Sarnath
From a distance, the ancient city looks like a jumble of building blocks. But eventually it becomes a fortress city of dark gray stone with an alien aesthetic. The green lake that comes right to the outer walls is fetid and smells of rot, with visible fumes that distort the area. An arched bridge extends for the upper ramparts out over the lake, but stops at the center.

Kai looks human again once Tasha gets her back to the group as they traverse the Plateau of Leng. The meat-trees are more spread out here, eventually giving way to barren wastes, until a road is reached. With no signs of pursuing spiders, the adventurers begin telling stories. "Sarnath is in the great forbidden desert on my world," one of the Paladins says, leading his horse.

"The city is hidden in a crater atop the highest mountains," one warrior claims, while the mage next to her says, "Part of a lost continent sunken beneath the waves.."

Still leaning on Tasha a bit, Kai explains, "It's all of those. This place touches on many different planes of existence, which makes it useful."

"So places, too, can be pan-dimensional. I suppose that makes sense of portals, wormholes, and hyperdrives work; ships are places." Tasha has kept Kai up, but the faux-elf has noticed that even as the cloven-hoofed woman keeps watch, every so now and then she'll stare off in the direction the angel walked, and linger. "You said it was destroyed for some violation, is that why it's so omnipresent? Was it like that before?"

"It's the archetypical doomed city," Kai explains. They finally reach what looks like an old causeway, with stone plinths that probably held statues. Several are broken on the ground. "It was erected by a reptilian people who worshipped the lake monster. Then they were massacred by basically humans, who tried to erase all traces of the original inhabitants. Then the lake god noticed the lack of sacrifices to roses and killed all of them, but the city was pretty prosperous by then. And the cycle would repeat. Some new people would try to claim, try to tame the lake god, end up being 'corrupted' and massacred by the next group. Supposedly the vaults under the royal palace are full of the wealth of several civilizations."

"I'm glad someone else ruined something first, it'd be very disappointing if some mistake I did got paraded across dimensions as an example of the mistake of that kind," Tasha admits, ears canting back. "But for this one, I guess it's like an eternal trap or a living instructional fable. I wonder what the god thinks about all this. It must be either frustrating or amusing or both, and it's not like it left. So, the new owners turned in to lizard people and the new humans came along and destroyed them for not being human-enough? And then they were either destroyed by the god for the lack of sacrifices, or appeased the god and became the next lizards?" The young woman squints, frowning. "It's hard to see the real estate and trade value, really, unless it stays inter-universal after occupation."

"It's mostly known as a lost city full of all sorts of treasure and secret knowledge," Kai notes. The have to make a slight detour, as a giant chain lays across the road, vanishing into the lake. The other end is broken, but each link is large enough that the small shuttle could flying through them.

Tasha eyes the chain as they make their circuitous path around it. "Looks like someone tried to chain down the god at some point. With an actual chain. Or there was a large bridge." The canid sniffs, but wether out of some percieved indignit, to scent the air, or because her nose is itchy is anyone's guess. "And here we are, one more traveling group, possibly tempted by old treasure and secrets. What do you think? We're being chased, we may have to defend ourselves. Is the treasure worth thinking about, or a foolish trap?"

"I wouldn't bother," Kai says. "Without a card catalog there's no way to find anything useful, and it's all probably cursed. We want to get to the astral observatory. We should be able to open portals from there."

"Right you are," Tasha sing-songs as she steps around the last stretch of chain. "Observatory, here we come. Spidrs, there we go. It'll be on a mount or hill, right? I don't know how much light pollution a mythica ur-city of doom might have produced."

"The city is basically one big structure, so it'll be at the tippy-top tower," Kai says, pointing to a tower that's nearly half a kilometer high from ground level. "Very tough stone."

"I guess it'd have to be to survive all these mortal and deific wars. Reminds me to build everything out of very hard stone." Tasha peers up at the tower, looking it over with her sharp vision. "Any fliers to watch out for, does anyone live here between occupants? I know we could just fly over and be quick about it, but I don't want to leave the others to struggle without us."

"We'll need to make sure nothing has taken up residence, certainly," Kai notes. "Adventurers are very good at routing monsters.." Of course, just as she say that, there's a loud metallic groan and the chain shifts a bit, causing ripples on the lake surface. "But probably safer inside than outside."

Tasha nods repeatedly and quickly. "Probably better," she agreess, followed by her accelerating her walking speed three fold. "Okay people, lets not linger and become another Sarnathian story. Once we're inside and in a good defensive position -- and assume there are monsters inside -- we can plan our next step."

There is a general unspoken consensus that everyone should move faster. Soon they're the massive stone gates, which are conveniently akimbo because getting them back in place would take an army with lots of rope and tackle, and into the main plaza. Arches rise overhead to form the skeleton of a dome, and wide roads lead off into the depths of the city. The way up is forward though, along a very long set of stairs.

Tasha observes the decor, frowning. "Alien and ominous, but middling, it's not the odd angles, eyes, and teeth of a Ogdoadian servant structure, but it's not exactly a cliff side human or Vartan village. Off, just enough to be unsettling. I should use this in my painting sometime. Unsettlingly subtle, subtly unsettling." She looks around further, spots the stairs, and heads that way. "I am going to have mighty calves by the end of this adventure."

"Mighty thews," Wulfgaar corrects. "Like tree-trunks!" The adventurers fan out, with some of the more stealthy one moving ahead and apparently looking for traps. There are a lot of alcoves along the sides of the stairs, full of piles of bones.

Tasha busies herself keeping an eye on the alcoves and more distant high places, where someone armed with a bow or other ranged weapon would have a convenient time killing them in this ambush-laden metropolis. "I'm sure you see it Kai, but an ambush is the most likely attack short of a mindless one."

"Most likely after we've passed by," Kai says, nodding. "Cut us off from the escape route." She points to the top of the high walls bracketing the stair, where stone arms jut out a bit. "For holding boiling oil probably. Or something worse.. such that someone just comes along afterwards and sweeps the bone into the bone sluices.."

"The scouts and vanguard are too far out to warn now. I could take to the sky, and if I see anything, put a bullet in it. The shot should warn everyone quickly." Tasha looks up, frowning more. "I haven't been using my power much at all, I should be able to take some hits."

"An eye in the sky would be good, yeah," Kai says. "I can watch our retreat, but until I gather some more energy I can't do much damage."

"I figured as much. I'm not much for offense either outside of melee range, but I'm fast and I did bring a gun." Tasha squints against the dim light, then steps ahead. "Alright, off I go. Give me some room, people! I need to be an eye in the sky, and not the gruesome kind. Kai will relay if I find anything; my gun will relay if I attack anything, and if I do, expect an attack to follow until Kai says otherwise."

There are nods, although some of the people still looking confused about Kai. What good is an elf outside of fae lands?

Tasha lets them figure out the mystery that is Kai; after all, she had to, and it's been an amusing and occasionally disconcerting ride.

Once the runway is made, Tasha breaks in to a run, ready to use the ansible to aid her flight should the space and winds prove a problem. In short order she's up, building sped thanks to the ansible so that she's a fast move target rather than slow one in the most dangerous part of flight: the ascension just after takeoff.

The air is.. dead. No currents, no winds, no updrafts. Given that the clouds are on fire, it's probably for the best that there isn't any weather at the moment. Even from above, this section of the city is hard to make out. The stone blends in with the shadows, making it difficult to tell what is or isn't solid architecture. But she can catch movement, as any bird of prey might. But it's annoying movement. As soon as she focuses on the spot, it stops. But when she catches it out of the corner of her vision it looks like it's shadowing the group from atop the walls.

"You're right Kai, there are beings moving on the walls. I can't see them clearly, but they're following us." Tasha begins to circle in an irregular pattern, and after a moment, decides on a plan of action. "I'm going to flush them out and force their hand before we're in an ideal ambush spot. Do you see any spot ahead where we'd be best able to defend ourselves? I can wait on shooting until then, at which point the sneaks will know the the jig is up and either attack or abort. Oh, and check to see if I'm not about to shoot at our scouts if you can. Maybe someone can contact them."

"I can manage a group broadcast, and get people away from the walls," Kai responds. "Does it look like you've been noticed? I'll let you know when the others are ready."

"Oh they probably saw me take off, they're watching us after all, but if they know that I know they're there or not.. unsure. They haven't attacked me and are hiding from you all and maybe me as well. I can fly around and look around randomly to give the impression I haven't seen anything yet?" Tasha has no idea if they can even see well enough to tell, but if she were them she'd be debating whether to not to attack now, and if they've been spotted. If they should attack her, but attacking her might ruin their surprise. She'd be fretting over a decision, which could go either way at any time.

