World Tree MUSH

    Legends are told of the Staff of Sylneas Silvertongue, which can be used to command dragons and bend them to the will of the wielder. Such a relic could grant wealth and power beyond measure to whomever holds it. The Watchful Order of Magisters and Protectors want this staff found and have recently discovered the location of the staff in the ruins of an ancient wizard's tower in the heart of a great forest, the name of which has been lost to time...
    Anna Primrose, the raging royal princess of Rosalia stands at the entrance to the treeline, putting out a campfire and rolling up her bedroll as she prepares to enter the woods in search for the tower with whoever else took up the quest from the adventurer's guild and its varied outlets for providing adventurers with jobs. The young princess takes a steeling breath as she starts taking a few test swings with her silver axe at the air to pass the time as she waits for others to arrive.

    "Look at that, you upgraded your weapon." Valerian says as he walks out of the treeline and stands near Anna, folding his hands behind his head. He's dressed in his usual gear, carrying the same bundle across his back that he always does as he settles in and yawns a bit. 

    "So this is the more loosey-goosely free-wheeling adventure, then? We're taking a slight break from tracking the demon cult infestation on your world?"

     There was a very specific reason that Arrienee Quickfoot had chosen this quest. That being that it was basically stealing something, and that's just right up her alley. The reality of the situation is that the sound of the shiny amazing staff? Made her mouth drool at the thought of having it, and the amount of money she could get for selling it. She could buy /so many/ meals selling something like that. And it was a publically posted quest, so she was likely to have allies so she probably wouldn't die! Which is why Arri had actually been waiting a couple of days for a good looking party to show up. Which, so far, it was 'not much of a party'. 
     So Arri ended up approaching the current gathering party since it was better than no party, holding a decently well-made slingshot in one of her hands as she approaches. "'Sup, I'm here for the quest at the tower. I'm Arri. I'm a scout and trap specialist." Yep. That's how she's going to introduce herself. Of course, people who had been around her world much probably knew of her as 'that damn goblin thief' that plagued one of the bigger cities. 

     Among those to have taken the job is a mouse. About five feet tall and decked out in armor, sword at his side, he's definitely not the kind of mouse most people would be used to. As he strides up to the gathering group, he lifts the visor of his helmet to give them a reassuring smile.

"I'm called Martin the Warrior. I'm guessing we're all here for the same thing." he introduces himself, before unslinging the leather pack from his back and pulling out a handful of candied chestnuts. "Anyone need a quick snack? They're good for an energy boost... and just plain good."

    It's a rare occasion when DARGN voices an opinion. Ordinarily she is content to sit back and function as a support AI, occasionally giving advice (or taunts). But this time around, when Hyouka was browsing recent adventurer postings, mercenary bounties and other such contracts, it was DARGN who took a second look at the posting.

    "...Hyouka. Please go back to that posting one page back. Watchful Order of Magisters and Protectors." "Huh? Sure, what's-" "Take that quest." "...huh?!" "I ask as... as a copy of the thought patterns of a dragon. Please take that posting." "S-sure. It looks interesting anyway. Wizard's tower, nameless lost forest..."

    And so, here she is, loaded up and ready for adventure. "Ah, Valerian, Anna~! Hello, you two," the cyborg greets, lifting a hand to wave at both. Arrienee and Martin are less-familiar faces, but she gives them a cheery nod of greeting as well. "Hyouka Kiyama. Cyborg and adventurer." From somewhere in the neighborhood of her collarbone, a second feminine voice speaks up, dry. "I am DARGN. Think of Hyouka as a heavy-armor frontline fighter, even if she doesn't look it right now."

    Uni's arrival is preceeded by a small, one-foot tall robot girl. Bravette swoops in on her jetpack, lands on a nearby surface, then pulls a flare pistol and fires it straight up, sending a white point of light into the sky. The Goddess arrives not long afterward, slinging her rifle over her shoulder, letting the weapon settle against her back as she walks up. She doesn't say much, just petting Bravette on the head. amd waiting for the others to arrive. She looks around as others show up, then indicates her firearm. "I'm ranged support. Just leave the sniping to me."

    Magical artifacts and such promising immense wealth don't really interest one Shirou Emiya in any way or form. And so jobs to go recover things like that for someone else don't really interest him much at all, either. But Anna had messaged him to mention she was going to take that job on, so... well. He was suddenly much more inclined to accept the job, if only for the sake of helping her with it all. He hasn't really gotten to see her in person again since that time he somehow ended up helping her with... shopping. Yes. Shopping. Really.

    Being that he *still* isn't very used to navigating the World Tree and associated Worlds, he's just a touch late to arrive here, compared to others. At least enough so that while everyone is making their due introductions to people they don't already know, the red-haired boy in a modern white-and-black jacket with a not-at-all-modern sword strapped to his back comes into view from around the bend of the road.

    Realizing the little bit of faux pa involved here, he silently moves in to bring himself mingling amongst everyone else, without drawing any attention to himself -- in the hopes that people might somehow not realize he only *just* got here, quickly slipping "I am Emiya Shirou, I'm just some guy," in there for the benefit of Martin and Arrienee.

    And inevitably, he finds himself looking to Anna, when she gets a free moment. He considers the clothes she wears now -- the clothes he helped her pick out some time back, to help her blend in in more modern areas. And overall change her look too, perhaps, to throw off whoever is hunting her. "Hey. You look nice." There's roughly five seconds that pass in what is expected to be akward silence, before he realizes just what that added bit after his greeting could come across as. "Er-- I mean," he blusters right after, waving one hand in front of him with an akward bit of laughter and a forced smile. "The clothes suit you! Is... what I meant. Yeah... So, um, anyway, what are we planning to do here, exactly...?"

