World Tree MUSH

    Rittersburg is a bit of a large town. With a poplation bordering on 5000 people of mixed races- humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, the occasional dragonborn, and a fair share of halflings, it's considered somewhat cosmopolitan for a town its size, and the people here even have a cell tower that provides the town with service. There are a couple of beat up cars that wander the streets, though most here are still on horseback and carriage as means of longer distance transportation, the sight of an elf in jeans and a casual shirt is not out of place here at all.
    Well, Rittersburg has... A problem. One that becomes apparent in how the locals don't seem to be taking very well to strangers right now. Looks of suspicion and muttered whispers are what most visitors to the town will recieve as they arrive...
    Well. One such visitor has at least made her way to the local tavern and inn, 'The Rider's Respite'...
    Princess Anna Primrose of the kingdom of Rosalia has been keeping her head low of late, sipping on a cup of tea while nibbling on a piece of bread to sate her hunger from a long day of travelling. The inn is mostly quiet, and the girl seems content to plink at some game or another to kill time on her smartphone, but before long the place will be bustling as people get out of work and travellers make their way into the inn from a long journey.
    Though the townsfolk haven't made an official request with the local Adventurer's Guild, word has been spreading about... Disappearances in the nearby forest.

    Claire hasn't heard ought about the disappearances, and though she's noticed that suspicion she's just staying for one night so she has ignored it. The Rider's Respite is still taking her business, after all. She's trying to convince the innkeeper to buy her melon. She brought just one, but it's big enough to be turned into a carriage that might bring poor stepdaughters to a prince's party.

A place like this is just what the University of Cambridge's World Tree department ordered. A horse in a town like this is hardly unusual, save that the one riding in isn't all that local.

Pushing back a wide-brimmed hat, Associate Professor Neviah Younger dismounts with a huff and a rustle of her long coat. She removes the hat and tucks it away before tying off the horse, giving it a light pat on the nose. "I will be back," she assures gently before turning inside, a notepad in hand.

In a town of such small size, she's probably conspicuous, if only because she's not local. Easing into the tavern and brushing back long dark curls, she makes her way towards a table, looking off towards the innkeeper but declining to approach for now given that said businessman seems preoccupied with someone else. She settles for pulling a chair back and settling in quietly, laying a notepad in front of her.

For now, she makes observations. She's quiet about it. This is not unusual for her.

    Though Yumi Tachibana isn't officially An Adventurer(tm), she keeps her ear to the grapevine, so to speak. She has her responsibilities to Natsuto, but if she can get away from the city to handle a nearby problem without too much fuss, she will. And at least her clothing blends in here, somewhat. Though even with a modernish look, the magical girl can feel the suspicious stares from passersby.

    Neither Claire nor Neviah are people she recognizes - but once she steps into the inn to have a look around, she'll spot someone she does know. "...hm? Oh, Anna. Hello," the redhead greets, sliding into a seat at the princess's table. "You here about the disappearances too?"

    The journey for the answer never stops, and neither does the alchemist known as Fullmetal. As much as travelling to different worlds was still surreal to the young man, Ed had to admit that the variety of worlds to experience was nothing short of awesome. And so, as he steps into a new world in his pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone, he finds himself in a world that feels... strange. Advanced, yet familiar and not so advanced as Amestris at the same time. He wasn't sure what to make of the place, but as he enters the city of Rittersburg, the atmosphere changes for him. It feels... heavy. Oppressive. Fullmetal, one might say. He can feel eyes of all sorts on him, and he pulls up the hood of his cloak to help shut out any voices. The last thing he needed to hear was a short joke right now, and he was sure that it would come up if he didn't keep mobile. His golden eyes rake back and forth, hands firmly in his pockets as he moves. 

    An establishment catches his eye, one that he knew would contain answers and was always sure to be a source of information if Youswell had taught him anything: a tavern. He seems to light up slightly, then makes his way inside, pulling his hood off and shaking out his long blonde hair. Making sure to keep his cloak fastened, his eyes take in the tavern, his face falling slightly as he examines those around him. What sort of information could he expect to turn up in a place like this? 

