World Tree MUSH

    As the group pick their way through the Commission, avoiding shattered bridges and having to take a few detours, backtracking as they find their route cut off by branches, or collapsed walkways, or machinery rubble, they eventually stumble upon an older man in a more ornate version of the outfit Awei was wearing. He looks half-crazed, hiding behind a small group of fish-like constructs, and a couple of frog-like ones that seem to be sat atop a censer, both types are freefloating under their own power. There's also a more ornate, slightly larger lion-like one sat atop a bellchime.

    As the group closes, the man speaks, "Upon Commission grounds your feet do tread! Leave from whence you came, or soon be dead! Deeeeaaaad!" He thrusts his hands toward the group, palms out as if he can push them away. "Stay away! If you come any further, I'll not spare you!"

    The ingenium constructs start making aggressive movements.

>> SUMMARY[Stelle] >> Backtracking, path-seeking. Oh hey it might be the old man they were looking for. Also, he has pet attack robots. Roll Initiative

    Detours and backtracking and windy paths, Clara is content to perch in Svarog's arms for much of the trip. It's when the group encounters the man that she hops out of the ancient construct's arms.
    'Upon Commission grounds your feet do treat' he says.
    Clara looks down at her very bare little feet.
    "... Sorry?"
    But when the constructs start getting aggressive, Svarog takes to the fore.
    "Threat index raised. Clara get back." He says before warning:
    "Stand down or use of lethal force will be authorized." At least he's warning the guy and his robots.

     The trek is anything but a simple stroll, but Talia's used to these sorts of things. She climbs and jumps with the grace and speed of a wild fathier. There's a lot that Talia makes note of as they find the old man, mostly hints of ruins that must be centuries old at least.

    When the man issues his threats, Talia sighs, "We mean no harm, but leaving is not an option for us." Her hand hovers subtly toward her lightsaber.

    "Well that isn't... um... normal." Jessica squeaks, drawing her pistol and moving up near Svarog. "Normally people aren't so uh... lighthearted about telling you to leave, right? Why do a funny phrase?"

    That doesn't mean she's going to shoot right away. It also doesn't mean she isn't ready to shoot.

    Still... she also doesn't get closer. "Why shouldn't we get closer, anyway?"

    Bi De clucks quietly and, unlike the others, makes no aggressive move. "We should heed his words for now. The man looks unwell. There may be something near that he is trying to warn us about, and earnestly trying to protect us. We should avoid making them any more aggressive." He eyes the constructs though. He won't hesitate to fight back, after all.

    "What excuses do you have? Surprise me! Just passing by? Stumbled in? Door wide open? HMM?!" that's the old man, as the constructs jitter, almost as if conflicted. "Within Commission grounds today was senw, an evil spun by hands unseen, unknown! No longer! If the security mechanisms didn't teach you a lesson, these robots will!"

    With that, the robots start attacking. The fish emit a flammable sticky fluid that sticks to, and burns through armour to weaken defenses. The toads emit a dense cloud of smoke or fog from their censers, making it harder to see, while the lion-like thing emits a roar, that accompanies a torrent of flame.

    Stelle summons her Lance, and spikes it into the ground, errecting her shield to take the brunt of the opening fussilade. March draws an ice arrow, but points it toward Svarog, causing the ice to cover over his armour plates, reinforcing them.

    "Hold on, let us explain, plea--" begins Welt, but has to duck one of the fish-bots trying to just tackle into him.

    "Get down!" Talia shoves Welt to safety behind that ice wall while her lightsaber flashes to life, the Jedi is quickly blocking energy bolts and trying to hold off the torrents of flames with the Force. She has a bad feeling this guy won't see reason, but at least these are justr drones right?

    "EEP!"

    The typical Jessica response, in two parts! Diving for cover as suddenly flame blasts out, shooting past her and narrowly missing all but her tail!

    "OW OW OW!" Her tail swatting at the ground, trying to put out the flame at the end, in a fashion that would be comical if she ALSO weren't firing bullets at the incoming constructs.

    With March's ice reinforcing his armor plating, Svarog does what Svarog does best.
    He becomes a walking tank.
    A weapon to surpass Metal Gear...
    There's a squeak as Clara rubs her eyes, stinging and burning from the smokey mist the toads release. But that's enough to earn Svarog's utter ire.
    "Get away from Clara." The construct booms and storms into melee casually ignoring attacks that chip away at March's ice surrounding his body.
    Svarog will explain with his fists.

    While aggressive, and fitted with some nasty surprises, these robotic constructs aren't actually combat models. Their frames aren't reinforced for the rigors of battle. Jessica's bullets puncture one of the fish's large clear panels, causing the liquid inside to erupt in a rush of sudden exothermic reaction.(It explodes, violently) Shrapnel spills around, causing one of the frogs to jerk, then clatter lifelessly to the floor, a chunk of metal embedded in its center of mass.

    Svarog's big metal fists find the lion, denting its faceplate in and causing the flames to catch in its mouth. It drops after a moment, and goes still.

