World Tree MUSH

    Earlier in the sunset hours, Mount Shasta was wreathed in clouds people often mistake for UFOs. Disc-shaped formations, blazing with the golden orange-yellows of the sleepy sun. The mountain is believed to house the secret city of Telos, the last redoubt of fallen Lemuria. Or was it the Lizard People secretly controlling the world's governments?
    The reason for the small group of Beacon Society maho and allies was far less spooky, though firmly grounded in occult symbolism. Simply put, Mount Shasta was a kind of axis mundi; a place the world seemed to revolve around, making it important for certain rites. Tonight it afforded an unobscured view of the full moon in the midst of a clearing of Douglas firs. The reflected light from the moon, they'd been told, was going to be used to open the mirror world.
    The young woman dressed in black had her arms folded, giving an oversized Emperor tarmarin a stern gaze as it carpered upon a rock. The young woman pulled a small red and white sphere from her pocket with an impish look. "Mephy, if you pull something, you're going to go into this pokeball."
    The spirit's long white mustache twitch with concern as he looked up at Dorothy, his drawing of arcane symbols briefly paused. "Nope nope. Hurrying up. Don't like being out in the open like this." Then muttering to himself. "... what if *he* turns up..." with a shudder.
    Aurelia glances around, clad in golden armor that seemed way too large for her, keeping an eye out for trouble.

Benedicta hasn't heard anything from Lizzie about controlling the world's governments. The al-mir'aj girl glares at Mephy, "Hopefully this works, though why didn't you try to get Alice out of the mirror sooner?" She can't help but to wonder why the monkey waited so long to tell them about this. "Also who are you referring to? The hounds? It's going to suck if they show up again..." She's going to have trouble staying calm.

    "Ideally we have enough firepower here not to worry about that," Cagliostro replies. She's mostly paying attention to the mirror, but still annoyed at the random teleport earlier. So she's drowning her annoyance in scholarly fascination on a subject that is, at least, somewhat familiar to her. This sort of magic wasn't hers, but the category of it was, which lead her to be curious at least.

    Raylene has been out of touch with a lot of things, but she's at least familiar with Bene and Aurelia. Hearing there's a magical ritual going on was an easy way to snag her into attending. She's just going to sit and watch, taking notes, and now looks up. "I have the Horror patrolling." And she does! Her invisible friend doing a wide circle, keeping an eye out.

    Mephy simply says, in his warbly voice, "Would you trust me with a magic mirror if I asked for one?" Clearly the imp knows he is considered an untrustworthy screw-up. "No no, the worm man." Another shudder from the imp.
    Aurelia nods towards Cagliostro. "Well, hopefully! And I'm glad you're here too, Raylene."
    Dorothy cocks her head, listening to things invisible to most others. "Oh. The Horror must be what the local spirits are complaining about."
    The mirror is on the rock, being surrounded by Mephy's chalk symbols. Within it, the blonde girl sits and watches Mephy work, waiting to be freed. She waves nervously at Cagliostro as the alchemist studies the mirror.

    Raylene can sense the unrest of the local spirits as well. Some are muttering about the Horror, as Dorothy mentioned, based on their talk. There's also... bugs under some kind of very subtle magical effect. Lots of them creeping underfoot. Benedicta can also sense something's amiss with the local insect life through her own animal-based magic abilities.

"Considering a magic mirror is how I got involved with this mess to begin with, no I don't. I still don't know where you got that from." Benedicta's still unsure where he got her original transformation device. Her horn begins to glow yellow as she notices the bugs are acting weird. "Oh crap, don't tell me Mendel beat us here...you didn't talk did you?" She glares at Mephy as she says that. Then again when would he have had a chance to? He's been in Beacon's custody after all.

    "The Familiar has a point," Cagliostro says with her less-than-wholesome grin, before regaining control of herself and putting on her more cutesy face. To Alice's reflection, she actually does look more reassuring, as despite her typical devil may care attitude, she has some sympathy for her. "Mmm, not to worry, we'll get this all sorted out. If this fails, it will just take longer, I'll have to track down some old friends." Who may not be too pleased to see her, but...