    And was that... a massive melon? The alchemist's eyes go wide, but he approaches the bar nonetheless, plinking down a gold coin down carefully with his left hand. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know any weird rumors around here, would ya pal?" he asks, loudly enough that those assembled could likely hear him as well. Which, of course, is part of his intent, the gold glittering on the bar as he looks sidelong at the person with the melon. "Where the hell did you even get a melon that big?" he asks, "No way that's naturally grown."

    That... That is a huge melon.
    Needless to say the innkeeper is a little flabbergasted, but he's willing to haggle for it and names a pretty fair price for a melon of such size before the innkeep; a halfling man, approaches Neviah to serve her and then to welcome Edward in.
    Neverthless as people start to filter into the tavern, Anna glances up. Claire she recognizes and the farmer gets a wave, but then Yumi settles in at the princess' table.
    "Ah, Yumi, hi." She greets before giving a shake of her head.
    "I was mostly just passing through. I heard about the trouble the town's been going through but I need to keep my head down. Because of reasons. But knowing my luck, I'l probably get roped into things here."
    Reasons tht Yumi will know fully well enough by now when it comes to Anna's demon problem.
    That's about when the door to the inn slams open, and a squad of tired, haggard, town guard drag themselves in. They look like they've been through hell and back, and they settle into a table where they slump, sag, and otherwise look like they haven't had proper rest in days.
    Trailing behind them is a woman- an elf, and she looks to be at wits end.
    "Please..." She begs. "Please...! You can't stop the search. My little Meira is still out there, please don't call off the search!" She says, practically throwing herself sobbing onto the guard squad's table, fumbling in her purse to pull out a smartphone, she pulls up a picture. "This is her- please don't stop looking for my baby."
    Anna's lips purse into a thin line.
    She might have just gotten roped in.

    'the disappearances'

Neviah lifts her eyes with a small, pensive frown. She /had/ heard about the differences. They were what made this town stand out among a dozen other towns with ties to a particular branch of the Tree.

The approaching halfling is met with a faint smile and a slight dip of her head. "Do you have a riesling available? That would be nice, please." She delicately lays a few coins on the table before her gaze drifts back to Anna and Yumi, catching snippets of conversation.

At least until the door slams open. Neviah starts and sits up straighter, her hands moving to her lap as she blinks quickly. The elf woman's panic is clear and palpable, leaving the dark-haired professor to close her mouth and catch her lower lip between her teeth. After a moment, she pushes her chair back and eases away from her table.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," she puts in - she has a relatively low-pitched voice, her natural huskiness offset by a touch of a high British accent that softens things a little. "But I'm an explorer, of sorts... is there some way I can help? Where did you last see her? Perhaps if others joined the search...."

    Disappearances, a guy asking about rumours. Claire's looking around at these words, on edge now. But first, the question. "A genuine Getaway Farm Mega Melon, how to grow one of these beauties is a trade secret, but they are as delicious as they are huge, and the magic that's infused them makes sure they don't go bad." She makes her sales pitch, though she just closed the deal with the innkeep. "I'm Claire, owner of the Getaway farm, farmer and adventurer." She says the latter loudly.

    She heads over to the Elf, and looks at the picture. "Can you tell me what happened, Ma'am? I can make no promises, but I'm a licensed adventurer and looking into things like this is part of the job." She nods to Anna, "Hey."

    Needless to say, Yumi's head turns at the sound of the arriving guards. She'd almost be inclined to go back to her conversation with Anna, but then the elven woman comes in.

    A woman with a missing child is pretty much perfect paladin bait. And Yumi might as well be a paladin.

    "...I don't know about you," she says to the princess, "But I think I just got roped in." In the next heartbeat, the senshi is standing up out of her chair, adjusting her bag on her shoulder a little as she falls in behind Neviah and Claire. "I don't have any official licensing or anything, but I'm no stranger to this kind of situation." Both Claire and Neviah have already asked after the situation, so she just falls silent to listen to any response.