    "I had my axe coated in silver at Peacely." Anna notes mildly to Valerian, before the princess flashes a bit of an embarrassed smile. "And I do need to make money somehow so I can eat."
    Sure she could just rely on her bank card considering her parents apparently haven't cut her off from her personal accounts and allowance, but she clearly wants to fend for herself a little. "The Watchful Order is willing to pay two-hundred gold per person to whoever finds the staff, so."
    So then a goblin walks up to the gathering party and Anna locks up. Blue eyes focusing squarely on Arrienee for a solid moment before the human girl clears her throat. "Ah, hello-... I'm Anna of the Weaseltooth tribe. What tribe are you from?"
    Then there's a huge mouse. Getting used to offworlders as she is, Martin gets a curious look, but she doesn't overtly stare. She even accepts a chestnut before her attention shifts.
    "-Oh, Hyouka, Uni, it's good to see the both of you."
    And then Shirou arrives.
    'You look nice.'
    Anna makes a sound. A strangled little noise as she struggles to maintain her composure, a faint pink heat rising to her cheeks as she opens her mouth to speak--

    'The first time she lost her temper she broke her handmaid's nose, jaw, and arm...'

    Anna goes stone still, all color draining from her face in an instant at the hissed whisper that floats over the edge of the trees. Fumbling her axe in hand and nearly dropping it as her hands begin to quake. She looks sick, pale, and hurt as though someone had just blurted out something that was never supposed to have seen the light of day since she buried it away, a piteously embarrassed and painful look crossing her face before she just... Turns and starts marching into the forest.

    "Ah right. Introductions. Valerian Railton, owner of Railton Imports and Exports, and a mercenary too." He yawns a bit and gives Arri a casual salute as she shows up before blinking a few times. 

    "Yo Dragon-sis. What's the haps?" He asks to Hyouka a few moments later, waiting as people continue to gather, "You all can consider me similar to Hyouka. Frontline fighter." 

    "Oh. Creepy mysterious voices. Don't like that." He says in an annoyed tone as they walk into the forest after Anna, "200 Gold. That's right. You can gave my share if you want, Anna. I don't need the cash, I'm just around to give you a hand and see if there's any good parts to salvage today." He admits as he marches after her. 

    He doesn't have too much of a reaction to the mysterious voice outing a secret of Anna, but then again he's a battle-hardened war-veteran, so maybe he's not that squeamish?

     'Snacks' is a word that immediately gets the goblin's attention. Though she doesn't outwardly show it, her eyes do flick towards Martin. Food? Hmm. But what if it's poisoned? She moves over towards Martin regardless, reaching to take one of those candied chestnuts to munch on. And then a second. And then she catches herself before grabbing a third, instead focusing on Hyouka. "...Dargn? Why would your name be that? It's like someone said dragon wrong." She squints at Hyouka's neck. Hmm. That's something. 
     Another robot girl and then the goddess arrives, after a quick shot from Bravette, the goblin is on defensive, a pepper shaker loaded onto her slingshot and aimed directly at the small robot. And then someone arrives from the sky. With some fancy shmancy futuristic weapon thingy maybe. And she's petting it. Well, at least she didn't shoot one of her precious pepper shakers unnecessarily. She quickly slips that pepper shaker back into her clothing somewhere as she tries to look like she /wasn't/ just about to shoot a potential ally. "...Right. Okay then. Uh. Sure." 
     Shirou arrives much less surprisingly. And Arri just lifts her hand to wave to him with a four-fingered hand. "'Sup, just some guy. I'm Arri, like I said." She pauses at his awkward comments towards Anna, and immediately a devious little smirk starts to spread on her face. "Oh. Man. Could you have been more awkward there? Man, that's just. Kind of hilariously bad." Yep. She's totally making friends right now! 
     'I do need to make money somehow so I can eat' is certainly something that Arri definitely could empathise with. "I hear that, girl! Food is importa... two hundred gold I know I read it but it's really two hundred gold?" One could almost see the goblin's eyes light up with little gold coins in them at that thought. She could get /so many meals/ with that. And maybe an /inn room/. One of those long ears perks at the mention of 'tribe'. And those goblin eyes just kind of stare at Anna. "Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. They didn't just /terrorize/ that kingdom, they made a human a part of their tribe??? Did they make you a slave or something??? Oh. Right. Uh. Sorry. I. Uh. I'm from the Quickfoots. We uh. We deliver stuff." Ahem. And then. That little hissed whisper. Once again, that pepper shaker is out and that slingshot is loaded. "Who the what where did that come from???" 

    Hyouka recognizes Shirou and Uni too; the latter even gets a cheery grin. "Ah, Uni~. And... Emiya-kun, wasn't it? Good to see you too."

    DARGN's response to Arrienee is deadpan. "Digital-Assist Reflex Guardian Node. DARGN. The irony is not lost on me, I assure you-"

    A whisper floats up over the trees. Hyouka blinks, then looks at Anna, then the trees, then Anna again. "...was that..." Her onboard AI, meanwhile, speaks with surprising softness - and perhaps a bit of acceptance. "Ah, I see. It's to be one of those, then." But Anna is moving on, so Hyouka moves into a jog and follows after.

     Martin greets and offers the chestnut snacks to everyone arriving after him as well, giving Arrienee a sympathetic glance as she gobbles down two of them and has to stop herself from taking a third. After a minute or so he packs away any unclaimed treats and slings the bag over his back again, dropping his visor down. "It looks like we're all here. If there are any latecomers, at least the way will be clearer for them so they can catch up." he says, sounding rather confident in that.

Shirou's words get a small chuckle out of him, though the strange whispering through the trees catches his attention. "Perhaps we should take caution. Someone is taunting us, which means we could be walking into a trap." he suggests, following Anna.

