< Companionship In Captivity | Ex Pulplogs | An Odd Sphere >
Carmine ignores clawing of the strange tentacles around her, blood pouring from several cuts on her skin, though none of them deep enough to damage her. She smiled as she swung Eminence in a series of low arcs, the pure blade parting grass and tentacle with equal ease.
ST Captain Oteki landed near Carmine with a grin. "Ahoy thar!" he said, and raised his massively-gauntleted arm high over his head, bluish-white lightning coursing over it's surface, and then brought it down on the base of the vine-things holding her, carefully avoiding, you know, punching her in the feet.
ST The wire-thin tentalces whip away, taking only a glancing blow from Oteki's assault. For a moment the lightning of his attack courses through the tentacles, making them visible in their grassy lair. A web of writhing wires is revealed, covering the entire field. Near the horizon there is a massive tangle of the wires surrounding some distant center. A second later, the light is gone and the tentacles are against almost invisible.
Carmine ignores clawing of the strange tentacles around her, blood pouring from several cuts on her body, though none of them seems near to slowing her down. She takes a moment to look out over the plains, an the extent of the tentacles before she cuts at the tentacles near her feet in low arcs, moving backwards towards Corve
ST As Carmine retreats the grass-wires slowly move backwards, acknowledging her retreat. She slices one of the slower wires in two as it is a bit too watchful for her taste. The others move backwards but still clearly remain, waiting for any of the Solars to come back into the grassy field.
Myrrh "An intelligent system of vines...wires? I wonder if they're mechanical..."
Corve Corve is still aiming at the wires, his eyes narrow as he places a hand on Carmine's elbow softly, squeezing. "I wonder if they'll just move if we ask," he says rhetorically.
Myrrh "Are you alright Carmine?" He shouts...although they aren't that far off. He's still a bit jittery from the other traps. He debates getting off the small mound for a moment.
Carmine scowls at them. "They're no good to fight." She smiles at Corve though, as he squeezes her elbow. "They didn't scatch me." She glances down at her bleeding body. "Well, not so much it matters."
Myrrh "Well I suppose we could try...jumping across the field. But I don't know how long we would need to go to get to the mountain."
Corve Corve doesn't ponder about Carmine's state. He's learned to trust her in that sense; he's beginning to ponder, actually, if there's anything that can harm her without thoroughly killing her at the same time. He doesn't let go of her, though, protective instincts taut.
Carmine "That's a long way to jump ..." she says, a little dubiously.
ST The field does stretch to nearly the horizon, indicating a great length. Though, considering the strange space inside this tower it may not be as large as it appears. It could be...larger.
Myrrh "Well then I suspect we're going to have to deal with the wires...maybe they need some certain sort of ritual to pass by?"
Carmine shrugs. Bizzare rituals were not her thing.
Corve Corve reacts likewise.
Myrrh "Well unless your plan is "charge across the horizon slowly fighting wires for a week" we're going to need to think for a moment." He approaches the wire perimeter. "May we pass?" he says to the grass ahead of them...might as well try talking first.
ST The grass waves slightly in the wind.
Myrrh "Well it was worth a try." He tosses a rock onto the grass.
ST There is no response to the rock landing in the grass.
Myrrh "Only responds to living targets..." He sounds as if he's going down some mental checklist. He then prods the grass with a stick, the most scientific of methods.
ST The grass does not respond to being prodded with a long stick.
Myrrh "Oteki, think you can...juice it up some more? Your current seemed to carry through the whole...root system."
ST The only thing aside from the grassy field, the distant mountain and the tiny hill they emerged from is a leafless tree with hundreds of branches and twigs. The tree is quite normal looking, aside from lacking leaves. It's branches are long, straight and solid, its trunk looks healthy and indicates the tree is quite old.
Myrrh thinks for a moment and approaches the tree, hoping he isn't strangled by dismembering tree root monster traps with monkeys.
ST The tree does not strangle, attack, cornhole or molest Myrrh. In fact, it doesn't do anything.
Myrrh touches the tree, wondering if it's solid or involved in the wirery death trap.
ST The tree looks like, feels like, sounds like, smells like and overall seems to be, a normal tree.
Myrrh gets to climbing! "I think we can get a better look at the horizon if we get some height! Rather odd it's just this tree, the field, and a mountain."