    Edward looks at the melon, then at Claire, then back to the melon. "Magic..." he says, a bit of a scoff in his voice, "Still can't believe that's actually a thing..." He shakes his head, finger still resting on his coin as he looks around. Someone taking notes, a couple of people talking at a table... and then what appears to be the town guard crashing in with a woman frantically at their heels, trying to find her daughter. His eyes immediately go wide for a moment, before he calms himself down and leaves the coin; he's distinct enough that he figures the barkeep will remember him and get him a meal later. 

    As the rest of those that stood out begin to congregate, the alchemist crosses his arms, skirting around the crowd and toward the door. "Bunch of people going missing under mysterious circumstances, huh? Sounds like the town guard around here is useless." He glares over at them, then opens the door. "Just point in the right direction, lady. Turns out that might be the best lead I've had in months."

    A woman with a missing child is pretty much perfect paladin bait, huh?
    Well the paladin rises... So too does the barbarian princess.
    "I think I did too." Anna replies to Yumi as she joins the assembling group.
    The guard captain looks EXHAUSTED and this woman is probably not the only person to have lost someone recently.
    "Please, Mina." He says as gently as he can muster in spite of his fatigue. "My men and I are exhausted. We've been searching for Meira for three days now, on TOP of all the other disappeared persons." He sighs. "I have men and women scouring the woods in shifts through the day and night, just let us have a minute to breathe before we go out there again."
    Sounds like the the town guard here isn't all that useless as Ed assessed, but they are exhausted.
    That's where a plucky squad of adventurers come in.
    "... We won't mind the help looking for the missing folk, just try to not go missing yourselves. We're stretched thin as it is." The guard captain replies to Neviah and Claire.
    This is when the beleaguered elven woman flips through her phone to pull up a relatively recently taken picture of a dark-haired half-elf no older than eleven or twelve to show the group.
    "M-Meira was last seen playing with her friends at the forest's edge three days ago. She has a coral hairpin that she never leaves home without. You can't miss it when you see her. They've all gone missing since. Please help us."
    So it looks like the party has been assembled. Paladin, Barbarian, Alchemist, Scholar, and Farmer... And after the guards have had a moment to rest, the captain leads the party to the edge of the woods where the children were last seen.
    "Kids aren't the only ones missing." He says... "Some older folk are gone too."
    With that said Anna takes to a knee and starts inspecting the ground.
    "There was a struggle here."

Neviah presses her lips together firmly. She's no paladin by any means - she's only got a notepad in plain sight, though there's a large case resting under the table she sat down at. She's left it for now, reasonably content no one will try to break into it.

For all that her outfit's something from a time well before the smartphone, Neviah leans forward to inspect the little screen as though she's entirely damiliar with such devices. "The forest," she murmurs, hands coming to rest at her thighs. "This place is close to parts of the world with deep roots. I wonder what they might have found there...." Trailing off, she looks towards the guard, taking a quick note at the mention of others going missing.

Fortunately it seems there are others willing to take up the exploration, too. Neviah blinks and straightens as Anna begins to inspect the ground, moving quickly to kneel by her. She slips a lens of some sort out of her coat pocket, leaning close and squinting to try and make out anything else of interest where she's looking.

As she inspects, she explains a bit further: "I've been studying places like this for the University of Cambridge. This is not the first time I have run into this sort of mystery. I will be glad to help any way I can."

    As they walk, Claire reaches into her backpack and gets out a slingshot and a set of red orbs. She attaches them to her belt for easy access. "I'm Claire." She reintroduces herself to the group. "Cambridge, I think I've heard of that before. It's one of those fancy schools in America right? Like Oxford?" She might not know the difference between America and England. With no crime scene investigation skills, she takes a good look around but doesn't seem confident she'll spot anything.

    Useless, overworked. All the same to Ed. He's not too concerned with what the local authorities think of him, though he's not completely without sympathy for their plight. "Just take it easy for awhile," he says, voice sounding mildly sarcastic though it's clear there's something else to it as well. He offers a wave, then follows the rest of the group that has apparently assembled for this mission, hands in his pockets as he walks. 