"Act like you haven't seen anything," Kai replies and nearly everyone in the part below suddenly acts like they just got a chill down their spine. But subtly begin changing their spread, drawing in together as archers and mages move to the center of the column, and the spotters draw back as well.

Tasha continues her current pattern to avoid looking like she's reacting to something, eyes darting here and there and not lingering on any movement longer than a split second. It leaves her with a sense of overall movement but not of an individual, so she'll have to quickly pick something to focus on should an attack commence -- but of course then their enemies might be widely visible. "Holding, no change in their movement so far."

It takes a few minutes before everyone is ready, mainly so the magic users can charge up their spells. "Alright, rattle things up," Kai transmits.

Tasha snaps towards the best target she can find, draws her pistol in one swift motion, aims with both hands, and stoops on it with sudden and alarming acceleration until her shot is clear -- then she fires!

The report is deafening in the silence, and a puff of dust indicates where the target was hit. And then the upper layer of the walls jerks. Pieces fall inward, and get up, looking like stone origami. They don't move so much as suddenly have a different shape, like some bizarre form of stop-motion.

The lines of warriors to either side of the column switch from blades to blunt weapons: maces, hammers.. and often swords held by the blade so the pommel can be used for striking.

Tasha stops firing and aborts her stoop, largely because she doesn't know what she's shooting at and also because she suspects she's shooting at the city itself. "It's the city, the city is the thing moving! I don't know how to fight a city, is it vulnerable to memetic attack? Do they just look like stone?"

The latter question is answered when a priest smashes the 'head' of one of the creatures. The stone cracks away to reveal bone. It stops moving at that point.

"Brute force works," Kai notes. The melee is well underway now. But only the section where the adventurers are. There aren't any reinforcements dropping from the walls ahead of behind them.

"Cemeted bones. Bonestonegolems. Bostolems." Tasha has been accused of being anti-civilization before, but never of being anti-infrastructure. She has fought the undead, so at least that becomes something she can draw off of. Resuming her attack she wings around to attempt to charge the enemy battle line from behind and to the side, knowing a cavalry charge is most effective form those angles, even if the calvary is just one small woman. Her swrd being no use, nor her gun, she swaps to her most dire of weapons, not having summoned it much since the incident. The Yellow Sword flashes in to her hand and glows like a diseased sun as she bears down upon the stone entities.

The creatures do behave like the undead, and seem to have the same weaknesses, as the clerics in particular are doing a lot of damage. Magic is use to summon jets of water, which also disrupt them. And Tasha's sword severs whatever animating force is behind the ones she hits.

This certainly makes Tasha's job easier, she switches to more of a fencing stance, not needing raw power if she can poke out animating force, and draws her real sword in to her offhand for defensive purposes. "Npw I can add 'a city' to my list of things I've fought. Take that, urban developement!"

The fight is over in a few minutes, with some minor injuries. A group of magic-users cluster around one of the creatures that Tasha felled, since it's physically intact.

Tasha puts her most unsettling of swords away before there are questions, switching the real one to her main hand as she joins the mages. "Sooo, I guess their souls were absorbed by the city? That would be one way to kill everyone without having to damage the city, and no one would expect it."

"I think the bones are key," one necromancer argues. "They get absorbed into the stone from the pits."

"And the bones contains the souls within. Or at least some lingering animating force." Tasha prods the, she isn't comfortable with calling it a corpse, so she thinks of it as a tomb -- a very angry and mobile tomb. "There are more lingering in the wings, but they're not advancing."

"The animating energy may be limited," the necromancer suggests. "Don't let any blood linger on the stone," she informs the others, and some get out rags and spirits to wash it away.

"It's probably another kilometer to the palace," Kai says. "We don't want to enter it weary though."

"I'm wondering why they're holding off. Why are they waiting? Or rather, what plan are they hatching, and who is directing them? They don't seem individually intelligent, but it's like they're testing us, seeing what we can do." Tasha couldn't let the ambush happen, so her tricks are out of the bag for now. She could have been more conservative, but she didn't know how to evaluate an enemy made of building and bones. She chalks it up to the problem of the unknown and puts the lesson to memory. "At any rate, we should assume where we camp might be more mobile than we'd like."

When the paladin looks Tasha's way she raises her hands up in a surrendering motion, adding a tilt of the head and laid ears back to hopefully suggest a lack of malice.

"So, are you a demon summoner then?" the man asks Tasha. This is new... usually she is the one accused of being a demon, not someone who controls them.

It takes Tasha back, she actually leans back a bit and looks surprised, ears up then back again. "It's more like I have certain.. deals," she offers cagily, "I got involved with them at the suggestion of a kind of god, one thing came to another, we got cursed, and I owed some favors. Part of the deal is that I get the not-sword. It is as awful as you suspect, but it's very useful against conceptual entities. I don't really summon demons so much as talk to them. Sometimes they ask me to do things; others ones, I war against. They're not a unified group, you know? Not universally, some get along."

"And your familiar isn't a succubus then?" the paladin asks next. That gets some more looks thrown their way. Kai doesn't say anything in her defense though, and also looks to Tasha. She may even be enjoying this.

Tasha turns to eye Kai, and the faux elf gets no mental challenge or word to reveal the red woman's thoughts. "Yes," Tasha then declares, "That's exactly what she is. If some of you are very good, maybe I can arrange things."

"I could use some of their energy," Kai tells Tasha. "The Fallen stomped on me pretty hard."

"There you go, please feel free to stuff Kai with all the energy you want." Tasha smiles beatifically, yet also avoids the paladin's gaze because she suspects he can see through her.

"Hmm," the holy knight snorts. "The mind talking is useful, so long as it doesn't intrude further than that," he says. "We should keep moving. That lurid sun has not moved since we entered this cursed realm, so I doubt night will fall here."

"It makes you wonder what all the fuss was about, doesn't it? It's not exactly prime planetoid." Tasha joins the paladin in walking on, adding a little playfulness in her step in case everyone now things she's going to summon demons from any of the many places she knows they can be summoned from. She suspects she could summon demons if she put the effort in, but it's nasty business, and unkind, so that ability can stay in her memory where it belongs.

"I can teach you how to summon demons, if you want," Kai then whispers into Tasha's ear. "I may need to when we get to the observatory."

"Oh good, more demons to hang around with," Tasha remarks, not even bothering to whisper. "Fine, if it gets us out of here and keeps everyone safe. Can't we just go suck the power out of that angel, though? I feel like we'd put it to better use than shiskabobing the mortal landscape and adding to its soul collection. We could save souls. You know who, even."

"We aren't going to be able to take on a Fallen," Kai says. "That's akin to throwing rocks at Nyarlothotep. You need to attack from a higher dimension than the one it exists in."

"So a long term project. Alright, later then. It might be worth investigating that for other purposes as well." Tasha stretches her wings, then her arms. "What do we need extra friends for anyway?"

"Is that rhetorical?" Kai asks. "Because I can suggest uses for them. Unless they're the sort you like I suppose."

Tasha gives Kai a look. "What's this about kinds I like? Where are are we going with this?"

"Probably nowhere then," Kai says. "What worked for me is unlikely to work for you, after all. I haven't had a friend since Ancient Greece on Terra."

"I thought I was your friend?" Tasha looks hurt, head back, ears flat again. "Don't we get along? Or maybe you just tolerate me? I know we don't really share the same interests, or not to the same degree, but I thought we got along. And what is it we need to work on?"

"Oh, don't worry," Kai says, and smiles. "I'm just a soulless monster remember. I don't get worried, or feel regret, remorse or guilt. If you asked me to slaughter everyone here, it wouldn't bother me a bit. But I've been instructed to look after and train you the best I can. Just don't forget that if you stabbed me through with that yellow sword.. it wouldn't affect me at all."

"By her, you were instructed by her. I thought you'd been being nicer to me than usual. I guess it wasn't personal development. It's Samael al over again. Or maybe it's everything." Tasha doesn't elaborate on that, but does start walking off towards the front of the line. "I need some time to think. Contact me if there's a problem."

Up near the front are Brother Bone and Lila-ren. "So," the kitsune asks, "there's a portal in the palace that we can use?"

"Up in the observatory," Tasha answers, abliet curtly. She sets her eyes on the road and keeps pace, expression neutral, yet hard.

