In her hiding place, she packed her rail gun away. And checked her Bolters.
"I have the next target in sight, let me know when you want me to Engage my love"
she sends to the group,
The stables, located in the driest corner of the capital village, are usually rather busy and, aside from the stable keeper, have three people rubbing down horses and another two bringing one out. Ornog, the stable keeper, performs his duties in a rote fashion, answering inquiries monosyllabicly but working tireless. Current he is attempting extract a stubborn pony from a hay loft that it reached by climbing a ladder.
We need an excuse to get him away from everyone... anyone think they can convince him we need some help from him? Terexaltherin broadcasts to the group. Of course, he might be 'programmed' to not leave his routine, in which case we may need to get more creative.
"Let me trigger him. I can fend him off until your here"
Lyra uses Gadgets to gain Cats grace, Shield, Iron Skin, and Monstrous Physique II / Greater protection form Neg Energy. on herself then walks into the stable and asks Ornog for help, putting her hand on him she says.
"Ornog, you have hurt yourself let me fix that for you with some healing"
Arlo runs as fast as his dwarven legs will let him, when he hears his wife will fend off the undead until he arrives.
Not in the middle of town! Terexaltherin telepathically shouts once he figures out what Lyra means. Think of the collateral damage if he goes big and decides to ignore you for a bit! We've got to lead him away from other people before he realizes what we're doing! Say we need help with a mount or something, maybe ask if a horse we saw was supposed to be in the stables, anything that would get him to move away from all those people.
Lyra approaches the stable keeper, who seems to barely register her words but notices her... "Are you an outlander? What brings you here?" He turns and stares at her, stiff and menacing. One of the horse workers notices the interchange and also stares while the other four amphibians in the medium sized barn continue their tasks unaware.
Azzim was flying towards the stables and he suggested over the link, ::A ruse is needed here I think. Perhaps this, tell him that you have a wounded horses some way out of town and that you are seeking assistance?::
"Yes I am and my wounded horses some way out of town and I am seeking assistance, I was told you are the best with mounts. Would you mind coming with me and have a look, it would help me greaily and I am willing to pay for your time"
She says.
The Stable Keeper Ornog stops his current work and looks at Lyra appraisingly and says "You come with the Starling? Show it to me and I will aid you"
Terexaltherin takes his best guess at which way Lyra will go and heads out to prepare an ambush, letting the others know where he'll be.
Lyra nods her head and walks ahead of him to an area that is outside of town. As she walks she sings so the others can know where she is. Her bio-mechanical body can make sounds no human vocal cords could.
She walks with a Dancing grace, as if dancing to the imaginary mount, her movements in time with her singing. Slowly her size changes becoming some 14' tall, her skin hardens to its underlying Adamantine look. At the end of her singing, she stops and looks at the undead. Campation in her eyes.
"I am so so sorry, What was done to you was monstrous. And the ones that did it will pay for it, But its time to rest now"
"Its time"
She sends.
Lyra did not carry a sword or any hand weapons, she had been designed to survive the planes, She was the weapon. Her kicks and punches could smash a city's walls down in a way only a master monk could emulate. She took no joy in what she did next. She had had time to study and surprise him. Her dance and song were just distractions. She moved...
--MELEE:
Lyra has an Adamantium-reinforced Android body, giving her the ability to break items unarmed. Her unarmed fighting style takes into account using her force shield. To help maneuverability and defense. She can sunder with any part of her body.
(L/NL) (B) [As Adamantine][Sunder] [Counts as Magic] Crit x2
RH/L Unarmed attack +3 TH [Studied strike]
Studded Strike (Ex) [DMG +6d6 ] [14 Rounds]
Studied Combat (Ex) [+7TH][+7DMG][14 Rounds]
Hit 1 = DMG+ [force]
Hit 2 = DMG+ [force]
LH/L Unarmed attack +3 TH
Hit 1 = DMG+ [force]
Hit 2 = DMG+ [force]
47+55+45+45= 192 DMG Blunt force trauma
7+9+8+9 = 33 Force Damage Blunt force trauma
Her AC33 Hardness 20+10 Iron skin. She is 1200lb and Large.
"I was made for war, I fight in countless battles on earth and space but nothing I saw comes close to the horrors the traders have inflicted on the Innocent."