ST Myrrh scrambles easily to the top of the tree where he sees...a mountain and a grassy field. From this height there's no trace at all of the hidden wires in the field. He can, however, see a rocky plinth out in the middle of the field. Looks to be fairly big, maybe a 50 foot diameter.
Myrrh squints looking into the distance before climbing back down. "There's some sort of plinth out in the middle of the field. Not much good it does us though..."
Myrrh gives the field one more poke. "Well wood and stone don't seem to disturb it." He glances back at the tree and then walks over to it without another word, he reaches for the tree, his anima flares and he reaches into it, shaping the wood inside the tree like it were clay, similar to Xar's method it would seem. He then pulls out what looks to be two different sets of items. One is a pair of...jug lids? And the other a pair o
Myrrh "Alright let's see if we can walk over it after all!"
Myrrh "Carmine, would you rather use the stilts or the...shoes?"
Carmine "Uh ... I'll try the stilts," she hazards. She wonders which of the things Myrrh will hand her.
Corve "... shoes," Corve says. He is not wearing stilts.
Myrrh "Although if I had more time I could come up with a sort of land boat..." Hands Carmine the sturdy looking stilts and Corve the shoes.
Myrrh "Alright, who will take the first experimental steps?" He hands Oteki a pair of wooden...shoes.
Carmine peers at them. So these were stilts. She wonders how they are supposed to work
Myrrh "Alright carmine, what you want to do is, strap them on and then we'll lift you up, then you need to move towards the rocks out in the field, as long as you keep moving you should be alright!"
Carmine frowns, then looks at the tree. "I have a better idea..." She leaps up to one of the branches, stilts in hand, then by leaning them against the branch, fastens one then the other to the tree, before she stands up off the branch and on the stilts.
Myrrh "...that works too!"
Carmine then starts to walk out over the field in strange steps. Stilts, she had decided, where weird.
Myrrh thinks he'll do the same, hoping this works or he's back to the wooden land boat drawingboard.
ST Once everyone has their new foot ware strapped on and otherwise secured, they start carefully into the grassy field. Myrrh and Carmine have no troubles...but once Corve and Oteki are a few feet into the grass there is a shuffling noise and the wires surge forwards to attack the intruders! Razor-edged whips lash Oteki and Corve violently, attacking them for tresspassing.
Corve "Aw, shit;" is Corve's response, as he sees the things coming. Luckily, he's prepared, and his motions as swift and smooth; each bend and twist of his form slipping to avoid the vinewires.
ST Oteki, being fairly wise, leaps backwards and back onto the "safe" ground before the wires reach him. Corve is less willing to retreat so easily...
ST But this time he conquers his instincts to fight and backs off, the vines unhappily allowing him to escape their grip. They writhe in the grass, waiting for someone else to make the mistake Corve almost did.
Carmine "Are you alright Corve?" Carmine shouts back
Corve "Fine! But these shoes aren't doing the job!"
Myrrh "Ah so it IS a matter of surface coverage...i'll come back to make you something more appropriate!"
Corve Corve frowns a little, and nods. "Fine."
Myrrh makes a slow yawning turn and heads back to the tree and Corve and Oteki
Carmine continues walking towards the plinth
Myrrh "Should only be a moment..." He reaches into the tree once more and pulling out two more pairs of stilts, the tree seems to be short a few branches!.
ST Despite being robbed of its branches, the tree remains quiet and still. With Oteki and Corve now stilted, the entire group heads out across the grassy field and, surprisingly, is unmolested as they walk.
ST Reaching the stone plinth they find it nothing but a big stone...plinth. Nothing is on it, there is no reaction to them stopping and resting for a while on the plinth. No problems arise at all. In fact, having discovered that stilts allow them to pass the wires without trouble, nothing goes wrong until they reach the other side of the field and find themselves standing at the base of a vast mountain.
ST Behind them there is the vast grassy plain which, it turned out, was about a three hour stilt-walk, and ahead of them is a boulder-strewn crag marred with a massive, fanged cave.
Myrrh "That looks inviting..."
Carmine nods. It did! She wonders how to get down, frowning in concentration as she carefully leaned over to unfasten then straps, then leaped down onto the rocks.
Corve Corve's agility is still infused with magic, and he makes his way down with a simple few leaps.
Myrrh carefully leans and undoes his straps, following the others, rifle in hand. "I wonder if this is Elsewhere...or some other strange dimension."
Carmine runs up the slope to the cave
Myrrh runs after Carmine! Ready for adventure of the cave variety!
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