    At the forest's edge, he allows Anna to take point on the investigation, though his own eyes look around trying to spot anything that might look like a clue. "Well, at least they put up a fight," he says quietly, kneeling down and pressing a hand into the dirt. At the mention of a university, Edward turns his gaze toward Neviah, offering a small smile. "A scholar, huh?" he asks, "Seems like an odd thing to be studying. What are you really trying to find?" He's a blunt one, after all, and while he doesn't really expect an answer, he does keep his ears open for one as he looks around, feeling along the ground. "Do you know what kind or how big a struggle?" he asks, his voice suddenly a lot more serious, his hair swaying a bit in the breeze as he stands up, dusting himself off. "Name's Edward," he offers after Claire introduces herself, noting the word America and filing it away. "Man... I wouldn't be caught dead playing around here," he adds, "You're just asking for trouble."

    "It'll be fine," Yumi says to the guard captain, adopting a cheery smile. "Can't speak for the others, but I'm a magical girl. This sort of thing is what I do." She gives Ed a curious look, but both she herself and Anna are young folks getting involved in some dangerous business, and he looks like he knows what he's doing. "Yumi Tachibana," she introduces, giving the alchemist a lazy salute.

    As everyone arrives, Yumi takes a step to one side. The trackers are doing their tracking, the professor is putting her knowledge to work... Yumi herself has a different set of skills, though. The skills of a warrior, and a magical girl. She puts both to work; as a warrior, she can listen, trusting her ears to tell her of any strange sounds that seem out of place for a forest. She might not know the animals and usual wildlife of this area, but if there are people or large monsters wandering around, she can at least hear those.

    And as a magical girl, Yumi has another sense entirely. It's fairly specific, sure. But if there is any magic within a sizeable distance that distorts reality, she'll know.

    Anna spends a moment going over the scene with Neviah. The trail is three days old, but between the two of them they should be able to find something, right?
    Right?
    "It wasn't much of a struggle." Anna says. "But there are drag marks and furrows in the ground, and from the way the grass has been disturbed, someone much larger dragged someone much smaller away." She explains to Ed. "Think you could help me follow the trail?" She asks of the scholar.
    At least before actually introducing herself, anyway.
    "I'm Anna. Of Tribe Weaseltooth."
    Funny. The frilly dress she wears that's in perfect condition doesn't make her seem much of a tribal kind of person.
    Still, she starts heading into the woods.
    Funny thing though.
    Yumi will probably feel a niggling little tingle.
    As the party progresses into the forest with the sun setting, things start to get... Quiet.
    Too quiet.
    Eerily quiet.
    That sense of distortion will flare in the distance-- before something is flung into the midst of the party- a bottle with an inky black substance inside it. And as soon as it hits the ground and shatters, the party is bathed in sudden, blinding, darkness.
    "--Ambush!"
    There's movement in the darkness, two figures lunging in and out, taking swipes in passing at various members of the party with long, sinuous, whip-like weapons.

"In Great Britain, actually," Neviah explains with a tilt of her head towards Claire.

Her gaze dips towards Edward; she pushes her spectacles up with a delicate touch. "I study the integration of old branches of the Tree. I am investigating this one in particular. Tracing back what we see today to what was here before can tell us much about how worlds connect over time."

She nods as introductions are exchanged. "Dr. Neviah Younger. It is good to meet you all, then."

There's more than one lens in her pocket. Neviah switches to a couple more during the course of the investigation, nodding along with Anna's ultimate conclusion. "Quite unwillingly, I am afraid...."

They get going. Neviah left her horse at the post and her case hanging from the saddle, but she took out the only thing in it: A Snider-Enfield rifle, a mid-1800s breech-loader, which she handles at least /somewhat/ professionally.

Things are quiet. Uncomfortably so. Unspeaking, the professor keeps to the back of the group, squinting into the darkness.

Until something is thrown. With a hiss of breath, Neviah recoils, shielding her eyes with one hand. She can't shoot like this, and someone's able to lash out and tag her, leaving a whiplike cut across her thigh. Voicing a startled yelp, she recoils, eyes darting instinctively towards the source of the attack.

"Light!" she calls out as she flicks her free hand out - and from her fingers, a bolt of pale white light lances. It's not all that damaging, but it shoots into the darkness with the brilliance of a tracer.

Whatever it hits, the Guiding Light spell will /cling/ to - lighting it up for others to strike.