    Uni inclines her head slightly to Anna when greeted. She also greets those she's met before as well. The Goddess candidate offers a smile to Hyouka, but then blinks as that ghostly whisper reveals some secret of the local Princess Berserker. "Ah... fun, a haunted forest... Bravette, stick close to me." she says, unslinging her rifle as she gets into position with the rest of the group.

    "Yes, hello," Shirou offers back to Hyouka with a respectful smile nod and a faint smile of his own to her way. "We only met just that one time before and... just real quicklike, but... Kiyama-san, right?"

    On the tail-end of his little bluster with addressing Anna, he huffs at Arienee. "S-shush," he complains, with a bit of red flushing over his cheeks too, since he does know *exactly* what it all sounded like. "She knows what I mean-"

    His complaint has been cut short by a sudden creepy voice revealing of Anna's. "Eh?" His hand immediately goes up to the hilt of the sword poking up from over his shoulder, turning to try to find the source of the voice. "What was tha-...?" And perhaps-understandable, Anna is *promptly* making off to the forest. "H-h-hey, wait!" He calls out after the girl, and without even thinking about it, he goes running right after her, trying to catch up. "Anna!"

    Anna is STORMING through the trees, clearly having gone from hurt and embarrased to completely, world-endingly, livid as she marches through the brush scowling. Clearly she does not like creepy mysterious voices either as she hacks some brush out of her way with her axe, snarling.
    It's Valerian's words that make her calm down marginally enough to be reasonable.
    "M-mn... Thanks... I..." She trails off, before clearing her throat and trying to calm herself.
    "It's complicated." She says to Arrienee; "They kind of accepted me as a member of the tibe after a while. Taught me how to hunt and track. ... Ah, the Quickfoots... I'd only heard of your tribe, but I hear they're praised among the other tribes for their fleetness of foot."
    Moving on.
    It could be a trap, but if it was, Anna is already headlong into it. Thankfully nothing comes out to attack the party just yet as Martin suggests it could be dangerous and--

    'Yes, yes, a trap... Listen to the one responsible for Rose's death... Too slow, too slow, snap-crack went her neck... khehehehhh!'

    This makes the princess pause. She's clearly trying to discern WHERE the voice is coming from as she clutches her axe.
    "I'm fine." She mutters as Shirou catches up to her.
    "Whoever's taunting us WON'T be, when I find them." She growls.
    At long last, after a bit of a hike, the party catches the glint of something through the trees. The path ahead opens into a clearing covered in lush green grass and wildflowers.
    Atop the hill in the center of the clearing is the Silvyr tower, shining bright in the red-orange glow of the setting sun, the light reflecting almost painfully bright off the smooth, mirror-like surface of the tower ruins.
    The jagged ruins of the tower reach towards the sky like the clawed hand of a dying man, broken pieces of tower wall scatter around the base of the ruins and the broken pieces shine with the same mirror-like finish. The stone door of the tower is visible from the path through the woods, covered in intricate carvings of leaves and roses...
    Anna tests the door...
    "... Locked."

     As other people start to chase after Anna, Arri seems to realize that, oh right, she should be doing that too, and starts to follow after as well as she does. "Yep! That's us, the fast and nimble goblins! ...I mean all goblins are but we're /especially/ so." Arri says with a quick nod. Moving on after them... and the talk. And the whispers in the air. Too slow, too slow. Okay, wow, this is a /vicious/ trap or enchantment. And then they get up to... a locked door! Hey it's one of her specialties. "Locked isn't an issue~." She slips forward towards the door, pulling out. Is that... is that a pair of paperclips? Yes. Yes it is. And after a few moments of bending the paperclips into shape, she's going at the lock to unlock it, mumbling under her breath. "Click on one... small click on three... nothing on four..." Eventually, there's a quick turn, and an opened door, and Arri is putting those paperclips back into her clothing... somewhere. 
     "Yeah your person who named you chose the name first and worked back from there." She comments towards Dargn with a soft chuckle under her breath, peeking through the doorway as she listens to the various others. Shirou gets another little smirk. "Hush, about what? You stumbling all over yourself? Because I mean... you protest too much clearly~." Honestly, this has been more fun than her usual jobs, so she's not complaining. The group is entertaining at the least. 

     Martin follows through the trees, keeping up the pace easily despite his armor. He's quite accustomed to woodlands, after all. He does stumble once, however, as the voice brings up one of his own personal failings. It's good that his helmet hides his face.

"...This person knows personal details about us. I can't tell how, but I can count the number of people I've told about Rose on one paw. I strongly doubt it's any of them behind this, either." he says through gritted teeth, trying to remain logical despite the situation. Still, the way he palms his sword's handle...

The discussion of DARGN's name does prompt a small chuckle from him however. "It wouldn't be the first time I've heard of such..."

    Uni scans the trees as the group moves, the underbarrel flashlight casting a cone of pale white into the murky dark. Bravetter's own helmet mounted spotlight also pans in the opposite direction. "Whatever this thing is, it's just trying to get under our skin. Don't let what it says unnerve you!" says the Shinki, her tone taking a pinched, clipped air those that know the little robot would know that she's currently a little stressed. "Focus! Keep your wits about you!"

    Uni, meanwhile is silent, her face a mask of determination though her lip quivers a bit at the thought of something she's keeping under wraps coming to light.

    "It's probably a Psychic." Valerian says to Martin as he guesses about the nature of how the creature knows personal details, "Or has access to some sort of Psychic power. Best way to deal with whatever it is, when you see it, is to aim for the head and pop it right off like a grape." Valerian makes a snapping noise with his fingers. 

    "You should also be ready for any dirty secret to come out about you as a defense mechanism. Either to make you hesitate or turn us against one another." He grins a bit, "Kinda makes you wish we had a shameless hedonist with us. They'd be totally immune to this whole situation." 

