World Tree MUSH

    Recently, a bunch of mysterious portals have started opening all over Westmarch. Portals that apparently lead to a place that doesn't exist! And how do we know this? Because it says so! If anyone gets close, glowing words appear over them that read:

    "Leads to a place that does not exist. The Burning Hells are not responsible for events that transpire there. If you claim to have been to this place, you will be called a liar. Void where prohibited."

    Needless to say, most of the locals aren't keen on risking falling off of the map or something! Because that is certain death and perhaps even worse! Who knows what horrors lurk beyond the terrain meshes, the physical boundaries put in place by the Powers That Be? But there have been rumors that great treasure awaits those who dare venture into the unknown. So even if Westmarch won't go in, they're not going to stop anyone else from giving it a shot, either!

     Pssshh. The Burning Hells? You know who's from Hell? Damian, that's who. He's the thrice-damned *prince* of Hell! Ain't no silly sign gonna stop him from marching on through that portal and doing what he pleases with whatever's behind it.

Really though, curiosity is what brought him here. Just poking around through the Vines to see what kind of crazy shenanigans he could get into, and this whole rumor of a place that doesn't exist got his interest piqued. Besides, he's got plenty of experience with Hellish portals; they're how small groups of people tend to get around back home when cars are too troublesome or... well, dangerous, considering how many traffic violators there are. So that's why *he's* here, at any rate, just sort of floating around in front of the portal rubbing his hands together giddily.

    Luke is usually happy to explore new areas, visit new worlds... hearing about mysterious portals that lead to completely unknown areas, with rumours about treasure in them?. That is quite a draw, even if he is normally not much of a treasure hunter!. Thus, the pokemon trainer can be seen doing some rounds around Westmarch, checking the portals, reading the warnings. Even asking here and there for any further info. And thus, he runs into a Jackal person!, a familiar one at that, so, he approaches!. For once he is without a pokemon right next to him, perhaps not to freak people out. "Heya!... Damian?"

    Y'know who ELSE is from hell? Dante. And he's been drinkin' a little so bear with him. The Son of Sparda trudges in. There's been some demonic activity around here, so Dante's also been working too. Drunk on the job? Yeah that's the casual attitude Dante has to his work, that's for sure. "Yooooo." He greets Damian and Luke, passing by with Rebellion slung on his shoulder. "This uh...this the portal we're lookin' for?"

    Rumors of a place that does not exist and treasure beyond the wildest imagination is surely bound to attract the attention of adventurers far and wide. While many have their own reasons for a life of adventure, Morrigan Lor'osa keeps her reasons close to her chest, following the whim and whimsy of the tree itself to lead her from destination to destination.
    This is why a grey 2003 Ford Windstar minivan comes rolling into Westmarch, puttering along the road at a lazy pace, it's the sight of one of such portals that makes the driver pull to a stop.
    Taking a moment to perfectly and legally park her car, the Warlock swings the door open and steps out, shutting it behind her, with her shinki on her shoulder.
    "Huh." She muses, rubbing her chin, Mary Contary also begins rubbing her chin thoughtfully as the pair inspect the portal and the words that appear above it.
    "Place that does not exist... Burning hells... Called a liar..." Morrigan muses. "I wonder where it leads." She says, looking to the shinki on her shoulder.
    Mary replies by pulling up a hologram video of a cute 8-bit ghost, with a cherry little tune playing and the text: 'it is a mystery'.
    "Oh, it's Dante. Mary, say hi to Dante."
    The shinki waves.

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> https://youtu.be/fq3abPnEEGE

    "What the heck."

    Serrah squints at the portal, looking moderately sleep-deprived. She wandered in on her way someplace else, and ended up getting distracted. "... Hey, Luke," she says. "Been a while." (She's looking a bit more androgynous than she did the last time she and Luke saw each other. And considerably less undead, for that matter. Still red eyes and fangs, though, but the latter are much smaller.) She pauses as Dante drunks his way over, and smirks faintly. "Aw man, Dante has the, the superior form of sleep dep!"