Nosy foxes are nosy, though. Lila doesn't say anything, but does wrap her arm around Tasha's. "So, do you like fish?" she ends up asking after a moment of silence.

"Yes," Tasha answers, as if it were some automated response from a selection of response Tasha had been programmed to give.

So the fox leans her head on Tasha's shoulder. "Being mad takes up extra energy you know. So what's bothering you?" she pries.

Tasha almost rolls her eyes; months of leadership training has empowered her to resist. "You're trying to get secrets out of me by appealing to my sensual and fish-eating side." Normally, that might work, but Tasha is on a battlefield, seen an angel that irritates her on ways complete apart from its raw danger, and once again been reminded her most powerful friends aren't and have agendas and-or no soul.

"Sooo?" Lila says, rubbing fluffy cheek to fluffy cheek. "I have candy.." she then claims.

"I'm not a little girl," Tasha insist, but then realizes she must clarify with, "Despite how I look." Then she sighs, finding herself suddenly very weary, and asks, "What are you fishing for, anyway?"

"You're acting moody, and I want to know if it's something to be worried about," Lila claims. "I mean, we're going to be traveling together after sending these others back."

"Oh, that. I'm just frustrated with the world I suppose. Worlds. I fight to protect my universe from destruction and it feels like most of the people I meet are empty demons, suspicious of me, or admire some fictional angel-me. Then I meet a real angel, and another, and what are they doing? The first one was incomprehensible and the second one was kababing souls. It says a lot that I was actually happy to see the Night Gaunts. Noden seems okay." But Tasha wrinkles her nose anyway. "All the darkness gets wearying. I wish I could rip the power out of that angel and use it for something better. But I can't. All I couldn't even fend off the real thing. And now the paladin is giving me the eye for being tainted. Well, you try fighting gods with mortal power and see where that gets you."

"Well, I'm more of the servant of gods sort, myself, just like Brother Bone," Lila claims. "People fear power when it belongs to someone else, I suppose. The Fallen was terrifying. Those things are past the Final Gate of the Silver Key, in Dreamlands terminology. I don't show it but I'm pretty powerful, but it'll be another five centuries to be at the level of a Tuatha de Danaan or one of those Cherubim. Just what sort of things are you fighting?"

"I considered being a servant but I'm apparently bad at serving anything, including myself. At best I'm some sort of favors-paid demon contractor slash demonslayer." Tasha never turns her head, but she does glance over briefly. "I fight demons, sometimes demi-god level demons. And a whole pantheon of gods stuck in a trap. Knock off their minions until we have a clear shot at the gods then hope we can find some way to kick them in to oblivion without some dire fallout pillar of the universe collapsing. Power wise, I'm probably weaker than you, but I've been borrowing, absorbing, or integrating the power of other beings over time. It just never feels like enough. Kai's supposed to be helping, but she's soulless, so it's like being helped by a computer programmed for sass."

"Ah, the homunculus is very good at absorbing power though too, I feel," Lira says. "I imagine the ways you both do that are very different. You aren't her actual master then.. her creator?"

"Yeah, I absorb them mostly by being given something and then it just stays there and becomes mine. Or by dying at them." Tasha makes a face. "Kai's a lot better at it than I am. And no, someone else made Kai. I just know them so they're loaning Kai out to me for a while. I helped their family a while back, was introduced to Kai's creator, and then the creator became occupied so she's kind of on extended loan. Like a book." She thinks Hakeber would approve of that comparison.

"Books aren't usually so dangerous, and the ones that are can be bound in chains at least," Lila says. "Do we have anything to fear from her? The telepathy thing is not common. Few would have any defense against it. And since she has no soul, she cannot sin, and likely has a very different view of morality as a result."

"She's ostensibly under my control. So technically I'm the one to fear. Feel free, lots of people do it." Tasha makes a rolling gesture with her hands, inward, indicating, herself and inviting concern like one might step up to a carnival game. "But she's as amoral as you expect. And what's this about sinning, anyway? Some religious doctrinal thing? I've know priests, but the ones I knew drew their power from the world they were on, not any god I could percieve."

"For certain beings, it's a bit more fundamental," Lila explains. "Immortal beings, specifically. They have rules that if broken, make them punish themselves. I suppose it's like a mortal having a conscience, except with serious consequences. Mental, spiritual, even physical ones. The rules are different for each sort though, and even gods are beholden to them. So a homunculus could wield the power of an immortal without consequence, essentially."

"Isn't there some rule against them, though? I can't imagine no one has tried that trick before," Tasha speculates, finally showing head movement by tilting her's. "I can't imagine Thotep or some other great and malicious being smacking their muzzle in realization they never thoguht of that loophole. He's made of loopholes."

"They get away with having avatars," Lila notes. "They can have a lot of power, but the more invested they are in the avatar the more it can hurt if the avatar is destroyed or banished. I've never seen a homunculus like Kai, she reads an actual living being. Most never get much more sophisticated than the ones we just fought. Given where we're headed though, I'm guessing she belongs to one of the Dragon Sages, who generally don't have priests to get things done for them."

"I appreciate you think I'm a friend of someone called a 'Dragon Sage'. I suppose they're dragons who are, in fact, sagacious. Or non-dragons who know a great deal about dragons. Or both." Tasha's head tilts the other way.

"Well, they're a step below the Dragon Gods," Lila says, "But they still follow they same sort of themes. So, to guess a bit more.. you're looking for a way to fight your demon gods."

"I mean, it's not that big a secret. I think I mentioned it several times. But yes, that's one reason." Tasha looks over finally. "They're not just our demon gods, either. Like some of the others, they can move between realities and exist outside of time, normally. They just happened to get trapped in my universe, and everyone else was too ineffectual, cowardly, or full of themselves to do anything about it. Or they died; I'm the latest -- in however that can be measured against timeless beings and a person like me who walks between times and places."

"Gods are hard to kill, since.. well, 'life and death' generally don't apply to them," Lila says, then winks. "It's one of the first definitions of godhood, after all. But they do manage to get killed.. and resurrected.. by other gods quite a bit."

"I'm hoping to grind them out of existence to be more precise. I don't expect I'll stab them and they'll fall over. I know their nature to some degree or other. I have a few ideas: Scattering trapped pieces of them across every reality, statistically it means even if someone tries to assemble them someone else will oppose it. Erasing them from the record of all time and space in the Akashic record kind of way. Invading them and poisoning their essence until they're other than what they were. Entrapping them in a space time with no external or internal exit, like a magic jar. Getting them in a tug of war prison content where the loser can be eaten by the other, and the only route to freedom is to let their guard down completely." Tasha spreads her hands. "I think I learned a lot of these from Thotep actually, but I suppose he'd know."

"Sounds much more hands-on than getting another god to do it for you," Lila notes. "Oh my.. I just realized," she suddenly says. "If Nyarlothotep is gone, who will Nodens hunt instead?"

"Knowing my luck, the Queen of Demise," Tasha mutters, head shaking. "Hopefully one of the other myriad menaces. At least we're all too small to be worth hunting."

"Do you have some sort of deal with Nodens then?" Lila asks. "Although I suppose the Queen of Demise could help with killing gods too. That's supposed to be her whole thing."

"I just like him. He brought me on a hunt once, and we spoke briefly. I didn't get the same sense of malice I do from other entities like him. I'm not sure he's a good force, but he isn't a bad one, and that's more than enough for me. Opposing him would make me sad." Tasha's head shakes, appropriately enough, sadly. "And who knows where the Queen is. I was hoping we'd see some sign of her by now, or of Thoth, or Horus. Melchior. Instead it's spiders and angels."

"The Dreamlands are a big place.. technically infinite, so unless some part of it suddenly vanishes it's hard to pin down individuals, even demigods, gods, god-killing monsters, and god-killing-gods," Lila says. "We barely survived the Fallen, if it had been one of the others we wouldn't be here. Oh look, an ugly door.."

Ahead is the door to the palace. It's big, stone, and engraved with hideous image of what is likely the the lake god. It's opened just enough for two people to enter side by side.

"I hate being small," Tasha remarks of not being here, turning to eye the door with her impotent rancor. "Well, at least it's open, and as a bonus we probably now know what the lake god looks like. So the question is who is going inside first."

The answer is the sneaky ones go first. They return shortly though, waving an all-clear. The rest begin to file in with weapons drawn and spells held ready.

