World Tree MUSH

    So. It's time to put an end to the curse of the Great Old One's Orphan. This time when the group arrives at the fishing hamlet it is... Empty. Devoid of life. Not a single sign of a mutated villager, no fishfrog Deep Ones, and no mind controlled Templars...
    Rather than risk a fight with a hidden enemy, Morrigan opted to teleport the group right into the underseat city at Satan's Reef, right into the central building they had fought their way to before.
    "OKAY." The Warlock says clapping her hands together.
    "So there's a reason we had to fight our way here last time. There's a device in this building that SHOULD, in theory, allow us to enter the dead Old One's dream. From there, we kill it, and that should end the curse! Any questions?"

Today, Bryllu's shape is... odd. Like a floating jellyfish, except the stingers are all tentacles covered in blades. Three feet tall main bulb, with her head in the top surrounded by several protective structures. The sixty four stingers are all six feet long and extend from the bottom of the main bulb. "Just one. What are dreams like?"

    Piera and Aquila are here. Their 'outfits' matched in dark grey, nearly black. The human's hood is up, and the Shinki's visor locked down, obscuring their faces so their unspoken feelings aren't apparent. They remain quiet, no questions from them it seems.

  There is a well-dressed man and a questionably dressed tall woman with hares' ears here. They are milling off to one side, up until the point where Morrigan teleports the entire group into the undercity. Both of them look around with a slightly sour note to their expressions; the man fastidiously adjusts a cuff as they eye the immediate area.

  Some time between now and then they managed to sprout weapons: An elegant clockwork rifle for the man, a wickedly curved greatbow for the woman.

  Any questions?

  "None here. Frankly, this all sounds terribly dangerous." Balthier's mouth twitches in the faintest hint of an almost-smile. He and Fran exchange a glance, before he looks back to Morrigan. "Well. Since the leading man is here, we all may as well get the festivities started, hmmm...?"

    The time has come to put an end to this threat, and Dante's back to finish the job. Checking his guns and his blades, he nods curtly. "This one of those 'die in the dream die for real' deals?" He asks, as he cleans Ebony with an oily rag before he reassembles the pistol and cocks it. The .45 spins in his fingers, before Dante stows the pistol in its holster.

     Miwa is a newcomer to this mission, and being a creature of the sea herself, she does find it odd and perhaps even a little disconcerting that the fishing hamlet is so empty. Though after learning what they fought here previously she's not unhappy to be missing out on that today. She thankfully doesn't have to wonder long about what they'll be doing today, though Morrigan's description of that does raise more questions from her than it answers. Still, she decides to keep most of them to herself figuring things will become more clear later. "I could ask how killing someone in a dream will do anything to them outside the dream, but if I'm being honest I've heard of stranger things at this point..."

    "This is very much a 'die in the dream, die for real' scenario." Morrigan answers Dante before she waggles a finger at Miwa. "That's a very complicated question that has a very complicated answer. The fact of the matter is that a Great Old One put a curse on this world as soon as it died and the only way to end that curse is to bring is to do exactly what I just said." She explains vaguely before clapping her hands again.
    She motions for a series of pods made from greenish metallic stone.
    "Okay! Everyone into your own creepy stone sarcophogus and I'll work the sweet sweet magic that does the thing!"
    Mary, perched on Morrigan's shoulder, immediately perks up at mention of the thing, only to get a light pat on the head. "-Not this time, Mary."

    Piera looks to Aquila, then to Morrigan. "I will presume that this magic will not work on my companion." she says, as she steps over toward one of the creepy coffins, while Aquila's jetpack flares and she holds position, arms folded over her chest. The shinki's mouth is pressed into a stoic line, but Mary would probably be able to tell that the Raptias is worried.

    "Alrighty." Dante nods. "I died about...six or seven times when I tried something like this once. Wasn't fun." Then he grabs Rebellion as he takes his position in one of the coffins, resting his sword over his chest like a buried knight. "Naptime, kids. Let's do this."

"What makes them creepy? I have pods just like them in my ship." Bryllu asks, clearly confused right as she enters into her pod. "Miwa, my recommendation when it comes to things Morrigan Lor'osa is involved with is 'she knows what she's doing, even if it seems like it makes no sense.'"

