World Tree MUSH

    Not even an hour ago, four monstrous creatures appeared at the Vince Guaraldi Music Hall, causing panic among the public. One lost an arm to a huge sword and fled. The rest fled as well when confronted on the roof. They were pursued by the outworlders and some native mages, by smell, sight, and blood trail, through a storm drain to a lair that was carved out of the dirt. Reinforced with makeshift brickwork and showing evidence that the creatures are intelligent, the lair lies before them. There's some sound coming from it, a howling of pain accompanying a dim flash of light and the smell of gunpowder. The plastic food coolers near the entryway, if examined, contain foodstuff that was likely thrown away from local grocery stores last night.

Serrah regards the entrance. "... you know what, I suddenly feel like I understand where Belmont's coming from a lot better," she's saying. "Except, y'know, the part where she still wants to kill me." She shakes her head. "Anyway, the only reason I'm under his command is because of an ..." She dramatically pushes aside the hair over her forehead, revealing a heart-shaped mark. "... idiosyncrasy of how I was turned."

She turns to the others present. "... So, who's charging in first?" she says in a way that somehow manages to sound simultaneously dryly sarcastic and devoid of enthusiasm.

When the group had given chase from the music hall Captain Rimehart had gone off on her own divergant path. Her reasoning being to make sure none of the creatures tried to double-back around the group. Why?

Because that's the sort of thing -she- would do if she was being chased.

But that doesn't seem to be a method the creatures are considering and eventually the vulpine sky pirate meets up with the others old and new near the entrance of the effectively shambled lair. "Looks like these blighters couldn't find a basement to take over like the last time." She shrugs, and draws her combination weapon once more. "Be on ye guard, maties. There may be more than the four we pursued down here." Charge in first? Maybe. But she's not going to do so until the rest of the group is ready. Let's not be like that one person in the adventure party that immeadiately jumps the dungeon boss before the others get to the arena.

Benedicta can kind of sympathize with Serrah, but there's not much she can do for her right now. She needs to stop the creatures before they hurt anyone. Maybe there was some way to get them back to normal. She notices the food that was recently left behind here and figures this whole thing must have been planned in advance. "Is there some way we can lure them out? They might be waiting for us to go inside?" They kind of have the upper hand being more familar with the area than the rest of the group.

    Luke was here!... eventually. News of the disturbance spread out and he rushed to see if he would offer a hand, or a paw, even just in tracking or dealing with odd creatures!. He eventually makes his way to the so called entrance, flanked by a large orange, black and cream bear with a tuft of fur that looks like fire on it's forehead!... it kind of moves a bit too much to eb fur. Three guesses what kind of pokemon it might be. The 'bear' seems to be tracking the monster scents, and the gunpowder!. Still, Luke finally gets close and sees some familiar faces, including the fluffiest pirate captain he knows!. Not the first non human wearing a pirate costume eh met, but that one was not a fluffy critter. "Oh, hey!, am I too late to help?"

    Alucard has remained with the rest of the group as they neared the lair of the creatures. However, since this is not his world -- and because he's already been given a fair amount of disdain for his suggested method of dealing with what might be humans cursed to be monsters that could be hurting non-cursed humans -- he's ceding the lead to those who seem to know the situation better.

    So for the time being he's remaining at the back of the group, watching the way they came in, since it might be their only way out. The Fairy familiar that he had summoned zips over to sit upon his shoulder as he stills.

    After the painful howl, things go very quiet indeed in the inky gloom of the storm drain. There's some quiet shuffling as a pair of shaggy shadows peer out from the L corner of the entryway to see if they'd been followed. There's snuffles and gutteral growls as they see the have been, but they don't seem quite to the point of open hostility yet. Instead they posture and bristle, snarling loudly.

Serrah glances over at Renya. "Oh, hey, welcome back," she says. "Oh, hi, Luke! Not too late at all." She frowns at the playbills on the walls for a moment, tapping her chin thoughtfully ...

... and then her head jerks around towards the newcomers. "Oh, hey!" she says in a conciliatory tone of voice, holding her hands pointedly away from the bag of baseballs.. "Sorry about, y'know, the baseball thing ..."

Just on the off-chance that talking does work in this case ...

    For a moment it looks like Alucard is going to move to attack the snarling shadows, as he turns to face them more proeprly, the Fairy giving a squeak and taking flight from his shoulder. Sword is drawn, and he faces the entrance of the lair, about to move closer.