She is angry now, not at this poor undead thing, but at the minds behind its making.
Azzim decided to repeat his earlier tactic, he was flying invisibly under cover of improved invisibility and he swooped down shortly after Lyra started her frighteningly powerful assault. They didn't want any chance of this abomination from escaping so he whispered an eerily powerful word of power while he held the fine gold chain in his hands. As before glowing chains of pure golden light snapped into existence which if they ensnared the stable keeper, they'd paralyze it and prevent planar travel.
Terexaltherin goes for his usual surprise scorching rays, while making a mental note to himself to get a couple other elements than fire next time they're resupplying just in case.
Lyra entices the stable master a short ways out of the small "capital" town and the party make short of him/it at that - without even time to alter it's form, you are left with the ritually cursed corpse of Ornog, the former stable master - a irrasible and occasionally cruel man/amphibian who probably didn't didn't deserve the fate of undead of the Dark Traders.
She looks down at the undead husk, pulls out a themite charge from her pouch and drops it onto it, flame inguflts the form. Cremating it.
Azzim nodded when Lyra destroyed the corpse. Out of an abundance of caution (in case of contingencies and scrying) he waited until they'd moved some way from the kill zone before, "Well I suppose we should report back. Part of me wants to tell them to give the starlings hell, but that would expose them to great danger. Perhaps we should advise them to allow the starlings until we've dealt with the traders? I wonder if we could use intelligence about any future starlings, it would be interesting to trace where they go, although I suppose we have an idea..."
Arlo makes just as Lady Lyra makes her killshot. "Are you alright, dear? Come, let's get out of here."
She shrank back to normal size, the color of her skin again pink.
"I'm fine dear, We got the drop in it, and it never stood a chance after that.'
And follows him as they move away from the scene.
As Azzim Lyra nods.
"That sounds like a logical way to play this Azzim"
So the party informs the prince and he thanks you and pledges to stay on his guard. You then continue down the Starling path past the area controlled by the amphibians to an area that Emoree has scouted for you - an even wetter dominated by a large cockroach and it's many spawn. But with minimal negotiation you, get free passage and the spider and Emoree walk through. Then, as you reach the drier opposite edge of this domain, you see ahead of you two humans trudging wearily on the dirt path across an overgrown, broken-up parking lot. They seem exhausted, perhaps radiation burned and are wearing the dress of Kalthinian mercenaries - they seem likely to be Starling holders returning from their journey... (they most likely have not seen you).
Stops the spider and loads up the autocannons with rounds,
"Do you want and go see how they are doing?"
"They may have news", Arlo added. "Be neighborly if ask if they need help or healing."
As Arlo approaches the two weary travelers, they startle a bit and nervously hold up what looks a Starling statue. "Let us pass, we have the token and the crystal, we have traveled so far and the black locusts are still whispering to me, oh please let us pass...
"Hold still and we will fix you up"
She pulls out a hypo and japs both of them, the nanites in the jab act at once with Restoration to them.
"It is alright, travellers. She is a trained healer, I swear", Arlo says to the addled travelers.
'Black locusts... What are those?' thought Azzim
She then pulls out some patches and slaps then onto the back of their hands. Then starts bandaging them up.
"There you are that is all I can do for here and with what I have at hand, leave the ninite patches on, but you really need to find a healer hospital or Cleric temple"
Terexaltherin takes in what he can of the amphibians' culture before they leave. He agrees that letting the starling bearers continue for now is a good idea... though he also agrees that information on when they're coming and going would be good. Maybe we can track where they return to and try to grab someone higher up in their heirarchy... he suggests.
While Lyra and Arlo take care of the travelers, Terexaltherin communes with Emoree, wondering if she's picking up anything interesting from them with her different telepathic abilities.
Azzim thinks... He knows of many things in the multiverse known as "black locusts" but none "near" here ... unless these have gone through a strange portal and back again, or something, somehow.
Terex takes survey of the amphibian's culture before he leaves. He can determine they were indeed products of Kalthinian culture with changes resulting from mutations that allowed them to adapt to the wet, swampy area in which they are now trapped. The survival of the culture over the last 200 years it's existed apparently involved their nobility's willingness to fusion the worship of nature deities with the original God of truth and reason they inherited from Kalthinia. Still, the tension of group's past and their present is significant. The Prince officially considers himself the ruler of a quickly developing technological society of a now different humanoid species. This seems something the Dark Traders might exploit at some point.