  The sky pirates exchange another look before, with a faint shrug, Balthier saunters toward the nearest creepy stone sarcophagus. Fran is starting towards the one next to his, vaulting lightly over the edge. Balthier takes a moment to frown disapprovingly at the dust before climbing in a little more carefully.

  "These 'Great Old Ones' sound rather like Espers," Balthier comments mostly to himself, before shrugging. "Well, I suppose we're as ready as we'll be. Fran?"

  "We are ready." The confirmation is in that scratchy, smoky voice of hers.

     Miwa nods to Bryllu and follows the lead of the others who have done this before, and gets ready to do the dream thing. "Wonder if a Sleep Talk TM would be good for this. Oh well, I don't have one anyway, and I'm guessing/hoping we'll still have our abilities anyway while in the dream." She half jokes, half questions with a grin. "Guess I'm ready as I'll ever be for this. I'll follow your lead Morrigan."

    Morrigan looks from Piera to Aquila for a beat. Then she looks to Mary. Mary shrugs.
    "I don't see why she couldn't go if she just gets in the sarcaphogus with you." She notes as everyone gets into their own stone pod and she gets into one herself and starts closing it on herself.
    "You're gonna have to close them on your own!" She calls out, voice a little muffled. "Then just... Close your eyes. Take a deep breath... Drift off... And..."

    And...
    And soon enough everyone finds themselves on the beach there the Templars had cut open the Great Old One to release its orphan. Where the orphan died and everything went to hell in the process.
    And the Old One's washed up corpse is still on the beach. Unmoving. Very dead.
    "Huh..." Morrigan says. "It should be alive, kicking, and angry." Murmured thoughtfully as... The corpse shifts. Something stirs inside it. Something that comes crawling out from the corpse.
    A shuffle. A rustle. A wet slorp... And a tall, skeletal humanoid... THING... Drags itself from the corpse.
    "Oh." Says a disturbed Warlock as the figure trudges towards the water and stares off into the distance, a cry rising in its throat that, at first sounds like a distressed babe, but quickly shifts in pitch and tone to an adult's sob.

  Well, this place is bizarre.

  Glancing down and checking himself, Balthier confirms that all of his limbs are not only present and accounted for, but also in working condition. The rifle is cocked but let to point at the ground. Fran has an arrow nocked to the string of her bow, but the string is slack, undrawn.

  Looks like the sky pirates are just gonna wait and see, for the moment, although they sweep the rest of the group with a glance to see what the others might have in mind.

Bryllu takes to the sky and watches the creature. "Is that our target?" She asks as she casually floats up and towards the Orphan, tendricles pulled up to try to make it not immediately obvious that she's preparing to attack.

    Dante yawns as he drifts to sleep. Snores are heard from the pod.

    Then Dante wakes up on the beach. "Fuckin' hell...what's that smell?" He mutters, trying to see through the fog until he sees the dead Old One. "Oh. That."

    And then the infant Old One emerges from its mother's carcass, carrying SOMETHING in its hand. Dante can feel his breath hitch, his heart practically jumps out of his throat in terrified confusion at the creature.

    "Okay...I think we found our target." He says, reaching for Rebellion on his back.

    Aquila, on hearing that, flits over as Piera closes the lid. Cutting her jetpack just before entering and perching on the Assassin's shoulder. The lid closes, they both close their eyes and...

    Appear on the beach, as a spooky scary skeleton comes out of the corpse.

    The pair look at one another, nod, and lift their ranged weapons in unison. Piera's Hidden Gun fires with a loud report, while Aquila's laser blasters stacatto out a volley of light-bolts at the skeleton creature.

     Miwa blinks as she looks around at the scene they have been transported to in this dreamscape. It was quite a sight to behold. Like Balthier, she takes a moment to look herself over to make sure nothing strange happened to her, and even fires off a harmless Bubble Beam attack into the air to at least confirm that she still has her usual abilities. She then recoils as the scent of the Old One's rotting corpse reaches her, futilely lifting a flipper to cover her nose as she watches that strange figure drag itself out of the corpse and shamble toward the water, starting off at seemingly nothing as it wails. "Well, I sure didn't need to sleep tonight... Though I guess I kinda am now. Guess I get to live a nightmare and then have more later."