    But then he pauses and stills, looking to Benedicta questioningly. He doesn't speak, but the look on his face is clear -- he is looking to her her for advice on what to do next.

"Luke me boy. Long time no see. And ye brought yer un-bear-able opponent to, arrarrarr!" Renya barks in laughter, but it quickly dies down as she quirks her attention back to the lair entrance and the presence prowling just inside it. Followed by a squint at the location, and recalling her past encounter with one of these things as well... The music hall, the one that had taken a 'living' radio hostage.. She smirks a bit. Her calisabre is still in hand, but it's held down to her side at ready as she sashays to the front of the entrance and sweeps the other arm up and out dramatically.

" o/~The clock stopped ticking forever ago. How long have I been up? I don't know.
I can't get a grip but I can't let go; there wasn't anything to hold onto though!
Why can't I see, why can't I see, all the colors that you see? Please can I be, please can I be, colorful and free?o/~ "

That's when she makes a half-step back to snap back that arm and bring up her weapon bearing one instead, without missing a beat in her impromptu recital. " o/~What the hell's goin on, can someone tell me please? Why its switching faster than the channels on TV! I'm black and I'm white; no something isn't right... My enemies' invisible; I don't know how to fight. The trembling fear, is more than I can take... when I'm up against echoes in the mirror! o/~"

Luke Gray is a bit cautious at following ht eothers inside, and Agni seems a bit uneasy both about hte... idea of going into a damp sewer, and the scents. It snarls back at the figures ahead of them, quite willing to accept any challenge, standing up all the way, trying to look as intimidating as it can, the fiery looking bear glowing faintly. Luke just glances back at Serrah, "What is the plan?" he asks, with a bit of nervousness, "Agni, calm down, don't make them mad.". Of course, Luke is happy to try to check on the others, for an actual strategy, "Just don't make Agni mad, he is quite... volatile." he says playfully, before adding, "I mean in the literal sense, he causes explosions."

"Do you understand us?" Benedicta wonders if there's some way they can commited with the creatures. Maybe if she had access her to her mirror and her full power it might be possible but that wasn't the case right now. Her horn starts glowing yellow as she tries to light the area, maybe they could find some evidence to help them. "See if you can find any magic items or any other way they might have transformed."

Her attention then turns Renya, "I don't think a musical number is going to help unless if you can control them through sound. Speaking of which where did Dolce disappear off to?

    The grendel watch Reyna's song and dance number curiously, seeming to relax some. In the light of the bunnicorn's glowing horn, one can see their eyes have the same sort of intelligent look that a thinking being would have. At the sound of the music, the other pair of grendel emerge from the lair, ears perked. The smell of burnt gunpowder and singed fur overwhelms the sandalwood incense, emanating from the one missing an arm. While they aren't in a threatening posture, the quartet of monstrous beings do seem a bit on edge when confronting the intruders (at least from their perspective). One nods quietly to Benedicta, touches its throat as if to say it can't actually talk back.

Serrah blinks. "Oh, right," she says for Luke and Renya's benefit. "Their ... uh ..." She decides not to specify that she and Alucard can distinguish species by the smell of their blood. "... We think they might be humans who were ..." She furrows her brow at Renya's sudden musical number. "... transformed or cursed."

When they make their intelligence really obvious, she starts to settle down, and grins. "Okay," she says. "So, uh ..." She stops. She realizes she has no idea where to take the conversation from there, or what to kind of questions to pose to people who can't talk, and she just looks at Benedicta helplessly.

They're still understandably wary but the grendels do emerge without launching into attacks. Renya smiles and lowers her weapon, sweeping the other arm down into a bow. Then asides to Benedicta as she stands up again, "Every time I've encountered these beings, there's been music somehow involved. Thought it'd be the best way to get their attention without, y'know, all guns blazin' and what not." The foxy sky pirate is a bit smarter than her bombastic attitude sometimes leads others to believe.

"You've encountered these before?" Benedicta didn't know that was Renya from the same world. Of course she would be wrong, but the al-mir'al has no one way of knowing that. "They might have used some kind of obol to transform and something went wrong. Does anyone see an odd looking coins? We might have to go further in after all." They'll need to coins to change them back if that's the case.