    The remaining fish gets hit by one of March's arrows, the Six-Phase Ice freezing it solid and causing it to drop from the air with a metallic thunk.

    "Golden Cloud Toad! illumination Dragonfish! ... Are you alright? Wake up! I raised you like my own flesh and blood..." cries the old man, dropping to his knees beside the lion-like construct's wreck. "Obedient Dracolion..." he weeps, then turns angry eyes on the group. "Did you really have to destroy my little friends?! I want compensation!"

    March sighs, resting one hand on her hip, the other still gripping her bow. "If you'd listened, we'd have explained! You started this fight for no reason!"

    Stelle keeps her Lance ready, but ventures. "Are you Master Gongshu?"

    "How do you know my name, child? Does the reputation of Gongshu Liang, 'The Smelter Extraordinare' precede one?"

    The machines aren't terribly dangerous. Talia turns her saber off and helps Welt up, dusting him off. "Are you okay?" She asks with concern, before approaching GOngshu. "We're here to find you, master."

    "I've heard the name!" Jessica exclaims from... somewhere nearby. Which is true. He just said it, so she's heard it at least once! But Jessica is busy blowing on her tail tip and wiggling it. "I mean that is why we're here..."

    She pauses. "If you're the Smelter Extraordinaire can you just make more?"

    "I'm fine, Miss Kyras, thank you." replies Welt, adjusting his glasses, taking up his cane again and then making a show of dusting off his coat.

    March sidles over to Jessica, and with a very fine control, she touches the smouldering tail-tip, frosting it with a thin layer of ice, that then shatters away and drifts off as little wisps of diamond dust. It soothes, but the burned fur will have to grow back on its own.

    Gongshu blinks at Jessica's question. "Well, of course I can! But that's besides the point young lady!" he exclaims, looking ready to get his own hands dirty.

    "Please calm yourself Master Gongshu, we're just passing through on our way to the Alchemy Commission at the behest of General Jing Yuan and Master Diviner Fu Xuan. We'd appreciate it if you could show us the way." ventures Welt reasonably.

    "The General sent you? Why didn't you say so! This is all a misunderstanding... Don't worry about the Ingenium, easily fixed!" remarks Gongshu in a total flip in demeanor. "There's not much I can do to help, however. The Artisanship Commission was suddenly taken over by some evil tree demon. It seized our most precious possession-- the Creation Furnace!"

    Clara puffs her cheeks out.
    She feels kind of bad that Svarog and the others wrecked the robot critters.
    "Um."
    She opts to not point out that Master Gongshu kind of sic'd his robot critters on them without listening to reason first.
    "Maybe... Maybe I can stay behind to help fix them?" She does offer. "Mister Svarog can help with the furnace?"
    He's much better suited to kicking tree-demon butt.

    Talia is satisfied that Welt looks okay, and she bows to Gongshu. "Our deepest apologies, Master Gongshu. The moment was tense, but thankfully no harm down." She says with a pleasant smile. "I am Talia Kyras, where is this furnace exactly?"

    Huff. No harm done? Look at her tail! "Thanks!" Jessica mumbles to March before sulkily curling her tail down low, Moving over to join the others. "Yeah... we were told to help. We're trouble shooters. You can tell by all the trouble we shoot."

    She pats her pistol.

    Hopping over, Bi De clucks lightly, "Yes, please direct us to the problem. The Creation Furnace... this sounds important. What does it create and why have they seized it? What use does a tree have for such an artifact?"

    "It's a dark and powerful entity, the Ingenium... it was like they gained consciousness -- they were moving in a circle around it. I fear approaching it is tantamount to suicide!" Gongshu looks toward where the denser branches seem to be coming from, or going to it's hard to tell which. "But then, I couldn't just run away... knowing what lies sealed in the furnace..."

    Stelle sighs, resting her Lance over one shoulder. "Look, time is short. Where are we going, and who're we fighting?" she asks, directly.

    Gongshu laughs heartily. "I'm sure General Jing Yuan must have believed wholeheartedly that you could save the Artisanship Commission from this crisis!" His voice then takes that kind of seethy tone he used to start the encounter with. "Means I know of may yet serve your fight, pray you in repayment aid my plight. Come! Come on, through here~" He guides the group to an apparatus that's currently caught up in some smaller vine-like branches, they emit a strange mist from where they erupt from the metal of the platform, but don't seem to be dangerous in themselves. "Look, this is one of the Artisanship Commission's prototypes, the Shifting Screen." He chuckles to himself. "Luckily I had the students working on it, else none of them would have made it out in time."

    He continues. "You saw the Jade Gate on the way in, I assume? The Shifting Screen works in much the same way. It connects two spatial coordinates in a manner that laymen wouldn't understand."

    Maybe Clara shouldn't stay behind to fix the robot thingies.
    She purses her lips though thoughtfully.
    Because when he describes the Shifting Screen and leads the group to it...
    "So it makes a portal that leads from one point to another."
    That sounds about right.
    Svarog pats her on the head as Clara sighs.
    "Troubleshooting doesn't always literally involve shooting, Jessica..."