Lyra's efforts seem to revive the damaged travelers and after ten minutes or so they look up to the dwarf and android "By the spirit, we thank you... (but indeed the nanities will heal the effects only as long as the patches stay).
Emoree returns from scouting and sends a picture she gained from the traveler's mind. It seems they experienced extended nightmare or been in a nightmare land or both. One image that stands out is an image of plane of reflective black volcanic glass, reflecting bizarre and changing images...
Terexaltherin makes sure to write notes on the amphibians for later reference. With how busy he is, he barely notices that there's already a perfect spot for him to file them on the shelves of his library.
He thanks Emoree for the information and for what she's done smoothing their way through the area. Then he broadens his communication to the whole group, though he waits until the travelers leave to 'speak' to everyone.
It feels like this plane of black glass is probably connected to the crystals and how they're like frozen bits of a catastrophe, he states. We should probably be prepared to dive into such a thing when we arrive at the end of this route. Thoughts on how we could prepare and what to look for in there that would help us figure out the Dark Traders' plans?
For his own part he tries to recall what he's learned about such frozen moments that they could use.
Terex knows such disasters are unusual on the multiverse. It occurs to him that the failed summoning of a High Daemon Lord is described to have produced an effect of similar description for the Red Emperor Of The Three-fold Empire but this event echoed through the multiverse and alerted the powerful Transdimensional League of Wizards, who placed on guard on the zone - which continues to this day. How a similar event could happen "silently" is a mystery.
The more I think on it the stranger the whole frozen catastrophe thing seems, Terexaltherin tells the group. It should have registered to the larger multiverse. We'll definitely have to investigate further when we reach our destination. Speaking of which, if there's nothing more we want to ask these travelers, we should let them go and be on our way ourselves. I don't think we're ready to interrupt the flow of crystals back to the Traders just yet.
It occurs to him that he's not sure anyone's told Emoree their hypothesis on what the crystals really are is. He does his best to get it across to her.
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Lyra send them on there way.
Once gone she holds up her hand and a the local Verse-cluster is displayed in Icon form with information encoded in the image, in stylised form.
"This is where we are now, and these"
She points at the other local planes
"Are the local cluster, Trexe is right, if this went down as we have been told, then these."
She points as 4 other plans
"The average magical cosmos is relatively small. With no need for a complex extended reality outside of the main sentient and divine habitat of its space-time. Gods and faith rendering those reality's as tails and legend's based. Stars are indeed camp fires in the sky, Suns being pulled by Chariots and star Goats. You get the idea, they are small and they are fluid, they change all the time. Unlike planes with a low magic or zero Magic indices, like my home plane. Which are outliers plans on the great scream of things, they have hard immutable entropy and cosmic constants making them often Billons upon Billons of light years across and years old. Well fact plans like this one my exists for on average a 100,000 years, they then fall to destruction or more often reform, over and over again. But I digress, My point is, if this plane was like my home plane, with a life span of 10 to the 73 years, it could be too early for the events here to propagate to the other local planes all smalls magic ones. BUT its not, its small and magical as well, and these local planes should have felt some impact of this catastrophic event on this one. Yet I agree they have not. There are two possibilities then, one, this plane is somehow being hidden in some way, or two, the events here are not as we thought, something other is going on."
This is what you get when you ask a very smart AI a question.
Over the link Azzim suggests, ::OK we let them go but how about we scry on them to see what they do next?::
Given the disaster seems to have been frozen in a way, maybe it was frozen before it could progress to the point of rippling out to the surrounding cosmos? Terexaltherin hypothesizes. We've got a lot of questions we'll have to try to answer when we get to the end of this path.
Once Lyra heals the pair, they thank her, give the names of their families back in Kalthinia in case they don't make it back and continue on their way, healed but clearly not entirely whole. The party then continues four more days following the Starling path through the territory of various mutant beasts without great difficulty (A huge land crab, A pack of wolverines that stay hidden, some octopuses who show once).