    It's carrying something alright. Part of its former mother, still slick and bloody, and razor sharp at the same time, just... Dragging behind it as it stares off into the horizon.
    Until Piera and Aquila shoot at it. Their bullet and laser bolts impact the creature with sickly wet impacts before it rapidly turns around.
    On seeing the group on the beach it lets out a hideous cry, a sound somewhere between a wail and a shriek. Just looking at the creature is headache inducing, but that sound lout enough to make ears bleed as it lunges with inhuman speed, wildly flailing its organic axe-like weapon.

Bryllu notice the creature's weapon, and her response is somewhat reckless perhaps but she descends enough to get into reach and then tries to tangle her barbed tendricles all around that organic axe-like weapon, trying to get it tangled up in those limbs of hers.

    Dante grits his teeth at the shriek of the creature. "Fuckin' hell, don't get too close to th-" And then he's smacked away by the axe-thing. Skidding across the sands, he rushes the creature with his sword, thrusting out while the creature's wide open.

    He's also pretty sure that's the Old God's placenta. Gross.

     Miwa wasn't as quick to assume this was their target, but she had to admit it looked the part, especially with the weapon it was dragging. When it turns hostile, she winces sharply a moment at the ear-piercing wail but doesn't let that stop her from joining the fight. 

     She might have aimed her attack directly at the weapon but doesn't want to risk hitting Bryllu as well, so she adjusts her aim and fires an Ice Beam directly at those skeletal legs and feet, hoping to freeze the thing to the ground with the torrent of frigid water that fires from her mouth and turns to solid ice when it hits something.

  Smoothly, both sky pirates raise their weapons. They don't attack, but they do make a point of keeping their weapons trained on the--oh, we're firing now? Oh, we're firing now. Balthier raises his rifle, squinting one eye shut as he lines up a shot. Fran likewise raises her bow, drawing and holding a shot until she's positive she has a clear path.

  Fran's nose wrinkles sharply. The smell just hit her. It must take a bit more effort to reach Balthier; he's slower to react, but he reacts in much the same way. "Gods, what is that awful stench?"

  "That thing."

  "Lovely."

  They're both playing it cool, and they're both kind of obviously --creeped out-- unsettled by that thing. At least, until it screeches. Then they both manage disgusted sounds of their own, because seriously that thing is gross and wrong and giving them each an Archadian-size migraine.

  They'll just, you know, keep firing until the ick goes away. Somehow.

    Aquila and Piera split up, the human fumbling with a new cartridge to reload her wrist-gun, while Aquila continues to pepper the thing with laser fire, trying to distract and disrupt its attacks so others can get a clear hit in. The human Assassin finally racks the mechanism on the wrist-gun, but draws her sword as that organic axe comes swinging her way. She lashes out to deflect it as she bends with the impact, though ends up punted right into the sand from the sheer force.

    For something that was just born in a dream, the Orphan moves so fast. After battering Dante and Piera aside aside it jukes the half-demon's gunfire. Bryllu comes in to wrap her appendages around the weapon- only for it to raise that placenta-axe high- and try to slam it down with her still attached.
    As Miwa's ice beam hits its legs the Orphan cries out again with that soul-crushing scream, as Fran and Balthier lay into it. Eventually its legs DO freeze though, hindering it in place, but...
    That doesn't stop the creature. Crying out in that heinous cry as it looses the axe in its hand, still attached to it by a ribbon of flesh it flails it with at an even longer range than before with even wilder speed.

Bryllu is moving with the placenta-axe, crashing into the ground at least once, but she is not letting go, engines set to max she's trying to pull the weapon up and up and up as much as she can and generally just prevent the Orphan from using that weapon against anyone else. "I don't know how well or how long I can hold onto this, please hurry."

    The screaming monster infant is not any more charming the more it shrieks at the crew. Dante trades blows with it, his sword blocking and slashing at it, with blood coming from his sounds. "SHUT...UP!" He shouts in between swipes, before he stabs at the creature's chest, aiming to cut in half.