Tasha does likewise, and with Lila clinging to her if she continues to do so. She can fight with one arm and someone warm is better than cold reality right now. "So who do you serve, Lila?"

"Inari, the goddess of rain and rice, among other things," Lila says as they enter the vast space beyond the doors. "But by nature my kind are mischievous."

Their are many figures carved directly into the arching supports here, not so easily defaced. They are not pleasant to look upon though. But the place affords a large flat area with just a few entry and exits.

"Nooooo," goes Tasha, and then she laughs despite herself. "Well so are my kind apparently, or is that something else? Dangerous? No, too strong-sounding. Disastrous maybe?" She slips inside taking Lila with her.

Brother Bone heads for the center of the room, where a mosaic is, taps his staff in the center of it, and calls out what may be a blessing. The other clerics are likewise calling on their gods for aid in securing the space.

"Well it looks safe enough, relatively speaking. I suppose you'll need to go about your magic as well. I'm not much use with that sort of thing, I'm very personal-space oriented for those types of things." Tasha turns to Lila and smiles. "I know you were just digging for info, but I appreciated the company."

"Oh, I don't have anything to do with securing this place," Lila says, waving a hand. "This isn't a shrine or anything. I'm going to set up my bedroll instead, and think about what to eat."

"I do like eating,"Tasha muses. She tilts her head and nods. "We should get some food, that's what we should do. Come on." And so they head off.

There isn't much in the way of communal food - folks are basically using whatever they brought with them. But there isn't exactly rationing going on, with the promise of a possible portal back to Faerie. This leads to 'stone soup' and pot-luck groups, where a few travelers are willing to actually cook food brought to them. But most of the adventurers have gathered in small groups and conversations.

"Well, where to?" Tasha has food with her of course, she came prepared for a potentially long foray without meals, having learned the lesson of preparation some time ago. Still, she'd rather not tap in to her reserves if she can help it, but she doesn't know this place or these people, and if she were being honest, she's in a bad mood and is just happy to have company other than Kai, especially if that company also happens to have fur and a muzzle like her.

"Hmmm, are you more interested in tasty things, or friendly people?" Lila asks for clarification. "Tasty people aren't likely to be on the menu though."

"That's a shame." Tasha's mood is foul enough she might even sound serious about that. "Well, food is more important. We don't know how well the portal will go, or how long we'll be here, and being well fed will serve us longer than being entertained."

So Lila leads the way past the bards, to a man(?) with greenish skin and orange hair who may have been kicked in the face by a large animal or cooking pan. He's heating up pots of.. sauce? And has a camp-table set up with seasonings. Also, lots of 'meat sticks' that may or may not be jerky of some king (or many kinds).

The man grunts at Lila, who turns to Tasha and says, "This is Bron the Butcher. Learned how to cook in prison!"

Tasha is familiar with the sort of establishment this is; there were plenty of vendors along the docks who served Vartans, and plenty of dockworkers more hungry than cautious. She was one of them, and remembers leaning over the bow of the ship more than once because of it. She hopes that's not the case here, trusting the -- probably not trust worthy -- trickster to steer them right. She expects to regret it but she's decided she's being taken advantage of tonight. "Duress will teach you all kinds of skill," she kind-of-sort-of-agrees.

"I think he was in prison for cannibalism or something.. what was it, Bron?" the kitsune asks the green man. He gives her a gimlet stare, than says, "T'was poisoning."

"Of course," Tasha says, nodding slowly. Of course the trickster fox would lead her to what is surely good bu uneasy and comically served food. Even better if some of it's true, to get a rise out of her. She decides to defy them all by remaining blandly neutral. "That would help you learn culinary chemistry."

"Yes," the man says. "I can hide anything under the right sauce. Even hardtack," he claims, gesturing the pots, each with its own 'sauce' for apparently dipping things in. "No double dipping," he then warns.

There are easily a dozen of the sauces, and at least three of them look (and smell) like cheeses.

"Hiding hardtack is an accomplishment to be proud of." Her home world has hardtack. No one likes it, not there, not anywhere. It's like eating the ship's wood, only without the fond memories, but definitely with the sense you'll die if you keep doing it, even if you won't. "Which sauce is the meat sauce?"

"Sauces ain't got meat in them, you dip yer meat in 'em," Bron points out, and gestures to the meat sticks. "Dip in whichever you want. I don't salt the meat."

Tasha considers arguing that meat can be dipped in more meat and that is a very legitimate and proper way to do things, but she feels the finer points would be lost on a non-Karnor or Karnor like being. So instead she grabs two sticks and dips them in two sauces, resolving to eat whatever she gets, just like the old days.

The sticks may not be salted, but one is spicy and the other gamy, the first random sauce is sort of mustard like, while the other is more.. yogurty? The latter pairs alright with the spiced meat though, at least.

Tasha is pleased with her random yet correct selection; she allows herself a sense of success despite having simply guessed, and chews, waiting for Lila to collect her own meal.

The kitsune is more particular, sniffing each sauce, and each stick. "No fancy meats," Bron tells her. "Peppered hog, deer, rabbit, snipe and swamp lizard."

"Those are all pretty are all good," Tasha solicits, waving a meat stick at them. She then wonders for a moment if she ate rabbit, and what Aaron would think of that; she decides maybe it's best not to know for both their sakes.

"Got hog, tastes the same when peppered," Bron claims, pointing to the basket of various sticks. "No sausage."

"Nobody ever brings sausage," Lila grumbles, and selects the rabbit jerky, then.. taunts the sauces, hovering the stick over each, then pulling back. "Sure I can't swirl it through a few of them?" she asks.

Finally the fox selects something rather syrupy, swirling the stick around before pulling it at and popping it into her mouth. "Mmm, honey-maple."

Tasha does not understand honey. She knows it's a Terran thing, and that it comes from something called a bee. A bee is some kind of fuzzy insect -- which she approves of, in bright stripped yellow -- she she assumes means caution -- and that it vomits delicious stuff in a strangely geometric home structure. She once compared herself to one in that she might have daughters who do things for her, like bees supposedly do. Other than that, they mystify her, as does honey. "All set?"

"Yup! Nobody's going to have bear, but maybe we can score some kulak," the vulpine suggests, looking at the nearer groups.

Tasha also looks to the nearest groups. "What's a kulak?" She suspects it's a squeezed animal of some sort.

"Fermented goat milk, sometimes with fish oil," Lila says. "It's an acquired taste for the truly desperate. I'd avoid the horse-milk variety though."

The nearest group that doesn't have a bard look a bit shady, in that there any obvious fighters, the members look lean and they seem to have a lot of knives. They also seem to converse in naturally hushed tones.

"I feel like our stealth corps stand out a lot," Tasha remarks of the sinister lot. She knows this type too, they were all over the shadier areas of Rephidim and below. Everyone seems shady in those places, but some especially so. The regular thugs were well and good, but there'dbe the other types, who were eitehr very good or soon to be very dead. The ones that didn't stand out were often the scariest of all.

"Hey!" one of them calls to Tasha and Lila. "You're with the lizard priest, aren't you?"

"Yeah pretty much," Tasha says with a shrug, as if it were some mild burden she had been saddled with. "By your cloaks and daggers you must be part of our cloak and dagger contingent."

"We're.. specialists," the one who called to them says. It isn't possible to tell from their voice if they're male, female, or something else. Which probably comes in handy in their line of work. "Can we borrow the priest from something?"

"There's a door," another of the group says, in the same untraceable voice. "It's got carvings and maybe writing on it. This is a lizard place, so maybe they can decipher it."

"Ahh, lizardese," Tasha remarks, nodding slowly as if this were a common point of intellectual discourse. She also suspects all these people may well be dead before tomorrow and have unleashed horrors upon them. She supposes she out to be responsible and do something about it. "This city has been ruined and unclaimed for ages for a reason. Anything left here is probably cursed, mobile, or cursed and mobile. At best."

"That's why we want someone to read any warnings," the first rogue notes. "Curses can be lifted you know. And it's better than waiting for those things on the horizon to reach us."

"Is it the spiders? Those are on the horizon. Unless it's something else. Kai's a bit drained at the moment -- I think the angel stepped on her -- and I was busy fighting a city." Tasha turns to the cuthroat sundry and asks, "Is there something new coming, or is it the same doom?"

"Different direction," the rogue claims, and points to a direction roughly opposite to the lake side of the city.

"We should go investigate," Tasha tells Lila, and then she also notifies Kai, albeit curtly, that something is coming, and from where. "Lets finish our meal and go find somewhere higher, and hope the decor doesn't get feisty."

