World Tree MUSH

Deep within the deserts of a calm and peaceful world, the veins of cupper run rich but also deep. Harvesting the copper is hard and dangerous work, but advanced in magitech have allowed the miners to work safer, deeper and faster. At least, so long as the machines work. Normally not an issue, the owners of the mine know a happy worker is a productive worker; and that industrial accidents are bad for insurance rates. So maintenance is taken seriously.

No-one expected the expensive Aether Oil to get stolen, however. The miners are loyal company men, and they need that oil to do their job; and of course, since it's stolen deep within the mines, there's no way for them to smuggle it out.

The local constabulary has taken a look around but quickly got stumped. As such, the company has requested offworld assistance; offering a modest bounty for any oil recovered and any culprit caught alive (provided sufficient evidence is provided.) Foreman Whyll Dugg, a fifth generation company man, is receiving the offworlders in his office.

    Uni's here. She arrives with her Shinki sat on her shoulder, holoscreen open to take notes. The black-haired young goddess enters with a knock, "Hello. I'm Uni, you requested assistance with an investigation? What do we know so far?" she asks, stepping out of the doorway to let others enter while folding her arms.

    Strictly speaking, Yumi is not a mercenary type. But a situation like this is the sort of thing that attracts her attention; it's pure 'working people now unable to work, possible danger in resolving the situation'. If it turns more complicated, she can try and mediate or investigate her way to a solution, and she can always donate anything excess from the bounty to a charity of some sort.

    Shortly after Uni steps through the door, she's followed by Yumi, dressed for desert weather a full-body cloak with hood, actually, but she's wearing it over relatively normal long-skirt long-sleeves summer outfit. Protection from the sun's rays is important. "Yumi Tachibana," she greets, pulling the hood back, "I'm here for the same. I know I don't look like much, but I promise I can handle any trouble we run into."

    Duncan is there too, though he's mainly acting in the capacity of muscle in case stuff goes pear-shaped. Thusly, while he joins others in the office, he stands towards the back of the group, near the door. He's wearing his armor, with helmet on, since he's not expecting to do the diplomatic business this time around. He's just here to look scary and hit things that cause trouble!

    Yumi doesn't arrive alone.
    Right after Yumi arrives in the foreman's office, Rydia of Mist steps in, a thin mist swirling around the girl as she peeks inside.
    "I'm with her." She says curtly, motioning at the older girl.

    Emily Nyx comes in behind Yumi and Rydia, in the form of a woman in her thirties wearing a midnight-blue business suit. With glowing purple eyes. And four arms. And hair so black, it looks like a rip in space, or a graphical glitch.

    She stands back with Duncan. "Investigation isn't my strongest suit," she says, "but I can do it. And I can certainly vouch for Miss Tachibana here." Her first meeting with Yumi had involved an incident in which Yumi demonstrated being able to think faster and deeper than Emily about the implications of the situation before them.

"Thank you all for coming." The foreman sits up straight, bags under his eyes but a welcoming smile on his face. "Before we start, I don't know how much the company is paying you; and I don't want to know. Neither do the others. That is between you and my bosses, understand?" He seems serious about that, clearly expecting it to be brought up.

"I've been briefed not to judge an offworlder by their appearance, so I shall not, miss Tachibana." He gestures to his chest, where he wears a name badge. "As it says, I am Foreman Whyll Dugg. I've been asked to receive you, answer any questions relevant to the case, and show you around." He nods to Uni, "Not a whole lot, I fear. The miners hadn't seen the oil disappear, so we began to post guards. Then the guards didn't see anything on account of mysteriously falling asleep on the job. I chewed out the first two, but after the third... well, I suspect foul play. In the interest of expediency, you can ask the rest of your questions while we head into the mine, so follow me please."
He heads out of his office and begins to walk towards a large gate in the side of the mountain, waving to one of the crewmen stationed there, who begins pulling levers and things begin to whirr, clang and buzz. "For your safety, I must insist any of you who aren't wearing helmets to put on one of those." He points to sturdy looking helmets of an unfamiliar looking metal, each with a glowing blue light coming out of the front. "For those of you who have helmets of your own. If you don't have your own light source, there'll be some when we get down."