Finally, quite near the destination, you pass an area where neither Emoree nor Terex can find many creatures at all. Moreover, the ruined buildings here seem to part of a large research complex. Going through a series of housing tracts, and passing several deserted conventional science and engineering buildings, you past two small buildings labeled "Institute For TransDimensional Studies." The buildings are architecturally interesting with pointed domes, reflective glass windows and other flourishes. One of these detects strong of radiation, enough to be deadly within a few feet of the building - the other is entirely free of radiation as far as your sensors can tell. Both are intact with their stainless steel doors locked.
Moreover, at this point in the Starling path, the suggested rout has been going directly through fields of radiation rather than avoiding as previously. It's never enough to be deadly but enough to be debilitating. You can guess how the travelers you saw got into the state they were in.
Lyra heads to the "Institute For TransDimensional Studies." but stops when the radiation detects indicates too high a level.
She gets out a gadget from a Handyhavasack, a round disk-like platform. She the strips off her clothing and equipment, and once down to her underwear she stands on the disk.
"This may or may not work, but if I becomes radiation of a kind I may last a little longer in there without too much harm. Ill only have about 10 minutes but it should give me time to see whats going on."
She steps onto the disk and changes to her from but in blue flame.
Arlo rushes out to stop his wife, but she changes into an elemental before his eyes. "You would think I'd get used to your erratic behavior by now", the dwarf breathed.
Azzim tries to reassure Arlo, "I should be able to heal her if that doesn't work, but I think there's a good chance it will."
As he speaks he fills a small bowl with water within which he places a small silver mirror. "I'll watch what happens and if needed I can try to teleport her out of danger - assuming magic works correctly in such an unusual location."
She forgets that she dose not have the same seance of fear that Arlo did. Fear for others yes, him and the kids but herself. She had a bad habit of doing risky things for the sake of science.
Lyra enters the highly radiated South wing of the Institute For TransDimensional Studies and begins looking around - the first level seems quite dull - apparently just the clerical and administrative records but still levels of radiation whose magical qualities let it penetrates in a ways ordinary radiation wouldn't.
Burning through a locked door to the lower levels, she seems to enter the research facility proper - she find several high tech planar travel devices, devices she's familiar with but which are well beyond the mid-tech that world supposedly had pre-disaster. Further on, she finds storage a closet with a variety of items of clearly extra-planar origins. Here, she grabs a strange music box and a few other items.
Finally, there seems to be a some sort of central auditorium beyond a closed door with a strange glow within. But as she gets close to this, Lyra realizes the radiation is too intense and instead heads directly out of the complex, collapsing on the lawn to access the damage and see what she's discovered...
She shuts of her pain and makes her way back fast, Getting to the disk once more her form in blue fame now has red streaks. Hoving close to her is a box that falls slowly to the floor. The Disk changes color as she starts to purge herself and rematerializes into solid form.
She stands there now Solid once more, but you can see she has been damaged by exposure to the magic radiation.
"Well that could have been a lot wease, but I do seem to have some system degradation. But I go this"
She picks up the Music box and looks at it.
Arlo holds his weakened wife in his arms. "Now I see where GIFT gets her recklessness from", the dwarf chides his wife, but in an endearing way. "Are you hurt?"
Well, since none of us can go with Lyra, I'm going to go to the safer building. Assuming no one objects? Terexaltherin 'says'. We should do some analysis on those radiation zones the starling path went through. I'm wondering if there's something different about them, if the Dark Traders are deliberately trying to get their 'couriers' near-death, or if there's something about the destination that might interact with the radiation.
The little dragon flies over to the north wing... after making sure he has a radiation detector, since that's one thing he *can't* detect with his magical and psionic abilities. He makes his way inside (either finding something he can fit through with his small size or unlocking things with his lockpicks) and starts searching around.
"You do appear to have been weakened by the radiation." noted Azzim who was watching her closely with an air of concern, "Although I think I should be able to help, lets start with a body purification spell and see where we go from there..."
With a word of power, Lyra's body starts glowing as if she had become radiant.