    Valerian was, for a moment, tempted to just brute force his way through the door. Possible fortunately for everyone, Arrienee is here with a more elegant lockpicking solution and so there won't be an explosion of wood today from a kicked-in door.

    Just as they're about settled into the hike, the voice speaks up again. The revelation puts a faint grimace on Hyouka's face; she doesn't say anything, or look Martin's way, but privately to DARGN, she shares a brief exchange of messages. 'That's morbid.' 'If I'm right about this place, also not a fact he wants exposed.' 'Good thing I don't really have anything major.' 'Oh? No teenage fanfiction to hide?' 'All long deleted.'

    They reach the door of the tower ruins, and Hyouka brings up her arms. The movements are probably familiar; it's her startup for the FISTEAU system when she's being dramatic. But before she can open her mouth, Arrienee steps up to handle it in a much less destructive manner. "...ah." Hyouka almost sounds disappointed!

    DARGN, meanwhile, is happy to discuss herself. "A happy accident, actually. Digital-Assist Reflexes is an existing principle for those with artificial limbs that exceed human reaction times. 'Guardian Node' is the terminology that's come into common use for on-board artificial intelligences... ah, let's say 'familiar spirits imbued into a weapon, tool, armor or vehicle'. I am a Guardian Node that manages Hyouka's Digital-Assist Reflexes."

    "Are you sure...?" Is all Shirou asks of Anna when finally caught up. He doesn't seem *entirely* convinced by the claim, but... at least the princess is more focused on dealing with the task at hand than anything else. THat's... that's good at least?

    His lips purse together with the brief look back towards Martin when the voice speaks up again-- not that there's anything judgemental about that look. Just more worried, over the wellbeing of the person getting things outed for them.

    And Arrienee? Well. The only reason Shirou doesn't bump his foot against the goblin's shin is that she's currently in charge of getting the door open for them, so he just grumbles, "I don't know what you are talking about..."

    So hah hah, whoever guards this tower is spilling everyone's secrets for them. Anna looks about ready to smash in the door herself, knuckles popping as she grips her axe a little too hard and--
    Arrienee unlocks the door with a set of paperclips.
    Anna clears her throat, looking sheepish for a beat.
    "I'm sure..." She murmurs to Shirou. She's as fine as she's going to be considering her usual anger issues.
    "Unfortunately, in this case, I don't think any of us are shameless hedonists..." The prim and proper princess mutters, trying to listen to Bravette's advice and not be unnerved.
    It's not easy when she looks to Martin, brow knotted in a sympethetic expression.
    Nevertheless, with the door unlocked, Anna pushes it open and takes the lead...

    'Yessss... Be ready for any dirty secret to come out... Dragon *vampire*.' The voice whispers before beginning to cackle. 'Tell me, how does it feel? To have the power of a dragon coursing through your veins as you drink their very life from them?'

    Anna squeezes her eyes shut.
    "I didn't hear anything. Did you hear something?" She deflects as the party enters the tower...
    The roof has long since come off, leaving the tower open to the sky and the elements. There is a sitting room, a library, and what appears to be an alchemy lab in the various chambers of the tower. One book in the library seems completely pristine compared to the others on the walls, which are moldy and worn or even completely destroyed by weather, time, and rain.
    There's a set of stairs down, too but--
    With a yelp, Anna is yanked by a pair of arms into a dark side-room, while the shambling sound of feet can be heard approaching. It's a big tower so it's not TOO cramped, but the issue here might be the zombies that start shambling out of the shadows, approaching the party, ash and dust softly rolling off their decrepit bodies as they try to bash and bite anyone they can get close enough to.

    Uni watches the rogue open the door with his light fingers and some paperclips he found. She then brings her weapon up to shine the light into the doorway. "Breach and clear, watch the corners!" she says, following the front-liners in and... finding zombies. "... Why is it always zombies? Why can the map designers never use something original." she grumbles.

    Wait, what?

    Either way, she takes aim at one, and squeezes off a burst of rounds that emit white tracers. Their Light-aspected energy bolts hopefully dealing with the Undead well enough.

     Yep. Doorbusters were headed right for the door. This is /definitely/ not a party used to having a Rogue in it. Arri gets a self-assured little smirk at that thought, though it fades again as she listens to the others. "Yeah... they do seem to know more than they should. ...I wonder what they have on me? Hmmm." Arri taps her lip thoughtfully as she peers into the room, starting to do that scouting thing. Though the comment from DARGN gets a bit of a look from the goblin. 
     "Yeah sure and I'm an ogre. They chose that and worked from it to that." She says with a little stuck out tongue at the ... necklace? Hyouka? Yeah it's easily misunderstood either way. But it's fine. Probably. "So... you're like. An intelligent enchanted item? I've only heard stories of those, I mean. They're super expensive and worth a lot so y'know. People tend to keep them pretty well guarded." From thieves. Like her. She might be considering trying to steal DARGN later. But not seriously at the moment. There was a payout she could focus on right now! 
     "You know exactly what I'm talking about, lover-boy." The goblin snips back at Shirou, though she drops down her tone and scans the room quickly. And then another hissing whisper in Arrienne's ears gets a slight narrowing of her eyes. The side-room being dark hadn't bothered her, she'd assumed nobody would get caught by zombies. Until Anna started walking towards it. "H-hey, Weaseltooth, don't go over--" Too late. Zombies had her. Arrienee was zipping into the room, quickly darting over to the alchemy table to break any available glass to get a nice little shard for a glass dagger, which she follows up with by darting towards the zombies to slice at one of their arms to attempt to loosen its ability to grip the Weaseltooth girl. "Let... go of her... you brainless... idiot!" 