    Duncan and Emily are both familiar faces Yumi knows she can rely on; with Uni and Rydia there too, it's a solid team. That's good. No telling what could have happened to all that oil. "Understood," Yumi replies to the foreman, folding her hands politely in front of herself and listening. Don't talk about the fee, just the job. And the job... well, it already sounds fishy. Guards starting to fall asleep on the job in a way that suggests outside influence? That could be tough to deal with. "No signs of drugged food or knockout gas or anything like that, I take it? No obvious way they could have put the guards to sleep?"

    The helmets draw a curious look from Yumi; but she decides that's a good a cue as any to transform, and then does so, in a quick shimmer of light and sparkles. The magical girl holds up her index and middle fingers together, and her fingertips start to glow a warm, sunny gold-white. "I'm good, thanks. I'll leave it for someone who needs it." Technically, her head is probably harder than one of those helmets right this moment.

    Duncan moves to follow the group once Dugg starts to lead them down to the mine. He does have a helmet of his own, so it should be reasonably safe for him. But yes, a light source is still needed. And he does have a question, as much for if there should be combat as for use of his abilities to create a light source. "Should we avoid using fire inside the mine?" he inquires. He's not familiar with the particulars of mining -- maybe something's flammable. Maybe the Aether Oil is flammable.

    Rydia puts on a helmet.
    The inherent problem with being as young as she is means that helmet does not fit her and slides right down her head to cover her eyes completely. This gives the small Summoner a moment of pause before she grouses and lifts the brim enough to see where she's going.
    "That sounds sketchy." The Summoner mutters on hearing the guards fell asleep on the job, peering at Yumi's deeper speculations. Oh hey there's Duncan, too.
    Duncan's very question makes the girl clear her throat, but Rydia holds her tongue.
    Consider this a rare gift that she does.

    Uni nods a bit. "Guards falling asleep before a theft. Any puncture wounds on them? Signs of tranquilizers? If not may be magical in nature." The goddess turns to follow the foreman as Bravette makes notes. Uni does look at Yumi as the same thought seems to go through the other's mind as well.

    She looks at the helmet, then shrugs and puts one on, clipping it in place. Bravette summons her own helmet, and activates a pair of little lights.

    Emily glides forward, her body unmoving, as if there were wheels hidden under the soles of her feet. She accepts the helmet, and promptly starts giggling for a moment before her expression settles back into her typical amused and faintly smug smile. She considers this, and then a glowing white flower called a lunar tear materializes over the helmet's lamp in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter; it projects a (holographic) glow which is markedly more ghostly than the light which the lamps are supposed to produce, and just noticeably slightly less bright.

    "My gut says that magic is the cause of putting them to sleep, rather than tranq darts," she says, nodding to Yumi and Uni. "... I should learn more magic. But ... hmm. The fact that Mr. Digg had to suspect foul play, rather than jumping to that conclusion in the face of immediately-obvious evidence ..." She shrugs. "The signs left by magic ... tend to vary. If a spell is cast by someone from another Blossom, you might not know what to look for."

"The constabulary already looked into any possibility of poisoning. They took some blood samples and ran it through one of their new fangled machines, nothing unusual apparently." Foreman Dugg answers immediately, "So they said they were pretty sure it wasn't some kind of poison. No sign of monoxide either, which is normally what I'd suspect if a bunch of miners all fall asleep in the same place."

The gate opens and a large industrial scale elevator is inside, with room for at least a hundred people and several carts full of things. "No puncture wounds either." Dugg answers Uni as he puts on his own helmet, and once everyone is inside; he calls out, "This is going to be a bit fast, we're going deep, so it may feel like you're falling for a bit. That's normal, don't get worried." He yanks on a chain four times, and then the elevator begins to accelerate, going up to a full speed of roughly twenty miles per hour by the time it stops accelerating after half a minute; and it doesn't slow down until two minutes later, taking another half minute to decelerate. "Welcome to mine layer fifty, one mile underground. For the taller ones among you, watch where you're going so you don't run your head into anything."