    "There's something about, yes..." Raylene agrees, noticing Benedicta getting worried. "Miss Cagliostro can continue to monitor then... I will see about putting up a ward. But it will be a hasty one, so at best it may buy us some time, depending on what they're up to."
    Raylene fishes into her satchel for some ingredients, coming up with salt and a few crushed herbs, and hops up to do a circuit around the area, trying to make a mystical ward to keep out any enchanted creatures that are too weak. It wouldn't handle anything that's a real threat, but maybe it will keep insects at bay for a bit... depending on the enchantment they use.
    Sadly, Raylene works best with a targeted objective and a lot of time to prepare, so she's not really up for something that is dedicated to breaking these defenses. It is, as she said, an attempt to buy time.

    Mephy's mustache twitches at Benedicta's accusation, but he mutters mnemonic phrases as he keeps drawing symbols around the mirror. He couldn't have been in communication with Doctor Worm, as Benedicta surmises. At the mention of the bugs acting weird, he starts trying to scrawl faster, his ludicrous tongue stuck out in concentration.
    Aurelia sighs. "Well, you might have to? Magic here is... um, -grumpy- when it's miscast or interrupted." Tim was being helped back on the Sunset Road, far away from the ritual to prevent his unskilled magic ability from causing more mischief or attracting other unwanted visitors. She edges closer to the mirror and rock, keeping an eye out.
    Raylene's impromptu ward does something. The magical senses tell Benedicta and her that the bugs cease to be controlled when they enter the area of the ward. This goes on for a bit until whomever is controlling them gets the hint. At the edge of hearing, a voice growls in frustration, and things are quiet enough for a few minutes as Mephy tries hard to not screw up the sigils for the rite.
    Just when things seem to have settled down for good, a man-shaped aggregation of worms and soil in a tattered lab coat enters the clearing wielding an obviously magical staff and starts throwing bolts of green energy at the gathered mages. "Why is it always YOU lot?!"

    Well, Cagliostro is annoyed. She was trying to watch this! This time, however, she has help! As she sees the attack begin, she moves to raise a barrier in front of Mephy, so as to keep him from getting attacked. "Ouroboros, go," she says in an annoyed tone, sending the segmented, snakelike creature that is her Familiar upward, to whip toward the worm-man. "Let's see... I believe fire would work best?" Not an actual attack quite yet, she's getting her defenses set up, and thus gets startled when a green bolt blasts right into her barrier and forces her to step back.

    Raylene is not a combatant, herself, so uh... gets smacked right in the chest with one of those bolts, sending her tumbling over! Fortunately, while she's not good at fighting, she's quite the durable girl, and irate. "NNgh..." She does sit up, but unlike the others, doesn't focus on defending Mephy, knowing her own magic is not particularly suited for that.

    Instead she stares at Mendel, glowering to all appearances as she tries to get a good look at his magic, while the Horror rushes from the side. It is still invisible even when corporeal, but when moving this fast, the footfalls and the crackle of vegetation underfoot make the approach obvious anyway.

"I could say the same thing about you, it seems we always run into you in the middle of some mad science project." Benedicta can't help but point out. "One of these days you're going to piss off the wrong person and end up as fishing bait." That still doesn't answer how Mendel knew they were going to be here.

 "Dammit, there must be a spy inside of Beacon or something. Or did he put some kind of tracking device on you?" She glares at Mephy as she says that. "Maybe some kind of parasitic worm?" She focuses on protecting Mephy rather than attacking Mendel. While she's good at dodging she can't redirect the bolts and ends up taking one aimed at the monkey. "Ow!" She cringes in pain as she's shocked.

