel lands and releases Adon, then rises a little higher as Vai sunders the stone. Any whose vision can pierce invisibility and who care to notice will see a concerned, yet approving look on his face. At the mention of N'gathu, his eyes widen perceptibly, and he looks to where the track is still visible leading past the stone. His mental voice is a bit subdued, ::Should we not hurry? The survivors are in grave danger.::
When Anahita reappears, he glances toward her, ::Welcome back.:: Phaezeriel gathers her back into collective.
"Well done,Vai. Let's go free some people, okay?"
adon's eyes light up as the stone shatters, and he actually smiles a little, something that, for anyone who knows him, is very odd.
::where do we go? Does anyone have a clue?::
To those in the school infirmary, word arrives of a shuttle pilot being brought in with severe burns, mention of a shuttle accident on the sun.
Shortly after the message, Igni arrives (teleported in) carrying an unconscious Mel.
"No, I'm not well." she says somewhat bitterly in response to Anahita, but she does stand, and move over to retrieve her dropped blade and sheath it. "There's... some kinda torture demons here, probably drawn by Aegythrax's... methods."
"But everyone is right. We need to save people, there's no time for self-pity. Let's go." she says determinedly, setting her face into a mask of determination, turning away from the now-cracked stone, and spreading her wings.
"I'm Vai." she says shortly by way of introduction to the half-snake thing that had helped them in the fight, her introduction lacking the typical shyness, curtsy, or even her last name. "Thank you for your help, we'll talk more after we rescue people."
Vickory looks over the new arrivals, "Well, these creatures are likely to transform their captives, so we should...hurry" she paused to watch Vai's outburst with a very quizzical look.
She then touches rune on her cloak, and closes her eyes for a moment, then a small image of the defeated creature appears in the air before her which she examines for a moment then waves her hand dismissively and it fades.
"Are we ready to move or we should get introductions out of the way?"
Anahita studies the form of Vickory for a few moments after appearing, along with her actions, after which a faint smile forms on her expressive features. Watching as Vai rises up and aims to press on, Anahita says to Vickory with a lightly accented voice, "Greetings, stranger and well met. I am named Anahita bint Tariq. Are you an adventurer seeking to assist the natives, or a hunter of demon kind, perhaps?" A light bow and gesture accompanies her greeting.
With that, she smiles faintly and adds mentally to the Collective,
::If someone would detail best practices against these particular demons, that would be most useful, especially weaknesses, if any.::
igni takes a seat as close to melody as the staff will let him! and his eyes lose focus as he thinks of other things while he waits. Even now, he doesn't show too much emotion, but for those observant, they may notice a little bit of worry.
infirmary staff (as few as there are, and at least those available) get Mel to a bed. they start to monitor vital signs.
Respiration: very shallow and slow.
Heartbeat: double heart beat and very slow.
All indications indicate a comma
no bio scans have been conducted yet, but the double heart beat has some of the infirmary staff concerned.
they are discussing among themselves a possible heart condition, a non-rhythmic beat (no pun intended).
Carl pulls the HammerShaft round sharp as the hurt Timelady and Firebird teleport away to the schools medical unit. The roaring sound of massively powerful engines from the Hammershaft steep turn wash over the school and fades as it powers way like the flying brick it is.
He flips on the radio
>>This is The Hammershaft flight control injected shuttle pilot Mel Waverader delivered to Avalon School Medical, accompanied by one Crew memeber, heading for Landing site to deliver Firebird Cargo now, over<<
then looks at Tinman
"Right lets head off to the landing site, nothing we can do for Mel now Tinman, lets hope that Bird feller tells em whats wrong... she should be fine."
He says this by any fool can see there is a very worried look on the Dwarfs face.
but can't think on that now, he has work to do.
As soon as Ace figures out the new patient is Melody, he hurries to her room, possibly pushing slow moving people out of his way.
Rushing to her side, he begins to check her over, looking for any signs of damage, aside from the obvious.
igni crates a fire in his had and stands up at the quickly approaching man, a upset look on his face, before pausing, the fire vanishing! and igni sitting back down, face blank once again.
Ace can see small burns around her face (seems to have been worse but were healed) She currently appears to be in a comma, possibly psychically self induced.
You can deduce she has internal injuries, reports indicating internal burns of her respiratory system.
One of the nurses tells Ace she appears to have a heart condition they cannot identify.
Phaezeriel will follow Vai's lead.
Upon the return of Royston and Asha, Maya maintains her smiling state and peers around, looking towards Ms. Jones while she performs the reading of Rena, now in large form.
She occasionally peeks over at Tryko'Sam, as if squinting might help him remember things in his past-- he did speak of some familiarity, but, clearly it wasn't the full one she has herself.
To Vare's comments of some Legend, however, after Royston's cryptic comment or question, she wasn't sure, she says little.
All in all, she's pretty average, smiling and seemingly content, dressed in her jumpsuit, gloves and boots. Looks like leather or some off plastic sort of material, maybe even a biker's outfit.
"I am Vickory West of the Dragon clan, and actually I just arrived on your plane, so this is more action of opportunity. Yrrin and Beylu seemed decent enough, so I figured I might as well help. I did just come from a war after all, so a rescue mission is rather straightforward in comparison." Vickory mimics your gestures of greeting, before heading off down the tracks.
Miss Jones opened her eyes.
"Professor Sunwake, I would appreciate it if you would locate this Shaypeer over the security network. If we can find this individual we should apprehend him as soon as possible."
"Professor Vare, do stop being such an alarmist. I assure you that the Tarrasque is barely capable of language let alone of walking around in a humanoid form as a student here," she said crisply.
Asha appears back in the SIM room along with Professor Royston. She looks around uncertainly. Everyone seems to be pretty much where she left them. She blushes, embarrassed now to have made such a fool of herself when she was startled. Not that she'd even known that she could do that....but still."Hey there. Welcome back. Gave us a bit of a startle." He grins at Asha, but keeps his attention on the going ons in the room.
"Uh...yeah...me too," she said sheepishly, blushing even more. "I didn't know I could do that."
Sadie hung back as Vai attacked the rock. She wished she had some idea of how to help her friend, but she knew too well that some wounds never healed, not really.
::I can make forcefields. If I'm not separated from the group I can help keep the rest of you safe. Or the prisoners if I can get close enough to them.::
Ginni arrived at the infirmary and started asking around to try and locate Ace.
"..."
settro pauses, and punches the bridge of his nose as he sighs.
"Now, how am i supposed to fix this?"
"Subdue, then figure out what's going on." The alchemy teacher says as he pulls out a modified crossbow and loads a vial into it. "try to prevent death, okay?"
"We start like this." Tyrrin says flatly, her hands already glowing with magic as her alien/androidish eyes survey the scene, taking in all that she could, before completing her spell. "Contain as many of the infected as possible. Remember, these are innocents. Do not kill them."
A aurora suddenly erupts above a group of the infected, staggeringly beautiful and entrancing.