As they come out, he directs to a supply of lamps that clip into a pocket or the collar of clothes. "As for fire, for the most part you should be safe. Aether Oil is mildly flammable but not enough to be a major safety hazard. Sometimes we run into gas pockets, however, and while the gas ain't toxic and there's usually not enough to impede with breathing, it does get highly flammable when mixed with the air. The lights on the helmets and which I've distributed go from blue to red if they detect the gas. So if they're red, don't use fire unless you have a death wish."

"Now, the main Aether Oil supplies used on this layer can be fo--" Foreman Dugg pauses and sighs, "Well I suppose that makes things easier for you. They are supposed to be in that empty vat that Seann is sleeping next to." He approaches the guard and glances to the offworlders, "Want me to wake him up?"

    "I can fly, so I'm used to the feeling." Uni says to the falling comment.

    Once they reach their destination and find the sleeping guard, Uni looks to her Shinki. "Area search, look for tracks, map paths before anyone gets in the area." she says. The Shinki nods, and launches into the air, summoning her armour and flicking her sensor package down over her eyes. <"Beginning Scan. Standby.">

    "Anyone have the ability to sense magic? There should be some traces if there was a spell put on him... lets get preliminary data before disturbing the area."

    Yumi gives Emily a brief nod, her expression thoughtful. "Yeah, I'm on the same wavelength, I think. But I'm not looking for signs of what caused it, so much as I am what we need to look out for. Knowing there's magic involved tells us what we might be in danger of." And from the sound of it, there's no evidence of anything else, so they have to assume the supernatural.

    The elevator ride is a bit of a surprise at first, but Yumi adapts quickly enough, and when they arrive at the bottom, stepping off smoothly. However, shortly after she disembarks, Dugg mentions something important - 'don't use fire if the lights turn red'. Blink. Blink. For Yumi 'walking miniature sun' Tachibana, that is very, very pertinent information. He probably gets to see a sheepish look in her eyes as she takes one to clip onto a spot on her armor.

    When Uni asks about sensing magic, the magical girl shakes her head faintly. "Not really. I can detect one very specific kind, but that's it." She does, however, take a step or two forward, crouching down to manually look over the ground for tracks. Because of course they'd stumble in on the scene of the latest crime.

    Duncan does give an apologetic look in Rydia's direction. Though the fact that the top of his face is obscured might make that difficult to tell. The softening of his mouth and chin might be enough to give it away though. And he miiiiight be smirking a little at how the helmet falls over her eyes.

    In light of Dugg's answer regarding fire (no pun intended), Duncan chooses to forego his own method and to use one of the offered lights. The additional ability to tell when there's gas in the area will be useful, if nothing else. "Thank you," he offers, as the lights are distributed. Though he doesn't have pockets to clip the light onto, so he rigs up a lanyard around his neck and clips the light to that. He almost always has leather strips, after all.

    The sight of the sleeping guard gets a frown. "I take it it's happened again." It's not a question, but still phrased where there's room for correction. As for waking him up? "I doubt he remembers anything," he offers.

    Sadly, Duncan doesn't have a way to sense magic, and he's not expecting there to be much in the way of tracks in stone. For now he stands guard in case this crime isn't over and the perpetrator decides to get violent.

    Emily spends the duration of the rapid descent standing upside-down on the ceiling, still with that smile in place. She accepts the lamp, materializes a belt around her waist, and clips it on there.

    She raises her eyebrows at the sight of the sleeping guard. "Well, well, well," she says, rising off the ground and floating forward. "I can probably detect if magic has been cast on him ... but not in detail." she adds under her breath. "But his attackers presumably made the spell to last, if they want him sleeping through whatever they're up to." She doesn't mention that she's probably immune to sleep-magic, just in case the attacker is listening in and tries to cast it on her.

    Her eyes start glowing blue, and she sends out a quick scan, just checking for the presence of magic. And whether there's any detectable trace leading towards or away from the man.

    Having spent enough time around Dark Knights, Rydia is able to read them a bit better than most, especially with those dark and foreboding helmets and general broody demeanor. It's simple body language, really, and she's picked up on enough to understand Duncan's apologetic look.
    So it's down the elevator they go, only to find the guard on duty asleep on the job and the oil pilfered.
    Rydia scrunches her nose at the fact that everyone has essentially just walked into a now active crime scene.
    She mostly lets the others get on with the search and stays out of the way for now.