"Higher up would be best, but you can fly," Lila says. "How good is your vision?"

"/Very/ good, but I'd rather not get shot out of the sky by the who-knows-whats that dwell around here. There seems to be quite a lot here that's more than a match for me, more than a match for /all of us combined." And so Tasha nods towards the stairs. "And I don't want to notify what's coming we're here if they don't know that yet."

"Ugh, more stairs," Lila says. "There must be windows at least." She then gestures for Tasha to lead the way.

Tasha also informs Kai of where they're going, then she goes there, finding the nearest stairs after notifying several parties of adventurers that something is coming and that they're going to have a look. "I remember seeing windows, well, windowless windows."

"How can a window be windowless?" Lila asks as they ascend. Most of the 'windows' that they pass have platforms extending out from them.. thus being more akin to doorless doorways to nowhere.

"These feel like flier doorways. That's not great. Unless they're doors they push people out of to fall to their death, which is worse. if they're flying and pushy, that's the most worst." Tasha peers at the familiar yet off architecture, so like some places back home, including Vartan traditional buildings, yet off enough to make her hackles rise. It's like finding a derelict, complete and functional, yet with no one home. And also if the walls came to life and tried to hit you.

There are often bas relief decorations on the walls, which it's best not to look at too closely. Eventually the get to a window with a view past the city, and in the proper direction overlooking the wasteland.

"For a city of ruin they really like keeping unsettling art around," Tasha murmurs as she edges towards the window and then carefully peeks around. "So lets see what our newest horror is. Maybe the god is finally coming?"

There are structures in the distance. After adjusting her vision, Tasha makes out several.. pyramids or ziggurat style structures, make of black stone and stepped. But the layers don't seem to be fixed, with some actually turning slowly. Brief flashes of lightning flicker between the structures, and the sky above them looks even more bruised that the rest of the sky above the plateau. Dust rises from the bases, so they may actually be moving across the desert.

"Um, well, we seem to be in the path of, uh, pyramids. Rotating black stepped pyramids. With lightning." Tasha remembers the Vril-ya traveling in pyramids, but doubts she's so lucky as to have some of those show up. She doens't even know if they're a transport of some sort, they could just as easily be an incomprehensible higher-dimensional entity with a penchant for appearing as rotating pyramids. At least she's never bored here. "Black rotating stepped pyramids, Kai. With lightning. They seem to be moving towards us."

"Watching." Tasha hunkers down to wait and see, gesturing Lilia should also make sure she's out of sight. "Nothing yet."

"Probably nothing to worry about," Kai notes. "Pyramids do not move quickly."

Tasha is rather sure the Vril'ya ones moved between worlds, and probably quickly, if their occupants could simply step between worlds. "Alllright," she replies, dubiously, but she decides to watch a little longer to be sure.

"I've found a power source," Kai reports. The structures in the distance seem to move slowly.. unless they're actually closer and larger than they look, or distance is otherwise weird in this place.

"That's good, how long until you're juiced up?" Tasha heard that phrase somewhere, maybe Nora used it. "I'll just be pyramid watching for a while."

"I'm taking it slow, since it seems to be the link between the city and the lake god," Kai replies. "The city may an extension of the god."

"That's what I suspected as well. These undead seem too directed despite not really showing any personal awareness, and they look like someone or something made then. Like some long dead followers assembled the first or the god can make builders remotely." Tasha wonders what it would be like to pilot a pyramid. She can't imagine the handling is very good, but maybe they just appear places, or as these ones do, approach ominously.

"Watch for things appearing or disappearing near the pyramids," Kai requests. "They may dimensional poppers."

"You mean like how the flesh bubbles appeared around the angel?" Those were unsettling, Tasha recalls. She's used to other-dimensional beings in theory, but but actual hands on experience can vary widely. They're what some might call an out of context problem.

"Not quite. Sometimes civilizations need to flee their home reality, and their lifeboats are often last-minute affairs that malfunction. They may appear someplace for a time until they build up enough charge to pop back to where they came from, or someplace else entirely. As they break down, the area of effect can be pretty large."

"I ran in to something like that before, except the traveler was from our reality and were returning. It didn't go well, but we managed to save the population at least." Tasha wonders if she'll need to do that again, although she's not at all sure what she'd find in the pyramid, or if her rulesets and dimensions would even match up enough to let her do anything, let alone understand who or what she's saving.

"Active ruins are best avoided," Kai notes. "Civilizations advanced enough to create are usually into some weird stuff."

Tasha does like weird stuff, but often weird stuff doesn't like her. When she's lucky she does tend to end up with something interesting, if she doesn't end up dead, or worse. "That's as tempting as it is ominous."

"There are tempting and ominous things in the lower levels of the palace, which don't involve traveling to moving buildings," Kai notes.

"They could be extra-dimensional life boats, or some other traveler. If they're as advanced as we may think, they're probably best left alone. You never know what they might be in to, and they might be incomprehensible, like the angel." Tasha takes one last look and pushes back, turning to Lila. "Lets go report, but there should be people keeping watch. In teams. Multiple teams."

"What if watching them gets their attention though?" Lila asks. "Or drives people insane?" She also makes woogy-wiggly gestures with her fingers, so may not be serious.

Tasha suspects Lila is not serious, but knows her question may be a curate and serious. As a rule, almost anything can be possible when you get this far out, especially at a pan-universal crossroads like this place. If it wasn't so utterly dangerous, she'd like this place a lot. As it is, she merely finds it very interesting, even if she'll be happy to leave as soon as possible.

"You never know, that could be true. Some are psionic, they can sense your thoughts and attention. We should notify the others, come on." The red woman waves Lila to follow and heads down.

"There's another possibility," Lila says as they descend. "We're moving. The Plateau of Leng is exists in lots of places at once, or moves around. If we walked back the way we came, maybe we'd end up in a different place than where we started. When did your homunculus say the portal would be ready?"

"She didn't, only where it is. Probably not soon, maybe tomorrow. We can camp around it if we need to, but it will be at the top of the tower." Tasha looks around for a moment, thinking Lila is probably right, although she isn't sure if the Plateau of Lend moves, or if the universe moves to the Plateau. or moves around it. She wonders if there's a difference.

"We should send Brother Bone up to it then," Lila notes. "Before he gets dragged off to explore the vaults."

"The pyramids? Maybe that's not wise," Tasha warns, but then she pauses. "But it could be fun and exciting. Who knows what they are. But dangerous. It's probably dangerous. And there's spiders."

"No, I mean the vaults down below," Lila says. "Those thief types probably found the door."

"I think both ideas are probably bad. This place is a trap. You never find great stuff where everyone's been and everyone knows what's there, yet everyone ends up dying. All we might find is the remains of who tried to explore this before." Tasha makes her way down, having wnated to watch the pyramids longer but feeling she'd best warn the others, and rest.

When they get back to the main lobby, there are few people. But Brother Bone is there, with Wulfgaar and the goose.

Tasha decides to address everyone, generally. "We have some spooky pyramids in the distance, they look advanced but not immediately hostile. We should keep an eye on them and the surrounding desert, with some teams, if we aren't already. Who knows what could pop up here -- or where here could pop up."

"Some have already gone out to make sure the immediate area is secure," Wulfgaar reports. "Some are just exploring and making sure none of the stone creatures are inside with us."

"Well that's good. We might as well settle in then, if we've eaten and all is otherwise well. Kai is recharging somewhere; she might annoy the god so we should be ready for that as well." How they'll tackle a god, well, Tasha will figure that out when she sees it.

Just before the settling down happens, there is a scream. It practically booms, so is probably from an inside passage. It isn't a short scream either.

Tasha's eyes open slowly; she had been meditating. It's been a long time since she did that, and it seemed like a good time to start again. "Well," she begins, glancing around, "I suppose it's time to deal with danger and a corpse. Come on, lets go look." And with that she pushes herself up.

It isn't difficult to determine which passage the scream originated from, since more people are running from it than towards it. One adventure's left arm looks like the flesh has been sliced such that it hangs in strips, which may not even be attached to bone. One of the healers hurries towards that one, which allows Brother Bone to continue along with Tasha.

"Some sort of cutting, which at least is a comprehensible threat," Tasha remarks of the injury. While she often feigns suffering, and may also feign balking at injury, the truth is she's seen a lot of injuries and suffered them herself. Injury just doesn't register to her like it used to, and even back then, she grew up on a ship made of dangerous rugging powered by even more dangerous animals; injury was common place. Still, she's never enjoyed the sight, not unless she's feeling vindictive. "I wonder if they got the door open?"