     "I don't know what a psychic is, but I already don't like the sound of it." Martin responds to Valerian with a gruff tone of voice, before his attention briefly turns to Bravetter. "I'm very focused. Razor sharp."

To accentuate the point, he leaps right into battle with the zombies the moment they appear, barely even waiting for them to come out of the shadows before his sword arcs through the air to carve one of the walking corpses in two. Any others that come near meet a similar fate, light dancing off his blade as he follows Arrienee to try to rescue Anna. Part of it is to save a comrade, part of it is just... catharsis.

    "Oh come off it!" Valerian shouts to the voice in an annoyed tone, "Dragons would eat any of us if given the chance, and often do. Don't try to make Dragons the victims in anything!" The annoyance in Valerian's voice is present as he defends himself to the disembodied voice. 

    And then he steps forward towards the zombies. With a spin of his body, he launches a lariat, his bicep smashing a zombie's head clean to paste. With a focused twirl, he then throws a roundhouse kick that threatens to cut a zombie clean in half through the sheer force of it. He's clearly annoyed and taking out that aggression on these zombies to clear his head. 

    "A Psychic is someone who uses powers of the mind. Invasive little shits that weasel into your thoughts and attack you there because they're too weak to fight you head on." He explains to Martin as he fights.

    Hearing the next secret to be spilled, Hyouka grimaces a little, doing her very best not to look Valerian's way. She messages DARGN privately again, though. 'I knew he had his thing with dragons, but hearing it put like that... that voice really is awful.' The onboard AI does not reply, for once.

    She does, however, speak out loud, to Arrienee. "Ah, I was not aware you were more familiar with my own world than I," DARGN replies dryly. "But yes, to answer your question, that's... somewhat accurate. Hyouka's body is entirely artificial, other than her brain. A combination of magic and technology. I am an imprint of a dragon's brain, offered up by the dragon who financed her body to begin with. So I am somewhat like an enchantment of intelligence on Hyouka's artificial body."

    There's a pause.

    Hyouka grumbles, "Go on, say it. We all know it's coming."

    DARGN, coy, "Then I don't need to say it, do I?"

    Hyouka very nearly blunders into the zombies. "Whoa-!" She stumbles back a step, uttering a quiet swear under her breath, then brings up both arms. "Fisto, ON!" Both of her fore arms split open, revealing a bluish other-space inside them. With a snap-clang-clatter-clack, parts begin to fold out and lock together from inside this space, rapidly forming a truly massive pair of gauntlets around her arms. Each a bit bigger than her torso, the immense technomagical 'gloves' light up with lines of orange light, visibly shimmering with heat. "Gotta hand it to you, DARGN, fire was a good suggestion."

    Sure enough, when she starts swinging those huge arms, there are bursts of fire-elemental mana with each impact.

    "W-what boy?!" Shirou blubbers out, and his face turns positively *crimson* over the goblin-girl's teasing jab. "I...!"

    Well, that all's going to have to get pushed away now, isn't it? All the embarrassed bluster put aside, there is one truth to Shirou that persists even now: seeing someone in trouble springs him into action. And with it coming in the form of Anna getting pulled away out of sight by zombies?

    "...!!!"

    The embarrassment brought on by Arrienee is forgotten, and without hesitation, Shirou's quickly pulling the sword at his back up. "ANNA!!" he yells out as he gives chase with the rest.

    "Trace--!" Something briefly flashes in his mind. Two silhouettes of blades...? "--On!!"

    Magic pours into the silver sword in his hand now. He doesn't even have the time to think about what he's doing. THe red-haired would-be-magus just charges straight through, and swings the enhanced sword through whatever zombie gets in his way with the complete lack of grace of an amateur swordsman just trying to get to his friend.

    Zombies. It's always zombies. Though thankfully there's plenty fo sturdy glasswear for Arrienee to break and uses as improvised shivs. While Valerian and Hyouka handily deal with the zombies in the main room, as the gobbo, mouse, and magus rush into the side room after Anna, it's a quick and deadly fracas.
    There are several more zombies in here, which means once the trio have Anna freed, there's a continued scuffle that lasts just a bit longer but...
    These adventurers are a little high level for zome zombies.
    The thing is, though, these are wet nasty bloody messy zombies... As the party breaks them and bashes and slashes them, they emit clouds of ash and dust when they get hit and...
    A broom in the corner of the tower hops to life after all the zombies are slain... The broomba commences dutifully sweeping up all the dust.
    Anna sputters and huffs, looking embarrassed and completely COVERED in dust after ripping another zombie in half with her bare hands over her head.
    So that just leaves one place to go. The stairs down.

    'Oh. Oh yes, you handled those zombies so well.' The voice whispers. 'You're all ~so~ much stronger than you know... Heh... To think some of you are trying to catch up. I'm certain Noire would be proud if she saw you wasting your potential on low-tier undead. HAH!'

    It's a short descent down the stairs into the tower basement. It's dark. Really dark save for...
    There's a mirror at the opposite end of the room. The braziers in the mirror are alight and lit up with flame. But the actual braziers in the room are not, even though there's a rather large amount of soot on them that says they seem to get used a lot.

    Uni racks the chamber on her rifle, then freezes in place at the mention of her sisters name. The Goddess Candidate pushes ahead of the group without a word, pushing to the front instead of hanging back like the ranged support is meant to. She storms right up to the mirror, and seems about ready to shoot it, bad luck be damned.