"Oh, they always wake up when someone shakes them. That's why we figured they just fell asleep at first, but as they say. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but ten times is definitely tampering." Dugg answers Emily, "I was mostly trying to politely ask whether I should not wake him up yet." He clarifies, "I don't know how your magic works."

There's traces of magic left on the man, but they're faint. A different kind from the magics that power the elevator and lights, but not enough magic left to tell whether it's offworld or just different. No traces leading anywhere, however. He's sleeping but fine, not even particularly deep.

Dugg adds, "I'll be waiting here near the elevator if you need me. I'd just get in the way if I followed along. Gets a bit maze-like if you go in deep, but remember; the lights in the tunnels are always arranged in a triangle pattern. Two on each wall and one in the center pointing back towards the elevator."

Bravette is lucky to find a single sign, it's hard to notice at first but a bit into one of the nearby tunnels someone's spilled a drop of a rainbow-coloured oil. It's tiny and easy to miss, but it's the only such spillage around; and with how much the client stated the oil is expensive... unlikely the mineworkers would spill any.

    <"Scanning. Negative tracks, floor made of hard stone, no indentations."> The Zelnogrard says, she flits about, seeking up the tunnels briefly before returning and repeating the pattern until...

    <"Found you. Target point confirmed. Beginning trace."> The Zelnogrard points to the oil after finding it. <"Trace of oil. Target fled down this tunnel. Persue?">

    "Good work Bravette, begin pursuit, do not get too far ahead of us." Uni nods to the foreman, and then starts following after her Shinki as she flits off on jet-assisted flight pack.

    "Here, let me take point," Yumi calls out, quickly jogging to catch up to Uni and Bravette. "I'm pretty solid, so if there's anything down there, better if it hits me first. You can park on my shoulder if you want," she adds with a thumbs-up to Bravette.

    Looks like the crew has found something, and that means that it's time to get moving.
    "Whyt, go with them." Rydia says to... Seemingly no one.
    Before the mist that hovers around her detaches and floats down the path, seemingly clinging to Yumi up front, while Rydia hangs out in the back row.

    Once Uni starts off after Bravette, Duncan moves to follow as well, though at a bit of a distance. He doesn't want to alert any possible perpetrator. Hopefully they don't have teleportation or something equally annoying to deal with.

    It's also fortunate that his armor is enameled, so he doesn't clank and clatter down the tunnel. It's just small clinks that are pretty quiet for someone his size. Beyond that, he's just following along.

    Emily nods to Digg. "Yeah, I got that," she says. "Just wondering out loud what I might find." She raises her eyebrows. "Aaaand I found that magic was definitely cast on this dude," she adds. "It wasn't sticking around, though, guess I was wrong."

    She perks up, and rotates in midair. "Oh, nice work, Bravette!" she says. "Let's-a go." She starts gliding after Yumi, pauses, and then materializes a black cape which billows in an exaggerated fashion behind her.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> "Exaggerated fashion" also describes most of what Emily chooses to wear at any given moment.

There's a handful more drops, small but enough. They seem to be already evaporating as the group further follows them, they didn't have a lot of time before this little trace would've been gone. Lucky. Eventually, the traces lead to a hole in the side of a dirty tunnel which looks like it hasn't been used in months. The neat hard-worked stone of the tunnel wall collapsed and gives way to a cavern. Another drip is in that direction, and by now there's little tracks where wheels have knocked over rubble.

Following further on leads to another tunnel, this time however, it's made in an entirely different fashion. For starters, the tunnels are taller and rougher. Hewed by pickaxe rather than dug with magitech, the wooden supports are adequate but not comparable to the steel beams in the mine. The ground is softer, and the tracks lead down to the right.

Perhaps more concerningly. All the blue lights the mine has supplied, as soon as the group enters this other tunnel, they go red.

    Bravette looks wordlessly back at Uni once Yumi makes her offer. The Goddess nods, and without any ceremony, the Shinki lands atop Yumi's head, taking a gentle grip of hair on either side. <"I tug, you turn."> she states plainly. The Zelnogrard has a monotone voice, lacking emotional input. Very like a robot in most respects, which is odd if anyone's familiar with other Shinki.