    She tries to give Morrigan and Mary Contrary a glare, but then breaks into giggles at that little display.

Misaki just stumbles across the portals on complete accident. "Huh." She reads the signs, "Well if 'the Burning Hells' don't want me going in, I think I ought to go in. See what they're hiding." She muses, before taking another good look around and noticing familiar faces, "Hello, miss Delany, mister Dante, and... I don't know if I caught your name when we fought those robots, mister..?" She glances towards Luke, and pointedly ignores Morrigan.

    Luke's questions to the locals don't really reveal much further information than what is already known. They honestly have no idea, just would rather be safe than sorry!

    Anyway, the portal looms before the group, almost beckoning them to come in!

    "'loooo Serrah." Dante slurs, before he up and stumbles toward the portal. "Time for work~."

     "Alright, looks like we've got an adventuring party! Great, now we just have to settle how to split the loot..." Damian cheekily remarks as the gathering grows, chuckling mischievously. As Luke comes to him with a greeting, he waves and nods, teeth showing in a very broad grin. "Yep! Damian, or Dame, or Your Highness if you want but seriously don't call me that it's lame and annoying. You're uhhhhh... Duke? Mook? No wait it was a name like from that movie about the space wizards wasn't it? Lllllloke Groundrunner, yeah that was it."

The others also get some enthusiastic greetings as Damian zips over to each of them in turn, shaking hands and patting backs and generally making a nuisance of himself. "Hey hey, you guys. Dante, Serrah, no idea who the rest of you are. Nice car though." This last is directed at Morrigan, before Dante reminds them all what they're here for. "Yeah, haha! Let's check this out, see how much stuff we can loot, burn, or tip over~"

     Luke smiles to Misaki, "Luke!, Luke Gray, pokemon trainer." he offers with a friendly smile, before chuckling at Damian's name, "Close!". His introduction is cut short by the arrival of the others, waving to Dante, smiling a bit, and blinking at the state he sees the Son of Sparda. At least he is polite enough not to bring it up. "It seems that way!, no one seems to know anything about it." he admits. 
     Serrah gets a more concerned look, even if she looks more 'alive' than other times, "Hey Serrah!, how have you been?... are you ok?". Morrigan and Mary get a chuckle from him as well, especially at the 8 bit ghost trick. "Heya." he greets Morrigan and company. 
     There is a tiny pause, "So any of you know about this kind of thing?... maybe i should get a pokemon out..."

    "Hi Dante, bye Dante." Morrigan chirrups as the demon hunter staggers toward the portal.
    "Um." Mary mumbles. "Is he going to be alright? Should we follow him?" The shinki asks nervously.
    "Probably." Morrigan replies, crossing her arms under her chest.
    "Oh hi~." That's to Serrah and Misaki as her attention is pulled that way by the giggling, apparently not caring that she's being pointedly ignored.
    "This..." She starts to explain to Luke as she motions to the portal. "Is a dimensional tear that leads... Probably to another plane of existence. There's only one way to actually find out, and quite frankly I have no idea what's on the other side, which means there's only one way to find out."
    "It's a good car. It serves me well." She asides to Damian as she starts for the portal right after Dante.

    Serrah just ... stares at Dante.

    Damian, of course, slightly ruffles her feathers. "You're definitely not a dame, dude," she says, but there's a faint dryness in her voice. "I mean. Unless you want to be, but, uh, y'know what actually never mind. OH, UH." She hurriedly turns to Luke. "I'm doing fine." She cracks a smile. "Way better than I was when His Grace was still undead and Chrollo gave us the backstab. Just, uh ... trying and failing to wrestle my sleep schedule back together, heh. Got an umbrella to shade myself when the sun's up, but. Still not the comfiest thing in the world."

    She listens to Morrigan's explanation, including what they don't know. Then she looks after where Dante went, and shrugs, hefts her sports bag, and steps through. "Eh, hell with it."