     "Know more about your world than you? Nah, nah, there's just a convenient parallel... between them!" Arri responds as she continues to stab and cut at zombie-arm until it is thoroughly removed by the glass dagger, shards of it left behind in the zombie arm, and then there were FIRE PUNCHES. The zombie was now on fire. And she was on it. Stabbing its arm. With a sudden wrench and a pull, pushing legs against the zombie's arm, she takes advantage of the reduced strength from rotten flesh... to disarm it. "So like. She's... like some... sort of ... I dunno. What are those things? The like. Stuff that wizards can summon? Uh. Like the giant living rock things? I dunno. Anyway it's. Uh. It's interesting!" She nods. Yep. 
     Also Shirou is helping her remove the threat of the zombie. Which that sword definitely helps with that whole 'disarming' thing. And lets Arri get that arm off easier. "Thanks, Shirou! I will treasure this forever as a gift of our first encounter together." Wait is she going to keep a rotten zombie arm? "...Well, okay, until I find a better weapon at least." Is... is that any better??? 
     And soon they have a broomba cleaning up an ashy mess and Anna is just. Covered in ash. How ... fun. Yep. Fun is a good thing to call it. Also there's another little hissing call out. "...That's just rude. You're doing well whoever that's directed at, ignore that little shit!" She calls out in response. Yeah. Supportive grumpy gobbo. Hmph! And soon they're descended down into the darkness, with Arri brandishing a zombie arm taken from their foes. Yep. It is, quite possibly, on fire, and makes for a good torch. A very messy torch though. Gross. 

    "Alright, that's it. I've had enough of this voice. Fuck it." Valerian rummages around in the pocket of the apron he is wearing and pulls out... an iPod. Which he promptly puts the earbuds of into his ears and cycles through it for a moment to 'Adventuring Playlist'. The first song it queues up is 'Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For a Hero'. He then rotates up the volume. "Take that, dumb foreboding voice..." He mutters to himself. 

    When they get down to the tower basement, his eyes flash a bit, glowing as his superhuman eyesight can see as clear as if it was daytime, "That mirror is really suspicious." He says a bit loudly, now that he's listening to music.

     Martin is glad for his helmet taking the brunt of all that ash and dust, though he still coughs a fair bit as some manages to slip through the gaps in his visor. Nonetheless, it doesn't stop him from slashing through these things, some meeting the ruby pommel of his sword if they get too close for the blade. Soon enough they've all fallen, and the broom takes care of tidying up the mess.

"Magic is the domain of tricksters and charlatans where I come from." he remarks, sounding a little calmer now that he's had a chance to take out some of his anger on the undead. Sheathing his blade until it's needed again, he follows downstairs into the dark room, curiously peering into the mirror and its strangely mismatched image. "The mirror is here. We just need the smoke."

    "I'm human," Hyouka replies to Arrienee, between swings. "I used to be a perfectly-" Smash! "-ordinary lady working-" Smash! "-in an office." They finish smashing their way through zombies, and Hyouka starts... well, doing her best to brush off all that dust. It's hard when her hands are bigger than her head. DARGN picks up where she left off, though. "She earned a favor from me - or rather, from my 'original'. This strange human could have had riches, power, anything a dragon might be capable of offering. But she wished for a strong and beautiful body for adventuring. My original was so amused that she applied the full weight of her fortune and connections to make it happen."

    Is Hyouka blushing? She is. Just a little.

    Oh good, there's another uncomfortable secret. Perfect distraction. Hyouka looks at Uni, then gives a little shrug. "That one doesn't seem so bad. I have a high-tech cyborg body that can turn into a pseudo-dragon, and here I am smashing zombies too. You do what you enjoy, right?"

    They reach the room, and she looks around thoughtfully. "This... this feels like a puzzle. Maybe don't smash the mirror. Should we light the braziers first so they match what's in the mirror?" She holds up a hand. "I might be able to do it with the FISTEAU. I brought my fire crystal today."

    The burst of violence later, Shirou's left panting amongst the zombie guts, too. Of course, Anna probably was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, too, but he still asks of her even after all this, "Are you alright...?"

    And yes, this is *right* after she tears a zombie apart with her bare hands. As you do.

    And he just... stares at Arrienee, and the rotting zombie arm she's now waving around, as... a reminder of their meeting? "I don't... what?" His mouth just kind of hangs open for a few seconds there. "W-why? That can't be sanitary at all! We'll get you a better weapon in town or something, just... don't do *that*, please... You're gonna get gangrene or something!"

    See, even in spite of all the teasin, he *is* concerned about someone he just met, too.

    EITHER WAY.

    The entry into the room with the mirror sees Shirou Reinforcing his own eyes, too, so he can look around, curiously. "...I don't get it. What is this supposed to be?"

    "I'm okay, I'm okay." Anna is quick to let Shirou know she's fine as she dusts herself off as best she can. But everyone is going to probably need a shower later, after getting covered in ash zombie dust.
    The arm Arrienee helps herself to feels brittle. It probably won't last very long as a weapon, but it makes an okay torch for now.
    There's a moment spent pondering the puzzle presented before the group before the concensus is reached to have Hyouka like the braziers.
    As soon as they're both lit, a crackling portal opens up on the mirror...
    Passing through the portal comes with a chill like passing through a layer of icy water, but it's thankfully brief as the group enters a large and spacious laboratory... The walls are all clean white stone and the tall ceiling is held up by four large pillars spaced evenly about the room. Rows of shelves line the walls, and two separate alcoves on the south side of the room are filled with various crates, barrels, boxes, and stacks of goods...
    There's a scuttling in the darkness, and a soft, dry, cackle echoes faintly in the room as a single glowing eye opens itself in the gloom, vivid green speckled with gold as it looks...

    To Arrienee.
    'Ah yes... How so desperately she yearns to be a hero. It's too bad everyone just assumes she's the scum of the earth...'

    The eye SNAPS to Hyouka unblinkingly.
    'And to think I'd be visited by the very first full conversion cyborg of her world! Your spare parts will make an excellent addition to my collection...'

    And then that eye rolls nastily, slurping in its socket as it looks to Shirou.
    'And then there's the boy who watched Fuyuki burn... If you think that was bad... This is hell you're walking into, boy.' It spits.