    The smallest super robot guides Yumi through the tunnels, until they reach the breach. <"Target fled through the breach. Alert: Track-marks detected, adding filter. Addendum: Gas levels detected in area. Use of flame and explosives prohibited.">

    The method of steering gets a little giggle out of Yumi. "Sounds good." She follows directions obediently enough, until at last they reach... well. 'A place where half of Yumi's fighting style is incredibly dangerous.' "...can't use any fire, probably not even safe to use my sunlight since it generates heat. Also probably not safe to use Prominence, might kick up a spark if I hit any stone." So fists and feet it will have to be. "This looks like it was dug by a different crew. Whoever's stealing the oil, maybe? It's a good way to sneak in and take more, as long as you're gone by the time it's discovered..."

    Emily looks around, grinning almost nastily. "Well, looks like we've found some sort of jackpot!" she says. And then the lights turn red, and Bravette gives that warning. "Oh, shit!" she says cheerfully. "Anyone got a death wish? Cuz I sure don't. Releasing capacitor seals 3 and 2!"

    She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent. The first two shatter, and the third one fades, and then she materializes four daggers, one in each hand, glowing outlines of the four card-suits appearing them.

    She nods to Yumi. "Yeah, 'made by the thieves' was gonna be my guess," she says. "What's one more rock pile in a mine? This is absolutely a lot more ... slipshod than the company's own tunnels."

    The lights go red and Duncan frowns. That's right, he's also pretty well stuck with his dark sword abilities. And he needs to be careful where he swings, else he hits a rock and makes sparks. Which could indeed be bad. He's being careful as it is, since he's wearing metal armor and there are rocks everywhere.

    Yumi's assessment of the tunnel draws a question from Duncan. "Do you think there are more of these tunnels?" Which could mean that finding the perpetrator (or perpetrators, if there are more than one) is more important now, if there are more tunnels.

    Annnnnd Rydia's light goes red.
    "Okay so like. Let's be really sure to not use fire now. Not just for my sake." 
    Rydia does not have a death wish.
    What she does have is a dagger, which she draws from her belt.
    Rydia of Mist favors practical solutions.
    Daggers are very practical.

As the group begins to follow the tracks, a female voice. Late teens, early twenties, calls out. "Thal's balls! There's people coming."

Another voice, male and more gruff sounding comes echoing through. "Hold 'em off, they're just miners, maybe a constable if they're lucky. We'll leave a mount for you up, catch up with us at base. You remember where the vine is, right?"

"Yeah I do." And with that said, a figure shorter than Rydia by about half a foot, wearing a dark green robe with a red mask covering her upper face rounds the corner, holding a square wooden shield in her left hand and a brass cudgel in her right. "Ok, you found us. Good job. Now get out, I don't want to ki--" She stops when she realizes she isn't talking to a bunch of locals, and gulps. "Look, this ain't your problem right. Just let me go and we'll never bother these people again."

    Around the corner comes a threatening perpetrator. Who promptly comes to a stop when she sees what she's up against.

    Yumi waits about half a heartbeat, and then crosses her arms, adopting a stern expression. "Sorry, but this goes one of two ways. Either you put down the cudgel and the shield, march yourself out there and turn yourself into the foreman, or you try to escape, we catch you, and we drag you to the foreman. Please don't make us pick the one where you get hurt." That last... actually sounds like an earnest request, and not just standard adventurer snark. She'd really rather not make a fight of this.

    "You don't want to fight us, There's five of us, and only one of you. Sure you might get one or two of us, but the others will drive you into the ground like a very squishy nail." says Uni, holding hands up in a gesture of placation. "Why are you stealing the oil? The miners need it to do their jobs."

    That. That sure is a small person. Smaller than Rydia. It's rare that the child is ever taller than anyone, but when she rounds the corner starting with a threat and ending with a plea, Rydia...
    Rydia capitalizes.
    A few steps forward and the Summoner is looming over the Lalafell by those six inches.
    "What was that about not wanting to do what now?" She says, eyes narrowing.
    "We're going to make this simple." She says as Uni asks the pertinent questions and Yumi earnestly plays good cop...
    Rydia of Mist is a no-holds-barred, loose cannon Summoner, with no regard for the law, who doesn't play by the rules.
    "I have a dragon." She says matter of factly. "That will snap you up like a potato if you don't sell out your friends right now."
    She leaves out the fact that Whyt is a hatchling and pretty small, himself. The Lalafell doesn't need to know that part.