"Misaki Sakai." The senshi introduces herself, transforming. She doesn't manifest her guns yet, "It's good to meet you, Damian-sama." She bows politely towards the prince of hell. "So shall we go?"

     Damian turns around to face Serrah, suddenly looking a *lot* more feminine, with an hourglass figure reminiscent of his nanny. Even his voice has changed. "Aren't I?" he says, cocking his hips to one side with a wink before diving backwards into the portal.

    Once the group ventures through into the unknown, they might be a bit surprised to find themselves in a place that -seems- to be relatively normal. The portal opens up into a big open field, with a few shrubs and small trees scattered about. Nothing unusual about that, is there?

    For a few awkward moments, there is nothing but the sound of birds and crickets chirping, and the wind rippling through the grass...

    And then there is a stampede. The sound of pounding hooves coming toward them. And...mooing? Yes, it's definitely mooing. Before long, the group would glimpse a herd of cows rushing toward them, all running on two legs as if they thought they were humans or something, and hefting swords, polearms, axes and other sorts of weapons! And they are totally the most stereotypical looking cows ever, too. White with big black spots and pink noses. How they are managing to balance their massive bodies on two legs like that is a mystery. 

    Well at least there will be like, plenty of steak for everyone after this.

    

    uke takes the situation a bit more... seriously when he sees Misaki get ready, adn figures at the very least he can't be too safe, so, out comes Bewear!. So, the kid, and the very tall pink, black and white 'bear' follow past the portal, "Let's see what is behind door number one." he mumbles, while the pokemon looks at the trainer curiously. "Sorry, just a joke." he mutters. At least the area inmediatly past the gate seems safe!. 
    And then, the horde of cows, "This reminds me of the time I tried to pull a prank back at a miltank farm near my home... those cows were really mad, but at least they didn't have weapons..." he mumbles, while his pokemon moves in front of him and prepares for the inminent trouble. "Cows..."

     Damian, already back to normal by the time he emerges on the other side, looks a little... disappointed. "Aww, really? That's it? What the heck am I gonna do with this?" he complains, but then... COWS.

The grin is wicked.

"Looks like beef's what's for dinner tonight, folks! Mwahahahaha!" And there's the evil laughter, as the jackal's hands ignite with bright red Hellfire and he starts chucking fireballs at the approaching mooing horde. Yep, looks like he's finally got the hang of that, after who knows how many lessons from General Styx.

    Into the portal! Onward and forward!
    Morrigan steps into the portal. There's a moment of silence... It's quite nice, with chirping birds and crickets.
    "... I have no idea where we are." The Warlock announces with sage finality.
    And then.
    Then come the cows.
    For a moment. For a long, stunned, moment, the Warlock- a woman who sold her very soul in a pact with something far beyond the ken of mortal men- a woman who has looked into the reaches of the Far Realm and seen thing she should not have seen--... For a good moment she is left staring in silence like a doe caught in the headlights of an oncoming mack truck.
    "What." She says flatly once she rallies enough of her senses while staring at the bipedal, running, armed cows.
    "... Uh."
    Morrigan looks to the others.
    "So do we like... Start shooting or?"
    Damian starts shooting.
    "I am so confused..." Mary whines, the little shinki rubbing at her head with both hands.

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> Morrigan.exe has encountered an error and must restart.

    Dante stares at the approaching horde with a baffled expression. "...what the fuck did they put in my drinks?" Then he shrugs his shoulders. There's no real reason not to fight back as they stampede, running towards the party. "Fuck it." With Rebellion in his hands Dante struts toward the horde...then trips over his own feet.

    "GAH SHIT! HOLD ON...I'mokay." Stumbling to his feet, Dante gets back up, and starts a slicin' and dicin' haphazardly, trying to use the cows' momentum against them as he aims for the legs.

"I was going to ask why this warranted such that warning..." Misaki summons her guns, twirls Joyous around her finger before shooting a burst of red light at a cow, "But I guess the question is now MOOt." She flashes a little light in front of Morrigan to catch attention, "You probably should start shooting or whatever it is you do."