    Piera is winded... that hit took all the wind out of her and she's reeling. Aquila tries to cover, as that axe turns into a bladed morning star.

    Piera rolls over onto her front, getting her knees under her and pushing up on her hands.

    That's when a flicker of gold hits the sand. Eyes draw to it, the little circuit-patterns in the alloy casing, the power it contains. Then those eyes lift to the Elderspawn, Bryllu can't hold on for long, the others are taking a beating and here she is, useless.

    "Oh will you JUST. BE. QUIET!" she yells, snatching the bracelet up and clicking it firmly around her wrist. It flares with power, limming her eyes in the same golden hue as she reaches out, and makes a grasping motion. Air compresses around the Orphan, a 'bubble' compressing in ever tighter as the Assassin channels the artifact's power. "Hit it! NOW!"

>> GAME >> Piera Forta spends an Edge for: Using the Kinetic Bracelet

     Ok, this thing is clearly a monster that just wants to destroy them all, and Bryllu is telling them all to hurry, so Miwa is going to literally give it her best shot with this one. "Ok, let's see how this... thing... likes this one!" She cries as she moves to get in position for a clear shot, then opens her mouth and begins to sing as with a bright blue flash, a large glowing sphere of water appears above her nose, soon joined by two more. 

     Suddenly with a rise in pitch, the orbs are launched at the skeletal horror, they pack quite the punch and explosion if they hit. Hopefully, it does enough, as it looks like Miwa is looking pretty tired, probably going to need a minute before she's ready to fight some more.

>> GAME >> Miwa spends an Edge for: Miwa used Hydro Cannon, water goes boom.

>> GAME >> Dante spends an Edge for: Dante has had it with this shrieking hellfishman thing.

>> GAME >> Bryllu Zibhu MLDVII spends an Edge for: Holding onto that placenta-axe for dear life.

    Bryllu valiantly holds that bloody axe down, doing her damnedest to keep it from impacting the others. It is a struggle the likes of which stories would be sung of the post-human's bravery for ages to come if the bards were here to see it.
    And then... Piera resorts to her secret tactic. A trick she's held up her sleeve for a while now, something that she deemed a last resort if she so chooses to use it now against this creature. It shrieks again as the Assassin reaches out and traps it within that bubble of force- constraining it from attacking any further as Dante and Miwa move in for the kill.
    With one final wail bemoaning its fate, the skeletal Orphan is brought low, collapsing to the mucky sands of the beach in a heap where it begins to melt away into the mire, whining as it breathes its last.
    Morrigan, who has been maintaining her concentration on the ritual to keep everyone in the dream... Releases her control over it and everything fades to black...
    Everyone wakes up in their sarcophagi, Morrigan already pushing hers open slowly.
    "Geeze, you guys really went all out." She huffs, "But that should end the curse and hopefully we won't ever have to come back to this nightmare infested craphole ever again."
    There's the bright side at least.

    Piera shoves the lid of her sarcophagus open, reaching down to unclip the bracelet and return it to its pouch before she lets herself become used to the power. She adjusts her hood, then starts walking away... before remembering that the 'long road' out involves swimming through sharp coral reefs; and even without Deep Ones to worry about, there are still sea creatures that might want to take a bite of wayward land-animal on the way back to the beach.

    So, she waits for the Warlock to take the group back, remaining quiet even as Aquila sits on her shoulder.

    Dante rips his sword clear of the beast, intending to cut it in half diagonally. As the beast dies, Dante feels everything go to black.

    Then he wakes up. Yawning, he pops his neck and climbs out of the pod after smashing the lid open. "...that was weird, far as dreams go." He groans, grabbing his sword. He waits with Piera and Morrigan, seeing as how he can't swim nearly well enough to carry on by himself.

"So is what dreams usually are like?" Bryllu asks as she floats out of her pod, looking around to see if anything has changed around them, before turning to Morrigan. "We do what we must because we can."

     Miwa awakens and slides the lid of her sarcophagus open and flops out back onto the floor before regaining her footing on her flippers and beginning the trek out. She looks to the others who are less aquatically inclined. "Anyone need some help getting back to the surface? I don't mind giving a ride to the top."