    Emily stares at the ridiculously short person in front of them. Only one person has ever said "Thal's balls" in her presence before.

    And then she breaks into a big grin revealing sharp pointy interlocked teeth, a much wider grin than any human can physically have. "Well, aren't you adorable!" she says archly.

    She decides to leave the negotiations to Yumi and, um, Rydia. She swings the daggers in her left hands, and -- out of sync with the motion -- a staticky portal opens up. She slips through, comes out behind the Lalafell, and strides down the passage towards the source of the other voice, with no apparent heed to the possibility that she might get attacked from behind. "Y'ello!" she calls out.

Telling the Lalafell thaumaturge to comply does not seem to be effective, she musters up her courage and casts her spell while she answers Uni. "We seek salvation." She glowers at Rydia, and is about to say something before she's startled by Emily suddenly appearing behind her which distracts from her spellcasting, an orb of flame which thanks to Emily sails past Rydia and detonates the gas that's mixed into the air.

Good news, there wasn't /too/ much of it so while it's dangerous and painful, no-one here should be seriously hurt. Other good news, it's knocked the thaumaturge out flat. Breathing but clearly hurt. The thieves won't be able to use this passage again without a lot of work. Bad news, well... the way the group came in has collapsed; and some people may have gotten stuck beneath the rubble.

    "NO DON'T-!" But it's too late. The fire has been cast. There's only a split second to act, and Yumi's gut instinct sends her straight towards the most vulnerable person in the group - Rydia. It's a sudden, fast, 'get down Mr. President' style diving protective tackle; she turns herself sideways, both to take as much of the impact as she can, and to take as much of the blast wave as she can. Only when she's sure they're not going to be buried in rubble does the knight let go, and immediately start carefully checking Rydia over. "Rydia, are you alright? Anything hurt badly?"

    Oh. Oh no that didn't work at all.
    And the next thing Rydia knows, she has a thaumaturge manifesting a fireball in her face.
    She locks up, pupils dilating as fight or flight kicks in and... She freezes.
    It's Yumi dive-tackle that brings her down and makes her curl up as she hits the cave floor, feeling the rush of heat and pressure wash over her.
    "I-... I'm fine." She says, dizzy, shaken, and a little too quietly. She's not fine, but it's nothing physical to blame for that as she shakes silently for a beat as she loses all of her renegade bravado, but manages to pick herself up and start dusting herself off.
    Much like a cat, Rydia of Mist acts as though nothing just happened, even if she did botch up pretty badly.

    Emily is lying facedown on the ground, her cape all but destroyed, her visible skin covered in silvery scars, and surrounded by little splashes of damaged silver nanomachines. She lets out a groan, rolls over faceup, and sends out more nanomachines to gather the damaged ones. "I didn't do it!" she announces.

    She shakes her head as she surveys the collapsed tunnel. "Well ... shit." She's sounding fairly dazed. "Uh. I thiiiiink I can, uh, open another dimensional field back to someplace less-collapsed ..."

    She looks back towards the way ahead, then at Yumi, Rydia, and Uni. "... Or do we ... just ... press on?"

    Uni is knocked face down from the concussion wave. She grunts a bit, pushing back to her feet before looking back at the collapsed tunnel. "That looks pretty final..." Emily can port them out, but that lets the rest of the thieves escape. "We press on. There was another voice as well as the mage's... male. If we hurry we might catch them before they escape. I heard them mention a Vine."

    From her Inventory, she produces a pair of handcuffs, and secures the thaumaturge's hands behind her back, and takes the cudgel and shield into custody. "We'll bring her with us, does anyone have a spare length of cloth to act as a gag so she doesn't warn the others if she wakes up?"

The thaumaturge is pretty well knocked out, she's not waking up any time soon without medical attention. The way onwards is clear, right around the corner can be seen two elevator shaft next to eachother. Seems like whoever went up there was either polite, or the elevators are linked, because a brass-plated elevator cage descends from above and opens its doors, clearly still functional.