"Door?" Brother Bone asks, as the break past the ones fleeing. People are moving quickly, so Tasha didn't notice if any of the ones from the group she spoke to were part of the rush or not.

"Some shadier-types wanted to open a possibly cursed door to search for treasure, and they wanted your help to do it. I turned them down for you after discussing it with Kai. They may have decided not to take my advice and tried opening it without your help." Tasha does glance at the people who rush past, looking for helpful signs of what's going on. So far she suspects some sort of monster, which may as well be a catch-all for anything that's aggressive and not familiar enough to be called a person or some other thing.

She can smell blood, certainly. Brother Bone likely does too, as he slows and advances more cautiously, holding his mace in both hands. "Some sort of trap, then?" he whispers.

"According to Kai the whole city is a trap. It might as well be a template or, well, memetic entity. It's the prototypical ruined city, a pan-dimensional monument to hubris and ruin. Of course it's a trap. It's so much of a trap, trap is part of its very existence." Tasha does lower her voice, and also draws her sword. She leaves the Yellow one in reserve for now, not wanting to further terrorize people and drive them back in to danger.

They finally see the door, which has a very disturbing relief on it. The walls of the passage are also similarly covered with disturbing shapes, now more disturbing because of the blood covering one of them. But the blood (and maybe some flesh) actually looks like it's being absorbed into the wall, making the bas-relief look more fleshy.

"I'm a bit disappointed none of those people realized the city itself is alive and absorbs people to some degree," Tasha remarks as she frowns at the slowly absorbing flesh. "And I don't know how to kill a city. If this was just any living city with a deity powering it, maybe we could do something, but this is that and a universal manifestation of ruin and folly. It might have pan-dimensional weight to it, the universe itself may want it to be. Hurting any of it may not make a long term difference, if 'long term' even applies to it. It may be atemporal."

"For the moment, I believe our main concern is the monster growing out of the wall," Brother Bone notes. An oddly soft looking insectile appendage has emerged from the wet zone, covered in blade-like barbs. "It isn't undead. I can't tell if it is alive either, however," the reptilian priest notes.

"It may be some sort of construct." To test this hypothesis, Tasha draws her gun and simply starts shooting it, yelling, "We get it, you're a city-trap and you're angry, or hungry, or whatever. If it matters to you, we'll be leaving soon, so you can stop now or we can keep breaking your minions."

There a scent of burning something, but it's short lived. Any damage seems to repair itself immediately.

"I worry this means the god in the lake is rousing," Brother Bone says. "I don't have any spells to counter this. I can summon up some skeletal warriors, but they may be no more effective than your weapon."

"Well that's not good. I suppose it can just repair itself with all the mass of wall, flesh, and possibly soul-matter the city contains. If that's the case, we will be overwhelmed at this rate." Tasha puts her gun away, then holds her free hand out to summon the Yellow sword. "I have my own god-magic, we'll see if that helps, but channeled deific Color magic may not stand up to an actual god using its own power locally."

Tasha winds her hand up to throw the sword, but pauses. "The shady types opened a door, now the city is waking up again and forming monsters from the walls. I'm about to try the Yellow sword, be careful of feedback."

"If anyone is with you, send them away," Kai suggests. Then Tasha feels the 'connection' and guesses Kai is watching through her eyes now.

More random looking body parts extend out from the wall. They tend be covered with a variety of eyes.

"Okay, well, Kai just told me to send you away, so your job now is to gather with the others and make sure everyone's ready to move, because we might not be staying in the the city tonight. We may have to get out of here. I'm going to stay here and try to do.. something." Tasha gives the priest a meaningful look, then nods to him or her or both or neither. "I suspect we'll be racing up the tower, where the gate is, if this fails." And then she looks back and throws the Yellow sword with her off hand. As it weighs nothing, this is a lot easier than throwing a real sword and is more an effort of will than muscle.

"I'll warn the others," Brother Bone says. "Don't die." Then he's hurrying back up the passage.

"/Looks like a shoggoth variant,/" Kai tells Tasha. "/The whole city could be one, as they can take on almost any form. I'm not sure they have a mind that can be affected by the sword though. Might hurt to try, might not."

"Eh," goes Tasha as she watches her manifestation of insanity flip down the hallway. "I guess we'll find out in.. a.. moment.."

The sword passes through the 'flesh' of the thing and fades out. There might have been a twitch from the entity, but it doesn't stop it from coming out of the wall.

And then it's Tasha's turn to start backing away. "Nothing, barely a twitch. I don't know if I can beat something like this, bullets don't work and my other sword is just a sword." She starts backpedaling faster. "I'm withdrawing to the others, it may be time to go. Do you have enough energy to open the gate?"

"Wait," Kai says, once Tasha has gotten to a more solid section of corridor. "We can slow it down. But you may hurt a bit."

"You haven't been gentle with me before, so what's this hurt 'a bit'?" Tasha knows Kai has no soul, and therefore no conscience. She's already sliced her hand open like she was making a sandwich, and while she doens't think Kai will kill or severely injure her, she also doesn't think she'll think twice about some lesser injury.

"There's no time to train you, but I can take over your body and destroy the corridor," Kai explains. "So it will hurt."

"Fine, fine, just get it over with." Tasha sucks in a breath. She's used to pain, but she's never quite grown to like it, and she likes being restrained and controlled even less --except for rare occasions and that's for fun only.

She feels something else take control. Her right hand is held out towards the monster, fingers spread. Then it feels like her back is on fire, and like her wings have just be torn off. Her fur stands on end, and electric sparks dance between her fingers. Then her arm feels on fire, there's a bright flash and thunderous boom. She's blown backwards, but the kinetic shield absorbs the impact when she makes contact with the ground again. Her ears still ring however, but she's back in control of her own body again.

Tasha feels like she'd just become someone else's gun, and that the bullet fired through her. Everything hurts, and it hurts even more as she tries to stagger to her feet. Woozy and disoriented, she begins staggering away as she tries to remember the route back to the others. She doens't even bother checking the result, since ultimately her knowing about it won't make her retreat any faster; quite the opposite.

"Don't try to use your wings.. or lift anything.. for awhile, I had to use your own power for that," Kai explains. "Get everyone moving up the tower. I'm about to piss off a god."

"No lifting, no flying," Tasha replies, and even her thoughts are curt and no-nonsense. She's in pain and knows danger is nearby, there's no room for frivolity. As for pissing off gods, she knows how that goes, and knows Kai knows she does. Nothing more need be said.

Once Tasha clears her head more she adjusts her course and heads back towards the group, albeit more slowly than she'd like, she fears pushing herself any more will leave her unable to move.

Brother Bone suddenly takes her arm. "Are you injured?" he asks, as he helps her towards the entry hall.

Tasha blinks; she's a bit unfocused. She doens't know what Kai did, and frankly she doesn't know if she's injured, how much, or what to do about it. "I had to channel energy. Migth have worked. Get everyone ready, we're leaving soon. I won't be much help; might have slowed the thing down." It's not as concise as it could be, but not thinking about it is in its own was a way to trim things down.

Brother Bone doesn't question anything as he helps Tasha along. The camp is abuzz with activity, mostly packing. The floor shakes every so often as well.

"Hi, we're going," Tasha tells the camp in too weak a voice to be heard above the din. She frowns at this, but doesn't comment on it, instead saying to Brother Bone, "Kai's going to anger the god, I think she's going to drain it enough to get its attention, but we don't have any other option. The city is probably alive and.. " She has to pause to catch her breath. "And.. we're not a match for it."

The reptilian nods, and then bellows, "MAKE YOUR WAY UP THE TOWER, THE LAKE GOD IS COMING!" It's not exactly what Tasha explained, but is enough to get people moving towards the stairs.

Lila joins them, carrying her and Brother Bone's gear. "Honey, what happened? You look ready to fall over."

"Kai is an ungentle puppet master and I am a fragile gun," Tasha replies, with more effort than she probably should have given, but she likes Lili. She does have to catch her breath for it, but then soldiers onward and moves forward. "I won't be.. Be much help."

"Hmm," Wulfgaar grunts as he catches up, then scoops Tasha up and throws her over his shoulder (but still out of reach of the goose). And so Tasha gets a view of their retreat at least. Despite the ringing in her ears, she can hear would might be bellowing from outside of the palace.