Lyra quietly fiddles with the box- It felt heavy as lead in her hands, intricate etchings into it's porcelain surface on almost every level seem to glow underneath it's bronze exterior, like the exterior is glass allowing you to look underneath it. Oddly enough, none of the etchings seem to have any form of continuity, though as you examine closer, you realize that those etchings have been etched into two on each face- Something that looks like a harp, and one that looks like a oddly shaped L. These etchings do not look like the translucent glass, but instead like red on porcelain white. Truth be told, it reminded you of an old, clock-wound music box, and with some searching you find the clock-key to wind it
Curiosity fills Lyra as you begin to wind up the key, hearing the tell-tale clicking of a music box. The tune is quiet, filled with yearning and love,, though as it plays, all around you the enviornment changes.
Plain white pillars appear around you, as candles strung together fill the area with a warm amber light. The floor beneath her begins to rise, taking on a new shape- of intricately carved marble etched with roses surrounding her and Arlo feet, as a wooden ceiling appears above, with roses drip from the ceiling. You begin to feel the music box unfold in your hand, as it seems to almost wrap around your arm, then slide up it, as it travels covering it with silky black satin tool- If you don't interrupt it, it quietly unwounds into a beautiful dress of ink black with the L symbol on it’s arm woven around her clothes. If nothing stops Arlo, you feel around himself an intricate black tux with the harp sign on its wrists.
As the exterior of the box hits the floor in it’s creation (Or if removed and thrown), a ceramic figure appears from behind Lyra, almost unfolding herself from the ground, as it begins to sing.
“Wise men say,
“Only fools rush in,”
If Lyra lets her, she’ll quietly take Lyra’s hand and… It seems like walk her through the basics of a waltz, more teaching then dancing.
“But he can’t help
“Falling in love with you.”
As the song stops, Bella's eyes seem to flicker as she opens them again, staring at the people around her dazed and confused. She pauses, before bleating out “By the flame I am so, *so* sorry, I- I’m just kind of, I don’t really know- I mean I knew this could but it- I can only imagine how-”
She pauses, staring at the three people around her. Seemingly desperate to bring some sense of normality to this procedure, she holds out her hand, “I’m so sorry, I’m Bella.”
The person before you... is certainly not human. Her body seems to be made of porcelain that shapes and shifts as needed, the purple etching that marks the outside bleeding from her wrist to her elbows with the same glass-like shading, though you can see the two red etchings on her clavicle. She was most certainly designed to be a “She,” however, with an elegant beauty and grace etched into her every motion that did not work as she seemed to cringe. Her face was a blank mask of porcelain.
She holds out her other hand, which now seems to have two croissants. “Food?” Behind her is a literal platter of pastries. You don’t know where they came from.
Arlo is guided by the mysterious statue, but for some reason, the normally gruff dwarf does fight it, as he gently dances with his beloved to the haunting beautiful music.
The music stops, and Arlo comes back to his senses. "Wha-What happened?" The dwarf asks sleepily.
Arlo holds his weakened wife in his arms. "Now I see where GIFT gets her recklessness from", the dwarf chides his wife, but in an endearing way. "Are you hurt?"
She holds onto her husband, thankful for his support and strength as always.
" As Doctor Azzim says, just really weak my love."
Then she held still as Azzim work his medical magic
"Thank you Azzim, that does feel much better, but I think I should rest a bit. Internally I am still reconfiguring, while I do, Ill have a look at this Music Box"
And she starts to examine it.
Lyra loved tech and gadgets in all their forms and this was a joy, She held Arlo as they Danced and said.
"I think I know what this may be my love, but we must wait for the dance to end"
Then when it ends she kisses him passionately. Her husband stunned breaks and turns with a smile at Bella.
"Thank you for that, and Greeting Bella, Sorry about Arlo, he finds this kind of stuff hard sometimes. So 1st things 1st, you and I are the same, we are living construct. I'm more.. well let's say Technical, whereas you are more mystical. And by the looks of things a waver of matter, thanks but he will have them both."
She grins takes the food and gives it to her husband.
"Rollo is going to be so mad he was not here to meet Bella, this is sooo his thing."
Then back to Bella.
"Sorry where are my manners, I'm Lyra, this is my husband Arlo, over there Azzim and there is a Dragon flying around somewhere, That would be
Terexaltherin or his bother, is hard to tell sometimes. Any how let's get down to it, I have to ask you, who made you and why?"
She did feel better, Azzim and that wonderful dance had done the trick.