This elevator is slower, taking a few more minutes to get up than the one taken down. It's also less smooth, shaking a bit occassionally, but never does it feel like it's about to fall. Once above, it opens into a shallow cavern. The cart's marks coming from the other elevator shaft and leading out. Right before the exit, someone has tied a small chocobo to one of the stalactites. The saddle and harness make it clear that it's the mount, clearly bred to be the right size for the captured perp. Outside, the tracks lead down to old wagon trail, it's hard to tell whether they went left or right.

    Yumi's going to give Rydia one last, very very concerned look, but she knows it's better to just let the summoner be. They can talk later if she needs to.

    "I'm for pressing on," she confirms, moving to take the lead; at first she does so at a jog, but when they see an elevator, there's little she can do but get in and wait. And at the top? Nothing but a tied-up choco... bo...

    Yumi stares for a moment, then glances back at the group - specifically at the summoner. "Hey, Rydia. Chocobo can memorize routes, right? If we set this one loose and give it a little thump on the butt, you think it'll go running back home?" Good way to figure out where they're going.

    "Set the chocobo loose. See which way it goes. It's the best bet we've got." Rydia agrees with Yumi's assessment, looking much better after a nice, calming, elevator ride. Away from the fire and explosions and red lights.

    Emily raises her hand. "I can make a gag," she says, lacking the medical acumen to be able to see that the Lalafell won't likely wake up on her own. She materializes a backpack harness. "Give her here, I can carry her along at the very least."

    One elevator ride later, she smiles, nodding to Yumi and Rydia. "Good thinking!" she says. "Man. I don't think I could even shrink down that small. I've just got too much matter I'm made of."

    Uni is quick to hand off the Lalafel. The goddess isn't exactly built for strength and the little mage is heavier than she looks. Denser tissues or something. As the group finds a chocobo and decide to free it, Uni nods, and summons a rifle from her Inventory. "I'll try and find a higher perch to overwatch from, might be able to snipe out our targets before they get away." she says, following the group, but aiming to take the higher routes, so she can mantle into a sniper perch if they come across the other thieves.

And indeed, the chocobo does seem to know the route. It sets off at a brisk pace, quickly getting up to a speed of roughly fifteen miles per hour. Possible to follow for some here, but definitely not something to casually follow. It turns left at the old wagon trail. Soon enough, three barrels full of the oil have been ditched with a hurry. One has split and leaked all its oil; the other two are still intact. A little while further down, the chocobo turns right off the trail into the gate of an abandoned and ruined old town, the walls partially collapsed. The gate itself has obviously become a vine at some point after the town was abandoned.

    Yumi is one of those who can feasibly keep up; but she doesn't follow too closely, out of fear that she'll spook it off the trail, and as soon as she sees where they're going, she'll wheel back around and go to meet the others. Only when everyone's present at the front entrance to the town will she head in, and when she does so, she'll immediately hop up to a rooftop to look around... assuming it doesn't collapse under her, anyway.

    Emily's solution: transform into a small hovercar. Big enough for Rydia, Uni, and the Lalafell to fit in, at the very least.

    "Welp," she says, peering at the vine. "Looks like they made their getaway. Do we follow them into the next world?" Beat. "The literal next world, I mean, not death."

    Uni frowns... "We'll never find them, but I'll leave the decision to majority vote." she replies, looking at the gatehouse 'Vine' entrance. "We should secure those two intact barrels for the foreman at least."

    Rydia brings her fingers to her lips... With a sharp whistle she calls her own chocobo mount, climbing into the saddle after helping get the unconscious Lalafeel onto Hover-ly Nyx.
    She tugs on the reins, bringing her avian steed to a halt at the vine. "Huh. Wonder where that leads."

As others have suggested, the trail goes dead after the vine. The other perpetrators made their getaway; but at least their entrance got busted, some oil was recovered, and one perpetrator has been captured.

    Emily hmms; her headlights blink in time to her vocalizations. "Well, nothing for it but to bring her in," she says, expanding her seating capacity slightly so that they can fit the barrels more easily. "Also, we should go find where Temulin is at some point. I've only heard 'Thal's balls' once before now, and it was from her." She smiles faintly. "If her world's a Bud ... we've got good news, and bad news ..."