    "Oh I thought Britain was part of America, don't you also speak English?" Claire sounds confused, "My farm's near Pelican Town in the Ferngill Republic. I don't do anything fancy, really." The Ambush happens, and Claire reacts to the throw by drawing her sword, reflexively swiping at the whip-like weapon as it comes for her.

    From the moment Yumi senses something - not hears or feels, but senses, in that way only a senshi can - she transforms. A flare of light, a set of magical girl's armor taking shape, and in half a heartbeat, the redhead is stepping to the fore. "Everyone, be on your guard. I'm sensing some kind of reality-warping. It's faint, but..." But it tells them something is up.

    Even before the bottle lands, Yumi feels something distort, something twist. In the next instant, she's holding her massive runeblade, adopting a guarded stance with it. "Something's comi-" And then it lands, and there is darkness.

    Neviah will not be alone in producing light, though the Senshi of Sunlight doesn't have any tracking spells. Instead, however, she produces a great deal more of it, flooding her greatsword with magical sunlight. First the runes, then the entire blade light up - and while the attacks come in from blind angles, and Yumi grunts in pain, she's made of incredibly tough stuff. The blows don't even seem to shake her.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Emitting bright magical sunlight, tanking the attacks.

    Edward nods. "So we're dealing with some nasty people then," he says solemnly. They'd have to be to abduct kids, after all, and while he seems calm on the surface Ed is ready to find these people and bring them to justice. He resists showing off any of his abilities for the moment, however, straightening up and falling into step. He nods as others begin to introduce themselves, then turns his attention on the forest in front of them. Whatever's waiting in there, it's dangerous. Luckily it looks like this group is capable. 

    As they progress, he feels the unnatural silence falling around them, his heart rate increasing in spite of his will as he continues forward. The arc of a bottle catches his eye, but far too late as it smashes into the ground. And then he's blind, and that's never a good state. He grimaces, then grunts out as he feels a lash against his right leg, his pants tearing at the calf where the weapon struck. He growls, then focuses on the lights as they begin to flare into life, allowing him to get his bearings. He tries to follow the angle of the attacker that had struck him, then claps his hands together, sparks flaring around his hands. "Alright, assholes, let's see what you're made of!" he cries, before slamming his hands into the dirt, sending a spire of earth to rocket forward from his position, hurtling through the darkness toward his unseen attacker.

>> SUMMARY[Edward Elric] >> Alchemical Style: Earthen Ramrod

    The sudden flare of Neviah's Guiding Light cuts through the darkness. And then Yumi dispels the midnight black, completely, almost instantly to reveal...
    Three creatures; humanoids with goat-like heads and horns. They wield spears and lash out with their barbed tails, but with their cover of darkness gone, they are immediately much more defensive.
    Not that it helps them, with one lit up like a Christmas tree and the other two forced to leap away thanks to Claire's sword and Ed launching the earth itself at them, catching one in the chest with the sound of cracking ribs.
    "... Bulezau..." Anna practically snarls as she unslings her axe from her back. "*Demons*...!"
    In an instant the girl's blue eyes turn a bloodshot shade of red as she lunges in, hacking her silvered axe into the side of one of the demons, causing it to squawk in pain, while the others lash out with their tails and spears.

    Yumi's sunlight proves more effective than she'd expected. But she's certainly not complaining. "Alright, I'm going to give you the warning up front. Surrender, put down your spears, and tell us where the kidnapping victims are. You don't, this goes badly for you."

    She's not naive enough to just stand back and wait; especially not with Anna going on the attack. There's no stopping the princess when she gets like this. So instead, the knight of sunlight whips Prominence around herself, and then dives into the attack herself. It's a sweeping, powerful style, but certainly not slow; she moves with superhuman might and speed, stepping and striking like an advancing siege engine, with the runeblade trailing little wisps of fire as her magic suffuses it.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Ultimatum, followed by magic sword.

    Claire takes a step back when others close in, sheathes her blade and pulls out her slingshot. She grabs a red orb, pulls back her slingshot, presses the button on the orb and aims for the ground right behind the demons, it'll explode on impact.