    Serrah actually laughs out loud at Damian's display. "Okay yeah, that was full on 'dame' there, yeah."

    Her smile vanishes at the sight of the horde of cows. "... Usually they're supposed to be herds, not hordes," she says flatly. "Why the he..." Her eyes flit to Luke. "... ck do I stick my neck out."

    She rises a dozen or so feet above the ground, mostly just trying to stay out of reach at the moment. She just ... nods in approval when Damian starts chucking fireballs.

    She glances at Morrigan sidelong. "What, do you just not know how to fight something that can fight back?" she snaps. "... Ohcrap, Dante!" She starts to fly down towards the half-demon swordsman ... then stops. "... never mind, you're handling yourself."

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> While Damian roasts cows, Serrah roasts Morrigan.

    Luke looks... the least confused out of most it seems, but again, might be just his experiences with pokemon that look quite similar to these cows, and even similarly mad at him, except without weapons at that point. Since Damian and Dante seem to be handling the ranged thing well, but there can never be too 'safe'. "Bewear!, Bulldoze, slow them down!" he calls. The pokemon growls loudly... as much as something with such a squeaky 'voice' can growl and moves ahead, a bright orange aura surrounding the pokemon, before it slams the ground, a large shockwave travelling forward, damaging and trying to trip the closest cows as they approach.

    Indeed, it looks like beef is gonna be on the menu for tonight. And -lots- of it. The cows charge in, weapons swinging and horns and hooves bucking. Some of them try to use their superior mass against the adventuring party if weapons fail, trying to slam their bodies into people! 

    When Dante trips over himself, one of them almost tramples him. But he gets up just in time and slices its belly open, udders and all! And if this wasn't weird enough already, instead of bile or half-digested food falling out, a pile of gold coins and gems does! 

    In fact, that's what they're all doing. When they die, the phat lewtz just bursts out of their bodies! The group is doing pretty well for itself, between fireballs, pokemon, magical guns and swords and whatnot, the cattle are going down fairly fast. Some of them go flying when Bewear sends out that shockwave, more coins and gems falling to the ground everywhere. So it would seem the rumors about the treasure had merit.

    Weird. Dante was expecting a lot of gore to ruin yet another coat, yet instead...gold. Lots of it, and other shinies. He supposes this'll have to do for payment. Chopping and slicing the loot cows, Dante occasionally pulls out his sawed-off and blows some cows away at point-blank range. "WOO~! GORE LOOT!"

    Right right, Morrigan should start shooting. The flash of light in her face pulls her from her bewilderment.
    "Hey, hey, hey whoah." She says defensively. "The cultists fought back. The ogres fought back!" She points out in a huff, "It's not like I'm running around blasting common folk!" She shoots back, before snapping her fingers.
    "Mary. Get me the thing. We're going to be support, and do the thing." She says.
    "Yes, master! The thing!" The shinki chirrups as she opens the flap of Morrigan's backpack and dives inside. There's a moment of rummaging and rustling before she pulls out a murky jar full of... Whatever is inside it does not look pleasant. And Mary hands this to Morrigan.
    Uncsrewing the cap of the jar, the scent of old formaldehyde assails the group as she pulls a pickled octopus tentacle from the slop within.
    Speaking words of power over the tentacle, her eyes glow as the dead flesh wriggles and writhes on her palm...
    Before she hucks it at the cows.
    Tearing open a hole in the fabric of reality, the tentacle forms a line in the ground, and from that line erupts a wall of slithering, slick, sticky, tentacles coated in noxious acid, to form a wall and entangle and slow down the onslaught of the approaching cow horde... And hopefully make things easier for the group to fend off the charge.

     Damian is having so much fun just flying around and flinging great balls of fire at the cows, he almost doesn't register that they're dropping gold and gemstones until he stops for a moment to laugh at Misaki's utterly horrendous pun. "Hahaha! That's terrible! Keep it up- wait."