    The tail whip slices through the gestalt of worms, the gash filling in quickly. Perhaps Cagliostro's musings of fire would prove more effective, though it gives the hostile mage pause as he assesses what the Ouroboros is, fending it off with his magical staff as best he can. Raylene can sense that Doctor Worm's magic is the same flavor as Benedicta's and that some quirk of the man's own psychology is what limits him to insects and worms instead of nature's full panoply.
    Doctor Worm snarls "A magician never reveals his secrets!" and looming large as he explodes into a wave of his constituent worms in an attempt to envelop the flying armored snake.
    Mephy looks in wide-eyed terror at the angry worm-who-walks. He gets a nudge from Dorothy to keep going. The spirit maho gathers herself and then starts gesturing, asking the local spirits to protect the imp. The ghostly forms of the otherworldly beings begin popping into sight, grasping at Mendel/Doctor Worm's disparate pieces.
    Aurelia takes a magical bolt, unprepared for Worm's sudden emergence, knocking her back a step. With a loud cracking sound, Aurelia summons her magical blade to her hand, blade glinting in the moonlight. She points it towards the worm swarm and focuses, trying to unravel a bit of the man's magic with it.

"Not to mention you seem intent on trying to ruin my life like you with Lizzie. I don't want to be your damn lab rabbit!" Benedicta's doing her best to try and keep her temper under control. Still they need to stop Mendel from interfering with the ritual. "I don't like killing, but I'm starting to think the world would be better off with you dead." The angry al-mir'aj leaps forward and extends her claws trying to hack apart the worm swarm. They'll likely regrow back but she's trying to buy them time at the moment.

    Cagliostro frowns, as most of her attention is on maintaining some kind of barrier to keep the ritual going. Yeah, fire is what she's going to try, the snakelike creature snapping at insects and writhing as it tries to shake them off. It makes a little screeching noise and whips about, and does try fire. It's not a huge blast, but a stream whipping out and trying to cut down on the numbers.

    "Fortunately, we just have to hold him off," she points out to the others. "I could try to attack, it would be a lot stronger, but..." Grumbling, she quiets down, as it looks like Aurelia has some attack plans going.

    The Horror is heading toward Mendel, but... stops short when Raylene sits up and gestures. She scoots behind Cagliostro's barrier. "Just keep it up, everyone, I have an idea. Give me a little time."

    Taking a deep breath, she subtly works on altering her original ward... she doesn't have the ability to just bar someone like Doctor Worm, but she is taking a guess at how he's keeping himself going. A little tweak here and there, and instead of keeping out minor enchantments it's a much simpler, straightforward ward... one that keeps out insects, developed to help when going camping.

    Of course, insects already here won't be affected, nor will Doctor Worm himself. She's banking on him replenishing his numbers through grabbing insects from outside the radius of the ward, so rather than hurting him she's hoping this will just make it harder for him to recover from the existing attacks.

    Hopefully he doesn't summon them extradimensionally, but she'll cross that bridge if she comes to it.

    Mendel's first instinct always was self-preservation. Benedicta and Aurelia can easily attest to the speed with which he fled confrontation. The fire, spirits, and Benedicta's claws eat away at his corpus. Aurelia's counterspelling doesn't negate his inherent regenerative ability, but retards it. Raylene's modification of her ward dramatically reduces the rate at which he can subsume new creepy-crawlies into his body, resulting in a sudden loss of Doctor Worm's biomass. Sensing he will /actually die/ if he remains, the worm man discorporates into a swarm of flies and flees the scene.
    Mephy shakily completes the symbols. "And now we need another mirror to reflect the moonlight from this mirror onto the ground." His mustache twitches as he looks at the assembled women. "... Please tell me I mentioned the second mirror?" He puts his hands over his face and groans as he realizes his latest screw-up.

Well, that's one problem taken care of but it sounds like they have another. "Wait, we need another mirror? Does it need to be magical?" Benedicta doesn't have hers anymore after all. She then has a realization, "Please tell me no..." She knows where they might find one but it could be an issue.

    "I could alchemize a normal mirror, with the materials nearby, but how high in purity do you need it to be?" Cagliostro asks. Evidently she can make a simple mirror easily, but anything fancy will of course take time and materials that may not be available.

    Of course, being who she is, the fact that Mendel just ran away isn't remarked on. She just lowers the barrier and gestures for her snake to fly over to her, and begins inspecting it for damage with a cluck of her tongue.