    The boy nods as the others explain the nature of the... creatures, and that maybe they won't be aggressive, carefully reaching to pull the fire pokemon closer. "So they are changed humans?" asks the boy, rubbing his chin, and petting the still on edge fire pokemon. "I unfortunately don't really don't know much about music, one of my pokemon can do something of tha tbut... not that great."

    As the group talks, the grendels relax more since it becomes obvious that, despite initial misunderstandings, the outsiders aren't here for violence (and Dolce likely wandered off for reasons known only to her). The apparent pack leader waves a claw as if to invite them in, with a gesture that probably means 'a bit cramped' or the like.
    If they choose to enter the interior of the lair, they'll notice that it is basically laid out with a central living area and four alcoves dug out for sleeping in. The place has been carefully reinforced, likely by trial and error, with bricks and chunks of concrete hewn into rough shapes by claw marks. A cheap LED lamp is turned on by a grendel, more for the benefit of the guests than themselves. The table is basically a wooden spool that those big bundles of cable come on, and much of the 'textile' type stuff is woven together from plastic trash. A battered radio sits near one of the bedding areas, and there's a few stashes of canned food alongside a battered satchel stuffed with various odds and ends. A portable Coleman propane-fueled camp stove is sitting in the same corner. In essence, it looks like the grendel are making do with what they can find or scavenge. Though the camp stove looks like it was well taken care of.

Serrah blinks at Renya. "Oh! You've ... met them before. Never mind me, then!" She shrugs helplessly at Benedicta; she clearly isn't sure how to handle this situation. "But, yeah, Luke, we're pretty sure they're former-humans ... and ..." She regards the Grendels. "... and ... they're acting like it, too, heh."

She pokes her head into the living space. "Looks cozy," she says. "Sure beats some of the places I've slept while running away from Vincent." As per Benedicta's suggestion, she keeps an eye peeled for anything that might be coin-like.

"See? I may be a pirate but that don't mean I solve -all- me problems with violence," Renya remarks with more than a hint of pride to her voice even as she sheaths her weapon at her side. It's rude to carry around a weapon for no reason when being invited into someone else's home. Or what passes for. She ducks her head a bit to follow the grendels in, and keeps her tail tucked behind her and out of the way of getting stepped on. She nods a bit to Serrah. "Aye. I was startin' to gather as much, 'specially with the fondness fer music they seem to have."

She leans back against the edge of the spool-table, mildly amused by it. It looks the sort of repurposed industrial furnishings the Twins would use. Tilts her tricorne a little with one hand to scratch behind an ear. "Now if only there be a way to turn 'em back. Or at least help 'em comunicate."

    Alucard is the last to enter the lair, and when he does, he remains close to the door -- again watching what could be their way out. He does give enough of a dmonstration of good faith to sheathe his weapon, however.

"If there aren't any coins, I suppose I could see if Beacon can do anything to help but I wouldn't want the cops to stumble down here and get the wrong idea. They might be able to help with your condition too, but I'm not going to make any promises." Benedicta's attention turns towards Serrah as she says that. She also looks for signs that the Obsidian Cabal or Order of Trimegustus might have been involved. "That's what I'm looking for the coins for, if they used them to transform then they should be able to use them to transform back. Then again if the coins were still here, I'm sure they would have done so on there own. Was there anyone else down here besides us?" She looks at one of the grendels as she says that.

    Luke decides to take a note on Alucard, he is not the best at negotiations, even if he does take some peeks at the multiple 'restored' and discarded things, offering polite waves to the Grendels, and making sure his pokemon just sits nearby. The mention of coins makes the boy a bit curious, but he does not ask, it seems clear enough to be related stuff.

    A grendel gestures towards the canned food and stove as if offering to cook food for the guests. 
    At the mention of coins, one pulls out a tupperware container stained from microwaving spaghetti sauce in it and shakes it, coins rattling. It eagerly opens the cointainer to let the guests see what's inside, but it seems to be legal currency (though there's a fair amount of foreign currency in there). Well, there is something of an odd coin, about the size of a silver dollar and copper in coloration. It seems to bear the symbol for Sagittarius on it, indicating to those familiar with alchemy that it is meant for softening or changing a fixed thing.
    The one-armed grendel pulls a battered leather wallet from what is probably its sleeping area and fumbles with it, setting it on the spool table eventually and opening it that way. There's a photo of a young woman and what is likely her older father, and the grendel points at the father figure with her talon.

Serrah nods to Renya in turn. "Well, glad to have that at least confirmed!" she says.