Coming down to float just an inch or two above the ground, he picks up one of those coins and bites into it, eyeing the marks his teeth leave. "Heh, yep. Jen-yoo-wine gold, ripe for the plucking. You guys can have it, honestly. I got everything I need already." he says, ducking under an axe swing that takes off the tips of some of his hairs. The rest of his fur then forms into immense spikes, puncturing the cow in too many places to name, before Damian returns to normal.

"Wait, does this mean no steak?"

     The pokemon trainer IS a bit confused at the treasure, but then again, much prefers that to... guts. His pokemon is kept closeby, fiercely smashing any of the cows that dare to come even close to them, Taunting the beasts towards it, before it simply punches the approavhing 'bovines' far harder than anything as plush looking as a Bewear should.

    Serrah stares. "Okay, that was ... I'd say 'that wasn't very cash money of you' but I'm pretty sure that 'cash money' is exactly what this is."

    She swoops forward with a battle cry of, "It's not sticking my neck out for dumb heroics if I get paaaaaid!" (Her voice sounds slightly more androgynous as she raises it.) She unleashes a punch-flurry on the nearest bovine berserker, hitting it nearly a dozen times a second. "COW COW COW COW COW no wait I mean POW POW POW POW POW ..." She does a roundhouse kick, intending to knock it into another group of cows. "... FREEYOW ..." Then picks up the weapon it dropped and hurls it after its original owner. "... N'MEOW!"

    She hesitates. "Did I just say 'meow'? GAH!" She recoils back from Morrigan's eldritch assault. "... I prefer Damian's fireballs. And shapeshifting."

"No you're just doing unconscionable things to people you think the rest of the world thinks are acceptable targets, so that you can get away with it. Two wrongs don't make a right." Misaki jumps onto a rooftop and takes a couple more pot shots at the cows, before Serrah makes a dramatic error.

The Senshi jumps back down to just behind Serrah, and quickly generates a pair of cat ears and a cat tail out of violet light, trying to synch them up with Serrah's body and movements to make them look like a costume the dhampir is wearimg.

    Oh, there will be steak. Damian's fireballs are actually roasting those cows to a perfect level of medium rare. Anyone who wants them more done will have to add their own toasting. 

    Morrigan's spell grabs yet more cows, entangling them and rendering them even more easy to target by the rest of the group's onslaught. Which means that Serrah's martial arts, Misaki's guns, Bewear's melees, and Dante's shotgun all strike true, sending their opponents to pieces! Before long, the entire horde has been converted either to steak and piles of treasure or bloody corpses and piles of treasure.

    But it seems it's not over yet! Not long after they've cleared the cow mob, a -giant- cow with a massive bladed polearm seems to appear out of nowhere and come barreling toward them, weapon raised! There is a golden crown on its head, which reads "Queen Bessie" on it.

    "Oh, look! Adventurers!" it bellows. "Haha! You'd better milk this one for all it's worth!" And then the giant weapon comes swinging down at them!

    

    BLAM BLAM! CHOP CHOP! Dante is a terror in CQC, as the cow devils find out. Are these things demons? He has no idea. Regardless, some villagers are gonna eat -well- tonight. Especially if Damian starts up a steakhouse after all this excitement.

    "Oh...'course there's a fuckin' boss fight." He mutters to himself, before he stows the shotgun in favor of two-handing Rebellion. "C'MON!" He calls out to Queen Bessie, and he pops his neck as he blocks the cow queen's giant polearm.

     Luke is quite sure Dante can block the attack without help, but he will still offer all the help he can. "Bewear!, show that big cow you mean business!, Close Combat!". The large fluffy pokemon runs at a very quick pace, and while Dante blocks the Cow King's polearm, the 'bear' Jumps towards teh giant's face, doing its best impression of Crazy diamond, or other Jojo Stand, launching a flurry of puches to the face of the demonic bovine.