    And then just like that, the creature- a man-sized thing of black scaly skin and spines raises the staff in its hand.
    "And now I'll use the very staff you've all come for to have the two dragons in the room kill you all..."
    He waves the staff...
    And with a poof a tiny red dragon appears and perches on his shoulder with a coo.
    "What."
    There is an awkward pause here as Elric Silvyr clears his monstrous throat.
    "Sod it."
    With that declaration he snaps his fingers and with an explosion of ash and dust the room fills with zombies.

    Uni stops herself from breaking the mirror. Instead she paces, checking her gun, looking around, checking the gun again, pacing some more.

    When the braziers are lit and the portal opens, Uni storms right through it. The darkness on the other side is split by the cone of her flashlight, and then the weird creature starts spilling the last of the secrets of the others.

    "..."

    The Goddess Candidate, with absolutely no fanfare, holds one hand forward and intones a word as the room fills with zombies. "A C C E S S."

    The room explodes in light as the Goddess calls on her Divinity, and with high pitched whining sound, a yellow beam lances out of the pillar of bluewhite light, straight at the ringleader, piercing through the summoned zombies in the way. "BE. QUIET!"

>> GAME >> Uni spends an Edge for: Transforming into Black Sister!

     "...Human? Huh. Okay! Well, if that's what you wanna be called, far be it from me to be an asshole about it. The whole situation is pretty interesting though!" Arri responds cheerfully towards Hyouka, and then Hyouka offers lighting stuff on fire, and Arri ... helps! With the worst fire possible! It's starting to smell kind of bad, really. "...Gangrene? Why would I get gangrene? I'm already green and I don't really intend to become a part of a gang." The goblin responds to Shirou, just looking at him with her big ol' gobbo eyes with a mix of confusion and stuff. "Oh wait this is one of those 'illness' things. It's okay, I don't have any wounds on my hands!" She thinks. She was just holding a shard of glass. Hm. Eh it's fine probably. Yep. Totally fine. 
     Aaaand... a crackling portal! Dun dun dun! Soon the goblin is ... waiting for the rest of the party to go through before she slips through the doorway. Hah hah hah yep nope mysterious portals aren't her forte for going first. And luckily there's others to go first! And shortly after... the goblin is through too! And then there's someone immediately just spitting shit her way. "Hah! Joke's on you, I *AM* the scum of the earth! ...Wait, no, that's wrong uh. Me? A hero? Pfft. A goblin hero. Who the heck would want to be that." She crosses her arms, yep. One doth think she protests too much. 
     And then the whole like. Comments to the others. And the man-sized thing of black scaly thing and spines. Hmm. And a staff. Does it have a face? Yes it has a face. Once the dust clears enough for her to see, that zombie arm is discarded. And the goblin has that pepper shaker and her slingshot out again. And it's aimed right towards the monster's eye. "...You can shut up now." And then? She launches the pepper shaker right at its face. Ash and dust meets more dust. Only in this case, it's pepper dust. Trying to blind and injure the monster right in its stupid weak point with a sudden attack of opportunity! 

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> Nothic has been effected by the status effect: Pissed Off The Goddess.

    "You know, my guy! You are talking a LOT of shit right now!" Valerian shouts, mostly because he is wearing a pair of earbuds and it's hard to gauge how loud you are while you're doing that, "And you're doing it while clearly within ass-whipping distance." 

    Valerian rolls his neck and then cracks his knuckles, "Hyouka! Follow my lead!" He shouts with only a minimal amount of warning, "Keep your Fire Mana up! You'll get the gist of it!" 

    And then Valerian grabs both Hyouka's hands in his and promptly leaps straight up into the air as high as both of them can go. When he has her up there, he inverts himself and braces on the ceiling as he then throws Hyouka straight back down at the ground, in the center of the group of zombies, as he shouts, "Combination Technique! Dual Dragon Fang Strike! Meteor Fall!" 

    Hyouka is heading towards the ground VERY fast right now.

     Martin allows Hyouka to light the braziers, watching the portal open in the mirror. "And there's the smoke. Let's find out what our charlatan looks like." he says, giving Arrienee a brief, worried glance as he realizes what she's using as a torch. "Shirou's got a point. Actual steel would serve you better... though he has a thing or two to learn about wielding a blade himself."

As they step into the mirror, however, his eyes narrow and he sniffs the air, face wrinkling in disgust under his visor. "Some kind of lanky toad with an all-seeing eye? I expected something more-" he says, stopping momentarily as Elric starts to summon a dragon... only to conjure the least threatening beast imaginable. "-impressive."

More zombies appear. More zombies find themselves falling to pieces. Martin's blade bites into their ashy bodies without concern, his eyes reflecting the light from Uni's transformation with the signature red glow of rodentine creatures, focused on the cycloptic wizard as he wades forward. Focused. Razor sharp.

"If you know about Rose, you know about Badrang. You'll meet the same fate." he growls, suddenly leaping forward with his blade aimed at Elric's heart.

    After the braziers are lit, Hyouka makes a triumphant little wiggle of her massive fingers, beaming happily. That happiness lasts until they pass through the mirror and find themselves in a creepy lab... creepy largely due to the eye that snaps open. The cyborg flinches back, dropping into a haphazard brawler's ready stance, but rather than attack, it... reveals something about Arrienee. And then looks at her. Oh, she knows where this is going. She's about to hear some embarrassing-

    ...what?

    Hyouka blinks. 'Very first full-conversion cyborg'? "Wait, that can't be right. I'm not the first full-body-"

    DARGN cuts across. "You are.

    Hyouka falters. "...I am?" There's a pause, several emotions flit across her face, before it finally settles on... anger? "You didn't tell me I was the first!" "I-" "Don't you say 'I didn't ask', that's not the kind of thing I should have to ask! You're keeping things from me again, DARGN."