"I hear a god waking," Tasha croaks. It disappoints her she can't help fight the god; it disappoints her even more to know she probably wouldn't be much help and they would probably lose anyway.

It's not a comfortable ride, and there are sounds of something behind them in the lower hall, but the panic does mean they make good time ascending the far too tall tower. And somewhere along the climb, somebody does something to Tasha to make her back stop aching for a few moments. The overwhelm scent of ozone has faded enough that she can smell her own blood now, but it doesn't smell fresh.

Tasha hadn't even realized she'd bled, such was her haze. But at least she isn't hurting as much, so she tries to at least contribute by keeping rear watch. This is easy, because it's all she can really do, but at least it's something she can help with. She's just not comfortable not doing something in a crisis. She briefly considers drawing her gun to try and help that way, but decides it would only result in a lost gun.

She does see things happening.. to the walls behind them. Nothing is crawling out of them, but there are a lot of stone eyes opening and watching them. The tower shakes a few times as well. The feeling of static electricity is also growing stronger, and suddenly everyone slows to a stop. "We've reached the top, just need to pack everyone inside the observatory now," Lila informs Tasha.

"Good," Tasha goes, and she almost considers a second good, but decides against it. She does pat Wulfric to try and get him to put her down so she can at least walk inside on her own.

Wulfgaar sets her down, but still holds on to. And since she's still facing back down the stairs for the moment, she can see them falling into shadow as something blocks the 'windows'.

Tasha isn't sure if the city is heaving up or if things are spawning in those buildings, but she's glad that it's down there and she's up here. And this makes her wonder: why aren't there things up here? She ponders whether the city can make things near the tower, as it could clearly make eyes, or if it must transfer resources within itself to form attackers, and those resources are below -- something that makes sense to ehr because most invaders will be trapped at the tower allowing for easy cornering, so why put resources there when you can attack ti at your leisure? yet the portal is also here, which is concerning. "H-have someone inspect the portal, j-just in case. See if it's.. It's real."

There's a lot of clamoring and shouting, and calls for the lodestones. Then some ripping sounds before the group starts moving forward again. The darkness keeps creeping up behind them, until it finally reaches the nearest window. Tasha can see a large eye looking in, with a pupil shaped like an asymmetrical star in a blood red sclera.

Tasha does the only thing she has energy for. She may be a worn out hero, but she's still a hero, and she fights gods. So she makes a rude gesture at the eye while meeting it eye to eye.

Something scratches at the edges of her mind, and there's more commotion and what sounds like fighting ahead now. Then sudden silence. Everyone begins moving again, almost in lockstep.

"I think the party just got mind controlled." Tasha reaffirms her mental barriers of Blue, which is probably the one part of her that isn't exhausted, strained, or bleeding. "Wulfgar?" She checks the man's eyes, tries to get his attention.

"There was fighting," Wulfgaar says. "Now it stopped." They're moving steadily forward again. Since Wulfgaar answered, he's probably not being controlled. Lila and Brother Bone also aren't moving in lockstep with the others. "The god had gotten through to the minds of some of the group, but that's ended now."

"That's good." Tasha actually doesn't think that's good at all, but it's over now. She might have been able to do something, but she can also barely walk. And it's over now. The pain of loss and missed chances lingers, but she keeps moving forward, because there's nothing else she can do about it but move forward. Even cursing her weakness feels trite now, an old song, song overmuch.

Now they reach the Observatory themselves. There's an irregularly-cut gem the size of a boulder floating above a set of arches and rings that remind Tasha of an astronomical orrery. A scene of the crossroads town can be seen through it, and the adventurers are marching through.

"At least some are getting out." Tasha's sure some will also be back, undaunted by the experience, which is both good and bad, and nothing she can comment on. After all, she kept coming back, and she knows how stupid it can seem. "We'll be headed elsewhere." It's a reminder, and probably unnecessary, but she feels restating it might be necessary given the situation.

The last of them go through. "Change the stone," Kai says.. in a weird voice. She's off to the side, holding onto some sort of orb that looks like the god eye. She's still got her clothes, which makes her recognizable, but she's also turned into some sort of lizard creature. "Change it.."

There's a stone podium, although it looks like a tree-trunk of sorts. Brother Bone goes to change out the lodestone for the one he carries. This causes the gem above to rotate, with changes the scene through the portal. It stops on a somewhat bright and barren landscape. "The Dragonlands," Brother Bone says.

Tasha doesn't remember Kai being with them, wondering if she simply missed her or if Kai just suddenly showed up. She doesn't know what to think of the lizard body, but figures it must be some sort of ruse or deception, as she can't see any other use for it in this context. Maybe the city-thing answers for lizards, for all she knows.

When the Dragonlands can be seen, Tasha lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Lets get out of here."

"Indeed," Wulfgaar says. The four of them pass through the portal, and a moment later Kai staggers through behind them before it closes. There's a road, at least, but nothing else. The dragons must not want people just showing up at their doorsteps.

"Phu," Tasha breathes, taking a moment to just sit down and rest for a moment. "Well, t-that was fun. The Plateau lives up to its reputation."

"Sit still while we get a better look at your back," Lila tells Tasha. "We'll try not to destroy your shirt and more than it already is."

"It's an Adventure Shirt, it's used to it." Tasha hunches over and exhales, bracing herself with the ground. She hopes she still has her fur, and preferably, her hair. If she goes back like this, she's probably going to get a talking to by at least Katie.

"Your flight muscles are in bad shape," Brother Bone reports. "Some tearing, so they may be bulkier when they heal."

"Ssssorry," Kai hisses, and makes other unsettling sounds, like her own flesh is being torn and reconfigured. "I couldn't break the circuit between the palace and the god."

"The only part of me that will be bulky," Tasha remarks. She then laughs, and that hurts, she ends up coughing and wincing for it. More sedately she adds, "I can walk. We'll be safer now, won't we?"

"For the most part, until we enter into a Dragon God's territory," Lila says. "Things will get weirder then."

"It's okay, you did very.. Very well considering what we were up against. Even one of them would have been too much without a trick or.. Or something more. An edge. It was a god and its monster-city on its home turf." Tasha isn't sure what a 'turf' is, but it's something Terrans called cities, and also, something called grass, which was or is a short plant they liked to surround buildings with.

"Does the sun set in this realm?" Wulfgaar asks. It's certainly warm and dry, compared to where they just were.

"Sometimes," Brother Bone says. "It varies depending on the preferences of the local deities. This is neutral territory, so it will indeed set, but we can cover some distance before then." He checks his loadstone, and picks a direction along the road. "That way," he notes.

"Do dragons like a lot of sun?" Tasha's feeling better, if not exactly well, which makes her more talkative. Not having a city chase after her and want to eat her has also improved her mood, as has arriving in a new place. She always appreciates a new place to visit, and always has. She picks herself up, wobbles, and nods. "That way, then." And then she heads off walking before the others start, to show she can.

"Many things enjoy sunshine," Brother Bone attests. Kai finally gets her legs in order and catches up, asking, "The Platinum Mountains should have a city, shouldn't they?"

"Yes, the Holy City," Brother Bone says. "From there you will be able to see about reaching your own destination."

"So tell us about the Holy City, what god do you worship, Brother? Bahamut was it? What's he or she like?" Tasha talks because it helps her focus, and it keeps the long road short. She's also curious, having meant to ask these questions but never remembering to.

"They are a god of justice and order," Brother Bone claims. "And the Holy City reflects this. It is a shining beacon."

Tasha wonders if she'll be welcome in a shining beacon of holy order. As beacons of order and holiness go, she's more than a little tarnished, to say nothing of Kai. This, she decides, is probably a good thing to ask about, "Are we even welcome inside?"

"Everyone is welcome," Brother Bone claims. "But it is a Holy City, so offensive behavior is discouraged."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Tasha insists, holding up her hands until that hurts and then not doing that anymore. "I can lay in a bed and sleep."

"On side or face," the red woman confirms. "And someone can feed me holy breakfast."

"There are better healers than I within the city," Brother Bone says. "You will be treated until you are fully recovered."

Tasha smiles at that. "I love free healing. My doctors say I keep them on their toes. They all have toes."

"Yes, our monks and warriors are often called upon to protect the weak," the cleric claims.

"I can take 'em," Tasha insist as she frowns over a particularl rise in the path before her which she takes gingerly.

The landscape isn't exactly a desert, but it also isn't lush. 'Badlands' is probably the proper term, given how rocky it is. "There is an oasis along this road," Brother Bone says. "We should reach it before nightfall."