She shrugs at Benedicta. "I'm not holding my breath," she says. "The Blackheart Mark is pretty ... ingrained." She pauses as the grendels bring out the coins and the wallet. "I'll tell you more later," she says, peering at the photo. "... huh. Yyyyyep, confirmed." She has a sour expression on her face now, and she completely fails to notice the unusual coin in her distraction.

"Oh, what's this now?" It's impossible to miss the vulpine's ears perking up at the familiar jingle jangle of coins, and Renya steps away from the spool-table to make room for the grendels and their 'treasures'. The picture is touching, but no surprise her focus is on the cash. "There be more than one realm's currency in this... Oh ho." She points a clawed finger tip at the Saggitarius coin. "What be this?" Her familiarity with occult is passing, from dealing with the cults and undead back home on occasion, but that one just struck her as the most 'unusual' amongst them.

She's at least got the sense to not go grabbing a potentially dangerous cursed trinket, at least.

"Tell me about it..." Benedicta can kind of understand what Serrah's going through. After Renya digs through the tupperware container and points at the strange coin, Benedicta grabs it. "This is what we're looking for. Though I'm not sure what ritual they used to transform. I should take them back to Camino Al Atardecer regardless, it's not safe for them here. "Though, I'll have to figure out how to do that without anyone noticing." That was another problem.

    Alucard frowns, looking up at the sound of coins. The Fairy darts over to the sound, hovering above the container of change and looking down into it. "Master, this coin is familiar," she declares.

    The dhampir pauses at this and goes to look at the coins himsel... and frowns again. "...That symbol..." he mutters. But he trails off there, without finishing the sentence.

Renya Rimehart just ... gives Benedicta a somewhat flat yet vagely amused look, giving her bombadier scarf an overly dramatic flick over her shoulder with one hand. "I'm standin' right here and ye really gotta ask that question, lass?"

     The boy seems to consider for a few moments, "So, you are all saying that there might be some odd coins in the area that are... important?, any of you can describe those?" he asks softly. He moves after Benedicta to get a better look at the coin in question, "IT's good I didn't get Konya out, with my luck he might have just snagged that one coin and kept it out of sight."

    The pack leader, which seems to be distinguishable from the other three by the jingle of dog tags around its neck, seems fascinated by the dynabear. It would probably be asking a lot of questions if it could speak, given the excited look in its eyes.
    Though at the mention of someplace else, the grendel look curious, with snuffling grunts and glances at Benedicta after she mentions it. Excitedly, a pair of them empty out some of the stuffed canvas tote bags that were serving as throw pillows and put what one can assume are personal possessions inside.

"Well, I can fly, but I'm not able to carry anyone with me...okay, so I'm guessing you're some kind of pirate and don't just talk like one. Mind us staying on your ship until sunset tomorrow? The gate to Camino Al Atardecer won't open again until then." Benedicta figures it's not a good idea to stick around much longer, plus it would be nice to get out of the storm drain.

Serrah turns back to Renya and Benedicta when they find the coin. "Oh, guess that was it, then," she says softly.

She frowns at Alucard and his fairy. "What is it?" she says, peering over Benedicta's shoulder. "-- Oh, that's the astrological symbol for Sagittarius." A pause. "I'm ... not sure what the significance of that is. I can think of at least three different types of magic from where I'm from that might use that -- wait, no, four, I just remembered." She says this so casually, as if she was discussing ingredients.

She glances at Renya's scarf-flip, and finds herself with a sudden urge to add a scarf of some sort to her own wardrobe. "Guess we're moving out, then," she says dryly. "I'll probably wander off and hop a Vine before too long, myself. Need to stay ahead of the Duke who turned me."

"Renya Rimehart, Captain of the Polar Vortex. We can get ye wherever ye need be for this gate of yours." She glances over her shoulder at the grendels packing likely what little personal belongings they still have. "They'll be less.. out of place amongst me crew, anyways." And if they get antsy she can have the ship's minstrel play for them.

    The grendels help each other gather belongings, snuffling and grunting their way through the process. It's a sort of makeshift language, with plenty of gestures and body language filling in much of the gaps created by their lack of useful vocal cords. The tupperware container of odd coinage gets rummaged through and the grendel offers a few of the odder coins to the Renya. Eventually though, with the help of the guests, they'll make their way out through a much closer storm drain access and board Renya's ship in due time.