    It takes the sound of Valerian's voice to snap her back to reality. And see the staff's actual power. "...Valerian, did that staff summon a tiny- WHOA!" It's a good thing Hyouka's reflexes are superhuman, because she totally missed what he actually said. By the time they're both up there, though, she's figured it out and manages to brace herself to get flung. She can only think of one thing to yell on the way down.

    "That's a really cool technique name!"

    But as she descends, her right fist is erupting in a fiery corona, flame-elemental mana flooding from the DraCor Engine and out through her right arm. She might not have any real training, but this is the kind of technique where all you really need to know is how to charge up a lot of power, and then deliver it into the center of a group with one great big swing.

    If there is one thing Elric Silvyr has learned from all of this, it is not to taunt the happy fun time adventurers.
    It never goes well when they ignore the zombies to gang up on the big bad.
    It all begins when Uni hits her breaking point and can suffer the Nothic no longer, the bright dazzling flare of divine energy punching him in the chest right before Arrienee's pepper shaker slams him in the eye. It's a wonder he survived the first, but the second make him clutch his shut eye, screeching while his flesh sizzles.
    And then Valerian and Hyouka dual tech- compounded with Martin going in for the kill... There's suddenly fire aspected mana everywhere and a legendary blade swinging in.
    The Nothic does not last very long under this fussilade of deadly assault, which is all well and good, because by the time it;s up, there's a blood curdling scream...!
    As Anna finishes up tearing into the zombies, eyes bloodshot as she stomps on a head here, judo flips another there, axes down the rest-- soon the room is covered in soot and dust and she takes a moment to catch her breath and calm down. So she can pick up the staff.
    Immediately the tiny red pseudodragon pays attention to her, perching on her shoulder and licks her cheek.
    "Huh... So it doesn't give power over dragons it just summons a little dragon familiar." She muses, scritching Drake the pesudodragon under the chin.
    "... I guess we can turn this into The Watchful Order now."
    There are several other items amid the nothic's collection. There's a seemingly magical cape that billows dramatically whenever the wearer wants it to, boots that magically muffle footsteps, and a few other trinkets like a lousy ring that can determine if something is on fire.
    But the staff seemed to be the crown jewel of the nothic's collection.

     Aw yeah, her pepper was /definitely/ the thing that sealed that fight. Totally not the goddess that was standing nearby, not at all. Arri just looks smug at the end of that, crossing her arms. "Yeah, we kicked that stupid giant-eyed thing right in its spiky butt!" And then, like the little sticky-fingered goblin she is... she has already started to dart over to the Loot to start being a little ninja looter and grab the shiniest trinkets for herself. The ring of fire detection. That's just immediately slipped into a pocket, and she is absolutely going after the boots, and... yeah they're absolutely going to have to stop her or the sticky fingered little ball of greed was just going to swipe everything before anyone had a chance to even /think/ about divvying up loot. 
     She does not, however, for whatever reason, touch the staff. Maybe she at least has /some/ sense of decency? Or at least is trying to. 

     Martin wipes his blade clean once it's all done, sliding it back into its sheath. "Whatever it was, it won't be prying into anyone's private memories again." he says to Arrienee, before poking over the loot in search of anything useful. Technically it all could be, but... well, he doesn't want to load himself down more than he has to. "I'll just take the gold. It'll be nice to afford a proper bed."

    It actually takes Hyouka a couple seconds to haul her arm back out of the ground after that impact. It rips free of the floor with a small shower of debris, and she stumbles back several steps before shaking it off and declaring, "Fisto, off!" As if on cue, the twin gauntlets begin reversing their rapid construction, collapsing and folding themselves back inside her forearms in the space of just a couple seconds. She pauses to brush more of that dust off herself, huffing irritably at the mess.

    And then she sees the tiny little dragon, and completely freezes mid-brush. "...oh my gosh it's cute!" Just like that, the cyborg is dashing over to the familiar and its new (temporary?) owner.

    Black Sister, after discharging all her Shining Blaster at the Nothic, fueled by her Love, her Anger and all of her sorrow. She hovers there for a few moments, feet not touching the floor as her glowing white winglets gleam in the darkness. She dismisses her railcannon, and shakes her head. The Goddess Candidate looks at her hands, an inscrutable expression on her face as she becomes lost in thought for a few moments.

    This fugue state is broken as Bravette lands on the CPU's shoulder, and two things happen at once. One of those hands lift to gently pet the Shinki on the head, and the transformation drops, leaving Uni standing in her regular black dress once more, with her hair returning to black. The green eyes remain for a moment or two longer, before shifting back between blinks to their normal red hue. "One less problem in the world." she affirms to Martin, before turning to leave without further commentary.

    With the battle finished out, Valerian takes the earbuds out of his ears and pops his neck a bit, "Hey hey, nice job Hyouka. We got our first combo tech going. Hope we can use it again some time." And then he lets her go dote on the tiny dragon as he smiles a bit. 

    "Welp. Time to get to work! The squeamish may want to avert their gaze." He adjusts the leather gloves on his hands as he reaches into a pocket on his apron and pulls out a jar that normally wouldn't be able to fit inside of it, sloshing with some sort of liquid. He straddles what remains of the Nothic and then takes out what looks like a scalpel. He flicks it a bit and it hums and lights up blue as he leans over. 

    It's actually pretty interesting, if gruesome, to watch him work. But after about 10 minutes, he has removed the massive eye from the Nothic in a clean series of cuts and then promptly deposits the eye in the medical specimen jar and snaps the lid shut with a click and a hissing noise as it pressurizes. Both the jar and the scalpel go back into his pouches as he wipes the bloody gloves on the front of his apron a bit.