"For a land of good this area sure has a lot of Badlands," Tasha says, then she laughs, then she winces and stops laughing again.

"These is the region between territories," Lila notes, after chuckling a bit. "Good and evil aren't particularly applicable to the great dragons."

"A storm can cause a lot of damage, or end a drought, but it isn't good or evil," Kai says.

"That's how I should describe myself now. Good an evil doens't apply to me, I am like the weather, that's why I ate your pie. Sometimes the weather is hungry. Don't question it." Tasha nods; it sounds good. Maybe if she goes far enough she can even get away with it.

There's a distant.. howl? Laugh? It's an animal sound, but a bizarre one. "Jackals," Lila notes. "Let's pick up the pace.."

The oasis is made up of several stepped pools being fed by a spring higher up. There isn't any lush vegetation growing in the rocky soil, but there is a structure of sort, made of gigantic rib-bones. An equally large skull provides a space to actually set up a camp. "Jackals avoid open water," Lila explains, taking the giant skull in stride. The space within is as large as the Dark Horse hangar.

Tasha does gawk at the giant skull. She's seen bigger skulls of course, the Divine Lobotomy was made of more than a few, but she's rarely this up close and personal with them. She even pokes it a bit as she walks by, but quickly bores of this in favor of laying down on her bedroll, which she's quick to lay out. The shade and the water feel something like safety and comfort. "So what are these Jackals anyway? Jackals? Just, big ones?"

"A type of beast dragon," Lila explains. "They hunt in packs, and can make sounds like children crying. Big, and some of them have tusks and course fur. Wingless though."

"Weird," Tasha remarks, and it's exactly what she thinks. Like Humans, Dragons seem to come in all sorts of sizes and varieties, and they seem to also make other non-dragon things dragon-like if given half a chance.

Once down, Tasha just flops over and rests, head popped up on her hands and wings very gentle laid against the ground. "There certainly seems to be an endless variety of dragon-things."

"The Dragonlands are pretty hard for less hardy creatures," Lila says, as Brother Bone is doing some sort of blessing. "The only non-draconic things you're going to see are domesticated livestock or pets. Well, and people of course."

"Who can be both, right?" Tasha would nudge Kai, but then she'd have to get up.

"Presumably, at some point I was an actual live human being who then died and was repurposed," Kai says.

"Kai says I'm like 10% dragon on the dragon scale." Kai didn't actually say that, but Tasha doesn't have to tell anyone that either. Besides, it's roughly correct.

"That's true, although I think of it more as a reward for being nice," the re-alive woman insists.

Tasha gestures at herself in a presentational way. "I'm the secret weapons of very powerful dragons indeed. The one that remade me really liked cute things, or did when I met her. Maybe she's changed if-when I met her again. Time travl is weird. My wings hurt." She flops her head down and makes pouty faces at Lila.

"I had to use them to generate enough telekinetic force to accumulate an ionic charge from the air," Kai notes. "It was an impressive lightning bolt, however."

Tasha also pouts at this. "I'd have liked to have seen it but I was busy flying through the air in to the ground. I get to make lightning, and I miss it." She then fishes a snack bar from inside her torn shirt and begins unwraping it, showing she's had food for a while now.

Wulfgaar starts a campfire, and says, "We have fresh eggs." Probably from Shinbreaker. Kai watches with interest as Brother Bone strips naked, and heads for the nearest pool. Either as part of a purification ritual or just because he was drying out is unknown.

"I can whip up something amazing from goose eggs," Lila claims. Then she winks at Tasha, and adds, "With a bit of magic."

"Ooo, magic!" Tasha's tail wags, then kinks, then flops over like it just died. Tasha's expression is all pain.

"It will make you forget your pain too," the kitsune promises, and heads over to Wulfgaar and the campfire. Things seem quiet then for several minutes.. until Tasha finds herself seated at a long, lavish table, wearing an evening gown. Everyone else is likewise elegantly dressed, even Wulfgaar. There are plenty of other unfamiliar guests at the table as well. A draconian porter pours Tasha a glass of purple wine.

"Huh," goes Tasha in what could almost be mistaken for blase or mildly perturbed. She glances at her glass, then the porter, then the glass again. "Huh." She then nods encouragingly and holds the glass to make it easier to fill. "Either we've been telepathically or actually drawn in to someone's magic-scape or I passed out and my dreams are getting better. Either way, more wine."

There is more wine. Specifically, two more different kinds that also get poured into their own glasses. Other porters begin setting covered silver platters before the guests. The first course appears to be soup of some kind, when the covers are lifted.

"I hope this isn't imaginary soup. Or brain soup, or people soup. This soup is suspicious,"Tasha remarks, even as she picks up a spoon and settles a napkin over her lap. "Tricking with food is the worst kind of tricking, I just want whomever to know that."

"It is egg drop soup, made from eggshells," Lila assures. That sounds real, given that soup is mostly water with a bit of seasoning.

"Oh you're doing this, I thought maybe a dragon grabbed us. I feel better now, except I'm suspicious about the wine." Tasha settles in and sighs, hoping the illusion doesn't make her sit funny in the 'real' world, if there's even a difference.

"Turning water into wine is an old kitsune ability," Lila claims, and sips her soup from a crystal spoon. The tableware is certainly exotic looking.

"Whatever it is I want to learn how to do it. Do I need a fancy tail? Mine's pretty fancy, it can grab things. My old one was just the usual model." Tasha does indeed sip, but then decides she's had enough manner for a while, and throws back the cup, because she'd really like it if everything hurt less. Wing pain is an extra-special kind of pain, combining suffering with the reminder of vastly decreased mobility.

The next course is.. roast goose! Small ones, but still definitely roast fowl. The skin looks crispy, but at least there isn't a head still attached.

"Anklebiter would not approved." Tasha does not put her fork down though, and digs in. She's injured and therefore hungry. Really, any reason is a reason to be hungry for her kind, but injury is a reasonable excuse for hunger, and all the running around takes calories.

It's a bit more fatty that other fowl she's had, but it's still meat. There's a hint of some of the 'dipping sauce' seasonings at work as well.

"Mmm," goes Tasha, beyond manner and in to food mode. Her family would understand; everyone else will just have to deal with it. She can already feel her body beginning to heal, as if every atom were being carted away for the repair job.

It helps that there are bones to hold onto while eating, so that mere forks and knives aren't necessary. "I take it the meal meets with your approval?" Lila asks from across the table.

"Ohm yush very grood," Tasha talks with her mouth full. She's so hungry she might eat her own arm if she's not careful, or so she speculates. Even her tail doesn't feel as broken.

"Well.. at least you didn't fill up on bread first," Lila notes. "Which you couldn't have because it's for dessert. Bread Pudding."

"How can you combine bread and pudding?" Tasha looks skeptical. her meal is already done. For a sprightly, lithe creature she sure can devour food.

"Pudding is also a term that means dessert," the fox woman claims. Soon the plates are cleared away, and tea is served, along with plates of something spongy and covered in some sort of creamy sauce.

"I didn't know that. I thought it meant wobbly but delicious goo." Pudding, as it happens, is not popular with Vartans, so Tasha rarely got any unless it was the type with many semi-solid fruits, and even that was rare. her mother didn't make it often and, having a beak, found it frustrating. Karnors like it more, but she's discovered Humans like it the most. She wonders if Sharron is eating pudding, where-ever she is. "I wonder what the rest of me is doi-" She doesn't complete the sentence as she digs in.

It isn't like cake. It's more like something her mother used to make when the bread on the Rake started to go stale. Most of the crew enjoyed it, but the Vartans never tried it, as soft foods just didn't appeal to them.

Which meant very few people on the ship tried it, so a lot of it went to Tasha, which was fine. Back then anything sweet was a wonder, a rare treat, even fruit. She's more refined now -- she's even had chocolate and not died! -- but she still remembers how scant things were back then, and thus she eats harder, if such a thing exists.

It is the final course, alas. Other than the tea. "Are you feeling better now?" Lila asks. "Prepared to worship me yet?"

"Yes," mutters Tasha, who is now scarping the bowl. "No," she goes a few seconds later.

"Yes," Tasha agrees with Kai, again curt and clipped. Once done the red woman settles back and almost curls in to a ball of feathers, but seems to remember how injured she is, and just tucks her muzzle in to her folded hands. Her eyes close. "Stop plotting against me," she can be heard to mutter, albiet muffled and faint.