    Serrah glances over at Misaki when she fires that rejoinder back at Morrigan. "Okay, wow, kid," she remarks. "You're more perceptive than some adults I've seen WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP THAT."

    And then Queen Bessie is coming.

    Serrah glowers up at the monstrous cow. "Urrrrrgh." She drops her sports bag and squares her shoulders, and takes a deep breath. As that polearm comes down ...

    ... She rises up into the air to catch it in both hands, then attempts to yoink it right out of the cow's grip. Or possibly body-slam Queen Bessie, one of the two.

>> GAME >> Serrah Delany spends an Edge for: RULES OF NATURE.

     Damian could open a steakhouse, sure, if he were actually old enough to do it. Then again, this is medieval times, isn't it? He's probably old enough to run a kingdom if he wanted to. Well, he could anyway if his dad died, but... that's not important right now.

"Aha! The big bad boss appears!" he says with an unnaturally wide grin, zipping between Dante's legs as he goes right for Bessie's udder, entire body conflagrating as he joins in Luke's vicious rapid fire assault on those sensitive teats.

    "Uh. Excuse me. Demon cultists and ogres are acceptable targets." Morrigan retorts as she sets her hands on her hips, nose scrunching irritably.
    And then.
    Cow Queen Bessie.
    "... Seriously?" The Warlock gripes, before flinging herself in a tumbling roll aside to avoid getting gutted by the the giant polearm.
    When she rises, she covers her eyes with one hand and takes a slow breath. When her hand moves away from her face, she opens here eyes... To reveal that they have turned into endlessly deep pools of inky blackness, thousands of stars glinting inside them as she stares squarely at the Cow Queen.
    "Look into my eyes..." She hisses.
    To look into her eyes would be to suddenly assailed by hideous vertigo and cramping, a supernatural weakening of the knees and loss of strength from the fiber of every muscle as she tries to slam the Cow Queen with a magical case of literally the worst nausea imaginable.

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> Eyebite

"Never an acceptable target for torture." Misaki answers Morrigan, and stops doing the cat light thing, "Sorry, just thought it would be funny." She's giggling, she clearly thinks it's funny. The arrival of the boss makes her leap back and throw a few rapid flashes of white light to disorient, and maybe just maybe interfere with what Morrigan is doing.

    The polearm comes down, only to be met by Dante's weapon! Queen Bessie grunts, trying to push against him, only find herself assailed by Bewear's face punching. This sends her reeling, just as Serrah grabs the weapon and yoinks it, disarming her! The weapon is now in Serrah's custody, although it is a bit big.

    The Cow Queen snorts and goes down on all fours, trying to brush Bewear off of her face by slamming her head against the grassy ground. But then Damian goes for the teats! And she is -udderly- debilitated by the burning pain, howling her moos out! 

    Despite everything going on, there is something compelling about Morrigan's voice, and Queen Bessie stares at her, the nausea starting but then Misaki lets loose with a flash of blinding light, ending that effect almost as quickly as it had begun. Now she just moos loudly in frustration, bucking furiously and potentially trampling on Damian down there!

     "Aaaatatatatatatatata!" Damian shouts in a high-pitched voice as he goes to town on that udder, even sprouting extra arms just to punch more. But as Bessie gets down on all fours and starts threatening to trample him, he suddenly shifts into a large snake, barely slipping out from underneath her hooves... and then trying to wrap himself around her legs to trip her up!

Sssssstrike the weakpoint for massive damage~" he hisses, sinking his fangs into the cow's rear end.

    Dante's weapon clangs against the polearm, and he pushes back just as Serrah disarms the cow. "Oh, huh." He then takes the opportunity to LEAP and scale the bovine fiend with a few graceful (for a drunken idiot) leaps until he's at the neck. "Gotta putcha down uh..." Glancing upward at the crown. "Bessie!" Then he swings to slash at the cow's neck, cutting deep enough to decapitate the bovine!