    Twitch. Raylene is brushing off her dress as she rises from protection, inspecting the damage. She WAS injured, after all, though at the rate she heals it will probably work out fine in a few days. Doesn't make it hurt less now. But she's twitching as she glares at Mephy now, and NOT to analyze magic. "You should always have everything ready! Else you'll end up with your mind absorbed by your target or something equally dreadful." She huffs. "Is everyone all right?"

    Mephy grombles, clearly upset. "No, not magical. Just a mirror." He tugs on his mustach with both hands in anguish. "Why am I like this?! Was it a flawed summoning? I swear I don't *MEAN* to do these things!" He jumps off the rock, clinging to somebody's leg suddenly. "What's *WRONG* with me?!"
    Aurelia dusts herself off. "I'm okay. I heal quickly anyway. A mirror? Ummm..." she makes a motion like she's fishing something out of a non-existent pocket in her heavy armor. She produces a small signal mirror, the kind one might pack when hiking. "I, uh, keep a stash of survival stuff in my pocket space. Bandages, first-aid stuff, fire-making tools, things to signal for help..." she hands the mirror to Benedicta. "I'm sure Alice will be happy to see you again." Aurelia then proceeds to produce some bandages and anti-biotic cream to help anyone who needs it.

"That's a good question...who summoned you to begin with?" Benedicta can't help feel a bit sorry for Mephy now given his reaction. Now she wonders if someone did mess up while summoning him. She takes the offered mirror and holds it in place. "Hopefully me doing it won't cause any problems, I don't want end up in there instead." She got her magic from the same means after all.

She then realizes something, "What about Alice's body? I mean is she going to come out there whole or as a spirit?" The girl looks at Dorothy as she says that. "I guess we can worry about that later, I'm sure she'll be able just to be out of there.

    Now THIS, Cagliostro can help with! "These things tend to resolve themselves," she points out. "And if they don't... well, it wouldn't be the first time I've built a body for a free soul. Just have to make sure she doesn't vanish in the interim, yes?" She doesn't have to sound so cheerful about it, does she?

    Raylene isn't the same kind of magician as Cagliostro, but she also doesn't seem so worried. "I think it trapped her corporeal form in there. If not, well... we have options, if what Miss Cagliostro says is true." Yes, still saying Miss even though Raylene looks older than Cags.

    Raylene smooths her dress one final time, then sighs. "Sounds like you and that fellow have quite a history already."

    Dorothy looks down at the mustachioed imp clinging to her leg. "That's a great question, Mephy."
    Mephy stops bawling, blinks at Benedicta's question. "Johann Faust."
    "...He was real?" Dorothy supposes she'll have to look that up later.
    Where the doubly reflected moonlight strikes the ground, Alice Mirra slowly materializes. She becomes wholly corporeal as Raylene guessed she would. Aurelia manages to catch the woman as she faints. "Uh, guess we'll need to get her somewhere to recover?"

    Cagliostro chuckles, "See? Things tend to work out in the end." Or she just suspected as such from the description of the ritual. If nothing else, Cagliostro loves to look smart, even if she's flying blind with another world's magic. She gently examines Alice, to see if she needs a little mystical pep up, but otherwise she is just going to prepare to head down the mountain again.

    "Looks like that's one matter resolved, yes?"

"I think there's a beacon outpost not too far from here, it'll have to do until we get to Redding." Sunset Road was too far of a drive for now, and they wouldn't be able to get until tomorrow night afer all. "Plus, I kind of stuck out like a sore thumb during the day." Benedicta really need to track down her doppleganger and resolve matters with her.

    "So much to do, all the time, hm?" Raylene sighs, and then has the Horror resume patrol, much as the beast grumbles faintly and can actually be heard. It was probably hoping to 'eat' Doctor Worm, but the Horror doesn't seem to NEED sustenance right now, so Raylene isn't too concerned. "Perhaps I can help with your next problem. It certainly is a nice change from the dullness of sitting at home."