    Jessica looks at Clara with a puzzled expression. Then she looks at everyone else. "Right, a portal. I guess just shorter range..." She scratches at her ear, then looks at Clara again.

    "When have we had a problem that I haven't had to do some shooting at some point?" the cat asks.

    "With hope!" Talia says to the master, "We've got a habit of pulling off some dangerous things. As literal minded as Jessica can be, I'm confident."

    "I suppose that's true." Talia concedes. "Though I get the feeling you'll need a bigger gun for this."

    Bi De looks warily at the screen, then back to Gongshu. The rooster struts just a little closer, then cants his head. "You said you were working on it. That means it is unfinished? Are you certain it is safe for all of us?" His feathers ruffle. "I won't turn into some featherless monstrosity with no wings?" Okay there was a hint of humor in that tone.

    "Indeed! With limited range and energy costs aside, to every starskiff soon shall woe betide~!" remarks Gongshu. "Fear not my feathery friend, safety was my primary concern, forefend~."

    March isn't impressed. "You sure about that? Our trailblazing Space Anchors sound better." she remarks.

    Tingyun chimes in. "It's a good thing you perfect your inventions, Master! If not, the Sky-Faring Commission would have become quite redundant by now." she doesn't sound very enthused by this.

    "Ordinarily, I could've used this beauty to teleport you thither, but... Through earth and air the wretched branches boiled, the Shifting Screen entangled thence... encoiled!" Gongshu then strikes a pose as if to say 'Keep asking'

    Clara stares as she realizes something.
    "Why are you rhyming?" The child asks point blank.
    Svarog makes no comment.
    "A-anyway... So you're saying we can't use it right now because the destination is all overgrown?"

    Talia brings a hand to her face. She mutters something along of 'Force be with us' as she sighs heavily.

    "So if we can't use it why um... why are we looking at it? Is there a way to make it usable?" Jessica's tail flicks nervously. "Wait, does this involve going to someone else and trying to convince them to let us borrow some important component? Because I'm getting kind of impatient."

    The catgirl looks at Bi De. "Don't you have some sort of... I don't know... Moon Radiant Plant Remover Kick Strike or something?"

    "If you insist," Bi De says warily. "Yet it sounds as if that way is blocked. What other means do you have of allowing us to travel to the Creation Fur-"

    Stare.

    Bi De stops to look at Jessica, then finally clucks...

    "No."

    Gongshu doesn't seem to hear Clara... or he's just ignoring her... he's not a very nice person all told.

    Jessica's questions earn a guffaw. "How observant! You would make an excellent student! The Commission is more than a match for mother nature, haha! O piteous tree, who think thyself so strong, your match and more in strength to meet ere long!"

    In a blink, Master Gongshu sets up a relay system of emitters near some strange pod-growths nearby to the roots entangling the Shifting Screen. "The Luminflux Pyxis! A weapon I have developed for the Cloud Knights... however..."

    Welt interjects to finish the thought. "Limited range... Energy costs?"

    "Every light has its shadow, however it should prove more than enough for this tree demon! Fire beats wood! There's no way we can lose."

    The emitters look like they can relay a tightly focussed laser beam and are set up to be able to relay the beam through all the strange bulbs at once, if they're aligned correctly.

    Clara stares at Gongshu.
    He's... He's ignoring her.
    "... That's not very nice." She says sullen and glum.
    Svarog is suddenly radiating a killing aura.
    Clara sets a small hand on him.
    The killing aura dissipates.
    Gongshu is lucky Clara does not want him dead.

    Sigh. Jessica stares at the bulbs, and the emitter. "Okay. I guess we'll have to um... move those bulbs and... oh, why does everything have to be so complicated! If you need me to shoot other things I'll shoot them though!"

    Look, Jessica knows what she's good at.

    Talia is starting to think this professor might not have a great wisdom stat. "Looks like we're going to have to hew a tree." She murmurs with sadness. "Or at least, try to move it." Something about that doesn't sit well with Talia at all.

    Well... he isn't wrong. Fire does beat wood. Bi De's tailfeathers twitch, then the chicken sighs heavily as he views the whole plan. The chicken does look carefully at the arrangement, then back to the overenthusiastic crafter.

    "I suppose we will have to handle that."

    The problem is simple enough. Align the laser emitters so all the bulbs get hit at the same time.

    It takes a bit, but between everyone's efforts it doesn't take too long.

    Stepping through the now active Shifting Screen, the Furnace core appears... and from within a strange blooming flower, steps a stag made of the same material as the tree roots, it's baleful golden eyes staring blankly. It stamps one of its hooves, and roots breach out of the metallic decking.... but it doesn't attack, just standing guard before the flower that's blooming, seemingly, from the furnace itself.

    Talia puts the Force to good use maneuvering bulbs into place, but once the Furnace core appears, so does a boss fight. Talia activates her lightsaber and enters a fighting stance, ready for the beast. "Oh blast, it's bigger than I thought." She murmurs, waiting for the creature to make the first move. She tends to graviate towards the "Don't swing first" mentality.