     The pokemon does end up moving back as the cow tries to headbutt it to the ground, but it is quite a bit too swift to be harmed by the attempt. The pokemon attempts to continue smashing the cow's snout, keep it distracted, even as the others assault it. At the very least, makes sure not to be in the path of Dante's blade!

    "Can you not undo everything I am doing when I am trying to be actually helpful?!" Morrigan snaps agitatedly as her spell loses effect. With a flutter of her lashes her eyes return to normal and she is scowling. "Dante's drunk off his ass, and if I had sickened the cow he'd get the upper hand. Ugh!" She says as she flings her hands up in frustration.
    Mary gently pats her master on the back to try and calm Morrigan down.
    It doesn't work.
    It doesn't work as she raises her hand at the cow queen and says a word.
    Like a flash of lightning and with the sonic boom of a gunshot, several crackling green rays of energy lance at the bovine ruler in a blast of udderly agonizing force.

    Serrah immediately loses her balance and falls onto her back, dropping the weapon. "Owf ..." She shakes her head and just stares up at the sky while the noises of combat surround her. "Yeah I'm ... not gonna ..." She stops. "I'm just not gonna," she says.

"Torture isn't helpful." Misaki insists, and she puts her guns together, aiming at Bessie and putting a pair of intense beams, keeping them going until she notices Serrah fall like that, and she dismisses her guns to rush over and pick up Serrah to make sure she's well out of harm's way.

    Damian goes for his steak early, it seems, and he prefers the flank. Though, it may have been better wait until it was cooked and seasoned and stuff, because it doesn't smell very good. Anyway, Bessie howls as he sinks his fangs into the cow's butt. 

    Dante's blade sinks into the Cow Queen's neck, blood spurting out of it, but this giant cow is a bit tougher than perhaps he expected, since it is giant, after all! However, he does manage to cut quite deep while Big Bessie is occupied trying to fend off Bewear as it continues its assault on her nose. 

    Not to worry though, Morrigan's eldritch blast comes bursting out with the sound of lightning, hitting the gargantuan cow dead on, at the same time as Misaki's beams! "MOOOoooooooo...." she cries out, as she falls to the ground, and lots of gems and gold also fall out of the gash Dante made. It sounds almost like 'noo' but it's also somewhat hard to tell if it's a 'moo' or a 'no'.

    Give or take a few minutes after the big boss has fallen, there is a slight rumble and a large glowing chest rises out of the ground nearby. Time for lewtz!

     Damian shifts back to his proper form and flies out of the way as the cow goes down, snickering and doing a little victory dance. "Woohoo! Heheheh, that was even better than I was expecting!" he remarks, glancing over at the chest. "Hmm... I guess you guys can have whatever's in there, or give it to the villagers or whatever. I don't really care honestly. Ooh, unless it's a first edition of Action Comics #1! I claim that one!"

    Dante does a slide down the falling boss as he swings his blade clean of blood. Jumping off the cow, he less than gracefully lands on his face. "Ow..." He's just done for tonight. All he wants to do is go home and sleep off the whiskey. His hangover will be huge tomorrow, and he'll have no idea where all this loot came from. For all he'll know tomorrow, he had a very weird dream. It still wouldn't explain all the gold and trinkets.

    Serrah lets out an almost masculine-sounding squawk when Misaki picks her up. "Hey!" she exclaims in her normal voice. "I'm ... I'm fine, I'm just ... tired." Beat. "I probably shouldn't have just flopped over like that in the middle of a fight, huh."

    She gets to her feet. "... gonna treat Hyouka to something tonight," she mutters. Without hesitation, she strides over to the treasure chest and fumbles it open.

    Annnnnd the Cow Queen goes down.
    Morrigan huffs, Mary still patting her on the back placatingly.
    "Well." The Warlock sniffs, still scowling at Misaki. "At least we figured out where the portals went."
    Mary Contrary spreads her hands over her head, another hologram popping up with the text: 'mystery solved' on it, as Morrigan makes her way to the chest while Serrah starts working it open.
    "Master, Master, do you think with our share we'll finally be able to get that new home we always wanted?!" Mary Contrary chirrups.
    "Hmmmmm... I don't know. That depends on how much there is and the splitting of shares."