The light reveals what's attacking. Neviah's cheeks go a little paler than they already are.

It's clear enough that most of the others in the group are far better equipped to fight this battle than she is. Withdrawing a little ways, the scholar fusses with her rifle, feeding a bullet into the breech with a slight fumble, yet managing to get it into place mainly because the demons are on the defensive right now. It is no doubt tough for them to clobber her when Edward, Claire and Anna are in their faces.

The latter especially. Neviah opens her mouth in momentary surprise as the girl lunges with more ferocity than a tiny princess ought to show.

"Be cautious! Bulezau demons are hardier than they look," she exclaims as she hoists her rifle and maneuvers, trying to take aim around the array of close-range fighters in the group. Squinting through her glasses, she eventually settles on the further back of the two bulezau.

She squeezes the trigger. There's a loud bang and a flicker of muzzle flash as Neviah tries to put a bullet centre-of-mass into the farthest bulezau in the bunch.

    Edward straightens up as he hears his pillar connect, looking with a moment of concern before seeing what they're up against. Once he realizes they aren't human, his mind goes into overdrive. What... what the hell? Oh, demons! Well, that means he doesn't have to worry about going all out, then. He grimaces as he looks down at his leg, before clapping his hands together again and placing his right palm against a tree, lining up an attack with one of the bulezau before flinging his arm toward it, the wood seeming to cling to his glovetips as he throws a roughly-shaped but sharpened spike of wood toward the demon he had injured with the pillar. He looks around at his teammates, noting Neviah with her gun, Claire with her slingshot, and... what kind of sword glows like that? An axe also makes sense, and as he lets his javelin fly he follows it, ready to follow up if anyone needs backup.

    Yumi gives an ultimatum. One that the remaining two demons pause to ruminate on. It's very brief before they begin cackling. The party won't be getting an answer from these demons.
    Everything that follows is frantic. Claire's slingshot strikes true, her explosive ammunition staggering one of the demons as it kicks up dirt and mud with its explosive force, as the *crack* of Neviah's rifle sounds off, the bullet slamming another dead center in the chest of another.
    Ed and Yumi harry one of the monsters, flung javelin and the powerful swings of Prominence putting the Bulezau on the back foot as it tries to fende them off with its spear only to lose an arm in the process as its weapon is cleaved.
    The Bulezau... Turn to flee, bailing as fast as they came, clutching their wounds and growling as they rush into the dark of the forest.
    ... Two of them anyway.
    The third... The third uh... Anna is busy with that one; having embedded her silver axe in its side, the holy metal causing the wound to smoke and smolder, the demon howling as the tiny princess pounces. It flails, struggling to throw her off as she uses her fists to-
    Oh.
    Oh. She just crushed its skull with her bare hands.
    It takes her a second to rally after that, picking herself up, breath slowing as her eyes remain bloodshot for a beat longer before she takes a calming breath.
    "... Whatever trail we had, they probably just ruined it. Ugh."
    Wiping her bloody hands on her cloak, she then rubs her face.
    "Let's head back to town. There's more here going on than just some missing people if there are demons involved. I'll snoop around for a few days and see what I can figure out."

Things become a blur. For all that Neviah's delved her share of ruins, it's rare that she has to shoot to kill. The Bulezau flee - not dead, at last two of them.

Until Anna crunches the last one. Neviah cringes and looks away, concealing a look of horror behind the high cut of her collar.

She looks back after a moment and winces, still pale in the face even as she lets her rifle barrel touch the ground. "...I will investigate as well," she says, her voice a little thinner and less confident. "If... if there are bulezau dwelling here, there may be... something they are after, here specifically. Either way, it... it warrants further study."

    As his last attack strikes home with the magical sword, he laughs as they begin to retreat, straightening to his full height as they do. He watches Anna as she handles the last, wincing at the cracking as she shatters its skull. Bare-handed. "Y... yeah, they ruined it. We'll go with that..." He falls silent, realizing he was going to need this berserker's help to get back out of the forest and back to town, his golden eyes darkened with thought and concern as they do so. 'What do they put in the water around here?' he thinks to himself, shaking his head and allowing his long bang to sway.