"Probably not." Misaki shrugs, "Just wanted to make sure you were safe." She goes towards the loot to figure out how to get her share of the loot, "If you manage not to torture anyone the next five times we meet, I'll give you my share." She promises Morrigan, "I'll just hang onto it until then."

     The trainer brings his pokemon back to him in time to see the treasure chest.. spawn. "I... am still confused over all this treasure... I keep expecting this to be a dream or some illusion." he muses. "Is that even safe to... check?" he asks, pointing to the chest.

    When the chest is opened, the group find its contents to be oddly random, yet tailored at the same time. There is a set of brand new winter tires well-suited to a certain 2003 Ford Windstar, a book full of new sheet music and new guitar picks, a bag of poffins, an umbrella that folds up ridiculously small and seems unnaturally light, a dual pistol holster with extra pockets that seems to fit more than it really should, and a scroll the contents of which are yet to be revealed. There's a corner of a page visible that kinda looks like a comic, though.

     Damian immediately swoops in to grab that comic, carefully moving everything else out of the way so as not to scratch up the cover. "Dibs!" he calls out, holding it protectively as if it were a newborn baby. "I'm gonna frame it and hang it on my wall and never ever sell it or let anybody touch it and if they do they BURN."

    "Yaaaaaay guitar picks." Dante says as he inchworms towards his new acquisition. This'll come in handy later. Then he climbs into the van and just...snoozes. Hopefully Morrigan has his address, or he'll have Dante camping out in her van for a while.

    For a moment, for a good long moment Morrigan rubs her chin.
    On the one hand... More money.
    On the other hand she's an unrepentant sadist.
    "Huh. Deal." She decides after a moment longer as the chest opens and...
    "... New tires...?" She looks to her shinki.
    "Winter is coming, Master." Mary notes.
    "Yeah I know, that's... Actually really helpful huh."
    She will absolutely take those new wheels, along with as much gold is decided to be her share as----...
    Dante crawls into the back of her minivan.
    "..."
    Morrigan does not have Dante's address.

    The Bewear rushes to grab what looks like HIS reward, the bag of Poffins, and casually begins to chew on some, sharing with Luke of course, while the boy chuckles. "Well, that's an interesting reward."

    Serrah stares.

    She picks up the umbrella, and peers it over. "... I'm ..." She opens it up. "... huh." She closes it back up again, peering suspiciously at it. "... well, it's still hard to beat a gift from a friend," she says uneasily. "Now, uh, if it's actually better at, at blocking the sun ..."

    She shrugs, and stows it in her sports bag. "Ehhh. I'll just pick up whatever treasure fits with ... all my baseballs." Beat. "Wow, I didn't actually throw any baseballs."

    ... She starts picking up bits of treasure. Still leery of obviously stopping time around Morrigan, just in case she ever needs to use it against her ...

"Huh, these are neat." Misaki picks up the holster and puts it away. "Dunno how useful these'll be for you, miss Morrigan, but a promise is a promise." She glances to what Dante is doing, "You two dating?"

    Morrigan is still staring at Dante just snoozing in the back of her car.
    "... I'll take him home." She says sounding almost defeated.

    Once all the loot has been taken, the chest disappears and a portal back to Westmarch appears in its place. How convenient, right? 

    And yes, that umbrella totally is better at blocking the sun, in fact, if she ever tries it, it seems to -fully- block out the sun in the small area under it when she opens it. Almost as if it's black as night. 

    Whenever Damian would get to opening that scroll, he would indeed find Action Comics #1, a first edition, and in totally mint condition, too! The scroll it was rolled up in protected it from getting damaged against the other stuff in the chest. And there is also something else. A piece of paper that says: "Free voucher for ONE (1) favor from Tyrael, Archangel of Justice." In fine print though: "Void where prohibited."